Ivan Todorov-Gorunia

Ivan Todorov-Gorunia (1916/1917 - April 1965, also spelled as Gorunya and Gorunja, in Bulgarian "Иван Тодоров-Горуня") was a Bulgarian soldier and politician.

During World War II Todorov-Gorunia, member of Bulgarian Communist Party, fought as a partisan against pro-German government of Bulgaria. After communist takeover of power he became general and member of Central Committee of the Party.

Toward the end of 1964 and in early 1965 Todorov-Gorunia and Tzolo Кrastev ("Цоло Кръстев") organized group of high ranking military officers planning to overthrow regime led by Todor Zhivkov. Among the officers was the commander of the Sofia garrison general Tzviatko Anev ("Цвятко Анев"). Their plan was to establish a pro-Chinese leadership in the country.

The coup (also known as "April Conspiracy") was exposed by the counter-intelligence service and between 28 March and 12 April 1965 most of the plotters were arrested. Todorov-Gorunia (probably) committed suicide just before the arrest. Nine of the other participants received relatively mild (for the era) sentences ranging from 8 to 15 years imprisonment, while another 192 got party or administrative punishments. Existence of the plot was kept hidden from the public.

Literature

* A Handbook of the Communist Security Apparatus in East Central Europe 1944-1989, Warsaw, 2005, ISBN 83-89078-82-1. Article “Bulgaria” by Jordan Baev and Kostadin Grozev, pp. 37-86.
* Ionko Bonov: "Legendarniiat Ivan Todorov-Gorunia: Khudozhestveno-dokumentalna povest" ("Legendary Ivan Todorov-Gorunia: Artistic and Documentary Report"), 1994, ISBN 978-9548019019.

External links

* [http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,898659,00.html "The Black Sheep"] , Time Magazine, 30-April-1965
* [http://files.osa.ceu.hu/holdings/300/8/3/text/6-5-120.shtml "The April Conspiracy in Bulgaria"] , Radio Free Europe, 22-April-1965
* [http://bbb.livejournal.com/1697772.html Short overview of the coup, links] (partly in English)
* Article about the coup on Bulgarian Wikipedia: [http://bg.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%9E%D0%BF%D0%B8%D1%82_%D0%B7%D0%B0_%D0%BF%D1%80%D0%B5%D0%B2%D1%80%D0%B0%D1%82_%D1%81%D1%80%D0%B5%D1%89%D1%83_%D0%A2%D0%BE%D0%B4%D0%BE%D1%80_%D0%96%D0%B8%D0%B2%D0%BA%D0%BE%D0%B2_(1965)]