Outline of the Bulgarian People's Army at the end of the Cold War explained

The following is a hierarchical outline for the Bulgarian People's Army at the end of the Cold War. It is intended to convey the connections and relationships between units and formations. At the end of the Cold War in 1989, the Bulgarian People's Army (BPA) reported to the Ministry of People's Defence (Bulgaria). The BPA included the Bulgarian Land Forces; the Air and Air Defence Forces; Navy; and Construction Troops.

The Interior Ministry supervised the Border Troops, Interior Troops, Transport Troops, and Communications Troops.

War Planning

In case of war the Bulgarian People's Army's Land Forces Command would have formed the 1st Balkan Front with multiple Bulgarian armies[1] and wartime reinforcements. Two Bulgarian armies, four to six motorized rifle divisions and three tank brigades, the CIA estimated in 1979, would be assigned to this Front (page 149/201). Additional Soviet units would also come under its command (particularly 10th Army of the Soviet Union (10th Guards Budapest Rifle Corps?, which later became the 14th Guards Army),[2] planned to deploy between the fifth and tenth day after a full mobilization in the area between Silistra, Tolbukhin, Varna and Omurtag).[3]

According to Lieutenant-General Hristo Hristov (former Chief of the Land Forces and Chief of the Georgi Rakovski Military Academy): "For that purpose the Land Forces Command was formed in 1973. Its first chief was Colonel-General Hristo Dobrev, with the rank of Deputy Minister of People's Defence. At a conference about the organization of the armed forces of about ten years ago [around 2003] he has formulated the need for the formation of the LFC as such: "It is well known, that according to the operational plans of the Supreme Headquarters of the Warsaw Pact Organization our country was supposed to form a frontal Operational-Strategical Formation (фронтово оперативно-стратегическо обединение), mainly including the Bulgarian People's Army with the mission in case of an aggression launched against the People's Republic of Bulgaria to mount defensive action on the southern state border in order to secure the deployment on Bulgarian soil of additionally one Soviet and one Romanian front. ..Our Land Forces at the moment [the 1970s] numbered around 60-62 000 men, the exercises were constant. Each division executed annually one winter and one summer exercise in full strength. The three army headquarters - one command exercise under the leadership of the respective army commander and one command exercise under the leadership of the Land Forces Main Staff annually. The massive exercises of the Land Forces, normally during the summers normally included an army headquarters from the Soviet Army and occasionally an army headquarters from the Romanian Army. On the Balkan operational direction our armed forces were planned to cooperate with them."[4]

After which with the support of the Soviet Strategic Missile Troops the three fronts were, with the support of the Soviet Black Sea Fleet [which at that point would have absorbed the Bulgarian and the Romanian Navies] to launch a strategic operation aimed at the total destruction of the aggressor... Our men were excellent trained.

The headquarters of the 1st Balkan Front had direct command of the following units:

Frontal Command, Sofia

Land Forces

The Bulgarian People's Army education institutions would have formed the following units in wartime:

Air Forces and Air Defence

See also: List of Bulgarian Air Force bases.

The headquarters of the Air Forces and Air Defence were in Sofia.[17]

Air Forces and Air Defence Headquarters

When the 10th Mixed Air Corps was formed in 1961 the 16th Transport Air Regiment was part of it, but later it was subordinated directly to the Air Force and Air Defence Forces Headquarters, as the regiment was planned to form Directorate of the Military Transport and Specialised Aviation (Управление на Военнотранспортната и Специалната Авиация (ВТА и СА)) during wartime, when the national airline BGA Balkan would have been mobilized.[18]

The two air defence divisions were coordinated by an Air Defence Command Post in Sofia. The separation line between their areas of responsibility ran along a line from Ruse through Nova Zagora to Svilengrad.[19]

1st Air Defence Division

2nd Air Defence Division

People's Higher Air Force School

The modern Bulgarian Air Force Training originates from 1955, when by order #182/ 1955 (July 6, 1955) the commander of the People's Higher Air Force School transferred the 1st Combat Training Air Squadron (1ва Учебно-Бойна Авиационна Ескадрила (1. УБАЕ)) with its Yak-11 trainers from Telish Air Base to Kamenets Air Base and transformed it into 2nd Combat Training Air Regiment (2ри Учебно-Боен Авиационен Полк (2. УБАП)) with its 2 Yak-11 squadrons transitioning to Yak-17 and Yak-23. In the following year the air regiment transitioned to MiG-15/MiG-15bis/UMiG-15, and then to MiG-17s in 1963.

In 1967 the 2nd Combat Training Air Regiment split in two separate combat-training air regiments. The 1st Combat Training Air Regiment relocated to Shtraklevo Air Base close to Ruse with two MiG-17 squadrons and a third squadron relocated to Dolna Mitropoliya. The remainder of 2nd Combat Training Air Regiment stayed in Kamenets with two MiG-17 squadrons, retaining its designations. In 1969 the 1st Combat Training Air Regiment (1 CATR) formed a fourth MiG-17 squadron at Dolna Mitropoliya (1st and 2nd at Straklevo, 3rd and 4th at Dolna Mitropoliya AB). In 1971 the 3rd and 4th Squadrons split from the 1st CTAR, becoming 1st and 2nd Squadrons of a newly formed 3rd Combat Training Air Regiment at Dolna Mitropoliya. The replacement of the MiG-17 with Aero L-29 Delfín jet trainers started in 1964 at 2nd CTAR at Kamenets with small numbers used for the training of flight instructors. In 1965 the training of air force cadets on the L-29 started from the 3rd Squadron of 1st CTAR at Dolna Mitropoliya, and continued with the progress in deliveries with the 1st and 2nd Squadrons in Shtraklevo and the newly formed 4th Squadron in Dolna Mitropoliya.

The 2nd CTAR converted its 1st Squadron to MiG-21 in 1984 and its 2nd Squadron to L-39 in 1986.

Air Force and Air Defence Forces Equipment

In 1989 the air force's inventory consisted of:

The three anti-aircraft missile brigades were equipped with the following air defence systems:

People's Navy

Adhering to the Soviet military traditions the navy of the Bulgarian People's Army was called the Military Naval Fleet (Военноморски флот (ВМФ)). The merchant marine, which was to mobilize in wartime in support of the regular navy was called Bulgarian Sea Fleet (Български Морски Флот (БМФ)).

Varna Naval Base

Atia Naval Base

Naval Equipment

In 1989 the people's navy's inventory consisted of:

Construction Troops

The Construction Troops (Bulgarian: Строителни войски) were a military service tasked with labour work for the development of the country. Made up mostly of men from minorities and men deemed unreliable for service ("considered unfit") in the armed forces the construction troops were organized in seven Construction Divisions: three based in Sofia and one each in Plovdiv, Stara Zagora, Varna and Pleven.

Main Directorate of the Construction Troops (Главно управление на Строителните Войски)[22]

Ministry of Interior

Border Troops

The Border Troops (Гранични войски) were a paramilitary formation under the Ministry of Interior tasked with guarding Bulgaria's borders. Heavily concentrated on Bulgaria's iron curtain border with NATO members Greece and Turkey the Border Troops would have come under the Ministry of People's Defence in times of war. After the Cold War the border troops were reformed as Border Police.

Until 1946 the Bulgarian border guard was a task of the regular army and each infantry regiment in proximity of the border had a border guard company.[24] In 1946 the new Communist regime formed an independent service, dedicated to the border security on August 10, 1946, as the Border Militsiya, but this name lasted only until October 8, when it was renamed to Border Troops. The service initially numbered 8 Border Sectors (Гранични сектори (ГС)). The service was modeled on the Soviet Border Troops. Unlike them the Bulgarian Border Troops were not part of the State Security service, but subordinated to the Ministry of the Interior (between 1962 and 1972 to the Ministry of People's Defence). The internal structure of the troops was overhauled with ministerial order #44 from March 9, 1950, as follows:

As a military formation each Border Detachment had its Command, Staff and supporting units. The number of the detachments varied through the Communist Era from 8 sectors at the formation of the Border Troops, to 10 in 1950 and 17 at the height of the service's build-up, to 12 in 1989, of which 1 was a training formation. The organization of the Border Troops, as published by the Committee for Disclosing the Documents and Announcing Affiliation of Bulgarian Citizens to the State Security and Intelligence Services of the Bulgarian People's Army (A public commission, authorised by law of the Parliament to study the repressive apparatus of the Communist regime and to establish the connection of individuals to it[25]) in a collection book of declassified documents, was as follows:[26]

Directorate of the Border Troops (Управление на Гранични войски (УГВ))

The border guards were conscripts, which underwent their training at the border detachment they were assigned to. After that those, who have displayed higher skills in the training process were sent to the Training Border Detachment for an NCO course. Of them small numbers were selected for training as working dog handlers at the K-9 Sergeant School. The officer candidates of the Border Troops studied at the Ground Forces Combined Arms Higher School in Veliko Tarnovo and the career development of Border Troops officers was carried out through courses at the Military Academy in Sofia and training institutes of the Soviet Border Troops in the Soviet Union.

Interior Troops

The Interior Troops (Bulgarian: Вътрешни Войски (ВВ)) did not exist throughout the whole period of Communist rule in Bulgaria. They were formed during two distinct periods in the presence of a significant organized paramilitary force in opposition to the regime. The first such threat was the Goryani movement. In a report to the Central Committee of the Bulgarian Communist Party dated from October 12, 1948, the at the time Minister of the Interior Anton Yugov informs that for combating the anti-communist partisans 13 special combat units with 1 350 men in total have been formed. He brings to the attention of the committee, that due to their composition of regular Militsioners, family men in their mid-30s and older, a rising tension and physical strain has been observed because of the long periods of patrolling and fighting in the mountains where the Goryanes were active. For that reason Yugov suggests that a specialized Interior Troops arm should be formed in order to facilitate the utilization of conscripts for the Ministry of the Interior with the same conditions of military service as the conscripts of the Bulgarian Army, but trained in the specific counter-insurgency skills needed for such operations. In his report the minister suggests that initially about 1 000 conscripts should be trained by the 13 special combat units in order to relieve their personnel, after which additional 3 000 should be inducted to boost their numbers, with the corresponding reduction in manpower of the regular Militsiya by 3 000 men.[27] Later the numbers of the IT increased to a division and even after the Goryani movement was destroyed their build-up continued to over 12 000 in two divisions and two specialized brigades with their own tanks, artillery, AAA, combat engineers etc., before their abrupt disbandment in 1961.

The second installment of the Bulgarian Interior Troops is from 1985 in connection to the Revival Process. A wave of terror attacks in the first half of the 1980s, including a bomb attack on a special passenger train coach for mothers traveling with little children on March 9, 1985, at Bunovo railway station,[28] organized by the Turkish National-Liberation Movement terror organization, called for the re-establishment of a dedicated counter-insurgency paramilitary force in the structure of the Ministry of the Interior, to deal with the internal terror threat in cooperation with the State Security (Държавна Сигурност (ДС)) and the People's Militsiya (Народна Милиция (НМ)). The Interior Troops were tasked with counter-insurgency in mountainous and woodland terrain, riot control and security of locations of particular and strategic importance. The force was reinstated in 1985 and at the Boyana Roundtable Conference in the first half of 1990 convened between the Bulgarian Communist Party (recently renamed to Bulgarian Socialist Party) and the Union of Democratic Forces to reach an agreement about the reform of the country in light of radical changes in Eastern Europe it was publicly made clear (in response to a question about that), that the Interior Troops number 2 000 men in 6 battalions, plus the SOBT.[29] The latter however is incorrect. The Specialized Counter-Terrorism Force (abbreviated SOBT in Bulgarian) has from its formation to present day (2017) been the premier counter-terrorism unit of the country, strategically subordinated directly to the Minister of the Interior as an independent agency in its own right. The confusion comes from the fact, that a security regiment of the IT has been based in Vranya, near the former Vrana Palace in barracks recently vacated by the State Security's Fifth Department (Department for Safety and Protection) (Пето управление (Управление за безопасност и охрана (УБО)), the higher state functionaries' close protection service. Since the abolition of the Bulgarian monarchy the palace has been turned into an official residence with permanent presence from the Ministry of the Interior. The battalion in question was the quick reaction paramilitary force for the capital Sofia. In fact the Vranya Battalion and the SOBT are located in adjacent barracks, which causes the confusion. The Interior Troops battalions were organised as rifle battalions with BTR-60s, trucks, automatic rifles, machine guns, mortars and anti-tank rockets. In 1990-91 the Border and the Interior Troops were amalgamated into the Troops of the Ministry of the Interior (Войски на МВР), then separated again. In 1993 the Interior Troops were renamed into Gendarmery, the traditional name from the time of the monarchy, banned after that for their role in hunting down communist partizans. Recently the Gendarmery has been absorbed into the Ministry of the Interior's Main Directorate "National Police" and as of 2017 the former Interior Troops and Gendarmery after that exist in the form of Specialized Police Forces (Специализирани Полицейски Сили) within the National Police. In 1989 they consisted of:

Ministry of Transport

Transport Troops

The troops of the Ministry of Transport, called the Transport Troops (Bulgaria) (ВМT) (or Railway Troops), were a paramilitary construction organization subordinate to the Ministry of Transport, which existed from 1975 to 2001. It dealt mainly with the construction of highways and railways. They were a paramilitary formation divided into railway construction brigades and automobile transportation brigades tasked with the construction and maintenance of transport infrastructure. In case of war the Transport Troops would have come under the Ministry of People's Defence.

By Decree No. 4 of January 14, 1888, the first paramilitary railway unit was established - the Railway Company of the Pioneer Regiment in Ruse. The first railway officer in Bulgaria was the future general Petar Lolov.[30]

The Transport Troops themselves were established by Decree No. 147 of 27 January 1975 on the basis of the Railway and Liaison Construction Brigade of the Ministry of Transport, established in 1965.

Posts and Telecommunications Committee

Signal Troops

The Posts and Telecommunications Committee Troops (Войски на Комитета по пощи и далекосъобщения) were a paramilitary formation tasked with building and maintaining the communication infrastructure of state institutions, including phone lines, TV towers, civil air traffic communications, etc. In war time the troops would have fallen under the Ministry of People's Defence.

References

External links

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Central Intelligence Agency . 31 January 1979 . NIE 11-14-79, "Warsaw Pact Forces Opposite NATO: Vol II The Estimate" .
  2. Nb. in the late 1940s the 37th Army (Soviet Union), in Bulgaria became the 10th Mechanized Army for a period before disbandment in June 1947.
  3. Book: Authors collective of retired officers. "History of the Radiotechnical Troops" ("История на Радиотехническите Войски"). Air Group 2000. 2007. 978-954-752-108-7. Sofia, Bulgaria. 147.
  4. Web site: Днес отбелязваме 40 години от създаването на Командването на Сухопътните войски (Today We Celebrate 40 Years Since The Formation Of The Land Forces Command). 23 Sep 2013.
  5. Web site: Structure of the Intelligence Directorate.
  6. "The Bulgarian Special Forces", by Plamen Grigorov, Rasper Publishing House, Sofia 2002 ("Българските спецсили", Пламен Григоров),
  7. Michael Holm, Army Command/Frontal Command
  8. Web site: СКИС . scis.armf.bg . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20161218094820/http://scis.armf.bg/ . 2016-12-18.
  9. https://web.archive.org/web/20171118221806/http://jfc.mod.bg/Intervyuta/4:604.html JFC Intervyuta
  10. See establishment in the early 1960s, at 1
  11. Web site: Полк. Игнат Томов: Продадоха далекобойните оръдия.
  12. Web site: Курсанти показаха отлични умения на полигон "Марково" | Информационен център на Министерство на oтбраната . 27 November 2017 . 1 December 2017 . https://web.archive.org/web/20171201080759/http://armymedia.bg/archives/100740 . dead .
  13. Web site: 2019-09-13 . Професионализъм – висок като върховете на планината Информационен център на Министерство на oтбраната . 2023-07-28 . bg-BG.
  14. News: Най-голямата танкова сила на България отиде в историята. socbg.com. 2017-11-16. bg-BG.
  15. Web site: В ЩАБА НА СЕДМА МОТОСТРЕЛКОВА ДИВИЗИЯ*. voenenlekar.blogspot.bg. 2017-11-16.
  16. Holm, 18th Motor Rifle Division
  17. Web site: Bulgaria Air Force. World Air Forces. 14 November 2017.
  18. "The Bulgarian Aviation During the Cold War", page 318, by Dimitar Nedyalkov, printed by the Military Publishing, Ministry of Defence ("Българската Авиация През Студената Война", автор: Димитър Недялков, 2011г., издателство: Военно Издателство,)
  19. Book: Authors collective of retired Major-Generals and Colonels. История на Зенитно-ракетните войски на ВВС и ПВО на Българската Армия (History of the Missile Air defence Troops of the Air Force and Air Defence of the Bulgarian Army). Военно Издателство (the Ministry of Defence's publishing house). 2005. 954-509-322-6. Sofia, Bulgaria. 48.
  20. Web site: Вимпел. 24 Nov 2017.
  21. Web site: List of the military units in Ruse from 1879 to date. 18 November 2017. 18 November 2017.
  22. Book: ПЪТЕВОДИТЕЛ ПО ФОНДОВЕТЕ НА СТРОИТЕЛНИ ВОЙСКИ В ДЪРЖАВЕН ВОЕННОИСТОРИЧЕСКИ АРХИВ – ВЕЛИКО ТЪРНОВО 1920–2000 г. (Guide to the Archive Funds of the Construction Troops at the State Military Historical Archive - Veliko Tarnovo 1920-2000). Central Military Archive / "Archives" State Agency. 2014. Sofia, Bulgaria. archives.government.bg/guides/9_P_SV.pdf.
  23. Web site: VSU - Lyuben Karavelov. VSU - Lyuben Karavelov. 13 December 2022.
  24. http://armymedia.bg/archives/48619, "Bulgarian Army" newspaper, official publication of the Bulgarian Ministry of Defence
  25. Web site: Comdos - Нашите издания - ДС и гранични войски. www.comdos.bg. 13 December 2022.
  26. Book: Declassified Documents. Държавна Сигурност и Гранични Войски (документален сборник) ("State Security Service and the Border Troops"). БИК - Българска Издателска Компания - БИК АД. 2015. 978-954-2986-48-5. Sofia, Bulgaria. 1184.
  27. News: МВР и Политбюро създават вътрешни войски за борба срещу горяните. Христов. Христо. Държавна сигурност.com. 2017-11-30. bg-BG.
  28. News: 30 years since the largest railway assault in Bulgaria. 2017-11-30. en.
  29. Web site: Decommunization. www.decommunization.org. 2017-11-30.
  30. Янакиева, В., Владова, В. и Рангелов, В. „За славното българско войнство – генерали от Сливен и сливенския край 1878 – 2012 г.“, ИК „Жажда“. 2012, с. 62

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