Agrarian leader who opposed communist rule and was hanged after a show trial
State Department emissary Mark Ethridge called Petkov "the bravest man I've ever known."
A leader of the Bulgarian Agrarian National Union (BZNS), he studied law in Paris after the First World War and returned in 1929 to work as a journalist. He co-founded the anti-fascist Fatherland Front in 1943 but broke from it in 1945 to lead the opposition against the Communists' monopolisation of power, and in the 1946 election his opposition coalition won 101 seats in the Grand National Assembly. Arrested in parliament in June 1947 and sentenced to death in August for a supposed military plot, he was hanged on 23 September, eight days after the Paris peace treaty came into force.
Career Timeline
- 1929Returned and worked as a journalist
- 1938Elected to the 24th National Assembly (invalidated that December)
- 1941Leader of BZNS 'Aleksandar Stamboliyski'
- 1943Helped found the Fatherland Front
- 1944Minister without portfolio in the first Fatherland Front government (to Aug 1945)
- 1945Leader of the anti-communist United Opposition
- 1946Member of the 6th Grand National Assembly