Bulgaria Bulgarian Royal Police uniform

[Theodor]

Hi guys, I was lucky to get a pre-1945 Bulgarian Police officer uniform :cheers: Those men, the policemen, were severely prosecuted and repressed at the end of the war and postwar, so it is most difficult to find such uniform! There may be more in some private collections, but only one is known to exist for sure, in the Police museum. Through the years I was able to obtain a few dozens of Army uniforms and saw a few more, but this is the first Police that I see, this shows the rarity! The condition is not very good unfortunately, but in cases like this, it is not the most important :cheers:

[Theodor]

closer

[Theodor]

Interesting collar tabs

[Theodor]

the boards with BDP letters, for Bulgarian State Police

[Theodor]

such uniform in use

[Guest Rick Research]

:Cat-Scratch:

1) WOW!!!

2) Is that a GENERAL? Solid zigzag braid without single stripe of junior military officers and double for senior officers?

3) I am surprisied to see the light blue "Waffenfarbe" under the boards on a Royal period tunic. I'd have expected that AFTER the war, copying the Soviets. So it seems sky blue was a happy coincidence of a a "traditional" police color?

SOVIET M1943 Militia (civil police) Major General ("Commissar 3rd Rank") for comparison--

[Theodor]

Hi Rick! No, I believe it is not a General. The Police rank system is very complicated /for me :cheers:/, I will start studying it only now, after finding the tunic According to a local police history specialist, "police commander 3rd grade" or something like that, which is not a highest rank. I think it can be equalized to a Lt. or Capt. from the Army, though it is very difficult to really compare the two structures, not a very good example. Again, according to him, this rank is good for a Chief of a district station..... whatever all this means..... Not sure, I am yet to research that whole system.

But one thing for sure - this is not a general. Indeed the zig-zag pattern is for Generals, but only in the Army. In the police, this is an Officer, but not highest rank. The highest ranks /which seems were only a few men, big chiefs in the Police system/ has two lines of zig-zag going along the boards, most likely separated by some line. And of course, more "stars".

I do not know about the colors. The police blue color is the same like the Doctor's blue in the Army. Did the Russian use blue color for the Police in Tzar's times? The Bulgarian uniforms at first were copied from the Russian uniforms /I mean in the 1880s/, so maybe the Bulgarian Police copied the Russian police blue color? /did the Russians use it?/

[Mike Dwyer]

Very nice, Theodor, thank you for sharing!

You should post this in the new Polce Forces of the World forum too.

Edited May 12, 2009 by Mike Dwyer

[922F]

Exceptional! A wonderful find; and the condition is not at all bad considering how difficult and dangerous it must have been to try and keep/hide it! Your description of Bulgarian czarist police officer persecution following G. Dimitrov's return appears understated, if anything. Seem to remember that one of Kim Philby's swarmy reports details severe punishments and exile for even ordinary patrolmen as the entire organization was "implicated" in the "targeting" of persons associated with G. Dimitrov & associates. Guess that's what happens when your folk blow up a cathedral or try to wack the czar!

[Theodor]

You are absolutely right. Words are not enough to describe what really happened to those men.

First of all, the powers changed here with the coup of 9 September 1944. The police was immediately disbanded and a new security formation established on its place - the People's Militia. Of course, the new structure consisted of brand new people.

And as it was an armed coup, the policemen allaround the country were being arrested. Not all - some were directly shot at the spot by the various partisans, Militia, illegal combatants or simply just armed criminals /the prisons were all opened/, that were plaguing the country.

After the first wave of arrests and murders, the men were held in prisons, beaten, tortured. Some spent years in prisons and death camps, other were released, then again imprisoned, then released and etc. Their life was hell! Not to mention the frequent house searches, evictions, relocations of the whole families from towns to distant villages. At that time most uniforms were destroyed. While it was known that Mr. X was a Policeman, finding the uniform kept in his wardrobe would mean he was preparing to fight for the restoration of the old order and similar BS. It was simply very dangerous to keep it!