5 Leva Lyudmila Zhivkova

Lyudmila Zhivkova, daughter of Bulgarian communist leader Todor Zhivkov, died unexpectedly in July 1981 at age 38 — officially from a stroke, though speculation about the circumstances persisted for years. As head of the Committee for Art and Culture, she had pushed an ambitious and eclectic cultural program that sat uneasily alongside orthodox Soviet ideology, emphasizing Bulgarian national identity and even Eastern mysticism. This coin was issued the following year as part of official mourning.

Zhivkova had been organizing the 1300th anniversary celebrations of the Bulgarian state, which dominated the country's cultural output in 1981. Her death mid-project left the commemorative program incomplete.