Georgi Markov (1929-1978) was a Bulgarian novelist, playwright and journalist. He was one of the most talented and popular Bulgarian writers of the 1960s, but his books and plays were banned following his defection to the West. After settling in London, Markov worked for BBC and contributed political and memoiristic essays for Radio Free Europe and Deutsche Welle. His criticism of the Bulgarian communist regime made him one of the leading Bulgarian dissidents of the period. He was notoriously assassinated in London in 1978 by the Bulgarian State Security and the KGB in what became known worldwide as "the umbrella murder."