Early Career

1931 – 1945

Nikola Belopitov, already a graduate engineer, returned to his hometown and was employed at Vacha Water Union. There he worked hard on the electrification of Panagyurishte, researching and drawing up a plan, which was approved. After successfully implementing the project, Belopitov got fired without explanation, but retrospectively, the reasons being most likely political. In 1931 he moved to Sofia and started working in the Sofia Telephone Manufactory as a mechanic, but soon became the head of research in the General Directorate of the Telephone and Postal Services Headquarters. He became an active member of the Bulgarian Engineering and Architectural Society (BIAD) and repeatedly elected to the leadership. Eng. Belopitov believed that strong public organizations could influence political leaders and thus help contribute to society for good.

Because of this belief, he was also an active member of the ‘Rodno Radio’ union, an organisation aiming to abolish the then-existing ban on private (civilian) ownership of radio sets. After a long struggle, the change took place in 1934, when the absurd restriction was finally over. At the beginning of 1933, the union took the initiative to build a powerful radio transmitter that would allow many Bulgarians to listen to the radio. The new leadership, including Nikola Belopitov, turned to the Minister-at-the-time of Postal and Telephone communication Stoyan Kosturkov, who supported the initiative and provided free land in the Pavlovo district of Sofia. In 1938, while anticipating his impending dismissal, Eng. Belopitov resigned. With his colleagues and friends, Georgi Kovachev and Todor Prahov founded the company BEKOP, which deals with “the production and sale of radios, all types of low-current and high-current devices and equipment, representation of foreign companies and public enterprises and supplies’. The company opened a technical workshop and a shop. The company’s office located at 9 Slaveykov Square that will have a lasting impact on the future of Nikola Belopitov as there he met Gen. Vladimir Zaimov. The company won a tender and made the chandeliers of the newly built Court House in Sofia while working for the army by constructing the first Bulgarian metal detectors and devices for igniting mines by radio signal. Later, with a group of technicians, he founded the company “Bulgarian Electrotechnical Cooperative” (BEC), which after 1948 became part of the Electric Transformer Factory, and later the High Current Plant.