BULGARIA: THOUSANDS PAY LAST RESPECTS IN SOFIA TO FORMER COMMUNIST LEADER TODOR ZHIVKOV

Record ID: 646153

  • Title: BULGARIA: THOUSANDS PAY LAST RESPECTS IN SOFIA TO FORMER COMMUNIST LEADER TODOR ZHIVKOV
  • Date: 9th August 1998
  • Summary: SOFIA, BULGARIA (AUGUST 9, 1998) (RTV - ACCESS ALL) 1. PAN OF CROWDS LINING STREET ONTO FAMILY OF BULGARIAN COMMUNIST LEADER TODOR ZHIVKOV WEARING BLACK / MV FAMILY (2 SHOTS) 0.11 2. SV COFFIN CARRIED BY MEN 0.17 3. VARIOUS OF CROWDS WATCHING AT SOCIALIST PARTY FAREWELL MEETING (2 SHOTS) 0.24 4. ZOOM IN POSTER OF ZHIVKOV AND BODY IN OPEN COFFIN 0.27 5. WS/SV FAMILY LINED UP (2 SHOTS) 0.34 6. PAN/MS CROWD/ SPEAKER ADDRESSING CROWD (2 SHOTS) 0.45 7. VARIOUS RELATIVES/CROWD LISTENING TO SPEAKER (5 SHOTS) 1.05 8. PAN RELATIVES OF ZHIVKOV 1.11 9. VARIOUS CROWD LISTENING/APPLAUDING SPEAKERS (4 SHOTS) 1.33 10. SV CROWDS/ PEOPLE CARRYING POSTER AND WREATHS 1.43 11. SV HEARSE MOVES TO GRAVEYARD/FAMILY WALKING BEHIND HEARSE (2 SHOTS) 2.05 12. WS FUNERAL PROCESSION 2.09 13. MV PEOPLE LEAVING FLOWERS FOR TODOR ZHIVKOV 2.14 14. CU BODY IN OPEN COFFIN 2.16 15. MV MORE OF PEOPLE PAYING RESPECTS PAN TO COFFIN 2.25 16. SV/HAS FAMILY AT GRAVEYARD ALONGSIDE OPEN COFFIN (2 SHOTS) 2.31 17. SV MAN HOLDING PORTRAIT OF ZHIVKOV 2.34 18. PAN/MV MORE OF CROWDS WATCHING (2 SHOTS) 2.46 19. SV COFFIN PLACED IN GROUND/PAN CROWD (2 SHOTS) 2.54 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
  • Embargoed: 24th August 1998 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: SOFIA, BULGARIA
  • City:
  • Country: Bulgaria
  • Reuters ID: LVAA1JE9IBZGWVFGPCAGZXG25DSC
  • Story Text: Thousands of nostalgic Bulgarians have said farewell to Todor Zhivkov, communist ruler of the Balkan state from 1954 to 1989 who passed away at 86 last week.

    Zhivkov, who passed away last week, was the last East European dictator to die and with his death Bulgaria finally put the era of communism behind it.

    The ceremonies started in the Battenberg square between two symbols -- a former palace of the king and former mausoleum of the first Bulgarian communist leader, Georgy Dimitrov.

    "There is hardly a Bulgarian who has remained indifferent to the life and now death of Todor Zhivkov, everyone has his own memory and opinion of Zhivkov," Nikola Koichev, leader of the BSP parliamentary group, said in a speech.

    Some 10,000 mostly elederly Bulgarians gathered in blazing sun.The mourners, gradually dwindling in numbers, marched through the city to the central Sofia cemetery where Zhivkov was later buried in a family ceremony alongside his wife.

    As they marched, it was business as usual around with traders in the Alexander Nevsky open air market urging tourists to buy handicraft and paintings.

    There was no sign of government officials and only members of parliament from the Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP), which took over from the communists, attended the ceremony.

    Zhivkov supporters had to queue to get a chance to pay a final tribute to his body in an open oak coffin at the ceremonial hall of the cemetery.

    Zhivkov ruled the Balkan state for 35 years, longer than any other East European leader.He was the second, after East Germany's Erich Honecker, to be ousted in 1989 in a bloodless coup and the first former communist leader to stand trial.

    During his rule Zhivkov, a typical product of the era of Soviet dictator Josef Stalin, was the closest ally of the Kremlin among East European communist leaders.

    He refused to accept democratic changes launched by Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev and was ousted in a bloodless party coup in November 1989.

    Since 1991 he had been investigated on various charges and was convicted in 1992 of misappropriating 21.5 million levs (then about 24 million United States dollars) but the sentence was overturned in 1997 and he was released from house arrest.

    Zhivkov was admitted to Sofia's elite government hospital a month ago with viral infection and pneumonia.He died, effectively of old age, on Wednesday night.
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