Orange Guard

The Orange Guard (Bulgarian: Оранжева гвардия) was a Bulgarian paramilitary organization, belonging to the Bulgarian Agrarian National Union (BANU). It existed during the time that the agrarian leader Aleksandar Stamboliyski served as Prime Minister (1919-1923), both serving as his bodyguards and enacting the government's radical land reform policies. The militia was unofficially named the Orange Guard by the opposition, in reference to BANU's official color.[1]

An Orange Guard rally in Haskovo.

The radical left-wing politician and one-time leader of the Radomir Rebellion of 1918, Rayko Daskalov (who held several ministerial posts in the BANU government), personally commanded the Orange Guard, having suggested its creation.[2]

The militia was involved in a number of violent confrontations with the political opposition, such as quelling the large transport strike of 1919-1920 (organized by Communists, Anarchists and Socialists)[3] and attacking the founding convention of the right-wing Constitutional Bloc in 1922. It also clashed with the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization. After Benito Mussolini held his March on Rome in October 1922, the National Alliance (a military-academic opposition group) considered launching a "March on Sofia", but abandoned the idea out of fear for Orange Guard retaliation.[4]

When the Agrarian government was ousted in a coup d'état led by the military and a coalition of right-wing parties, in cooperation with the IMRO and agents from Fascist Italy, most of the Orange Guard was concentrated in the capital of Sofia. The attack came as a surprise to the peasant militiamen, who were quickly disarmed. The organization was later dissolved by the new government of Aleksandar Tsankov. Rayko Daskalov, the Orange Guard commander, was assassinated on August 23 in Prague (where he had formed a BANU government in exile) on orders of the IMRO leader Todor Aleksandrov.[2]

See also

References
  1. Crampton, R. J. (24 November 2005). A Concise History of Bulgaria. Cambridge University Press. p. 152. ISBN 0521616379.
  2. "Райко Даскалов" (in Bulgarian). Земеделски народен съюз. Archived from the original on 15 February 2011. Retrieved 25 August 2014.
  3. Марков, Георги (2003). Покушения, насилие и политика в България 1878-1947. Sofia: Военно издателство. p. 155. ISBN 9545092394.
  4. Chary, Frederick B. (18 February 2011). The History of Bulgaria. Greenwood. p. 64. ISBN 9780313384462.
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