Todor Hristov Zhivkov ( ; 7 September 1911 – 5 August 1998) was a Bulgarian communist politician who served as the de facto leader of the People's Republic of Bulgaria (PRB) from 1956 until 1989 as General Secretary of the Central Committee 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. In 1943, he was involved in organising the Chavdar Partisan Brigade 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 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. 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,Todor Zhivkov – The longest serving authoritarian , The Sofia Echo, 3 April 2003 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 UnionBulgaria – The Zhivkov era, Library of Congress country studies, 1992 and a desire to expand ties with the West. Bulgaria placed paramount importance on scientific and technological progress, as well as on the cultivation of trade skills suited to an industrial economy. In 1948, roughly 80 percent of the population depended on agriculture for their livelihood; by 1988, however, fewer than one in five workers remained in the agricultural sector, with the rest concentrated in industry and services. Zhivkov's government maintained a tight policy against minority groups throughout his tenure; most notably, from 1984 onward, tightened internal policies led to the Revival Process against Bulgarian Turks, a policy of forced assimilation which led to a large-scale expulsion of Turks and Muslims in 1989.
Zhivkov's 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.Bulgaria in the 1980s, Library of Congress country studies, 1992 He resigned on 10 November 1989, under pressure by senior BCP members due to his refusal to recognise problems and deal with public protests.The Removal of Zhivkov, Library of Congress country studies, 1992 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.
Early life Zhivkov was born in the Bulgarian village of Pravets into a peasant family, to Hristo Todorov Zhivkov and Maruza Gergova Zhivkova. 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.Bar-Zohar, Michael, Beyond Hitler's Grasp: The Heroic Rescue of Bulgaria's Jews. Adams Media Corp. 1998, p. 199 In 1943, he was involved in organising the Chavdar Partisan Brigade 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.
Rise to power
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.
The April Plenum and Zhivkov's ascendancy After Joseph Stalin's death, an emphasis on shared leadership emerged. 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.
The beginning of liberalisation Subsequently, Zhivkov carried out a policy of relative sociopolitical liberalisation and de-Stalinization in Bulgaria, similar to the Khrushchev Thaw in the Soviet Union. Zhivkov took action against what he saw as a cults of personality – whether in relation to Stalin, Chervenkov or to other figures. Monuments considered as being part of such cults were taken down and many public places renamed – the most prominent of which were the return of "Mount Stalin" back to its prewar name of Mount Musala and that of the city of "Stalin" back to Varna. Zhivkov resented the idea of himself being the subject of a cult and later, when the residents of his hometown of Pravets erected a monument bearing his likeness – he personally thanked them for their gesture, before ordering the statue be removed. It would only be restored in 2001 – after Zhivkov had died.
Zhivkov discontinued many "excesses", removed monopolies on art and culture and vastly restrained, though not fully abolished, the practice of penal labour. Zhivkov would also pardon and rehabilitate many of those he viewed as unfairly sentenced by the People's Courts (which were already abolished by this point), such as renowned Bulgarian author Dimitar Talev – who subsequently had his author's union membership restored, would publish his most famous works and would even be elected as member of parliament to Bulgaria's National Assembly in 1966.
The April Plenum of the BCP endorsed Zhivkov's liberalisation, which was seen by many as a sign of deeper reform. Consequently, groups began openly petitioning Zhivkov for further increases in the freedom of the press, cultural freedoms and subsequently, even some open protests formed, petitioning Zhivkov to take action against local party leaders that the protesters were unhappy with. Zhivkov reacted by sacking and punishing those local and regional leaders whose policies had led to local dissatisfaction and unrest, instead beginning a program of promoting younger and more ambitious cadres to fill their roles. The promotion of these new cadres, unaffiliated with cliques and untainted by corruption, served to create a loyal following of local leaders and administrators for Zhivkov, further increasing his control of the Communist party, whilst simultaneously increasing popular support for his government.
At the 8th Congress of the BCP in late 1962, Zhivkov accused Yugov of anti-Party activity, expelled him from the BCP and had him placed under house arrest. Zhivkov became prime minister, once again merging the two most powerful offices in Bulgaria with full Kremlin approval.
Attempted coup With the increasingly strengthening positions of Zhivkov as the country's and Communist party's leader, former partisan leaders and active military took a critical stance on what they viewed as the revisionist policies of Zhivkov's leadership. In the events described as the "April Conspiracy" of 1965 or the "Plot of Gorunia", general Ivan Todorov-Gorunya, general Tsvyatko Anev (Цвятко Анев) and Tsolo Krastev (Цоло Кръстев) organised a group of high-ranking military officers planning to overthrow the regime. Their plan was to establish a pro-Chinese leadership in the country, based on Stalinist-Maoist principles. The coup was exposed and between 28 March and 12 April 1965 and most of the plotters were arrested and expelled from the party.
Prime Minister (1962–1971) and Chairman of the State Council (1971–1989) As prime minister, Zhivkov remained faithful to the Soviet Union, but adopted a more liberal stance than his predecessor by allowing some market reforms (such as allowing surplus agricultural goods to be sold for profit) and ending persecution of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church.