Soldiers in top hats patrol in front of the National Assembly and Alexander Nevsky
Sensational video showing French soldiers with the characteristic cylindrical military hats, called “casket dafrik” or “kepi”, and in Bulgarian they are called “degolki”, patrolling in Sofia at the end of September 1918.
The video was discovered by the famous media lawyer Tsvetan Tsvetanov in a French military archive. Tsvetanov, who is also an amateur historian, digs into the world’s video archives and discovers unseen recordings, which he offers to the readers of “24 Chasa”. Some time ago, he had sent a record from Skopje from the same period, where you can see the inscriptions on the shops in literary Bulgarian. In this video made in Bulgaria and Turkey after the breakthrough at Dobro Pole. Then the Bulgarian army deserted and the so-called Soldiers’ Uprising broke out. The Thessaloniki Armistice was concluded and Bulgaria lost the First World War to the Entente forces. Then Sofia was occupied by the French army. The film was probably shot between September 25 and October 5, when Ferdinand abdicated. In addition to French soldiers patrolling around the Alexander Nevsky Cathedral and the Parliament in Sofia, the recording includes photos from the headquarters of General Chrétien, commanding the occupying forces
The Thessaloniki Armistice was signed late in the evening on September 29, 1918 between the Kingdom of Bulgaria and the Entente, represented by Andrey Lyapchev and General Louis Franchet d’Esperet, to stop hostilities between them. According to the terms of the armistice, Bulgaria demobilized its army, undertook to withdraw from the occupied territories, and to endure a partial military occupation by the troops of the Entente. The troops west of the meridian of Skopje – approximately 100,000 men – remained captive to the Entente. The allied German and Austro-Hungarian military units of the Bulgarian army must leave the country. With the Thessaloniki Armistice, Bulgaria came out of the First World War and practically lost its chances for national unification, suffering a second national catastrophe, confirmed by the Treaty of Neuilly. At the same time, the Thessaloniki Armistice prevented the occupation of the country by troops of neighboring Balkan states.
The documentary begins with footage from a central street in Thessaloniki showing a multi-thousand-strong religious procession – a vodosvet, with the participation of French, British and Greek officers, soldiers, sailors, citizens, clergy.
The following shots show the building where the headquarters of General Chrétien, the commander-in-chief of the peace troops in Bulgaria, defined in the film as occupation, is located.
The footage shows a military watch honoring General Chrétien and accompanying French officers leaving the Allied Command headquarters building in the young Bulgarian capital. You can see the buildings on the National Assembly Square (written in the film as Assembly), the monument to Tsar Liberator Alexander the Second, the National Theater, the building of the Academy of Sciences, the Alexander Nevsky temple, designated by the authors of the film as “Saint Sophia”.
The film also takes us to Plovdiv, or Philippople, as the name is written on the signs at the Plovdiv train station. You can see the platform on which French colonial soldiers patrol the city market with a commercial arcade in Plovdiv. A butcher cuts fresh meat to order.
The final shots are from Andrinople/Adrianopole, today’s Edirne. The name of the city is written in Latin and with Arabic script.
Both the city and the famous Selimiye Mosque are shot in a general panoramic view. The camera has captured the dynamics on the main streets near the mosque of this large shopping center in the Balkans and the atmosphere that reigns in the already famous market in the city. The streets are mainly populated by local men and a woman can be seen smoking.
At the end of are the shots from a checkpoint on the Bulgarian-Turkish border. It shows the self-confidence with which a group of French officers cross the border along a park lane without any problems, as if they were already in the Schengen area.
There are many African soldiers from the colonies in France’s army. Most Bulgarians see black people for the first time precisely on the war fronts. For a long time in the Bulgarian language, Senegalese was synonymous with black.
Bulgaria’s participation in the First World War is associated with victorious battles such as the one in Dobrudja against the Russian army. Although the victory in the war was with the Entente, after Lenin announced the “Decree of Peace”, on March 3, 1918, Russia signed the Brestlitov Peace Treaty, which led to the emergence of an independent Ukraine.
Bulgaria’s participation is also remembered with the Battle of Doiran. It was remembered for the Bulgarian heroism and perfect military tactics in the battles with the British. A week ago in Plovdiv, the Swedish band “Sabaton” performed for the first time in front of an audience their song “Valley of the Dead”, dedicated to this battle.
Tsar Ferdinand, whom most Bulgarians perceive only as a German prince, is actually half French, the grandson of the last French king, Louis Philippe.
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