[1] Born in Knezha in the Principality of Bulgaria's northwest, Ferdinand Kozovski graduated from the Reserve Officers Academy.

After that uprising's suppression, Kozovski was forced to emigrate to the Soviet Union, where he graduated from the M. V. Frunze Military Academy and became a reader of military science at the Communist University of the National Minorities of the West.

[3] Ferdinand Kozovski took part in the International Brigades of the Spanish Civil War (1936–1939).

As Bulgaria switched allegiance to the Allies and took part in the ultimate defeat of Nazi Germany, Kozovski was assistant chief of staff of the Bulgarian forces which drew the Nazis out of much of Yugoslavia and Hungary.

[3] After the war, Ferdinand Kozovski was made Assistant Minister of Popular Defence.