Who is Todor Zhivkov and how much do we know about the most prominent historical figure associated with socialism? On the eve of the 35th anniversary of the Tenth of November publishing house “Krug“ offers its readers a new, supplemented edition of the bestseller “Todor Zhivkov. Power – witnesses, participants“. The book by journalist Ivan Bakalov is a detailed historical analysis of the life of the leader of the BKP, it reveals little-known facts about Zhivkov, his close circles and the truths about key events of the recent past. The new edition can be found from November 8 in good bookstores.
„Todor Zhivkov. Power – witnesses, participants“ covers the life of the First from childhood to his death, with an emphasis on his political growth – the pursuit of power and holding on to the top, and the fall – details of the political drama that unfolded immediately before and after November 10. Based mainly on conversations with contemporaries and people close to Zhivkov, witnesses and participants in historical processes and events, the volume provides a valuable insight into these key pages of the past.
How active a partisan was Zhivkov? What was his role during the April Plenum and the coup that overthrew Valko Chervenkov? What are the mechanisms of his management and how did he manage to stay at the top for 35 years? Who are the people in his immediate environment? Who overthrew Zhivkov in the fateful year of 1989? The author Ivan Bakalov seeks the answers to all these questions in “Todor Zhivkov. Power – witnesses, participants“, and the new supplemented edition gives an even deeper insight into the truth and the myth about Zhivkov.
Bakalov approaches the historical topic extremely professionally and in his work he looks for the most objective – both in the presentation of the facts and in the interviews he conducts. In the book, he documents his meetings over the years with Dobri Djurov, Pencho Kubadinski, Yordan Yotov, Stoyan Mihailov, with Generals Tsviatko Anev and Micho Ermenov, who were imprisoned for the coup, with the called Vrachan assassin and others. The journalist writes with the idea of making his work accessible to everyone: “This book is written so that it is understandable and interesting to people who were born after the fall of Todor Zhivkov in 1989, and to witnesses of that time” . The volume also contains a large number of rare photographs of Todor Zhivkov, which Bakalov searched for among personal and public archives. The cover is the work of Zivko P. Petrov.
More about the author:
Ivan Bakalov is a journalist who has worked or published over the years in most major newspapers such as “Sega“, “24 chasa“, “Novinar“, magazines such as “Biograph“ etc., thanks to which he had the opportunity to meet with participants in the events of that time. Since 2007 is an editor and commentator in his online publication e-vestnik.bg. He is the author of the books “In the Shadow of Borisov“ (2011/2012), “First Person Rebels“ (2008), “To Chicago and Beyond On Route 66” (2014) and others.