Nikola Petkov

…in November, the Agrarian leader, Nikola Petkov, emerged as the opposition’s principal spokesman. However, he was charged with plotting to overthrow the government and was expelled from the Grand National Assembly along with most of his associates. In June 1947 Petkov was arrested, and on September 23 he was executed.…

…the execution of its leader, Nikola Petkov, in 1947, this struggle was lost; the left wing, pro-communist agrarians declared themselves the only legitimate heirs of the “party of Stamboliyski” and converted into an obedient satellite of the communists. This arrangement allowed the Agrarian Union to retain an institutional existence and…