Zveno (Bulgaria)
즈베노 (불가리아)
A Bulgarian political organisation, the Political Circle Zveno ("link"), founded in June 1927 by politicians, intellectuals and army officers. Opposed to the party system and to the terror of the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organisation, it advocated authoritarian, fascist-influenced reform; after its supporters' coup of 19 May 1934 put Kimon Georgiev in power it dissolved itself. It joined the Bulgarian Fatherland Front in 1943, returned to power on 9 September 1944 and merged into the Front in February 1949. It is distinct from the Soviet kolkhoz work team called zveno.
In depth
Zveno was founded in June 1927 by people disillusioned with the partisanship of the spring 1927 election campaign and the infighting within the IMRO, mainly from the ruling Democratic Alliance but also Radicals, Democrats and Broad Socialists. Around the review Zveno (1928–1934), launched by Dimo Kazasov, it began as a non-party body seeking to consolidate the fragmented parties and never aimed at a mass following, reaching about 3,000 members at its height in 1934. Its programme declaration of 28 June 1930 called for smaller elected bodies, longer terms and corporatist elections and began its transformation into a political organisation.
Under the People's Bloc governments of 1931–1934 disaffected figures of the bourgeois parties and most of the Military League leadership gathered around it. On 19 May 1934 Zveno supporters carried out a coup with the army; Kimon Georgiev became prime minister, the constitution was suspended, parliament dissolved and all parties and political organisations dissolved, Zveno included. After Tsar Boris III pushed them from power in 1935 through the Zveno general Pencho Zlatev, Zveno went into opposition to the monarchy and gave up authoritarianism.
Zveno opposed Bulgaria's entry into the Second World War and in 1943 joined the Bulgarian Fatherland Front, sending representatives to its National Committee. After the coup of 9 September 1944 Georgiev became prime minister, Damyan Velchev minister of war, Petko Stainov foreign minister and Stancho Cholakov minister of education. A national conference on 1 October turned it into a party, the People's Union Zveno, with Georgiev as chairman and Stainov among the members of the executive bureau.
Communist obstruction blocked its local organisation, and in the Grand National Assembly election of 1946 it won only about 70,000 votes, its leaders entering parliament only on the Front's common list. From 1947 members close to the Communists demanded public condemnation of the disgraced Velchev and Stainov, and on 19 February 1949 a conference of the People's Union Zveno dissolved it into the Fatherland Front.