Bulgarian Agrarian National Union

The Bulgarian Agrarian National Union (BANU) ( _bg. Българският земеделски народен съюз; "БЗНС") is a political party devoted to representing the causes of the Bulgarian peasantry. It was most powerful between 1900 and 1923. In practice, it resembled the proletarian movements of the early 20th century, but was devoted to questions concerning agriculture and farm workers, rather than industry and factory workers. The BANU, one of the first and most powerful of the peasant parties in Eastern Europe, dominated Bulgarian politics during the beginning of the 20th century. It is also the only peasant party in Europe that came to power.

History

An Agrarian Union was first organized in Bulgaria in 1899—it was to be a professional organization open only to peasants, and was at first not meant to become a political party. The Union initially won widespread peasant support by mobilizing peasants throughout Bulgaria to peaceful demonstrations against the government’s unfair taxation policies. Throughout this process the Union remained politically unaligned. However, at its third congress, motivated by upcoming elections for the Bulgarian National Assembly, the Union leaders—not peasants themselves but a group of teachers—voted to become a political party. Thus, in 1901, the Agrarian Union became the Bulgarian Agrarian National Union (BANU)—Bulgaria’s official peasant party. BANU candidates subsequently ran for positions in local and national elections.

Over the next twenty years, the BANU remained a part of Bulgarian politics, but it began to falter for lack of a concrete ideological base. Aleksandar Stamboliyski saved the party from that plight by first publishing a series of theoretical articles on the peasants’ role in the state and history, and finally taking control of the BANU party. In 1909 he wrote the book "Political Parties or Estatist Organizations", which laid the foundations for the ideology of the BANU. Stamboliski rose through the ranks of the BANU and by 1918 had become the leader of the party. World War I left Bulgaria in a state of severe social and economic crisis, and after a series of worker and peasant strikes and uprisings between 1918 and 1920, the Bulgarian army and all old political parties were essentially discredited. In 1920, by a combination of major popular support and some coercive methods, Stamboliski was able to create a BANU controlled government.

The chief rival of Stamboliski’s BANU was the Bulgarian Communist Party (BCP). After World War I the BANU and BCP were the two leading parties in Bulgarian politics. Though the BANU initially beat the communist party for political power, its authority quickly began to wane because, according to the communists, the BANU wavered in its support between the proletariat and bourgeoisie. Despite the fact that most of them were not rich, peasants still participated in an old bourgeois economic system, which was, from the communist point of view, destined to fail.

Though the BCP was always opposed to certain BANU policies, most other factions became dissatisfied with Stamboliski and the BANU because of growing corruption within the party, and an increasingly oppressive rule over the Bulgarian people. On 9 June, 1923 a bloc of military factions staged a coup d’etat and deposed the Stamboliski regime. Though the communists ultimately gained control of the Bulgarian government, the BANU remained in existence, and participated in agricultural policy in Bulgaria until the fall of communism in 1989.

Ideological foundations

Stamboliski believed that over time, new groups which were more attuned to modern political and economic needs would replace old political parties. He detailed this view in the 1909 book Political Parties or Estatist Organizations. In this vein, the BANU was supposed to be more than a political party. It was meant to retain its original function as a professional organization for peasants, and also involve itself in politics in order to guarantee the protection of the peasant classes. The BANU was a populist party, and as such supported the rights of the individual peasant over those of the corporation or large-scale landowner.

Stamboliski believed that mechanized agriculture would never replace the individual peasant, but also that peasant agriculture need not be backward or inefficient. Therefore, he stressed the importance of education in peasant communities. He also emphasized the need for social welfare, and believed that if the state could distribute arable land equally to each family and lower the tax burden on the peasantry, the condition of the Bulgarian peasantry would naturally improve.

Policies

After Stamboliski came to power, the BANU created organized campaigns for the redistribution of land and rural education. These campaigns were largely successful, and the BANU enjoyed widespread popular support in the immediate post-war period.

In the international sphere, the BANU was strictly anti-imperialist in its policies. Stamboliski thought that the new groups which would supposedly replace old political parties had the possibility to become international organizations. He hoped for and encouraged an agrarian alliance that would spread outside of Bulgaria to the entire Balkan region. He did not pursue territorial expansion, and generally neglected the army. These policies contributed to the dissatisfaction that led to the overthrow of Stamboliski and the BANU in 1923.

References

*Bell, John D. Peasants in Power: Alexander Stamboliski and the Bulgarian Agrarian National Union, 1988-1293. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1977.
*Bozhkov, Lyuben and Stoyan Ninov. The Historical Path of the Bulgarian Agrarian Party. Sofia: BAP Publishing House, 1982.
*Crampton, R. J. Eastern Europe in the Twentieth Century—and After chapter 8. London: Routledge, 1997.
*Tishev, Dimiter. Friendship Born in Struggle and Labor: On the Joint Work of Communists and Agrarians in Bulgaria. Sofia: Sofia Press, 1976.

External links

* [http://www.osaarchivum.org/db/fa/205-4-20-1.htm Bulgarian Subject Files - Political Parties: Bulgarian Agrarian National Union] Open Society Archives, Budapest