Medal for active work in the Trade union of Bourgas town

GEORGI DIMITROV is one of the few Bulgarians who is included in world encyclopedias. Though subject to much dispute, there is little doubt about the strength of his influence on Bulgaria's modern history. He and the communist rulers that succeeded him were caught in the despotic grip of Stalin's Asiatic regime. The power of that regime was imposed on Bulgaria after World War II, under Georgi Dimitrov's direction. The Leipzig fire trial of 1933 was a defining moment in his life and career. Accused of having set the Reichstag on fire, he defended himself brilliantly, and the imperial court was compelled to acquit him. Prime Minister Dimitrov was a Stalin-style party leader who imposed the Communist Party as the single ruling power in the country, eliminated the bourgeois opposition from political life and crushed ideological resistance by means of staged trials and political oppression and executions.