and sold the surplus to the poor, introduced a compulsory labour law to alleviate the post-war unemployment problem, introduced a progressive income tax and made secondary education obligatory. All aspects of the radical reform policy were designed to rid society of 'noxious' classes such as lawyers, usurers and merchants, to distribute capital and obligations more evenly throughout society, and to raise the standard of living of the landless and poor peasants. In foreign policy, Stamboliyski officially renounced Bulgaria's territorial claims, which he associated with a standing army, monarchy, large government spending and other pre-war phenomena that the peasants considered anachronistic. In the aftermath of the war, no great power was available for the protection of Bulgarian interests in the Balkans. The traditional approach to foreign policy was therefore abandoned in favour of rapprochement with all European Powers and the new government of Kemal Ataturk in Turkey, membership of the League of Nations and friendship with the new Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (later the Kingdom of Yugoslavia). Bulgarian support for Atatürk's revolutionary Turkish Republic in 1920 greatly improved relations with Turkey. Reconciling with Yugoslavia was a necessary step towards Stamboliyski's ultimate goal of establishing a multiethnic Balkan Peasants' Federation. An improvement in relations with Yugoslavia was contingent on a crackdown on the powerful Macedonian extremist movement. Thus, in 1921, Stamboliyski began a two-year program of severe repression of the IMRO; in 1923, Yugoslavia and Bulgaria agreed at the Nis Convention to cooperate in controlling extremism. Stamboliyski was a convinced anti-communist and sought to create an international movement to combat Marxism. This was his so-called "Green International", a counter to the communist "Red International". He travelled to Eastern European capitals promoting his view of a peasant alliance. But trouble began when he tried to spread it in Yugoslavia, a country that had very similar conditions to Bulgaria (i.e. very little industry and a large communist presence). Stamboliyski was well-liked in Belgrade because of supporting a peaceful solution to the Macedonia problem. He also advocated uniting all the Slavic-speaking nations in Eastern Europe into one large Yugoslav confederation. But he got into trouble because of the militant IMRO faction at home. Many Macedonian leaders had lived in Sofia since the failed 1903 revolt against the Ottoman Empire, and now they were joined by others who fled the Yugoslavian government (which maintained as its official position that Macedonians were ethnic Serbs). Since