Global InformationElena Lagadinova information
Elena Lagadinova (Bulgarian: Елена Атанасова Лагадинова; May 9, 1930 – October 29, 2017) was a Bulgarian agronomist, genetic engineer, and politician.
During the Second World War, Lagadinova contributed to the Bulgarian resistance against German occupation, earning the nickname “Амазонка” or “The Amazon.” She was the youngest female fighter in Bulgaria, beginning her contributions to the war effort at 11 years old and actively fighting at age 14.[1]
Following the Allied victory in 1945, she pursued a PhD in agrobiology, before serving as a research scientist at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences.[2] There, she developed a new strain of wheat, Triticale, which helped to boost the productivity of collective farms. For this discovery, she was awarded the Order of Cyril and Methods by the Bulgarian Government.[3]
In 1968, Lagadinova accepted the position as Secretary of the Fatherland Front and President of the Committee of the Bulgarian Women's Movement.[2] In these roles, she played a significant role in the creation and enforcement of legislation to benefit women in the workplace, including maternity leave laws.[4] She was also a notable figure in global politics, working with other international activists to forge a coalition of national women's organisations, and becoming a member of the UN Institute for Training Women in 1985.[5]
She died on October 29, 2017, in a retirement facility in Sofia, Bulgaria.
- ^ "The Left Side of History: World War II and Re-emergent Nationalisms in Contemporary Eastern Europe". Institute for Advanced Study. 25 October 2016. Retrieved 2019-03-13.
- ^ a b Ghodsee, Kristen (April 24, 2015). "Bulgaria's Guerilla Girl" (PDF). Anthropology News. Retrieved February 22, 2019.
- ^ Ghodsee, Kristen (August 26, 2014). "Women's Rights and the Cold War" (PDF). Legacies of Communism.
- ^ Ghodsee, Kristen (2014). "Pressuring the Politburo: The Committee of the Bulgarian Women's Movement and State Socialist Feminism". Slavic Review. 73 (3): 538–562. doi:10.5612/slavicreview.73.3.538. ISSN 0037-6779. S2CID 147401085.
- ^ "The Youngest Partisan". jacobinmag.com. Retrieved 2019-03-13.