site.btaProf. Elka Konstantinova Dies at 90

Literature professor and politician Elka Konstantinova has died at the age of 90, her family said Thursday. She was a prominent Bulgarian literature scholar and one of the key figures in Bulgarian politics after the fall of communism in Bulgaria in 1989.

Born in 1932 in the family of literary critic Georgi Konstantinov, she graduated in Bulgarian language and literature from the St. Kliment Ohridski University in Sofia in 1957. Her career included several tenures as university professor, a researcher at the Institute of Literature of the Bulgarian Academy of Science, an editor in a literary magazine.

She stood out in Bulgarian politics as one of the leaders of the Union of Democratic Forces coalition in the 1980s and 1990s. She was the first leader of the Radical Democratic Party (1989-1993).

She was an MP in the 7th Grand National Assembly that adopted the current Bulgarian Constitution. She was Culture Minister in the Filip Dimitrov government between November 8, 1991, and December 30, 1992. Between 1993 and 1997 she was culture attache in the Bulgarian Embassy in Poland.

She was awarded with the one of the highest Polish state honours, a Cross of Merit, for the advancement of Bulgarian-Polish cultural ties (2001) and Bulgaria's Order of St. St. Cyril and Methodius (2012).