Georgi Traikov

Born Apr. 8, 1898, in the village of Vurbeni, Lerin Okoliia (now part of Greece); died Jan. 14, 1975, in Sofia. Bulgarian state and political figure. Hero of the People’s Republic of Bulgaria (1968); Hero of Socialist Labor of the People’s Republic of Bulgaria (1963).

Traikov became a member of the Bulgarian Agrarian People’s Union in 1918. In September 1923 he led the peasant struggle in the village of Gebedzhe (now Beloslav) against the military fascist dictatorship that had been established in Bulgaria earlier that year. He was active in the underground work of the Fatherland Front of Bulgaria and was arrested and imprisoned several times for his antifascist activities.

After the liberation of Bulgaria from fascist rule, Traikov became chairman of a regional committee of the Fatherland Front in Varna. From 1946 to 1949 he was minister of agriculture. After serving from 1947 to 1974 as secretary of the Bulgarian Agrarian People’s Union, he became chairman of the union in 1974. Traikov was a deputy chairman of the Council of Ministers from 1947 to 1949 and first deputy chairman from 1949 to 1964. He served as chairman of the Presidium of the National Assembly from 1964 to 1971 and as chairman of the National Assembly of the People’s Republic of Bulgaria in 1971 and 1972. In April 1972 he became first deputy chairman of the State Council and chairman of the National Council of the Fatherland Front; he became honorary chairman of the National Council in 1974.

In 1963, Traikov received the International Lenin Prize for Strengthening Peace Among Nations. He was awarded the Order of Georgii Dimitrov in 1958, 1963, and 1973; the Order of Lenin in 1968; and the Order of the October Revolution in 1973.