76 years have passed since the night of February 1 to February 2, 1945, when the so-called "enemies of the people" were shot dead in execution of the sentences handed down by the "People's Court."

The so-called "People's Courts" were organized in countries under Soviet influence in the first years after the end of World War II. In none of the other countries, however, has the hastily formed civil tribunal gave as many death sentences as in Bulgaria. 

The "People's Court" (Naroden sad) in Bulgaria was created by an Ordinance-Law on “trial by the People's Court for the perpetrators of Bulgaria's involvement in the world war against the allied nations and the atrocities related to it", adopted on September 30, 1944. It affected regents, ministers, MPs, senior clergy and military, as well as public figures, part of Bulgarian politics in the period 1941 - September 9, 1944. 

For the period December 1944 to April 1945, the cases of over 11,000 people passed through the tribunal as part of 135 trials. 2000 people were declared innocent, 9,155 were sent behind bars, 2,730 people were sentenced to death, including independent MP and public figure Ivan K. Vazov, nephew of the patriarch of Bulgarian literature Ivan Vazov. 

Some citizens were sentenced after their death in order to justify brutal events that started in the first days after September 9. Figures are approximate, as the actual number of those convicted and killed, both before and after the trials, remains unknown.

You can learn more about this period of Bulgarian history, which predetermined the development of the country in the decades that followed, from Radio Bulgaria’s article 1945: The People’s Court, terror and political violence

Author: Yoan Kolev

English: Alexander Markov