Every Bulgarian voter received two referendum ballots last week. One bore the national colors with the inscription "For the Republic." The other, unembellished, was inscribed "For the Monarchy." Thus even illiterates could easily understand their patriotic duty. Further moral support was provided by the Red Army. Bulgaria's 37-year-old Saxe-Coburg-Gotha dynasty was all but finished.
It was no such gala occasion as had marked the boy King Simeon II's birth nine years before. Then a three-day holiday had been decreed; amnesty had been granted to thousands of political prisoners; Army officers had been decorated. Now, instead of amnesty, the prisons...