Todor zhivkov biography of rory

The chairman of the court stated that if Zhivkov was still unsatisfied with his verdict, he could only appeal to then-President Zhelyu Zhelev for a pardon. Zhivkov adamantly refused to ask for a pardon and stated that even if given one he would not accept it, as he opined that pardons are only given to guilty people and he did not consider himself guilty.

On 8 June he was found innocent on indictment 5. In his sentence in Trial 4 went into effect, but was substituted by house arrest due to his ill health. Zhivkov continued to assert his innocence and on 15 September , the Supreme Court of Bulgaria agreed to hear his plea and reconsidered his verdict. Zhivkov threatened to go to the European Court of Human Rights if not found innocent, accusing Bulgarian courts of accepting political orders.

General Prosecutor Evtim Stoimenov declared that the prosecution had been "under strong pressure" to find Zhivkov guilty of something and that a document proved his innocence in regards to Indictment 4. He subsequently resigned from his post and was replaced by Martin Gunev. On 9 February the Bulgarian Supreme Court recognised Zhivkov as a former head of state and ruled that the prosecution had not presented evidence for Zhivkov's guilt, reversing the verdict on Indictment 4 and declaring him innocent on all charges.

A month after Zhivkov's death, one of the main prosecutors, Krasimir Zhekov, resigned from his position, citing his inability to get Zhivkov convicted of anything. He left Sofia and moved to Pazardzhik , where he lived with a low state pension until his death in The Porcupine , a fictional account of the trial of Stoyo Petkanov, a barely disguised Zhivkov, was written by Julian Barnes and published in Bulgarian and English in Zhivkov was subsequently released, giving frequent interviews to foreign journalists and writing his memoirs in the final years of his life.

In his memoirs, which he dubbed "the longest confession of his life", he defined himself as an "ordinary village boy from Pravets" and told the story of his life, along with his analysis of his own government and legacy. He spoke of the socialist society in Bulgaria as being divided into two parts — the [societal] order, which he described as the basic societal organisation and ethos in country and the system , the practical structure of government, led by a Vanguard party.

He spoke positively of the first, describing it as proper, justified and prosperous. He blamed the collapse of socialism, instead, on the latter. He stated that he had not changed his political views and remained a committed Marxist , but had come to realise that the system was overly bureaucratic, inflexible and ultimately failed, bringing the order down with it.

He concluded that the ultimate collapse of his system was due to his own failures to reform and modernise said system in the s and 80s. He opined that socialism would ultimately triumph regardless, but that this would be a new form of socialism and would be led by a new, younger generation, which he hoped would be "better in every way from ours" and would lead to a "more prosperous, more just and more democratic Bulgaria".

He criticised the ruling right-wing UDF government at the time, but reserved his harshest criticism for the former members of his party that had taken part in embezzlement of state assets following his departure. In his final interview, conducted before the Bulgarian National Television in , he surprisingly seemed to take more issue with some of his former party members, than the ruling right-wing UDF party at the time.

He strongly criticised Andrey Lukanov and Petar Mladenov , the former communists turned social democrats that ruled Bulgaria in the immediate aftermath of his resignation. He blamed them for betraying their values and for leading the country into economic ruin and expressed his unwillingness to both re-join his former party and to join the communist splinter party.

He maintained that he still believed in socialism, but added that he had made friends with many people across many parties, including the UDF. He defended most of his actions while in power and explained his reasoning behind several of his policies, but reiterated his belief that " the order was good, but the system which ruled it was bad".

In early , a shifting power balance within the Bulgarian Socialist Party led to Zhivkov re-joining it, leading to a round of ovation by party members during a rally. Zhivkov died from complications of bronchial pneumonia as a free man on 5 August , at the age of The UDF -led government refused petitions from Zhivkov's family and the Socialist Party to have him buried in a state funeral due to his status as a former head of state.

He was buried after a large privately run procession, organised by the local Socialist Party branch. Years and even decades after his death, his legacy is continued in Bulgarian pop culture, with songs, [ 62 ] shirts and various souvenirs featuring him or his likeness being easy to find in modern-day Bulgaria. In , the communist-period monument of Zhivkov was re-erected in his hometown of Pravets in the presence of the leaders of the Bulgarian Socialist Party, alongside Zhivkov's — bodyguard, Boyko Borisov , the present-day Bulgarian Prime Minister, who then was the Chief Secretary of the Bulgarian Ministry of Interior.

His former home in the town was then turned into a museum in his honour in Beginning in , the celebrations have been incongruously accompanied by the flag of Europe. In modern times, Zhivkov is regarded as popular and his government widely viewed with nostalgia from many sectors of Bulgarian society. Half of all respondents which gave an answer in the RC Trend study also expressed a desire to go back in time, so that they would live during 'Zhivkov's time', rather than continue living in the modern day republic.

In , the history textbooks of five major academic publishers in Bulgaria had described Zhivkov as a 'moderate ruler, whose policies were aimed at improving the welfare of the ordinary people' — drawing condemnation from a faculty member at the American University in Bulgaria and an investigative journalist. Valchev's order was opposed by the Bulgarian Socialist Party , which accused him of historical revisionism , political interference in education and an undemocratic enforcement of a particular worldview.

However, shortly after falling from power, Zhivkov was expelled from the communist party and subsequently arrested by his former comrades. Analyst Gerald Creed opined that this marked a significant victory for supporters of socialism in Bulgaria, noting that Bulgaria had become the first Eastern European country to re-elect an openly socialist party in a free election following the collapse of socialism in the bloc.

The Socialist-led government, however, failed at addressing the problems facing the country and providing a cohesive vision for the future. It suffered a split as the left-wing of the party broke off in order to form the New Bulgarian Communist Party , while the right-wing opposition remained united and aggressively opposed the government, hampering any attempts at finding an exit to the political crisis that had gripped the country.

The Socialists' government, which had by then rejected Marxism—Leninism in favour of social democracy under its new leader Andrey Lukanov , subsequently collapsed under its inability to deal with the crisis, narrowly losing the opposition in the Bulgarian parliamentary election. Zhivkov's attempts to integrate and assimilate Bulgarian Turks ultimately did not yield their intended results, instead leading to the creation of the Movement for Rights and Freedoms , a party largely based on ethnic Turkish affiliation.

Despite the fact that Bulgaria's post constitution retained the restrictions against the formation of racial, ethnic or religious-based parties, the MRF was ruled a legal party by Bulgaria's supreme court in On the other hand, after very significant reverses and difficulties in the s and s, the Bulgarian economy developed apace from the mids until the late s.

Most of today's large industrial facilities such as the Kremikovtsi steelworks and the Chervena Mogila engineering works were built under Zhivkov. Bulgaria's nuclear power station, AEC Kozloduy , was built in the s, all six large reactors commissioned in under five years. This, and Bulgaria's many coal-fired and hydroelectric power stations, made the country a major electric power exporter.

By the s, the focus switched to high technologies such as electronics and even space exploration: on 10 April Bulgaria launched the first of two kosmonavti cosmonauts , Georgi Ivanov , aboard Soviet Soyuz spaceships and later launched its own space satellites. Having been among the first nations to market electronic calculators the ELKA brand, since and digital watches Elektronika , since , in the country launched its Pravets personal computer a near-" Apple II clone" for business and domestic use.

In the mids an economic reform package was introduced, which allowed for farmers to freely sell their over-planned production. Shortly after that Bulgaria became the first and only Eastern Bloc country which locally produced Coca-Cola. Mass tourism developed under Zhivkov's direction from the early s onwards. However, this Bulgarian economy was exceptionally susceptible to Soviet largesse and Soviet-bloc markets.

After the Soviet crude oil price shock of , it entered a very severe recession from which it hardly recovered in the s. After the earlys loss of Soviet and Comecon markets, this economy unused to competing in a free market environment entered prolonged and significant contraction. Zhivkov-era industrial facilities were largely unattractive to investors, many being left to decay.

Great numbers of specialist personnel retired and died without being replaced, or else emigrated or left their state jobs for more lucrative private employment. As agriculture declined, tourism has emerged as almost the sole Zhivkov-era industrial survivor. However, it is widely thought that incompetent and corrupt administration after had a much greater effect on the decline of the economy, as even successful industries declined.

Following the end of Zhivkov's rule state properties were widely embezzled and stripped of assets , the revenues of which were funnelled through tax havens , creating a new class of nouveau riche oligarchs at the cost of the destruction of Bulgaria's industry. This was done both by ex-functionaries from Zhivkov's former party turned 'businessmen', as well as by members of the right-wing opposition, the Union of Democratic Forces , which came into power a year later.

Zhivkov married Mara Maleeva — in They had two children, a daughter named Lyudmila Zhivkova and a son called Vladimir Zhivkov. Maleeva was diagnosed with stomach cancer in , leading to a two year long and ultimately futile fight with the disease. Maleeva reportedly did not wish to undergo surgery, but Zhivkov insistently convinced her to go.

The operation was successful, but the cancer was already late-stage. In August , her condition worsened sharply. She was described as undergoing unbearable pain and became bedridden. In his memoirs, Zhivkov mentioned that the last time he had seen her, he noticed that she had played a recording of one of his speeches on repeat, so that she could keep listening to his voice.

She died of the disease on 23 October Her death deeply affected Zhivkov and he was described as becoming unpredictable and lacking self control in the few weeks after her death. Lyudmila would become a very notable, albeit controversial, cultural icon — promoting unorthodox and divergent artistic ideas, as well as practising Eastern religions and mysticism to the ire of both the supporters of state atheism and the Bulgarian Orthodox Church.

Her mother sharply opposed the idea of Lyudmilla having any part in Bulgaria's politics and even went as far as to 'forbid' her husband Zhivkov from considering her or any other family members for political posts of any kind. Zhivkov respected his wife's wishes during her life, but reconsidered his position following her death and was later convinced to appoint Lyudmilla, who was popular among artists and the intelligentsia, as the vice-chairperson on the consultative committee for friendship and cultural diplomacy.

In this position, she actively promoted cultural liberalisation with the aid of several of Bulgaria's top intellectuals, while at the same time her avant-garde tastes were left unappreciated by the general masses. She juggled Bulgarian National Revival themes with postmodernism , puzzling many observers. Zhivkov nevertheless allowed her to advise him on cultural matters and agreed on an idea she had presented alongside several artists, for the creation of a grand monument in commemoration of the th Anniversary of the Bulgarian State.

She had proposed the granting to an avant-garde sculptor, Valentin Starchev, full creative freedom in designing the monument. The result was a controversial monument that was both incredibly unique, and commonly understood as very ugly. Todor Zhivkov himself was said to have altered his daily commute in order to avoid having to look at it, though he never scolded the sculptor for it.

Lyudmilla lived in poor health, ostensibly due to her unusual lifestyle, failed relationships and stress, dying abruptly at the age of 38 in Zhivkov's son-in-law Ivan Slavkov became the chairman of Bulgaria's state television company and later became president of the Bulgarian Olympic Committee , a position he would continue to hold until Zhivkov reserved a special attention for his birthplace of Pravets.

In the s this small village was declared "an Urban Community", becoming a town a decade later. In Bulgaria's first Apple clone personal computer was named the Pravets. The citizens of Pravets responded by erecting a heroic statue to Zhivkov which he duly had taken down, ostensibly to prevent a personality cult growing around him. It was re-erected after his death.

Contents move to sidebar hide. Article Talk. Read Edit View history. Tools Tools. Download as PDF Printable version. In other projects. Wikimedia Commons Wikiquote Wikidata item. De facto leader of Communist Bulgaria from to For other uses, see Zhivkov disambiguation. In this Bulgarian name , the patronymic is Hristov and the family name is Zhivkov.

The period between and was one of political calm. With minor exceptions, the structure and operations of the government and the BCP remained unchanged. But the avoidance of meaningful change, despite cosmetic adjustments in the Zhivkov government, assumed that Bulgarian governance was the same uncomplicated procedure it had been in the s and early s--a major miscalculation.

Celebration of the 1,th anniversary of the Bulgarian state in brought official liberalization and rehabilitation for some segments of Bulgarian society. Bourgeois political factions that had opposed the BCP before World War II were exonerated and described as comrades in the fight for Bulgarian democracy. Zhivkov also raised the official status of the Orthodox Church to codefender of the Bulgarian nationality, and restrictions on religious observances were eased.

By the second half of the s, substantial maneuvering and speculation centered on identifying the successor to the seventyfour -year-old Zhivkov, who was increasingly isolated from everyday governance. Four younger politicians divided most of the key responsibilities of government and party in Although speculation grew that Zhivkov had become a figurehead or was preparing to resign, in the late s he was still able to divide the power of his rivals and avoid naming a single successor.

The BCP maintained complete control over all major programs and policies in the Bulgarian government, although the role of the party in specific instances was not clear. In , facing a budding opposition movement and pressure from the Soviet Union, the BCP began planning for multiple-candidate not multiparty regional elections to end citizen apathy toward both government and the party.

Although some reforms were made in the nomination process, local electoral commissions retained control over final lists of nominees. By February , at least nine independent political groups had emerged. Spurred by the liberalized domestic policies of Mikhail S. Gorbachev in the Soviet Union, such groups demanded similar concessions from the Bulgarian government.

Given Bulgaria's long record of mimicking Soviet policy changes, this was a natural expectation. In fact, the BCP Central Committee plenum had endorsed officially perestroika and glasnost, the cornerstones of the Gorbachev reform program. The plenum also substantially reduced official state ceremonies, rituals, personal awards, and propaganda, explaining that such formalities alienated the people.

In the three years following the plenum, however, the Bulgarian government and the BCP gave lip service to Soviet reforms, while quietly taking a more hard-line approach to many issues. During this period, reform in the BCP and the government apparatus was confined to reshuffling ministries, departments, and personnel as a gesture of solidarity with perestroika.

At the same time, dissident groups were harrassed, put under surveillance, and accused of unpatriotic activities. In the late s, official repression of the Turkish minority was the most visible domestic issue in Bulgaria. By this policy had brought harsh international condemnation and provided a human rights issue for the domestic opposition.

A total of , ethnic Turks were expelled or emigrated voluntarily in , and the Bulgarian economy suffered greatly from this depletion of its work force. In Zhivkov launched a ruthless campaign to force Bulgarian's Turks, an ethnic minority of one million people, to change their names. In May , Zhivkov encouraged a mass exodus of Turks, and about , fled before Turkey closed its border.

The loss of so many people infuriated Peter Mladenov, Bulgaria's foreign minister, and in October he resigned, accusing Zhivkov of ruining Bulgaria's reputation and its economy. After a trip to Moscow, Mladenov returned. On the same day the Berlin Wall fell, symbolizing the end of the Cold War, Mladenov won a vote at a Bulgarian Politburo meeting, forcing Zhivkov to resign in a bloodless coup.

Mladenov became party leader. Zhivkov was charged with corruption and embezzlement and placed under house arrest in Sofia. He denied responsibility for any purges or crimes committed under his rule. The staunch Soviet hard-liner said: "If I had to do it all over again, I would not even be a Communist.

Todor zhivkov biography of rory

The official biography issued by the party is Todor Zhivkov: biografichen ocherk Sofia, Swearingen Todor Zhivkov: Statesman and Builder of New Bulgaria in the "Leaders of the World" series of Pergamon Press contains, in addition to his speeches and statements, a short autobiography, chronology of his life, and list of his works in various languages.

Markov, The Truth That Killed , offers rare personal observations. Useful for the context is J. Cite this article Pick a style below, and copy the text for your bibliography. January 8, Retrieved January 08, from Encyclopedia. Then, copy and paste the text into your bibliography or works cited list. Because each style has its own formatting nuances that evolve over time and not all information is available for every reference entry or article, Encyclopedia.

Todor Zhivkov gale. Learn more about citation styles Citation styles Encyclopedia. More From encyclopedia. About the author. Piccadilly file. The archives of the SSS. His role in the coup of the 9th September was also greatly exaggerated.