Georgi Atanasov

Georgi Ivanov Atanasov (; 25 July 1933 – 31 March 2022) was a Bulgarian politician and a leading member of the Bulgarian Communist Party who served as Prime Minister from 1986 to 1990. Atanasov supported the move to oust Todor Zhivkov as Chairman of the State Council, joining Petar Mladenov in leading the opposition. In November 1992, he was sentenced to ten years imprisonment for embezzlement, although he was pardoned in 1994.

Atanasov died at 31 March 2022, at the age of 88 in Sofia.

Biography

Early life, education, and career Georgi Atanasov was born on 25 July 1933 in the village of Pravoslaven, in Borisovgrad Province, Bulgaria. He joined the communist Workers' Youth Union in 1947 and became a member of the Bulgarian Communist Party in 1956. That same year, he graduated with a degree in history from Sofia University "St. Kliment Ohridski".

During the following years, Atanasov held a number of positions within the nomenklatura of the Dimitrov Communist Youth Union. He served as its leader from 1965 to 1968. He subsequently joined the apparatus of the Central Committee of the BCP, where he headed the Science and Education Department from 1968 to 1976, the Records Department from 1976 to 1977, and later the Organizational Department.

In early 1985, Atanasov was a member of a special temporary commission of senior party officials established to coordinate the so-called "Revival Process", the state-sponsored campaign of forced assimilation directed primarily against Bulgaria's ethnic Turkish population.

In March 1986, Atanasov succeeded Grisha Filipov as Chairman of the Council of Ministers. Later that year, he formally headed the 78th Government of Bulgaria. He remained Prime Minister until 1990 and was elected to the Politburo of the Central Committee of the BCP in 1986.

Atanasov received several state awards, including the Order of Georgi Dimitrov and the Order "13 Centuries of Bulgaria".

Honours and awards

Order of Georgi Dimitrov

Order of Karl Marx