"But though the Communist Party grew in influence and in support, most Bulgarians still favored the Peasants’ Party, a Left-wing agrarian reform group that had joined in the Fatherland Front. In a country where more than 80 percent of the population were peasants it could hardly have been otherwise. The Bulgarian Communists therefore faced a dilemma. The Soviets told them that the right form of government for Bulgaria, at its stage of development, was a “democratic” coalition government, meaning a government of the Left that could rule efficiently and was beholden to Moscow. Georgi Dimitrov, former head of the Comintern who had moved home to take control of the Bulgarian Communist Party, was told that it was fine for the Communists to expand their influence but not to break away from “unity” with the Peasants’ Party and other “progressive” forces. But at the same time peasant leaders were becoming increasingly critical of the Communists and their plans, which included the rapid industrialization of Bulgaria. In May 1945, the Communists engineered a split within the Peasants’ Party, with a small pro-Communist faction breaking away. The majority, headed by the formidable Nikola Petkov, resigned from the government and ran on a separate ticket in the October 1945 elections. After much voter intimidation and outright fraud, the Communist-dominated Fatherland Front won. From then on Dimitrov was in charge. He made the country a People’s Republic, meaning a republic under Communist control; forced the Social Democrats to merge with the Communists; and detained the main leaders of the non-Communist opposition. Meanwhile, Petkov was arrested, sentenced to death, and hanged in 1947."