The People's Republic of Bulgaria (PRB; Narodna republika Balgariya (NRB)) was the official name of the Bulgarian socialist republic that existed from 1946 to 1990, when the Bulgarian Communist Party (BCP) was ruling together with its allegedly 'independent' coalition partner National Agrarian Party. Bulgaria was viewed in the West as a satellite state of the Soviet Union, part of Comecon and an Eastern Bloc country, and a Soviet ally during the Cold War, a member of the Warsaw Pact.