Zveno (Bulgarian: Звено, lit. 'link'), Politicheski krag "Zveno", officially Political Circle "Zveno" was a Bulgarian political organization, founded in 1930 by Bulgarian politicians, intellectuals and Bulgarian Army officers. It was associated with a newspaper of that name.
In 1934, pro-Zveno officers like Colonel Damyan Velchev and Colonel Kimon Georgievseized power. Georgiev became prime minister. They dissolved all parties, political organizations and trade unions and openly attacked the IMRO. As a political organization itself, Zveno dissolved itself. The new government introduced a corporatist economy, similar to that of Benito Mussolini's Italy. As a nationalist organization, Zveno changed many of the Ottoman-era Turkish place names of villages and towns in Bulgaria to Bulgarian ones. KingBoris III, an opponent of Zveno, orchestrated a coup through a monarchistZveno member, General Pencho Zlatev, who became Prime Minister (January 1935). In April 1935, he was replaced by a civilian, Andrey Toshev, also a monarchist. After participating in the Bulgarian coup d'état of 1934, Zveno supporters declared their intention to immediately form an alliance with France and to seek the unification of Bulgaria into an Integral Yugoslavia.[16] Zveno supported an Integral Yugoslavia that included Bulgaria as well as Albania within it.[17]
In 1943, Zveno joined the anti-Axis resistance movement, the Fatherland Front. In September 1944, the Fatherland Front engineered a coup d'état. Georgiev became prime minister and Velchev Minister of Defense, and they managed to sign a ceasefire agreement with the Soviet Union.
In 1946, Velchev resigned in protest against communist actions, while Georgiev was succeeded by communist leader Georgi Dimitrov, after which Bulgaria became a People's Republic. Georgiev remained in government until 1962, but Zveno was disbanded as an autonomous organization in 1949. Zveno continued to exist within the Fatherland Front but was only a puppet organization by then.
^Britannica, T. Editors of Encyclopaedia (2007). Zveno Group. Encyclopedia Britannica. "[...] Founded in 1930, the Zveno Group was led by Col. Kimon Georgiev and was composed primarily of radical civilians, who had become disillusioned with a government hampered by military domination, irresponsible political parties, and uncontrolled terrorist activities. [...]"
^Britannica, T. Editors of Encyclopaedia (2007, February 2). Zveno Group. Encyclopedia Britannica. "[...] It imposed strict censorship on newspapers, prohibited trade unions, and reorganized the educational system to stimulate the training of more technicians and scientists and to discourage the formation of a large intelligentsia. [...]"
^Britannica, T. Editors of Encyclopaedia (2007). Zveno Group. Encyclopedia Britannica. "[...] The Zveno government, advised by Velchev, assumed a dictatorial character, dissolved Parliament, and abolished all political parties. [...]"
^Badie, Bertrand; Berg-Schlosser, Dirk; Morlino, Leonardo, eds. (2011). International Encyclopedia of Political Science. Sage Publications. ISBN9781483305394. Retrieved 9 September 2020. [...] fascist Italy [...] developed a state structure known as the corporate state with the ruling party acting as a mediator between 'corporations' making up the body of the nation. Similar designs were quite popular elsewhere in the 1930s. The most prominent examples were Estado Novo in Portugal (1932–1968) and Brazil (1937–1945), the Austrian Standestaat (1933–1938), and authoritarian experiments in Estonia, Romania, and some other countries of East and East-Central Europe.
^Khristo Angelov Khristov. Bulgaria, 1300 years. Sofia, Bulgaria: Sofia Press, 1980. p. 192.
^Plamen S. Tsvetkov. A history of the Balkans: a regional overview from a Bulgarian perspective. EM Text, 1993. p. 195.
^Sygkelos, Yanis (2011). Nationalism from the Left. Brill. p. 254.
^Khristo Angelov Khristov. Bulgaria, 1300 years. Sofia, Bulgaria: Sofia Press, 1980. p. 192.
^Plamen S. T︠S︡vetkov. A history of the Balkans: a regional overview from a Bulgarian perspective. EM Text, 1993. p. 195.