Trajcho Kostov

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Trajtscho Kostow ( Bulgarian Трайчо Костов , scientific transliteration Trajčo Kostov; born June 17, 1897 in Sofia , † December 16, 1949 ibid) was a Bulgarian communist politician.

Life

Together with Georgi Dimitrov, Kostov was one of the founders of the Bulgarian Communist Party (BKP) and has been a member of its Central Committee since 1924. During the Second World War Kostov led a partisan unit in Bulgaria. Until Dimitrov's return from exile in the Soviet Union, he was the leading political figure in the BKP after the Communist seizure of power on September 9, 1944, and played a key role in crushing the political opposition in the immediate aftermath.

Kostov's grave in Sofia

In the first post-war years he enjoyed the highest authority in the BKP as a hero of the resistance against the monarchy and German occupation. After criticizing the Soviet dominance in the economy of the People's Republic of Bulgaria , founded in 1946, he was accused of nationalist sentiments and intellectual individualism within the party; Stalin's supporters in Bulgaria feared a development similar to that in Yugoslavia , which had emancipated itself from the leading Soviet power under Josip Broz Tito . In June 1949, Kostov was relieved of his posts for alleged economic sabotage, in a Stalinist show trial sentenced to death and at December 16, 1949 executed . In all show trials of the Stalinist era, Kostov was the only defendant who refused to make a confession in the entire trial, even in the closing remarks. After the XX. At the 1956 party congress of the CPSU , he and all others who had been accused of ties to Yugoslav authorities and politicians in his trial were rehabilitated.

literature

  • Traitscho Kostoff and his group. Dietz-Verlag, Berlin 1951. (German translation of the trial protocol Predatelskata špionska i sabot'orska grupa na Trajčo Kostov pred suda na narod, Sofia 1949.).
  • Wylko Tscherwenkoff: About the lessons from the exposure and the struggle to break up the Traitscho Kostoff gang. About the shortcomings in party work and our tasks. Presentation at the plenum of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Bulgaria from January 16 to 17, 1950. Dietz-Verlag, Berlin 1951.
  • Hans-Joachim Härtel, Roland Schönfeld: Bulgaria. From the Middle Ages to the present. Pustet, Regensburg 1998, ISBN 3-7917-1540-2 , pp. 208-211.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. Jump up ↑ Wolfgang Leonhard: Kremlin without Stalin , Kiepenheuer and Witsch, Cologne, Berlin 1959, p. 215
personal data
SURNAME Kostov, Trajtscho
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Костов, Трайчо (Bulgarian); Kostov, Trajčo
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Bulgarian politician
DATE OF BIRTH June 17, 1897
PLACE OF BIRTH Sofia
DATE OF DEATH December 16, 1949
Place of death Sofia