Vela Peeva ( bg, Вела Пеева) (16 March 1922 – 3 May 1944) with the

nom de guerre A pseudonym (; ) or alias () is a fictitious name that a person or group assumes for a particular purpose, which differs from their original or true name (orthonym). This also differs from a new name that entirely or legally replaces an individua ...

Penka was a communist partisan and activist of the Bulgarian Workers Youth League and 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 ...

during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

Early life and education

Vela Peeva was born on 16 March 1922 to ethnic

Bulgarian Bulgarian may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to the country of Bulgaria * Bulgarians, a South Slavic ethnic group * Bulgarian language, a Slavic language * Bulgarian alphabet * A citizen of Bulgaria, see Demographics of Bulgaria * Bul ...

parents Peyo and Katerina in the village of Kamenitsa, today a neighbourhood of

Velingrad Velingrad ( bg, Велинград ) is a town in Pazardzhik Province, Southern Bulgaria, located at the western end of Chepino Valley, part of the Rhodope Mountains. It is the administrative center of the homonymous Velingrad Municipality an ...

. She has three siblings; older brother and sister Yordana and Todor, and younger sister Gera. As a teenager, as she was a bright student, she was sent to live alone in the city of

Pazardzhik Pazardzhik ( bg, Пазарджик ) is a city situated along the banks of the Maritsa river, southern Bulgaria. It is the capital of Pazardzhik Province and centre for the homonymous Pazardzhik Municipality. The Tatars founded Pazardzhik in t ...

to attend a prestigious high school, so as to achieve a better future than was possible in her hometown. In 1941, she was accepted at the

University of Sofia Sofia University, "St. Kliment Ohridski" at the University of Sofia, ( bg, Софийски университет „Св. Климент Охридски“, ''Sofijski universitet „Sv. Kliment Ohridski“'') is the oldest higher education i ...

, where she studied

Pedagogy Pedagogy (), most commonly understood as the approach to teaching, is the theory and practice of learning, and how this process influences, and is influenced by, the social, political and psychological development of learners. Pedagogy, taken as ...

and

Geography Geography (from Greek: , ''geographia''. Combination of Greek words ‘Geo’ (The Earth) and ‘Graphien’ (to describe), literally "earth description") is a field of science devoted to the study of the lands, features, inhabitants, and ...

. However, she did not graduate, as she chose to be a partisan instead.

Life with the Bulgarian Communist Party and death

In 1939, Vela joined the Worker's Youth League, a communist organization. In 1943, Vela became a member of the

and joined an

anti-fascist Anti-fascism is a political movement in opposition to fascist ideologies, groups and individuals. Beginning in European countries in the 1920s, it was at its most significant shortly before and during World War II, where the Axis powers were ...

group along with fellow communist partisan Stoyo Kalpazanov and her sister Gera. When Gera fell ill of a cold in 1944, Vela volunteered to take her place in an assignment. The assignment was to collect food from the village of Ladzhene and sneak it up to the partisans in the mountains. After she and Stoyo Kalpazanov had collected the food, they were betrayed on the way back and Stoyo was captured. Vela, seriously wounded, managed to escape and crawl away to a cliff, which she hid under for forty days. A local forest worker brought her food and medicines, and when Vela was just healing, he feared he would be discovered by the fascists and betrayed her. Vela was surrounded by the fascists and is believed to have turned her gun on herself to avoid being captured alive. After her death, the fascists beheaded her body and strode around the nearby villages with Vela's head impaled on a spike.

Post-death

After beheading Vela, the fascists went to Stoyo Kalpazanov's cell and began interrogating him about the whereabouts of the remaining partisans. However, he remained loyal to them and refused to give any information. He was shot for this. Following Vela's death, she was named a Bulgarian national heroine by the communists and her birthplace was turned into a museum. Her sister, Gera, who had meant to take her place in the anti-fascist activities, wrote a book about her years after her death.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Peeva, Vela 1922 births 1944 deaths Bulgarian communists People from Velingrad Bulgarian resistance members 1944 suicides Suicides by firearm Female anti-fascists Suicides in Bulgaria