Nikola Petkov

Nikola Petkov
Petkov on trial, August 1947
Born	July 8, 1893 Sofia, Bulgaria
Died	September 23, 1947(1947-09-23) (aged 54) Sofia, Bulgaria
Occupation	Politician

Nikola Dimitrov Petkov (Bulgarian: Никола Димитров Петков; July 8, 1893 – September 23, 1947) was a Bulgarian politician, one of the leaders of the Bulgarian Agrarian National Union (usually abbreviated as BZNS). He entered politics in the early 1930s. Like many other peasant party leaders in Poland, Hungary, and Bulgaria in 1945–1947, Petkov was tried and executed soon after postwar Soviet control was established in his country. He was a son of the politician Dimitar Petkov. His brother Petko Petkov was shot dead by an unknown assassin in 1924. Nikola Petkov was among the founders of the Fatherland Front (FF) in 1943 and participated in the establishment of the new government before becoming its target.

He graduated from the 1st Sofia Boys High School in 1910 and after that studied law and politics at the Sorbonne, Paris. He returned to Bulgaria to participate in the Balkan Wars (1912–1913) serving in a Guards regiment. After World War I Petkov continued his studies in Paris and graduated with excellent marks in 1922. He worked in the Bulgarian legation in Paris. After the coup of 9 June 1923 when the BZNS government under Aleksandar Stamboliyski was removed from office, Nikola Petkov resigned and stayed in France where he worked as a journalist.

In 1929 he returned to Bulgaria and became an editor of the newspapers "Zemya" (1931–1932) and "Zemedelsko zname" – an organ of Bulgarian Agrarian People's Union "Aleksandar Stamboliyski" (1932–1933). He prepared and published a book on Aleksandar Stamboliyski in which he made political analysis and characteristics on the personality and the activities of the agrarian leader.

After the coup of 19 May 1934 Petkov cooperated with democratic parties including the Labours' Party – the legal organization of the banned Bulgarian Communist Party. He was elected to the 24th National Assembly (1938–1939).