BORIS III

born Jan. 30, 1894, Sofia, Bulg. died Aug. 28, 1943, Sofia king of Bulgaria from 1918 to 1943, who during the last five years of his reign headed a thinly veiled royal dictatorship. The son of Ferdinand I of Bulgaria and Maria Luisa of Bourbon-Parma, Boris, despite his Roman Catholic parentage, was brought up in the Orthodox faith for political and dynastic reasons. He succeeded his father as king of Bulgaria when he abdicated Oct. 4, 1918. An opponent of Bulgaria's political strongman, the Agrarian Union leader Aleksandur Stamboliyski, Boris is generally considered to have played some role in the coup that removed Stamboliyski from power in June 1923. During the following years he was the object of terrorist conspiracies; two attempts were made on his life within a few days in April 1925. His marriage to Princess Giovanna of Italy (1930) temporarily cemented Italian relations; but during the late 1930s he passed more into the German orbit and sought rapprochement with Yugoslavia. After the establishment of a military dictatorship in Bulgaria (1934), he worked gradually to reassert his power; by November 1935 he had successfully installed Georgi Kyoseivanov, a personal favourite, as prime minister. From 1938 until his death he was dictator in all but name. After Bulgaria's adhesion to the Axis pact (March 1941), Boris maintained a modicum of independence; even after Bulgaria's entry into World War II on the side of the Axis and after participating in the invasion of Yugoslavia and Greece, he was able to resist declaring war against Russia. He died shortly after a stormy interview with Adolf Hitler. Whether his death was caused by heart attack or by assassination is uncertain.