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Vulko Velev Chervenkov (September 6 1900–October 21 1980) was a Bulgarian communist politician.
Chervenkov was born in Zlatitsa, Bulgaria. He became a communist in 1919 and participated in communist youth group activities and newspaper editing. He took part in the failed 1923 communist uprising.
In 1925 Chervenkov fled to the Soviet Union. He attended the Marx-Lenin school in Moscow and eventually became the director of that school. He became a supporter of the rule of Soviet leader Joseph Stalin. In 1941 he became the director of a radio station which sent anti-German and pro-Communist messages to the Bulgarian people.
In 1944 Chervenkov returned to Bulgaria on a mission for his brother-in-law, Georgi Dimitrov. Chervenkov became a member of the government which took office soon after the end of World War II in 1945 which quickly came to be controlled by Communists. He became minister of culture in 1947, deputy prime minister in 1949, general secretary of the party in 1949 and prime minister of Bulgaria in 1950.
Support for Chervenkov's leadership depended largely on support from the Soviet government. After Stalin's death in 1953, the Soviet government began to turn against Chervenkov. He lost many of his posts, resigning from the position of general secretary on March 4 1954 and resigning from the position of prime minister on April 17 1956. He remained a deputy prime minister, but lost that position as well in 1961 and retired from politics. He was expelled from the party in 1962 but quietly readmitted in 1969. He died in Sofia, Bulgaria.
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