Todor Zhivkov

Todor Hristov Zhivkov (Тодор Христов Живков ; 7 September 1911 – 5 August 1998) was a Bulgarian communist statesman who served as the de facto leader of the People's Republic of Bulgaria (PRB) from 1954 until 1989 as General Secretary of the Bulgarian Communist Party.

He was the longest-serving leader in the Eastern Bloc, the longest-serving leader within the Warsaw Pact and the longest-serving non-royal ruler in Bulgarian history.

During World War II, Zhivkov participated in Bulgaria's resistance movement in the People's Liberation Insurgent Army.

The exact date of Zhivkov's birth was in dispute within Zhivkov's family, as his mother insisted that he had been born on 20 September 1911.

However, Zhivkov would say in his memoirs that the Orthodox priest that was charged with keeping the records of new births at the time was found to be very drunk and forgot to write down the actual day of birth, instead writing in only the day of baptism.

Expressing confidence in his knowledge of local custom, this allowed him to calculate that his actual day of birth had been 13 days earlier - on 7 September of that year.

He had apparently been able to verify this as his real date of birth, though he continued to jokingly argue with his mother about the incident for years on end.

In 1928, he joined the Bulgarian Communist Youth Union (BCYU), an organisation closely linked with the Bulgarian Workers Party (BWP) – later the Bulgarian Communist Party (BCP).

The following year he obtained a post at the Darzhavna pechatnitsa, the official government publisher in Sofia.

In 1932, he joined the BWP proper, later serving as secretary of its Second Borough Committee and as a member of its Sofia County Committee.

Although the BWP was banned along with all other political parties after the coup of 19 May 1934, it continued fielding a handful of non-party National Assembly Deputies and Zhivkov retained his posts at its Sofia structure.

During World War II, Zhivkov participated in Bulgaria's resistance movement in the People's Liberation Insurgent Army against the country's alignment with Nazi Germany and was sympathetic to the country's 50,000 Jews.

In 1943, he was involved in organising the Chavdar partisan detachment in and around his place of birth, becoming deputy commander of the Sofia operations area in the summer of 1944.

Under his rule, many fellow former combatants with Chavdar were to rise to positions of prominence in Bulgarian affairs.

In 1943, he was involved in organising the Chavdar partisan detachment in and around his place of birth, becoming deputy commander of the Sofia operations area in the summer of 1944.

Under his rule, many fellow former combatants with Chavdar were to rise to positions of prominence in Bulgarian affairs.

He is said to have coordinated partisan movements with those of pro-Soviet army units during the 9 September 1944 uprising.

He is said to have coordinated partisan movements with those of pro-Soviet army units during the 9 September 1944 uprising.

After 9 September 1944, Zhivkov became head of the Sofia police force, restyled as the Narodna Militsiya (People's Militia).

He was elected to the BCP Central Committee as a candidate member in 1945 and a full member in 1948.

In the run-up to the 1949 treason trial against Traicho Kostov, Zhivkov criticised the Party and judicial authorities for what he claimed was their leniency with regard to Kostov.

This placed him in the Stalinist hardline wing of the Party.

In 1950, Zhivkov became a candidate member of the BCP Politburo, then led by Valko Chervenkov, leading to a full membership in 1951.

In the years which followed, he was involved in countering countryside resistance to forced farm collectivisation in north-western Bulgaria.

After Joseph Stalin's death, an emphasis on shared leadership emerged.

He became First Secretary of the Bulgarian Communist Party (BCP) in 1954 (General Secretary from April 1981), served as Prime Minister from 1962 to 1971 and from 1971 onwards as Chairman of the State Council, concurrently with his post as First Secretary.

When the hardline Stalinist Chervenkov gave up his post as General Secretary of the BCP in 1954, Zhivkov took his place, but Chervenkov retained most of his powers as prime minister.

Bulgarian opinion at the time interpreted this as a self-preservation move by Chervenkov, since Zhivkov was a less well known figure in the party.

After Nikita Khrushchev delivered his famous secret speech against Stalin at the Communist Party of the Soviet Union 20th Congress, a BCP Central Committee plenary meeting was convened in April 1956 to agree to adopt a new Krushchevite line.

At that plenum, Zhivkov criticised Chervenkov as a disciple of Stalin, had him demoted from prime minister to a cabinet post, and promoted former Committee for State Security (CSS) head Anton Yugov to the post of prime minister.

It was at this point that he became the de facto leader of Bulgaria.

Subsequently, Zhivkov was associated with the "April Line", which had anti-Stalinist credentials.

Chervenkov publicly accepted the criticism levied against him, admitted to allowing "mistakes" and "excesses" to take place in the country and resigned from political life.

Subsequently, Zhivkov carried out a policy of relative sociopolitical liberalisation and de-Stalinization in Bulgaria, similar to the Khrushchev Thaw in the Soviet Union.

His rule remained unchallenged until the deterioration of East–West relations in the 1980s, when a stagnating economic situation, a worsening international image and growing careerism and corruption in the BCP weakened his position.

He remained in these positions for 35 years, until 1989, thus becoming the longest-serving leader of any European Eastern Bloc nation after World War II, and one of the longest ruling non-royal leaders in modern history.

His rule marked a period of unprecedented political and economic stability for Bulgaria, marked both by complete submission of Bulgaria to the Soviet Union and a desire to expand ties with the West.

He resigned on 10 November 1989, under pressure by senior BCP members due to his refusal to recognise problems and deal with public protests.

Within a month of Zhivkov's ousting, communist rule in Bulgaria had effectively ended, and within a year the People's Republic of Bulgaria had formally ceased to exist.

Zhivkov was born in the Bulgarian village of Pravets into a peasant family, to Hristo Todorov Zhivkov and Maruza Gergova Zhivkova.