A History of Bulgaria During the second half of 7th century on the territory now part of northeastern Bulgaria, proto-Bulgarians settled. In union with Slavs they established Bulgaria as a nation; recognized by Byzantium in 681. At the head of the country stood the leader of the proto-Bulgarians, Khan Aspahruh, in the capital town of Pliska. In 864, during the reign of Prince Boris I /852-889/ Bulgaria accepted Christianity as the official religion. Bulgaria is now one of the oldest Christian countries in Europe. At the end of 9th century brothers, Cyril and Methodius, created and propagated the Slav alphabet. The cities of Okhrid, Edrine and Pliska , and then the new capital Veliki become centers of Bulgarian and Slav culture. From Bulgaria, Slavic literature propagated to other Slav countries. And today countries such as Serbia, Russia, Ukraine, Macedonia and Belarus use the Cyrillic alphabet. In 1396 the country was defeated by the Ottoman Empire. During the first years of Ottoman domination there were some isolated attempts for liberation and revolution. However, it wasn’t until 1876, the beginning of the April Revolt that the most important attempt for liberation of Ottoman domination took place. The revolt was crushed with unprecedented cruelty, but it put the Bulgarian national issue into the international political spotlight. In 1878, as a result of the Russian and Turkish war, Russia defeated Turkey and reclaimed Bulgaria’s independence. Berlin’s Congress /1878/ split the former Bulgarian territories into three parts – Kingdom Bulgaria, Eastern Rumelia, and Thrace and Macedonia.     The participation of Bulgaria in the First World War, as an ally of the Axis of Power, ended with national catastrophe. The Peace Treaty of Neuilly in 1919 imposed severe penalties to Bulgaria resulting in the country losing enormous parts of its territory. In the beginning of the 1940s Bulgaria subscribed to the policy and interests of Germany and the Axis. In 1941 Bulgaria declared war with USA and United Kingdom, but the Bulgarian army didn’t take part in the battles on the Eastern Front. Tsar Boris III yielded to public pressure and didn’t allow deportation of around 50,000 Bulgarian Jews. After the Second World War, Bulgaria found itself in the sphere of Soviet political and economic influence. In 1946 Bulgaria was declared a republic with the Bulgarian Communist Party coming into power. The Fatherland Front was then the sole and dominant political party, other parties were explicitly forbidden. The economy and banks were nationalized and arable land was organized in cooperation. In 1989 democratic changes in Bulgaria began, installing multi-party elections for the first time. The new constitution was adopted and Bulgaria was set on the path of democratic development. In 1991 Bulgaria became a member of the European Council. In 2003 became a member of NATO. In 1995 Bulgaria applied for membership in the European Union. In 1999 negotiations for joining the EU began. On 25th of April 2005 in Luxemburg the contract for admitting The Republic of Bulgaria into the European Union was signed. Bulgaria officially joins the EU on the 1st January 2007.