One Strike and Out

Foreign Commissar Molotov walked in briskly at six minutes past eight. He sat down and spread out a typewritten paper. To Moscow's 40-odd foreign correspondents he said: "I should like to inform you gentlemen of the decisions taken with regard to the Government of Bulgaria."

The Foreign Commissar looked tired. He read in a voice without expression: "For more than three years Bulgaria has been in effect helping Germany in its war against the Soviet Union. The Soviet Government took account of the fact that, being a small country. . . ."

Slight, blond, horn-rimmed Interpreter Pavlov, who translated for Stalin at Teheran, translated sentence by sentence. Once Molotov broke off a sentence to ask for a match. Then he said: "The Soviet Union will from this time be in a state of war with Bulgaria. . . ."

With a flip of the bear's paw the Bulgarian Government had been knocked off the fence on which it had been trying so desperately to sit.

Six hours after the newest war was declared, two frantic Bulgarian officials banged on the door of Russia's Sofia legation. They told the sleepy charge d'affaires that Bulgaria wanted an armistice.

The charge went back to sleep. The Russian radio continued to urge Bulgarian peasants to "rise against the ruling clique." The Kremlin observed that Bulgaria would have to earn her way out of her fix. The price: war against Germany.

On the third day of the war the Red Army crossed the Danube and Bulgaria declared war on Germany. Then Moscow granted an armistice. For 28 hours of the 99 -hour war Bulgaria had found itself at war with both Germany and the Allies.

Cheering Bulgars pelted the advancing Russians with flowers. The three pro-German regents resigned. So did Premier Muraviev. The stranded Bulgar peace negotiators in Cairo said they were ready to listen again to Allied terms. The new premier, anti-German Kimon Georgiev, proclaimed his faith in a "free, independent, democratic and mighty Bulgaria."

Once more tough-minded Russian diplomacy had paid off. First Rumania, then Bulgaria had capitulated. Finland, whose peace delegates were in Moscow, was next in line.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.