Tsola Nincheva Dragoycheva ( bg, Цола Нинчева Драгойчева; 18 August 1898 – 26 May 1993), also known under the pseudonym Sonya, was a

Bulgaria Bulgaria (; bg, България, Bǎlgariya), officially the Republic of Bulgaria,, ) is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern flank of the Balkans, and is bordered by Romania to the north, Serbia and North Macedon ...

n politician of the

Bulgarian Communist Party The Bulgarian Communist Party (BCP; bg, Българска Комунистическа Партия (БКП), Balgarska komunisticheska partiya (BKP)) was the founding and ruling party of the People's Republic of Bulgaria from 1946 until 198 ...

(BCP). A member of the illegal armed wing of the party in the 1920s, she spent years in prison and as an ''

émigré An ''émigré'' () is a person who has emigrated, often with a connotation of political or social self-exile. The word is the past participle of the French ''émigrer'', "to emigrate". French Huguenots Many French Huguenots fled France followi ...

'' in the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...

. After

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, she held a number of high posts and was part of the ''

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 ...

''. From 1946 until 1990, she was continuously a member of the

National Assembly of Bulgaria The National Assembly ( bg, Народно събрание, Narodno sabranie) is the unicameral parliament and legislative body of the Republic of Bulgaria. The National Assembly was established in 1879 with the Tarnovo Constitution. Ordi ...

. On 11 December 1947 she became the first female member of a cabinet in the history of the country.

Life and career

Dragoycheva was born on in the town of

Byala Slatina Byala Slatina ( bg, Бяла Слатина ) is a town in Northwestern Bulgaria. It is located in Vratsa Province Vratsa Province ( bg, Област Враца ''Oblast Vraca'', former name Vraca okrug) is a Bulgarian province located in th ...

Vratsa Province Vratsa Province ( bg, Област Враца ''Oblast Vraca'', former name Okrug, Vraca okrug) is a Bulgarian province located in the northwestern part of the country, between Danube river in the north and Stara Planina mountain in the south. I ...

, northwestern Bulgaria. In 1919, she joined the Communist Party. She graduated from the high pedagogical school in

Sofia Sofia ( ; bg, София, Sofiya, ) is the capital and largest city of Bulgaria. It is situated in the Sofia Valley at the foot of the Vitosha mountain in the western parts of the country. The city is built west of the Iskar river, and ha ...

and became a teacher. She took part in the communist

September Uprising The September Uprising ( bg, Септемврийско въстание, ''Septemvriysko vastanie'') was a 1923 communist insurgency in Bulgaria. The Bulgarian Communist Party (BCP) attempted to overthrow Alexander Tsankov's new government e ...

of 1923 and was sentenced to 15 years in prison and was deprived of her teaching rights. She was amnestied in 1924 and quickly became a member of the regional directorates of her party's armed wing in

Rousse Ruse (also transliterated as Rousse, Russe; bg, Русе ) is the fifth largest city in Bulgaria. Ruse is in the northeastern part of the country, on the right bank of the Danube, opposite the Romanian city of Giurgiu, approximately south of ...

Varna Varna may refer to: Places Europe *Varna, Bulgaria, a city in Bulgaria **Varna Province **Varna Municipality ** Gulf of Varna **Lake Varna **Varna Necropolis *Vahrn, or Varna, a municipality in Italy *Varniai, a city in Lithuania * Varna (Šaba ...

and

Plovdiv Plovdiv ( bg, Пловдив, ), is the second-largest city in Bulgaria, standing on the banks of the Maritsa river in the historical region of Thrace. It has a population of 346,893 and 675,000 in the greater metropolitan area. Plovdiv is the c ...

. In the wake of the

St Nedelya Church assault The St Nedelya Church assault was a terrorist attack on St Nedelya Church in Sofia, Bulgaria. It was carried out on 16 April 1925, when a group of the Military Organisation of the Bulgarian Communist Party directed and supplied by the Soviet M ...

in 1925, Dragoycheva was again imprisoned and

sentenced to death Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty, is the state-sanctioned practice of deliberately killing a person as a punishment for an actual or supposed crime, usually following an authorized, rule-governed process to conclude that t ...

; the execution was postponed due to her pregnancy and her capital punishment was replaced with a

life sentence Life imprisonment is any sentence of imprisonment for a crime under which convicted people are to remain in prison for the rest of their natural lives or indefinitely until pardoned, paroled, or otherwise commuted to a fixed term. Crimes for ...

in 1926. In 1932, she was again granted amnesty; her son, surgeon Chavdar Dragoychev, was born in prison. In 1932, she emigrated to

Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 million ...

; there she graduated from the

International Lenin School The International Lenin School (ILS) was an official training school operated in Moscow, Soviet Union, by the Communist International from May 1926 to 1938. It was resumed after the Second World War and run by the Communist Party of the Soviet Unio ...

and worked at the

Comintern The Communist International (Comintern), also known as the Third International, was a Soviet Union, Soviet-controlled international organization founded in 1919 that advocated world communism. The Comintern resolved at its Second Congress to ...

International Communist Women's Secretariat The Communist Women's International was launched as an autonomous offshoot of the Communist International in April 1920 for the purpose of advancing communist ideas among women. The Communist Women's International was intended to play the same r ...

for a year. Dragoycheva returned to Bulgaria in 1936 and was elected a member of the Bulgarian Communist Party's

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 ...

, which she remained until 2 February 1990. From 1941 on, she was a member of the BCP's

Politburo A politburo () or political bureau is the executive committee for communist parties. It is present in most former and existing communist states. Names The term "politburo" in English comes from the Russian ''Politbyuro'' (), itself a contraction ...

. Dragoycheva took an active part in the BCP and the Fatherland Front's armed resistance to Bulgaria's alignment with the

Axis Powers The Axis powers, ; it, Potenze dell'Asse ; ja, 枢軸国 ''Sūjikukoku'', group=nb originally called the Rome–Berlin Axis, was a military coalition that initiated World War II and fought against the Allies. Its principal members were ...

. She was arrested in August 1941 and interned at the Sveti Nikola women's wing of the Gonda Voda

concentration camp Internment is the imprisonment of people, commonly in large groups, without charges or intent to file charges. The term is especially used for the confinement "of enemy citizens in wartime or of terrorism suspects". Thus, while it can simply ...

near

Asenovgrad Asenovgrad ( bg, Асеновград ) is List of cities and towns in Bulgaria, a town in central southern Bulgaria, part of Plovdiv Province. It is the largest town in Bulgaria that is not a province center. Previously known as ''Stanimaka'' ( ...

; she remained there until December. After the coup d'état of 1944 and her party's rise to power, Dragoycheva took a number of posts, including General Secretary of the Fatherland Front (1944–1948), chairwoman of the Bulgarian People's Women's Union (1945–1950), Minister of Posts, Telegraphs and Telephones (1947–1957), chairwoman of the National Committee for the Protection of Peace (1949–1952), chairwoman of the All-People's Committee for Bulgarian-Soviet Friendship (1957–1977) and its honorary chairwoman from 1977 on. In 1945, she attended the founding meeting of the

Women's International Democratic Federation Women's International Democratic Federation (WIDF) is an international organization with the stated goal of working for women's rights. It was established in 1945 and was most active during the Cold War. It initially focussed on anti-fascism, worl ...

in Paris. Dragoycheva was a supporter of the killing of

Nikola Petkov Nikola Dimitrov Petkov ( bg, Никола Димитров Петков; July 8, 1893 – September 23, 1947) was a Bulgarian politician, one of the leaders of the Bulgarian Agrarian National Union (usually abbreviated as BZNS). He entered polit ...

, Traycho Kostov and other "

enemies of the people The term enemy of the people or enemy of the nation, is a designation for the political or class opponents of the subgroup in power within a larger group. The term implies that by opposing the ruling subgroup, the "enemies" in question are ac ...

". She advocated Bulgaria's admission to the Soviet Union as its 16th republic and acted as a censor of culture and arts. A close friend of

Joseph Kobzon Iosif (Joseph) Davydovich Kobzon (russian: link=no, Ио́сиф Давы́дович Кобзо́н; 11 September 1937 – 30 August 2018) was a Russian singer, known for his crooner style. Early life Kobzon was born to Jewish parents in the ...

and

Andrei Tupolev Andrei Nikolayevich Tupolev (russian: Андрей Николаевич Туполев; – 23 December 1972) was a Russian Empire, Russian and later Soviet Union, Soviet aeronautical engineer known for his pioneering aircraft designs as Di ...

, she was awarded the

Lenin Peace Prize The International Lenin Peace Prize (russian: международная Ленинская премия мира, ''mezhdunarodnaya Leninskaya premiya mira)'' was a Soviet Union award named in honor of Vladimir Lenin. It was awarded by a pane ...

in 1971. Her memoirs give a detailed overview of the Bulgarians in

Vardar Macedonia Vardar Macedonia ( Macedonian and sr, Вардарска Македонија, ''Vardarska Makedonija'') was the name given to the territory of the Kingdom of Serbia (1912–1918) and Kingdom of Yugoslavia (1918–1941) roughly corresponding to t ...

's state in and after World War II and express the BCP's views on the

Macedonian Question The region of Macedonia is known to have been inhabited since Paleolithic times. Еarliest historical inhabitants The earliest historical inhabitants of the region were the Pelasgians, the Bryges and the Thracians. The Pelasgians occupied E ...

. However, they were heavily criticized by

Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization The Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization (IMRO; bg, Вътрешна Македонска Революционна Организация (ВМРО), translit=Vatrešna Makedonska Revoljucionna Organizacija (VMRO); mk, Внатр� ...

(IMRO) leader

Ivan Mihaylov Ivan Mihailov Gavrilov ( bg, Иван Михайлов Гаврилов; mk, Ванчо Михајлов Гаврилов;He is credited in English-language sources as ''Mihailov'', while the Bulgarian and Macedonian transliteration schemes w ...

.Vanco Apostolski, ''Tsola Dragoicheva and her Memoirs Based on Greater Bulgarian Nationalist Positions''. Belgrade: Jugoslovenska Stvarnost, 1979 Dragoycheva died in Sofia on 26 May 1993, living to the age of 94.

Honours and awards

Hero of the People's Republic of Bulgaria The Hero of the People's Republic of Bulgaria ( bg, Герой на Народна република България) was awarded to Bulgarian and foreign citizens for merits in defending Bulgaria and other countries allied to Bulgaria. Establis ...

(1968) *

Hero of Socialist Labour The Hero of Socialist Labour (russian: links=no, Герой Социалистического Труда, Geroy Sotsialisticheskogo Truda) was an honorific title in the Soviet Union and other Warsaw Pact countries from 1938 to 1991. It repre ...

(1963) *

Order of Georgi Dimitrov The Order of Georgi Dimitrov (or Order of Georgy Dimitrov, bg, Орден Георги Димитров) was the highest award of the People's Republic of Bulgaria. It was instituted on 17 June 1950 and awarded to Bulgarians and foreigners for out ...

, twice (1963, 1968) *

Order of Lenin The Order of Lenin (russian: Орден Ленина, Orden Lenina, ), named after the leader of the Russian October Revolution, was established by the Central Executive Committee on April 6, 1930. The order was the highest civilian decoration b ...

* International Lenin Prize "for peace between peoples" (1972)

Life and career

Honours and awards

References

Further reading