Zhivkov Todor Hristov was a Bulgarian politician and long-term leader (from 1954 to 1989) of the Bulgarian Communist Party. For 35 years of party leadership, he held central leadership positions in the country: the Prime Minister (1962-1971) and the Chairman of the State Council of the People's Republic of Bulgaria (1971-1989), i.e. de facto and de jure was the head of state.
Origin, education and adolescence
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, which was closely associated with the Bulgarian Workers' Party (BRP). This legal political organization was created after the ban of the Bulgarian Communist Party in 1924, which launched an armed uprising in September 1923 in order to seize power in the country.
Todor Zhivkov graduated from junior high school in Pravets in 1929 and then studied in 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 typewriter in the capital's State Printing House.
The beginning of political activity
In 1932, Zhivkov Todor became a member of the PDU. He soon became a member of the Sofia party committee and secretary of the second committee committee. His underground nickname was Yanko. Although the PDU was banned along with all other political parties after the uprising on May 19, 1934, the National Assembly continued to exist, and Zhivkov participated in its work in the pre-war time, while being secretary of the PDU district committee in Sofia. From July 1938 until November 1942 he was hiding in a number of Bulgarian villages (Descot, Lesichevo, Govedartsy) together with his wife Mara Maleeva, who worked in them as a district doctor.
Transition to armed struggle against power
During the Second World War, the ruling circles of Bulgaria, headed by Tsar Boris, acted as allies of fascist Germany, provided the territory of the country for the deployment of its troops. The Bulgarian units invaded Yugoslavia and Greece, the war of Great Britain and the USA was declared, but at the same time Bulgaria managed not to enter the war with the USSR.
With the outbreak of World War II, the Bulgarian Communists began to create their own partisan armed forces. From June 1943, Zhivkov Todor was appointed a member of the headquarters of the First Sofia Rebel Operational Zone by the decision of the Sofia District PDC. This was the territorial-organizational structure of the so-called. People's Liberation Army, created in March 1943. As part of the zone, there were two partisan brigades, ten detachments and battle groups. Zhivkov was the authorized representative of the zone headquarters in the Chavdar partisan detachment, which later regrouped as 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 Bulgarian government agencies.
The seizure of power by the Communists
By early 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 declared war on Bulgaria on September 5, 1944. On September 8, 1944, the Soviet units of the Third Ukrainian Front under the command of Marshal Tolbukhin and the Black Sea Fleet occupied cities on the Black Sea coast of Bulgaria, the troops of which did not show resistance. The next day (September 9), the Communists revolted 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 manage to do this because of delays in the heads of the military department associated with the Communists. If the political intrigue of Muraviev’s cabinet were successful, then the USSR would have had to formally enter troops into the territory of the enemy of Germany, which would have caused 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 became the head of the country, ten years before he became famous for his courageous behavior at the famous Leipzig process. At the final stage of the war, Bulgarian units participated in it on the side of the USSR and took part in battles in 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 leader of the headquarters of the People’s Militia and became the third secretary of the Sofia City Party Committee. February 27, 1945 he became a candidate member of the Central Committee of the party. Since January 1948, he was First Secretary of the Sofia City Party Committee, and also chairman of the City Committee of the Patriotic Front, which, in addition to the Communists, included several 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 instructive department of the Central Committee of the BKP, in January 1950 he became secretary of the Central Committee of the party, and in November he was elected as a candidate member of its Politburo. From July 1951 to November 1989, Zhivkov was a member of the Politburo of the Party Central Committee. He led the secretariat of the Central Committee of the party since 1953.
However, he received real power in the party after the April Central Committee Plenum (April 2-6, 1956), which he initiated, 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 chairman of the government of Bulgaria, and in 1950-1954 he was general secretary of the Central Committee of the BKP. During his reign, he demonstrated unquestioning loyalty to Stalin, even to imitate his style of behavior and appearance.
After Stalin's death, power in the party from Chervenkova gradually began to pass to Zhivkov. First, the post of Secretary General of the Central Committee was abolished, and after the sixth congress of the party (March 4, 1954) Zhivkov was elected to the newly created post of First Secretary of the Central Committee of the BKP (he held it until April 4, 1981).
The combination of party and government posts
From 1946 to 1990 Zhivkov was elected as 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 he was replaced by Stanko Todorov.
Since 1971, Zhivkov became chairman of the newly created State Council of the Republic of Bulgaria (actually the head of state). He held this position until November 17, 1989.
How Bulgaria almost became the 16th republic of the USSR
On December 4, 1963, Todor Zhivkov, as the First Secretary of the Central Committee of the BKP and the Prime Minister, personally presented at the plenary session of the Central Committee a proposal from Bulgaria 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 Soviet Republic Union, thus jeopardizing the independence of the country. The Plenum of the Central Committee praised the proposal as “a wonderful manifestation of patriotism and internationalism, ” which will raise “fraternal friendship and comprehensive cooperation between our country and the Soviet Union to a whole 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 meeting and personally signed by Todor Zhivkov, but the USSR was rejected.
Participation in the suppression of the Prague Spring
The decision on the participation of Bulgaria in the military intervention after the Prague Spring was taken by the Council of Ministers under the chairmanship of Todor Zhivkov. A top-secret Decree of the Council of Ministers of the NRB No. 39 of 20.VIII.1968 was issued with the motivation for the decision 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, participated in the military operation.
Suspension
In 1989, in a number of socialist camp countries, the Communists lost power as a result of revolutions and coups initiated by the general weakening of the USSR and the cessation of economic support on its part. Bulgaria did not escape the common fate. At a meeting of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the BKP, Zhivkov Todor resigned from the post of party leader on November 9, the next day the plenary meeting of the Central Committee took place, which approved his resignation and recommended that the National Assembly relieve him of the post of Chairman of the State Council. On November 17, Zhivkov lost this post. In January 1990, he was arrested and charged with abuse of power. Due to the fact that the power in Bulgaria in the 90s, 20 tbsp. it remained behind the former Communist Party, renamed the Socialist Party, that is, it 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, cases against him were sluggishly investigated, and the former leader’s popularity was growing amid the deteriorating economic situation in the country. But he was no longer destined to fully justify himself. In August 1998, having a little lived to 87 years, he died of pneumonia.
