Nikola Vaptsarov
Nikola Vaptsarov | |
---|---|
Native name | Никола Вапцаров |
Born | Bansko, Ottoman Empire | 7 December 1909
Died | 23 July 1942 Sofia, Bulgaria | (aged 32)
Occupation | poet, activist of the communist resistance |
Nationality | Bulgarian[note 1] |
Notable works | Motor Songs |
Nikola Yonkov Vaptsarov (
Biography
He was born in Bansko (today in Bulgaria).[4] Trained as a machine engineer at the Naval Machinery School in Varna, which was later named after him.[5] His first service was on the famous Drazki torpedo boat. In this period, he embraced Marxism and spread the communist ideology during the 1930s.[6] 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.[7]
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 worker rights 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.[8] He continued writing, and a number of newspapers published poems of his. The "Romantika" poem won him a poetry contest.
In the late 1930s, he co-founded the
Legacy
Post-war Bulgarian communist authorities revered him as an activist and revolutionary poet, presenting his poetry collection as an example of
Notes
- ^ From a police investigation of 13 December 1940, regarding the arrest of the poet because of his poem "Selska Chronicle": ... I am named Nikola Yonkov Vaptsarov, resident of Sofia, 37 Angel Kunchev Street, religion – Eastern Orthodox, nationality – Bulgarian, marital status – married, occupation – machine technician, born in 1909.
References
- ^ ISBN 978-0198183594.
- ISBN 1400841429, p. 169.
- ISBN 0313384460, pp. 143–144.
- ^ ISBN 978-0810862951.
- ^ "The Nikola Vaptsarov Museum in Bansko". 21 December 2014. Retrieved 6 May 2020.
- ISBN 9780521273237.
- ^ ISBN 9781317475941.
- ^ "БДЖ организира пътуване с парния локомотив Баба Меца". 9 May 2019. Retrieved 6 May 2020.
- ISBN 978-1538119624.
- ^ "Bulgarian literature". Encyclopædia Britannica. 20 July 1998. Retrieved 6 May 2020.
- ISBN 9783110810608.
- ^ "Bulgaria commemorates poet Nikola Vaptsarov". BGNES. 23 July 2022. Retrieved 6 September 2023.
External links
- Full list of works (in Bulgarian)
- Biography of Nikola Vapcarov (in English)
- Poems by Nikola Vapcarov (in English)
- Nikola Vaptsarov Naval Academy (in Bulgarian)
- Police files on Nikola Vaptsarov (in Bulgarian)