Zhan Vasilev Videnov ( ; born 22 March 1959), sometimes spelled in English as Jean Videnov, was Prime Minister of Bulgaria from 25 January 1995 until 13 February 1997, a term remembered for the most severe economic and financial crisis in recent Bulgarian history, which featured hyperinflation and a drastic fall in living standards. He was chairman of the Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP) from 1991 to 1996. Currently he is a college lecturer and inspirer of Che Guevara of Plovdiv. Early years Zhan Videnov was born 22 March 1959 in Plovdiv. He graduated from the Plovdiv English Language School (ELS). He subsequently graduated in Foreign Economic Relations from the Moscow State Institute of International Relations. Term in office Despite promises of change, the stagnation that had characterized the entire post-communist period since 1989 persisted during Videnov's term, as did the shady privatization schemes, the underfunding of social services, government inaction against organized crime groups such as VIS-2, SIC and Multigroup, alleged government patronizing of dingy business groups (such as the so-called "Orion friend circle") and the emigration of young and educated Bulgarians. Despite this, the BSP still had popular support for a time, as it was able to win the local elections in 1995. One significant initiative was the government's launching of a campaign for mass privatization, in which ordinary middle-class citizens were to acquire shares in the factories and firms that were being de-nationalized. Crisis During the second year of Videnov's term, Bulgaria experienced a severe economic crisis and declining quality of living standard. One element of this was the grain crisis. In mid-1996, the first reports appeared that the country's grain reserves were near complete depletion due to excessive exports, and bread did actually become scarce for some time in the winter of 1996–1997. At the same time, the postponement of the payment of interest on Bulgaria's foreign debt, which had been negotiated by the Filip Dimitrov government (Union of Democratic Forces, UDF) in 1992, ran out and no further postponement was granted despite Bulgaria's continuing inability to pay. The government also failed to negotiate a loan to relieve the situation. This decreased the country's credit rating and initiated the destabilization of the finance system. In a short period of time, more than half of Bulgaria's commercial banks went bankrupt, with hundreds of thousands of people losing their savings, while the so-called "credit millionaires" profited enormously from the