Capital punishment in Bulgaria was abolished on December 12, 1998 with the last execution, that of attempted saboteur Georgi Alinski, having been carried out on November 4, 1989. [1] The Parliament of Bulgaria had introduced a moratorium on executions on July 7, 1990 and Protocol 6 of the European Convention on Human Rights came into force on October 1, 1999.
A 2016 poll found that 47% of Bulgarians were opposed to the Death Penaty, while 33% were in support. [2] [3] [4]
Executed person | Gender | Date of sentence | Date of execution | Place of execution | Crime | Method | Ref. |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Marko Fridman | Male | 1925 | 27 May 1925 | Sofia | Communist terrorists participating in the St Nedelya Church assault | Hanging | [5] |
Petar Zadgorski | |||||||
Georgi Koev | |||||||
Georgi Mandulov | 27 June 1925 | Anton | Conspiring to aid communist activity | Firing squad | [6] | ||
Nesho Shabanov | |||||||
The Gostevi brothers | |||||||
Sokrat Kirshveng | 1937 | 14 April 1937 | Sofia | "The Killer with the Adze"; serial killer who killed his aunt and her husband during a robbery in Sofia, but had previously been convicted of killing two wives and attempting to kill a third in 1919. The first sentence was commuted to 17 years imprisonment, and he was released in 1937. | Hanging | [7] | |
August Popov | 1942 | 26 June 1942 | Instigating communist rebellion; tried as part of the "Parachutist trial " | Firing squad | [8] | ||
Trifon Georgiev | |||||||
Vasil Yotov | |||||||
Ivan Izatovski | |||||||
Yozef Baido | |||||||
Andon Bekyarov | |||||||
Dimitar Dimitrov | |||||||
Vasil Dodov | |||||||
Stefan Pashev | |||||||
Boris Tomchev | |||||||
Delcho Naplatanov | |||||||
Ivan Drenovski | |||||||
Georgi Kratunchev | |||||||
Dimitar Teplyakov | |||||||
Ivan Ivanov | |||||||
Georgi Bashikarov | |||||||
Yanko Komitov | |||||||
Todor Nikolov | |||||||
Nikolai Romanov | |||||||
Mirko Petkov | |||||||
Simeon Slavov | |||||||
Ivan Shterev | |||||||
Milyo Milev | |||||||
Dimo Astadzhov | |||||||
Vladimir Chernov | |||||||
Cvyatko Radoinov | [9] | ||||||
Anton Ivanov | 23 July 1942 | Communist revolutionaries in opposition to the Filov government | [10] | ||||
Anton Popov | [11] | ||||||
Nikola Vaptsarov | [12] | ||||||
Atanas Romanov | [13] | ||||||
Petar Bogdanov | [14] | ||||||
Georgi Minchev | [14] | ||||||
Vasil Antevski | 18 August 1942 | Participation in the League of Communists of Yugoslavia | Hanging | [15] | |||
Adalbert Antonov | 4 December 1942 | Participation in the Workers Youth League | Firing squad | [16] | |||
Yovan Basarov | 21 March 1943 | Skopje | Participation in the League of Communists of Yugoslavia | Hanging | [17] | ||
Boyan Chonos | 1943 | 13 October 1943 | Vidin | Aiding communist rebellion | [18] | ||
Ferdinand Aleksandrov | 17 December 1943 | Pleven | Firing squad | [19] | |||
Yakim Atanasov | 1944 | 1 March 1944 | Lom | Leading a communist partisan squadron | Hanging | [20] | |
Ferdinand Milanov | 1 June 1944 | Plovdiv | Aiding communist rebellion | Firing squad | [21] | ||
Yozo Tobiev | |||||||
Yordanka Chankova | Female | Eleshnitsa | Participating on the communist side during the "Battle of Batulia " | [22] | |||
Frank Thompson | Male | 10 June 1944 | Litakovo | [23] | |||
Lazar Atanasov | |||||||
Hristo Gurbov | |||||||
Ivan Harlakov | 1945 | 1945 | Sofia | Member of the Tsarist government | [24] | ||
Kiril, Prince of Preslav | 1 February 1945 | Member of the royal family and regent of Bulgaria | [25] | ||||
Nikola Mihov | Lieutenant general and regent of Bulgaria | [26] | |||||
Dobri Bozhilov | Former Prime Minister of Bulgaria, supposed charges of war and financial crimes | [27] | |||||
Petar Gabrovski | Former Prime Minister of Bulgaria and lawyer | [28] | |||||
Ivan Bagrianov | Member of the Tsarist government | [29] | |||||
Rashko Atanasov | [30] | ||||||
Ivan Beshkov | [31] | ||||||
Ivan Vazov | [32] | ||||||
Dimitar Shishmanov | [33] | ||||||
Sirko Stanchev | [34] | ||||||
Aleksandar Stanishev | [35] | ||||||
Spas Ganev | [36] | ||||||
Delcho Todorov | |||||||
Nikola Stoychev | |||||||
Bogdan Filov | 2 February 1945 | Prime Minister of Bulgaria and regent of the Tsarist government | [37] | ||||
Aleksandar Staliyski | Collaboration with pro-Axis cabinet | [38] | |||||
Yordan Sevov | Member of the Tsarist government | [39] | |||||
Lyuben Stanchev | 6 March 1945 | unknown | [40] | ||||
Konstantin Lukash | 15 March 1945 | Sofia | Officer and Chief of Staff of the Bulgarian Army | [41] | |||
Trifon Trifonov | Member of the Tsarist government | [42] | |||||
Nicho Georgiev | 21 April 1945 | [43] | |||||
Vasil Zlatevski | September 1945 | Kyustendil | Goryanin, waging rebellion against the communist government | Hanging | [44] | ||
Docho Hristov | 26 October 1945 | unknown | Attempted rebellion against the communist government | Firing squad | [45] | ||
Executed person | Gender | Date of sentence | Date of execution | Place of execution | Crime | Method | Ref. |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Faik Aliev | Male | 1948 | 1948 | Nevrokop | Goryanin, waging rebellion against the communist government | Hanging | [46] |
Pavel Djidjov | 1952 | 3 October 1952 | Sofia | Catholics, subverting communist ideology | Firing squad | [47] | |
Eugene Bossilkov | 11 November 1952 | [48] | |||||
Josaphat Chichkov | [47] | ||||||
Kamen Vitchev | |||||||
Ivan-Asen Georgiev | 1963 | 4 January 1964 | Espionage on behalf of the United States | Shooting | [49] | ||
Radan Sarafov | 18 February 1968 | 18 February 1969 | Espionage on behalf of the United States, France and Albania | [50] | |||
Georgi Yordanov | 1975 | 1975 | Known as "Joro the Paver, the Second". Serial rapist who raped ten women in Sofia in the early 1970s, committing a double murder in the process. | [51] | |||
Zhivko Dimitrov | 1981 | 1981 | Tolbuhin | Serial killer. Murdered six people in Dobrich Province from 1975 to 1981 for money. | [52] | ||
Georgi Alinski | 1984 | 4 November 1989 | Sofia | Attempted to sabotage a lift in Borovets to prevent the country from participating in a ski championship | [1] | ||
Georgi (Grisha) Stanchev Filipov was a leading member of the Bulgarian Communist Party.
Marin Stoyanov Drinov was a Bulgarian historian and philologist from the National Revival period who lived and worked in Russia through most of his life. He was one of the originators of Bulgarian historiography. Drinov was a founding member of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, as well as its first chairman.
The Battle of the Gates of Trajan was a battle between Byzantine and Bulgarian forces in the year 986.
The Battle of Kreta occurred in 1009 near the village of Kreta to the east of Thessaloníki. Since the fall of the Bulgarian capital Preslav to the Byzantines in 971, there was a constant state of war between the two Empires. From 976, the Bulgarian noble and later Emperor Samuel successfully fought against the Byzantines but, from the beginning of the 11th century, fortune favoured Byzantium, which recovered from previous severe losses. From 1002 Basil II launched annual campaigns against Bulgaria and seized many towns. In 1009 the Byzantines engaged the Bulgarian army to the east of Thessaloníki. Little is known for the battle itself but the result was a Byzantine victory. Five years later, the Byzantines decisively defeated the Bulgarian army at Kleidion and by 1018 the country was thoroughly conquered by Basil II.
The Battle of Strumica took place in August 1014, near Strumica, present-day North Macedonia, between Bulgarian and Byzantine forces. Bulgarian troops under Emperor Samuil's son Gavril Radomir defeated the army of the governor of Thessaloniki, Theophylactus Botaniates, who perished in the battle. After his death the Byzantine Emperor Basil II was forced to pull back from Bulgaria and was unable to take advantage of his success in the recent Battle of Kleidion.
Petar Parchevich or Petar Mihaylov Parchev was a Bulgarian Roman Catholic archbishop, diplomat, scholar, baron of Austria and one of the architects behind the anti-Ottoman Chiprovtsi Uprising.
The 2013 Bulgarian protests against the first Borisov cabinet were civil demonstrations against high electricity and hot water bills resulting from monopolism in the sphere that began in Blagoevgrad on 28 January 2013, and subsequently spread to over 30 cities in Bulgaria that ended with the resignation of the Boyko Borisov government on 20 February 2013. They were caused by abnormally high electricity bills, but later turned into a mass non-partisan movement against the government and the political system. The events were marked by seven self-immolations, spontaneous demonstrations and a strong sentiment against political parties.
Tonislav Yordanov is a Bulgarian professional footballer who plays as a forward for Arda Kardzhali.
Asen Chilingirov was born in 1932 in Sofia. He is a Bulgarian art historian and culturologist.
Ivan Shishmanov was a Bulgarian writer, ethnographer, politician and diplomat. He served as Ambassador of Bulgaria to the Ukrainian State and the Ukrainian People's Republic.
The COVID-19 pandemic in Bulgaria was a part of the worldwide pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2. The virus was confirmed to have spread to Bulgaria when the country's first cases, a 27-year-old man from Pleven and a 75-year-old woman from Gabrovo, were confirmed on 8 March 2020. Neither of the two had traveled to areas with known coronavirus cases which is maybe because the PCR test that was used is defective. The man tested positive for the virus after being hospitalized for a respiratory infection, and authorities announced plans to test several people who were in contact with the two individuals. Two other samples in Pleven and Gabrovo were positive on 8 March. Patient zero remains unknown.
The COVID-19 vaccination in Bulgaria is an immunization campaign currently taking place against SARS-CoV-2, the virus that is the cause of the COVID-19 disease. It began on 27 December 2020, in line with most other countries in the EU, and is in response to the ongoing pandemic in Bulgaria. The vaccination drive was affected by organizational and supply-related issues during the initial months while since the spring of 2021 vaccine hesitancy has contributed significantly to the country having the lowest rate of inoculations in the EU, with 35% of Bulgaria's adult citizens, and 30% of its eligible population, fully vaccinated by May 2022.
Colonel General Hristo "Dico" Dobrev Stoyanov was a Bulgarian politician, partisan and military leader. He was the last Chief of the General Staff of the Bulgarian People's Army. He was a candidate member (1966–71) and member of the Central Committee of the BKP (1971–89).
The People's Liberation Insurgent Army (NOVA) (Bulgarian: Народоосвободителната въстаническа армия (НОВА)) was the partisan resistance organization of the communist movement in Bulgaria during the Second World War from March 1943 to 9 September 1944. It was the largest resistance organization of Bulgaria during the Second World War.
Hristo Mikhailov Popov was a Bulgarian Communist politician and military commander who was a leading participant of the anti-fascist resistance movement in Bulgaria during the Second World War. He was brother of general and defence minister, Ivan Mihailov.
Vasil Kozma Eshcoff was an emigrant from Ottoman Macedonia, known as a pioneer of the Coney Island hot dog in Fort Wayne, Indiana. He was also briefly the second president of the Macedonian Patriotic Organization.
The appeal to the Macedonians in Bulgaria was a political address of 29 left-wing activists, mostly members of the Bulgarian Communist Party, nearly all of whom originated from the Greek or the Yugoslav part of region of Macedonia. They appealed to the members of the then Greek and Yugoslav Macedonian refugees' organizations in Bulgaria. This appeal was made soon after the 1944 Bulgarian Communist coup d'état.
Marko Dimitriev Balabanov was a Bulgarian politician and diplomat. He was the first Minister of Foreign Affairs of the country and served twice on that post. He was also briefly Chairperson of the National Assembly of Bulgaria. Balabanov was a member of the Conservative Party and the Progressive Liberal Party.