Personalities from the history of Ruse: Panayot Popov

Panayot A. Popov was born on November 30, 1848 in Rousse, where he spent his childhood. He finished third grade at the "Mitrondio" Lyceum.

He went down in history as a prominent businessman of the city of Ruse, and his name is most often found among the founders of the first credit and commercial institutions in the city. He played an important role in the construction and development of the credit system in Bulgaria. It is interesting that the center of private banking in Bulgaria at that time was not Sofia, but Ruse.

At the end of 1881, the Joint Stock Savings Company "Girdap" was founded in Ruse and has been operating since the beginning of 1882 with a capital of 1.5 million gold leva. In fact, it is one of the first active private banks in the country and its first chairman of the Board of Directors is Panayot A. Popov.

He became the first chairman of the Nachalo Savings Association, founded in 1882. The establishment in the spring of 1890 in Ruse of the First Bulgarian Chamber of Commerce gave a powerful impetus to the development of banking and credit in the country. PA Popov became its first chairman.

He was one of the initiators of the formation of the First Bulgarian Insurance Company "Bulgaria" at the end of 1890. From 1891-1910, he was the chairman of the company's management board. During this time, the issuance of various types of policies was introduced and the headquarters of "Bulgaria" was maintained in Ruse.

P. A. Popov was among the co-founders and members of the management boards of the Bulgarian Commercial Bank in 1895 and the Ruse Chamber of Commerce and Industry, of which he was also the chairman.

In 1897, Panayot Penkov together with P. A. Popov formed, on the basis of the company "Penkov-Pavlov and Co.", an anonymous company "Penkov-Popov" - a factory tannery for the production of leather goods. P. A. Popov is among the shareholders of the company for ceramic products "Trud" JSC.

A person with an extremely rich culture, he speaks several foreign languages, the best of which are Turkish, Greek and Yiddish, participates in and supports numerous initiatives in the Danube city. A member of the "Zora" revival community center and one of the initiators of its restoration in 1883. He was the mayor of Ruse from the fall of 1893 to the summer of 1894. P. A. Popov bequeathed 40 shares, each worth 20 gold Belgian francs, from the tannery the factory of the Eleonora Orphanage, the Dobrina-Josif I Society, the Girls' High School and the "Poor Students" dining hall.

He died on October 7, 1910 in Ruse.

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Source: "Lessons of the ancestors 1890-1947", Jubilee collection for 115 years since the establishment of the First Bulgarian Chamber of Commerce, authors Todor Neykov and Ivan Cherkezov, Ruse 2005.