site.btaBulgaria Remembers First Democratically Elected President

A memorial service was held Thursday in honour of Bulgaria's first democratically elected President, Zhelyu Zhelev (1990-1997), at the Patriarchal Cathedral of St. Alexander Nevsky in Sofia. The service was led by Bishop Gerasim of Melnik, along with other clergy from the Bulgarian Orthodox Church.

Attending the service were Zhelev's daughter Stanka Zheleva, former Bulgarian president Petar Stoyanov (1997-2002), BTA Director General Kiril Valchev, BNT Director General Emil Koshlukov, State Archives Agency Chair Mihail Gruev, and other public figures, politicians, and citizens who came to honour his memory.

Zhelev’s daughter shared that her father was a man of ideals, goals, and ideas, for whom personal gain and intrigue did not exist. "My father did a lot for Bulgaria, but others should speak about that, not me. He was a wonderful father. He was dissatisfied with not achieving everything he wanted for Bulgaria. Unfortunately, that still hasn't happened. He was kind, intelligent, and discreet. He knew how to listen and had original thinking," she said.

According to Zheleva, her father hated cowards and traitors. “This helped him because he was very brave and had a pure heart. It hurt him that he trusted people too much and was naive in his belief in the good," she added.

Petar Stoyanov noted that Zhelev holds a significant place in Bulgarian history. "He was the first chairman of the Union of Democratic Forces coalition, the first democratically elected President, but people from my generation remember him as one of the few Bulgarian dissidents. On such anniversaries, everyone should remember Dr. Zhelyu Zhelev," Stoyanov said.

Writer and journalist Dimitar Bochev, a close friend of Zhelev, said that the former head of state had managed to live honorably in dishonest times. "He lacked vices, which is exactly why his political career ended prematurely. Our corrupt times couldn't handle the purity and morality he possessed," Bochev added.

Born on March 3, 1935, Zhelev is a key figure in Bulgarian history, especially at the start of this country’s transition from communism to democracy. He graduated in Philosophy from the St Kliment Ohridski University of Sofia in 1958 and worked as a post-graduate student at the university’s Faculty of Philosophy from 1961 to 1964.

Zhelev was initially a member of the Bulgarian Communist Party but was expelled in 1965 for political and ideological reasons. He remained unemployed until 1972. In 1982, he published his book Fascism (originally titled The Totalitarian State), which was later banned and withdrawn from circulation, though it was translated into ten languages.

In the late 1980s, Zhelev was one of the key figures behind Bulgaria's first informal opposition groups. On August 1, 1990, he was elected President of Bulgaria by the VII Grand National Assembly. On January 19, 1992, nominated by the Union of Democratic Forces coalition, Zhelev and Blaga Dimitrova won the second round of Bulgaria’s first direct presidential elections. He served as president until January 1997. Zhelev passed away on January 30, 2015.