80 years since the death of Tsar Boris III

King Boris the Third was born on January 30, 1894. His full name was Boris Clement Robert Marie Pie Ludwig Stanislas Xavier de Saxe-Cobourg-Gotha. His father was king Ferdinand who abdicated in his favor after Bulgaria was defeated in the First World War. In 1930 Boris married the Princess Giovanna of Italy, House of Savoy, known as the queen Joanna. They had two children – Maria Louise and Simeon. He became king of Bulgaria on October 3 1918, upon the abdication of his father, following Bulgaria's defeat in World War I. According to the post-World War I Treaty of Neuilly, Bulgaria was forced to cede land to its neighbors and pay crippling reparations, thereby threatening political and economic stability. Two movements, the Agrarian Union and the Communist Party, were calling for the overthrow of the monarchy. It was in these circumstances that Boris succeeded to the throne. His ruling is characterized by gradual consolidation and strengthening of the monarchy, despite the popularity of the agrarian union among the peasant class. In World War II, he Boris allied Bulgaria with the Axis power and participated in Germany's war against Greece and Yugoslavia. In his defense, however, it can be argued that he was simply trying to regain the territory lost in the Treaty of Neuilly. On the other hand, he refused to cooperate with Adolf Hitler's anti-Semitic campaign and refused to surrender the country's Jewish population to the Nazis during the Holocaust. King Boris mysteriously died on August 28, 1943 shortly after a meeting with Adolf Hitler.