Todorov-Gorunya was born in 1916 in the village Gorna Kremena in Vratsa Province.
[1] It is not clear how he got out, but in September 1941 he became the first communist partisan in the Vratsa Province, who fought against the pro-German government of Bulgaria in World War II.
[citation needed] After voicing criticisms towards Todor Zhivkov's reforms of de-Stalinization in the late 1950s he was ostracized for a while, but was then brought back and made a member of Central Committee of the Bulgarian Communist Party.
[1] Toward the end of 1964 and in early 1965, Todorov-Gorunya and Tsolo Кrastev organized group of high-ranking military officers planning to overthrow the regime led by Todor Zhivkov.
Nine of the other participants received relatively mild sentences ranging from 8 to 15 years imprisonment, while another 192 got party or administrative punishments.