Venelin Yordanov Ganev was a Bulgaria

Bulgaria

Bulgaria , officially the Republic of Bulgaria , is a parliamentary democracy within a unitary constitutional republic in Southeast Europe. The country borders Romania to the north, Serbia and Macedonia to the west, Greece and Turkey to the south, as well as the Black Sea to the east...

n lawyer, diplomat, and politician. He was a leading authority on commercial law

Commercial law

Commercial law is the body of law that governs business and commercial transactions...

, and after the Communist coup d'état on 9 September 1944 was one of the regent

Regent

A regent, from the Latin regens "one who reigns", is a person selected to act as head of state because the ruler is a minor, not present, or debilitated. Currently there are only two ruling Regencies in the world, sovereign Liechtenstein and the Malaysian constitutive state of Terengganu...

s of underage tsar Simeon II.

Biography

Venelin Ganev was born on 16 February 1880 (or old-style 4 February) in Rousse

Rousse

Ruse is the fifth-largest city in Bulgaria. Ruse is situated in the northeastern part of the country, on the right bank of the Danube, opposite the Romanian city of Giurgiu, from the capital Sofia and from the Bulgarian Black Sea Coast...

, Bulgaria. He studied in Leipzig

Leipzig

Leipzig Leipzig has always been a trade city, situated during the time of the Holy Roman Empire at the intersection of the Via Regia and Via Imperii, two important trade routes. At one time, Leipzig was one of the major European centres of learning and culture in fields such as music and publishing...

 and Geneva

Geneva

Geneva In the national languages of Switzerland the city is known as Genf , Ginevra and Genevra is the second-most-populous city in Switzerland and is the most populous city of Romandie, the French-speaking part of Switzerland...

, where Simeon Radev

Simeon Radev

Simeon Traychev Radev was a Bulgarian writer, journalist, diplomat and historian most famous for his two-volume book The Builders of Modern Bulgaria....

 was a fellow-student of his. After returning to Bulgaria, Ganev taught philosophy of law (1908–1947) at Sofia University

Sofia University

The St. Clement of Ohrid University of Sofia or Sofia University is the oldest higher education institution in Bulgaria, founded on 1 October 1888...

.

In 1908 Venelin Ganev joined the Radical-Democratic Party. In 1919 he was the Minister of Justice in Teodor Teodorov

Teodor Teodorov

Teodor Teodorov was a leading Bulgarian politician and legal expert who served as Prime Minister immediately after the First World War.Teodorov first came to prominence through his support for reform of the Bulgarian legal system and took part in a Commission set up in 1911 that eventually...

's second cabinet, and took part in the Bulgarian delegation for peace negotiations in Paris

Paris

Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...

 (before the Treaty of Neuilly

Treaty of Neuilly

The Treaty of Neuilly-sur-Seine, dealing with Bulgaria for its role as one of the Central Powers in World War I, was signed on 27 November 1919 at Neuilly-sur-Seine, France....

). Afterwards, he served as a Bulgarian ambassador to France

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

 (1920–1922).

Venelin Ganev joined the newly-formed Democratic Accord in 1923, along with most of the Radical-democratic Party. In 1925, he quit it and declared himself against the government's policy. Later, he established a League for Protection of Human Rights. During World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

 he participated as an independent member in the Fatherland Front

Fatherland Front (Bulgaria)

The Fatherland Front was originally a Bulgarian political resistance movement during World War II. The Zveno movement, the communist Bulgarian Workers Party, a wing of the Agrarian Union and the Bulgarian Social Democratic Workers Party, were all part of the FF...

 and entered its leadership. After the coup of 9 September 1944, he became a regent of tsar Simeon II, together with Todor Pavlov and Tsvyatko Boboshevski, and he remained such until the fall of monarchy on 18 September 1946.

Back in 1945, Venelin Ganev opposed the increasing influence of the Bulgarian Communist Party

Bulgarian Communist Party

The Bulgarian Communist Party was the communist and Marxist-Leninist ruling party of the People's Republic of Bulgaria from 1946 until 1990 when the country ceased to be a communist state...

 and joined the opposition. In 1947 he was interned in Dryanovo

Dryanovo

The town of Dryanovo is situated at the northern foot of the Balkan Mountains in Gabrovo Province, Bulgaria, amphitheatrically along the two banks of Dryanovo River, a tributary to the Yantra River. The town is a centre of the homonymous Dryanovo Municipality, which is composed of 62 villages,...

, and in 1948 he was expelled from the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences

Bulgarian Academy of Sciences

The Bulgarian Academy of Sciences is the National Academy of Bulgaria, established in 1869. The Academy is autonomous and has a Society of Academicians, Correspondent Members and Foreign Members...

.

Publications

• Chopin (1919)
• Historical development of commercial law (1921)
• A course in common law theory. Introduction. Methodology of law (1921–1932, 1946)
• A course in commercial law (1923)
• A course in common law theory. Legal phenomenon (1925)
• A systematic course in [the study of] bankruptcy, volume I (1926)
• A textbook in common law theory (in two volumes; 1932–1938)
• Economic reality. An essay of a sociological synthesis (1945)
• Democracy (1946)
• . Legal-historical and legal-analythic research (1959)

Sources