Vasil Bonĉev Ikonomov

Bulgarian anti-fascist anarchist guerilla fighter, who was an important figure in the early 1920s Bulgarian movement, born. The son of a postman (father) and a teacher (mother), he graduated from the Second Boy's High School (Втора мъжка гимназия) in Sofia in 1915 with honours. In 1917 he entered the Reserve Officers' School (Школата за запасни) and from there he was sent to the front, initially as a schoolboy, before becoming an officer. At the front he gained renown as an excellent marksman. At the end of the conflict he enrolled in the Faculty of Law at Sofia University and, disgusted by the war and the military, and horrified by the misery of the people, he sought out an environment more in keeping with his developing political world view. He found it in 1919 when he met Mikhail Gerdzhikov (Михаил Герджиков) and joined the anarchist movement and Ikonomov would go on to play an important role in building and strengthening the then largely powerless movement. He was involved in the publication of the 'Probuda' (Пробуда / Awakening) [1919-20], the newspaper of the recently founded Federation of Anarcho-Communists in Bulgaria (Федерацията на анархистите-комунисти в България / ФАКБ [FAKB]), with Gerdjikov as editor-in-chief. With the FAKB in need of a publishing house, a printing house, materials, weapons, etc. Ikonomov embraced the idea of expropriation to help provide the funds. From that point until his death, Ikonomov was one of the most active and dangerous anarchists, a strong supporter of illegal direct action and revolutionary terror. He took part in countless activities, expropriations, battles against the police in the country's cities, revenge attacks on police officers, prosecutors and judges, and spectacular attentats carried out for purely propaganda purposes; whilst he was also active in providing weapons and money for legal and illegal anarchist groups.

On May 21, 1921 in Sofia, Aleksandr Grekov (Александър Греков), one of leaders of proto-fascist People's Alliance (Народен сговор), editor-in-chief of the nationalist newspaper 'Word' (Слово) and director of the Consortium of Tobacco Producers Сдружението на тютюневите експерти), was shot. That assassination occurred against the backdrop of his involvement in the suppression of a strike by women workers in the tobacco factories in Kjustendil (Кюстендил). Pano Chuklev (Пано Чуклев), former major of Sofia and director of the Oriental Tobacco Company (Ориент табако фирма), was also assassinated on July 8, 1922, for his role in the suppression of the same strike. Vasil Ikonomov is thought to have been the author of both actions. That same year, anarchists shot dead a chief warden of the Central Sofia Prison in revenge for the arrest of various comrades. Between 1920 and 1922 Vasil Ikonomov also participated in the publication of the clandestine 'Anarchist' (Анархист) newspaper, the organ of the FAKB in this period. Based in Sofia, Ikonomov's friend Georgi Zhechev (Георги Жечев) was its editor-in-chief and Georgi Sheĭtanov (Георги Шейтанов) was amongst those well-known anarchists of the period whose writings appeared in its pages; as did the claims of responsibility by Ikonomov and others for their various actions against capitalism and the state system.

In December 1922, the Bulgarian Agrarian National Union (Българския земеделски народен съюз) government, head by Alexander Stamboliiski (Александър Стамболийски), published the anti-anarchist Law on the Extermination of Robbers (Закон за изтребление на разбойниците) as part of their repression against the movement. Later the Agrarian government passed a second ordinance calling for its citizens to give up any arms that they held. This provoked widespread protests, especially in Yambol (Ямбол), a town in south-eastern Bulgaria where there was a strong anarchist presence, and at a protest meeting on March 26, 1923, police and troops opened fire on the crowd killing many in the crowd. More than 30 prominent anarcho-communists were rounded up and summarily executed – tied up and machine-gunned – in the local cavalry barracks the following morning. The papers carried figures of 80 killed or wounded. Some of those who escaped were later tracked down and killed.

On June 9, 1923, General Ivan Valkov (Иван Вълков) and his Military Union (Деветоюнския преврат) had overthrown the Agrariab government in what became known as the Devetoyunski Coup (Деветоюнски преврат). Alexander Stamboliiski at the time had been in his home village of Slavovitsa (Славовица), from where he tried to organise armed resistance against the army and, in a bizarre twist, the author of the anti-anarchist laws and repression of the previous couple of years, sent an emissary to the Plovdiv (Пловдив) anarchist and IMRO* revolutionary Mihail Gerdzhikov (Михаил Герджиков) asking to be put in contact with Ikonomov, as he had a bizarre plan where Ikonomov, Gerdzhikov and there comrades would rescue him and together they would flee to Yugoslavia in order to mount resistance against the fascist coup plotters. Nothing ever came of it and four days later Stamboliiski surrendered to Captain Ivan Kharlakov (Иван Харлаков), who had take part in the coup and would later take part in the fighting against the September Uprising, and duly handed him over to the IMRO group of Velichko Velyanov (Величко Велянов), who brutally tortured and killed him, before disfiguring his body beyond recognition.

On June 28, 1924, a group of anarchists, including Ikonomov, ambushed the wealthy entrepreneur Alexander Gudzhev (Александър Гуджев) road between Strelcha (Стрелча) and Panagyurishte (Панагюрище) killing him and wounding his bodyguard. In March the following year the Koprivshtitsa (Копривщенската) anarcho-communist group, which included Ikonomov, Vasil Popov (Васил Попов), Nesho Mandulova (Нешо Мандулов), Nesho Toumangelov (Нешо Тумангелов) and Anton Ganchev (Антон Ганчев), was formed and on April 14, 1925, it members carried out an unsuccessful attack on Tsar Boris III's cavalcade as it passed through the Arabakonak Pass (Прохода Арабаконак) in the Stara Plania (Стара планина) mountains. The attack provoked a massive repression in which more than three thousand people were rounded up and either executed without trial of after a trial and inevitable guilty verdict. The repression did little to halt anarchist attacks and the following month the Koprivshtitsa carried out a much more successful attack on a military convoy between Strelcha (Стрелча) and Koprivshtitsa. During the attack to soldiers fled leaving behind their weapons and a large amount of food, which was later distributed to local peasants.

In mid-June, Vasil Ikonomov and several other members of his group - Velko Ivanov (Велко Иванов), Pencho Naĭdenov (Пенчо Найденов) and two others - decided to attack the Sofia-Plovdiv express train, with the intention of taking foreigners hostage and negotiate with the government for an amnesty of prisoners, a halt to government terror and other demands. On June 19th the group began two days surveillance in the forest around Vakarel (Вакарел) railway station due to the heavy military presence there. Returning to their camp near Belo Kamene (Бело Камене) on the night of June 20th, they encountered three villagers, who they disarmed and questioned before returning their rifles and continuing on their route. The villagers immediately set off to tell the military camped at the nearby village of Belitsa (Белица). Meanwhile, having failed to follow their established rule of resting up for two hours following their last encounter and exhausted after two days of round-the-clock wandering and vigil and constant bad weather, they arrived back at camp and, leaving Naĭdenov on guard, all fell asleep; as did Naĭdenov shortly afterwards.

Meanwhile, the military had surrounded the revolutionaries' camp and opened fire as they slept. One of the anarchists was killed immediately. Wounded, Naĭdenov managed to escape, as did Ivanov. However, in the dark Vasil Ikonomov became entangled in the scrub and was shot. The mortally wounded Chetnik was taken to the local village where, thanks to the binoculars with the royal insignia that he had captured during the Arabakonak Pass attack, he was identified. Still hanging on to life, the soldiers order local Roma to dig a grave and throw the still breathing Ikonomov into it.

The following morning, one of the soldiers' prisoners was forced to did Ikonomov's corpse up and bathe it so that he could be photographed at the request of the Palace. That photo would later make its way into the country's press. A fresh grave was then dug in a remoter location and Vasil's body re-interred.