Bulgarian Land Forces

The Bulgarian Land Forces are the ground warfare branch of the Bulgarian Armed Forces. They are administered by the Ministry of Defence, which was known as the Ministry of War in the era of the Tsardom of Bulgaria. They were established in 1878 from the anti-Ottoman militia known as the opalchentsi, and at their founding they were the only branch of the Bulgarian military. Conscripts filled their ranks through most of the country's history, and in the First World War they fielded more than one million troops from a population of about four million. Conscription for all branches ended in 2008, so the Land Forces are now a volunteer force, with troops deployed on peacekeeping missions in Afghanistan, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Kosovo. Since 2004 they have been restructured repeatedly, with brigades reduced to regiments and several garrisons and brigades disbanded.