Zhivkov, Todor Christov (b. 7 Sept. 1911, d. 5 Aug. 1998). Secretary-General of the Bulgarian Communist Party 1954–89; President of the State Council 1971–89 Born in Pravec (near Sofia), he became a printer. He joined the Communist Youth League in 1928, and the Communist Party in 1932. He was one of the leading members of the party in Sofia until the outbreak of World War II. During the
Nazi occupation from 1941, he was active as a partisan, linking the activities of the party rank and file with those of Communist guerrillas. After the
coup of September 1944, he seized the initiative to suppress brutally all potential opposition to a Communist state, through murder, intimidation, and imprisonment. He became a non-voting member of the Communist Central Committee in 1945, and was elevated to full membership in 1949. In 1954, as Secretary-General of the Communist Party he became the effective ruler of his country. He was perhaps the most loyal follower of the Soviet Union, matching each political shift in that country with policy changes of his own. For example, he immediately accepted
Khrushchev's policies of de-
Stalinization in 1956, but had no problems accepting the leadership of
Brezhnev after Khrushchev's dismissal. He increased the country's (and his own) cultural, military, and economic dependence on the Soviet Union. This turned against him in 1989, when he tried, for the first time, to oppose the reformist trends of
glasnost and
perestroika coming from Moscow. Nor could he rely on Moscow any longer to ensure his own survival. On 10 November 1989 he was deposed. On 29 February 1992 he was sentenced to seven years' imprisonment and the payment of around $1 million for embezzlement and corruption. He did not have to serve his gaol sentence because of his old age.
