Nikola Vaptsarov

**Nikola Vaptsarov** (Bulgarian and ) was a Bulgarian poet and communist activist from the city of Bansko, today Bulgaria. After his death, in 1952, he won the International Peace Award.

Vaptsarov only managed to make one collection of poems before his execution in 1942 by the Bulgarian government, it was titled _Motorni Pesni_ () which only contained 20 poems and was published in 1940. During World War II, he organized communist activities against the Bulgarian government. As a result, in 1942, he was captured, sentenced and killed by firing squad in Sofia.

## Life

He was born in Bansko (today in Bulgaria). Trained as a machine engineer at the Naval Machinery School in Varna, which was later named after him. His first service was on the famous Drazki torpedo boat. In this period, he embraced Marxism and spread the communist ideology during the 1930s. In April and May 1932, Vaptsarov visited Istanbul, Famagusta, Alexandria, Beirut, Port Said, and Haifa as a crew member of the Burgas vessel. In 1934, he joined the Bulgarian Communist Party.

Later, he went to work in a factory in the village of Kocherinovo – at first as a stoker and eventually as a mechanic. He was elected Chairman of the Association, protecting the rights of workers in the factory. Vaptsarov was devoted to his talent and spent his free time writing and organizing amateur theater pieces. He got fired after a technical failure in 1936. This forced him to move to Sofia, where he worked for the state railway service and the municipal incinerating furnace. He continued writing, and a number of newspapers published poems of his. The poem _Romantika_ () won him a poetry contest.

In the late 1930s, he co-founded the Macedonian literary circle, which promoted the idea of a separate Macedonian nation. In 1940, he participated in the so-called "Sobolev action," gathering signatures for a pact of friendship between Bulgaria and the USSR. The illegal activity earned him an arrest and an internment in the village of Godech. After his release in September 1940, Vaptsarov got involved with the Central Military Committee of the Bulgarian Communist Party. His task was to organize the supply of guns and documents for the communist resistance. He was arrested in March 1942. On 23 July 1942, he was sentenced to death and shot the same evening along with eleven other men.

## Motor Songs

His only published poetry collection is _Motor Songs_ (1940). Consisting of 20 poems and divided into four sections:

- Section 1 - The section is titled _"Songs for the Human"_ and contains 8 poems. The most known poems from this section are _"Memoir"_, _"Songs"_ and _"Songs for the Human"_
- Section 2 - The section is titled _"Songs for the Fatherland"_ and contains 6 poems, the most notable ones being _"Fatherland"_, _"Ilinden"_, _"King Marko"_ and _"Mother"_
- Section 3 - The section is titled _"Songs"_ and contains only 2 poems
- Section 4 - The section is titled _"Songs for one side"_ and contains 4 poems

## Legacy

Post-war People's Republic of Bulgaria celebrated him as an activist and revolutionary poet, while his poetry collection was seen as an example of "proletarian" literature. Soviet-bloc countries also widely published his work. In 1949, the Bulgarian Naval Academy renamed itself _Nikola Vaptsarov Naval Academy_. On 1953, he received the International Peace Award posthumously. Lawrence & Wishart published his _Selected Poems_ in London in the 1950s, translated into English by British poet Peter Tempest. He was one of the most frequently translated Bulgarian poets. Vaptsarov Peak in eastern Livingston Island, Antarctica, is named after him. His childhood home in Bansko and residence in Sofia are both museums. North Macedonia and the Macedonians in Bulgaria also honor him.

## Infobox (person)

- **name**: Nikola Vaptsarov
Nikola Vapcarov
Никола Вапцаров
- **image**: Vapcarov Varna.jpg
- **caption**: Vaptsarov during his time in the Varna Naval Machinery School
- **birth place**: Bansko, Bulgaria, Bansko, Ottoman Empire
- **death place**: Sofia, Bulgaria
- **death cause**: Firing squad