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On the rostrum is Petar Mladenov, on the right – Todor Zhivkov, in the middle – the Prime Minister Georgi Atanasov.
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This morning, the former prime minister and member of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the Bulgarian Communist Party, Georgi Atanasov, died. This was announced to “24 Chasa” by his comrades.
Georgi Ivanov Atanasov is a Bulgarian politician from the Bulgarian Communist Party (BCP), Prime Minister in the 78th Government of Bulgaria and a member of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the BCP from 1986 to 1990.
He was born in the village of Pravoslaven, Plovdiv region on July 25, 1933. Since 1947 he has been a member of the Communist Workers’ Youth Union, and since 1956 of the Bulgarian Communist Party. In the same year he graduated in History from Sofia University “Kliment Ohridski” (Sofia University). In the following years he held various positions in the nomenclature of the Dimitrov Communist Youth Union, heading the organization from 1965 to 1968. After that he was in the apparatus of the Central Committee of the BCP – headed the departments “Science and Education” (1968 – 1976), “Clerical” (1976 – 1977) and “Organizational”.
Between 1962 and 1966 he was a candidate member of the Central Committee of the Bulgarian Communist Party, and from 1966 to 1990 he was a member of the Central Committee of the Bulgarian Communist Party. First Deputy Chairman of the State Planning Committee. From 1977 to 1986 Atanasov was secretary of the Central Committee of the Bulgarian Communist Party responsible for organizational matters and the Organizational Department of the Bulgarian Communist Party, thus ranking second in the BCP hierarchy after Todor Zhivkov, and from 1981 to 1986 he was Deputy Chairman of the State Council and Chairman of the Committee for State and People’s Control with the rank of Minister in the Government of Grisha Filipov. At the beginning of 1985 he was part of a special temporary commission of senior officials, which coordinated the so-called Revival process.
In March 1986 he replaced Grisha Filipov as Prime Minister, and later that year headed the 78th Government of Bulgaria.
He was awarded the Georgi Dimitrov and 13th Century Bulgaria orders.
In 1990, Georgi Atanasov was relieved of all posts in the renamed Bulgarian Socialist Party. In 1992, he was sentenced to 10 years in prison for financial misconduct, but was pardoned by President Zhelyu Zhelev in 1994 for health reasons. After the death of Dimitar Popov on December 5, 2015, Georgi Atanasov became the oldest living former Prime Minister of Bulgaria. He was also the last living prime minister before November 10, 1989.
As of December 5, 2015, Atanasov was the oldest living former Prime Minister of Bulgaria, and after the death of Todor Zhivkov (August 5, 1998) he was the last living prime minister of the communist regime before 1989.
The third longest-lived prime minister was after Stoyan Danev (91 years and 183 days) and Dimitar Popov (88 years and 162 days).
In addition, from June 25, 2020 he was the longest-lived prime minister of the communist regime until 1989, surviving Anton Yugov (86 years and 335 days), and three days earlier on June 22, 2020, Todor Zhivkov. 86 years and 332 days). Atanasov is the only prime minister since socialism to have reached almost 89 years of age.
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