- Source: Naum Tyufekchiev
Naum Tyufekchiev (Bulgarian: Наум Тюфекчиев, romanized as Naum Tûfekčiev), born on June 29, 1864, in Resen, in the Ottoman Empire, was a Bulgarian and Macedonian revolutionary, explosives expert, tactician, and anarchist arms dealer. He was a member and leader of the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization (IMRO).
He served as both an instructor in urban guerrilla warfare, methods of terrorism, and pyrotechnics, as well as a hub for arms trade. He also took part in plots, bombings, and assassinations across the Balkans. In addition to anarchism, he advocated for the unity of Macedonians and Bulgarians, and fought for the liberation of North Macedonia from Ottoman rule.
Furthermore, he engaged in numerous collaborations with foreign revolutionary movements, such as the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (ARF), the Committee of Union and Progress (CUP), the Bulgarian Red Brotherhood and the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP). He shared or sold his expertise as an explosives expert and weapons to various movements, and was responsible, among other things, for establishing the first revolutionary explosives workshops in the Russian Empire.
He was assassinated by Todor Aleksandrov, the leader of the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization (IMRO), as part of factional warfare within the organization, on February 25, 1916, in Sofia, Bulgaria.
Biography
He was born in Resen, then under Ottoman control, on June 29, 1864. He studied pyrotechnics in Liège, Belgium.
In 1891, he was involved in a plot to assassinate Stefan Stambolov, the then Bulgarian Prime Minister criticized for his authoritarian methods, support for the Ottoman Empire and repression of the IMRO, alongside his two brothers and Dimitar Rizov. The attempt failed, but managed to kill the Minister of Finance, Hristo Belchev. His brother Dencho was captured, tortured, and died in custody, but Naum managed to escape to Serbia and then to Odesa. He was sentenced to death in absentia.
In 1892, he arrived in Constantinople using false papers under the name Ivan Hristo. There, he assassinated the Bulgarian physician and diplomat Georges Vulkovich, a close friend of Stefan Stambolov. He fled and returned to the Russian Empire, where he was sentenced to 15 years of prison in absentia by the Ottoman Empire. Bulgarian secret services accused him of being linked to Russian secret services in carrying out the assassination.
In May 1894, he founded, alongside Evtim Sprostranov, Petar Pop Arsov, Thoma Karayovov, Hristo Popkotsev, Dimitar Mirchev, Andrey Lyapchev, Naum Tyufekchiev, Georgi Balaschev, Georgi Belev, the Macedonian Youth Society.
He returned to Bulgaria after Stefan Stambolov lost power and took part in a plot that eventually assassinated Stambolov on July 19, 1895. He was acquitted due to lack of evidence. In 1903, he was elected president of an action committee within the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization (IMRO), representing the anarchist faction. He participated in the Ilinden–Preobrazhenie Uprising against the Ottoman Empire and was also involved in activities in Albania against the Ottoman Empire. He maintained connections with Faik Konica, the leader of Albanian revolutionaries.
In addition to anarchism, Naum Tiufekchiev supported the positions of Boris Sarafov and advocated for the unification of Macedonians and Bulgarians, a stance within the IMRO referred to as "sarafovism".
Following the death of his son Alexander in the early 1900s, he donated 5000 Bulgarian levs to an Eastern Orthodox bishop in North Macedonia, with the intention of having them distributed in honor of his son to the "poor Macedonians."
In 1905, he hosted a delegation of Russian anarchists in Bulgaria, teaching them the fundamentals of pyrotechnics so they could establish laboratories within the Russian Empire. In 1909, he met with leaders of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (ARF), providing them with a "significant number of explosives", as well as Austrian rifles and pistols, according to a report by the Okhrana, the secret police of the Russian Empire. They managed to transport the explosives and weapons into Ottoman Armenia and Russian Armenia by loading them onto a steamship that docked in Batumi, Georgia.
He also maintained significant connections with the Bolsheviks, who consulted him. He guided the future Soviet general, who was then a chemist, Georgy Skosarevskii, and received visits from Nikolay Burenin, the leader of the terrorist organization within the Bolshevik movement, on several occasions. Burenin mentioned Tiufekchiev in his memoirs and stated about him:In Macedonia, participants in the struggle for national liberation against the Turkish slavers used a special type of hand grenades. Tyufekchiev held a prominent position in Sofia and was very open. I found him without too much difficulty. Instead of a password, Omega gave me a cleverly cut piece of a business card. The second part of that business card was with Tyufekchiev. After comparing the two pieces, he was convinced of the identity on whose behalf I had come. Tyufekchiev welcomed me warmly, escorted me to his office, and began opening and pulling out the drawers of his large desk in front of me. I could hardly believe my eyes: all the boxes were filled with various types of weapons - magazines, cartridges, firearms. Tyufekchiev promised me full assistance in purchasing explosives in France.In May 1912, Naum collaborated with the Turkish secret services of the Committee of Union and Progress (CUP) and took part in an assassination attempt at a casino, targeting both the Tsar of Russia, Nicholas II, and the King of Bulgaria, Ferdinand. The attempt failed, but it wounded 8 people and resulted in the deaths of 4 individuals, including the son of Bulgarian General Kliment Boyadzhiev and one of the daughters of General Ivan Fichev.
He was assassinated by Todor Aleksandrov, the leader of the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization (IMRO), as part of factional conflicts within the organization, on February 25, 1916, in Sofia, Bulgaria.
