Dev Diary: Bulgaria

Today's Development Diary by ManoDeZombi

Здравейте всички - Hi everyone! And welcome to a new Hearts of Iron 4 Dev Diary! Today we’ll be talking about the second country in the upcoming DLC, which I’ve been working on after La Resistance. A country that didn’t make it into DoD because by that time the team considered that they lacked the appropriate tools to depict both its multiple internal conflicts and its complex diplomatic relations. And as many of you had already guessed, the country in question is... Bulgaria!

As a defeated member of the Central Powers, Bulgaria suffered severe territorial losses, army restrictions and economic sanctions after the Great War, which led to a period of great instability and depression in the country.

In May 1934, the military organization Zveno carried out a coup d’etat and formed a new government, led by Kimon Georgiev, which dissolved the National Assembly, banned political parties and dealt a critical blow to the Macedonian revolutionary organization IMRO.

However, the Tsar forced Georgiev to resign in January 1935, appointed new puppet ministers and managed to seize full control over the country, imposing an authoritarian regime that benefited greatly from the measures imposed by the Zveno.

In 1936 Bulgarian society was split between different political and military organizations and social movements, most of them illegal thanks to the Zveno and the Tsar.

Bulgarian international relations were not in better shape, the IMRO, one of the most important Macedonian revolutionary organizations, carried out numerous fights and terrorist acts during the 1920s in both Yugoslavia and Greece, frequently operating from Bulgaria, and culminating in the 1930s with several assassinations including King Alexander I of Yugoslavia and the French Foreign Minister Louis Barthou. The actions taken by the Zveno to eradicate the IMRO helped improve Bulgaria’s image in the Balkans, but relations with its neighbors and with the countries of the Entente were still very cold. In contrast, a very welcoming Third Reich helped Bulgaria overcome its sorry economic situation and seemed to offer a very promising future for Bulgaria....

Now let’s see how this turbulent country looks in HOI4 when you start a new game:

Bulgaria will start the game with Tsar Boris as the country leader, who will provide nice bonuses for non-aligned support and a flat penalty to war support (he seemed to be very reluctant to join the war after all, agreeing only to declare war on the allies later in 1941, probably believing that it would be nothing more than a symbolic act… How wrong he was!).

To be fair, the title ‘Tsar Unifier’ historically came with the Bulgarian occupation of previously lost territories in Greece, Yugoslavia and Romania, but I think the title fits pretty well with Boris’s modifiers.

Now let’s take a look at the Bulgarian National Spirits, from left to right:

The Treaty of Neuilly-sur-Seine, signed after the Bulgarian defeat in the Great War, required Bulgaria to pay huge amounts in war reparations and forced the country to cede various territories, including western Thrace, cutting off Bulgarian access to the Aegean, and a significant area on the western border, very close to Sofia. It is no wonder why this treaty was known in Bulgaria as the Second National Catastrophe...

In addition to the sanctions above, the Treaty of Neuilly imposed very severe restrictions on the Bulgarian army, not only drastically limiting the amount of troops and forbidding the acquisition of modern equipment, but also prohibiting any military maneuvers and even stipulating the number of rifles