Todorov, Petko Iurdanov

Born Sept. 26, 1879, in Elena; died Feb. 14, 1916, in Chäteau-d’Oex, Switzerland. Bulgarian writer.

Todorov studied law, literature, and philosophy in France, Switzerland, and Germany. In the 1890’s he was influenced by socialism. In 1894, Todorov published his first works, mainly essays and poems expressing sympathy for the proletariat. In the early 1900’s he became fascinated with German idealistic philosophy and was influenced by modernism. The short-story collection Idylls (1908) contains stylized legends of village life. Moral and social conflicts are revealed in the plays The Builders (1902), Strakhil the Terrible Haiduk (1905), and The First Ones (1907). Todorov maintained ties with M. Gorky and helped strengthen Bulgarian-Russian relations. He was the author of The Slavs and Bulgarian Literature (published 1944).