The main problem here is, who will the ruling people IN bulgaria react to the point that they now could dominate the world - that is meant for the leadership, but more important, how will the people in bulgaria react to the point that
a.) Stalin, the most brutal and criminal ruler in human mankind to this date could "take over" - many people in bulgaria knew how bad he was, had lived through his terror regime he established in bulgaria
b.) they could remove their criminal leadership, do contact western democracies, propably take out Hitler and his regime by some jets, bombs (maybe with some chemical weapons) and - even if by our standards outdated computers and weapons bring the state into a situation that it could dominate world politics.
The idea that the leadership of bulgaria would stay second fiddle to Stalin and socialism is laughable... as all these ASB-scenarios ignore that many people with a lot of knowledge about the world (propably espionage, counter-espionage, scientists) could think twice about their position?
Just think about this idea:
OTL they were "nobodies" in a second power, that had no saying in the world. They were part ot the warsaw pact, but only did what the big USSR ordered them.
Now, they could make the rules, just because they KNOW exactly how to do things, how things happened in the last 46 years around the world.
Any bulgarian weapon would be vastly superior to anything anybody in the world had in 1939. From the nazis to the USSR, to japan, UK or the USA.
Radar-technology for example - any outdated bulgarian radar is what? 10 generations ahead of the most modern radar in the world of 1939.
Weapons - the AK47 make mass assaults like the japanese and the communists in china and russia did obsolete.
The Mig21 is so superior to anything anybody had in that time, even the older stuff
Heres some links (from 1989 - but in technological things that is mostly the same as 1985:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Structure_of_the_Bulgarian_People%27s_Army_1989en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OTR-23_Okaen.wikipedia.org/wiki/2K11_Krugen.wikipedia.org/wiki/2K12_Kub#Former_operatorsen.wikipedia.org/wiki/9K31_Strela-1en.wikipedia.org/wiki/9K32_Strela-2en.wikipedia.org/wiki/9K33_Osaen.wikipedia.org/wiki/9K35_Strela-10en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S-75_Dvinaen.wikipedia.org/wiki/S-125_Neva/Pechoraen.wikipedia.org/wiki/S-200_(missile)en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S-300_missile_systemthese are - on a dirt cheap look some vastly superior AA-weapon systems bulgaria used.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/100_mm_air_defense_gun_KS-19And now some fun for T34 and Co:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T-12_antitank_gunI also want to mention the T54,T55,T72 and esp. the BTR1, BTMs and countless other fast mobile and amphibious vehicles, with courtsey of the USSR, the bulgarian army had.
Basically the bulgarian army of 1985 could wipe out ANY hostile army, airforce... and with some time navy on this planet.
Sound strange? Nope, 40 years of postww2-military technology does wonders.
And no, the nazis wouldn´t be the enemy nr1... it would be the USSR.
i cannot see the ruling class of that bulgarian government obying mad-dog-stalins orders.
Having access and knowledge to nukes, the ability to build cheap but still VASTLY superior weapons and less complex systems - just any T72 is so vastly superior to anything anybody will have in the next 15 years it is hard to not do what this bulgaria demands.
So basically the main question is:
how stable will the socialist bulgarian regime be?
After the government has established (maybe by coup? or the socialists keep the power) it could demand what ever they want, from whoever they want.
Remove Hitler? Propably a given...
kill Churchill? who wasn´t seen as a good guy by the communists AND was also seen a bit as a traitor of eastern european countries post ww2 (so both sides would not love him) - again a given.
After that? Well, demand areas they want - and get em in short bloody wars, in that neighbours who want to fight get terminated with 1000:1 casulty-rates (if lucky), ressources they want - for sure they want to "help" the arabians to get contracts with bulgaria... also other african nations get "liberty" from the british empire - hell, they would demand independendence of key states - if the empire or the americans would deny em, they eat a nuke or two. Depending on the date - a nuke onto moscow that kills Stalin (or some chemical weapons doing the same) is also a given.
This bulgaria will do this:
a.) kill Hitler, Stalin, Churchill
b.) force the british empire to give up their rights on certain states.. .the same for belgium (belgian congo is known for its rich ressources
c.) keep killing nazi systems in germany (any bulgarian system)
d.) then take border areas they want (for greater Bulgaria) from its neighbours, beat em, establish (if red) socialist republics, if a noncommunist state is established, kill problematic leaders you know
Personally i see a greater bulgaria, that take out large areas of southeast europe, maybe some polish and german vasalls to get the needed industrial base... maybe also france and italy (i forgot - Mussolini dies quickly, too).
So this bulgaria also force the other states to pay subsidaries, if the USA make problems nuke New York, to make a point. London will glow, too... to motivate the british to give em the colonies they want (to liberate, naturally).
if some hostile forces try to engage greater bulgaria, the bulgarian armed forces will crush em.
Sometimes later the whole system will crash, because internal faults, corruption, communist failures will cause the break down.
The technologies of modern world will be spread quickly, the colonial regimes of france and uk will be removed much earlier as OTL... basically bulgaria could produce cheap weapons, that beat the crap out of any colonial regime
Japan - who deserve special treatment, too would be to far away, but the other regimes (esp. the USSR and nazi germany) get huge troubles... also the british empire - the traditional arch enemy for any socialist who could count till two, also the standard enemy (USA).
You could repeat this with any other Warsaw-Pact state like Poland, hungaria, the GDR...
the superiority of modern weapons AND the cheap but effective standard tanks and airplanes mean these countries quickly could produce these weapons themself. WIth the nukes in their country they get sometimes access they dominate the world.
Even the FRG, with the nukes of the USA onto its ground would rule the world, if you transport the 1985 FRG to 1939.
Or replace 1985 japan with 1939 japan... they have no carriers, only a small army... but you can´t invade, 2 years later the japanese could wipe out any nation on that planet with intercontinental missles full of nukes.
If you switch smaller countries of 1939 with 1914 this isn´t as problematic, but the jump from Pre-WW2 to post-ww2, esp. with 40 years of technological development mean mostly this country rule the world.
. It sounded like they were actually in possession of the weapons but makes more sense, given the nature of the Soviet regime with its deeply embedded paranoia, keeping a tight control on them.
