Vasil Radoslavov

Bulgaria state institutions Liberalism and republicanism 1854–1929 → Died in exile

Pro-German politician who became premier amid the 1913 defeat and led Bulgaria through the First World War on the Central Powers' side

Born in Lovech, he studied law at Heidelberg and became a supporter of Germany. Minister of Justice in Petko Karavelov's cabinet in 1884, he succeeded him as prime minister in 1886 at 32, the youngest in Bulgarian history. His brief, corrupt rule split the Liberal Party, and a Radoslav Liberal Party of right-wing liberals was formed in 1887. On 17 July 1913, during the Second Balkan War, the tsar appointed him to head a pro-German and Russophobic government; in July 1914 he secured a large loan from Germany and Austria-Hungary, and he was premier throughout most of the First World War. He left office in June 1918, fled to Germany after the war, was sentenced to death in absentia by the Stamboliyski regime in 1922, and died in Berlin in 1929, the year he was pardoned.