Главнокомандващият българската армия в периода на монархията и републиката
The Commander-in-Chief of the Bulgarian Army during the Monarchic and Republican Periods

Summary/Abstract: During the two thoroughly opposite periods of Bulgaria’s State rule after the Liberation - the monarchic and the republican - the Head of State emerged as the key figure in the supreme leadership and commander-in-chief of the Bulgarian Army. Although passed in different historical times and forms of administration, in the four Bulgarian Constitutions so far invariably have been guaranteed the prerogatives of the Head of State as supreme commander-in-chief. In peace time he was the supreme commander, under the Turnovo Constitution, and in war time commander-in-chief of the Bulgarian Army. By virtue of this provision of the Constitution during the monarchic period the supreme supervision of the Army was exercised by three monarchs: Alexander I, Ferdinand I and Boris III, In exceptional cases and impossibility for the monarch to exercise his duties the Constitution envisaged the appointment of a provisional institution: a regency. In Bulgaria’s State political history three times emerged situations when regents were appointed, and they assumed the functions of supreme commanders-in-chief of the Bulgarian Army. The republican form of government was adopted in Bulgaria in September 1946. The institutional changes in the highest form of State power determined also the new prerogatives of the Head of State as supreme commander-in-chief. During the totalitarian regime they were connected with the Presidium of the National Assembly and the State Council. Since the beginning of the last decade of the 20th c. when profound democratic changes were carried out in Bulgaria, the functions of Head of State and Commander-in-Chief of the Bulgarian Army have been assumed by the President and his institution.

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