DOCSLIB.ORG

Cotland Yard Says Bulgarian Was Murdered Fpw, •

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Cotland Yard Says Bulgarian Was Murdered Fpw, • Instrument of an Exile's Murder •• C By.Bernard D. Nossiter Markov told friends he was sure over the U.S.-run Radio Free Europe Weshington Poet Foreign aerie he had been poisoned. in Munich. LONDON — A Bulgarian defec- The tiny pellet that presumably Scotland Yard does not know tor who, Said on •his , deathbed that was used to poison him was found who killed Markov. Assistant Com- -he had been stabbed with a poi- under his skin.' missioner Gilbert Kelland told re- ' soned UrnbrelIa was in fact mur- Officials said they had never be- porters: dered, Scotland Yard disclosed fore seen anything like this exotic "The world is the field in this yesterday probably by a plati- instrument of death. ease. Your guess is as good as mine." mint -pellet smaller than a pinhead. "It is diabolical that this sort of The intelligence community here The ;exile, Georgi Markov, 49, a thing could happen in a London is convinced that the killer was an writer and dramatist who had steet," said Assistant Commissioner agent from the Soviet bloc, per- broadcast antigovernment political David Powis, operational chief of haps from the KGB, the Soviet commentaries to his homeland; died Scotland Yard's detectiveS. secret police. in a London hospital Sept. 11, Four Markov fled from Bulgaria In At first, intelligence sources here days before that, he said, a man 1970. In recent years he had been were puzzled by the long gap In had jabbed him •in 'the` thigh -with broadcasting attacks on the Com- time between Markov's defection an umbrella near Waterloo Bridge. munist government to his homeland See BULGARIAN, AR, Col. 2 •‘-•. cotland Yard Says Bulgarian Was Murdered • BULGARIAN, From Al quired precision work of a high order. Why the - pel- fpw, • let that worked in London failed in Paris- is a mys- and his death: Emigies marked for assassination, tery. they said, are typically liquidated within six months. Markov, who was sentenced in absence to 61/2 But now the intelligence community knows. Mar- years in prison in -Bulgaria, was married to an Eng- kov's fate was not an isolated incident. Last month,: lishwoman. His main job was broadcasting cultural another Bulgarian defector and journalist,' Vladimir news over the foreign service of the BBC, an essen- Rostov, was hit in the back as be was mounting an tially nonpolitical task. escalator in the Paris Metro. But when Sofia refused to permit him to return to Unlike . Markov, lio-stnv did, not become ill at once., Bulgaria to see his dying father, Markov turned to "On 'Tuesday in Paris; while two Scotland Yard de: - the attack. _ tectives watched, a French surgeonienioved from Over Radio .Free Europe, once supported by the Rostov's back a pellet. identical to the one found in CIA, and the West German Deutsche Welle, he 1Markov's right thigh. broadcast extracts from his unpublished memoirs. The presumed fatainstrument is an Ingenious de- -Among other things, he accused Bulgarian leader vice that leaves almost no trace. The pellet is an.. Todor Zhivkov and other high officials of corruption. ,.alloy: of rare metals, 90 percent platinum and 10 pen: Markov and Zhilikov had been friends- before Markov's cent iridium. It is one-fifteenth of an ineh'in- diarre- • defection. ter. Two minute hates, each 16 one-thousandths of On Sept. 7, Markov suddenly fell' ill with a high , an inch deep, had been drilled into this pinhead; at fever. He told his wife and others that he had been right angles 'to each other. 1 - jabbed with an umbrella earlier -that day by a man Detectives here have found an unidentified sub-. • who said in a foreign accent, sorry? The man, stance in the holes of the pellet that was embedded with the umbrella then jumped- into a cab and dig- - in Markov's skin. This substance may turn out to be appeared. Four days later, Markov died. He was 49. a poison, but the Yard said that it could take Scotland Yard's experts were being congratulated months to complete tests. last night for finding so tiny an object under the • Commissioner Powis said that the pellets are a re- dead man's skin. Whether or not they ever discover. - markable piece of microengineering, possibly per, • precisely who killed Markov.- and---,With what sub- Pellet, much magnified, taken from Bulgarian's leg. formed by '.a skilled watchmaker. Preparing an um- stance, they have added a new chaptertotlae annals' • brella tip to fire such a device must also have re- • of assassination. • I .
Load more

Recommended publications
  • 25 Years Freedom in Bulgaria
    25 YEARS FREEDOM IN BULGARIA CIVIC EDUCATION | TRANSITION | BERLIN WALL | PRESIDENT OF THE REPUBLIC OF BULGARIA | FREEDOM | 1989 | INTERPRETATIONS | OPEN LESSONS | MYTHS | LEGENDS | TOTALITARIAN PAST | DESTALINIZATION | BELENE CAMPS | GEORGI MARKOV | FUTURE | CITIZENS | EAST | WEST | SECURITY SERVICE | ECOGLASNOST | CIVIL DUTY AWARD | ANNIVERSARY | COMMUNISM | CAPITALISM | ARCHIVES | REMEMBRANCE| DISSIDENTS | ZHELYO ZHELEV | RADIO FREE EUROPE | VISEGRAD FOUR | HISTORY| POLITICAL STANDARTS | RULE OF LAW | FREE MEDIA | NOSTALGIA | REGIME| MEMORIES | RATIONALIZATION | HUMAN RIGHTS | HOPE | NOW AND THEN | DISCUSSING | VISUAL EVIDENCES | REPRESSIONS | HERITAGE | INTELLECTUAL ELITE | IRON CURTAIN | CENCORSHIP | GENERATIONS | LESSONS | TRANSFORMATION | TODOR ZHIVKOV | COLD WAR | INSTITUTIONS | BEGINNING | INFORMATION | RECONCILIATION | FACTS | EXPERIENCES | CONSENSUS | DISTORTIONS | MARKET ECONOMY | REFORM | UNEMPLOYMENT | THE BIG EXCURSION | IDEOLOGY | PUBLIC OPINION | NATIONAL INITIATIVE | TRUTH | ELECTIONS years ee B 25 years free Bulgaria is a civic initiative under the auspices of the President of Bulgaria, organized by Sofia Platform Fr ulgaria years CONTENT ee B Fr ulgaria CIVIC EDUCATION | TRANSITION | BERLIN WALL | PRESIDENT OF THE REPUBLIC OF BULGARIA | FREEDOM | 1989 | INTERPRETATIONS | OPEN LESSONS | MYTHS | LEGENDS | TOTALITARIAN PAST | 1. 25 Years Freedom in Bulgaria 02 DESTALINIZATION | BELENE CAMPS | GEORGI MARKOV | FUTURE | CITIZENS | EAST | WEST | SECURITY 2. Remembrance and Culture 04 SERVICE | ECOGLASNOST | CIVIL DUTY AWARD
    [Show full text]
  • “Global Dissident”: Georgi Markov As a Cold War Playwright and Exile
    STUDIA HISTORICA GEDANENSIA TOM V (2014) Vessela S. Warner (University of Alabama at Birmingham) “Global Dissident”: Georgi Markov as a Cold War Playwright and Exile Bulgarian writer Georgi Markov was undeniably one of the most controversial and internationally known Cold War dissidents and, after 1969, an expatriate‑turned‑exile.1 Although some of his literary works were censored during the time of political stagnation and tightened ideological control, he left his country as a legal tourist and privileged member of the Bulgarian intellectual elite. Under the pressure exercised on him by conservative statesmen and policing critics, the writer ultimately sought refuge in the West. Markov’s radio programs aired successfully on BBC and Deutsche Welle, but it was the chapters of his memoir Zadochni Reportazhi za Bulgaria (Correspondence on Bulgaria in Absentia),2 broadcasted on Radio Free Europe, which presented the most insightful and incriminatory account on Bulgarian dictatorial communism and attracted millions of listeners. This extensive political memoir ultimately led to the author’s assassination in London, widely known as the “Bulgarian umbrella murder”. Although Markov’s death and its long and complicated investigation have been extensively covered in journal articles, film documentaries, and spy histories,3 Markov’s literary work is less studied even in his own country, 1 The main difference between “expatriates” and “exiles,” as pointed by John Neubauer, is that the former leave their countries without being “existentially endangered [and] in principle they can return any time they want to”. See John Neubauer, Borbála Zsuzsanna Török, eds., The Exile and Return of Writers from East‑Central Europe.
    [Show full text]
  • Volume 3, Issue 2: November 2020 56 the Solzhenitsyn Affair: Yuri
    Volume 3, Issue 2: November 2020 The Solzhenitsyn Affair: Yuri Andropov’s Personal Obsesssion Christian Orr (USPIS Intelligence) Introduction When the general public thinks of Soviet assassination and kidnapping, they typically conjure up images from fictional espionage—especially of James Bond, AKA Agent 007. Yet, the real-world history of the Soviet Union in general and of the Komitet Gozudarstevennoi Bezopasnosti (KGB, the Committee for State Security and so-called “Sword and Shield” of the Communist Party of the CCCP) in particular, as well as of the KGB’s predecessor organizations, is replete with real-life examples of murder, kidnapping, and other forms of mayhem. Assassinations were specifically handled by KGB’s Department 13, tasked with the grimly euphemistic mokryie dela—translated as either “liquid affairs” or “wet work.”1 The earliest example that comes to mind is the murder of Leon Trotsky. Fallen far from grace from his heyday as a key participant in the Bolshevik Revolution, the exiled Trotsky was stabbed in the head with an ice pick in 1940 in Mexico.2 Fast-forward to the Cold War, and the list of Soviet assassination victims runs the gamut from Ukrainian emigré leader Stepan Bandera, to Liv Rebet in the 1950s, to Bulgarian defector Giorgi Markov in 1978 (the latter was killed in the streets of London with an umbrella that discharged a poison pellet into his leg). The KGB was even responsible for kidnappings in such far-flung places as Calcutta and Rangoon.3 1 Central Intelligence Agency, “Soviet Use of Assassination and Kidnapping,” Unclassified document, CIA Historical Review Program, September 22, 1993, https://www.cia.gov/library/center-for-the-study- ofintelligence/kent-csi/vol19no3/html/v19i3a01p_0001.htm.
    [Show full text]
  • Georgi Markov's Contribution to the Communist Hypothesis 153
    Against the Double Erasure: Georgi Markov’s Contribution to the Communist Hypothesis Nikolay Karkov To articulate the past historically does not mean to recognize it “the way it really was.” It means to seize hold of a memory as it flashes up at a moment of danger. Walter Benjamin There is a lot of energy in the dirt. Georgi Markov The Double Erasure of Eastern European State Socialism Part of the motivation behind this text is a sense of ongoing impasse that we (that is, those of us with leftist leanings and political commitments to the region) experience as we confront the still relatively recent socialist past in eastern Europe. While the monopoly of interpreting that past may no longer lie solely in the hands of right-wing think-tanks, the parameters they set in the 1990s for public debate over socialism continue to haunt us. The domi- nant theme of that early interpretation stipulated that state socialism in east- ern Europe was a “lost time” and a “waste of experience,” setting the clock back for half-a-century and necessitating an accelerated catching up with the west. A typical example of this attitude was a 2004 declaration passed by the Parliament of my home country, Bulgaria, on the 60th anniversary of the “communist takeover” in the country. The declaration claimed that in 1944 the “European road” chosen in the nineteenth century by those who were building contemporary Bulgaria was interrupted by a “utopian experiment” that retarded social and economic development for several decades.1 While increasing numbers of social scientists and, in fact, the majority of the popula- tion may have embraced by now a vision of socialism as an “accelerated mod- ernization,” a top-down conception of the socialist past continues to inform both apolitical forms of “socialist nostalgia” and easy slips into nationalism and xenophobia.2 Perhaps somewhat less predictably yet no less importantly, state social- ism has also been under severe attack from the western (North Atlantic) left, including its more militant wings.
    [Show full text]
  • Socialist Television and the Struggle for 'Harmonious Consumption'
    New Media, New Habits: Socialist Television and the Struggle for ‘Harmonious Consumption’ in 1960s Bulgaria MARTIN MARINOS University of Pittsburgh Abstract: It is widely accepted in popular and scholarly discourse that Eastern European so- cialist media were mere tools of control and state propaganda. This article proposes a new approach that focuses on the cultural functions of socialist television. Using 1960s Bulgarian Television as a case study, this piece traces the participation of this new medium in the con- struction of a unique socialist mode of consumption described in local scholarly and political literature as ‘harmonious consumption’. Through the work of Bulgarian dissident Georgi Markov the study highlights some of the challenges posed by the new consumption patterns of the late 1950s and 1960s and then outlines how television tried to respond to them. The main argument of the essay is that through its engagement with high culture and education, socialist television constituted an alternative television model that deserves a long overdue attention. Keywords: socialist television, Bulgaria, consumption, high culture, Georgi Markov, socialism p until recently it was held as common knowledge that Eastern European socialist me- U dia were mere messengers of the communist party’s directives to the population. Known as the ‘transmission belt’ theory, this belief features as a major component of the broader interpretation of socialism as a ‘totalitarian’ political system. According to this para- digm, the governments in the former Eastern bloc regulated every aspect of human life through state-controlled media, surveillance and political repression. In his Everything Was Forever, Until It Was No More: The Last Soviet Generation, Alexei Yurchak points out that the hegemony of this interpretation stems from the fact that knowledge of Soviet socialism Digital Icons: Studies in Russian, Eurasian and Central European New Media, No 15 (2016): 37-55.
    [Show full text]
  • The Assassination of Georgi Markov
    that spawned it. Jailors of three very and sometimes execution to speed their Vietnamese Government against American different “civilized” cultures (French, conversion to communism. POWs.” Both used the same means of Japanese and Vietnamese) donned the torture on inmates—are only the French mantel of absolute power, disregarded In 1993, Senator McCain returned criminals? ✪ By Thomas Boghardt - Historian - International Spy Museum, Washington, D.C. all universally held moral absolutes and to his cell in The Hanoi Hilton as part demonstrated man’s infinite capacity for of a US delegation discussing the US Fortunately, inhumanity and evil. Embargo. From his old cell he tearfully the assassination of georgi markov spoke the words, “It’s time to end it—to propaganda withers Conversely, American POWs end this chapter in United States and beneath the spotlight demonstrated the best of humanity— Vietnam history.” Waiting for his bus by London’s Waterloo Bridge, Georgi Markov suddenly felt their unconquerable human spirit. of truth. a sharp pain in his right thigh. As he turned around, he saw a heavy-set man, about 40 The heroism of the great majority of The embargo was lifted in February 1994. POWs went far beyond anything we Shortly thereafter debate erupted within Authors Note: This article drew heavily on the years old, bending to pick up a dropped umbrella. The man apologized in a foreign who have not been tested, can conceive. Vietnam’s leadership over the future of author’s experiences in Vietnam between 1991 Their courageous resistance to years of Hoa Lò. Foreign entrepreneurs proposed and 2003, as well as the vast body of POW accent, hurried to a waiting taxi and departed.
    [Show full text]
  • BBC World Service 80Th Anniversary 1932 – 2012
    BBC World Service 80th Anniversary 1932 – 2012 Media Pack Table of Contents 1. BBC World Service at 80 and the move to new Broadcasting House: Quotes 2. What others have said about the BBC World Service 3. 10 Facts about BBC World Service 4. BBC World Service history 5. Bush House history 7. Images 2 Quotes on BBC World Service at 80 and the move to new Broadcasting House BBC Trust Chairman, Lord Patten of Barnes, said: “The BBC World Service remains a beacon of journalistic integrity and quality, exporting British values of fairness, accuracy and freedom of speech around the world. “Every day our journalists demonstrate outstanding commitment and bravery, ensuring that the BBC is a lifeline for audiences across the globe who are hungry for unbiased news and information about their country and the wider world.” BBC Director General, Mark Thompson, said: “The BBC World Service stands for the best of BBC journalism: accuracy, impartiality, independence and seriousness. It embodies the cool-headed, fair-minded spirit of Britain – and the BBC – at its very best. “In a world where in-depth international reporting is increasingly restricted to a handful of agencies and to news providers who are directly under the influence of sovereign governments and who have no tradition of editorial independence, the BBC's journalism, its objectivity and impartiality, its ability to put people onto the ground and keep them there over years, is more, not less, important than it used to be.” Peter Horrocks, Director of the BBC World Service, said: “In turbulent times, the World Service’s mission to provide trusted news and impartial information has never been more important.
    [Show full text]
  • From Medicine to Murder
    Part I: Some of Nature’s Deadly Chemicals: From Medicine to Murder CHAPTER 1 Ricin and the Rolled Umbrella A word shown in bold indicates that further information will be found in the Glossary 1.1 Waterloo Sunset An umbrella is not the most obvious way of delivering a fatal dose of poison, but that was the weapon chosen by the Bulgarian secret service in 1978. Its targets were 26-year-old Vladimir Kostov and 49-year-old Georgi Markov, dissidents who had defected to the West and were embarrassing the corrupt communist dictatorship of President Todor Zhivkov by broadcasting on the US propaganda station Radio Free Europe. Kostov survived, but Markov died. On 7 September 1978 Markov parked his car near Waterloo Sta- tion and was waiting for a bus to take him over the River Thames to Bush House, where he worked for the BBC World Service. Suddenly he felt a sharp pain in his leg, and turned to find a man behind him with an umbrella which he had dropped on to the pavement. Al- though Markov did not know it, the umbrella had fired a tiny metal pellet no bigger than a pin-head into his thigh. By the time Markov reached his home in Balham that evening he was already feeling very ill. He began vomiting and was running a high fever. Markov was unaware that beneath the skin of his leg was a minute pellet containing one of the deadliest of all poisons. He died in agony four days later despite being in intensive care.
    [Show full text]
  • Alert Series: Bulgaria Movements Towards Democratization
    ALERT SERIES BULGARIA MOVEMENTS TOWARDS DEMOCRATIZATION [AL/BGR/93.001] MARCH 1993 (Information in report compiled through March 1993.) All the sources of information in this document are identified and are publicly available. PRODUCED BY: INS RESOURCE INFORMATION CENTER 425 I STREET, N.W. (ULLICO BUILDING, 3RD FLOOR) WASHINGTON, D.C. 20536 DISCLAIMER The July 27, 1990 Regulations, "Aliens and Nationality: Asylum and Withholding of Deportation Procedures," mandated the creation of a new corps of Asylum Officers to provide an initial, nonadversarial adjudication of asylum claims. Asylum Officers use asylum law, interviews with asylum applicants, and relevant information on country conditions to determine the merits of individual claims for asylum. The Resource Information Center was created to assist Asylum Officers domestically, and Immigration Officers determining refugee status overseas, by collecting and disseminating credible and objective information on human rights conditions. As specified in the Regulations (8 CFR 208.12), such information may be obtained from the Department of Justice, the Department of State, and "other credible sources, such as international organizations, private voluntary organizations, or academic institutions." Resource Information Center Papers are one means by which information reflecting a wide range of credible sources is summarized for easy access by Asylum and Immigration Officers. The views expressed in Resource Information Center papers do not necessarily represent official U.S. government opinion, nor do they reflect U.S. foreign policy concerns. This paper was written on the basis of publicly available information, analyses, and comment. All sources are cited. This paper cannot be, and does not purport to be, either exhaustive with regard to the country surveyed, or conclusive as to the merits of any claim to refugee status or asylum.
    [Show full text]
  • The Cold War from the Margins
    THE COLD WAR FROM THE MARGINS THE COLD WAR FROM THE MARGINS A Small Socialist State on the Global Cultural Scene Theodora K. Dragostinova CORNELL UNIVERSITY PRESS Ithaca and London Copyright © 2021 by Theodora Dragostinova This book is freely available in an open access edition thanks to TOME (Toward an Open Monograph Ecosystem)—a collaboration of the Association of American Universities, the Association of University Presses, and the Association of Research Libraries—and the generous support of The Ohio State University Libraries. Learn more at the TOME website, available at: openmonographs.org. The text of this book is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International license: https://creativecommons.org/ licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/. To use this book, or parts of this book, in any way not covered by the license, please contact Cornell University Press, Sage House, 512 East State Street, Ithaca, New York 14850. Visit our website at cornellpress.cornell.edu. First published 2021 by Cornell University Press Printed in the United States of America Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Dragostinova, Theodora, 1972– author. Title: The Cold War from the margins : a small socialist state on the global cultural scene / Theodora K. Dragostinova. Description: Ithaca [New York] : Cornell University Press, 2021. | Includes bibliographical references and index. Identifiers: LCCN 2020034764 (print) | LCCN 2020034765 (ebook) | ISBN 9781501755552 (paperback) | ISBN 9781501755569 (epub) | ISBN 9781501755576
    [Show full text]
  • Download (1MB)
    Metodiev, Metodi (2017) The writers, the conflicts and power in Bulgaria and Czechoslovakia 1948-1968. PhD thesis. http://theses.gla.ac.uk/7858/ Copyright and moral rights for this work are retained by the author A copy can be downloaded for personal non-commercial research or study, without prior permission or charge This work cannot be reproduced or quoted extensively from without first obtaining permission in writing from the author The content must not be changed in any way or sold commercially in any format or medium without the formal permission of the author When referring to this work, full bibliographic details including the author, title, awarding institution and date of the thesis must be given Glasgow Theses Service http://theses.gla.ac.uk/ [email protected] 1 THE WRITERS, THE CONFLICTS AND POWER IN BULGARIA AND CZECHOSLOVAKIA 1948-1968 Metodi Metodiev Submitted in fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy School of Modern Languages and Cultures College of Arts University of Glasgow November 2015 2 Abstract My research answers the need for a comparative approach in the research of the history of Eastern Europe. In this respect I will compare the relationship between the writers and the power wielders in Bulgaria and Czechoslovakia during the first twenty years of communist power in the two countries (1948-1968). My main idea is firstly to trace the influence of the international context on the domestic scene in Bulgaria and Czechoslovakia, and then to show how writers in the two countries answered the challenges posed by their political context.
    [Show full text]
  • Transformation of the Bulgarian Political Elite in the Period of Transition
    TRANSFORMATION OF THE BULGARIAN POLITICAL ELITE IN THE PERIOD OF TRANSITION. ITS IMPACT ON THE TRANSITION PROCESS by Emilia Zankina BA in Political Science and Communication & Rhetoric, University of Pittsburgh, 2000 Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of the Graduate School of Public and International Affairs in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in International Affairs University of Pittsburgh 2010 UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH GRADUATE SCHOOL OF PUBLIC AND INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS This dissertation was presented by Emilia Zankina It was defended on May 3, 2010 and approved by Louis Picard, PhD, Professor, Graduate School of Public and International Affairs Ilya Prizel, PhD, Research Professor, University Center for International Studies Dissertation Advisors: Carolyn Ban, PhD, Professor, Graduate School of Public and International Affairs Ronald Linden, PhD, Professor, Department of Political Science ii Copyright © by Emilia Zankina 2010 iii TRANSFORMATION OF THE BULGARIAN POLITICAL ELITE IN THE PERIOD OF TRANSITION. ITS IMPACT ON THE TRANSITION PROCESS Emilia Zankina, PhD University of Pittsburgh, 2010 This study examines the transformation of the Bulgarian political elite that took place with the transition from communist to post-communist society. Drawing on classical elite theory and contemporary research on East European elites, I argue that two sets of factors determine the nature of elite transformation – the presence of a counter-elite and the degree to which this elite is organized, and the
    [Show full text]