Bulgaria, 1950 — military coup conspiracy
Event Summary
The dataset records an event coded as a military or palace coup conspiracy in Bulgaria on 26 February 1950, during the intense purge that followed the treason trial and execution of Traicho Kostov, the former deputy prime minister and party secretary hanged in December 1949 for an alleged Titoist and Western-backed conspiracy to overthrow the government. Kostov's fall, part of the Stalinist anti-Titoist campaign across the bloc, was followed in 1950 and 1951 by a wave of further trials against alleged Kostovites, during which more than thirty prominent communists were sentenced. This was also the period in which power passed to the hardline Stalinist Vulko Chervenkov, Bulgaria's Little Stalin, after the deaths of Georgi Dimitrov in July 1949 and Vasil Kolarov in early 1950.
No discrete documentation of a distinct coup plot precisely on 26 February 1950 appears in accessible English sources, but the period was one of pervasive conspiracy accusations and purges within the party and state apparatus.
Researched Details
Researched
Independent research, added record by record. Hover any label for what it means.
Sources
Editorial Note
Cross-Reference
Only one dataset carries it. One of the three reference datasets we check against carries this event; the others do not list it. That is not a contradiction — the datasets cover different periods and use different thresholds — but it means the record has had less outside corroboration.
Identifiers for finding this same event in the other datasets:
- Cline Center id
35502261950
How the match is made is described in crossref-report.md.
Outcome and Target
Coup Atlas research identifies the target as: The communist leadership consolidated under Vulko Chervenkov; the Kostovite purges continued through 1950 and 1951.
Baseline coding: Plot discovered and disrupted before execution. Recorded leader fate: remained in office; not physically harmed. The baseline file does not name individual targets; researched names are kept in a separate layer.
Baseline Dataset Citation
Baseline Source-Document Entries
South China Morning Post
The Sun
Times of India
This is the citation trail carried by the baseline dataset, grouped by outlet and rejoined from the line-wrapped original. Coup Atlas has not independently re-checked every document; read the original before citing a specific claim. URLs the import damaged beyond safe repair are shown as plain text and listed in citations-report.md. How this list is built →