Zhak Primo Natán

Born Oct. 28, 1902, in Sofia; died there Mar. 3, 1974. Bulgarian historian, economist, and public figure; academician of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences (1961). People’s Worker of Science (1965) and Hero of Socialist Labor of the People’s Republic of Bulgaria (PRB; 1964). Became member of the Bulgarian Communist Party (BCP) in 1920.

Natan studied economics from 1926 to 1930 while a political emigré in Moscow. He served on the National Committee of the Fatherland Front from 1945 to 1947 and was vice-chairman of the Committee on Science and Art under the Council of Ministers of the PRB from 1949 to 1952. Natan was affiliated with the K. Marx Higher Institute of Economics in Sofia as a professor and head of the subdepartment of political economy from 1945 and as rector from 1952 to 1962. He was chief editor of the journal Istoricheski pregled from 1949.

Natan is the author of works on such topics as the history of the Bulgarian economy, the development of economic thought, the national liberation movement in Bulgaria in the 19th century, and the history of the BCP. He also wrote on political economy. A recipient of the Dimitrov Prize in 1950 and again in 1966, he was twice awarded the Order of Georgii Dimitrov (1964, 1972).