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;
The miller who was a wizard, a cheat and a matchmaker The miller who was a wizard, a cheat and a matchmaker The miller who was a wizard, a cheat and a matchmaker (title in Russian "Мельник – колдун, обманщик и сват [Melnik – koldun, obmanshchik i svat]") – is a Russian ballad opera in three acts with a libretto by Alexander Ablesimov that premiered on . Its folksong-based music was long attributed to Yevstigney Fomin but is now considered to have been by Mikhail Sokolovsky, and others have contributed music to revivals. The music for the opera is nowadays agreed to be by Mikhail Sokolovsky, although for a century it