The Goryan Movement was arised in response to the repression of the communist regime. The fighters were armed and moved to bands in the mountains. They held power under strain and fear. Some remote areas of the country were entirely under their control.
Until 1958, the total number of Goryans in Bulgaria was about 8,000. Extremely worrying for the communists was the large number of volunteers- Bulgarians, who offered shelter, food and clothes to the Goryan Movement.
The specificity of the Bulgarian armed struggle is in its very long duration. The Goryans believed that the West would release the Eastern bloc countries. “The Americans will come!” they thought. And not just them.
The non-intervention of Western countries in the Hungarian Revolution in 1956 puts a psychological blow on the Goryan Movement. It gradually was fading away.
