Obituary of G.M. Dimitrov
World News and Views, No. 28, July 1949
Georgi Mikhailovitch Dimitrov was born on June 18, 1882, in the town of
Radomir, of a proletarian revolutionary family. When he was only 15
years old, the young Dimitrov, working as a compositor in a printshop,
joined the revolutionary movement and took an active part in the work
of the oldest Bulgarian trade union of printers.
In 1902, Dimitrov joined the Bulgarian Workers’ Social Democratic
Party. He actively combated revisionism on the side of the
revolutionary Marxist wing of Tesnyaki led by Dimitri Blagoyev.
The self-sacrificing revolutionary struggle of Dimitrov earned him the
warm love of the revolutionary workers of Bulgaria, who, in 1905,
elected him secretary of the Alliance of Revolutionary Trade
Associations of Bulgaria. In that post he remained right up to 1923,
when that alliance was disbanded by the fascists.
While leading the struggle of the Bulgarian proletariat, Dimitrov
displayed courage and staunchness in the revolutionary struggles, was
repeatedly arrested and persecuted. In the September armed uprising of
1923 in Bulgaria he headed the Central Revolutionary Committee, set an
example of revolutionary fearlessness, unflinching staunchness and
devotion to the cause of the working class. For his leadership of the
armed uprising in 1923 the fascist court sentenced Dimitrov in his
absence to death. In 1926, after the provocative trial, engineered by
the fascists, against the leadership of the Communist Party, Dimitrov
was again sentenced to death in his absence.
Compelled, in 1923, to emigrate from Bulgaria, Dimitrov led the life of
a professional revolutionary. He worked actively in the Executive
Committee of the Communist International.
In 1933, he was arrested in Berlin for revolutionary activity. During
the Leipzig Trial, Dimitrov became the standard-bearer of the struggle
against fascism and imperialist war. His heroic conduct in the court,
the words of wrath which he flung in the face of the fascists, exposing
their infamous provocation in connection with the Reichstag fire,
unmasked the fascist provocateurs and roused new millions of workers
throughout the world to the struggle against fascism.
In 1935, Dimitrov was elected General Secretary of the Executive
Committee of the Communist International. He waged a persistent
struggle for the creation and consolidation of the united proletarian
and popular front for the struggle against fascism, against the war
which the fascist rulers of Germany, Japan and Italy were preparing. He
called untiringly on the masses of the working people of all countries
to rally around the Communist Parties in order to bar the way to the
Fascist aggressors.
Dimitrov did great work in the ranks of the international Communist
movement in forging the leading cadres of Communist Parties loyal to
the great teachings of Marxism-Leninism, to the principles of
proletarian internationalism, to the cause of the defense of the
interests of the people’s masses in their respective countries.
During the Second World War, Georgi Dimitrov called on the Communists
to head the national-liberation anti-fascist movement, and tirelessly
worked at organizing all patriotic forces for the rout of the fascist
invaders. He led the struggle of the Bulgarian Workers’ Party
(Communists) and all Bulgarian patriots who rose in arms against the
German-fascist invaders.
For his outstanding services in the struggle against fascism he was, in
1945, awarded the Order of Lenin by the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet
of the U.S.S.R.
After the defeat of fascist Germany, Georgi Mikhailovitch Dimitrov led
the building of the new People’s Democratic Republic of Bulgaria, and
laid the foundation for the eternal friendship between the Bulgarian
people and the peoples of the Soviet Union. Untiringly working for the
consolidation of the united anti-imperialist camp and the rallying of
all democratic forces, Georgi Mikhailovitch Dimitrov mercilessly
exposed the betrayal of the cause of Socialism and the united
anti-imperialist front by Tito’s nationalist clique.
In the person of Dimitrov, the working people of the whole world have
lost an ardent fighter, who gave all his heroic life to the supreme
service of the cause of the working class, the cause of Communism. The
death of Dimitrov is a great loss to the whole international working
class and Communist movement, to all fighters for lasting peace and a
people’s democracy. By his self-sacrificing struggle in the ranks of
the working-class movement, by his boundless devotion to the great
teachings of Lenin and Stalin, Dimitrov earned the warm love of the
working people of the whole world.
The life of Dimitrov, loyal comrade-in-arms of Lenin and Stalin,
staunch revolutionary and anti-fascist champion, will serve as an
inspiring example to all fighters for the cause of peace and democracy,
for Communism.
Farewell, our dear friend and comrade-in-arms!
(Signed) Andreyev, Beria, Bulganin, Voroshilov, Kaganovitch, Kosygin,
Malenkov, Mikoyan, Molotov, Ponomarenko, Popov, Pospelov, Stalin,
Suslov, Khrushchev, Shvernik, Shkiryatov.
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