site.btaBulgaria's Role in 1968 Invasion of Czechoslovakia

Fifty-six years ago, in August 1968, troops of four Warsaw Pact countries: the Soviet Union, Hungary, Poland and Bulgaria, launched Operation Danube. Its aim was to invade and occupy Czechoslovakia so as to suppress the liberal reforms initiated by Czechoslovak Communist Party leader Alexander Dubček, known as 'the Prague Spring'. Bulgaria's participation in the crack-down remains a controversial and sensitive chapter in its communist past. Here is a timeline of developments in 1968:

March 6-7, Sofia. At a Warsaw Pact Political Consultative Committee meeting, Bulgarian Communist Party (BCP) leader and Prime Minister Todor Zhivkov makes the earliest documented suggestion of military intervention as a way of addressing the Czechoslovak crisis, labelling Dubček a revisionist and the situation a counter-revolution posing a threat to socialism. Zhivkov assures Soviet Communist Party leader Leonid Brezhnev and Prime Minister Aleksei Kosygin that Bulgaria stands ready to use its armed forces if necessary. Poland's Władysław Gomułka and East Germany's Walter Ulbricht back the invasion idea, while Brezhnev still hopes that political pressure alone would work.

March 23, Dresden. Party and government leaders of the USSR, Hungary, Poland, Bulgaria and East Germany (the "Warsaw Five") and Czechoslovakia define the situation in Czechoslovakia as a "creeping counter-revolution".

March 26, Sofia. In a strictly confidential instruction, the BCP Central Committee Politburo restricts news reporting on Czechoslovak developments to the Bulgarian News Agency (BTA) and the party organ Rabotnichesko Delo, banning "polemical articles" in the press. Accordingly, before, during and after the invasion only dispatches from Soviet, Bulgarian and other socialist sources are included in the news agency's unrestricted bulletins, whereas coverage from Western sources on what actually happens is confined to the confidential bulletins.

March 29, Sofia. Zhivkov, at a Plenum of the BCP Central Committee: "Let’s hope that we won't have to go to extremes, but if need be, we will act with our armies" in Czechoslovakia.

May 6, Moscow. Zhivkov: "It is necessary to help the healthy forces in Czechoslovakia; otherwise we will not have the situation under control. It is necessary to bring in troops."

July 14-15, Warsaw. At a meeting of the "Warsaw Five" party leaders, Zhivkov openly calls for joint military intervention to "restore the dictatorship of the proletariat" in Czechoslovakia: "We cannot rely on internal forces in Czechoslovakia. Only by relying on the armed forces of the Warsaw Pact can we change the situation." In an informal conversation with Soviet Communist Party Politburo member Pyotr Shelest, Zhivkov says: "The sooner troops are sent in, the better."

July 24, Harmanli (Southeastern Bulgaria). Bulgaria's National Defence Minister, Army General Dobri Dzhurov, orders the transfer of the 22nd Mechanized Infantry Regiment (962 men) to the Uzundzhovo Airfield. On July 28, Dzhurov places the regiment under the command of the Supreme Commander of the Warsaw Pact Unified Armed Forces. On July 28-29, the regiment is airlifted by Soviet aircraft to Kolomyia in Western Ukraine.

July 24, Elhovo (Southeastern Bulgaria). The 12th Mechanized Infantry Regiment (1,206 men) together with its tank battalion is marched to the Atiya Naval Base. There, the regiment is loaded on Soviet vessels and makes a voyage across the Black Sea (July 25-26) to Ilyichevsk. Next, the unit is transported by train to Mukachevo, Western Ukraine (near the Czechoslovak border), reaching that destination on July 29.

July 29, Mukachevo. Soviet Lieutenant General Gennady Obaturov, Deputy Commander of the Carpathian Military District, assigns the 12th Mechanized Infantry Regiment its combat mission: to capture the area of Zvolen and Banská Bystrica, disarm the Czechoslovak Army units, and take control of key installations.

July 29, Kolomyia. Army General Vasiliy Margelov, Commander of the Soviet Airborne Forces, assigns the 22nd Mechanized Infantry Regiment its combat mission: to be airlifted to Ruzyně, Vodochody and Kbely airports, relieve the Soviet 7th Airborne Division securing these facilities, and organize their perimeter defence.

July 31, Moscow. Brezhnev informs Zhivkov, Hungarian communist leader János Kádár, Ulbricht and Gomułka of the Soviet Communist Party Politburo's decision on re-establishing the "old order" in Czechoslovakia by military means. They all agree.

August 19, 8:00 p.m., Sofia. Army General Dzhurov issues Battle Order No. 4 to the commanders of the 12th and the 22nd regiments, which reads in part: "For liquidation of the counter-revolution, I hereby order the regiment to proceed with the execution of the combat missions assigned to it by the Supreme Commander of the Unified Armed Forces for routing the enemy elements." "All orders and directives of the Supreme Commander must be executed accurately and implicitly".

August 20, Sofia. Bulgaria's Council of Ministers adopts a top secret Decree No. 39 which commits Bulgaria "to participate with armed forces jointly with the Soviet Union and the other Warsaw Pact countries in rendering assistance to the Czechoslovak people in its struggle against the counter-revolution."

August 20, 4:05 a.m., Matovce, Czechoslovakia. The 12th Regiment crosses the Czechoslovak border at that village, crashing through the border gate, and heads for Banská Bystrica. En route, the residents of Košice take to the streets, shout at the troops and pelt them with cobblestones, rocks and other objects. Several Bulgarian soldiers are injured, car windows and antennas in the convoy are broken, and gas tanks are set on fire. The convoy meets with the most resistance in Rožňava, where locals build barricades with buses, combine harvesters and cranes on the road and try to block the passage of the troops by their own bodies. Shots are fired from the crowd, and warning shots in the air are fired back.

August 21, 11:05 a.m. and 7:30 p.m., Prague. Flown by Soviet aircraft, the 22nd Regiment lands at Ruzyně Airport near Prague in two stages.

August 21, Sofia. BTA runs an announcement on the entry into the territory of Czechoslovakia of Soviet armed units together with Bulgarian, Hungarian and Polish armed units meeting the request of Czechoslovak Party and Government leaders for "urgent assistance, including assistance with armed forces". The announcement is worded identically as a statement released simultaneously by the Soviet news agency TASS.

August 22. The 22nd Regiment secures the Ruzyně and Vodochody airports, taking over from the Soviet 7th Airborne Division.

August 21 - September 11. The Ruzyně Airport is prepared for defence, with on-duty soldiers entrenched and the rest of the regiment put up in tents around the facility.

August 22, Banská Bystrica. Having reached its destination, the 12th Regiment takes over the barracks, police stations, ratio stations, the post office and the office of the local newspaper. A battalion takes control of the Tri Duby Airport near Zvolen. On August 25, Brezno and the local military garrison are occupied, too.

August 22, Sofia. Leaflets are distributed in the city centre, reading: "People, are you asleep, wake up. Today your children are killing freedom, tomorrow they will be killing people, don’t let this happen."

August 24, Ruzyně Airport. Bulgarian tourists, pupils and embassy staff are gathered at the airport and are flown back to Bulgaria.

September 20-22, Sofia, Plovdiv. History students Eduard Genov, Alexander Dimitrov and Valentin Radev of Sofia University write 200 leaflets reading "Puppet Zhivkov's Troops, Out of the CSSR!" and drop them in letter boxes in Sofia and Plovdiv. In mid-October, they repeat the campaign with leaflets stating "Five Soviet communists staged a demonstration in Red Square, what about you?" and "On October 10, five Soviet citizens received harsh sentences for expressing solidarity with the CSSR. People, be vigilant!" Denounced to State Security by an associate, the three are arrested on October 29. On January 11, 1969, they are sentenced to imprisonment (reduced on appeal to 3 years for Genov, 2 years for Dimitrov, and 14 months for Radev). All three are expelled from the University.

September, Sofia. Assoc. Prof. Hristo Nestorov, who teaches contemporary history at the Sofia University Faculty of History, says during lectures that the intervention is inadmissible for communist states. Nestorov is suspended from lecturing. Despite his anti-fascist resistance background, he is expelled from the Communist Party but the expulsion is later reversed after Zhivkov's daughter Lyudmila Zhivkova intervenes.

September 9, Ruzyně Airport. Junior Sergeant Nikolay Nikolov, 21, becomes the only Bulgarian fatality sustained during the invasion. His is also the only documented death of an occupation soldier deliberately caused by a Czechoslovakian. On September 10, Nikolov's body is found by a mushroom picker in a wooded area 37 km west of the airport. An autopsy determines that the soldier was first hit by a hammer at the back of his head and was then shot in the heart by three pistol bullets around 1 a.m. on September 10. Versions about his death diverge. According to one theory, he left his post to relieve himself and was ambushed by three local "counter-revolutionaries", who probably interrogated him and, unhappy with the results, shot him dead. According to another theory, he planned to desert and defect to the West and hitched a ride in a faecal truck that carried three locals, one of whom killed him in the ensuing scuffle. Nikolov is eulogized as "a hero fallen in defence of the gains of socialism from imperialist encroachments". On September 27, the Czechoslovak police arrest three of the presumable four murderers. In May 1969, three Czechoslovak citizens receive prison sentences for the Bulgarian's murder: Jiří Baloušek (9 years), Miloslav Frolík (4 years), and Rudolf Stránský (2 years).

September 13, Banská Bystrica. Acting on instructions from the Soviets, the Commander of the 12th Regiment shuts down the publishing house and the editorial offices of the local Smer newspaper and arrests its editor-in-chief and his deputy after an article headlined "Defeated but Not Conquered" appears in the daily on September 11, calling for armed struggle against the occupiers.

September 12, Prague. The 22nd Regiment relocates from Ruzyně Airport to a camp 2 km to the northeast, near the village of Nebušice.

September 13, Prague. Czechoslovak Foreign Minister Jiří Hájek approaches the Bulgarian Government with a note verbale, suggesting expediting discussions on the withdrawal of Bulgarian troops from Czechoslovakia.

September 17, Zvolen. The command of the 12th Regiment suppresses the Vpered newspaper after it carries anti-occupation materials and demands that the local party leadership purge the editorial staff of "enemy elements".

October 11, Sofia. The Council of Ministers issues Ordinance No. 835 on extra monthly tax-free pay in foreign currency to Bulgarian servicemen stationed in Czechoslovakia, effective October 1: 50 roubles to commissioned officers, 30 roubles to NCOs and civilian employees, and 3 roubles to conscripts.

October 18, Moscow. The "Warsaw Five" defence ministers decide to withdraw non-Soviet troops from Czechoslovakia.

October 22, Prague. The 22nd Regiment starts its two-phase return. It is first transported by rail to Izmail, USSR, arriving there on October 27. Then it proceeds by ship across the Black Sea from Odessa to Burgas and arrives there on October 29. The regiment reaches Harmanli by special train on October 30.

October 28, Sofia. BTA quotes the Ministry of National Defence as announcing the return to Bulgaria of the Bulgarian People’s Army units after "rendering assistance to the Czechoslovak people to defend the gains of socialism." "The soldiers, NCOs and officers of the Bulgarian People’s Army honourably accomplished the missions assigned to them," the announcement reads.

October 29, Banská Bystrica. The 12th Regiment leaves Czechoslovak territory, travelling by rail to the USSR and then by ship to Burgas. The return to Bulgaria takes ten days.

* * *

The Bulgarian contingent numbers 2,164 upon entry and 2,177 upon exit, plus 26 T-34 tanks. Back home, the soldiers are given a hero’s welcome at rallies by enthusiastic crowds and are granted admission to university without entrance examinations.

According to available information, the Bulgarian troops did not kill any Czechoslovak citizens.

* * *

1969, Sofia. Bulgarian poet Valeri Petrov writes Self-Immolation, a poem about the self-sacrifice of Czech student Jan Palach, who committed suicide in the centre of Prague on January 16, 1969 in protest against the occupation. Petrov reads his poem at a packed Grand Hall of Sofia University. It is not published until 1989.

1970, London. The BBC Bulgarian Service broadcasts Bulgarian dissident writer Georgi Markov’s essay 21.8.1968, the first of six essays in his Czech Cycle that revisit the tragic events in August. This is the most comprehensive and famous display of disagreement with the violent suppression of the "Prague Spring" and the ensuing "normalization". The broadcasts continue until Markov’s "Bulgarian Umbrella" murder in 1978.

December 4, 1989, Moscow. The leaders of Bulgaria, Hungary, East Germany, Poland and the Soviet Union issue a statement formally condemning the 1968 invasion of Czechoslovakia and apologize to the people of Czechoslovakia for this “act of crude interference in the internal affairs of a sovereign state”.

August 23, 1990, Sofia. Bulgaria’s Seventh Grand National Assembly adopts a declaration reading: “The representatives of the Bulgarian people in the Grand National Assembly condemn the aggression of the Warsaw Pact armies in Czechoslovakia in August 1968 and express their indignation at the participation of Bulgarian troops in that aggression. May this declaration of ours be considered as an apology to the Czech and Slovak peoples and as an act redressing a historic injustice."

February 7, 1991, Sofia. Granting an appeal from Eduard Genov, the Supreme Court renders Judgment No. 791 vacating the lower courts' sentences against Genov, Dimitrov and Radev and declares Genov's innocence.

February 28 - March 1, 1997, Prague. Visiting Bulgarian President Petar Stoyanov offers an apology for his country’s role in the 1968 invasion of Czechoslovakia.

August 21, 2013, Sofia. On the 45th anniversary of the invasion, the ground-level side sculptures of the Soviet Army Monument in Sofia are painted pink, with a graffito in Czech on the pediment, reading "BULHARSKO SE OMLOUVÀ!!!" ("Bulgaria Apologizes!!!"). Two days later, Bulgarian Foreign Minister Kristian Vigenin (of the BCP successor Bulgarian Socialist Party) says that Bulgaria has already apologized and there is no need to repeat that on each and every anniversary. "Once offered, the apology still stands in later years. The matter should not be used for domestic political purposes," Vigenin argues.

September 4, 2018, Bratislava. Slovakia's highest state honour, the Order of the White Double Cross, is conferred on Eduard Genov (posthumously), Alexander Dimitrov and Valentin Radev (posthumously) "for outstanding services to the protection of democracy and human rights."

November 12, 2018, Prague. The Senate of the Czech Republic awards Eduard Genov (posthumously), Alexander Dimitrov and Valentin Radev (posthumously) for persevering advocacy of the principles of democracy, freedom and human rights.

Sofia, January 18, 2024. The Rector's Badge of Honour of the St Kliment Ohridski University of Sofia is conferred on Alexander Dimitrov, Eduard Genov (posthumously) and Valentin Radev (posthumously) for their civic valour, services to democracy and freedom, as well as for the stance they took during the Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968.