On August 11, 1882, a boy was born in Pazardzhik. In his early years, he was known among his friends as the Greek. A few decades later, he became one of the key politicians in Bulgaria.
Participant in three coups. Savior of the Kingdom of Bulgaria. Gravedigger of parliamentary democracy. These are just some of the assessments of Kimon Georgiev’s personality.
He was born on August 11, 1882 in Pazardzhik. He was the son of a modest civil servant and a Greek mother, which is why he received the nickname The Greek. He graduated from the Military School in Sofia in 1902. He rose through the military hierarchy and during the Balkan War was a captain and company commander in the third reserve regiment. In World War I he was a company commander in the 27th Infantry Regiment. In 1916 he was wounded in the eye on the front line, where he proved himself as a brave officer.
Another unflattering nickname was attached to him: “Körkimon”.
In early 1919 he was one of the founders of the Military Union and a member of its central leadership, and on December 3, 1920 he was dismissed from the army as a lieutenant colonel. But Kimon Georgiev continued to rise in the military hierarchy, and after September 9, 1944 – on November 1, 1944 he was already a major general, and on October 16, 1946 he became a colonel general from the reserve (reserve), recalls Borislav Gardev from the Liternet website.
As should be expected, the career military Georgiev did not approve of agricultural experiments and was in favor of strong supra-party power. He actively participated in the creation of the People’s Agreement on March 15, 1922, as well as in the brilliantly conducted June 9 coup against Stamboliyski in 1923.
As one of the leaders of the Democratic Agreement, he was a deputy in the 21st and 22nd National Assembly (1923-1931) and was even Minister of Transport in Lyapchev’s first cabinet from January 4, 1926 to March 3, 1928. I have read his parliamentary speeches from this period, including the one on his resignation, and I can agree with what Stefan Gruev said in “Crown of Thorns” that “Cimon was a good speaker and more presentable in front of an audience”, as, unlike Damyan Velchev “he controlled himself and his feelings” and “he was strict and demanding with his subordinates”. I also remembered the declaration of the new OF government of September 9, 1944, which he read with a shrill voice trembling with excitement and which Georgi Lambrev broadcast every year on the “remarkable date” in his column “Bulgaria – deeds and documents” on the Bulgarian National Radio.
Married late to a younger woman from a wealthy family, Kimon Georgiev was an exemplary father and husband.
By 1927, he was already feeling cramped in the Democratic Alliance, so he and Dimo Kazasov headed towards the creation of the Political Circle “Zveno” on June 27, 1927, with a printed organ, the magazine “Zveno” (January 1, 1928-May 20, 1934), leaning towards the left wing of the Military Union. He patiently waited for his golden hour, which came on May 19, 1934, when, ahead of Tsar Boris III, Alexander Tsankov and Nikola Mushanov, he seized power, becoming Prime Minister and laying the foundations of authoritarian rule in our country.
Kimon Georgiev was Prime Minister until January 22, 1935, but he was also Foreign Minister until May 23, 1934, Minister of Justice until January 22, 1935, and even for a few hours until the appearance of Gen. Pencho Zlatev is also the head of the military department!
The new cabinet persistently and methodically works to create an elitist state-political system, leaning more towards Mussolini than towards Hitler.
The 23rd National Assembly was dissolved, the main political parties were banned,
a general trade union and a general employers’ union were created, legislation was enacted with regulations – laws (the practice would continue immediately after September 9, 1944), based on the perverted interpretation of Art. 47 of the Constitution, the VMRO was liquidated, and an open conflict with the monarch was set off on the path of the ephemeral utopia of creating a strong republic. Censorship and persecution of political opponents – incl. communists (the opening of the “Nikola Kofardzhiev” printing house) and farmers, are even more cruel and harsh than under the conspiracy government. And at the same time, despite the isolation into which it falls, the government makes a new territorial division of the country – the creation of the regions is its idea, and establishes diplomatic relations with the USSR on July 23, 1934.
Since then, there have been doubts that the prime minister was recruited by Soviet and Yugoslav intelligence. The attempt to normalize relations with Yugoslavia was undermined by the Marseilles assassination on October 9, 1934, in which Ivan Mikhailov’s man Vlado Chernozemski liquidated the bloody satrap King Alexander. Later, Vanche Mihaylov would believe that it was this act that removed Kimon Georgiev from power, although the truth was much more trivial.
Tsar Boris III skillfully used the contradictions in the Military Union,
betting on the right wing around Gen. Pencho Zlatev and thus a new coup took place on January 22, 1935, when Kimon Georgiev was overthrown, and the Zvenari lowered the flags for more honorable times.
Even though he was in power for only 8 months, Kimon Georgiev laid the foundations of authoritarian rule in our country. He liquidated the foundation of the native parliamentary-democratic system and if he had managed to remove the monarch from power, we would have learned in history textbooks that we were on the threshold of our socialist development. Because the communists, seizing power in 1944 – and in close alliance with “Zveno”, did exactly that – liquidated the monarchical institution, banned their competing parties from the left-wing political spectrum and further shaped the dictatorial nature of the regime, the foundations of which were laid on May 19, 1934, by Kimon Georgiev.
Because of their open disagreement with the new rulers around Gen. Zlatev Kimon Georgiev was exiled to the island of St. Anastasia, together with Alexander Tsankov, between April 1-9, 1935, an incident skillfully used by the Tsar to remove the failed autocrator Pencho Zlatev from power on April 21, 1935. A curious touch of their relationship is the fact that Pencho Zlatev died on July 24, 1948, without being repressed by his old opponent Kimon Georgiev!…
It was in 1935 that the serious evolution of the Bulgarian statesman occurred.
He finally turned to cooperation with the BZNS “Pladne”, and in 1936 he was already looking for unity with the Bulgarian Communist Party, so that we could see him as a candidate-deputy “people’s front” in the elections of March 27, 1938.
In the 1940s, Kimon Georgiev was still as brave, decisive and calculating. On November 1, 1940, he signed a letter to Prime Minister Filov, declaring himself against the voted Law on the Protection of the Nation, after 3 years he was already a member of the National Committee of the OF, established on July 17, 1942, and on August 7, 1944, together with 12 figures of the bourgeois opposition, he signed a declaration to the government and the regents with a request for a radical change in our foreign policy, exit from the war, rapprochement with the USSR and the creation of a new government.
A little more than a month will pass and Kimon Georgiev’s wish will come true – with the help of the Red Army on September 9, 1944, it will be he who will be the new Prime Minister of Bulgaria, for the second time in his political career. Until November 22, 1946, when he handed over the post to the “leader and teacher of the Bulgarian people” Georgi Dimitrov, Kimon Georgiev would be Prime Minister, Minister without Portfolio and Minister of War, after the resignation of Damyan Velchev on September 25, 1946, when due to a conflict with the communists he was removed from power and sent on a well-deserved rest as Minister Plenipotentiary in Switzerland. In the period November 22, 1946-March 17, 1962, Kimon Georgiev was successively Deputy Chairman of the Council of Ministers and Minister of Foreign Affairs, Minister of Electrification, Land Reclamation and Water Management, Chairman of the Committee on Construction and Architecture with the rank of Minister. At the same time, he was a deputy without interruption from 1945 to 1969 and a member of the Presidium of the National Assembly – i.e. his deputy chairman from March 15, 1962 until his death on September 28, 1969.
A remarkable and unusual career for an OF official,
which everyone would envy!
At the same time, Kimon Georgiev, who is also a high-degree freemason, restores the People’s Union “Zveno” on October 1, 1944, of whose executive committee he was immediately elected chairman, which he remained until the closure of the union and its merger into the OF on February 19, 1949.
As Prime Minister, Kimon Georgiev concluded the armistice with the anti-Hitler coalition on October 28, 1944, and later participated in the signing of the Paris Peace Treaty of February 10, 1947, with which he managed to save the Bulgarian character of Southern Dobrudja and not hand over the Rhodope Mountains to Greece.
At the same time, on October 3, 1944, the Ordinance Law on the Trial of the Guilty, who had involved the country in the Second World War as an ally of Germany, was promulgated, according to the government program of September 17, as a result of which on February 1, 1945, the most prominent representatives of the the Bulgarian bourgeois class and thought, the first concentration camps were created, and during the first three months of organized lawlessness of the new government, about 26,000 people disappeared without a trace.
On July 2, 1946, the 26th National Assembly foresaw a law on the leadership and control of the army by the Bulgarian Communist Party, from June 7, 1946, the creation of a Macedonian nation in our country was initiated by Stalin’s order, and on September 8, 1946, the government of Kimon Georgiev held the so-called referendum, by which the country was declared a republic – it would become a people’s republic with the Dimitrov Constitution of December 4, 1947.
On October 27, 1946, the disputed elections for the 6th Supreme Soviet were held, won by violence and manipulation by the OF.
It was time for Kimon Georgiev to focus on peace negotiations as Foreign Minister (until December 11, 1947) and hand over power to Georgi Dimitrov. Kimon Georgiev will be his deputy, he will be so under Vasil Kolarov until January 20, 1950, and he is the Minister of Electrification, Land Reclamation and Water Management from December 11, 1947 to March 16, 1959 in the cabinets of Dimitrov, Kolarov, Valko Chervenkov and Anton Yugov, as chairman of the Committee on Construction and Architecture in the cabinet of Anton Yugov from March 16, 1959 to December 25, 1959. Georgiev is again Deputy Prime Minister from December 25, 1959 to March 17, 1962.
In the 1950s, his name is associated with the Batash hydroelectric road, the “Belmeken – Sestrimo” cascade, the “Iskar” dams and “Cold Well”.
His signature as Deputy Prime Minister laid the foundations of nuclear energy in our country!
The complex and peculiar evolution of this politician truly has no analogue in our country, but the Bulgarian Talleyrand finally found his master in the person of Todor Zhivkov. His dismissal from the Council of Ministers preceded, but was also connected to Zhivkov’s rise to sole power. After the cunning Praveshka removed Anton Yugov from the Central Committee of the Bulgarian Communist Party on November 4 and from the Council of Ministers on November 27, 1962, Kimon Georgiev was left with the sinecure of Deputy Chairman of the sham National Assembly, respectively Ferdinand Kozovski and Sava Ganovski, which in communist times we affectionately called “the valley of dead elephants”.
Kimon Georgiev became “Hero of Socialist Labor” twice for his anniversaries in 1962 and 1967. Moreover, he even lived to see the 25th anniversary of his life’s work – the September 9th coup of 1944, after which, probably satisfied with what he had achieved, he died on September 28, 1969 at the age of 87.
Kimon Georgiev has certain merits to the country, in particular in its pacification in 1923 and 1934-1935, for the concluded Paris Peace Treaty, as well as in the electrification and construction of the water cascades and laying the foundations of atomic energy, at certain moments he was ready for gestures that are difficult to associate with his harsh nature, such as saving the lives of Damyan Velchev and Pencho Zlatev or the help he gave to Rayko Alexiev’s widow – Vesela, to link her fate with that of the still popular in the summer of 1946 MP – farmer Petar Koev.