Talk:Todor Zhivkov/Archive 1

Archive 1

NPOV

This article is disgusting, it has nothing to do with history. Who wrote this, one of Zhivkov's speech writers? Yep! He has many loyal supporters there. No word about his actual father. His biological father is King Ferdinand von Sax Coburg Gotta. His mother was a service woman in the kings palace. And no word about his double-agent functions during WWII. He was an agent of Nikola Gesheff, chief of police under Boris III.

Standard of living

The following false statement removed.

Unlike many other communist leaders, Zhivkov proved himself a sensible handler of the economy. Under his leadership, the standard of living for Bulgarians rose above that of many other Eastern bloc countries.

In fact, the only countries with lower living standard were Albania and Romania. Not to say that there were not so "many" Eastern bloc countries. mikka (t) 00:36, 30 August 2005 (UTC)

Like someone of you has lived in Bulgaria during his time...For some information, by the time Zhivkov controlled Bulgaria, literacy reached 100% and unemployment was down to 0% >:-( -StankoG

Probably what the author was thinking of was that the standard of living improved in comparison with pre-Communist Bulgaria. It was still a noticeably lower standard than that of Czechoslovakia, Poland, East Germany and probably Hungary, though reportedly somewhat better than the USSR, Albania and Romania. Anyway, it's dubious whether this had anything to do with Zhivkov's personal leadership - he did not have absolute control of his party or his state, and he himself was controlled by the USSR. More or less the same types of Communist policies were applied everywhere in the Soviet sphere, just under different conditions, and both their benefits and their drawbacks were largely similar, though present in somewhat different degrees. Today, the ostalgics are nostalgic about largely the same things in all the ex-Eastern Bloc countries, and the Commie bashers bash largely the same things in all of them. --91.148.159.4 (talk) 22:58, 12 December 2008 (UTC)

Quotes of Todor jivkov

I think that some important or funny quotes of Jivkov should be given.

Wanted to make Bulgaria part of the Soviet Union?

Is it true that Zhivkov was so serviently moscovite, that he actually wanted Bulgaria to lose formal independence and become a member republic of the USSR? 195.70.48.242 11:39, 7 December 2006 (UTC)

-Zhivkov was very close to Moscow, but all that stuff about him wanting to incorporate Bulgaria into the USSR is complete nonsence, which was though out after 1990, when everyone who had a role in the financial collapse of the country started to wash his hands with Todor Zhivkov.

If you're going to spread lies, you can at least sign your posts. His wish for union is well documented well before 1989. Recently, the actual transcript of the 1963 Party Plenum came out – here. Perhaps you'll say it's been faked...??? BigSteve (talk) 10:29, 26 May 2012 (UTC)

Tato?

During the communist era, Todor Jivkov was never ever refered as "Tato" - neighter by dissidents or party member, or even in the countryside. In private conversations he was sometimes derogatory refered as "Bai Tosho" (Uncle Tosho). The term Tato was created and coined by the popular tabloids after 1989.

Tato ("Daddie", "Dad") was indeed used! This was between about 1969 and 1975-ish and referred to Zhivkov's promotion of Ludmila and Ivan Slavkov. After she took her promotion into her own hands, the nickname lost popularity. Bay Tosho had a popular ring to it but Tato was definitely snide. Its use spread to other benefactor/protege relationships ("You won't get that job/car/apartment/posting unless you have a Tato", "only Tato can give gifts like this". —Preceding unsigned comment added by 78.146.212.210 (talk) 22:26, 26 September 2007 (UTC)

Downfall / Resignation

• There is no section here on when, how and why he resigned and the events and days leading up to his departure from office. Reading this article gives me no idea of why or how he resigned in 1989. Can someone add this? --Mezaco (talk) 22:43, 30 March 2009 (UTC)

• The section has been added, but the majority of the claims in it are not supported by any sources. It will be nice if sources could be added where they are due. (FaceInTheSand (talk) 17:23, 23 November 2015 (UTC))

NPOV

This article makes a lot of weasel statements and it seems to me like it totally pro-Zhivkov. Few men did more damage to Bulgaria than Todor Zhivkov. Many people had a quasi-comfortable life during his rule but they don't know of the entire families vanished because of him or that we could have a really better state and economy had we remained non-commie. The article makes him look like a patriot while he was only a self-serving bastard devout of any altruistic motives for any of his actions —Preceding unsigned comment added by 78.90.52.195 (talk) 12:07, 20 July 2009 (UTC)

Predictions/legacy info

I very recently viewed an old speech by Бай Тошо/Mr. Zhivkov from the mid 1980s and it noted that the predictions he made about the future of Bulgaria and the democratic state, which it was to become, are interestingly true. I was wondering if anyone with a wider knowledge of Todor Zhivkov would care to take a look at that video (from Youtube - I remember getting to it by searching 'todor jivkov' (no quotes) and it was the first result), and add the relevant information to the article. I'm not a historian, nor do I know much about the history of modern Bulgaria, but I am now actively helping improve the quality and accuracy of information about Bulgaria on Wikipedia.

The Z ^UKBG (talk) 00:50, 30 October 2009 (UTC)

References

This article seems particularly short of references and seems to make a number of partisan statements. Unfortunately I am not well enough versed in the subject matter to be the one to add them, so I was hoping that someone who is an expert in this area might be able to find appropriate references. It's not that I doubt the veracity of the article, however statements should be supported by reliable references. I have marked up some instances in the final paragraph, however it is a feature that runs through the whole article from beginning to end. In the meantime I am going to try to mark it as being one of the articles that requires more references, however I'm a novice at this sort of thing and don't guarantee that I'll do so correctly. Apologies in advance if someone has to clear up a mess of my creation. IrishPete (talk) 00:59, 23 December 2009 (UTC)

I would agree with the above statement. Large sections of this article have no references whatsoever, and some sections even state unconfirmed theories as fact. This article should be revisited and potentially completely rewritten by someone knowledgeable of the topic. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.151.158.220 (talk) 21:45, 14 August 2012 (UTC)

Birth date - which calendar?

Bulgaria did not adopt the Gregorian calendar till 1916, so which calendar is "7 September 1911" from? Julian or Gregorian? -- Jack of Oz ^{[your turn]} 20:29, 7 August 2011 (UTC)

Process of Rebirth

Why is this not mentioned anywhere in the article? several mentions of "turkish assimilation" are far from enough. I'm creating a Process of Rebirth article (will be a stub at first) so someone please add this rather important episode to the Zhivkov article. ta! BigSteve (talk) 10:45, 26 May 2012 (UTC)

False Statement

1. "His rule marked a period of unprecedented political and economic stability for Bulgaria"

This is not true; the country was marked by economic instability, particularly in the 80's. The 80's were a total economic disaster for Bulgaria..

2. " His rule remained unchallenged until the deterioration of East-West relations in the 1980s"

His rule was unchallenged until there was a thaw in East-West relations, and Gorby turned against him; while the Cold War was on he was unchallenged. Mwinog2777 (talk) 03:16, 13 April 2013 (UTC)

Request for Comments

There is an RfC on the question of using "Religion: None" vs. "Religion: None (atheist)" in the infobox on this and other similar pages.

The RfC is at Template talk:Infobox person#RfC: Religion infobox entries for individuals that have no religion.

Please help us determine consensus on this issue. --Guy Macon (talk) 21:05, 25 April 2015 (UTC)

A Commons file used on this page or its Wikidata item has been nominated for deletion

The following Wikimedia Commons file used on this page or its Wikidata item has been nominated for deletion:

• Тодор Живков.jpg

Participate in the deletion discussion at the nomination page. —Community Tech bot (talk) 20:02, 13 December 2020 (UTC)

A Commons file used on this page or its Wikidata item has been nominated for deletion

The following Wikimedia Commons file used on this page or its Wikidata item has been nominated for deletion:

• Borissov and Jivkov.jpg

Participate in the deletion discussion at the nomination page. —Community Tech bot (talk) 03:23, 19 November 2021 (UTC)