Kiril Todorov: Intelligence services of Royal Yugoslavia against the Kingdom of Bulgaria and IMRO

The documentary-historical study offers to the readers a story about the tions of the Intelligence services of Royal Yugoslavia against the Kingdom of Bulgaria and IMRO during the interwar period of 1920-1941 and their impact 0n their bilateral relations.

This book is a result of many years of research of the author in the Bulgarian and Serbian archives, combined with critical reading and analysis of the existing works and publications in the press. The attention is focused on the anti-Bulgarian manifestations of all organizations in Belgrade, which were assigned with such tasks: - the Military Intelligence Agency (VOA), the relevant service of the Ministry of Interior (ODZ), the Intelligence (Fourth) Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Central Press Bureau (CPB), Public Security (State Security), the political police and the intelligence services of the gendarmerie.

There are 5 major periods, in accordance with important events for Bulgaria in the years between the two world wars: 1920-1923, 1923-1925, 1926-1931, 1931-1936, and 1936-1941. For each ofthem, the Yugoslav military ministers are appointed, as well as the ones in charge of the interior and foreign affaire, and the heads of the CPB, and the intelligence services.

It tells in detail about the developments, successes, and failures of residents and intelligence officers in Sofia, who worked against the independence of Bulgaria and the Bulgarian national liberation organization IMRO. Some were under various guises in the Yugoslavian legation in Sofia and its consular services in Sofia and Varna, while others worked in domestic intelligence centers or diplomatic and consular missions in the neighboring Balkan countries. Many facts are presented about the manifestations of the agents and their collaborators, who were recruited and led by the - Yugoslav and Bulgarian citizens. The book also covers the activities of such sinister figures of the Yugoslav secret services as Zika Lazic, Dobrica Matkovic, Vladeta Milicevic, so far known to Bulgarian historiography only in connection with some of their activities. Numerous concrete facts about the cooperation between the royal intelligence bodies and the Bulgarian agricultural, communist and anarchist emigration in Yugoslavia are also presented for the period 1923-1930.

The study also focuses attention on the intelligence and counterintelligence bodies of Bulgaria against Yugoslavia, which have an enviable professional level, which allowed them to reveal, intercept and prevent most of the trials of aggressive activities of the Belgrade intelligence services, such as the three coup attempts in 1925,1935 and 1941, but couldn't manage to stop the Yugoslavian involvement in the successful coup of May 19, 1934. Several Yugoslav intelligence agents in Bulgaria were enlightened, documented, arrested, and convicted, others were deported from Sofia and stationed in the countryside or concentration camps. Some were expelled from the country, and many intelligence officers were forced to leave Bulgarian territory, as was the case with Colonel Draza Mihajlovic in 1936.

This book is intended for researchers of the past, specialists in the history of intelligence activities and Bulgarian-Yugoslav relations. It would be interesting for all curious and patriotic Bulgarians who are interested in this issue. On the basis of the presented facts, parallels with modernity can be made. /BGNES