Karlo Lukanov

Karlo Lukanov

Karlo Lukanov Todorov ( Bulgarian Карло Тодоров Луканов ) (born October 20 ^{. Jul} / 1. November  1897 ^greg. In Pleven , † 15. July 1982 in Sofia ) was a Bulgarian jurist and politician. Between the communist takeover of power in 1944 and 1962 he held various high positions, including from 1956 to 1962 as foreign minister of his country in the Yugov government (2nd) .

Life and family

Lukanow grew up in a politically very active family: his father, Todor Stantschew Lukanow, was a member of the Bulgarian Social Democratic Party, its regional leader in Pleven since 1900 and a member of the party control commission since 1911, and between 1913 and 1923 he was also a member of the National Assembly for four legislative periods . Karlo attended grammar school in Pleven from 1913 and became a member of the Socialist Youth Association in the same year. After graduation, he moved to a school for reserve officers in 1917 and was transferred from there to an artillery regiment, with which he was still used in the First World War . When he reached the age of majority under Bulgarian law at the time, he had also become a member of the Bulgarian Workers' Party in 1917.

After the end of the First World War, Lukanov studied law in Sofia and settled in Pleven as a lawyer in 1921 . In 1925 he was arrested after the bomb attack on the Sveta Nedelja Cathedral in Sofia and sentenced to four years in prison. After being released in 1926 due to an amnesty , he and his wife emigrated to the Soviet Union via Austria . All that is known about his life there is that he should have worked in a construction company and in the apparatus of the Communist International . His deployment in Spain (see below) makes military training likely during these years. In 1938 his son Andrei Lukanov was born in Moscow , whose son Karlo Andreew Lukanow today plays an important role in Bulgarian economic life and in 2012 was one of the co-founders of the party Обединена социалдемокрация ( United Social Democracy ).

Political career

In the Soviet Union, Lukanov became a member of the CPSU . From 1936 to 1939 he stayed in Spain to participate in the Spanish Civil War as a member of the International Brigades . He is employed as a lieutenant colonel with Soviet citizenship in Albacete , where the headquarters of the international brigades were, and as chief of staff of the XII. Brigade mentioned. After his return in 1939 Lukanov worked for the Communist International before he switched to the radio station Christo Botew , which was founded for foreign propaganda in 1941 . After the Communists came to power in Bulgaria in 1944, he returned and was initially director of the state radio. In 1947 he switched to the State Planning Commission as deputy chairman . In August 1949 Lukanov became chairman of the committee for science, art and culture of the Bulgarian government and thus achieved the rank of minister , but in December he switched back to the planning committee, now as chairman. In February 1952 Lukanov was one of several deputy chairmen of the Bulgarian Council of Ministers, and in 1954 he was appointed Bulgarian ambassador to Moscow , responsible for the Soviet Union, Finland and Mongolia . From this position he was appointed foreign minister in August 1956 and remained so until the end of 1962. Subsequently, Lukanow was ambassador to Switzerland until December 1966 .

From 1954 to 1976 Lukanov was a member of the Central Committee of the Bulgarian Communist Party .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c d} Short biography КАРЛО ЛУКАНОВ on the website of the project Полицейски досиета на избестни личности от периода преди 1944 г. ( Police files of important people from before 1944 ) of the Bulgarian State Archives Administration, accessed on April 15, 2016.
2. ↑ ^{a b c} Article Lukanov, Karlo in: Biographical Dictionary of the Comintern. Stanford: Hoover Institution Press, 1986, pp. 283/284. ISBN 978-0817984014 .
3. ↑ Interview of the news portal 168 часа with K. Lukanow, around June 20, 2012, accessed on April 15, 2016.
4. ↑ Information on terms of office for Карло Тодоров Луканов on the website of the Bulgarian Foreign Ministry, accessed on April 8, 2016.