Bulgarian Communist Party
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Bulgarian Communist Party Българска комунистическа партия | |
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Comintern (1919–1943) | |
Colors | Red, Yellow, White |
Anthem | The Internationale |
Party flag | |
The Bulgarian Communist Party (Bulgarian: Българска комунистическа партия (БΚП), Romanised: Bŭlgarska komunisticheska partiya; BKP) was the founding and ruling party of the People's Republic of Bulgaria from 1946 until 1989, when the country ceased to be a socialist satellite state of the Soviet Union. The party had dominated the Fatherland Front, a coalition that took power in 1944, late in World War II, after it led a coup against Bulgaria's tsarist regime in conjunction with the Red Army's crossing the border. It controlled its armed forces, the Bulgarian People's Army.
The BCP was organized on the basis of democratic centralism, a principle introduced by the Russian Marxist scholar and leader Vladimir Lenin, which entails democratic and open discussion on policy on the condition of unity in upholding the agreed upon policies. The highest body of the BCP was the Party Congress, convened every fifth year. When the Party Congress was not in session, the Central Committee was the highest body, but since the body normally met only once a year, most duties and responsibilities were vested in the Politburo and its Standing Committee. The party's leader held the offices of General Secretary.
The BCP was committed to
History
Origins
The party's origins lay in the
The party's founding leader was Dimitar Blagoev, who was the driving force behind the formation of the BSDWP in 1894. It comprised most of the hardline Marxists in the Social Democratic Workers' Party. The party opposed World War I and was sympathetic to the October Revolution in Russia. Under Blagoev's leadership, the party applied to join the Communist International upon its founding in 1919. Upon joining the Comintern the party was reorganised as the Communist Party of Bulgaria.
Ruling party
Following Dimitrov's sudden death, the party was led by
In March 1954, one year after Joseph Stalin's death, Chervenkov was deposed.[citation needed]
From 1954 until 1989 the party was led by Todor Zhivkov, who was very supportive of the Soviet Union and remained close to its leadership after Nikita Khrushchev was deposed by Leonid Brezhnev. His rule led to relative political stability and an increase in living standards.[4] The demands for democratic reform which swept Eastern Europe in 1989 led Zhivkov to resign. He was succeeded by a considerably more liberal Communist, Petar Mladenov. On 11 December Mladenov announced the party was giving up its guaranteed right to rule. For all intents and purposes, this was the end of Communist rule in Bulgaria, though it would be another month before the provision in the constitution enshrining the party's "leading role" was deleted.[citation needed]
Post-1990
The party moved in a more moderate direction, and by the spring of 1990 was no longer a
Headquarters
The Party House (Партийния дом, Partiyniya dom) served as the headquarters of the Bulgarian Communist Party, located at
Leaders
Chairman of the Communist Party of Bulgaria
Chairman | Term of office | Notes | ||||
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Nº | Portrait | Name (Born–Died) |
Took office | Left office | Duration | |
1 | Dimitar Blagoev (1856–1924) |
1919 | 1924 | |||
2 | Vasil Kolarov (1877–1950) |
1924 | 1933 | |||
3 | Georgi Dimitrov Георги Димитров (1882–1949) |
1933 | 27 December 1948 |
General Secretaries of the Bulgarian Communist Party (1948–1990)
General Secretary | Term of office | Notes | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Nº | Portrait | Name (Born–Died) |
Took office | Left office | Duration | |
1 | Georgi Dimitrov Георги Димитров (1882–1949) |
27 December 1948 | 2 July 1949 | 187 days | Also Prime Minister (1946–1949) | |
2 | Valko Chervenkov Вълко Червенков (1900–1980) |
2 July 1949 | 4 March 1954 | 4 years, 245 days | Also Prime Minister (1950–1955) | |
3 | Todor Zhivkov Тодор Живков (1911–1998) |
4 March 1954 | 10 November 1989 | 35 years, 251 days | Also Prime Minister (1962–1971), and chairman of the Council of State (1971–1989) | |
4 | Petar Mladenov Петър Младенов (1936–2000) |
10 November 1989 | 2 February 1990 | 84 days | Also chairman of the Council of State (1989–1990) |
Chairmen of the Bulgarian Communist Party (1990)
Chairman | Term of office | Notes | ||||
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Nº | Portrait | Name (Born–Died) |
Took office | Left office | Duration | |
1 | Aleksandar Lilov Александър Лилов (1933–2013) |
2 February 1990 | 3 April 1990 | 60 days | Also Member of the Parliament (1962–2001) |
Organizational structure
Party congresses
Congresses and national conferences adopt the program and statutes of the party, approve the accounts of the past periods, develop directives and decisions for further activity. They elect the central governing bodies of the party.
Central Committee
The Central Committee of the BKP is the highest governing body that operates between congresses.
See also
References
- ^ "Istoriya" История [History] (in Bulgarian). Bulgarian Socialist Party. Archived from the original on 29 March 2010. Retrieved 29 March 2010.
- ISBN 90-247-2975-0. Retrieved 30 May 2015.
- ^ Bulgarian Communist Party – an article translated from The Great Soviet Encyclopedia (1979). Taken from the Free dictionary by Farlex.
- ^ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 25 July 2013. Retrieved 27 July 2014.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link) - ISBN 954-617-011-9.
External links
- Media related to Bulgarian Communist Party at Wikimedia Commons