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;
Tip Top Weekly Tip Top Weekly Tip Top Weekly was a magazine, published by Street & Smith, which ran for more than 800 issues. It began April 19, 1896 with an August 12, 1912 title change to New Tip Top Weekly. Making a 1915 transition from a story-paper tabloid to a standard pulp magazine format, it was retitled Tip Top Semi-Monthly and then became Wide Awake Magazine from December 10, 1915 to June 10, 1916. Promoted as "an ideal publication for American Youth," this magazine featured several fictional heroes but was mainly devoted to the ongoing adventures of student Frank Merriwell, who began