A Unique Destiny

Book excerpt: During World War II, most of Europe’s last monarchies collapsed. Under Tsar Boris III, Bulgaria had been a reluctant ally of Hitler’s Germany, refusing to send troops to fight the Soviets and resisting the Holocaust. But after Boris died in 1943, the Red Army entered the country, and communists executed much of the royal family and sent the boy-tsar, Simeon II, into exile, first to Turkey and Egypt, then to Spain. In 2001, Simeon was elected prime minister of Bulgaria in a landslide that swept out the country’s two major parties. The crown jewel of his time in power was bringing Bulgaria into NATO. He peacefully left power in 2005. In the first English translation of this colorful memoir, Simeon—the world’s last tsar and one of two living heads of state from World War II (with the Dalai Lama)—recounts with honesty and humor an eventful life from Bulgaria to Spain and the United States, and back to Bulgaria, and into the world. His life’s story includes crossing paths with Queen Elizabeth II of England, the Shah of Iran, General Franco of Spain, Hassan II of Morocco, and many other royalty, as well as helping to integrate Bulgaria into a new democratic global system.