The State Council () was the standing organ of the

Bulgarian National Assembly The National Assembly () is the Unicameralism, unicameral parliament and Legislature, legislative body of the Republic of Bulgaria. The first National Assembly was established in 1879 with the Tarnovo Constitution. During the People's Republic ...

from 1971 to 1990. It was the

collective head of state A head of state is the public persona of a sovereign state.#Foakes, Foakes, pp. 110–11 "

he head of state He or HE may refer to: Language * He (letter), the fifth letter of the Semitic abjads * He (pronoun), a pronoun in Modern English * He (kana), one of the Japanese kana (へ in hiragana and ヘ in katakana) * Ge (Cyrillic), a Cyrillic letter cal ...

being an embodiment of the State itself or representative of its international persona." The name given to the office of head of sta ...

before the creation of the office of Chairman (President) in 1990. It operated similarly to the

Presidium of the Supreme Soviet The Presidium of the Supreme Soviet () was the standing body of the highest organ of state power, highest body of state authority in the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR).The Presidium of the Soviet Union is, in short, the legislativ ...

of the

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

History

The decision to create a State Council was made at a meeting of the Central Committee of the

Bulgarian Communist Party The Bulgarian Communist Party ( Bulgarian: Българска комунистическа партия (БΚП), Romanised: ''Bŭlgarska komunisticheska partiya''; BKP) was the founding and ruling party of the People's Republic of Bulgaria f ...

in 1968. It was created by the 1971 Zhivkov Constitution, taking over most of the powers performed by the Presidium of the National Assembly. It was formed to reinforce the philosophy of

democratic centralism Democratic centralism is the organisational principle of most communist parties, in which decisions are made by a process of vigorous and open debate amongst party membership, and are subsequently binding upon all members of the party. The co ...

as specified by the committee. Members were elected to the first State Council on 8 July 1971, after the new constitution was approved via a national referendum held in May 1971. In April 1990, the State Council was abolished and replaced by the office of president of the republic.

Members

The State Council consists of the following: * Chairman * First Vice-chairmen * Vice-chairmen * Secretary * Members The position of chairman was synonymous with the

General Secretary of the Bulgarian Communist Party A general officer is an officer of high rank in the armies, and in some nations' air and space forces, marines or naval infantry. In some usages, the term "general officer" refers to a rank above colonel."general, adj. and n.". OED Onlin ...

. In such a situation, the State Council was analogous to the current power structure in

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

, where the country's

paramount leader Paramount leader () is an informal term for the most important Supreme leader, political figure in the China, People's Republic of China (PRC). The paramount leader typically controls the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and the People's Liberatio ...

serves as

President President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) * President (education), a leader of a college or university *President (government title) President may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Film and television *'' Præsident ...

, but derives his real power from his post as

party leader In a governmental system, a party leader acts as the official representative of their political party, either to a legislature or to the electorate. Depending on the country, the individual colloquially referred to as the "leader" of a politica ...

. Members of the State Council are all the members and candidate members of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the BKP.

List of chairmen of the State Council

Secretaries

Secretary of the State Council: * Nikola Manolov (1976–1989) * Angel Dimitrov (December 17, 1989 – April 3, 1990)

Powers

The State Council officially defined as an executive committee of the Assembly. The Constitution vested the State Council with the power to issue decrees in lieu of law whenever the National Assembly was not in session. It was not required to submit these decrees to the full National Assembly for approval. In most other Communist states, the full legislature had the power to veto such decrees at its next session, though this power was almost never exercised in practice. As chairman of the council for nearly all of its existence,

Todor Zhivkov Todor Hristov Zhivkov ( ; 7 September 1911 – 5 August 1998) was a Bulgarians, Bulgarian communist statesman who served as the ''de facto'' leader of the People's Republic of Bulgaria (PRB) from 1954 until 1989 as General Secretary of the Cen ...

served as Supreme Commander in Chief of the

Bulgarian People's Army The Bulgarian People's Army (, BNA) was the army of the People's Republic of Bulgaria. It comprised the Bulgarian Land Forces, Air Force and Air Defence, Navy and supporting arms. Bulgaria was one of the signatories of the Warsaw Pact. Along with ...

References

{{Authority control Government of Bulgaria People's Republic of Bulgaria 1990 disestablishments in Bulgaria Collective heads of state