The Kyustendil Area in the First World War

From the struggles and wars waged by the Bulgarian people throughout the last edition of its statehood now remains but an incomplete ideal which is traditionally equated to the span of the preliminary Treaty of San Stefano. To this ideal is directed annually the positive energy demonstrated in the celebrations of 3 March. Essentially, this document never turned into a fact. It remained on paper only. 

The situation of the First World War was rather different. Albeit for a short time, Bulgaria achieved its goal and for a brief period actually gathered the main part of its people and territories into one state. Under Bulgaria’s control were lands from beyond the limits of the San Stefano ideal. That achievement, however, could not replace it and did not become a new purpose. Both events were short-lived, but the first one left a long-lasting legacy, although not resulting from proper efforts. The World War border outlines are an undeniable Bulgarian success, but it sank in the oblivion of the past. The borders were reached through incredible efforts and at the cost of hundreds of thousands of people killed, injured and mutilated. The massacres dimmed what was built and gained with so much bloody effort.  

The instilled trauma of the loser took the place of the achievements. Bulgaria’s First World War map was buried under a pile of other real and ephemeral goals. Yet, it was drawn not in ink, but in the blood of the Bulgarian people. The national unification breathes in it. And Kyustendil is indisputably the military capital of this map.