Khrelkov, Nikolai Radev

Born Dec. 16, 1894, in Biala Slatina, Vratsa District; died Aug. 26, 1950, in Sofia. Bulgarian poet. Member of the Bulgarian Communist Party from 1918.

Khrelkov began publishing in 1919. During the 1920’s his work became increasingly revolutionary and antifascist innature. He devoted many poems to the heroic deeds of the Bulgarian people during the September Antifascist Uprising of 1923. The revolutionary and romantic narrative poem The Midnight Congress(published 1932; 2nd supplementary ed., 1950) embodies the concept of internationalism. In the 1930’s Khrelkov advocated closer ties with the USSR and translated various Russian classics and works by Soviet poets. He was the author of such collections as The Long-Awaited Day (1952) and Selected Works (1960). Khrelkov was awarded the Dimitrov Prize in 1950.