acedonia, while at home the fields went fallow, and the scanty
harvests, reaped by women and children, had to be shared with the
German. Everywhere there was increasing want, sometimes semi-starvation.
Bulgaria, like Russia, was proving that a primitive agricultural people
may make a fine campaign, but cannot wage prolonged modern war.

[Sidenote: Premier Radoslavov resigns.]

All this discontent, both above and below, presently focused itself in
the parliamentary situation. The opposition groups in the Bulgarian
Sobranje steadily gained strength until on June 17, 1918, Premier
Radoslavov was forced to resign. Radoslavov had been in power since
1913. He had been the architect of the Teuton-Bulgar alliance and was
known to be a firm believer in the Mitteleuropa idea. His successor,
Malinov, naturally gave lip-service to the same program, but his past
leaning had been toward Russia, and he had never displayed marked
enthusiasm for the Teutons.

Of course this change of ministry did not mean that Bulgaria was then
ready to make a separate peace with the Entente Allies. Every Bulgarian
knew that such an act would mean the abandonment of Bulgaria's whole
imperialistic dream and the immediate relinquishment of supremely prized
Macedonia. But it did mean that Bulgaria was discontented with her
present situation and that she was resolved to take a more independent
stand toward her Teutonic allies even though Germany was in the full
flush of her great Western offensive and dreaming of a speedy entry into
Paris.

[Sidenote: The changes of fortune in the West.]

[Sidenote: Peace demonstrations.]

[Sidenote: The tales of Bulgarian prisoners.]

[Sidenote: The capitulation.]

But just a month after Malinov's accession came the dramatic shift of
fortune in the West. The German offensive broke down, and the Allies
began their astounding succession of victories. Instantly the Balkan
situation altered. Bulgaria knew that the spring offensive had been
Germany's supreme bid for victory. To fill the ranks for the rush on
Paris and the channel ports the last German veterans had been withdrawn
from the East. Gone were those field-gray divisions which had stiffened
the Macedonian front and kept down popular discontent by garrisoning
Bulgarian towns. The peasant voice was at last free to speak, and it
spoke in no uncertain terms for an end of the war. Agrarian disturbances
increased in frequency. Peace demonstrations occurred in Sofia.