]
[Sidenote: Bulgaria suffers also from previous wars.]
Thus by the opening months of 1918 Bulgaria was no longer a contented
member of central Europe. Most of her political leaders were profoundly
disillusioned, and uncertain as to the future. Of course these political
matters were still somewhat veiled from the masses. But meanwhile the
Bulgarian peasant had been undergoing a little educative process of his
own. German diplomats might ask Bulgaria to make sacrifices. The
Bulgarian peasant could answer roundly that this was already the case.
For Bulgaria was suffering--suffering in every fiber of her being. When
she entered the European struggle in 1915, Bulgaria was still weak from
two bloody wars. True, the Bulgarian conscripts had marched gladly
enough once more, because they were told that it was a matter of a
single short campaign, ending in a speedy peace. But two long years had
now passed, and Bulgaria's manhood still stood mobilized in distant
Macedonia, 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.
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