The Process of Westernization of the Balkans after WWII: The Cases of Greece and Bulgaria

The high significance of the Balkan geopolitical knot was clearly expressed in the bipolar era when the main frontier between the two warring blocks passed through the Balkans. Due to the secret ‘Percentages Agreement’ between Great Britain and the USSR in 1944, the Balkans were divided into spheres of influence of the two great powers. Subsequently, London ceded the role of the main source of Western influence in the region to Washington.Of particular interest are the cases of Greece and Bulgaria as border countries that found themselves in different ‘worlds’ and, given the geostrategic importance of their territories, which were the main ideological instruments and conductors of ideas in the Cold war of the hegemons that stood behind. The Truman Doctrine in 1947 and NATO membership in 1952 strengthened and institutionalized Western influence in Greece. Westernization of Greek society in the form of liberalization and democratiza-tion of social relations and consequently its political system proceeded rapidly with a relatively short interval of the military dictatorship.Greece was assigned the role of a model for the rapid and successful develop-ment of a western country, a bridgehead for the dissemination of anti–communist ide-as in other countries of the Balkan region, primarily Bulgaria. Besides, due to the establishment of a strict pro–Soviet regime in Sofia, the westernization of Bulgarian society was carried out including through intelligence agencies, and after a certain thaw in relations through economic cooperation.