On July 3rd 1924 a young man was beaten up in the Bulgarian
\nvillage of Bujinci-Vasil. His ‘crime’ was that of refusing to be
\nconscripted.<\/p>\n
This was in contravention of the provisions of the peace
\ntreaty which came in to effect at the end of world war one.<\/p>\n
The reporter upon this incident had no idea upon what had
\nsubsequently happened to the young man.<\/p>\n
Thus we have the 1st of a number of reports upon the pacifist
\nmovement in Bulgaria which were published in the various
\nnewsletters of War Resisters International ( WRI ).<\/p>\n
In September 1924 it was reported that a group of Bulgarian
\nTolstoyans had formed a new section of WRI.<\/p>\n
At the same time it was reported that their situation had
\nbecome much more difficult.<\/p>\n
A violent revolution had created a new government during
\nJuly of that year, & the country was reported to be in turmoil.<\/p>\n
As the 1920s turned in to the 1930s the situation in Bulgaria
\ndid not improve for Pacifists living in the country.<\/p>\n
for example:<\/p>\n
– There was a bomb & shooting attack which took place upon
\nthe home of two pacifists during October 1926.<\/p>\n
– The teacher and pacifist Andreas Krestev was murdered for
\nhis work by persons unknown on the 12th of may 1928.<\/p>\n
– While in 1930 two brothers who refused to be conscripted
\nwere arrested & tortured within a military barracks.<\/p>\n
This was despite the fact that there was no formal
\nconscription within the country.<\/p>\n
There are similar reports which were published throughout
\nthis period.<\/p>\n
Yet despite all of the difficulties there was a lot of pacifist
\nactivism during this time.<\/p>\n
– An anti-conscription manifest was published at the end of
\n1926.<\/p>\n
– In November 1927 the editor of Svoboda, a guy by the name of
\nSlav Delkinoff, was prosecuted for the\ufffd publication of an
\narticle entitled \ufffdmilitary Service Work\ufffd.<\/p>\n
– During the winter of 1929 it was reported that a ‘No More
\nwar’ calender had been sold for the last 5 years, with an
\naverage print run of 5,000 – 6,000 copies.<\/p>\n
– In 1930 the annual Congress of the Bulgarian Vegetarian
\nSociety took place in Ruse. In a report upon this meeting it was
\nstated that a very high percentage of the membership was
\npacifist.
\nThe meeting was also addressed by the founder of the
\nWomen’s Peace Society of Bulgaria.<\/p>\n
– During 1932 a declaration in Zornita ( Aurora ) ,
\nthe organ of the Methodist & congregational churches of
\nBulgaria stated:
\n‘ That our duty is to work for complete disarmament as the
\nmost certain means of eradicating war.’<\/p>\n
One of the most prominent of Bulgarian Pacifists during this
\nperiod was Yordan Kovateev ( 18 Oct 1895 – 19th Feb 1966 ).<\/p>\n
Kovateev was a Tolstoyan, vegetarian, and what we would
\nnow be called a Human Rights Lawyer.<\/p>\n
He also spent some years on the Council of WRI.<\/p>\n
There are very few sources of information upon what pacifist
\nactivities took place in Bulgaria during the period between
\n1920 – 1946.<\/p>\n
I have only been able to make a brief summery of what was
\npublished within the WRI periodical War Resistance,
\nfrom which these notes are based.<\/p>\n
It would be really very good is there were to be some more
\nresearch that could be done upon this subject, but it would
\nhave to be done by someone who can read the language.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
On July 3rd 1924 a young man was beaten up in the Bulgarian village of Bujinci-Vasil. His ‘crime’ was that of refusing to be conscripted. This was in contravention of the provisions of the peace treaty which came in to effect at the end of world war one. The reporter upon this incident had no … Continue reading Some Notes Upon Pacifist Activities in Bulgaria During the 1920s & 1930s.<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[22,16],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.theproject.me.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.theproject.me.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.theproject.me.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.theproject.me.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.theproject.me.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=106"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.theproject.me.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.theproject.me.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=106"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.theproject.me.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=106"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.theproject.me.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=106"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}