BKP battle groups

Combat groups operated mainly in cities (in the forests and mountains, resistance was fought by partisan units). The main targets for combat groups were the country's military production and communications, which were used against the USSR.

BKP battle groups were created according to the territorial principle - in cities and villages. In the first period of activity, their activity seriously limited the lack of weapons, so their participants were encouraged to use improvised means to the maximum extent ( cold and home-made weapons to attack the Nazis and their accomplices, matches and kerosene to set fire to warehouses ...). One of the sources of supplying the BKP combat groups with weapons, ammunition and explosives was the underground BKP groups in the Bulgarian army, but their capabilities were limited and could not fully meet the needs of the combat groups ^[1] .

In the spring of 1942, as a result of a series of raids and arrests, the underground suffered serious losses: members of the Central Military Commission and the Central Committee of the BRP (k), a number of organizers and activists were arrested ^[2]

• in March 1942, the instructor of the Central Committee of the BRP (k) Pyotr Bogdanov was arrested, who was involved in organizational issues of the development of the armed struggle in Bulgaria (he was sentenced to death and executed on July 23, 1942), this slowed down the deployment of the activities of the fighting groups of the BRP (k) ^[3] .
• On April 27, 1942, a member of the Central Committee of the BRP (k) Pyotr Chengelov was arrested (he was sentenced to death and executed on August 17, 1942) ^[2] .

On June 23, 1943, a trial was held of arrested members of the Central Committee and activists of the PDU (k) , out of 60 people, 12 were sentenced to death, the rest were sentenced to different terms of imprisonment ^[2] .

On June 26, 1941, the Sofia Military Court delivered a verdict at the " parachutist trial " ^[2] .

At the end of November 1942, Adalbert Antonov, a member of the RMS Central Committee, was arrested and December 4, 1942 ^[2] .

In 1943, the NOPA command recommended the reorganization of existing and the creation of new battle groups in accordance with the unified states: the battle group was to consist of three to five people with good rifle training, armed with compact, providing hidden carrying weapons (revolvers, pistols, hand grenades ), available explosives and incendiary substances, as well as tools for sabotage ^[4] . Available rifles and guns were recommended to be transferred to partisan detachments.

In addition, in the spring of 1943, the NOPA General Staff issued a directive "On the organization and structure of auxiliary battle groups," in which clandestine organizations in addition to existing battle groups were recommended to create auxiliary battle groups of 5-6 people ^[5]

Combat operations, sabotage and sabotage

• Soon after March 2, 1941, German troops were entered into Bulgaria ^[6] , sabotage began on communication lines: BKP activists repeatedly disabled telephone lines extended to German military facilities ^[7] . In addition, public outreach, campaigning and anti-fascist propaganda intensified. In addition to oral agitation, in the documents of the German special services and the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Bulgaria, numerous cases of the appearance of slogans on the walls were noted "Dolu Hitler! "," Won hit the gang! "," Yes, Bulgaria is free alive! "," Yes, livelier Stalin! "et al. ^{[8] [9]}
• The first leaflet was issued on June 22, 1941 - the appeal of the Central Committee of the BKP to the Bulgarian people ^[10] , further the distribution of leaflets was continued ^[11]
• On June 27, 1941, in the village of Dobrinishte, the Razlozhsky okolya, the illegally secretary of the BRP organization, Ivan Kozarev, entered into battle with a group of police officers who were sent to capture him and disappeared. Two policemen were wounded in a shootout ^[12] - this event is the first case of armed action by the Bulgarian resistance ^[13]
• in mid-July 1941, during an attack on the calculation of a German artillery battery near the Sofia racetrack ( Kolodrum ), the first German soldier in Bulgaria was killed in a shootout with a group of George Grigorov;
• after this, in Sofia, the police organized an ambush to capture the illegal activist of the RMS, Lilyana Dimitrova , who offered armed resistance and disappeared - after one policeman was shot dead, the rest stopped the persecution ^[14]
• On August 22, 1941, in Varna, members of the battle group of G. Grigorov set fire to a train with fuel intended for dispatch to the Eastern Front ^[8] , 7 tanks with gasoline burned down. Also, in August 1941 in Sofia, the battle group of P. Usenliev organized the wreck of a freight train with cargo for the German army ^[15] . In addition, during 1941 the battle groups committed several acts of sabotage on the railway transport in the Plovdiv region ^[8] and organized the crash of the German military echelons in the cities of Dragoman , Cherven Bryag and Stara Zagora ^[16]
• On September 1, 1941, the brothers Angel and Iliya Chaushev and the brothers Nikola and George Cholakov began manufacturing mine explosive devices ^[17] ; later, in September 1941, an underground fighter Angel Bombat from the battle group of G. Grigorov made several attempts to mine German targets: on September 4, 1941, an explosive device was installed and fired under a German truck next to the hut in which German soldiers were stationed; On September 6, 1941, another explosive device was installed under a German mobile radio station, but it didn’t work - it was discovered by the driver and defused;
• in September 1941, in the port of Varna, the Varna battle group of the BKP carried out an explosion on the ship Shipka ^[18] .
• On September 22, 1941, a factory for the production of boards ^[8] was set on fire in Dospat, as a result, timber prepared for export to Germany (in the amount of 1.2 million leva ) and the factory building ^[15] were burned.
• September 26, 1941 on Mount Krichim , a canned food factory was set on fire ^[8]
• On September 28, 1941, the communist Leon Tadger initiated a fire at an oil refinery in Ruse, several tanks with gasoline intended for shipment for German army units on the Eastern Front burned down ^[15] , 1 German soldier was wounded with a knife ^[19]
• On November 13, 1941, members of the battle group of the Shumen party district from the village of Divdyadovo were surrounded in the village of Kochovo and fought with superior police forces for five hours ^[8]
• On December 17, 1941, a battle group attacked a group of German military personnel, after which it entered into a shootout with Bulgarian policemen ^[8]
• in September 1942 in Plovdiv, the BKP combat group raided the German propaganda bureau, as a result, weapons stored there were seized and all propaganda materials were burnt ^[10] .
• in September 1942, the BKP combat group in Asenovgrad carried out two major operations: as a result of the first operation, a sawmill was set on fire, fulfilling German orders and a large lumber warehouse was burned, on which lumber was stored for the German army; as a result of the second operation, an export barrel manufacturing factory was set on fire, producing barrels for Germany ^[10]
• On September 19, 1942 in Sofia , the Slavcho Bonchev battle group consisting of six Communists (armed with only a gun and a dagger) disarmed the guard and set fire to the Sveti Iliya cooperative warehouse, located at the intersection of Lavale and Alexander Stamboliysky Streets. Sheepskin coats manufactured in Bulgaria for Wehrmacht units on the Eastern Front were in the warehouse; the total cost of clothes burnt as a result of the sabotage was 31 million leva ^[20] . In view of the tense situation with providing warm clothing for German troops in the USSR , the Third Reich diplomatic representatives in Bulgaria reacted extremely sharply ^[21] . The Bulgarian police identified the perpetrators of the sabotage , and the court sentenced the leader of the battle group Slavcho Bonchev in absentia to death ^[22] .
• On November 5, 1942, in Sofia, on Ferdinand Boulevard, members of the battle group set fire to another warehouse with warm clothes prepared for the Nazi army ^[21]
• On November 7, 1942, members of the battle group set fire to the Sylza factory ^[21]
• May 12, 1943 - gunfight of a battle group with police and soldiers in Sofia ^[23]

Between June and November 1941, the police recorded 69 operations of combat groups ^[24] ; Until the end of 1941, the police registered 85 cases of sabotage, sabotage and armed attacks by combat groups (at the same time, not all combat group operations carried out in 1941 were recorded in police reports) ^[11] . In total, from June 1941 to the end of 1942, 521 operations (armed attacks, sabotage, acts of sabotage , etc.) were recorded in police documents ^[25] .

In addition, in the second half of 1941, members of the Razlozhsky combat group took several actions to seize weapons and ammunition left after the German invasion of Greece in April 1941 on the former Metaxas Line ^[12] .

Other operations

Combat groups also destroyed several police agents and a number of statesmen supporting the Third Reich policy in Bulgaria.

• On February 8, 1943, a police agent, the provocateur Nikola Hristov (“Kutuza”) was shot dead in Sofia ^[26]
• On February 13, 1943, in Sofia, Lieutenant General Khristo Lukov , an active supporter of the ideas of National Socialism and Fascism ^{[27] [28]} , the head of the fascist Union of Bulgarian National Legions , an advocate of further strengthening the union of Bulgaria with Nazi Germany, was shot dead. The operation involved Ivan Buradzhiev and Violet Jacob ^[29] .
• On April 15, 1943, Sotir Yanev , a member of the Bulgarian Social Democratic Party , was shot dead in Sofia and, since 1940, a former member of the parliamentary commission on foreign policy. Yanev was an active supporter of strengthening the union of Bulgaria with Nazi Germany, opposed the USSR. The operation involved Nikola Draganov and Yordan Petrov ^[30] .
• at the end of April 1943 in the city of Pazardzhik, the head of the secret police of Pazardzhik, Macho Genov, was shot dead. The operation involved Dinko Banenkov ^[31]
• On May 3, 1943, a former police director and chairman of the Supreme Court of Cassation of Bulgaria, Colonel Atanas Pantev, was shot dead in Sofia ^[32] . Four participated in the operation: the direct executors were Velichko Nikolov and Mitka Grybcheva, and Violet Jacob and Leon Kalaora covered them ^[33] .
• May 10, 1943 in Sofia, an attempt was made on the radio engineer Kulcho Yanakiev, who was involved in jamming the broadcasts of the radio station “Hristo Botev”. As a result, Yanakiev was wounded in the neck, and both performers - members of the combat group Miko Papo and Donka Gancheva - were arrested by the Bulgarian police. Miko Papo was sentenced to death and executed. Donka Gancheva was sentenced to life imprisonment ^[34] .
• On May 29, 1943, the Communists launched a second assassination attempt on Kulcho Yanakiev, who also proved unsuccessful. Four fighters of the battle group ( Nikola Draganov , Yordan Petrov , Methodius Alexiev and Kiril Bonchev ) were killed in the shootout; they killed a service dog and injured two Bulgarian police officers ^[35] .
• in the summer of 1943, as a result of the assassination attempt, the editor of the newspaper Zora, Danail Krapchev , was injured, who received stab wounds in the arm and head. Both performers (members of the Slavcho Radomirsky battle group) were killed by the police.
• On August 11, 1943, an unsuccessful attempt was made in Stara Zagora on the head of state security at the regional police department of Gurov. Ramsist Georgy Kolev tried to shoot Gurov, and after the “ gun ” misfired, he entered into hand-to-hand combat, but was killed by the overseer of the city prison who ran up to the clash site ^[36] .
• September 17, 1943 - police agent Zeko Bonev was shot dead in the center of Chirpan ^[37]
• November 21, 1943 - as a result of the operation of the Makreshsky auxiliary combat group in Vidin, the food supply commander Simeon Iliev was killed (an official who ensured that the peasants of the Vidinsky Territory were provided with food supplies to send food to Germany and supply German troops in Bulgaria). Despite being guarded by five police officers, Iliev was shot dead on a city street ^[38] .
• On June 17, 1944, three Bulgarian police officers were killed in a shootout and Violet Jacob was arrested ^[39]
• on the night of May 8, 1944, a battle group from the city of Voluyak, Sofia district, helped 4 Red Army prisoners of war escape from the German echelon (they were hidden in the Sofia region and then transferred to the Breznik partisan detachment) ^[40]
• at the end of August 1944, a forester Ivan Bozhkov was shot dead (on May 3, 1944 he accompanied a gendarmerie unit conducting a search for partisans as a guide and found traces that led the gendarmes to the White Rock, where Vela Peeva was killed in a shootout and then cut off the deceased head, for which he received a bonus of 100 thousand leva) ^[41]

The battle groups suffered considerable losses, many of their members died during military operations, were captured, sentenced to death and executed by the sentence of the military field courts. Among the dead were illegal fighters Nikola Draganov ( Gujo ), Yordan Petrov , Methodius Alexiev , Kiril Bonchev , Nikola Botushev , Georgy Grigorov , Hristo Nikov , Violet Yakov and others.

• Military organization of the BKP (1920-1925)
• Black Angels (film)

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• С. Чакъров, И. Иванов. Начало на въоръжената антифашистска съпротива през 1941 г. // "Военноисторически сборник", № 3, 1971 (болг.)
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