{"id":1797,"date":"2010-01-01T02:20:00","date_gmt":"2010-01-01T00:20:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bronicable.com\/en\/uncategorized\/on-this-day-in-bulgaria-february-20\/"},"modified":"2026-07-23T10:19:40","modified_gmt":"2026-07-23T08:19:40","slug":"on-this-day-in-bulgaria-february-20","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bronicable.com\/en\/on-this-day-in-bulgaria\/on-this-day-in-bulgaria-february-20\/","title":{"rendered":"On This Day in Bulgaria: February 20"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>February 20 marks two moments in Bulgaria&#8217;s history when the country had to define itself in relation to powers much larger than itself \u2014 one spiritual and institutional, the other diplomatic and geopolitical.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>February 20, 1881 \u2014 Members of the First Post-Liberation Holy Synod Are Elected<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>Members of the first Holy Synod after Bulgaria&#8217;s Liberation were elected. The Bulgarian Orthodox Church had been central to the National Revival and to the struggle for cultural and ecclesiastical autonomy, so reorganizing church leadership after 1878 was an important institutional step. The Holy Synod carried responsibility for clergy, dioceses, church administration, and education, as well as the public role of Orthodoxy in the young state.<\/p>\n<p>In Bulgaria, church history was inseparable from language, schooling, community identity, and national politics. Electing a post-Liberation Synod helped transform the Exarchate from a Revival-era national institution into a body operating within the new Bulgarian political reality \u2014 a transition from resistance to governance.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>February 20, 1950 \u2014 The United States Breaks Diplomatic Relations with Bulgaria<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>The United States broke diplomatic relations with Bulgaria for the second time, during the tense early years of the Cold War. The rupture came as Bulgaria was firmly entering the Soviet sphere and as political repression, espionage accusations, and ideological confrontation shaped relations between East and West. Diplomatic relations would be re-established at legation level in 1959 and later upgraded to embassy level in 1966.<\/p>\n<p>The break reflected Bulgaria&#8217;s place in a divided Europe where even small states became part of global strategic conflict. For Bulgarian citizens, the Cold War affected travel, information, culture, security, and daily political language \u2014 February 20, 1950 marks the moment Bulgaria&#8217;s international room for manoeuvre narrowed sharply as the bipolar world hardened around it.<\/p>\n<p>Continue through February with <a href=\"https:\/\/bronicable.com\/en\/on-this-day-in-bulgaria\/on-this-day-in-bulgaria-february-19\/\">February 19<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/bronicable.com\/en\/on-this-day-in-bulgaria\/on-this-day-in-bulgaria-february-21\/\">February 21<\/a>. If you&#8217;d like to see Bulgaria from a different angle, our <a href=\"https:\/\/bronicable.com\/en\/category\/from-above\/\">Bulgaria From Above<\/a> series is a good place to start.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>On this day in Bulgarian history: the first post-Liberation Holy Synod was elected in 1881, and the United States broke diplomatic relations with Bulgaria in 1950.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":915,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1797","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-on-this-day-in-bulgaria","latest_post"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>On This Day in Bulgaria: February 20 History<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"On this day in Bulgaria, February 20: the first post-Liberation Holy Synod was elected in 1881, and the United States broke diplomatic relations with Bulgaria in 1950.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/bronicable.com\/en\/on-this-day-in-bulgaria\/on-this-day-in-bulgaria-february-20\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"On This Day in Bulgaria: February 20 History\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"On this day in Bulgaria, February 20: the first post-Liberation Holy Synod was elected in 1881, and the United States broke diplomatic relations with Bulgaria in 1950.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/bronicable.com\/en\/on-this-day-in-bulgaria\/on-this-day-in-bulgaria-february-20\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"BRONICABLE\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2010-01-01T00:20:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-07-23T08:19:40+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/bronicable.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/alexander-nevsky-cathedral-sofia-cc-by-sa-1024x663.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1024\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"663\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"bronic\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"bronic\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/bronicable.com\\\/en\\\/on-this-day-in-bulgaria\\\/on-this-day-in-bulgaria-february-20\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/bronicable.com\\\/en\\\/on-this-day-in-bulgaria\\\/on-this-day-in-bulgaria-february-20\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"bronic\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/bronicable.com\\\/en\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/67e3ae78e8122c37cbfd42a4258de1be\"},\"headline\":\"On This Day in Bulgaria: February 20\",\"datePublished\":\"2010-01-01T00:20:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-07-23T08:19:40+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/bronicable.com\\\/en\\\/on-this-day-in-bulgaria\\\/on-this-day-in-bulgaria-february-20\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":312,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/bronicable.com\\\/en\\\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/bronicable.com\\\/en\\\/on-this-day-in-bulgaria\\\/on-this-day-in-bulgaria-february-20\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/bronicable.com\\\/en\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/07\\\/alexander-nevsky-cathedral-sofia-cc-by-sa.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"On This Day in Bulgaria\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/bronicable.com\\\/en\\\/on-this-day-in-bulgaria\\\/on-this-day-in-bulgaria-february-20\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/bronicable.com\\\/en\\\/on-this-day-in-bulgaria\\\/on-this-day-in-bulgaria-february-20\\\/\",\"name\":\"On This Day in Bulgaria: February 20 History\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/bronicable.com\\\/en\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/bronicable.com\\\/en\\\/on-this-day-in-bulgaria\\\/on-this-day-in-bulgaria-february-20\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/bronicable.com\\\/en\\\/on-this-day-in-bulgaria\\\/on-this-day-in-bulgaria-february-20\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/bronicable.com\\\/en\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/07\\\/alexander-nevsky-cathedral-sofia-cc-by-sa.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2010-01-01T00:20:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-07-23T08:19:40+00:00\",\"description\":\"On this day in Bulgaria, February 20: the first post-Liberation Holy Synod was elected in 1881, and the United States broke diplomatic relations with Bulgaria in 1950.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/bronicable.com\\\/en\\\/on-this-day-in-bulgaria\\\/on-this-day-in-bulgaria-february-20\\\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/bronicable.com\\\/en\\\/on-this-day-in-bulgaria\\\/on-this-day-in-bulgaria-february-20\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/bronicable.com\\\/en\\\/on-this-day-in-bulgaria\\\/on-this-day-in-bulgaria-february-20\\\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/bronicable.com\\\/en\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/07\\\/alexander-nevsky-cathedral-sofia-cc-by-sa.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/bronicable.com\\\/en\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/07\\\/alexander-nevsky-cathedral-sofia-cc-by-sa.jpg\",\"width\":2908,\"height\":1883,\"caption\":\"St. Alexander Nevsky Cathedral in Sofia. Photo: Pudelek, licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/bronicable.com\\\/en\\\/on-this-day-in-bulgaria\\\/on-this-day-in-bulgaria-february-20\\\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/bronicable.com\\\/en\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"On This Day in Bulgaria: February 20\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/bronicable.com\\\/en\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/bronicable.com\\\/en\\\/\",\"name\":\"BRONICABLE\",\"description\":\"Discover Bulgaria &amp; Beyond\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/bronicable.com\\\/en\\\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/bronicable.com\\\/en\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/bronicable.com\\\/en\\\/#organization\",\"name\":\"BRONICABLE\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/bronicable.com\\\/en\\\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/bronicable.com\\\/en\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/logo\\\/image\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/bronicable.com\\\/en\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2023\\\/03\\\/cropped-Color-logo-no-background.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/bronicable.com\\\/en\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2023\\\/03\\\/cropped-Color-logo-no-background.png\",\"width\":3181,\"height\":1291,\"caption\":\"BRONICABLE\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/bronicable.com\\\/en\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/logo\\\/image\\\/\"}},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/bronicable.com\\\/en\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/67e3ae78e8122c37cbfd42a4258de1be\",\"name\":\"bronic\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/25ff1fede0383d75d30524398c544fe9b3d552bf220106f6c6dcbf4381ee2070?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/25ff1fede0383d75d30524398c544fe9b3d552bf220106f6c6dcbf4381ee2070?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/25ff1fede0383d75d30524398c544fe9b3d552bf220106f6c6dcbf4381ee2070?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"bronic\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/bronicable.com\\\/en\"],\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/bronicable.com\\\/en\\\/author\\\/bronic\\\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"On This Day in Bulgaria: February 20 History","description":"On this day in Bulgaria, February 20: the first post-Liberation Holy Synod was elected in 1881, and the United States broke diplomatic relations with Bulgaria in 1950.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/bronicable.com\/en\/on-this-day-in-bulgaria\/on-this-day-in-bulgaria-february-20\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"On This Day in Bulgaria: February 20 History","og_description":"On this day in Bulgaria, February 20: the first post-Liberation Holy Synod was elected in 1881, and the United States broke diplomatic relations with Bulgaria in 1950.","og_url":"https:\/\/bronicable.com\/en\/on-this-day-in-bulgaria\/on-this-day-in-bulgaria-february-20\/","og_site_name":"BRONICABLE","article_published_time":"2010-01-01T00:20:00+00:00","article_modified_time":"2026-07-23T08:19:40+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1024,"height":663,"url":"https:\/\/bronicable.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/alexander-nevsky-cathedral-sofia-cc-by-sa-1024x663.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"bronic","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"bronic","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/bronicable.com\/en\/on-this-day-in-bulgaria\/on-this-day-in-bulgaria-february-20\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/bronicable.com\/en\/on-this-day-in-bulgaria\/on-this-day-in-bulgaria-february-20\/"},"author":{"name":"bronic","@id":"https:\/\/bronicable.com\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/67e3ae78e8122c37cbfd42a4258de1be"},"headline":"On This Day in Bulgaria: February 20","datePublished":"2010-01-01T00:20:00+00:00","dateModified":"2026-07-23T08:19:40+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/bronicable.com\/en\/on-this-day-in-bulgaria\/on-this-day-in-bulgaria-february-20\/"},"wordCount":312,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/bronicable.com\/en\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/bronicable.com\/en\/on-this-day-in-bulgaria\/on-this-day-in-bulgaria-february-20\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/bronicable.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/alexander-nevsky-cathedral-sofia-cc-by-sa.jpg","articleSection":["On This Day in Bulgaria"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/bronicable.com\/en\/on-this-day-in-bulgaria\/on-this-day-in-bulgaria-february-20\/","url":"https:\/\/bronicable.com\/en\/on-this-day-in-bulgaria\/on-this-day-in-bulgaria-february-20\/","name":"On This Day in Bulgaria: February 20 History","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/bronicable.com\/en\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/bronicable.com\/en\/on-this-day-in-bulgaria\/on-this-day-in-bulgaria-february-20\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/bronicable.com\/en\/on-this-day-in-bulgaria\/on-this-day-in-bulgaria-february-20\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/bronicable.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/alexander-nevsky-cathedral-sofia-cc-by-sa.jpg","datePublished":"2010-01-01T00:20:00+00:00","dateModified":"2026-07-23T08:19:40+00:00","description":"On this day in Bulgaria, February 20: the first post-Liberation Holy Synod was elected in 1881, and the United States broke diplomatic relations with Bulgaria in 1950.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/bronicable.com\/en\/on-this-day-in-bulgaria\/on-this-day-in-bulgaria-february-20\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/bronicable.com\/en\/on-this-day-in-bulgaria\/on-this-day-in-bulgaria-february-20\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/bronicable.com\/en\/on-this-day-in-bulgaria\/on-this-day-in-bulgaria-february-20\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/bronicable.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/alexander-nevsky-cathedral-sofia-cc-by-sa.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/bronicable.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/alexander-nevsky-cathedral-sofia-cc-by-sa.jpg","width":2908,"height":1883,"caption":"St. Alexander Nevsky Cathedral in Sofia. Photo: Pudelek, licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons."},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/bronicable.com\/en\/on-this-day-in-bulgaria\/on-this-day-in-bulgaria-february-20\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/bronicable.com\/en\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"On This Day in Bulgaria: February 20"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/bronicable.com\/en\/#website","url":"https:\/\/bronicable.com\/en\/","name":"BRONICABLE","description":"Discover Bulgaria &amp; Beyond","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/bronicable.com\/en\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/bronicable.com\/en\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/bronicable.com\/en\/#organization","name":"BRONICABLE","url":"https:\/\/bronicable.com\/en\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/bronicable.com\/en\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/bronicable.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/cropped-Color-logo-no-background.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/bronicable.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/cropped-Color-logo-no-background.png","width":3181,"height":1291,"caption":"BRONICABLE"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/bronicable.com\/en\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"}},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/bronicable.com\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/67e3ae78e8122c37cbfd42a4258de1be","name":"bronic","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/25ff1fede0383d75d30524398c544fe9b3d552bf220106f6c6dcbf4381ee2070?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/25ff1fede0383d75d30524398c544fe9b3d552bf220106f6c6dcbf4381ee2070?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/25ff1fede0383d75d30524398c544fe9b3d552bf220106f6c6dcbf4381ee2070?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"bronic"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/bronicable.com\/en"],"url":"https:\/\/bronicable.com\/en\/author\/bronic\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bronicable.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1797","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bronicable.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bronicable.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bronicable.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bronicable.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1797"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/bronicable.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1797\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2293,"href":"https:\/\/bronicable.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1797\/revisions\/2293"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bronicable.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/915"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bronicable.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1797"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bronicable.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1797"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bronicable.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1797"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}