Vasil Konstantionov Tanev ( bg, Васил Константинов Танев; 9 October 1897 – 21 November 1941) was a Bulgarian

Communist Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, a s ...

, one of the three Bulgarian

Comintern The Communist International (Comintern), also known as the Third International, was a Soviet Union, Soviet-controlled international organization founded in 1919 that advocated world communism. The Comintern resolved at its Second Congress to ...

operatives arrested and tried for complicity in the

Reichstag fire The Reichstag fire (german: Reichstagsbrand, ) was an arson attack on the Reichstag building, home of the German parliament in Berlin, on Monday 27 February 1933, precisely four weeks after Nazi leader Adolf Hitler was sworn in as Chancellor of ...

in 1933.

Biography

Tanev was born in

Gevgelija Gevgelija ( mk, Гевгелија; ) is a town with a population of 15,685 located in the very southeast of the North Macedonia along the banks of the Vardar River, situated at the country's main border with Greece (Bogorodica-Evzoni), the point ...

, in the

Salonica Vilayet The Vilayet of Salonica ( ota, ولايت سلانيك, Vilâyet-i Selânik) was a first-level administrative division (vilayet) of the Ottoman Empire from 1867 to 1912. In the late 19th century it reportedly had an area of .Ottoman Empire The Ottoman Empire, * ; is an archaic version. The definite article forms and were synonymous * and el, Оθωμανική Αυτοκρατορία, Othōmanikē Avtokratoria, label=none * info page on book at Martin Luther University) ...

(present-day

North Macedonia North Macedonia, ; sq, Maqedonia e Veriut, (Macedonia before February 2019), officially the Republic of North Macedonia,, is a country in Southeast Europe. It gained independence in 1991 as one of the successor states of Socialist Feder ...

) and joined the

Bulgarian Communist Party The Bulgarian Communist Party (BCP; bg, Българска Комунистическа Партия (БКП), Balgarska komunisticheska partiya (BKP)) was the founding and ruling party of the People's Republic of Bulgaria from 1946 until 198 ...

in 1919. After the failure of the

September Uprising The September Uprising ( bg, Септемврийско въстание, ''Septemvriysko vastanie'') was a 1923 communist insurgency in Bulgaria. The Bulgarian Communist Party (BCP) attempted to overthrow Alexander Tsankov's new government e ...

of 1923 he fled to the

Kingdom of Yugoslavia The Kingdom of Yugoslavia ( sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", Kraljevina Jugoslavija, Краљевина Југославија; sl, Kraljevina Jugoslavija) was a state in Southeast Europe, Southeast and Central Europe that existed from 1918 unt ...

, then moved between Communist Russia and secret missions in Bulgaria. In 1933 Tanev was in

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

working for the Comintern under

Georgi Dimitrov Georgi Dimitrov Mihaylov (; bg, Гео̀рги Димитро̀в Миха̀йлов), also known as Georgiy Mihaylovich Dimitrov (russian: Гео́ргий Миха́йлович Дими́тров; 18 June 1882 – 2 July 1949), was a Bulgarian ...

. On 9 March 1933 Tanev, Dimitrov and

Blagoy Popov Blagoi Simeonov Popov ( bg, Благой Симеонов Попов) (22 November 1902 – 28 December 1968) was a Bulgarian Communist activist and Comintern executive who was one of the co-defendants along with Georgi Dimitrov and Vasil T ...

, along with others were arrested and charged with complicity in the

. All three were acquitted. Tanev was acclaimed as a hero on his return to Russia, but was forced into self-denunciation later in the 1930s. The Bulgarian Communist Party ordered him to carry out a mission in Bulgaria in 1941. He was killed later in that year near

Langadas Lagkadas ( el, Λαγκαδάς, ) is a town and municipality in the northeast part of Thessaloniki regional unit, Greece. There are 41103 residents in the municipality and 7764 of them live in the town of Lagkadas. Lagkadas is located northeast o ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tanev, Vasil 1897 births 1941 deaths People from Gevgelija People from Salonica vilayet Macedonian Bulgarians Bulgarian communists Bulgarian resistance members Bulgarian people imprisoned abroad International Lenin School alumni