They call the chief of staff of the First “Gray Cardinal”
He liked to explain that name Ludmila means “dear to the people”
Milko Kalev Balev has been the most faithful man of Todor Hristov Zhivkov for almost 40 years. Zhivkov had full confidence in Balev, Balev responded with selfless devotion.
Zhivkov and Balev are hearing their verdict in case №1 in 1990. PHOTO: IVAN GRIGOROV
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Together they prepared and conducted the April Plenum in 1956, and together they stood on the dock in case /1 / 1990 for corruption and abuse of power.
Milko Balev was born in Troyan. At the age of 16, he became a member of the RMC and led a battle group. In 1942 he joined the Bulgarian Communist Party, the next day he was arrested and sentenced to death. The sentence was commuted to life imprisonment and on September 9, 1944, he left the cell as a “fighter for people’s freedom.” He carried out career development in the RMC in his hometown and since 1950 he has been in the apparatus of the Central Committee of the Bulgarian Communist Party in the Propaganda and Agitation Department.
From January 1950 Todor Zhivkov was already secretary of the Central Committee and Milko Balev became his technical assistant.
At that time, the State Security was formed as an independent structure in the Ministry of Interior. On January 26, 1951, Interior Minister Rusi Hristozov presented a list for the appointment of 50 “responsible comrades” to senior positions in the State Security. Under №28 in the list is Milko Balev, voted secretary for agitation and propaganda in the party committee of the Ministry of Interior.
However, Todor Zhivkov wrote a letter to the top leadership of the party: “I strongly oppose the proposal to withdraw my associate – others. Milko Balev, and I ask the Politburo not to agree with this proposal. “
At that time, Valko Chervenkov was the omnipotent sole master of Bulgaria, but he did not object to this desire.
Thus Milko Balev remained with Zhivkov, and after 1956, already as the first secretary of the Central Committee, he made Balev head of his cabinet.
Two plenums –
different destiny
Milko Balev and the recently deceased secretary Angelina Gorinova were Zhivkov’s most active helpers in the preparation and holding of the plenum from April 2 to 6, 1956.
Writing the report becomes a conspiracy. Years later, Zhivkov raised the curtain. He dictated, his wife Dr. Mara Maleeva wrote by hand, Angelina typed it. And Milko Balev reads it for written and grammatical errors and provides the necessary references.
After the end of the plenum, the transcript and all documents related to it were locked in Milko Balev’s cash register. Only he and Zhivkov have keys to it. The transcript and speeches were not published as a book until 2002.
It is said that on Gorinova’s birthday they remember the plenum and how she said then: “Comrade Zhivkov, now is the time to take power!”. Milko Balev supports her, Zhivkov smiles meaningfully. At the plenum in 1956 he won the party power, and after 6 years – in 1962, with grandmaster intrigues and took over the state – he became prime minister in place of Anton Yugov.
There are a dozen lines for the plenum in history textbooks, but all the authors praise and bless it, even though they have never read the documents. Stoyan Mihailov shared that he, as secretary of the Central Committee of the Bulgarian Communist Party, did not have access to the stenographic protocols.
For his faithful and valiant service in 1979 Milko Balev was promoted to secretary of the Central Committee, and in 1982 – promoted “to the top” – became a member of the Politburo. He is also chairman of the Committee on Foreign Affairs, the Coordination Council for Foreign Propaganda and the Committee on Foreign Policy.
The cabinet of the First, headed by Balev, is 4-5 people and has no formal role in the political system, but it assists Zhivkov in his daily work and has a significant contribution to the actions and decisions of the First. Mythologize Milko Balev as the “gray cardinal of the party”.
On the afternoon of November 9, 1989, Zhivkov convened a plenum at the Party House and announced that he would resign at the plenum the next day in Boyana as Secretary General of the BSP Central Committee. Everyone supports him, Milko Balev, Dimitar Stoyanov and Yordan Yotov are against his resignation. Balev says: “It is very important, considering the past. I also remember how the April Plenum was held and the stability that exists in the unity of the party leadership. I can’t deny, I grew up under the wing of others for so many years. Zhivkov, I was the head of his office for so many years … ”
Todoriada
in 39 volumes
Milko Balev points to the publication of 39 volumes of “Collected Works” by Todor Zhivkov as the peak of his life. Balev organized the compilation and editing of the works. His are 36 volumes, the last three bear the “stamp” of Nikola Stefanov, chief of staff of the First since 1986.
The Politburo commissioned Partizdat to publish the works. The first volume was published in 1971 on the occasion of Zhivkov’s 60th birthday.
In silence, the society began to call these volumes Todoriada, and their author – Tosho Tomov. There was also a joke that Zhivkov had written more books than he had read.
“These collected works are not my work, but the work of the collective mind and will of the whole party,” Zhivkov modestly told the court. In the course of the trial, it became clear that he did not really write a single text of the “works”, and this was done by some of his associates, led by Milko Balev.
Todor Zhivkov’s books are published by Sofia Press and abroad, of course after payment by us. In order to control everything about their printing, Milko Balev visits Switzerland, France, England, Germany, Greece and others.
On January 27, 1982, the luxury book “Todor Zhivkov – statesman and builder of a new Bulgaria” was promoted in London. In his speech Milko Balev says: “And towards the end – a few more words about the man Todor Zhivkov, as in the book that has collected us. Affordable, friendly, responsive, cheerful, wise, caring, with a sense of humor and more. Comrade Zhivkov has a rare talent – to attract, to charm, to constantly enrich himself and to enrich with his personality and deeds everyone with whom he talks and communicates. “
“They were taken away
from the whirlwind ”
The two years spent by Milko Balev in the Pleven prison led to the publication in Bulgaria in 1987 of the bestseller “Gone with the Wind”. At a meeting in December 1986, Central Committee Secretary Grisha Filipov opposed the publication of “this bourgeois and racist book.” “Even today,” Filipov said angrily, “when we are in difficulty and cannot deliver enough paper for newspapers and magazines and publish such important books, notebooks and textbooks, a harmful book is suddenly published in huge numbers …”
Against Filipov’s economic arguments, Balev draws the strength of emotions: “Abe, Grisha, how bourgeois, how racist this book is. I was sentenced to death in a solitary cell for two years. The Pleven remists managed to bring me “Gone with the Wind”. She maintained the spark of my life. I read it from cover to cover. I reread it more than once … ”
Harmful football
a fan
At the end of December 1989, I managed to persuade Milko Balev by phone for an interview with the promise that we would not talk about anything but football. He received me in his house on Bigla Street in the Lozenets district, designed by his wife, an architect. Balev admitted that he is a passionate supporter of CSKA and a malignant fan. “I jumped at the stadium, shouted, fought with generals, supporters of CSKA, when the players do not play well,” admitted Balev. He once shouted at Trendafil Martinski (chairman of the BSFS): “Hey, Martinski, are all judges Levski players?”
Balev said that as head of the cabinet of others. Zhivkov personally organized a meeting with a delegation led by Georgi Kaloyanchev. They insist that Georgi Asparuhov-Gundi play for Levski, which was his wish, and not for CDNA. And the First grants their request.
And the main moments in the famous article “How long will we tolerate the shortcomings of Bulgarian football”, published in the newspaper “Rabotnichesko Delo”, dictated personally by Zhivkov.
Milko Balev died on October 8, 2002, four years after his patron, who surrendered his spirit to God on August 5, 1998.
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