Dimitrov impresses on readers the scale of repression in the aftermath of the June, 1923 reactionary coup and subsequent September antifascist uprising against the new Zankov regime. The Agrarian and Communist Parties as well as Macedonian nationalists faced legal and extralegal executions, banning of elected parties and their press, mass arrests, etc. Within days of this publication, the situation would get profoundly worse. Reckless revenge came on April 16, 1925 with an assault on Sofia’s St Nedelya Cathedral during the funeral of assassinated General Konstantin Georgievin that killed 200 people, mostly members of the Bulgarian political, military and economic ruling elite. The government’s response was to open mass graves.

‘Political Murders in Bulgaria’ by Georgi Dimitrov from The Daily Worker. Vol. 2 No. 73. April 7, 1925.

ONE can truly say that in no other country in the world are political murders so frequent and numerous as has been the case in Bulgaria since the white-guardist government of Zankov came to power.

Even the fascist regime of Mussolini in Italy, the cruelties of Horthy in Hungary and the military dictatorship of Primo de Rivera in Spain are, in this respect, far surpassed by the terrorist regime of Zankov.

It suffices to relate the terrible fact that during the last few months 36 political murders and 151 other murders were committed in Bulgaria, in order to realize that Bulgaria has established a record as far as political murders are concerned.

Even the Zankov government perceives that its regime of uninterrupted bloodshed and of unending political murders is calculated to discredit it abroad. It is therefore endeavouring by means of well-paid agents abroad to flood the European press with articles and reports aiming at belittling the importance of these facts and representing them as the unavoidable result of the conspiratory activity, organized abroad, of Communists and “Moscow agents.”

In addition to this the Zankov government has a defender in the Bulgarian section of the Second International. The social democratic party has never, either in parliament, in its meetings or in its press, considered it necessary to protest against the mass murders of the Zankov government.

Even today, when the Zankov government is seeking a way out of the cul-de-sac at which it has arrived as a result of its own terrorist regime, by an even greater intensification of the existing terror and by preparing a fresh provocation against the working masses, when this terrorist regime is demanding fresh numerous victims on an even greater scale, the social democratic party remains true to its treacherous and provocatory role.

The central organ of Bulgarian social democracy Narod issues the following explanation and justification of the cruel deeds of the Zankov government which is unexampled in its cynicism:

“Before the war–human life was valuable, and the whole country was shocked when the press reported regarding any murder. Now, after the war, it seems as we all, rifle in hand, are hunting down our fellow man. Our present society has been rendered savage, we have all become mentally sick, the spiritual values have been choked in blood. Our epoch is bloody, indescribably bloody.”

But revolting as this base attitude of the Bulgarian friends of Vandervelde and MacDonald, of Wels and Barmat, of Fritz Adler and Otto Bauer is, one must admit that it is thoroughly consistent. The social democrats, during the time they were in the Zankov government, as well as afterwards when they were in “opposition,” have participated in the bloody terrorist regime of the Bulgarian bourgeoisie against the working people of Bulgaria.

There exists not the least doubt that neither the lies of the white-guardist Zankov government, nor the “theoretical” explanations and justifications of the terrorist regime on the part of the white-guardist social democracy, will be able to hide the real objects of the political murders and of the bloody anarchy in Bulgaria, or as the actual responsibility for these horrors and atrocities from the eyes of the working people in Bulgaria and from the workers and peasants abroad. The indisputable facts are as follows:

1. The Bulgarian bourgeoisie overthrew the government of Stambulisky, which possessed an overwhelming majority in parliament, by the military putsch of June 9th, 1923 and organized the brutal murder of Stambulisky, Daskalov, Duparinov and many other peasant leaders with the immediate participation of all bourgeois parties, including the social democrats, in the new government.

2. In order to consolidate its power, the Zankov government has prevented the legal existence of two political mass parties–the Communist Party and the Peasants’ League–destroyed their press, closed their clubs, confiscated their funds and arrested more than 2,000 members of the Communist Party and of the Peasants’ League on no legal grounds, whatever. It thereby provoked the September revolt of 1923.

3. The Zankov government (again with the participation of all the bourgeois parties including the social democrats) took advantage of the defeat of the working and peasant masses who rose in defence of their right and liberties, in order to massacre in the prisons without any trial, thousands of workers and peasants who took no part in the revolt. Among them were the following who will always be held in memory by the Bulgarian working people: Boris Sotirov, Dimiter Kandov, P. Savoff, St. Kiradshlev, A. Popov, Petrunov, N. Ginev, A. Schichkov, Maltchev, A. Chalatchev, D. Stoilov, Jenu Markovsky, Iv. Iliev and many, many others.

4. Later on, agents of the government murdered the former mayor of Samokov, M. Daschin, who after the September events was the only Communist leader of the workers in Samokov left alive. Petkov, a member of parliament and member of the Peasants’ League was also murdered. During the court trial it transpired that the murder was committed on the order of the Zankov government. His successor in parliament, Comrade Hadji Dimov, was foully murdered in the open street. Three months ago the well-known Communist worker from Plevna, Karavassiliev, disappeared without leaving any trace behind him after he had been arrested by the organs of “public safety.” Two weeks ago the well-known Communist from Sofia, Waltcho Ivanov was murdered after his arrest by the police. Dim. Zacharlev, a member of the Chaskovo municipal council, was murdered, in the same manner. And lastly, the Communist member of parliament, Theodor Straschimirov, was murdered in the open streets of Sofia. Previous to this, Stojentchev a government minister had openly threatened him in parliament (in connection with his exposures of the terrorist regime of Zankov) that he would be murdered. According to the latest reports of the Bulgarian government agency itself, the women Communist Gitcheva, who was recently arrested, has committed “suicide” in prison. Thus we see unceasing murder, murder and again murder of the working class and of the workers’ and peasants’ leaders.

5. In order to annihilate the Macedonian revolutionary organization and to smooth the way to an understanding with Pasic, the Zankov government made use of the Protogerov band, supported it in September 1924 with Bulgarians soldiers and murdered hostile Macedonian revolutionaries. Under the protection of the government and with the co-operation of the Bulgarian embassies in Vienna, Belgrade, Rome etc., this Protegerov gang is carrying out death sentences on Macedonian and Bulgarian revolutionaries living abroad. It was in this way that the well-known Macedonian revolutionary P. Tchaulev was foully murdered in Milan.

6. The Zankov government has kept in prison since the 12th September (already 18 months), in addition to many other workers and peasants, the Communist member of parliament Chr. Kabatchiev and the former Communist members of parliament A. Ivanov and N. Penev without any trial, as it is generally known that the accusations against them are absolutely without foundation.

7. On the strength of the law for the defense of the state the prisons are being filled with Communists and members of the Peasants’ League. Those lawyers who dare to appear before the courts to defend the accused Communists and peasants are subjected to terrible mishandling on the part of the officials and the fascist bands, Thus, after the trial of the Communist member of parliament Dr. Maximov, an attempt was made to assassinate his defender, Patev a bourgeois radical. A bomb was thrown into his house. The defenders of the accused workers and peasants of Lom. Dr. Dugmedshiev, Al. Athanasov and A. Mevorach and others were brutally beaten.

8. As a result of its regime of terror the Zankov government has roused the whole of the working people against it, and is now organizing, with the aid of the credits specially granted by parliament, the so-called “guerilla” for the persecution and annihilation of the “destructive elements” in the country. This “guerilla” possesses the right to arrest and to shoot without any investigation any one whom it considers to be a “dangerous enemy” of the state.

The above-mentioned facts suffice to show that the responsibility for the political murders and the increasing bloody anarchy rests solely and entirely with the terrorist regime of Zankov.

The Communist Party of Bulgaria is fighting with all its forces for the possibility of a legal existence and for the legal struggle of the workers and peasants. It rejects the method of individual terrorism, not from sentimentality but on account of its political futility, and relies for victory upon the collective united revolutionary struggles of the masses.

The method of political murder is the resource of the weak and desperate. It is precisely this method which the Zankov government is applying, as it is completely isolated from the people, as it has nine tenths of the people decidedly against it and, in spite of this, wishes to retain at all costs the terrorist power of the Bulgarian capitalists and profiteers against the will of the people.

The Daily Worker began in 1924 and was published in New York City by the Communist Party US and its predecessor organizations. Among the most long-lasting and important left publications in US history, it had a circulation of 35,000 at its peak. The Daily Worker came from The Ohio Socialist, published by the Left Wing-dominated Socialist Party of Ohio in Cleveland from 1917 to November 1919, when it became became The Toiler, paper of the Communist Labor Party. In December 1921 the above-ground Workers Party of America merged the Toiler with the paper Workers Council to found The Worker, which became The Daily Worker beginning January 13, 1924. National and City (New York and environs) editions exist.

PDF of full issue: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1925/1925-ny/v02b-n073-NYE-apr-07-1925-DW-LOC.pdf