Nikola Petkov | |
|---|---|
| Никола Димитров Петков | |
 | |
| Born | July 8, 1893 |
| Died | September 23, 1947 (aged 54) |
| Cause of death | Execution by hanging |
| Occupation | Politician |
Nikola Dimitrov Petkov (Bulgarian: Никола Димитров Петков; July 8, 1893 – September 23, 1947) was a Bulgarian politician, one of the leaders of the Bulgarian Agrarian National Union (usually abbreviated as BZNS). He entered politics in the early 1930s. Like many other peasant party leaders in Poland, Hungary, and Bulgaria in 1945–1947, Petkov was tried and executed soon after postwar Soviet control was established in his country.[1] State Department emissary, Mark Ethridge, sent to Bulgaria in 1945 to report on conditions to President Truman, called him "the bravest man I've ever known."[2] He was a son of the politician Dimitar Petkov. His brother Petko Petkov was shot dead by an unknown assassin in 1924. Nikola Petkov was among the founders of the Fatherland Front (FF) in 1943 and participated in the establishment of the new government before becoming its target.
- ^ Judt, Tony Postwar: A History of Europe Since 1945, p. 175. Penguin Press (2005), ISBN 1-59420-065-3
- ^ Stone, David (2006). "The 1945 Ethridge Mission to Bulgaria and Romania and the Origins of the Cold War in the Balkans". Diplomacy and Statecraft. 17: 99. doi:10.1080/09592290500533775. S2CID 155033071.