Todor Zhivkov to 1988, Bulgaria won an unprecedented 153 Olympic medals and numerous European and world competitions in sports as diverse as volleyball, rhythmic gymnastics and wrestling. Dissent was punished under Zhivkov's rule. The CSS was a feared tool of control, and overt opposition largely stayed underground until the late 1980s. In 1978, the Bulgarian dissident Georgi Markov was assassinated in London by an agent who stabbed him with an umbrella tip which implanted a very small ricin ball. According to former KGB general Oleg Kalugin, this was requested by Zhivkov and either performed by the KGB or it assisted the CSS;
Commercial Street, London Ibis London City budget hotel (opened 2005), and beyond that, at the junction with Whitechapel High Street, the Relay Building, a 21-storey residential development (completed 2014). On the eastern side of Commercial Street stands Toynbee Hall, the university settlement founded in 1884. The nearest London Underground station is Aldgate East, at Commercial Street's southern end. Shoreditch High Street London Overground station is close to the northern end, by the former Bishopsgate Goods Yard. London Liverpool Street is a National Rail and London Underground interchange, a short walk to the west. Commercial Street, London Commercial Street is an arterial road in