Pre-WW2 Russian and Bulgarian picture????? Help please

[stross]

Hi, what can you tell me about this??? Is it a Russian soldier with (I'm pretty sure) a Bulgarian???

If so it must be pre-1941 correct??

Any info is appreciated!!

[Valter Gorenc]

Photo is from Bulgaria, Plovdiv, but I'd say it's more likely 1944/45. Before 1941 Bulgaria was ardent anti-communist country (they bloodily crushed communist uprising in 1923), so chances an ordinary soviet and bulgarian soldier would take picture together are very slim. Although Bulgaria felt simpaty for Russia as their big Slavic brother (and gratitude for help with liberation from Turks in 1878), Stalin's paranoya would not let soviet soldiers to mingle with "capitalist" ones. In 1944, when Soviets entered Bulgaria, the country quickly shifted sides and joined Soviets against Germany, so probably the photo is from that period.