Dimitrova, Blaga (1922–)

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Dimitrova, Blaga (1922–)

Bulgarian writer and politician. Born Blaga Nikolova Dimitrova in Biala Slatina, Bulgaria, Jan 2, 1922; studied Slavonic philology in Sofia in 1945 and did graduate work in Moscow, receiving a degree in 1951; m. Iordan Vasilev; children: (adopted) daughter.

Poet, novelist, playwright, political activist, and vicepresident of Bulgaria, whose slow evolution from literary Stalinism to dissent is a case study in intellectual disillusionment as well as a chronicle of one writer's moral evolution; was the best-known intellectual dissident in Bulgaria in the closing decade of the Communist regime; novel Litse (Face) was banned (1980s); elected to Parliament (1990); began to serve as vice-president of Bulgaria (Dec 1991); resigned from that position (June 1993); writings include Because the Sea is Black: Poems of Blaga Dimitrova (trans. by Boris and McHugh, 1989), Journey to Oneself (trans. by Pridham, 1969); The Last Rock Eagle: Selected Poems of Blaga Dimitrova (trans. by Walker and others, 1992).

See also Women in World History.