Zhelev was one of the most prominent figures of the 1989 Bulgarian Revolution, which ended the 35 year rule of President Todor Zhivkov.

He lost his party's nomination for his 1996 reelection campaign after losing a tough primary race to Petar Stoyanov.

He studied philosophy at Sofia University, graduating in 1958 and gaining a PhD in 1974, a remarkable achievement given that he was under a cloud as a dissident, having been expelled from the Communist Party in 1965.

After his expulsion he endured years of “social parasitism”, or unemployment in communist terminology, which he spent in virtual internal exile in his wife’s village, scraping a living from odd jobs on farms.

[6] In 1988, just before the Fall of Communism, Zhelev founded the Ruse Committee, and in 1989 he became a founding member and chairman of the Club for Support of Openness and the Reform (a time when many such democratic clubs were formed), which helped him to achieve the position of Chairman of the Coordinating Council of the Union of Democratic Forces (Bulgarian: СДС, SDS) party.

He then won in the runoff a week later against Velko Valkanov (who was endorsed by the Socialists) with 52.8% of the votes to become Bulgaria's first directly elected head of state.

[citation needed] On 15 January 2010, Zhelev received the Order 8-September for his contribution to the recognition of the independence of the Republic of Macedonia from the former Yugoslavia.