/ world today news/ The first coup of the Military Union was carried out on the night of 8 to 9 June in 1923. After the success, a government of the People’s Agreement was created under the chairmanship of Professor Alexander Tsankov, and the military directly took over the power ministries (the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Public Health and Ministry of Foreign Affairs).
The June 9 coup was carried out by army units under the leadership of the Military Union, which removed the government of the Bulgarian Agricultural People’s Union (BAZNS) headed by Alexander Stamboliyski.
After the success of the coup, the new cabinet was supported by the parties in the Constitutional Bloc, the Socialists and the National Liberals, and the BKP declared neutrality.
Already at its congress at the end of 1922, the Military Union decided to remove the government of Stamboliyski by coup. In January there were rumors of this reaching the government. In April 1923, the BZNS won the early parliamentary elections, receiving 52% of the votes and 212 out of 245 seats in the parliament. At the same time, the party falls into increasingly severe political isolation, confronting the traditional parties of the Constitutional Bloc, many of whose leaders are in prison, with the BKP, which considers the government its main enemy and defines it as “fascist”, with The military alliance, which is officially banned but unites many active and reserve officers, and with the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization (IMRO), which it pledged to destroy with the Niš Agreement.
After the formation of the new parliament in May, the Military Union activated its organizations and held officers’ meetings in various garrisons, preparing a military coup, reports of which leaked to the press. Contacts were established with Tsar Boris III and with VMRO. On May 25, the date of the coup was set, detailed plans of the operation were drawn up with the distribution of the goals and tasks of the individual divisions.
The coup was carried out according to the preliminary plans – the actions in Sofia began at 3 o’clock in the morning on June 9, and half an hour later, after telegraphic confirmation, the organizations in the garrisons in the province began to act. Velizar Lazarov and Damyan Velchev are responsible for the actions in Sofia – they, like many other reserve officers, return their uniforms and take command of military units. Lazarov was announced as the head of the Sofia garrison and led the disarmament of the police and the Orange Guard in the capital.
As a result of the coup, the government of Alexander Stamboliyski was overthrown and a new one was formed, headed by Alexander Tsankov and including representatives of all opposition parties, except the communists. The ministers meet at 10 o’clock the previous evening at the home of Ivan Rusev. Here, at half past four in the morning, Lazarov and Velchev report to them about the success of the coup. Tsar Boris III, after waiting for confirmation from the garrisons in the country and the reaction of foreign embassies, confirmed the new government by decree at noon on June 9.
In Slavovitsa, where Stamboliyski is also located, around 3,000 poorly armed villagers from the surrounding villages gathered and under his leadership on June 10 deployed in the vicinity of Pazardzhik, where they were dispersed by the army. Alexander Stamboliyski went to the village of Golak, where his wife comes from, and was captured by the municipal authorities on June 14, he was handed over to the commandant of Pazardzhik, Slavejko Vasilev, and taken to the city. On the orders of the new government, he was killed by a group of VMRO led by Velichko Velyanov.
However, under the pressure of the Comintern, the BKP grew stronger in its opinion that it should oppose the coup plotters, and the Communist Party was forced to declare a course of armed insurrection, which was planned for September 1923.
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