Name: Todor Khristov Zhivkov
Country: Bulgaria
Dates in Power: 04 March, 1954- 10 November, 1989
Tyrant's Profile
- Rose to positions of power crushing others on his path. Became the leader of the Sofia Police through a coup on September 9, 1944.
- As Chief of Police, Zhikov participated in the campaign of extrajudicial murders and large-scale arrests intended to eliminate the opponents of the Bulgarian Communist Party in the capital - Sofia.
- His achievements in the field of repression and murder led him to a promotion to full membership in the BCP Politburo in 1951.
- In 1956 Zhivkov replaced Vulko Chervenkov as a General Secretary of the BCP.
- Like Stalin, Zhikov outmaneuvered his intra-party rivals and by the early 1960s established himself as the undisputed leader of the BCP and the country.
- As a ruler, Zhikov was known as the most servile and ardent supporter of the Soviet system.
- Hostile to the notion of political liberalization Zhikov a massive wave of political purges and repressions whenever he deemed that necessary, most infamously in the 1980s when he launched a brutal assimilationist campaign against Bulgaria’s ethnic Turkish minority.
- Zhikov created a vast network of 'agricultural camps' (concentrations camps) that inspired his colleague and friend Raúl Castro in the early 1960s to establish along with Fidel Castro the Military Units for the Aid of Production (UMAP) where tens of thousands of homosexuals, dissidents, priests, jehova witnesses, rockers and young people who deviated from the ideal of the New Man.
- Openly hostile to Gorbachev's Perestroika
- Forced to resign on November 10, 1989 when he was expelled from the Bulgarian Communist Party.
- Arrested in January 1990, convicted of embezzlement and sentenced to seven years in prison
- Due to his frail health Zhikov was allowed the justice he never dispensed to his opponents and died under house arrest of pneumonia in 1998.
Sources:
Global Museum on Communism
Dictator of the Month
Enrique Ros, La UMAP: El Gulag Castrista
Country: Bulgaria
Dates in Power: 04 March, 1954- 10 November, 1989
Tyrant's Profile
- Rose to positions of power crushing others on his path. Became the leader of the Sofia Police through a coup on September 9, 1944.
- As Chief of Police, Zhikov participated in the campaign of extrajudicial murders and large-scale arrests intended to eliminate the opponents of the Bulgarian Communist Party in the capital - Sofia.
- His achievements in the field of repression and murder led him to a promotion to full membership in the BCP Politburo in 1951.
- In 1956 Zhivkov replaced Vulko Chervenkov as a General Secretary of the BCP.
- Like Stalin, Zhikov outmaneuvered his intra-party rivals and by the early 1960s established himself as the undisputed leader of the BCP and the country.
- As a ruler, Zhikov was known as the most servile and ardent supporter of the Soviet system.
- Hostile to the notion of political liberalization Zhikov a massive wave of political purges and repressions whenever he deemed that necessary, most infamously in the 1980s when he launched a brutal assimilationist campaign against Bulgaria’s ethnic Turkish minority.
- Zhikov created a vast network of 'agricultural camps' (concentrations camps) that inspired his colleague and friend Raúl Castro in the early 1960s to establish along with Fidel Castro the Military Units for the Aid of Production (UMAP) where tens of thousands of homosexuals, dissidents, priests, jehova witnesses, rockers and young people who deviated from the ideal of the New Man.
- Openly hostile to Gorbachev's Perestroika
- Forced to resign on November 10, 1989 when he was expelled from the Bulgarian Communist Party.
- Arrested in January 1990, convicted of embezzlement and sentenced to seven years in prison
- Due to his frail health Zhikov was allowed the justice he never dispensed to his opponents and died under house arrest of pneumonia in 1998.
Sources:
Global Museum on Communism
Dictator of the Month
Enrique Ros, La UMAP: El Gulag Castrista
