REFUGEES REPORT URANIUM MINING IN BULGARIA, DISCUSS INTERNAL UNREST

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP80-00809A000600400454-3
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 25, 2011
• Sequence Number: 454
• Publication Date: July 24, 1951
• Content Type: REPORT

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/08/25: CIA-RDP80-00809A000600400454-3
I
R OFFICJP J. USE CL`s
CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY ?' REPORT
INFORMATION FROM
FOREIGN DOCUMENTS OR RADIO BR Ar~,CASTS CD NO.
HOW
PUBLISHED Daily newspaper
WHERE
PUBLISHED
DATE
PUBLISHED
LANGUAGE
THIS DOCU MEN? CONTAINS INFORMATION AFFECTING THE NATIONAL DEFENSE
OF THE UNITED STATES WITOIM THE MEANING OF ESPIONAGE ACT BO
U. 5. C.. SI AND SE. AS AMENDED. ITS TRAMS MIS SIGN OR TOE NEYELATION
OF ITS CONTENTS IN ANY MANNER TO AN UNAUTHORIZED PERSON IS PRO'
HID TED BY LAW. REPRODUCTION OF THIS FORM IS PROHIBITED.
DATE OF
.-INFORMATION
DATE DIST. 07 Y Jul 1951
NO. OF PAGES 2
SUPPLEMENT TO
REPORT NO.
RPci'GEES REPORT URANIUM MINING IN BULGARIA,
DISCUSS INTERNAL UNREST
Within the last 2 - Iths, Yugoslav border guards have admitted to the country
about 300 Rulgar :,r -1' --.,s, and the flow still continues, Most of these refugees
are from Vid.in ami P;.IL?:. in western Bulgaria. Most of them are peasant. who in
Bulgaria owned 2 to 5 hectares of land; very few of them are industrial workers or
artisans; none are capitalists or l8rge landowners, These refugees, who cross the
border ?n groups of 30 to 40, are all men, some of them youths who were called to
the army before the proper time, some admittedly members of the Bulgarian Communist
Youth Organization:,
According to these refugees, the greatest arf liction of the Bulgarian peasant
is the forcible application by the Bulgarian Communists of the collective agricul-
tural system practiced in the USSR. Peasants who do not place at the government's
disposal all their land and equipment and who object to taking part in collective
efforts are threatened with deportation or are actually deported. These refugees
claim that armed Communists, in cooperation with the secret police, raid villages
and storehouses and burn them down., One 38-year-old Bulgarian, admittedly a mem-
ber of the Communist Party at one time, said he was expelled from the party because
h2 objected to the forcible collection of grain. In many places the peasants are
forced to purchase grain on the black market at high pri-es andithen turn itheirt
to the government to satisfy the Communist officials. Many s write
sons who are in the military service to spend their leaves elsewhere because there
is no food for them at home,
These refugees confirmed the existence of a uranium mine in Bulgaria nathe
fact that it is being operated for the USSR. One young Bulgarian railway employee
reports that he personally worked in the uranium mine at Bukhovo, which is 25 kilo-
food of prison-
the 1,500
that and
earthaemine lO reports civilians
ers worked. three 8-hcur shifts. The same individual the
average laborer there is very poor, and that new workers are continually sent there
to replace those who have to drop out, The uranium ore extracte. sfram upervision minetis
loaded into freight cars in a nearby station under very strict P
cars head for the USSR at night, He :;aims that 60 carloads are sent to the USSR
every night.
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4 I I
STAT
JI AI
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CLASSIFICATION
1TC NSRB
s UFF SAL US' WILY
 Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/08/25: CIA-RDP80-00809A000600400454-3
Tt,r- r=f.igees report that one of the chief reasons for the unrest and dis-
faction smong the people in the border area is their constant forced employ-
m-=nt on mil" iry projects.. For example, they are forced to dig skirmishers'
trenct;.es along the border In these areas military units are taking over school
buildings end other suitable buildings,. At present, four classes of males aged
20 to 24 are under arms The 25-kilometer-deep forbidden zone along the Bulgar-
ian border may be entered by special permit only.. The refugees also report that
since last August, the Bulgarian security organization has been removing and de-
porting to .t':,er areas all families it deems suopicious. These families are
itowel to t.k' with them ~ily the belongings they can carry in their hands
Th.e.e refugees have only general information about the extent of Soviet
.interfer=n':e- '.n the internal Bulgarian administration, but two Bulgarians who
served in the army and worked on the border fortifications claim that all for-
tif.;-anion affair; are being directed by Soviet engineers wearing civilian
clotU,ng 9.nother refugee reports that a ferryboat arrives at vidin each day
from the Rumanian side of the Danube, loads Bulgarian grain, and departs that
night for the t35R He says that on the return trip the vessel discharges arms
at Vidin Speaking of the same matter, another. Bulgarian refugee stated that
the Bulgarians know perfectly well that the arms came from the USSR and. also
that the tanks which appear in the villages have not been brought to the country
to plow Bulgarian soil All the refugees agree that feverish military prepara-
tions are being made in the Bulgarian border zones,alth.ough they do not
wbeth r this activity is purely defensive or is for purposes of aggression,
po.sibly en attack on Yugoslavia,
As was pointed. out above, most of these refugees come from the towns of
Vidin and Ku La When the flight to Yugoslavia began, Premier Chervenkov sent
a circular to the Kula Communist organization in which he charged that the Kula
group had acted contrary to the desires and directives of the government and
the party and was reepcnsib].e for disrupting food. and agricultural affairs in
the Kula area. Only a year before, Sofia had praised this group highly and
field it up as a model throughout Bulgaria. T.be Sofia Communists, seeing the
unrest of tt-.e Bulgarian peasant, have begun to change their tone and now invite
tt,e peasant in conciliatory terms to participate in collective agriculture, In
a recent article appearing in the Sofia newspaper Rabotnichesko Delo, the peasants
were invited to "volunteer,"
Almost all reports emanating from the Balkans recently have mentioned se-
cret resistance acti.viti_.s.. Two of the Bulgarian refugees report that in the
Sliven area in eastern Bulgaria, about 500 anti-Communistt guerrillasnare operat-
ing in the mountains and that they are well equipped
ing to these refugees, the group is led by the son of onetime Bulgarian Premier
and Agrarian Party chieftain Stamboliskio
The Yugoslav authorities are quite aware of the possibility that the Bulgar-
ians are copying the German methods used in World War II and have infiltrated
their own agents among these refugees.. The u o slavia, are
are nc work, However, a special camp
given work, ., However, even then they are under continuous supervision. It may also
be mentioned that the Yugoslavs for their own purposes areusending back into
Bulgaria certain individuals selected from among
Due to the shortage of labor in Yugoslavia, the geeshhaveyno difficulty
in obtaining jobs either in agriculture or industry, for
the same wages as Yugoslav workers -- Sevket Dilmac
LM
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/08/25: CIA-RDP80-00809A000600400454-3