Georgiev, Kimon

Born Aug. 11, 1882, in Pazardzhik; died Sept. 28, 1969, in Sofia. Bulgarian statesman and politician. Born into a petit bourgeois family; graduated from a military school in Sofia.

Georgiev belonged to the Popular Concord (1921-23) and Democratic Concord (1923-31) political parties and the Zveno political group (1931-34). From 1926 to 1928 he was minister of transportation, post, and telegraph. In May 1934 he led a coup d’etat. Georgiev was prime minister from May 1934 to January 1935. On July 23, 1934, the Georgiev government established diplomatic relations with the USSR. In 1943, Georgiev brought the political group Zveno into the antifascist forces that were united in the Fatherland Front. From Sept. 9, 1944, until November 1946 he was head of the first government of the Fatherland Front, formed after the victory of the antifascist armed uprising. From 1944 to 1949 he was chairman of the political party Popular Union Zveno. Georgiev was vice-chairman of the Council of Ministers of the People’s Republic of Bulgaria (PRB) from November 1946 to 1950 and December 1959 to March 1962. He was minister of foreign affairs from October 1946 to December 1947 and minister of electrification and reclamation from December 1947 to March 1959. In March 1962 he was elected a member of the Presidium of the People’s Assembly of the PRB and vice-chairman of the National Council of the Fatherland Front. He was twice named Hero of Socialist Labor of the PRB (1962, 1967) and was awarded five Orders of Georgii Dimitrov.