Boris III was the eldest son of Bulgarian Tsar Ferdinand I and Princess Maria Louise of Parma. He was born on January 30, 1894 (January 8 in the old calendar) in Sofia, the capital of Bulgaria. The full name is Boris Clement Robert Maria Pius Stanislav Saxe-Coburg-Godaski (Борис Клемент Роберт Мария Пий Станислав Сакскобургготски). When Boris was 5 years old, his mother Mary Ya Louise dies. Young Boris attended Sofia No. 1 Boys' High School and Sofia Military Academy. When he was 17 years old, he and his brother Kirill traveled to Turkey, Britain, France, Italy, Russia and the Mediterranean coast.
After World War I, on October 3, 1918, Boris’s father, Tsar Ferdinand I, was forced to give up the throne to his eldest son Boris at the request of the Allies and went into exile in Austria. At the age of 24, Boris became Tsar Boris III of Bulgaria. During the Paris Peace Conference, the new young tsar waited with trepidation to see how much territory he would have to pay for his father's wrong bet of 1915.
On November 27, 1919, a simple ceremony was held in the ancient city hall of Neuilly, a suburb of Paris. Under the auspices of French Prime Minister Georges Clemenceau, the gray-faced and worried leader of the "Farmers' Union", Alexander Stamboliski, signed the Treaty of Neuilly on a green baize table. According to the treaty, Bulgaria lost about one-tenth of its territory, and in addition had to pay compensation of 2.25 billion gold francs, equivalent to 90 million pounds or 1.8 billion gold marks. Its annual compensation amount far exceeded Bulgaria's budget.
It turns out that Stamboliski is an outstanding politician. He recognized new borders, surrendered livestock, demobilized armies, destroyed aircraft and artillery, and became a champion of the League of Nations. He also condemned past expansionist acts, further repaired relations with Yugoslavia, and jointly fought against the lawless terrorists of the "Internal Revolutionary Organization". He even began to prepare for the establishment of the "Green International" of the peasant parties in Eastern European countries to counter the "Corrupt International" of Red Russia. However, Stambolisky's domestic and foreign policies also offended many people: Bulgarian nationalists, the officer corps, Macedonian terrorists, the middle class suffering from high taxes and inflation, and possibly the tsar. In June 1923, a military coup occurred in Bulgaria. The Peasant Party Cabinet was overthrown by a coalition of Bulgarian officer corps, right-wing parties and "internal revolutionary organizations". When Stamboliski was killed, the rebels first chopped off the hand with which he had signed the Treaty of Neuilly.
During the anti-peasant party coup in 1923, the Bulgarian Communist Party sat on the mountain and watched the fight between tigers and tigers, watching their two opponents kill each other. When they themselves launched an uprising in September based on the resolution of the Communist International, they were suppressed with the same brutal force. Over the summer and autumn, probably more than 10,000 Bulgarians were killed that year.
After two struggles, Professor Alexander Tsankov, leader of the far-right "People's Consultative Union", became prime minister, and the Bulgarian military officer corps and their leader, Defense Minister Colonel Volkov, were firmly in control. gained power. Bulgaria's most vengeful group came to power, alarming its neighbors and beginning to mass troops on the border. Only because of warnings from Britain and Italy did Yugoslavia give up the idea of ????sending troops to intervene with the Greek and Romanian governments.
Boris III maintained a neutral and indifferent attitude towards the 1923 coup. The young tsar was bald, thin, slightly stooped, and looked sickly. His greatest joy in life was driving a train, followed by studying the mechanical structure of clocks. Drivers of the "Orient Express" traveling across the European continent have been warned by the railway company not to allow the king to approach the cab when the train is traveling through Bulgaria.
This absent-minded attitude towards politics actually helped to save his life and his throne, because being king in the Balkans was no easy task. In the first 35 years of the 20th century, two kings of Serbia and later Yugoslavia were murdered, one by their own officer corps and one by Croatian nationalists; one monarch was deposed in Montenegro; two kings were deposed three times in Greece, and one king was deposed three times. A king was killed by a monkey; in Romania a king overthrew his nine-year-old son and replaced him.
As for Bulgaria, although the old king had retired to Austria and the new king had adopted a life-saving attitude towards the sensitive issue of the monarch's interference in state affairs, murder still found its way to the tsar's head.
On April 13, 1925, Boris III went to the Balkan Mountains to collect insect specimens with the famous entomologist Ilchev of the Royal Museum of Natural History. They were assassinated by the Bulgarians on their way back to the capital early the next morning. Gunmen sent by the communists ambushed, Ilcev and the king's hunting guide were killed, the driver was seriously injured, and the king's adjutant was also injured. Boris took over the steering wheel, ran over the murderer's feet, and successfully escaped. On the morning of the 15th, General Konstantin Georgiev, the founder of the "Officers' Union", was shot dead by plainclothes gunmen protecting the police while leading his children across the street from the church. On the 16th, when people were holding a funeral for Georgiev at the Holy Worship Cathedral, a bomb hidden on the roof exploded and the church was blown up. More than 250 bodies were dug out of the rubble, including the archbishop, the mayor of Sofia, the police chief and no fewer than fourteen generals. Boris first attended the funeral of the entomologist and hunting guide. When he was about to go to the Holy Liturgy Cathedral, the explosion had occurred 15 minutes before and he survived.
After the explosion, the security guard quickly issued a statement denying that he had anything to do with these terrorist incidents, and then said that the explosion was the personal behavior of a few extremists and "seriously deviated from the party's correct line." . However, this excuse was of no use in front of the vengeful officer corps. The Tsankov government first took out from prison a number of Communist prisoners equal to the number of victims in the "Holy Worship Cathedral" and then executed them without trial. Killed more communist suspects. Bulgarian leader Georgi Dimitrov fled to Moscow two years ago, but one of his brothers died during this "White Terror" period. Under the unanimous opposition of the people and the pressure of foreign public opinion, Tsankov's government collapsed on January 4, 1926. "Moderate" Andrei Lyapchev (Андрей Ляпчев) became the new prime minister.
In 1931, the wave of the world economic crisis washed up on Bulgaria's shores, leading to further political instability and a growing wave of workers' unrest. In 1933, some young Bulgarian officers with pro-fascist, totalitarian and technocratic views decided to form a more powerful organization called the "Secret Military Union" to replace the old Officers' Union that had become bureaucratized and corrupted. They and a right-wing organization known as the "Link Group" (Zveno) launched a coup on the night of May 18, 1934, announcing the termination of the constitution, dissolving parliament, closing down trade unions, banning rallies and demonstrations, revoking local autonomy, and implementing strict Press censorship. Some young coup leaders then advocated depriving the tsar of power and even establishing a fascist republic.
General Simon Georgiev (Кимон Георгиев), the leader of the "Link Group", visited the Tsar with the list of the new government in his arms. In his other pocket was the abdication edict, preparing to appoint the new government if the Tsar did not agree. Take it out when appointed by the government. Boris knew that the Secret Military Alliance had strong anti-monarchy ideas, but if he wanted to keep the throne, he could not do without the support and support of the army. So after learning about the coup, he put on the general's military uniform, wore a medal, and stepped on the sword. , signed his name on the new cabinet list without hesitation.
This coup undoubtedly poses a serious challenge to Boris’s concept of “ruling by doing nothing”. In the first few years after taking the throne, he really just wanted to be a symbolic head of state and nominal commander-in-chief of the army, a tsar who "ruled without governing". However, two officer coups in 1923 and 1934 posed threats to the throne, prompting Boris to embark on the path of absolute monarchy. Totalitarian rule had become a rather attractive new institution in Europe at this time. Totalitarian rule has become a very attractive new system in Europe at this time, and many Balkan countries that are facing a dead end in the old system are ready to take this panacea. Yugoslavia in 1929, Greece in 1935, and Romania in 1938 all established monarchical dictatorships with Balkan characteristics. In 1935, Boris III established absolute monarchy without reluctance. He took advantage of the internal strife between old officers and young officers to force the resignation of Simon Georgiev, who favored democracy and peace, and then obtained the personnel rights of the army.
Some of the rebellious members of the "Secret Military Alliance" were expelled into exile, some were sent abroad as envoys or military attaches, and some were executed or imprisoned for long periods of time for "treason."
Although Bulgaria restored its parliament in 1938, the reestablished parliament became a purely advisory body and a rubber stamp. The 1934 ban on political parties remained in effect. In this way, the military group eliminated the cabinet and parliament, but the power eventually fell into the hands of the tsar personally. For Boris, although driving trains and collecting locomotives are still fun, due to the busy state affairs, they can only become luxurious entertainment from now on.
In the summer of 1935, Hermann Goering, the second-in-command of the German Third Reich, and his newlywed wife went to southeastern Europe for their honeymoon and passed through Bulgaria. Boris III awarded the "St. Alexander" Cross to the fat marshal and presented a pair of exquisite diamond bracelets to Mrs. Ada Goering. Afterwards, the tsar joked with his adjutant that maybe the two gifts should be exchanged, because he noticed that after G?ring saw the bracelet, his star-blue eyes revealed the look that only women have when they walk into a jewelry store. The light of greed.
By 1935, the German Empire had largely restored its traditional influence in the Balkan countries. After the world economic crisis, France, Belgium and other countries withdrew capital from Eastern Europe, thus opening the door for the penetration of German capital. To buy Bulgarian exports, Germany is willing to pay higher prices than on international markets, but payment cycles are long and Bulgaria is often required to use the money to buy German products. Germany adopted the same policy when doing business with countries such as Yugoslavia, Romania, and China. This was the first experiment in the Third Reich's new world economic order, and it was successful. By 1939, Germany's share of Bulgaria's import and export trade reached 65.5% and 67.8% respectively, and Bulgaria became Germany's number one trading partner among the Balkan countries.
In January 1936, while attending the funeral of King George V, Boris III took a trip to Germany. In addition to visiting his old father at Coburg Palace, he also met with Goering, Schacht and other visiting officials. An "old friend" from Bulgaria. On August 1 of that year, the Tsar led the Bulgarian delegation to the Berlin Olympics and had a cordial conversation with Hitler. Hitler promised to help Bulgaria "heal the wounds caused by the war," while Boris expressed his intention to learn from the Führer's example and establish a dictatorship in Bulgaria.
However, despite the closer ties with Germany, Boris is still unwilling to hang himself from a tree. Instead, he plays a swing among the big powers and strives for the greatest interests of Bulgaria. When attending the 50th anniversary ceremony of the Russian-Turkish War Memorial, he did not forget to praise the achievements of Slavic Russia and praised the "great deeds of the brotherly Russian people" and "generous assistance." As for Britain and France, in order to compete with Germany for Bulgaria's favor, they forced the Balkan Entente Greece, Romania, Yugoslavia and Turkey to sign an agreement with Bulgaria in 1938, allowing Bulgaria to reorganize its army and freely rearm its arms.
A sentence Boris often said reflected his dilemma when he was "playing on the swing": "My officer corps is pro-German, and my people love Russia; the middle class loves Britain and France, the queen and children Pro-Italian... Only I and my parliament support Bulgaria.” In other words, Bulgaria has constant ties with the three major blocs: Germany, Italy, Britain, France, and the Soviet Union. Obviously, it is best to remain neutral among these countries. choose.
However, the actual situation does not allow Bulgaria to make such a choice. For Boris himself, who had relatives in Germany and was married to an Italian princess, he was well aware of the strengths and limitations of Hitler and Mussolini. During the same period, when Carol II of Romania was moving forward on the pro-German tightrope, Boris would rather stand at a distance and admire such political acrobatics, looking at the abyss beneath the performer's feet from time to time, feeling deeply worried.
However, Bulgarian soldiers and politicians only saw the more superficial side: Germany had demonstrated the magic power that made British and French politicians evasive in 1935, 1937 and 1938; while Italy, despite its performance It is often more comedic, but it also relies on ruffling feathers to intimidate the opponent and reaps a lot of benefits. In general, the Bulgarian government and military on the eve of World War II, like Germany and Italy, were opposed to the new European order formulated by the Paris Peace Conference and were committed to breaking the existing situation and regaining lost territory. Britain and France were committed to maintaining the status quo in Europe and also vigorously supported Balkan Entente.
Although Boris III shook his head that Bulgaria had completely moved towards the German camp, the military officers did not see it that way. The danger was that the officer corps knew they had the power to overthrow the tsar, and the tsar knew it too.
On September 1, 1939, World War II broke out. The rapid demise of Poland enabled the Balkan countries to see the power of the Blitzkrieg for the first time, but what frightened them even more was the surging eastward advance of the Soviet Red Army. Half of Poland and three Baltic countries fell into Stalin's blood pocket. The brave Finns almost drowned in the blood of the Red Army after allowing the Soviet Union to bathe in the blood of the Red Army for 15 weeks. Seeing the fate of these five Soviet neighbors, each country in southeastern Europe began scrambling to appear indispensable to Germany, hoping that Hitler would help stem Stalin's bloody spree.
On February 15, 1940, the pro-German Bogdan Filov (Богдан Димитров Филов) was appointed prime minister by Boris III, and the pro-British Kooseivanov stepped down. In September Boris III was delighted to see his neighbor Carol II finally fall off the pro-Germany wire rope. Germany not only failed to help Romania retain Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina, but instead used sinister words to force Romania to agree to cede half of Transylvania to Hungary. Three days later, Hitler forced Romania to return South Dobroga to Bulgaria. This is the first generous gift Boris has received from Germany.
In the autumn of 1940, Hungary, Romania and Slovakia successively joined the "Tripartite Pact". If it weren't for Italy's ill intentions, Yugoslavia would have joined this treaty long ago. The dying Tsar Ferdinand also brought a message from Germany: "Don't miss the opportunity to volunteer to join the Three Kingdoms Axis." Boris replied, "Now is not the time to discuss this issue."
Facing the "German tide" that almost flooded the Balkans, Boris III still had the courage to delay joining the axis as long as possible. You know, Germany had conquered almost all of Europe at this time. Poland, Denmark, Norway, Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg had fallen. France announced its surrender. The British Isles groaned under the bombing of the Luftwaffe. The German army had entered Romania, and the Italian army had Attacking Greece. To be hesitant about Germany's invitation at this time undoubtedly required considerable courage and political foresight.
Britain also noticed Bulgaria’s hesitation. George VI sent a secret message to Boris, asking Bulgaria to "think twice before acting" and not to side with Germany, otherwise "it will end in disaster." Boris asked the British minister to tell London that it would be difficult for Bulgaria to withstand German pressure. If Hitler was aggressive, any resistance would be in vain. As he expected, on October 16, Ribbentrop sent an urgent telegram to the Bulgarian government, asking it to join the axis within three days. Boris resisted on the grounds that "this move may push Türkiye into the British and French camp." Seeing that Bulgaria did not submit immediately, Germany agreed to extend the ultimatum period for 10 days.
On October 28, 1940, Boris personally wrote a letter to Hitler, expressing an ambiguous position. On the one hand, he said that the Führer was a great man and that Bulgaria and Germany had formed a profound friendship since World War I. On the other hand, he argued that "no matter in the past or today," Bulgaria's interests are consistent with the great interests of the Third Reich. He implored Hitler thought about this question: "Does Bulgaria have to change its current policy unconditionally?" Obviously, a neutral Bulgaria can also help Germany play a role in the Balkans.
However, the development of things could not be controlled by Boris, or even Hitler - because Stalin took action. In early November 1940, Molotov conveyed Stalin's opinions to Hitler. The Soviet Union insisted on including Bulgaria within its sphere of influence. The Soviet Union promised to ensure Bulgaria's security and even agreed to retain its monarchy. Soviet Deputy People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs Sopolev also suggested that the Soviet Union and Bulgaria sign an ominous "Treaty of Friendship and Mutual Assistance." You know, that summer, the Soviet Union relied on this "Treaty of Friendship and Mutual Assistance" to annex Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia.
On November 17, 1940, the frightened Tsar Boris personally went to Berchtesgaden to visit Hitler to find out the bottom line of Germany's demands. Hitler told him that Germany only asked for transit rights and guaranteed that Turkey would not touch Bulgaria because "I can reach an agreement with Stalin within 24 hours and Turkey will disappear from the map."
As for the Soviet Union, "I have 100 divisions ready to go, and it only takes 3 months to conquer the Soviet Union." Six days later, Sofia informed Berlin that Bulgaria agreed in principle to join the Tripartite Pact, but requested a later signature.
In addition, Bulgaria also allowed a German Air Force Signal Corps unit of more than 200 people to enter the country first and establish a communication station on the Greek-Bulgarian border. Later, a small number of German troops were allowed to enter Bulgaria disguised as tourists to build bridges, railways, and airports to welcome the arrival of a large number of German troops.
On January 21, 1941, President Roosevelt’s secret envoy Colonel Donovan secretly came to Sofia to make a last-ditch effort. On behalf of the US government, he suggested that Bulgaria strictly maintain neutrality and use force to resist the German troops crossing the border. The reason is very simple, because Bulgaria is in a key area and is "a key" to the Balkan Peninsula. If you stand in the wrong team, the country will be destroyed. Boris replied: "Yes, we are a key to the Balkans, but this key is in the hands of others." On February 28, the German 12th Army commanded by Field Marshal List entered "God's Back Garden." The next morning, at the Belvedere Palace in Warsaw, Bulgarian representatives signed the Tripartite Pact and joined the Axis Powers.
After the Soviet-German war on June 22, 1941, Bulgaria did not declare war on the Soviet Union in accordance with the conditions negotiated in advance when joining the Axis. Boris was worried that the people would oppose the war with the Soviet Union based on simple Slavic sentiments, and Hitler actually agreed with this view. Perhaps he believed that an intact Bulgarian army could, after all, assume the task of maintaining order in the Balkans, and that Bulgaria could also serve as a negotiating channel when the Soviet Union sought peace in the future. On the other hand, after the Soviet Union withdrew its ambassador to Germany, it also entrusted the Bulgarian embassy to look after its diplomatic interests in the Axis powers.
From a legal perspective, Bulgaria followed Germany in declaring war on the United States and Britain in December 1941. Until then, Bulgaria was a completely neutral country. However, this did not prevent it from participating in the distribution of spoils after the demise of Greece and Yugoslavia, although the Bulgarian army did not directly participate in the war against these two countries. According to the arrangements of the German High Command, the Bulgarian army was stationed in most of Yugoslav Macedonia (i.e. "Vada Macedonia") and the southeastern region of Serbia proper. Two areas in western Macedonia were annexed to Italian-controlled Albania. In Greece, Bulgaria occupied the Aegean Thrace region ceded in 1918 and southern Macedonia. Although Germany has not yet allowed Bulgaria to directly annex these lands, the prospect of "recovering the lost lands" has immersed Bulgaria in fanatical excitement and excitement. Boris III was honored by the parliament as the "Tsar the Liberator" and the "Tsar the Unifier" ".
Germany’s relationship with Bulgaria during World War II was similar to its relationship with countries such as Romania and Hungary. Although Hitler himself had different attitudes towards these countries, they were all economically under German dominance and became the "Danube Agricultural and Raw Material Provinces" of the Third Reich. Germany's economic purpose in Bulgaria can be summed up in one word: to strengthen agriculture. In order to encourage Bulgaria to export more agricultural products, Germany provided funds and technology to help Bulgaria build slaughterhouses, cold storage plants, glass greenhouses and other equipment. Farben Chemical Company also provided chemical fertilizers and pesticides to Bulgaria at low prices to increase production. During the war, Bulgaria was forced to provide Germany with meat and leather equivalent to 300,000 pigs, 100,000 sheep, and 20,000 cattle every year. In addition, it also shipped large amounts of oil, canned fruits, vegetables, tobacco and almost All rose essential oil. In order to get as much profit as possible, Germany artificially increased the value of the mark and withheld the payment due to Bulgaria, allowing it to set up a liquidation account in Germany and use the money to purchase German industrial products - ranging from machinery, arms, medicines and fertilizers. As small as toys, sewing machines, light bulbs and typewriters. As the war progressed, Bulgaria's exports of grain and raw materials continued to expand, while the import of German industrial products continued to decrease. By September 1944, Germany's debt to Bulgaria had reached 70 billion leva.
By the spring of 1943, the Third Reich was in defeat. At the end of March and early April, Boris III visited Hitler twice to discuss the war situation, relations between the two countries and the Jewish issue. Boris III, like King Christian X of Denmark, opposed the persecution of the Jewish minority. Since the outbreak of the war, Bulgaria has only issued a symbolic anti-Semitic decree, which only stipulates doubling taxes on Jewish businesses.
There were 55,000 Jews in Bulgaria before the war, and by the end of the war, not one of them had been forcibly deported or imprisoned in a concentration camp. Among the Axis camps, only it and Finland had achieved this. The Bulgarian Jewish community is still grateful to Boris for this. However, in Macedonia and South Thrace, the German SS personally came out to arrest 13,000 Jews with Yugoslav and Greek nationalities. Although the Bulgarian civil administration and the church came to stop them, they were unable to do anything in the end.
On July 24, 1943, with a crack of thunder on a sunny day, news of Mussolini’s downfall spread in Italy. The next day, King Vittorio Emanuele III of Italy informed his son-in-law Boris of the formation of a new government and said that an armistice in Italy was just around the corner. On August 9, an urgent message came from Germany that Hitler was going to meet with the Tsar of Bulgaria at his base camp. On August 14, Boris and his party arrived at the "Wolf's Lair" base camp in Rastenburg, East Prussia, and then held three days of talks with Hitler and a group of German military leaders.
Boris has always been physically weak and is not used to the underground life in the "Wolf's Lair". There he felt sleepless, his face looked tired, and he felt short of breath. Hitler asked Bulgaria to send troops to the Soviet-German battlefield, send two additional divisions to fight in northern Greece, and prepare to send troops to take over Albania if Italy defected. Boris rejected these demands one by one and even quarreled with Hitler. In the end, he was forced to verbally agree to send additional troops to Greece and Albania, but asked to return home and consult with Defense Minister General Mikhov before making a final reply.
On August 16, 1943, Boris and the Bulgarian military delegation left Rastenburg and returned to Sofia on the Ju-52 special plane provided by Hitler. During this time the Tsar himself flew a plane for a while. The next day, the exhausted Boris came to the Villa Bistrica in the Rila Mountains to recuperate. On the 19th, he and his brother Prince Kirill climbed Mount Mosala, the highest peak of the Rila Mountains. When they came down, his face was pale and his body was tired. On the 23rd, Boris returned to Sofia to handle official business when he suddenly felt chest pain and vomited. After consultation, the doctors believed that the Tsar had a heart attack, and medical experts urgently invited from Berlin and Vienna also believed that Boris had a myocardial infarction. On the evening of the 27th, the Tsar's condition worsened and he began to fall into a coma. At 4:22 pm the next day, the heart of 49-year-old Tsar Boris III stopped beating. That evening, the Bulgarian cabinet issued a "Letter to the Bulgarian People" announcing the death of the "Tsar the Unifier."
These are troubled times, so people have doubts about the real cause of Boris's death. Some people believe that he tried to withdraw from the alliance with Germany when he met Hitler at the "Wolf's Lair" and was therefore poisoned by the Germans; others believe that he was poisoned by the Communists in order to create chaos in Bulgaria. London's BBC broadcast quoted information sent by secret agents, saying that the Tsar was shot to death at Sofia train station, but later changed to say that Hitler poisoned the Tsar.
Regardless of the real cause of his death, Boris's death deprived Bulgaria of a ruler who was good at adapting to changes at a critical moment in the war. He was naturally alert, and had been made more experienced by the varied fortunes of a quarter of a century. The tsar's heir is his 6-year-old son Simeon II, and the royal power is represented by a three-person regency council. The head of this committee was Prince Kirill Preslav, Boris' brother, and the real power was held by the later disgraced former Prime Minister Professor Bogdan Filov and Defense Minister General Mikhov.
A considerable number of Bulgarians believe that Boris’s character is very similar to his maternal great-grandfather, Louis Philippe, the “Popular King” of France. By his civilized manners and modest behavior, he won the respect of almost all classes in Bulgaria from the beginning. Many biographers have pointed out that Boris lived a very simple life without any of the luxurious habits common among Balkan monarchs. He has repeatedly reduced royal attendants and lowered their salaries. Every year, the savings from the royal salary are donated to the "Children's Home" charity organization to buy food for poor children. Boris also banned arbitrary decoration of the palace and prohibited the country from importing high-end consumer goods and high-end cars for him. Even the expenses for overseas visits were paid for by the tsar himself. You should know that even the British royal family, known as the model of constitutional monarchy, only implemented these radical measures at the end of the 20th century.
During his lifetime, Boris III always believed that the criterion for his conduct should be to abide by the "Instructions to Kings" in the Bible, and used it to encourage himself: "...do it for those who cannot do it." The speaker speaks to safeguard the rights of the helpless, defend them, judge impartially, and redress justice for the poor..." History has already made a decision as to whether Boris can really behave like this and manage the country in this way. answer.
During the war years, the Tsar's memorial services and funerals were brief and simple. In addition to the people coming to say goodbye spontaneously, a small number of foreign delegations were also invited, the most high-profile of which was the German delegation led by Marshal Wilhelm Keitel. Keitel also brought Hitler's personal message of condolences: "I was shocked by the sad news. I personally lost my most loyal friend and ally. I and the German people will miss him forever." Boris's body was embalmed and buried in southwest Bulgaria. The Rila Monastery was excavated by the Communist authorities after the war and buried in an unknown secret location. When the Bulgarian government tried to rebury Boris in the 1990s, his body was not found, only his heart. He was reburied in Rila Monastery in 1993.