Georgi Dimitrov
Bulgarian politician (1882-1949) · Bulgaria · On the map · Politicians · Died at 67
He stood in a Nazi courtroom accused of burning down the Reichstag, refused a lawyer, and cross-examined Hermann Göring so fiercely he walked free - then went on to lead the Communist International and shape Bulgaria's postwar turn to Soviet rule.
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Born in western Bulgaria in 1882, Dimitrov worked as a printer and trade unionist before entering parliament as a socialist during the First World War, where his opposition to the conflict landed him briefly in prison for sedition. He helped found the Bulgarian Communist Party in 1919, moved to Soviet Russia two years later, and in 1923 led a failed uprising against Aleksandar Tsankov's government that forced him into permanent exile. Living in Germany by 1929 as head of Comintern operations in central Europe, he was arrested after the 1933 Reichstag fire; his eloquent self-defense won acquittal and global attention. Elected General Secretary of the Communist International in Moscow, he remained there until 1946, when he returned to Bulgaria after 22 years and became prime minister of the new People's Republic. His attempt to forge a federation with Tito's Yugoslavia collapsed over the Macedonian question and the Stalin-Tito split. He died in 1949 near Moscow; his embalmed body lay in a Sofia mausoleum until 1990, demolished nine years later.
