Krum Vassilev Nachev ( bg, Крум Василев Начев) (April 14, 1925 – October 10, 2020) was a Bulgarian politician, author, journalist and leading member of the Bulgarian Communist Party.

Biography

Born in the town of

Shumen Shumen ( bg, Шумен, also romanized as ''Shoumen'' or ''Šumen'', ) is the tenth largest city in Bulgaria and the administrative and economic capital of Shumen Province. Etymology The city was first mentioned as ''Šimeonis'' in 1153 by t ...

, Krum Vassilev became a member of the Workers Youth League in 1942, served as regional secretary and later a member of its Central Committee. Still a teenager, he joined the

resistance movement A resistance movement is an organized effort by some portion of the civil population of a country to withstand the legally established government or an occupying power and to disrupt civil order and stability. It may seek to achieve its objective ...

, first as a helper (''yatak'') and since April 1944 as a fully fledged

partisan Partisan may refer to: Military * Partisan (weapon), a pole weapon * Partisan (military), paramilitary forces engaged behind the front line Films * ''Partisan'' (film), a 2015 Australian film * ''Hell River'', a 1974 Yugoslavian film also know ...

(''partizanin'') in the "Avgust Popov" unit. Later that year he became a member of the Bulgarian Communist Party. After the events of September 9, 1944 he studied philosophy at Sofia University and also graduated from the Higher Party School. Between 1950 and 1959 he served as chief political advisor to Secretary General and Prime Minister Valko Chervenkov, accompanying him on numerous state visits including the first official Bulgarian delegation to the People's Republic of China and the signing of the

Warsaw Pact The Warsaw Pact (WP) or Treaty of Warsaw, formally the Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation and Mutual Assistance, was a collective defense treaty signed in Warsaw, Poland, between the Soviet Union and seven other Eastern Bloc socialist republic ...

in 1955. Afterwards he was deputy chief editor and editor-in-chief of "Narodna Kultura" weekly and served as deputy chairman of the Union of Bulgarian Journalists. In 1971 Vassilev became a member of the

Central Committee Central committee is the common designation of a standing administrative body of Communist party, communist parties, analogous to a board of directors, of both ruling and nonruling parties of former and existing socialist states. In such party org ...

of the Bulgarian Communist Party, having become a member-candidate at the previous party congress in 1966. He held numerous high-ranking positions in the state and party ''

nomenklatura The ''nomenklatura'' ( rus, номенклату́ра, p=nəmʲɪnklɐˈturə, a=ru-номенклатура.ogg; from la, nomenclatura) were a category of people within the Soviet Union and other Eastern Bloc countries who held various key admi ...

'', including as director general of the

Bulgarian National Radio Bulgarian National Radio ( bg, Българско национално радио, ''Bulgarsko natsionalno radio''; abbreviated to БНР, BNR) is Bulgaria's national radio broadcasting organisation. It operates two national and nine regional cha ...

and

Television Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or the medium of television transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertisin ...

, head of the departments of Arts and Culture (1966–1968), Propaganda and Agitation (1968–1972) and Trans-border Propaganda (1981–1990) at the Central Committee, chairman of the State Printing Committee at the

Council of Ministers A council is a group of people who come together to consult, deliberate, or make decisions. A council may function as a legislature, especially at a town, city or county/shire level, but most legislative bodies at the state/provincial or natio ...

(1972–1981). He was elected a member of parliament between 1971 and 1990, serving four consecutive terms in the 6th, 7th, 8th and 9th National Assemblies. After his retirement from politics, Krum Vassilev remained a member of the

Bulgarian Socialist Party The Bulgarian Socialist Party ( bg, Българска социалистическа партия, translit=Balgarska sotsialisticheska partiya, BSP), also known as The Centenarian ( bg, Столетницата, links=no, translit=Stoletnitsat ...

, an occasional columnist and published several books.

Honours and awards

* Order of Georgi Dimitrov *

Order "13 Centuries of Bulgaria" The Order "13 Centuries of Bulgaria" ( bg, Орден «XIII века България») was an award of the People's Republic of Bulgaria. The order was instituted on October 16, 1981 by decree No.2191 of the State Council of the People's Repub ...

Order of Saints Cyril and Methodius The Order of Saints Cyril and Methodius is an award conferred by the Republic of Bulgaria. History It has had three incarnations : * first on 18 May 1909 by the Kingdom of Bulgaria, * second on 13 December 1950 by the People's Republic of Bulga ...

Order of 9 September 1944 The Order of 9 September 1944 was an Order of Merit of the Kingdom of Bulgaria from 1945 to 1946, and of the People's Republic of Bulgaria from 1946 to 1990. It commemorated the Bulgarian coup d'état of 1944 Bulgarian may refer to: * Something ...

* State Merit of Culture * Nikolay Haytov National Literary Award (2010) * Georgi Kirkov Publicist Award (2016) *

Georgi Dimitrov Georgi Dimitrov Mihaylov (; bg, Гео̀рги Димитро̀в Миха̀йлов), also known as Georgiy Mihaylovich Dimitrov (russian: Гео́ргий Миха́йлович Дими́тров; 18 June 1882 – 2 July 1949), was a Bulgarian ...

Award (2018) *

Dimitar Blagoev Dimitar Blagoev Nikolov (, mk, Димитар Благоев Николов; 14 June 1856 – 7 May 1924) was a Bulgarian political leader and philosopher. He was the founder of the Bulgarian left-wing political movement and of the first social- ...

Award (2020)

Bibliography

* "What We Saw in China" (1958) * "No to Untruths" (2010; ) * "Valko Chervenkov. Through the Eyes of His Contemporaries" (2010; ) * "Impossible Conversations" (2015; ) * "Yes to the Truth" (2016; ) * "Earthly Stories" (2017; ) * "Chasing Truths" (2019; ) * "The Bullet That Spared Me" (2020; )

References

* * * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Vassilev, Krum 1925 births 2020 deaths People from Shumen Bulgarian anti-fascists Bulgarian resistance members Bulgarian communists Bulgarian Communist Party politicians Members of the National Assembly (Bulgaria)