Fatherland Front of Bulgaria

(Otechestven Front), an alliance of patriotic and democratic antifascist forces of the Bulgarian people founded in July 1942 on the initiative of the Bulgarian Workers’ Party (BWP), which in 1948 became the Bulgarian Communist Party (BCP).

The program of the Fatherland Front was drawn up and adopted by the foreign bureau of the BWP under the leadership of G. Dimitrov. The immediate goal of the Fatherland Front was the overthrow of the fascist regime and the formation of a people’s democratic government. The National Committee of the Fatherland Front, created in August 1943, consisted of representatives of the BWP, the left wing of the Bulgarian Agrarian People’s Union (BAPU), the left wing of the Social Democratic Party, the Zveno political group, and the progressive intelligentsia; the Radical Party joined the front in 1945. After the September Popular Armed Uprising of 1944, the front formed a government. A congress of the front held in 1948 adopted a program aimed at building socialism in Bulgaria and new by-laws transforming the front into a unified sociopolitical organization based on the principles of democratic centralism. The program of the BCP is the program of the Fatherland Front.

In accordance with the resolutions of the July plenum of the Central Committee of the BCP (1968) and of the National Council of the Fatherland Front (May 1969), the front received the right to initiate legislation, and its local committees were empowered to supervise enterprises and institutions providing communal and social-cultural services. The front was granted the right to discuss the most important draft legislation and to nominate candidates for election to the People’s Assembly and local government bodies. The front’s Seventh Congress, held in 1972, developed a concrete program designed to increase its role in building a developed socialist society.

The front’s bylaws provide for both group and individual membership. All social organizations and professional associations are group members of the front, while retaining their organizational independence. The chairman of the National Council of the Fatherland Front is P. Kubadinskii, and the front’s press organ is the daily newspaper Otechestven front.