November 13, 1944 — Regular Classes Begin at the State Militia School in Sofia
On November 13, 1944, regular classes began at the State Militia School in Sofia. The event came only weeks after the September 9 change of power, when Bulgaria’s old police system was dismantled and the new authorities began building the People’s Militia. Training schools for regular and command staff were created as the state reorganized its security institutions under the Fatherland Front government. The Sofia school became part of this rapid transformation, preparing personnel for the new internal order. Its opening illustrates how political change after 1944 was institutional as well as ideological: the regime was not merely replacing leaders, but remaking the structures through which public order, surveillance, and state authority would operate.
November 13, 1944 — Bulgarian Troops Enter Skopje During the Anti-German Offensive
The same date is also connected with the final phase of Bulgaria’s participation in the war against Nazi Germany. During the autumn 1944 operations in Yugoslav Macedonia, Bulgarian forces advanced westward as German troops withdrew from the Balkans. Contemporary Bulgarian archival material records Bulgarian troops entering Skopje on November 13, 1944, a moment linked to the wider Stracin-Kumanovo and Bregalnitsa-Strumica operations. The event remains interpreted differently in Bulgarian, Macedonian, and Yugoslav historical narratives, but it belongs to the complex closing chapter of the Second World War in the region. For Bulgaria, it reflected the dramatic reversal after September 1944: the army was now fighting Germany, its former ally, under entirely changed political circumstances.
Continue with November 12 or November 14. For more stories and places, explore Bulgaria From Above and the guides in our Bulgaria category on Bronicable.
