New Documents from Todor Zhivkov's Personal Records
The Cold War International History Project and its Bulgarian partner, the Cold War Research Group-Bulgaria, are pleased to announce the publication of a new CD-ROM on "Bulgaria and the Cold War. Documents from Todor Zhivkov's Personal Records." Containing never-before published documents from the personal archive of Bulgaria's former Communist dictator Todor Zhivkov, Eastern Europe's longest serving Stalinist leader, the collection covers the entire period of Zhivkov's reign from his election as Communist party leader in 1954 through the collapse of communism in Bulgaria in 1989.
The CD-ROM contains more than 700 pages of documents (most in both Bulgarian and English) of previously unknown stenographic notes of Todor Zhivkov's conversations and correspondence with over 30 foreign state and political leaders from all five continents spanning over three decades. The documents contain new information, evaluations and assessments highlighting various military and political conflicts in different "hot" spots throughout the world during the Cold War years.
CWIHP is presenting a sampling of the documents on its website cwihp.si.edu. They include a diverse array of conversations between the Bulgarian leader and foreign counterparts, including Italian Foreign Minister Aldo Moro (27 April 1970), Acting Secretary General of the Chinese Communist Party Zhao Ziyang and Deng Xiaopeng (6-7 May 1987), and finally Greek Prime Minister Andreas Papandreou (22 April 1989). CWIHP plans to publish additional conversations, including those with Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi, Syrian president Hafiz Al Assad, Palestinian leader Yasir Arafat in the near future. For the documents, further information on the CD Rom and updates, visit the CWIHP website at cwihp.si.edu.