Stephane Groueff
Encyclopedia
Stephane Groueff, was a writer
Writer
A writer is a person who produces literature, such as novels, short stories, plays, screenplays, poetry, or other literary art. Skilled writers are able to use language to portray ideas and images....

, journalist
Journalist
A journalist collects and distributes news and other information. A journalist's work is referred to as journalism.A reporter is a type of journalist who researchs, writes, and reports on information to be presented in mass media, including print media , electronic media , and digital media A...

 and a political refugee, born in Sofia
Sofia
Sofia is the capital and largest city of Bulgaria and the 12th largest city in the European Union with a population of 1.27 million people. It is located in western Bulgaria, at the foot of Mount Vitosha and approximately at the centre of the Balkan Peninsula.Prehistoric settlements were excavated...

, Bulgaria
Bulgaria
Bulgaria , officially the Republic of Bulgaria , is a parliamentary democracy within a unitary constitutional republic in Southeast Europe. The country borders Romania to the north, Serbia and Macedonia to the west, Greece and Turkey to the south, as well as the Black Sea to the east...

.

Biography

He was studying law in the University of Geneva
University of Geneva
The University of Geneva is a public research university located in Geneva, Switzerland.It was founded in 1559 by John Calvin, as a theological seminary and law school. It remained focused on theology until the 17th century, when it became a center for Enlightenment scholarship. In 1873, it...

 when the communists seized power in his country in 1944. His father was Chief of Cabinet of King Boris III
Boris III of Bulgaria
Boris III the Unifier, Tsar of Bulgaria , originally Boris Klemens Robert Maria Pius Ludwig Stanislaus Xaver , son of Ferdinand I, came to the throne in 1918 upon the abdication of his father, following the defeat of the Kingdom of Bulgaria during World War I...

 and was executed by the communists in 1945. Groueff lived in exile for 46 years: first in Switzerland
Switzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....

 and later in France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

 and the USA. He did not return to Bulgaria until 1990 after the collapse of the communist regime. He was a reporter for the "Paris-Match
Paris Match
Paris Match is a French weekly magazine. It covers major national and international news along with celebrity lifestyle features. It was founded in 1949 by the industrialist Jean Prouvost....

" magazine
Magazine
Magazines, periodicals, glossies or serials are publications, generally published on a regular schedule, containing a variety of articles. They are generally financed by advertising, by a purchase price, by pre-paid magazine subscriptions, or all three...

 and after traveling extensively as a foreign correspondent, he became its New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...

 Bureau chief for 20 years until 1978. He also worked for Radio Free Europe
Radio Free Europe
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty is a broadcaster funded by the U.S. Congress that provides news, information, and analysis to countries in Eastern Europe, Central Asia, and the Middle East "where the free flow of information is either banned by government authorities or not fully developed"...

, was a contributor to the Bulgarian Service of BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...

 and was active in a few emigre organizations and publications in exile.

He was the first Bulgarian to visit Antarctica as a journalist and to have set foot on the South Pole
South Pole
The South Pole, also known as the Geographic South Pole or Terrestrial South Pole, is one of the two points where the Earth's axis of rotation intersects its surface. It is the southernmost point on the surface of the Earth and lies on the opposite side of the Earth from the North Pole...

; after Mario Anton Weller, MS-a Bulgarian American- who went to the Antarctic in 1971-1972 as chief of the expedition that installed there a satellite tracking station and antenna for the European Space Research Organization whose DG was Hermann Bondi (the project was led by Umberto Montalenti director of ESA's Operation Center). In 2002 the American University in Bulgaria
American University in Bulgaria
American University in Bulgaria is a private, selective, residential liberal arts university located in Blagoevgrad, Bulgaria. Courses are taught in English by high-quality faculty coming from four continents, experienced in teaching in a multicultural, learner-centered environment...

, of which Stephane Groueff was one of the founding Board members, conferred on him the honorary degree Doctor of Humane Letters, and the President of the Republic of Bulgaria decorated him with the "Madara Horseman" order for "...his outstanding contribution to popularizing the Bulgarian culture the world over and promoting history science in Bulgaria and abroad." As a historian of the construction of the first atomic bomb, he was invited as a speaker at the 60th commemoration of the Manhattan Project
Manhattan Project
The Manhattan Project was a research and development program, led by the United States with participation from the United Kingdom and Canada, that produced the first atomic bomb during World War II. From 1942 to 1946, the project was under the direction of Major General Leslie Groves of the US Army...

 in Washington D.C. and in Oak Ridge, Tennessee
Oak Ridge, Tennessee
Oak Ridge is a city in Anderson and Roane counties in the eastern part of the U.S. state of Tennessee, about west of Knoxville. Oak Ridge's population was 27,387 at the 2000 census...

.

Groueff is the author of eight non-fiction books in French and English, three of which, Manhattan Project: The Untold Story of the Making of the Atomic Bomb, Crown of Thorns, and My Odyssey were translated in Bulgarian. His autobiographical work, My Odyssey, was published in 2002 in Bulgarian, and in 2003 in English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...

 The book is dedicated to his late brother Simeon, who "chose the harder road and lived in Bulgaria until his last breath." The author adds: "My destiny was to have an unusually diverse and colorful life, with many rewards, professional and personal. My odyssey has also its sad stages, but as a whole it is a lucky and happy one."

Groueff became a naturalized American citizen and lived in the last years before his death at age 83 in Southampton
Southampton (town), New York
The Town of Southampton is located in southeastern Suffolk County, New York, U.S., partly on the South Fork of Long Island. As of the United States 2000 Census, the town had a total population of 54,712...

, New York. Hie wife, Lil, died the next day at the age of 89. A son and two grandchildren survived.

External links

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