Ivailo Petrov

Petrov, Ivailo 

Born Jan. 19, 1923, in Bdintsi, in Tolbu-khin District. Bulgarian writer. Son of a peasant.

Petrov studied in the law faculty at the University of Sofia. A participant in the war against fascist Germany in 1944 and 1945, he later created lifelike portraits of Bulgarian soldiers in the collection of stories The Baptism (1953). His works chiefly depict the life and mores of the Bulgarian village. For example, the novella Nonka’s Love (1956; Russian translation, 1958) examines the new set of moral relationships. The novel The Swell (1961) portrays the dramatic confrontations that took place when agricultural cooperatives were being formed, and the novella Before I Am to Be Born—And After (1971) focuses on the different character types encountered among the peasantry. Petrov received the Dimitrov Prize in 1972.

WORKS

Na chuzhda zemia. Sofia, 1962.
Oburkani zapiski. Sofia, 1971.
Predi da se rodia—I sled tova; Murtvo vulnenie. Sofia, 1973.

REFERENCES

Dobrev, Ch. “Mukite na tvorchestvoto.” In his book Ovladiavane na choveshkiia sviat. Sofia, 1968.
Georgiev, L. “Ivailo Petrov.” In Suvremenni pisateli. Sofia, 1969.

V. I. ZLYDNEV