Georgi Markov(1929-1978)
Georgi Ivanov Markov was a Bulgarian dissident writer. He was born on 1 March 1929, in Knyazhevo, a Sofia neighborhood. In 1946, he graduated from the high school and began university studies in industrial chemistry. Initially Markov worked as a chemical engineer and a teacher in a technical school. At the age of 19 years, he became ill with tuberculosis, which forced him to attend various hospitals. His first literary attempts occurred during that time. In 1957 a novel "The Night of Celsius" appeared. Soon another novel "The Ajax Winners" (1959) and two collections of short stories (1961) were published. In 1962, Markov published the novel "Men", which won the annual award of the Union of Bulgarian Writers and he was subsequently accepted as a member of the Union, a prerequisite for a professional career in literature. Georgi Markov started working at the "Narodna Mladezh" publishing house. The story collections "A Portrait of My Double" (1966) and "The Women of Warsaw" (1968) secured his place as one of the most talented young writers of Bulgaria. Markov also wrote a number of plays but most of them were never staged or were removed from theatre repertoire by the Communist censors: "To Crawl under the Rainbow", "The Elevator", "Assassination", "Stalinists", and "I Was Him". The novel "The Roof" was halted in mid-printing since it described as a fact and in allegorical terms the collapse of the roof of the Lenin steel mill. Markov was one of the authors of the popular TV series "At Each Kilometer", which created the character of the World War II detective Velinsky and his nemesis the Resistance fighter Deyanov. Despite the ban of some of his works, Georgi Markov had become a successful author. He was among the writers and poets that Zhivkov tried to co-opt and coerce into serving the regime with their works. During this period, Markov had a bohemian lifestyle which was unknown to most Bulgarians. In 1969, Georgi Markov left for Bologna, Italy, where his brother lived. His initial idea was to wait until his status with the Bulgarian authorities improved, but he gradually changed his mind and decided to stay in the West, especially after September 1971 when the Bulgarian government refused to extend his passport. Markov moved to London where he learned English and started working for the Bulgarian section of the BBC World Service (1972). Later he also worked with Deutche Welle and Radio Free Europe. In 1972, Markov's membership in the Union of Bulgarian Writers was suspended and he was sentenced in absentia to six years and six months in prison for his defection. His works were withdrawn from libraries and bookshops and his name was not mentioned by the official Bulgarian media until 1989. The Bulgarian Secret Service started Markov's file under the code name "Wanderer". In 1974 his play "To Crawl under the Rainbow" was staged in London, while in Edinburgh the play "Archangel Michael", written in English, won first prize. The novel "The Right Honorable Chimpanzee", coauthored by David Phillips, was published after his death. In 1975, Markov married Annabel Dilke. The couple has a daughter, Alexandra-Raina, born a year later. Between 1975 and 1978, Markov worked on his "In Absentia Reports" analysis of life in Communist Bulgaria. They were broadcast weekly on Radio Free Europe. Their criticism of the Communist government and personally of the Party leader Todor Zhivkov made Markov even more an enemy of the regime. In 1978, Markov was murdered in London by an operative connected to the KGB and the Bulgarian secret police under Zhivkov. He was assassinated on a London street via a micro-engineered pellet containing poison, fired into his leg via an umbrella wielded by someone associated with the Bulgarian secret police. His "In Absentia Reports" were published in Bulgaria in 1990, after the end of the Communist government. In 2000, Markov was posthumously awarded the Order of Stara Planina, Bulgaria's most prestigious honor, for his "significant contribution to the Bulgarian literature, drama and non-fiction and for his exceptional civic position and confrontation to the Communist regime."