Nikola Petkov
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Nikola Dimitrov Petkov (; July 8, 1893 – September 23, 1947) was a
Bulgaria Bulgaria, officially the Republic of Bulgaria, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern portion of the Balkans directly south of the Danube river and west of the Black Sea. Bulgaria is bordered by Greece and Turkey t ...
n politician, one of the leaders of the
Bulgarian Agrarian National Union The Bulgarian Agrarian National Union Bulgarian Agrarian National U ...
(usually abbreviated as BZNS). He entered politics in the early 1930s. Like many other peasant party leaders in Poland, Hungary, and Bulgaria in 1945–1947, Petkov was tried and executed soon after postwar Soviet control was established in his country. State Department emissary, Mark Ethridge, sent to Bulgaria in 1945 to report on conditions to President Truman, called him "the bravest man I've ever known." He was a son of the politician
Dimitar Petkov Dimitar Nikolov Petkov () (2 November 1858, Tulcea – 11 March 1907, Sofia) was a leading member of the Bulgarian People's Liberal Party and the country's Prime Minister from 5 November 1906 until he was assassinated in Sofia the following ye ...
. His brother Petko Petkov was shot dead by an unknown assassin in 1924. Nikola Petkov was among the founders of the Fatherland Front (FF) in 1943 and participated in the establishment of the new government before becoming its target.


Early years

He graduated from the 1st Sofia Boys High School in 1910 and after that studied law and politics at the Sorbonne,
Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...
. He returned to Bulgaria to participate in the
Balkan Wars The Balkan Wars were two conflicts that took place in the Balkans, Balkan states in 1912 and 1913. In the First Balkan War, the four Balkan states of Kingdom of Greece (Glücksburg), Greece, Kingdom of Serbia, Serbia, Kingdom of Montenegro, M ...
(1912–1913) serving in a Guards regiment. After
World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...
Petkov continued his studies in Paris and graduated with excellent marks in 1922. He worked in the Bulgarian legation in Paris. After the coup of 9 June 1923 when the BZNS government under
Aleksandar Stamboliyski Aleksandar Stoimenov Stamboliyski (; 1 March 1879 – 14 June 1923) was a Bulgarian politician who served as the List of Prime Ministers of Bulgaria, Prime Minister of Kingdom of Bulgaria, Bulgaria from 1919 until 1923. Stamboliyski was a memb ...
was removed from office, Nikola Petkov resigned and stayed in
France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...
where he worked as a journalist.


Civil activities

In 1929 he returned to Bulgaria and became an editor of the newspapers ''Zemya'' (1931–1932) and ''Zemedelsko zname'' – an organ of Bulgarian Agrarian People's Union "Aleksandar Stamboliyski" (1932–1933). He prepared and published a book on Aleksandar Stamboliyski in which he made political analysis and characteristics on the personality and the activities of the agrarian leader. After the coup of 19 May 1934 Petkov cooperated with democratic parties including the Labours' Party – the legal organization of the banned
Bulgarian Communist Party 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 f ...
. He was elected to the 24th National Assembly (1938–1939). Due to his
anti-fascist Anti-fascism is a political movement in opposition to fascist ideologies, groups and individuals. Beginning in European countries in the 1920s, it was at its most significant shortly before and during World War II, where the Axis powers were op ...
activity his election as a member of the parliament was invalidated in December 1938 and Nikola Petkov was interned in Ivailovgrad. After Dr
G. M. Dimitrov Georgi Mihov Dimitrov (; 15 April 1903 – 21 November 1972), known as Gemeto () to distinguish him from Georgi Dimitrov, Georgi Dimitrov Mihaylov, was a Bulgarian politician, a leading figure of the Bulgarian Agrarian National Union during t ...
emigrated in 1941, Nikola Petkov took the leadership of BZNS "Aleksandar Stamboliyski". That same year he was sent to the Gonda Voda camp. He negotiated with the other democratic parties for the establishment of the Fatherland Front and represented BZNS in the national council of the FF. In 1943 Nikola Petkov was interned in
Svishtov Svishtov ( ) List of cities and towns in Bulgaria, is a town in northern Bulgaria, located in Veliko Tarnovo Province on the right bank of the Danube river opposite the Romanian town of Zimnicea. It is the administrative centre of the homonymous S ...
where he continued with his political activity and was engaged in the organization of the FF. He was meeting with Kosta Lulchev and other political activists. Petkov returned to Sofia in the summer of 1944.


Political activity

From 9 September 1944 to 26 August 1945 he was a minister without portfolio in the first government of the FF. From January 1945 he became a leader of the
anti-communist Anti-communism is political and ideological opposition to communist beliefs, groups, and individuals. Organized anti-communism developed after the 1917 October Revolution in Russia, and it reached global dimensions during the Cold War, when th ...
United opposition. From 26 November 1946 he was an MP in the 6th Great National Assembly. His struggle to preserve
parliamentary democracy A parliamentary system, or parliamentary democracy, is a form of government where the head of government (chief executive) derives their democratic legitimacy from their ability to command the support ("confidence") of a majority of the legisl ...
was viewed by the
communist Communism () is a sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology within the socialist movement, whose goal is the creation of a communist society, a socioeconomic order centered on common ownership of the means of production, di ...
s as a form of counter-revolutionary activity. His parliamentary immunity was lifted on 5 June 1947 and he was arrested in the Parliament building itself; colleagues who tried to prevent the arrest were beaten up. After a
show trial A show trial is a public trial in which the guilt (law), guilt or innocence of the defendant has already been determined. The purpose of holding a show trial is to present both accusation and verdict to the public, serving as an example and a d ...
in which the defence was denied the rights to legal representation or to present evidence, he was found guilty of espionage and sentenced to death on 16 August that year. Though he protested his innocence during his staged group trial with four other 'co-conspirators,' and despite the protests of Western nations, Nikola Petkov was executed by hanging on 23 September 1947 and buried in an unknown grave. The Bulgarian secret police arranged for a false confession to be publicly printed after Petkov's death, but it was so obviously faked that the move quickly became an embarrassment and ceased to be mentioned by the authorities. Petkov had been denied a Christian burial or last rites, despite being one of Bulgaria's few genuinely religious public figures. He was posthumously rehabilitated on 15 January 1990. At his death, Reuben Markham wrote, "I have known no nobler friend of common people, no stauncher anti-Fascist, no more devoted democrat."


See also

*
Bulgarian Agrarian National Union The Bulgarian Agrarian National Union Bulgarian Agrarian National U ...
*
Georgi Dimitrov Georgi Dimitrov Mihaylov (; ) also known as Georgiy Mihaylovich Dimitrov (; 18 June 1882 – 2 July 1949), was a Bulgarian communist politician who served as General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Bulgarian Communist Party from 1933 t ...


Notes


Further reading

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External links


Dimitrov: a different verdict – Comment news
at www.sofiaecho.com
Bulgaria – Britannica Online Encyclopedia
at www.britannica.com * {{DEFAULTSORT:Petkov, Nikola 1893 births 1947 deaths Politicians from Sofia Bulgarian Agrarian National Union politicians Bulgarian anti-communists 1930s in Bulgaria 1940s in Bulgaria Executed politicians Executed Bulgarian people People executed by the People's Republic of Bulgaria People executed by Bulgaria by hanging Members of the National Assembly (Bulgaria) 20th-century Bulgarian politicians Journalists from Sofia Male journalists 20th-century Bulgarian journalists