А wise ruler who made Bulgaria a regional and international political and technological leader, and who tirelessly worked for the prosperity of the entire nation. A stupid person who caused the Bulgarian economy to collapse at least twice. A sly politician who played Soviet Union leaders like a fiddle, securing much-needed resources for the Bulgarian economy in the midst of a global oil crisis. A national traitor who was ready to make Bulgaria just another republic of the USSR. A patriot dedicated to protecting this nation's sovereignty from a possible attack by Turkey. An unpolished brute who, for some reason, loved being surrounded by this nation's finest writers and actors. A thief of public resources. A hero… A murderer…

About 30 years after Todor Zhivkov's death, the memory of this nation's last Communist dictator is becoming distorted. For those who suffered during his regime, Todor Zhivkov is the embodiment of Communism's evils. For the nostalgists – some contemporary politicians included – he provided millions of Bulgarians with jobs and security, and he skilfully manoeuvred between the East bloc and Bulgaria's national interests.

Todor Zhivkov reads the Free People newspaper while awaiting trial, in the 1990s

The man whose historical assessment continues to divide the nation was born in 1911 in the then village of Pravets. In 1929, he became a Communist, and in 1943, he joined the partizani resistance. What exactly the partizanin with the undercover name of Yanko did in those days remains unclear and is disputed. The main source for this period in Todor Zhivkov's life is his own memoirs.

Todor Zhivkov was one of the BKP members who skilfully used the 1944 Communist coup. By 1951 he was already a member of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the Bulgarian Communist Party, the structure which effectively ran the country. In 1954, he got the chance to head the BKP, and he did not miss it.

Stalin had died the previous year and Valko Chervenkov, the Bulgarian prime minister and BKP's first secretary, who until recently had been a strident Stalinist, sensed that the times were about to change. However, in an attempt to distance himself from his Stalinist past, Chervenkov made a mistake. He left the BKP top leadership position and put forward the young and ostensibly harmless Todor Zhivkov.

Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev and Todor Zhivkov seal with a kiss the renewed cooperation agreement signed in Sofia, in 1967

Todor Zhivkov might have been young but he was not harmless. Presenting himself as a reformer, he secured the support of the USSR leader, Nikita Khrushchev. In April 1956, during a BKP plenum that would later be billed "historical," he publicly denounced Valko Chervenkov for his Stalinism. Later, Chervenkov was deposed from his post as prime minister, but Zhivkov wisely waited until 1962, before he took that position as well. From then on all the way until 1989 Todor Zhivkov was the head of both the Party and the state.

In Moscow, Todor Zhivkov played the reformist. He used Bulgaria's loudly declared loyalty to the USSR to get himself some assistance whenever he required it. When the flaws of Bulgaria's planned economy caused an economic and debt crisis in the early 1960s, Todor Zhivkov initiated half-hearted and never completely implemented economic reforms. Between 1962 and 1964 about 22.5 tonnes of the Bulgarian gold reserve were sold to Western Europe, with the help of the USSR, to refinance the Bulgarian debt.

With Saddam Hussein, Sofia, 1980

At that time, in 1963, he did something hard to explain: he proposed to Khrushchev the entry of Bulgaria into the USSR as its 16th republic. Khrushchev declined, but Zhivkov's move continues to trigger controversy. Did he really want Bulgaria to be a part of the Soviet Union or was the whole thing a tactical move to secure the position of the country as Moscow's most loyal satellite with all the benefits it entailed? Todor Zhivkov was a master of the carrot-and-stick policy. At the end of 1956, he reopened the Belene political prisoners camp, and he did not hesitate to send Bulgarian troops to suppress the 1968 Prague Spring.

Zhivkov's talent to get himself liked in Moscow proved helpful during a subsequent economic and debt crisis in Bulgaria, in the 1970s. Leonid Brezhnev came to the rescue and provided the country with cheap Russian oil.

In 1971, Todor Zhivkov cemented the BKP's complete control over the nation with a new constitution. The so-called Zhivkov Constitution was approved in a referendum, with 99 percent of the votes in favour. Its infamous Article 1 stipulated the "leading role" of the BKP. Party and state now officially amalgamated. Todor Zhivkov left the post of prime minister to a trusted party member, and appointed himself the head of the newly-created State Council. With absolute power secured, he was ready to forge his own personality cult.

Todor Zhivkov and Fidel Castro. The Cuban leader visited Bulgaria in 1972 and 1976

In the 1970s and the 1980s, Zhivkov's birthdays and anniversaries were celebrated with pomp and circumstance. Tamed with state privileges, the intelligentsia churned out poems, books and movies dedicated to him. The history of the partizani movement was twisted to show Comrade Yanko as a resistance leader and even as the saviour of the Bulgarian Jews in the Holocaust. The few who openly opposed Zhivkov were under the surveillance of the ever-expanding network of State Security.

Todor Zhivkov's personality cult included also his family. In 1975, his daughter, Lyudmila, became the chairman of the Committee for Arts and Culture, and in 1979 she became a member of the Politburo. In her cultural policy she advanced one of the tenets of Todor Zhivkov's government, nationalism.

In the first years after 1944, "patriotism" was a slur as it was associated with the "retrograde" bourgeoisie. The true Communist should be an internationalist. But in the 1960s the government revived an interest in Bulgaria's glorious past, and used it to distract the nation's attention from everyday problems like the chronic shortages and the lack of proper housing.

The museum at Zhivkov's birthplace in Pravets displays the many luxury gifts he received during his 35 years in power. The presents are from all over the world: from Mozambique to Ethiopia, through Kuwait and Israel to Sri Lanka and Japan, the former USSR republics, Colombia and Nicaragua, even from the United States and Australia. Some gifts depicted Zhivkov himself and his family 

The idea for a homogenous Bulgarian nation, combined with fear of NATO's Turkey, was spawned by the fact that Bulgaria had a significant Muslim minority. In 1972-1973, the state forcefully changed the names of ethnic Bulgarian Muslims, to "help" them "return" to their Bulgarian roots. In 1984-1985, the names of the Bulgarian Turks were changed too, and in 1989 their sometimes violent resistance against the so-called Revival Process convinced Todor Zhivkov to "invite" the Turks to go. In the summer of 1989, about 360,000 Turks left for Turkey in a process that entered history with the monicker the Great Excursion.

In the 1980s, Todor Zhivkov had other problems as well. The economy was struggling again, there were power shortages in the winter of 1985, and in the spring of 1986 Bulgarians learned that the government had kept them in the dark about the Chernobyl nuclear disaster, exposing the nation to a heavy radioactive spillover.

This time around Zhivkov could not rely on Soviet help. The leader of the USSR, Mikhail Gorbachev, was too preoccupied with Perestroyka, and helping Bulgaria was not on his agenda. Todor Zhivkov, for his part, was convinced that Perestroyka would turn out to be a short-lived fad. "We will keep low until the storm passes and then we will see what shall we do. If the storm doesn't pass, then we will reform ourselves," he said in an ill-famed speech.

The inauguration of the first Todor Zhivkov's monument in Pravets, in 1981. Reportedly, the dictator was not happy with this and the statue was quickly removed

The discontent with his rule was getting stronger. At long last it transpired in public, as late as 1988. Air pollution in Ruse by a chemical plant in nearby Giurgiu, Romania, and the Bulgarian government's inaction triggered environmentalist protests that evolved into a political grassroots movement. This was the beginning of Bulgaria's dissident front.

Still, ordinary Bulgarians were shocked when, on 10 November 1989, the state-controlled TV announced that Comrade Todor Zhivkov was dismissed from his post as secretary general of the BKP. The change was in fact a palace coup, backed by the USSR.

After the initial shock the Bulgarians rejoiced: democracy would come, life would soon be "like in the West," and the Communist Party would pay for its crimes.

This monument to Todor Zhivkov was placed in Pravets in 2001. The statue itself dates from the 1970s

In 1990, Todor Zhivkov was arrested and charged in five different cases, including the forcible Bulgarisation campaign against the Turks and the crimes committed in the political prisoners' camps. In 1992, he was indicted in only one of the cases, for the illegal disposal of state properties and assets. Later his sentence was repealed.

The trials against Todor Zhivkov continued until his death in 1998. By that time, however, the public attitude towards him had shifted. The economic hardships and the unemployment of the 1990s made many Bulgarians forget that it was Zhivkov who had been directly responsible for the critical condition of a country that could no longer repay its foreign debt. Todor Zhivkov had become a symbol of life under Communism that was calm and secure albeit void of freedoms.

Todor Zhivkov's memoirs, published in 1997, became a bestseller. Unlike the 39 volumes of his Selected Works which had been published and sent to all libraries and institutions in 1975-1989, never to be opened and only to collect dust on the shelves, this time the Bulgarians were eager to read what Zhivkov had to tell them.

Todor Zhivkov concluded his book with the words: "I, Todor Zhivkov, used all the power I had for the wellbeing of my people." Many still believe him.

Monument at the yard of Todor Zhivkov's ancestral house in Pravets. It quotes the final sentence of his memoirs: "I, Todor Zhivkov, used all the power I had for the wellbeing of my people"