AS A founder in 1885 of the first Marxist circle in Russia and, in 1891, of what later became the Bulgarian Communist Party, Dimiter Blagoev should be honoured by all revolutionaries. Manifesto Press has done the movement a service by publishing Mercia MacDermott’s brilliant account of his life and times.

In bringing Blagoev to vivid life, MacDermott draws on studies of the historical background and her personal experience of socialist Bulgaria, where she lived and worked for 16 years.

Blagoev never met Lenin but he studied his writings and, like him, devoted much of his efforts to the struggle against right wing opportunism and revisionism. 

He wrote with great force and clarity and among those who worked with and learned from Blagoev was the young Georgi Dimitrov.

Urging the Communist Party to stand in bourgeois elections, Blagoev was clear that this should not be at the expense of its main task — to win the organised working class for revolutionary action.

He was vindicated when, after WWI, the Bulgarian Communists won 50 seats in parliament, though a fascist coup in 1923 put an end to their advance.

Blagoev died the following year and, despite government intimidation, 50,000 people followed his coffin through the streets of Sofia.

Such was the affection of Bulgarian working people for the leader they had come to know as “Grandpa.”

A brief epilogue considers Blagoev’s legacy. Two decades of fascism failed to destroy the Bulgarian Communist Party, which led to resistance against the nazis during WWII and the rise to power of the communist-led Fatherland Front in 1944.

It rapidly realised some of Blagoev’s hopes and dreams — socialist policies transformed a backward economy, the living standard of working people rose and education and cultural advances opened up for all.

But, as Blagoev had warned could happen, the party in power became bureaucratic and self-serving and eventually lost the support of the people.

MacDermott does not discuss to what extent this was due to the cold war but, whatever the causes, the outcome means that the Bulgarian people still face a struggle to secure Blagoev’s legacy.

Instructive and inspiring, this biography of a great communist can help us overcome the social-democratic illusions that still hold back the mighty British labour movement.

Review by David Grove