The Communists openly took power, and Bulgaria was declared a People's Republic. In September 1946, the monarchy was abolished by plebiscite, which resulted in 95.6 percent voting in favour of a republic, and young Tsar Simeon II was sent into exile. Elections held a few weeks later resulted in a large majority for the Fatherland Front. He made a truculent speech that rejected cooperation with opposition groups. In November 1945, Communist Party leader Georgi Dimitrov returned to Bulgaria after 22 years in exile. This strengthened when it became apparent that the United States and United Kingdom had little interest in Bulgaria. As the war came to a halt, the government expanded its campaign of political revolution to attack economic elites in banking and private business. Thousands of people were charged with treason or participating in counter-revolutionary conspiracy and sentenced to either death or life in prison. The new government began to arrest Nazi collaborators.

By June, Kirill and the other Regents, twenty-two former ministers, and many others had been executed. On 1 February 1945, Regent Prince Kiril, former Prime Minister Bogdan Filov, and hundreds of other officials of the kingdom were arrested on charges of war crimes. A Communist-controlled People's Militia was set up, which harassed and intimidated non-Communist parties. The Communists deliberately took a minor role in the new government at first, while the Soviet representatives held the real power. 150,000 Bulgarians settled during the occupation were expelled from Western Thrace. Under the terms of the peace settlement, Bulgaria was allowed to keep Southern Dobruja, but formally renounced all claims to Greek and Yugoslav territory. Georgi Dimitrov, leader of the Bulgarian Communist Party from 1946 to 1949Īfter taking power, the FF formed a coalition led by former Prime Minister Kimon Georgiev, which included the Social Democrats and the Agrarians. Geographically, the People's Republic of Bulgaria had the same borders as present-day Bulgaria and it bordered the Black Sea to the east Romania to the north Yugoslavia (via SRs Serbia and Macedonia) to the west and Greece and Turkey to the south. Following the BSP victory in the 1990 election, which was the first openly contested multi-party election since 1931, the name of the state was changed to the Republic of Bulgaria. In 1990, under the leadership of Aleksandar Lilov, the BCP changed its name to the Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP) and adopted social democracy and democratic socialism in place of Marxism–Leninism. In 1989, after a few years of liberal influence, political reforms were initiated and Todor Zhivkov, who had served as head of the party since 1954, was removed from office in a BCP congress. The country's relatively high productivity levels and high scores on social development rankings made it a model for other socialist countries' administrative policies. After a new energy and transportation infrastructure was constructed, by 1960 manufacturing became the dominant sector of the economy and Bulgaria became a major exporter of household goods and later of computer technologies, earning it the nickname of ' Silicon Valley of the Eastern Bloc'. Varying degrees of conservative or liberal influence followed. In the mid-1950s and after the death of Stalin, the party's hardliners lost influence and a period of social liberalization and stability followed under Todor Zhivkov. The BCP modelled its policies after those of the Soviet Union, transforming the country over the course of a decade from an agrarian peasant society into an industrialized socialist society. The Bulgarian resistance movement during World War II deposed the Kingdom of Bulgaria administration in the Bulgarian coup d'état of 1944 which ended the country's alliance with the Axis powers and led to the People's Republic in 1946. Bulgaria was closely allied with the Soviet Union during the Cold War, being part of Comecon as well as a member of the Warsaw Pact. The People's Republic of Bulgaria ( PRB Bulgarian: Народна Република България (НРБ), pronounced Narodna Republika Balgariya, NRB) was the official name of Bulgaria, when it was a socialist republic from 1946 to 1990, ruled by the Bulgarian Communist Party (BCP) together with its coalition partner, the Bulgarian Agrarian People's Union.

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