Бележки върху българската политическа пропаганда (1918–1944)
Notes on Bulgarian Political Propaganda (1918–1944)

Summary/Abstract: The paper focuses on observations about Bulgarian political propaganda in the period from 1918 to 1944 and deals only with the propaganda of the central government, and not with the activities of different political circles, parties or other social entities. It offers a tentative division into periods as well as examples of some peculiarities of the propaganda activity. Institutionalization of the political propaganda took place only after the establishment of the authoritarian regime as a result of the coup in May 1934 within the framework of a special ideological and propaganda organization named “Social Renovation” and governed directly by the Prime Minister. It was created in order to fulfill major organizational and ideological tasks of the regime: to control the press, generate public support (in the form of state youth organization), promote the decisions and the reforms, which the government introduced. The organization was extremely active from the summer of 1934 until the summer of 1935. After some period of time and as a result of the hard work towards establishing a dominated by the monarch nonparty authoritarian regime, the Department of National Propaganda was founded in April 1941. Its creation was necessitated by the extreme war time conditions and by the intensive development of authoritarian institutions. The latter was influenced by foreign political models. The new propaganda agency was called to exercise comprehensive propaganda (and it made great efforts to this end) through a total control and influence on the representatives of all professional circles. One of the results of these propaganda activities in the beginning of 1940s was the setting up of the Bulgarian film industry. The major efforts of the propaganda were focused on domestic problems and on Bulgarian society, regardless of the significant role which the Bulgarian foreign policy and its revisionist ambitions had in the agenda of both the ruling circles and the propaganda decision makers.

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