Elena Lagadinova

Elena Atanasova Lagadinova (; May 9, 1930 – October 29, 2017) was a Bulgarian agronomist, genetic engineer, and politician.

During the Second World War, Lagadinova contributed to the Bulgarian resistance against German occupation, earning the nickname “Амазонка” or “The Amazon.” She was the youngest female fighter in Bulgaria, beginning her contributions to the war effort at 11 years old and actively fighting at age 14.

Following the Allied victory in 1945, she pursued a PhD in agrobiology, before serving as a research scientist at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences. There, she developed a new strain of wheat, Triticale, which helped to boost the productivity of collective farms. For this discovery, she was awarded the Order of Cyril and Methodius by the Bulgarian Government.

In 1968, Lagadinova accepted the position as Secretary of the Fatherland Front and President of the Committee of the Bulgarian Women's Movement. She was also a notable figure in global politics, working with other international activists to forge a coalition of national women's organisations, and becoming a member of the United Nations International Research and Training Institute for the Advancement of Women in 1985.

She died on October 29, 2017, in a retirement facility in Sofia, Bulgaria.

Early life Razlog, Bulgaria, where Elena Lagadinova was born. The Pirin Mountains, where she escaped to in 1944, are visible in the distance. Lagadinova was born in the mountain town of Razlog, Bulgaria in 1930. In 1941 Bulgaria passed the “Law for the Protection of the Nation,” which eliminated the civil rights of Bulgarian Jews. In this capacity Lagadinova was exposed to greater danger, since as an iatak she was based in the cities and had a greater chance of getting caught and killed. In 1969, The CBWM received over 16,000 responses from working women. Their findings indicated that the majority of Bulgarian women wished to have more children, but felt overworked and unable to balance work and maternal duties. During her presidency of the Committee of the Bulgarian Women's Movement (CBWM) she worked with the Women's International Democratic Federation (WIDF) which aimed to bring women in the Eastern and Western blocs of the Cold War together to defuse aggression in international relations. Lagadinova also provided material and logistical support for new women's committees and movements across Asia and Africa.

At the third World Conference on Women in 1985 in Nairobi she was elected as a general rapporteur. From that year onwards till 1988, she also became the member of the UN Institute for Training Women.

Lagadinova worked with various international groups during the United Nations International Year of Women in 1975, then helped set up coalitions of women's organisations in the 1970s and 1980s to pressure governments to fund maternity leaves. Thanks in part to her work, all countries except Papua New Guinea, Suriname, Liberia and the United States now legally guarantee some form of paid maternity leave.

Awards In 1959, Lagadinova was awarded the Order of Cyril, by the Government of Bulgaria for her work in plant genetics. In 1991, Lagadinova received the prestigious “Presidential Medal of Outstanding Achievement” by the Claremont Graduate School in California.

Death In 1989, Lagadinova retired from public life. Twenty-seven years after retirement, Lagadinova gave an interview to American ethnographer Kristen Ghodsee, in which she advised, “You must fight for something you believe in.” On October 29, 2017, Lagadinova died in her sleep at Sofia, Bulgaria.