Telegram on the Fifteenth Anniversary
(September 8, 1959)

Comrade Todor Zhivkov, First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Bulgarian Communist Party,
Comrade Dimitar Ganev, Chairman of the Presidium of the National Assembly of the People's Republic of Bulgaria,
Comrade Anton Yugov, Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the People's Republic of Bulgaria:

On the occasion of the fifteenth anniversary of the Bulgarian socialist revolution, we extend, on behalf of the Chinese Communist Party, the Government of the People's Republic of China, and the Chinese people, the warmest congratulations to the Bulgarian Communist Party, the Government of the People's Republic of Bulgaria, and the Bulgarian people.

Over the past fifteen years, under the leadership of the Bulgarian Communist Party and the Government of the People's Republic of Bulgaria, the Bulgarian people, through selfless labour, have transformed their motherland from a backward agricultural country into an advanced socialist industrial-agricultural state. Recently, the Bulgarian people have set off a nationwide upsurge in developing industrial and agricultural production and are striving heroically, with boundless confidence, to fulfil the Third Five-Year Plan ahead of schedule within three to four years. The Bulgarian people have consistently remained faithful to the great principles of proletarian internationalism and have made important contributions to safeguarding the purity of Marxism-Leninism and upholding the unity of the international communist movement. The Chinese people feel immensely elated at these tremendous victories and achievements won by the fraternal Bulgarian people.

In international affairs, the People's Republic of Bulgaria has consistently sympathized with and supported the struggles of the peoples of Asia, Africa, and Latin America against imperialism and colonialism and for national independence, and has made unremitting efforts to ease international tension and safeguard peace in Europe and the world.

The fraternal friendship between the peoples of China and Bulgaria, founded on the basis of proletarian internationalism, is eternal and unbreakable. In recent years, the close cooperation between our two peoples in political, economic, cultural, and other fields has undergone tremendous development. Such cooperation will greatly contribute to promoting the common prosperity of our two countries and to strengthening the socialist camp headed by the Soviet Union.

May the Bulgarian people achieve new and still greater successes in their struggle to build socialism and safeguard peace. May the fraternal friendship between the peoples of China and Bulgaria remain evergreen for all eternity.

Mao Zedong
Chairman of the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party
Liu Shaoqi
Chairman of the People's Republic of China
Zhu De
Chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress of the People's Republic of China
Zhou Enlai
Premier of the State Council of the People's Republic of China

Beijing, September 8, 1959