Traicho Kostov

Born June 17, 1897, in Sofia; died Dec. 17, 1949. Bulgarian statesman and political figure. Hero of Socialist Labor (January 1963, posthumously). Son of a railroad worker.

Kostov joined the Bulgarian Communist Party (Narrow Socialists) in 1920 and worked in the apparatus of the Central Committee of the BCP(NS) in 1924. Kostov was imprisoned from 1924 to 1929 for his revolutionary activity. He lived in the USSR and worked in the Executive Committee of the Communist International in 1930–31 and 1932–34. Kostov was elected to the Central Committee of the BCP(NS) in 1931 and to the Politburo of the party in 1937. He was secretary of the Central Committee of the Bulgarian Workers’ Party (BWP) in 1940–42 and was one of the organizers of the struggle of the Bulgarian people against the fascist German occupying forces and against the monarchist-fascist clique ruling the country. He was arrested in 1942 and sentenced to life imprisonment. He was freed during the September popular armed uprising of 1944. Kostov was secretary of the Central Committee of the BWP (Communists) in 1944–46 and deputy chairman of the Council of Ministers from 1946 to 1949 (while at the same time holding a number of ministerial posts). He was a member of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the BCP in 1948–49.