Evening star., 1949-07-02

II am. Tuesday at the GaWler
funeral home. 1855 Pennsylvania
avenue NV.
Dimitrov
Continued From First Page.)
ministers of the U. s. S. r., made
the announcement Of death. They
said it caused them profound grief
Georgi Dimitrov, like Lenin, was
a revolutionary exile come home
The Bulgarian, who was reputed
to be the most influential Com
munist outside Russia. had three
distinctions:
He was the central defendant
in the famous Reichstag fire trial
in Germany in 1888. and was
acquitted.
He was general secretary of the
Comintern, the Communist inter-
national organization at Moscow,
from 1885 until it was formally
disbanded in 1943.
He was Communist ruler of post
World War II Bulgaria, with its
peasant population of 100000,
and a top international agent OF
the Kremlin.
Becoming Bulgaria's premier in
November. 1916, when he was 81,
Dimitrov swept out so-called re-
dictionaries and imperialists with
"an iron broom"
Born in 1882 Near Sofia.
Dimitrov was born June 18,
1882, at Kovachevtsi. southwest
of Sofia.
He quit school at IL and began
work as printers apprentice.
At Is Dimitrov was member
and at 18 secretary Of the Bull
garian printers union. BY the
time he was % he was recog-
nized as a talented labor organ
izer. He became secretary IF the
Bulgarian trade union fedora tion
and from 1905 to 1913 partici-
pated prominently in several bitter
strikes.
In 1902 he Joined the Social
Democrat Party and soon became
active in the leftist faction, which
he helped to organize into the
Bulgarian Communist Party In
1919.
Until 1888 Dimitrov was an in
conspicuous conspiring Balkan
refugee. The Reichstag fire trial
catapulted him to fame.
The mystery Of the fire, which,
razed the Reichstag building in
Berlin on the night of February
~, 1888. never was cleared up. not
even by the wealth of documen-
tary material seized by Allied in
Ivestigators after World War II.
Adolf Hitler and Hermann Goe-
ring, Prime Minister of Prussia,
charged the Is to 40 fires in the
building had been set by Commu-
nists as a prelude to insurrection
Five men-Marinus Van der
Lubbe, 24-year-old Dutch brick
mason, who was caught in the
building; Ernst Torgler. parlia-
|mentary whip Of the Communist
Party, and three Bulgarian Com
|munists, including Dimitorv, were
arrested.
They were charged with arson
and high treason, with death by
the executioner's ak as the pos
sible penalty.
But before they were put on
trial at Leipzig. September 81, the
Nazis were being charged with
setting the fire themselves to gain
a pretext to wipe out the opposi-
ton, especially the Communists.
Van der Lubbe, a dim-witted
youth who at one time had been
affiliated with Communist organ
izations. confessed setting the fire.
But he proved Of little use to
either defense or prosecution.
In the end. Van der Lubbe
alone was convicted and behead-
ed. The others were acquitted.
But Torgler was kept in ''protec-
tive custody" for two years.
The three Bulgarian Commu-
nists were not freed from jail
until February 81, 1884, when
Russia gave them citizenship.
Dimitrov's conduct at the trial
caused him to be made general
secretary of the Comintern. which
directed worldwide Communist
strategy. In 1887 he was elected
to the Supreme Soviet, the Rus
sian legislature.
His name headed the list OF
signers of the resolution dissolv-
ing the Comintern Of May %, 1943.
But Bulgaria was among the
foremost in organization Of the
Comintern, the Communist inter-
national information bureau. that
was organized in October, 1947.
In March,. 1945, as soon as the
Red Army had consolidated its
occupation of his native land,
Dimitrov ended ~ years Of exile.
He had fed Bulgaria after failure
of an uprising he helped to lead
in 1923. He returned as q Moscow
trained operator Of one Of Russia s
satellite peoples democracies."
IndustriuIist Dies
PITTSBURGH, July 2 (R.-E.
w. Nudge, 10. Pittsburgh indus
trialist, died last night after an
illness Of less than a week. He
was q director and senior vice
president Of Fidelity Trust Co. and
held vice presidencies in the