TSANKOV, ALEKSANDUR

born 1879, Oriakhova, Bulg. died July 17, 1959, Belgrano, Arg. politician, prime minister of Bulgaria (192326) during years of great domestic unrest and violence. Tsankov studied law at Sofia University, where in 1910 he became professor of economics. Originally a social democrat, he had by 1922 moved considerably to the right politically, becoming in that year leader of the conservative group National Concord (Naroden Zgovor), which conspired to overthrow the radical peasant dictatorship of Aleksandur Stamboliyski. After the military coup of June 9, 1923, Tsankov replaced Stamboliyski as premier; but resistance to his regime claimed thousands of lives during the following months. His new political coalition, the Democratic Entente, secured a large majority in the November 1923 elections, but civil disturbances nonetheless continued practically unchecked through the end of his ministry (January 1926). During the 1930s Tsankov headed the Bulgarian fascist movement, and in September 1944, after the Soviet occupation of his country, he formed a short-lived Bulgarian government-in-exile in Austria under German auspices. For several months following World War II, he was interned in Austria by U.S. forces. On his release he emigrated to South America.