Zhivkov Todor Hristov was a Bulgarian politician and longtime leader (between 1954 and 1989) of the Bulgarian Communist Party. During his 35 years of party leadership, he held central leadership positions in the country: Prime Minister (1962-1971) and Chairman of the State Council of the People's Republic of Bulgaria (1971-1989), i.e. de facto and de jure head of state.
Origin, education and youth
Where was Todor Zhivkov born? His biography began on September 7, 1911 in the village of Pravets, near Sofia, in a peasant family. In 1928 he joined the Bulgarian Communist Youth League, closely linked to the Bulgarian Workers' Party (BWP). This legal political organization was created after the ban in 1924 of the Bulgarian Communist Party, which staged an armed uprising in September 1923 to seize power in the country.
Todor Zhivkov graduated from an incomplete secondary school in Pravets in 1929 and then studied at the 6th (today 10th) grade of a secondary school in Botevgrad. Then he settled in Sofia, where he graduated from high school, after which he got a job as a type foundry at the State Printing House in the capital.
Startpolitical activities
In 1932 Zhivkov Todor became a member of the BRP. Soon he became a member of the Sofia party committee and secretary of the committee's second Bureau. His underground nickname was "Yanko". Although the BRP was banned along with all other political parties after the uprising of May 19, 1934, the National Assembly continued to exist, and Zhivkov participated in its work before the war, while simultaneously being secretary of the BRP district committee in Sofia. From July 1938 to November 1942, he was hiding in a number of Bulgarian villages (Deskot, Lesichevo, Govedartsy) together with his wife Mara Maleeva, who worked there as a district doctor.
The transition to armed struggle against the authorities
During the Second World War, the ruling circles of Bulgaria, led by Tsar Boris, were allies of Nazi Germany, provided the country's territory for the deployment of its troops. Bulgarian units invaded Yugoslavia and Greece, war was declared between Great Britain and the USA, but at the same time Bulgaria managed not to go to war with the USSR.
Bulgarian communists with the outbreak of World War II began to create their own partisan armed forces. Since June 1943, Zhivkov Todor was appointed a member of the headquarters of the First Sofia Insurgent Operational Zone by the decision of the Sofia district committee of the BRP. It was the territorial-organizational structure of the so-called. People's Liberation Army, created in March 1943. The zone included two partisan brigades, ten detachments and combat groups. Zhivkov was the authorized representative of the headquarters of the zone in the partisandetachment "Chavdar", later regrouped into the partisan brigade of the same name under the command of Dobri Dzhurov, operating in the vicinity of Sofia. In the post-war period, many of Zhivkov's associates in the Chavdar brigade occupied prominent positions in the Bulgarian state structures.
Communist takeover
By the beginning of September 1944, German troops continued to be in Bulgaria as its allies, although the country's government demanded their withdrawal. Taking advantage of this circumstance, the Soviet government on September 5, 1944 declared war on Bulgaria. On September 8, 1944, the Soviet units of the Third Ukrainian Front under the command of Marshal Tolbukhin and the Black Sea Fleet occupied the cities on the Black Sea coast of Bulgaria, whose troops offered no resistance. The next day (September 9), the Communists raised an uprising in Sofia and overthrew the Muraviev government, which, the day before the declaration of war by the USSR, decided to declare war on Germany, but did not have time to do so because of the delays of the leaders of the military department associated with the Communists. If the political intrigue of Muraviev's cabinet had succeeded, then the USSR would have had to send troops formally into the territory of Germany's enemy, which would have provoked opposition from its Western allies.
As a result of the September events of 1944, the power of the Communist Party was established in Bulgaria for half a century, and Georgy Dimitrov, ten years earlier famous for his courageous behavior at the famous Leipzig trial, became the leader of the country. At the final stage of the war, the Bulgarian units participated in it on the side of the USSR and took part in the battles on the territory of Yugoslavia, Hungary and Austria.
The rise of the party career after September 9, 1944
From September to November 1944, Zhivkov Todor was the political head of the headquarters of the People's Militia and became the third secretary of the Sofia city committee of the BRP. On February 27, 1945, he became a candidate member of the Central Committee of the party. Since January 1948 he was the First Secretary of the Sofia city committee of the BRP, as well as the chairman of the city committee of the Fatherland Front, which, in addition to the communists, included some other Bulgarian parties. At the fifth congress of the BRP, held on December 27, 1948, he was elected to the Central Committee of the party, which regained the name of the Bulgarian Communist Party (BKP). Zhivkov Todor was constantly re-elected to the governing body of the BKP, until December 8, 1989, when he was finally expelled from it.
The path to the heights of party power
In October 1949, Zhivkov headed the organizational and instructor department of the Central Committee of the BKP, in January 1950 he became secretary of the party's Central Committee, and in November he was elected a candidate member of its Politburo. From July 1951 to November 1989 Zhivkov was a member of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the party. Headed the secretariat of the Central Committee of the party since 1953.
However, he received real power in the party after the April Plenum of the Central Committee initiated by him (April 2-6, 1956), which marks the beginning of the debunking of the personality cult of Vylko Chervenkov, the closest associate of Georgy Dimitrov, who died in 1949. Chervenkov in 1950-1956 was chairmangovernment of Bulgaria, and in 1950-1954 - General Secretary of the Central Committee of the BKP. During his reign, he demonstrated unquestioning loy alty to Stalin, to the point of imitating his style of behavior and appearance.
After Stalin's death, power in the party from Chervenkov began to gradually pass to Zhivkov. First, the post of General Secretary of the Central Committee was liquidated, and after the Sixth Party Congress (March 4, 1954), Zhivkov was elected to the newly created position of First Secretary of the Central Committee of the BKP (he held it until April 4, 1981).
Combination of party and state posts
From 1946 to 1990 Zhivkov was elected a deputy of the National Assembly (parliament). On November 19, 1962, he replaced Anton Yugov as Prime Minister. He held this post until July 9, 1971, when Stanko Todorov replaced him.
Since 1971, Zhivkov became chairman of the newly created State Council of the Republic of Bulgaria (in fact, the head of state). He held this position until November 17, 1989.
How Bulgaria almost became the 16th republic of the USSR
December 4, 1963, Todor Zhivkov, as First Secretary of the Central Committee of the BKP and Prime Minister, personally presented at the plenum of the Central Committee a proposal for Bulgaria to appeal to the Central Committee of the CPSU on the issue of further rapprochement and future merger of the People's Republic of Bulgaria and the USSR, which would make it the 16th republic of the Soviet Union, thus endangering the independence of the country. The Plenum of the Central Committee assessed the proposal as "a wonderful manifestation of patriotism and internationalism", which will raise "fraternal friendship andcomprehensive cooperation between our country and the Soviet Union to a qualitatively new level". The proposal "to create economic, political and ideological conditions for the complete unification of our two fraternal countries" was unanimously approved at the plenary session and signed personally by Todor Zhivkov, but was rejected by the USSR.
Participation in the suppression of the Prague Spring
The decision on Bulgaria's participation in the military intervention after the Prague Spring was taken by the Council of Ministers chaired by Todor Zhivkov. A top-secret Decree of the Council of Ministers of the NRB No. 39 dated August 20, 1968 was issued with the motivation for the decision taken in the form of "provide military assistance to the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia and the Czechoslovak people." The 12th and 22nd infantry regiments numbering 2164 people and a tank battalion with 26 T-34 vehicles took part in the military operation.
Removal from power
In 1989, in a number of countries of the socialist bloc, the communists lost power as a result of revolutions and coups initiated by the general weakening of the positions of the USSR and the termination of economic support from its side. Bulgaria did not escape the common fate. On November 9, at a meeting of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the BKP, Zhivkov Todor resigned from the post of party leader, the next day a plenum of the Central Committee was held, which approved his resignation and recommended to the People's Assembly to release him from the post of Chairman of the State Council. On November 17, Zhivkov lost this post as well. In January 1990 he was arrested and charged with abuse of power. Due to the fact that the authorities in Bulgaria in the 90syears of the 20th century remained in the hands of the former Communist Party, renamed the Socialist Party, that is, remained in the hands of Zhivkov's younger associates, his fate was not as cruel as that of the leader of the Romanian Communists, Ceausescu. Until 1996, Zhivkov was under house arrest, the cases against him were investigated sluggishly, and the popularity of the former leader grew against the background of the deteriorating economic situation in the country. But he was not destined to fully justify himself. In August 1998, shortly before the age of 87, he died of pneumonia.
Todor Zhivkov: family
The politician was married (since July 1938) to Mara Maleeva-Zhivkova, who died in 1971 from cancer. They had a daughter and a son. Todor Zhivkov's daughter Lyudmila (see photo below), a well-known Bulgarian art historian, headed the Bulgarian government Committee on Art and Culture for six years. She died in 1981 from a stroke.
The politician's son Vladimir is still alive, his son was named Zhivkov Todor in honor of his famous grandfather. Politician's granddaughter Evgenia (daughter of Lyudmila Zhivkova) is a Bulgarian politician and designer who was elected to the National Assembly nine times (from 2001 to 2009).
