Today marks the 99th anniversary of the bloodiest attack in Bulgarian history – the blown-up Saint Nedelya church in Sofia. It is performed during the funeral of a gen. Konstantin Georgiev. The day is Maundy Thursday.
The bombers are from the military organization of the Bulgarian Communist Party (BCP).
Their goal was to kill Tsar Boris III, the country’s military and political elite.
To bring them together, the terrorists kill a gen. Georgiev in front of the “Sveti Sedmochiselnitsi” church, where he went with his granddaughter to the evening service.
Konstantin Georgiev, whose death should have gathered the most prominent people in the country, was the chairman of the Sofia organization of the Democratic Conspiracy and a deputy.
On April 16, 1925, at around 3 p.m., the funeral service for the general began on Holy Sunday. Many ministers, deputies, the mayor of Sofia Pascal Paskalev (who died), citizens and children gathered in the church. At that time, the king attended another funeral – of those who died in the attack against him at the Arabakonak pass on April 14.
The bombers, who had been preparing for this terror since the previous year, had placed 25 kg of explosives on one of the columns of the main dome. For this purpose, the priest Petar Zadgorski was recruited. The explosives and other weapons were supplied by the Soviet Union. The leadership of the BKP did not agree to carry out the assassination, as they believed that the assassination should take place when preparations were made for an uprising. The BKP was already outlawed after the September Uprising in 2023 and its members were illegal, persecuted and killed by the authorities.
The terrorist group’s plan was to detonate the explosive directly above the general’s coffin, in order to harm the leaders of the country, who, as a rule, stand at the front. However, the plan failed, as many people entered the church and this required the coffin to be moved closer to the altar. The targeted victims, who actually survived, were also moved with him.
The explosion happened around 3:30 p.m. The main dome of the church collapses on the crowd. Sulfuric acid planted by the bombers further kills others. (The story of the attack is described in detail in Milen Ruskov’s novel “Chamkoria”. The main organizer of the terrorist act, the so-called Major Kosta Yankov – b.r., is also presented in it.)
This huge tragedy ended with 213 killed and around 500 injured. 12 generals, 15 colonels, 7 lieutenant colonels, 3 majors, 9 captains, 3 deputies and many citizens died.
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