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Mencha Karnicheva

In this Bulgarian name, the patronymic is Dimitrova and the family name is Karnicheva.
Mencha Karnicheva

Melpomena Dimitrova Karnicheva (Bulgarian: Мелпомена Димитрова Кърничева; Macedonian: Мелпомена Димитрова Крничева; 16 March 1900 – 1964), commonly known as Mencha Karnicheva, was a revolutionary of the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization (IMRO). The wife of IMRO leader Ivan Mihaylov, she is known for assassinating IMRO left-wing activist Todor Panitsa.

Life

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Karnicheva was born on 16 March 1900 in Kruševo in Ottoman-ruled Macedonia (today in North Macedonia) to a mixed Aromanian family.[1][2][3] Her grandmother was of Bulgarian and Aromanian ancestry, while her great-grandfather was a Bulgarian priest, who got killed by the Turks.[4] During the Ilinden–Preobrazhenie Uprising in 1903, Ottoman troops sacked her birthplace,[5] she and her family moved to Sofia, Bulgaria, after the uprising. There she became involved with the Macedonian revolutionary movement.[2] On 2 September 1918, she went to study in Munich, but returned to Bulgaria after the end of World War I.[6]

Karnicheva was briefly part of IMRO's federalist leader Todor Panitsa's circle,[2] but disagreed with his political views.[6] She joined IMRO on 15 March 1924.[2][6] On 8 May 1925, she assassinated Panitsa in Vienna's Burgtheater.[2][7][8] Per Mihaylov, the assassination was widely publicized in the international press.[6] She was tried and sentenced to eight years in prison, but due to her bad health, her sentence was terminated by an Austrian court and she returned to Bulgaria.[2][9] In Bulgaria, she was welcomed as a hero upon her return.[5] On 25 December 1926, she married Mihaylov, who was then a leader of IMRO.[6] Along with Mara Buneva, she was also celebrated as a hero by IMRO's circles in Yugoslavia, Bulgaria and the Macedonian emigration.[1] After the disbandment of IMRO in 1934, she lived with Mihaylov in exile in Turkey, Poland, Hungary, Croatia and etc,[2][9] until her death in Rome, Italy, in 1964.[5]

She was not part of Bulgarian national martyrology until the end of the Bulgarian communist regime. Bulgarian nationalists and the Bulgarian public celebrate her as a patriot. A female association of VMRO-BND was named after her, along with a street in Blagoevgrad.[1]

References

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  1. ^ a b c Naum Trajanovski; Petar Todorov; Biljana Volchevska; Ljupcho S. Risteski, eds. (2021). Cultures and Politics of Remembrance: Southeast European and Balkan Perspectives. ForumZFD, Institute of National History, Institute for Ethnology and Anthropology. pp. 82–83, 86. ISBN 978-608-4956-04-4.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g Dimitar Bechev (2009). Historical Dictionary of the Republic of Macedonia. Scarecrow Press. p. 125. ISBN 0810862956.
  3. ^ Makedonska enciklopedija [Macedonian Encyclopedia] (in Macedonian). MANU. 2009. p. 763.
  4. ^ Mihaylov, Ivan (1967). Спомени III - Освободителна Борба 1924 - 1934 [Memories III. Liberation Struggle 1924 - 1934] (in Bulgarian). Leuven: А. Rоssееls Рrinting Cо. p. 175.
  5. ^ a b c Dmitar Tasić (2019). "The Macedonian Youth Secret Organisation (MYSRO) 1922-1927: A New Moment in Macedonian Struggle". Geschichte und Regionen / Storia e regione: 33.
  6. ^ a b c d e "Менча Кърничева". Македония (in Bulgarian). 10 March 1999.
  7. ^ Livanios, Dimitris (2008). The Macedonian Question: Britain and the Southern Balkans 1939-1949. Great Britain: Oxford University Press. p. 28. ISBN 9780199237685.
  8. ^ Tasic, Dimitar (2020). Paramilitarism in the Balkans: Yugoslavia, Bulgaria, and Albania, 1917-1924. Croydon: Oxford University Press. pp. 169–170. ISBN 9780198858324.
  9. ^ a b Stefan Troebst (5 February 2010). "Ванче Михайлов - терористът бюрократ". Kultura (in Bulgarian).
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