1. Autobiography (1967 – ?)
[AUTOBIOGRAPHY]
[…] [1]
In a meeting held at the Renaissance theatre (now Georgi Dimitrov cinema) [2], our party group decided to give a modest sum to the party club [on the square next to] Lavov most (Lion’s Bridge), which the bourgeois authorities had burned. The party group took part in the congress [3], which took place in the Renaissance theatre, where I was a delegate in 1922. The congress was attended by international figures of the Communist movement, such as Clara Zetkin and others.
In 1923, during the September events [4], agents and the police searched for me. That is why I decided to escape to Kyustendil, where I got involved in the construction of the Popular Bank as an ironworker, and I left my wife and three children without any funds. After the suppression of the uprising and when the construction of the bank was finished, I returned to Sofia; I got back to work and met Valcho Ivanov. We started illegal work and restored the party groups. Because of my merits and struggles in 1924 in creating a united front between Communists and the Bulgarian Agricultural People’s Union, Valcho Ivanov put my candidacy forward in the parliamentary elections, and I was elected MP from the Bulgarian Communist Party [5].
On April 15, 1925, in connection with the bomb explosion at the St Nedelya cathedral, I was arrested again in the police station, then in the 6th regiment, then in the Police Directorate and in Konstantin Fotinov School, where I stayed for three months. Due to constant persecution and house searches by police officers and agents, I decided to emigrate to Turkey. For this action, I took the consent of the comrades, the lawyer Aleksandar Lambrev, Nikola Milev and Angel Boyadzhiyata, who told me, “If you manage, run away because the situation is bad and the police already know you as a Member of Parliament”. After my return from Turkey in 1929, I again joined the ranks of the Bulgarian Workers’ Party [6].
After the restoration of the Party group, which was named the Gypsy Party group, by the comrades Asen Boyadzhiev, Aleksandar Naumov, Petko Stoev and others, the members of the Party Group took active participation in all Party activities and in all elections. We were acknowledged as the champions of the 3rd Region. In 1931, I joined and became Chairman of the Gypsy Cultural and Educational Organisation in Bulgaria [7], and later I founded the first Gypsy newspaper in Bulgaria, Terbie (Upbringing), which advocated for the cultural and educational enlightenment and the rise of the political consciousness of our tobacco workers in Bulgaria [8]. In 1933, the Sofia Party Organisation of the Bulgarian Workers’ Party, with headquarters on Positano Street 7, included me in its leadership [9].
After the dissolution of the Party in 1934, I was involved in an illegal activity carried out by the comrades Ivan Dyulgerov, Vasil Garvanov, Ivan Rakhov and other Party leaders. From them, I received materials for the newspaper Terbie (Upbringing), which was published illegally [10], and I helped raise funds for the political prisoners by distributing stamps which I received from the comrades Gologanov and Ezekiev, as well as from the Party Secretary Ivan Dyulgerov. I participated in the Party’s activities; on comrade Ggeorgi Dimitrov’s proposal, I got involved in all actions and electoral struggles, and I gave reports most regularly. Before September 9, 1944, as a group machine mechanic in the municipal technical workshop in 1934, I was fired on January 1, 1935, due to a [participation in] strike led by the Party, and I was without a job for the whole winter. From 1920 until 1944, I took part in all of the Party’s actions, I was arrested and kept for months, but I remained loyal to the Party. In 1944, I moved from the 3rd district to the Brick Factories neighbourhood, in the Gypsy quarter in the 4th district Emil Markov [11]; at that time, I met with comrade Alexander Naumov, and we had agreed to hold a conference of the Gypsy population on September 5–6, but the events of September 9, 1944 [12] changed this plan.
WORK AND ACTIVISM of SHAKIR MAHMUDOV PASHOV for the period from 1944 till today, then living at 163 Emil Markov Street
On September 10, 1944, I went to the temporary club of the Fatherland’s Front and Bulgarian Communist Party at 1 Vrabcha Street together with several old comrades, members [of the Party] from the Gypsy population. I met the comrades Yanko Petkov, Alexander Naumov, former MP Kalaydzhiev and others there. I received instruction from the Party to set up a Fatherland Front organisation among the Gypsy population. Party representatives participated in the event of founding the organisation and the election of its leadership, […] and I was elected Chairman of this organisation. I also participated in the temporary militia vigil in the 10th precinct, 3rd district, for a whole month, with comrades Ivan Stefanov – Tsereto, Micho and others, and reported about the consolidation of the authority and the organisation among the Gypsy population in all neighbourhoods, but mainly in Konyovitsa [and] Tatarli [neighbourhood], where the population is the largest.
After September 9, 1944, I restored the organisation of the Gypsy population for cultural and educational advancement in Bulgaria. I was the editor-in-chief of the newspaper Romano esi (Echo) [13], which aimed to raise the Gypsy population in Bulgaria to a higher cultural and political level and to stimulate their mass entry into the Fatherland Front organisation. With all my Party and social activities, I promoted the Party’s interest above everything else. For my activities on behalf of the Party, I was elected a representative to the Great National Assembly [14]. This high post was the highest distinction for the Gypsy population and myself. The Member of Parliament Petar Terziev invited me to the local Fatherland Front organisation in Pazardzhik for a meeting of the Gypsy population. The comrades Valko Chervenkov and Elena Gavrilova also sent me to appease the tensions between the Turkish minority and the Gypsy population in the city of Ruse […], I managed to reconcile them because the Turks did not recognize the Turkish Gypsies as Turks, and there was a dispute between them about the Waqfs of the Turkish municipality.
In 1947, the Party sent me to subdue the scandal in the village of Golintsi (now Mladenovo) [15]. At the behest of Todor Pavlov, the elected representative from the town of Lom, and priest [Konstantin] Rusinov (the Red Priest), also elected from the town of Lom, I successfully reconciled the misunderstandings. One day I was called by the editorial office of the newspaper Rabotnichesko delo to meet with the editor Koshnicharov [?], because visiting foreign students – journalists were interested in meeting with me and through our translator from French or English, they [wanted] to get acquainted with our customs. I was called to comrade Valko Chervenkov’s office to report and answer their questions with a foreign language translator.
In 1947, I created a Gypsy Artistic and Musical Theatre Roma and became its chief director. As an MP, I went to comrade Georgi Dimitrov’s office in the National Assembly. I asked him if it was possible to include a subsidy for our theatre in the budget in order to support the creation of a theatre similar to the Romen theatre in the USSR. He gladly accepted my proposal and sent me to the budget committee, which introduced us to the legislative assembly, after which two million BGN were voted. He sent his secretary, the honoured Chairman of the Presidium of the National Assembly, Mincho Neychev, and Valko Chervenkov and other party figures to the theatre’s premiere, and they enthusiastically, together with everyone present, acclaimed the presented program. In 1947, comrade Zhelapov was sent to me, and I helped him set up a professional organisation of carters and porters from the Gypsy population in Sofia, which all members accepted unanimously and became good organisers.
In the same year, 1947, progressive comrades decided to build a school for Gypsy children in the Fakulteta neighbourhood, for which I acted before the Sofia City People’s Council in my capacity as an MP and succeeded in having the school built. I made the first sod as a representative and Chairman of the Gypsy minority in Bulgaria. Now, hundreds of children from the Gypsy population study there, and every year a good cadre of school teachers, professional school teachers, and others, graduate from that school.
For two years, between 1941 and 1943, the couriers of the Central Committee of the Bulgarian Communist Party used to leave packages with illegal materials and weapons in my blacksmith iron-forge workshop at 28 Serdika Street. I handed them over to comrade Asparukh Dimitrov. I had known him as a comrade since 1925, when we were detained for the bomb explosion in St Nedelya cathedral, in the Directorate of the Police and in School [Konstantin] Fotinov [16].
In 1923, during the parliamentary elections, a candidate was also comrade Georgi Dimitrov, who visited the ballot boxes of the 3rd District polling station at the Vasil Levski school on Dimitar Petkov Street and in a moment, the opposition group attacked him with fists. Our party group, which was there as promoters, immediately reacted and took comrade Dimitrov out of their hands, with other comrades joining. We accompanied them to the tram, and he said to me, “Shakir, one day, when we come to power, you will be the greatest man, and for me, people will lay a carpet from the train station to the palace.” When the glorious date, September 9, 1944, came, I became a Member of the Grand National Assembly, nourished by the ideas of the Party, because I spent my whole life fighting for the victory of the Marxist ideas and in anti-fascist activities since 1919. I have been doing it until today in the capacity of Chair of the 18th Fatherland Front organisation, 2nd section, Druzhba Housing Complex, Iskar station, Vasil Levski neighbourhood, 5th District.
With comradely respect: … [Signature] (Shakir Pashov).
My Autobiography is from 1919 to this day. [17].
Notes
The first page of the Autobiography is missing.
After 1948, Georgi Dimitrov trade union house of culture, and after the changes in 1989, the Sin City music club.
This refers to the 4th Congress of the Bulgarian Communist Party, held in 1922.
Shakir Pashov meant here the September uprising in 1923.
There were no parliamentary elections in 1924. Perhaps Shakir Pashov is referring to the local elections in Sofia, held on May 4, 1924. We could not find any other information about his participation as a candidate for municipal councillor in them.
The Bulgarian Workers’ Party was established in 1927 as the legal entity substituting the Bulgarian Communist Party, which was banned in 1924.
Here, Shakir Pashov writes neutrally, ‘Gypsy Cultural and Educational Organisation’. He doesn’t give the exact names of the organisations he means, namely the Sofia Common Muslim Educational-Cultural and Mutual Aid Organisation Istikbal – Future and the General Mohammedan-Gypsy National Cultural-Educational and Mutual Aid Union in Bulgaria. This omission of the exact names of the organisations is apparently deliberate in order to avoid the definition ‘Muslim/Mohammedan’ in their titles.
There is no evidence that any materials dedicated to tobacco workers in Bulgaria were published in the newspaper Terbie.
There is no other historical evidence to support the claim of Shakir Pashov’s participation in the city leadership of Bulgarian Workers’ Party; on the contrary, in the various biographical references for Shakir Pashov, there is no mention of such participation anywhere (ASR, f. Shakir Pashov).
We could not find any other historical evidence that the newspaper Terbie was published illegally. The purpose of this statement is to suggest that the newspaper propagated communist ideas (which is not supported by available historical sources either).
Today, the Gotse Delchev neighbourhood.
Shakir Pashov’s statement cannot be confirmed by other sources, but it seems unlikely that a Gypsy conference would be organised in the political situation at the time.
It is unclear why Shakir Pashov translates Romano esi (Gypsy Voice) as ‘Echo’.
For Shakir Pashov’s election as a member of the Great National Assembly, see further on.
Today, Mladenovo district in the town of Lom.
Konstantin Fotinov school became a place for detention of people who were arrested after the bomb explosion at St Nedelya cathedral.
The Autobiography is not dated. In all probability, it was written in 1967, when Shakir Pashov was already living in the Druzhba Housing Complex and when he submitted documents for rehabilitation and restoration of his membership in the Bulgarian Communist Party.
Source: ASR, f. Shakir Pashov.
2. Statute of the Organisation Istikbal – Future (1919)
I affirm [1]. Ministry of Internal Affairs and National Health.
No. 14300, from August 2, 1919.
Statute Transcript.
STATUTE of the Sofia Common Muslim Educational-Cultural and Mutual Aid Organisation Istikbal – Future
Headquarters of the organisation is the Capital Sofia.
The aim of the organisation is to organise the Muslims in one common organisation, which should help the poor in times of illnesses, accidents, death, and others, and fight for their moral, material, and educational-cultural upbringing.
[These aims] the aforementioned [organisation achieves], through discussions and lectures, organises classes etc. It supports a Hodzha [2] (Orthodox Priest) and a Bula [3] which are needed in our religious ceremonies. The support comes from membership fees, 5 levs per month, from morning and evening parties, entertainments and from various donations.
All Bulgarian citizens at the age of 20 and above shall have the right to be members, and shall not be elected [for leadership positions] for three months from the day of their membership.
Meetings shall take place each month while the General meetings are held every three months.
The organisation shall be strictly non-partisan, and, in its meetings, it shall forbid the discussions of any political matters.
Everyone shall obey the orders of the Board of Trustees and those who do not obey the rules shall be prosecuted and those who insult the leadership, or the organisation shall be prosecuted according to the law of our country.
The organisation owns movable and immovable properties, ownership of professional associations, which have joined the organisation. Burial items shall be used by members only, while non-members shall pay a pre-determined fee at the common cash register.
The Chair shall have an obligation to take care for the proper execution of all tasks of the organisation; when there is a minority, the Chair has an equal vote.
When the Chair is absent, he shall be replaced by one of the Board of Trustees [4] who shall have responsibility.
The Secretary shall maintain all paperwork and shall be subjected to the Chair.
The Treasurer shall take care of the membership fees and keep in the safe no more than 1,000 levs while the rest of the money shall be deposited in a bank on the organisation’s account.
The Councillors shall hold consultation with the Chair and form the Board of Directors.
The Control Commission shall control the actions of the Board of Trustees as well as the accounting books of the Secretary and the Treasurer; as soon as it finds irregularities, it can lay off the accused and call for a meeting to report about their deeds.
The Board of Trustees shall be elected with a mandate of one year. The Board of Trustees can be censured when a 1/3rd of the Members hand in their resignations or when it is accused of wrongdoing in a General Meeting.
The organisation shall have a stamp with the same name.
The organisation has an office, which shall be used also for the purpose of meetings and when the organisation’s capital increases, it could buy or build their own home which will host poor and disabled widows and orphans, and also dejected Muslims from all across Bulgaria.
The organisation shall provide support to the poor for Bayram [5] every year and in wintertime – wood, coal, etc.
The organisation shall advocate for Muslims who need to receive loans for improving their homes in order to have a more hygienic way of life, in accordance with the levelling of the town.
At times of death, [the organisation] shall give out a certain amount of money for the burial and the organisation shall accompany the deceased to their eternal home.
Members, who have not paid their dues for three months, shall be excluded from membership and all their rights shall be revoked.
The branches of the organisation shall be managed by a representative – a delegate who is a member from the branch and who has all the powers as a delegate and as a member of the Board of Trustees; the representative passes the decisions of the organisation to the branch members, and they shall respect them.
Members can re-elect their delegate when the latter is accused of something and shall replace the person with a newly elected one with a power of attorney.
To advocate for the interests of its members at times of illnesses. Free medical help shall be provided as well as free legal defence and consultation.
The organisation will advocate before the office of the Main Mufti for a new life or the Muslim religious parish, which is governed [now] by the Sofia Mufti without law and statute.
The organisation shall help the administrative authorities and others.
The organisation shall mediate between its members who have arguments, etc.
In the case of liquidation, the real estate shall be transferred to the Board of Trustees of the Religious parish.
Chair: (Signature) … Yusein Mehmedov.
Secretary: (Signature) … Shakir M. [6] Pashev.
True with the original, Secretary: … [Signature].
Management Body of the Organisation: … [Illegible signatures of 7 people].
Notes
The resolution, “I affirm” of the Minister of Internal Affairs and National Health means that the Statute of the organisation is approved by the authorities and that it is already legally registered.
‘Hodzha’ is the term used in Bulgaria for Imam; in this case, the term is used to refer to a person who was chosen from the folks in the mahala to perform the functions of an Islamic cleric during certain customs (first and foremost at funerals); this person is not the Imam in a mosque. Such forms of folk Islam are widespread among the Gypsies in Bulgaria to date.
‘Bula’ is the term used to refer to the Hodzha’ female assistant in folk Islam, who takes over some of the Hodzha’s functions among the women. This form is also widespread among the Gypsies in Bulgaria; in some communities, there is solely a Hodzhakinya (female Imam).
In the original, it is ‘one of the Chairs’, which is an obvious mistake.
The Muslims in the Balkans (including Muslim Gypsies) celebrated two big religious holidays under the name ‘Bayram’ – Kurban-Bayram (Eid al-Adha or Eid Qurban) and Sheker-Bayram (Eid al-Fitr or Ramadan Bayram).
In the original, it is ‘Shakir N. Pashev’, which is a typographical error – Shakir Pashov’s second (patronymic) name is ‘Mahmudov’. He himself spells his family name in many documents as ‘Pashev’, and that is the case here.
Source: CDA, f. 1 B, op. 8, a.e. 596, l. 69.
3. Attitudes and Truths Poster (1930)
Sofia Common Muslim Cultural-Educational Organisation Istikbal – Future [1]
ATTITUDES AND TRUTHS
To the Attention of Our State, the Sofia Municipality, and the [BULGARIAN] Society
One of the new newspapers, Naroden priyatel, in its issues from February 24 and March 11 this year, as well as the newspaper Utro in its issue from February 28 of this year, published opinions that sound as definite decisions such as “the relocation of the Gypsy neighbourhood”, i.e., the dispersal of about 80–100 families who are old Muslims, natives of Sofia. These newspapers, incompetently, with bad language and unverified data, embarrass a minority of a foreign religion in Sofia, only to prepare the public opinion and create the grounds for lawless acts against the minority. These acts satisfy thievish appetites for vacant spots within the bounds of the city and, if possible, for plots with construction on them, even if they are, today, by virtue of the laws in our country, in the hands of good-faith purchasers.
We draw the attention of the institutions in our Country, of the Honourable Sofia Municipal Administration and the society of Sofia in response to the dishonest and shoddy writers in the cited [above] newspapers and we present the following truths:
There is nothing true in the claim that the “Gypsy neighbourhood”, the Muslim neighbourhood in the capital, is a hotbed of various diseases because this statement is most certainly refuted by the fact that in the hospitals of Sofia, there is not a single Muslim with any disease, let alone a contagious one, who comes from this neighbourhood. What is true is that the relevant authorities do not fulfil their duties to pick up the rubbish from our neighbourhood, inhabited by Muslims, on purpose, in order to maintain an unsightly appearance there, regardless of the fact that the Honourable Municipal Administration collects from us, just like all other citizens, fees for garbage and water.
In moral terms, we, the poor Muslims, the so-called “Gypsies” (pariahs), are the strictest, and only one fact is enough to convince you that this is the case: The Morality Bureau at the Police Directorate has registered prostitutes from diverse, and even prestigious in the past, social ranks, however, not a single “Gypsy” woman among them.
Regarding the hygiene of our streets and yards, we have already stated that this is due to the criminal negligence of the municipal officials responsible for the public hygiene in our neighbourhood, who fulfill their duty only about a week before some election, out of demagoguery, and led by their appetite for about a thousand electoral votes in our neighbourhood.
Perhaps, someone has raised this issue before the Honourable Municipal Administration or other authorities, and if this is the case, we are convinced that the relevant authorities and people will not succumb unreservedly to shoddy writers who want to fish in troubled waters by disseminating disinformation disregarding the laws of our country.
“Expel, chase away the old native Muslim owners who had set up their family hearths long ago so that we can rob them – we, invisible and dishonest shoddy writers”.
It is known to the Esteemed trustworthy authorities that we are an obedient rayah [members of the flock] of about 80–100 families, old Muslim natives, who practice skilled labour, proven and used daily by the citizens of Sofia: blacksmiths, tinsmiths, basket-makers, dzhambazi [horse-traders], musicians, porters, shoe-shiners and others. We, as equal citizens of our dear homeland Bulgaria, participated heroically and courageously in both wars that Bulgaria fought, and along with everybody else, we gave beloved victims -- fathers, sons, and brothers. Many of the members of our small society are disabled; they have sacrificed their arms, legs, eyes, etc., for the FATHERLAND; many mothers, women and children still wear black, mourning their loved ones, who were lost in the battles.
If so, if Art. 57 of the Constitution of the Bulgarian Kingdom states that “all Bulgarian subjects are equal before the laws of our country”, Art. 63, “the real estates in the Kingdom are subjected to the rule of the Bulgarian laws”, and Art. 67, “the rights and the property are inviolable”.
Why should we be treated as equal only when it comes to our obligations and never when it comes to our rights, sanctified by the constitution of our Kingdom?
Is it not for safeguarding our sound customs and our rights, protected by the laws in our country, that we gave, once again this year, 200 volunteers from our members in the Bulgarian Army?
Our modest, short, and fair request is that the Honourable Municipal Administration and any other authorities, if they are to take decisive steps for the reconstruction of our neighbourhood, should act, taking into account the following:
To accept the cooperation of a commission (consisting of three or five members) who come from our circles of the native Muslims of Sofia, who would bring to their knowledge the following:
The [information about the] families who lived for the longest while in the neighbourhood with regulated property rights.
A list of the people who live in the area from Pirotska Street to Knyaginya Klementina Street [2], between Konstantin Velichkov Boulevard and Indzhe Voyvoda Boulevard. This list contains data and instructions about those who are not natives of Sofia or craftsmen but internal migrants from the villages of Bulgaria, such as comb-makers, sieve-makers, beggars, etc., who are not settled down and live in a single plot shared by several families, and who, despite the control of the administration, may have no idea, since their birth, about the rules of hygiene in life. We can identify such people who would be subject to eviction.
We will assist them in establishing for each individual family how they have furnished their homes in terms of construction and hygiene; who needs certain small renovations in accordance with the modern ways of living. Instead of depriving us of our properties in the places where we have been residing since the liberation of Bulgaria to this day, we ask the authorities to assist us with some state mortgages so that we can meet the requirements of the modern day.
We will provide information about our homeless compatriots who were provided with empty municipal places and who gave up these privileges. They sold them and returned to our neighbourhood, causing its overcrowding. They could be punished by eviction from the neighbourhood, and we could give, if necessary, all other necessary information because the technique of any eviction requires both tact and great justice.
We firmly believe in the healthy public and state institutions of our Kingdom, we believe that the attitude of people with interest who wrote in the [newspapers] Naroden priyatel and Utro should not be the lead thread in resolving such an issue, but it should be the truth and the wisdom of the ruler.
Sofia, March 6, 1930.
By the Sofia Common Muslim Cultural-Educational Organisation Istikbal – Future.
Sofia. [Seal]
Notes
In the original, it is written ‘Istigbal’, which is clearly a typographical error.
Today Alexander Stamboliyski Boulevard.
Source: DA Sofia, f. 1 К, op. 2, a.e. 831, l. 1–1об.
4. Statute of the Common Mohammedan-Gypsy Union (1934)
STATUTE of the Common Mohammedan-Gypsy National Cultural-Educational and Mutual Aid Union
Headquarters of the Union – Capital Sofia.
Art. 1. Aims of the Union: To organise all Gypsies (Mohammedans and others) on the basis of their national belonging to Bulgaria in order to nurture among them educational, professional and general culture; based on the laws of Bulgaria, to strengthen their religious lives with valuable moral principles; to create an organisation for the preservation of the material and spiritual interests of this nation in the country, but also a mutual aid establishment.
Art. 2. Resources of the Union: membership fees of Union organisations from all places inhabited by Gypsy minorities; public lectures and courses for enlightenment and professional education; health civil learning for the cultivation of civil virtues in the motherland Bulgaria; raising the religious way of life of their members; and, if the laws permit, opening of private schools.
Art. 3. Regular Members of the Union could be all our fellow countrymen in Bulgaria and in other countries, who belong to associations, but also those who do not belong to any but are members of their professional guilds [of]: the blacksmiths, the tinsmiths, the basket-makers, the horse-dealers, the intermediary horse-dealers [1], the porters, the musicians and the others. The professional guilds or organisations shall be represented in the Union by one delegate authorised by their association or organisation.
As Honorary Members of the Union shall be proclaimed all donors regardless of the form of their donation -- cash, real estate or material support of the Union.
Art. 4. Material Resources of the Union are the means acquired from membership fees as determined by the Supreme Council of the Union, which meets annually; from donations; parties; social events; picnics; fines by the Union’s leadership imposed on members; from print publications and badges. […] [2]
Art. 5. Rights of the Members. All organised Members of the Union have equal rights and have the right to vote in all meetings of the Union. Each member of the Union is obliged to obey the ordinances of the Board of Directors, which do not contradict the current Statute; to work towards the success of the Union; to enrol new members; and to propagate among our national minority the educational and cultural goals of the Union, and in general to propagate the aims of the Union.
Art. 6. The Organisation of the Union. […] Each provincial organisation, which is in the Common Union, shall elect and send, with a regular authorisation letter, their delegates to the Congress […] The Congress of the Union elects a Supreme Union Council. The Congress may be attended also by willing guests, who shall not have the right to vote or to be elected. The Union will work for the acquisition of all rights, which are enjoyed by all other similar unions, in accordance with the laws of the country.
Art. 7. The Union will also aim to create, through its Members, the following cultural undertakings: 1) establishment of educational and professional community centres; 2) establishment of national private schools in the larger towns; 3) establishment of regional religious parishes; 4) appointment of teachers-specialists who will initially provide literacy training to the illiterate; guide the Members to acquire professional education and rights; canalise their religions lives and in general, prepare them for good citizens of Bulgaria.
Art. 8. Duties of the Union Members.
Each Union member shall subscribe to the official Union publication as well as secure new subscribers among non-members.
Each member shall wear the special Union badge at all events of the Union, as well as sell those badges to the unorganised.
Union members who do not pay regularly their fees via the treasurer of their own organisation or directly at the Union treasurer’s office will be expelled from the Union, after notification to pay off their duties within a certain deadline.
Also, a Union Member who does not safeguard the image of the Union, propagates ideas that are harmful to the Union, or to the country, against its aims and ideals will also be excluded.
Also, entire associations shall be excluded if they, in their capacity as full members, commit any of the above-mentioned.
Art. 9. Governance and Rights of the Supreme Union Council. The Congress shall elect a Supreme Union Council from among the member organisations from all over Bulgaria; the Council shall convene in its full composition only by a majority decision of the Board of Directors and only in case of very important issues which the Union has identified. The Supreme Union Council hall convenes only once per year.
The Board of Directors has the following composition: a President, two Vice Presidents, a Secretary and a Treasurer. The Board of Directors is the permanent governing body of the Union during the organisational year. The Board shall be elected by the congress delegates, including the delegates of the professional associations. […] The elections of the Supreme Union Council, the Board of Directors and of the Congress Bureau shall be conducted in accordance with the rules described in the current article in a secret ballot. A three-member control commission shall be elected with the ballot-paper for the Board of Directors. […]
Note I: Before the end of the annual congress, the Supreme Union Council shall appoint eight-member committees from among the attending regular delegates of the Congress, with the following tasks: a) Cultural-Educational; b) Religious; c) Settlement and Infrastructure. […]
Note II: The Cultural-Educational committee, as a subsidiary body to the Board of Directors, shall take care and bear responsibility for all undertakings described in the Aims of the Union. It sets up the Entertainment Commissions at each organisation, which collect material support for the Union from the following activities: sports, tourist, gymnastic, lectures, artistic groups, musical tours, selling of published materials, badges etc.
The Religious Committee, as a subsidiary body to the Board of Directors, shall take care and have responsibility for the moral and religious rise of the Union members; their religious representation and organisation according to their confessions; the punishment of those couples who live together illegally and legalisation of such cases. The Committee represents the co-religionists in Union to the respective authorities in procedures of appointment, discharge, etc., of all religious staff at the respective religious body. The Religious Committee is a body which plays the role of a conciliation board for all family conflicts which threaten to destroy the established family. This Committee shall create, together with the Board of Directors, the necessary conditions for the formation of a national religious community wherever it is needed in the Kingdom. […] The Religious Committee shall organise all charity activities of the Union as well as those activities which preserve the religious traditions: engagements, weddings, birth celebrations, death, burials, etc.
The Settlement and Infrastructure Committee has the following duties: to protect vis-a-vis the respective authorities the rights of the Union Members to real estate ownership whether it is covered or not; in the towns specifically, the Committee shall oversee Union members’ constructions that are included in the wider neighbourhood and make sure that these are built in accordance with the law and do not disturb the Union members’ settlement. The same Committee, regardless of the authorities of the country, shall make sure that each Union or non-Union Member of the nation strictly observes all public hygiene requirements; to advocate before the respective state and council authorities for the development of the neighbourhoods where the national minority lives sedentary and to manage, on the whole, all settlement and infrastructure issues concerning its own nation.
Art. 10. Structure of the Union.
Each national association consisting of 20 or more members shall elect for a three-year term their own Board of Trustees, composed of President, Vice President and a Secretary-Treasurer. It shall be elected at the annual conference by a majority vote, and the minutes from the meeting shall be signed by the electoral bureau of the Board of Directors of the Sofia Union, which shall verify and approve the minutes for publication in the Union’s edition. […]
Art. 11. Rights and Obligations of the Members of the Board of Directors of the Union except the ones mentioned here.
The Board of Directors shall issue regulations on the organisation of the Union’s life, and they shall be made public in the Union’s edition.
Only the following positions from the Board of Directors shall be paid: President, Secretary and Treasurer, while the rest are honorary. […]
Art. 12. The Union shall rent an office space in Sofia, which shall also be used for meetings. When the Union has good financial resources, its first task shall be the purchase and building of its own place, owned by the legal entity or by a cooperation. This space shall also serve as a school; chitalishte [3]; a hotel for poor Union members; a Union University training the youth in all kinds of crafts; a shelter for war invalids, people who had accidents, and old and handicapped people; for our nation across Bulgaria.
Аrt. 13. One of the Union’s main charitable tasks is, on a certain day of the year, for all Union departments to have a Day of Charity for the Bulgarian Gypsy in order to support all our poor and deprived compatriots.
Art. 14. The Union’s office shall keep the following books: a register book for incoming and outgoing correspondence; a protocol book for all Union’s institutes according to this Statute, a cash book and other accounting books. […].
Art. 15. The Stamp of the Union has a circular form with the inscription: “Popular Gypsy National Cultural-Educational and Mutual Aid Union” with a star in the middle [4]. […]
Art. 18. For the immediate start of the mutual aid function of the Union, a Mutual Loan Association has been already established, whose books are kept by the general treasurer of the Union. It has the following aims: to assist poor people and people with urgent needs among the Union Members, following a motivated request; to help members at times of illness, unemployment, death, accident, etc.; to set up temporary shelters for elderly, handicapped and lone persons amongst our compatriots; to support poor, talented children for finishing lower secondary school, upper secondary school, and university or professional college; to support the burials of very impoverished male and female Gypsies. At such extreme cases, the Union organs shall also resort to individual one-off help from well-to-do members.
Art. 19. The Union’s Patron Holy Day is St George’s Day [5], which shall be celebrated each year.
Art. 20. The Congress of the Union shall convene each year on Bulgaria’s Liberation Day [6] and shall be preceded by an evening party, multinational propaganda [7] and a manifestation.
Art. 21. This Statute may be amended and complemented by the Union’s Congress.
The Statute was created, accepted, and approved by the General Constitutive Meeting of the established Union, which took place on 25 December 1933, in Sofia.
Of the Common Mohammedan-Gypsy National Cultural-Educational and Mutual Aid Union,
Director: … [Signature]. Secretary: … [Signature]. [Stamp of the Organisation].
Notes
It is not clear why the societies of ‘horse-dealers’ and ‘intermediary horse-dealers’ are divided because the names refer to the same occupation (the horse-dealers are always intermediators). It is possible that two such associations existed in Sofia at that time.
Here and below the general administrative details of the Statute are omitted.
In Bulgaria, the system of the so-called chitalishte (community reading centre) has been widespread since the time of the Ottoman Empire. They also perform broader functions as cultural and social centres in a settlement or in an urban neighbourhood.
In the text of the Statute (Art. 15), the inscription of the stamp bearing the name of the Union does not include the word ‘Mohammedan’, while the stamp itself, placed at the end of the document, lacks the word ‘Gypsy’. Similarly, there are discrepancies between the texts found in the Statute and in the stamp with regard to the symbols of the Union. The text of the Statute (Art. 15) states that the stamp has a star in the middle while the stamp actually has a crescent and a star (i.e. the typical Islamic symbolism). It cannot be established whether these are unintentional errors or deliberate omissions in the Statute.
It is interesting to note that the Statute uses the term ‘Patron Holy Day’ (Art. 19). The same term was used for the annual celebrations of the patron saints of various Esnafs (Guilds). For example, in Vidin, St George’s Day was proclaimed as a Gypsy Holy Day, i.e. this traditional holiday became a national symbol for the Gypsies.
The designated Union’s Congress date is March 3, the date of Bulgaria’s National Holiday (Liberation Day). This choice makes an explicit emphasis on the fact that the Gypsies belong to the Bulgarian civic nation.
In this case, ‘multinational’ propaganda means propaganda among the Gypsy community itself.
Source: CDA, f. 264, op. 2, a.e. 8413, l. 7–12, 15–20, 21–26 (three copies).
5. Clarification by the Istikbal-Future Organisation (1938)
Sofia Common-Muslim Educational, Cultural and Mutual Aid Organisation Istikbal-Future – Sofia. [Form]
No. … . Sofia, March 16, 1938.
CLARIFICATION
From the Muslim Cultural-Educational Organisation ISTIKBAL (Future) – Sofia
Regarding the incorrect and inaccurate information in the newspaper Dnevnik Concerning the appearance of the typhoid fever disease among the Gypsies
It is evident, even from the very statements of the sanitary authorities, that there is no typhoid fever in the Konyovitsa neighbourhood. Except for a single case on Indzhe Voivoda Street, this disease has not been found anywhere. Although this was a single case in which the disease was brought from the village of Vrabnitsa, or the town of Pernik, the sanitary authorities rightly undertook a thorough cleaning of all Gypsies and established that no parasites were found almost anywhere. By bringing this to the attention of all citizens of the capital, we ask them not to be afraid of the Sofia Gypsy workers, such as porters, shoe-shiners, basket-makers, florists, and so on, who should not be unjustly exposed to unemployment and hunger.
It is worth mentioning that all the alarms [1] and irresponsible writings in some newspapers have caused excessive damage and loss not only to us but also to the conduct of the population’s daily life in the town. These alarms date back to 1929 when a committee in the Konyovitsa neighbourhood started fighting against the Gypsies in order to evict them from their homes. As a result, many of our compatriots sold their houses for nothing, moved out and exposed themselves to even greater misery. Even today, in our neighbourhood, there is a committee called Podem [Upsurge], which has the same tasks as the one in 1929 and which relies on alarms like the ones published by the newspaper Dnevnik. This, in our opinion, is dishonest and unjust; it is inflammatory and creates resentment that no one needs. Rather than support and guidance on how to be good Bulgarian citizens, we receive the above-mentioned treatment.
We are Bulgarian citizens with a Bulgarian spirit, and we left the bones of our fathers and brothers on the battlefields in both wars and today we are ready to make sacrifices for the good of our homeland Bulgaria where we were born, live and enjoy all freedoms.
Chairman: … [2]
Secretary: … [3]
Notes
1. This is a reference to the series of Applications and Petitions filed in the period 1937–1938, with complaints concerning the proximity of the Gypsy quarters (see more detail below).
2–3. The copy of the document does not have signatures.
Source: DA Sofia, f. 1 К, op. 4, a.e. 531, l. 5.
6. Letter to the Director of the Police (1939)
The Istikbal Common Muslim Cultural-Educational and Mutual Aid Organisation of Sofia.
July 18, 1939, Sofia.
To: Mr Director of Police, Here [Sofia].
[Stamp]: Directorate General of Public Health. 23 July 1939. Case No. 31.
Mr Director,
Observing that instead of moving forward, the Gypsy population goes to moral and material decline day by day, and in order to raise them in cultural, educational, moral and religious terms, we have founded the association of all Gypsies in the capital. Its task is to work for their material and spiritual rise and bring their lives closer to the rest of the capital’s population because their present condition cannot and should be tolerated any longer.
In order to achieve our goal, however, we need full support from all responsible factors in the country within the existing laws because, without such support, the realisation of our task is impossible, especially for preserving the morality among the Gypsies.
While it takes years of hard work to raise them culturally and educationally by giving lectures and talks, as well as opening evening courses for adults, our task to preserve the morality among the Gypsies is quite difficult, and without the support of the authorities, it would be impossible to achieve.
In the first place, measures are needed to preserve their morality – the most valuable foundation on which family happiness and the future of a nation are based.
To our great disappointment, depravity and immorality not only do not decrease, but they are increasing day by day and have taken alarming dimensions. It is a common thing to see in the late hours of the night drunken men and women walking in the streets of the neighbourhood [1] and in obscure places, where shameful acts are being committed, as a result of which the most dangerous diseases for humanity are spread. At the same time, many women and children fall asleep hungry because their father eats and drinks up in the night everything that he has earned during the day, without returning to his home where his hungry wife and children are waiting for him.
Instead of rigorous measures to eradicate this great evil, unfortunately, we see that the family beer houses in the neighbourhood, which are nothing else but typical cabarets [2] and nests of immorality, have increased from one to three. These cabarets are the sole and greatest reason for the increase of immorality; shameful things are being done in them, and often by children under the age of 14, the description of which is impossible. The saddest thing is that these night houses are visited by many prominent people from the centre of the city [3] who, with their behaviour, set a bad example for the ordinary Gypsy population, while fights are not uncommon between these eminent persons.
If the drunkenness and the depravity among the Gypsy population were constrained, their material situation would improve, for which no resources would be needed by the authorities, but only a tighter control and measures to eliminate the reasons for the increase of immorality.
That is why we kindly ask you, Mr Director, to order through your subordinate police authorities the following:
Take the most stringent measures against all Gypsy men and Gypsy women who roam in the neighbourhood during the night without any reason, especially those in an intoxicated state.
Take due measures to close the Gypsy cabarets – the nests of immorality that demoralise the Gypsy population and have a bad effect on the upbringing, especially of the youth and of the children in the neighbourhood.
With the conviction that you will pay serious attention to these demands and that you will do everything in your power, showing attention to the Gypsy population, which has always been and continues to be of benefit to the state, we remain with great respect.
Secretary: … [Signature] (Rashid Mehmedov),
Chair: … [Signature] (Shakir Pashov). [Stamp].
Notes
This is a reference to the two Gypsy neighbourhoods, Konyovitsa and Tatarli (de facto united into one). They were then located on the outskirts of the city (around today’s Aleksandar Stamboliyski Boulevard and Konstantin Velichkov Boulevard).
The most famous of these cabarets was Pri Keva (At Keva), where the popular singer of Gypsy songs Keva (originally from Vidin) used to sing. She had several phonograph records in the 1930s for the Record Company Balkan, which included the song Telal Avel (She Comes from Below), performed in the Romani language. This was the first record of such kind in Bulgaria.
The cabaret Pri Keva was especially popular and frequently visited by the Bohemians in Sofia (Тенев, 1997, pp. 225–227). According to widespread urban rumours at the time, a frequent visitor to the cabaret was also Prince Cyril, brother of the Bulgarian King Boris III and, after his death, a regent of the Crown Prince Simeon II, sentenced to death by the People’s Tribunal in 1945.
Source: DA Sofia, f. 1 К, op. 4, a.e. 683, l. 93.
7. Statute of the Organisation Ekhipe (1945)
STATUTE of the United Cultural and Educational Organisation of the Gypsy Minorities in Bulgaria Ekhipe [Unity]
Chapter I. Nature, Aims, Tasks and Structure
Art. 1. The United Gypsy Organisation in Bulgaria [ETsO] includes in itself all Gypsies who belong to the world Gypsy movement and are members of some of the local associations of the United Gypsy Organisation in the country to which they pay a membership fee.
Art. 2. The United Gypsy Organisation in Bulgaria is the legitimate representative of the Gypsy movement in the country and in the World Gypsy Organisation [1]. Eligible members are Gypsies at the age of 18 and above, regardless of sex and social status. Members can also be all Gypsies with Mohammedan and Christian Orthodox religions without any differentiation.
Art. 3. The United Gypsy Organisation in Bulgaria has the following tasks: a) To fight against fascism, anti-Gypsyism and racial prejudices; b) To raise the Gypsy national feeling and consciousness among the Bulgarian Gypsies; c) To introduce the Gypsy language among the Gypsy masses as oral and written language; d) To familiarise the Bulgarian Gypsy minority with the Gypsy culture; e) To familiarise the Bulgarian Gypsy community with their spiritual, social and economic culture; f) To raise the economic status of all Gypsy strata in Bulgaria; g) To make the physical condition of the Gypsy youth in Bulgaria; h) To make the Gypsy masses productive; i) To consolidate and set up Gypsy institutes in Bulgaria; j) To inform the general Bulgarian opinion about the needs of the Gypsy population; k) To foster an aspiration among the Gypsies for building a national hearth in their own land.
Art. 4. The bodies of the United Gypsy Organisation in Bulgaria are determined by the Conference of the ETsO, and they are the following: a) Local united Gypsy associations; b) Conference of the United Gypsy associations in Bulgaria; c) Supreme Council; d) Central Committee; e) Main Control Commission; f) Chief Commission of the Gypsy Fund for Agricultural Preparation; g) Supreme Court of the organisation.
Art. 5. The Conference, as well as the present Statute, determine the functions of each of the above-mentioned bodies of the United Gypsy Organisation in Bulgaria and their relationships. The Conference has the power to create new bodies with specific tasks if that would be needed at a certain time.
The Conference could merge some functions of these bodies and delegate some of their tasks to the Central Committee of the United Gypsy Organisation in Bulgaria.
Art. 6. The central bodies of the United Gypsy Organisation in Bulgaria are elected by the Conference in accordance with Chapters … [2] of the current Statute.
Art. 7. The United Gypsy Organisation in Bulgaria shall be represented to the authorities, the state-institutions, and private bodies by the Central Committee, which is selected by the Conference, respectively by the President of the Central Committee or his representative, together with the Secretary or by himself.
Art. 8. Within the United Gypsy Organisation, the separate Gypsy societies have the right to organise separately with their own governing bodies and statutes that do not contradict the Statute of the United Gypsy Organisation in Bulgaria. These societies can have independent organisational lives.
Chapter II. Local United Gypsy Organisations
Art. 9. Local united Gypsy associations can be formed by at least 15 members of the United Gypsy Organisation in Bulgaria who live in the same place, are over 18 years of age, respect the current Statute and regularly pay their membership fees.
Art. 10. Each Gypsy, who meets the terms of Art. 9, has the right to be a member of a local association. For that purpose, he shall submit a relevant declaration, and if the management of the local association rejects it, he has the right to refer the matter to the first general meeting of the local association.
Art. 11. Each tabor [3] shall have only one local Gypsy association. Each local Gypsy association shall have their own statute, which does not contradict to present one. The statute of the local Gypsy association is affirmed by the Central Committee. […] New associations are accepted by the Central Committee and their acceptance is confirmed by the Conference.
Art. 12. Each local united association is autonomous within the framework of the present Statute. The local united association shall obey the decisions of the supreme Gypsy institutions and their ordinances. […] [4]
Art. 13. The General Meetings are regular and special. The regular General Meetings are convened every six months for hearing the report of the Board and the other bodies of the association. The special General Meetings are convened by the Board when they consider it necessary and also when this is requested in writing by 1/5th of the members of the association; respectively, by 1/10th of the members of the local association in Sofia or upon request of the Central Committee of the United Gypsy Organisation in Bulgaria in order to review emergency matters.
Art. 14. The Board of the local united Gypsy association is its Supreme Executive Body. […] The Boards of the local Gypsy associations are affirmed by the Central Committee. […]
Art. 17. Each local association, respectively its Board, presents to the Central Committee of the ETsO annually a written report for its activities for the past organisational year.
Art. 18. The members of the Central Committee, as well as the members of the other central institutions of the United Gypsy Organisation in Bulgaria, have the right to be present and have the right to vote in the meetings of the Board of the local association.
Chapter III. Rights and Obligations of the Members
Art. 19. Each member of the organisation has an active and passive voting right for each of the electoral institutions – local and central, as long as they satisfy the following conditions: to be a member of a local united Gypsy association, to have paid their membership fee and for the elected – to have seniority [5] in the organisation for a year.
Art. 20. Each member of the organisation shall be enrolled in the local united Gypsy association; shall respect the present Statute, as well as the statute of the local association; pay his/her membership fee; respect the rules of the organisation; and carry out the orders and the decisions of the local and central bodies of the United Gypsy Organisation in Bulgaria.
Art. 21. The Conference of the United Gypsy Organisation in Bulgaria is the supreme body of the organisation. Its decisions are compulsory for all local united Gypsy associations and for each member of the organisation. The conferences are regular and special.
Art. 22. The regular Conference of the organisation convenes every 3 years and if possible after each World Gypsy Congress. […]
Art. 23. The regular Conferences of the organisation listen to, discuss, and give opinion about the reports of all bodies elected during the previous Conference of the United Gypsy Organisation in Bulgaria. These bodies report to the Conference. The Conference determines the future activities of the organisation, approves its budget, and elects five delegates for the World Gypsy Congress. The Conference has the power to make changes to the present Statute and to the election rules. […]
Art. 26. Each local united Gypsy association has the right to at least two delegates, regardless of the number of its legitimate members. Local associations with more than 100 regular members have the right to an additional delegate for every additional hundred members or part of 100 regular members. The regular members of a local association are determined based on the number of people who were regularly reported by the local associations to the Central Committee.
Art. 27. In the Conference, apart from the regularly elected delegates of the local association, with rights of regular delegates are the Presidents of the Central Committee; all members of the other institutions take part in the Conference in an advisory capacity. When the reports of the Central institutions are discussed, the persons in charge do not have the right to vote. […]
Art. 30. The meetings of the Conference are open to the public unless the Conference itself decides that discussions should take place behind closed doors. The meetings take place according to the regulations determined by the Conference itself.
Chapter V [6]. Supreme Council of the Organisation
Art. 31. The Supreme Council is elected by the Conference and is composed of 35 people. In it, with equal rights, are delegated two representatives from the Central Committee. The Supreme Council is elected for three years. Members of the Supreme Council can be elected from different tabors (settlements). […] [7]
Chapter VI. Central Committee
Art. 34. The Central Committee is elected by the Conference or, in special cases, by the Supreme Council of the organisation. It is composed of a President, two Vice-Presidents, two Secretaries and Treasurers, eight Councillors, all residing in the same town. The President of the Central Committee is appointed by the Conference itself, while the other positions are determined at the first meeting of the Central Committee. The President of the Central Committee is the President of the United Gypsy Organisation in Bulgaria. […]
Chapter VII. Chief Control Commission
[…]
Chapter VIII. Supreme Court of the Organisation
[…]
Chapter IX. Budget, Accounting and Control
[…]
Chapter X. Disciplinary Rules
[…]
Chapter XI. Official Publication of the Organisation
Art. 47. The Official Publication of the United Gypsy Organisation in Bulgaria is the newspaper Romano esi (Gypsy Voice). It is compiled by an Editorial Board under the guidance of the Central Committee.
Art. 48. The organisation’s Publication is primarily informative. It gives information on public and political issues as well as on the activities of organisations in Bulgaria. The newspaper shall educate all members with articles and reports in the spirit of the Fatherland Front [8] and advocate for the building of socialism in Bulgaria.
Art. 49. The format of the newspaper, the price, and the publication procedure shall be determined by the Central Committee. […] The newspaper is supported by its own revenues and by subsidies envisaged in the budget. […]
Chapter XII. Electoral Institutions and Conducting of Elections
[…]
Chapter ХIII. General Regulations
Art. 58. […] The stamp of the United Gypsy Organisation in Bulgaria is circular with the following text: ‘United Gypsy Organisation in Bulgaria – Central Committee–Sofia’ which is written in Bulgarian and in Gypsy languages [9]. The stamps [10] of the local united associations are similar to the Central Committee.
Art. 59. The organisation’s holiday is May 7 [11.] The organisation’s flag is red with two white fields and with a triangle in the middle [12].
Art. 60. The Conference of the Organisation is solely authorised to make amendments to this Statute.
Art. 61. This Statute was adopted by the Second Regular Conference of the United Gypsy Organisation in Bulgaria on … [13], in Sofia.
The Second Regular Conference of the United Gypsy Organisation in Bulgaria on … [14] in Sofia, which adopted and approved this Statute, was attended by the following delegates, representing local united Gypsy associations [15].
Notes
1. There is no historical record of the existence of a ‘World Gypsy Organisation’ anywhere in the world at that time.
2. An omission in the text. Apparently, the numbering of the chapters was made post-factum.
3. Here, as well as below (Art. 31), the term ‘tabor’ is used in the sense of ‘settlement’, which is rather unusual because in Bulgaria as well as in the former USSR (except for the Transcarpathian region which was annexed to the USSR after the end of the WWII), this term has always meant a specific Gypsy group who led a nomadic life. What is even more puzzling is that the whole phrase is, in fact, a loan translation from the Russian language (in Bulgarian, another preposition would be used). We could not offer a satisfactory explanation for this.
4. The detailed procedural regulations were omitted from the text.
5. The implication is that they were already elected to a leading position in the organisation.
6. Chapter 4 is missing from the text, which is probably an error in the numeration.
7. An ellipsis is marked in the text, probably for some text to be added.
8. This is a reference to the new Government of the Fatherland Front of September 9, 1944, which radically altered the country’s political course and declared war on Germany.
9. Various stamps were used in the official documentation of the organisation over the years, but in all versions, the inscriptions are only in Bulgarian.
10. In the original, it is ‘the seal’ (singular), which is a mistake.
11. For the organisation’s holiday, see more details later.
12. There is no record of the existence of a flag of the organisation in the format described. Its symbolism is not clear, but we can assume that the red colour of the flag is a continuation of the tradition of the Gypsy guilds’ flags (cf. Иречек, 1899, Vol. 2, p. 33 for the participation of the “Gypsy guild” with its “red banner” in festive processions on official holidays). On the other hand, the use of this colour can be interpreted as a curtsey to the new political authority in the country, dominated by the Communist Party.
13–14. The text ends with an ellipsis which indicates that the Statute was ready before the second regular conference of the organisation and the insertion of the exact dates was supposed to be done after its adoption by the conference.
15. Shakir Pashov’s manuscript reveals that the Statute was written after March 6, 1945 (i.e. before the end of WWII), following the constituent assembly of the new organisation (in fact, the restoration of the old organisation Istikbal under a new name). The Statute was supposed to be adopted by the National Conference of the new organisation, which took place no sooner than May 2, 1948. As we can see from Shakir Pashov’s manuscript, the conference neither discussed nor did it adopt this Statute. It remained illegitimate and never entered into force due to the change in the Bulgarian political situation in 1948, when the Statute was no longer up-to-date or valid. As the Statute was never formally approved, it is understandable that the delegates’ signatures are missing from it. Nevertheless, at least according to the newspaper Romano esi, the Statute was approved already in 1945 or 1946 by the then Minister of Internal Affairs, Anton Uygov (Romano esi, 1946c, p. 2). No historical record of this fact, however, has been preserved.
Source: CDA, f. 1 Б, op. 8, a.e. 596, l. 50–52.
8. Information (1946)
INFORMATION [1] by Comrade Shakir Mahmudov Pashev, from the city of Sofia
I became a member of the Workers’ Party – Communists [2] in 1918, and during that time, I worked in the Bulgarian State Railways, railway workshop.
I took an active part in 1920 in the rail workers’ strike, and I was a striker. And at that time, I was arrested and taken to the barracks, and there I was dressed as a military railwayman [3].
After the strike failed, I quit my job and started working for my father, who had a blacksmith shop.
I am an organiser in the Gypsy neighbourhood of the first activity for the Workers’ Party – Communists, and during that time, we made a red flag with the name “PROGRESS”, during which time I knew the following comrades from the Workers’ Party:
1. Georgi Dimitrov Kirchev; 2. [Vasil] Muletarov [and Hristo] Kabakchiev; 3. Alexi Lambrev – lawyer; 4. Nikola Milev; 5. Valcho Ivanov, secretary of the Workers’ Party – 3rd district; 6. Angel Boyadzhiya in the Engineering Workshop.
When comrade Dimitar Blagoev died, our group in the Gypsy neighbourhood took part in his funeral; we went to the Yuchbunar garden to give last respect to the diseased who was placed in the orphanage, and from there, with wreaths from our group, we went to the cemetery.
I was included in the Workers’ Party – Labor Bloc [4] list by Comrade Valcho Ivanov for my good deeds.
During the events in the fall of 1923, I was chased [5] and escaped to Kyustendil, where I worked [on the construction of] the Popular Bank, which was then under construction. In 1925, I was detained in the school [Konstantin] Fotinov for 70 days and was persecuted. After that, I escaped to Istanbul, and 2–3 years later, I returned and restored the all-Gypsy organisation, and in 1930, I became its leader. I entered the municipal workshop during the rule of the liberals [6]. I became a member of the Workers’ Party, which was located on Positano Street, together with the whole group of 60–70 people [Gypsies]. I know the following comrades:
1/ Asen Boyadzhiev, now a colonel; 2/ Petko Napetov; 3/ Alexander Naumov and other former MPs. When the building of the club was underway, next to the Coloured Bridge [6], we collected about BGN 1,000 from the group and contributed this money to the building of the club.
I also know Comrade Yanko Petkov – now Mayor of the 3rd District, Georgi Chureto, Micho – Group Chief of the 10th Precinct, and other comrades. Now I am the founder of the General Gypsy Organisation and its Chairman, a member of the Workers’ Party, 4th district.
The above confirms that I am a member of the Workers’ Party.
I confirm this with my signature.
… [signature]
Sofia, September 5, 1946.
Notes
This autobiographical information was prepared by Shakir Pashov when he was nominated for a deputy in the Great National Assembly (for more details, see below).
At that time, the official name was the Bulgarian Workers’ Party (Communists).
This means that he was forcibly mobilised so that he could not participate in strikes.
The Labor Bloc, also known as the United Front, is a political coalition between the Bulgarian Communist Party and the left wing of the Bulgarian Agricultural People’s Union, established in the fall of 1923. As stated above, there is no other historical record confirming that Shakir Pashov was included in the lists of the Labor Bloc (United Front) for the parliamentary elections in December 1923 or for the municipal elections in Sofia in May 1924, except his own words. In any case, he was not elected either as a deputy or as a municipal councillor in these elections.
It is probably meant after the parliamentary elections in 1931.
Today Lavov most (Lion Bridge).
Source: CDA, f. 1 Бop. 6, a.e. 235, l. 6–7.
9. Speech on the occasion of 14 January (1948)
SPEECH
By the Chairman of the Gypsy Minority in Bulgaria and Member of Parliament SHAKIR M. PASHEV, on the occasion of the traditional holiday VASILOVDEN – January 14, 1948, in the studio of Sofia Radio, with the participation of the musical-artistic group of the organisation with the solo singer Pama Agova.
Dear fellow countrymen, fellow countrywomen, comrade-men and comrade-women, from all over Bulgaria.
For the third time, such freedom is given to us, the Gypsy minority, with the full right as citizens to participate in the cultural-economic and political life of the country in which we live – it is our homeland, and we do not know another. Today, we can stand in front of the microphone of the Sofia Radio to send our warm greetings and wishes to our compatriots on behalf of our United Cultural and Educational Organisation of the Gypsy Minority in Bulgaria, in my capacity as its Chairman and Member of Parliament for the Gypsy Minority in the Grand National Assembly.
Dear fellow countrymen, fellow countrywomen, comrade-men and comrade-women, Gypsy Christians and Muslims, on the occasion of our traditional holiday 14 January 1948 – VASILOVDEN, O Baxtalo Vasili [1], I wish you prosperity in 1948, which will be happier for our Gypsy minority as well as more fruitful. The Organisation will convene its first congress this year in Sofia, which will plan the future work for raising the cultural level of our minority, which according to the data collected by us, numbers nearly 500,000 people [2].
Three and a half years have passed since the bright historical date – September 9, [1944], a date which is recorded with the blood of thousands of people who perished [in the struggle] against the oppression and the injustice of the common enemy of mankind – fascism.
Thanks to this heroic struggle in which our compatriots, such as guerrilla fighters, supporters of the partisans, concentration camp inmates, political prisoners and fighters in the Fatherland War, took most active part, we, the Gypsies, liberated from the chains imposed on us by the last dictatorial authority – today, when we live in a new era of equality, given to us by the people’s Government, apart from proving ourselves as champion workers in factories, workshops, labour brigades, etc., we, work tirelessly for the cultural and educational rise of our compatriots across the country.
Our Organisation, which has been affirmed by the people’s Government, unites its compatriots in cultural and educational associations, many have already been formed throughout the country, and in the Vratsa region, there is no village or town where such an association has not been created and affirmed by our central leadership. The Organisation spreads light among its compatriots through its organ, Romano esi – the newspaper Gypsy Voice.
Many Gypsy schools, as well as evening literacy courses, have opened doors in the country. The first building for a Gypsy school is under construction in Sofia; for it, the state has allocated the sum of 3,156,000 levs, for which we must also thank the Government of the Fatherland Front, headed by the unmatched so far fighter for freedom, democracy and human rights, comrade Georgi Dimitrov. Gypsy schools are under construction in the country, while other similar projects and community centres will start in the next season.
In a few days, the first Gypsy orphanage will open its doors in Sofia, and it will house orphans of Gypsy origin.
The state takes care of all minorities in the country. In its budget for 1948, it voted the sum of 3 million levs, especially for the Gypsy National Cultural Theatre, where our compatriots can show their artistic and musical talents and art.
Our minority has lived in Bulgaria since the seventh century, where our ancestors were accommodated by the then leader of the Gypsies around the world, Berko, a very dangerous opponent of Abdurahman, the Indian Emperor at the time [3].
Until now, all Gypsies in Bulgaria have earned their living from their crafts – horse minders-dzhambazi, blacksmiths, tinsmiths, basket-makers, musicians, farriers, and other professional skills, as well as workers in the tobacco and textile factories. In the future, many of our compatriots will earn their living as farmers thanks to the fact that, according to the agrarian reform law and the labour land ownership law, they received plots of land to build their own houses as well as land for cultivation.
Dear fellow countrymen, fellow countrywomen, comrade-men, and comrade-women all over the country, I have the great honour to stand in front of the microphone of the Radio Sofia and to wish you, on behalf of the Organisation and on my behalf, a happy and cheerful Vasilovden [St Basil’s Day]. I invite you all to become members of your Organisation, which will only bring you happiness, progress and cultural rising because the leadership of the Fatherland Front supports the Organisation. I also appeal to all my compatriots, who have so far been ashamed to call themselves Gypsies and have converted to the Turkish minority, while others have adopted Christianity, to take the masks off their faces, raise their heads and prove that they are Gypsies – descendants of the greatest fighter for freedom, democracy, and human justice – the Gypsy leader of the 7th century, Berko. Unite with your minority because, as I said above, only this Organisation will bring you progress and will protect your interests where necessary.
Each and every Gypsy person must become member of the Organisation and subscribe to its only newspaper, Romano esi – Gypsy Voice, which is always full of news, historical works and information about our minority. In the forthcoming publication of our Calendar, you will find not only the image of our Organisation and the two historical dates, May 7 and September 9 [4] but also the photos of our compatriots who excelled themselves as champion workers – miners who tirelessly dig out our black gold.
Dear fellow countrymen, fellow countrywomen, comrade-men and comrade-women – romalen, romnjalen, amalinjalen, avdies si amaro baxtalo Vasili, kaj ame o roma keras avdies xamnasa, piimnasa adavka breš xariesa, dži breše bare džumbušesa. [Roma men, Roma women, and friends, today is our holiday Vasili that we, the Roma, celebrate with food and drink. This year with less, next year with more fun.]
Long live the Fatherland Front with its new declaration and reform, which will bring only happiness and prosperity.
Long live the Bulgarian People’s Republic.
Long live the first Bulgarian republican – founder of the fatherland and proven fighter, Prime Minister, the Comrade Georgi Dmitrov.
Long live the Gypsy minority in Bulgaria.
Notes
‘O baxtalo Vasili’ in Romani language means ‘The Happy Vasili’; this is a way to address St Basil which is widely used in the ritual songs and blessings of the holiday.
The number (500,000) of Gypsies is undoubtedly vastly inflated. According to the data from the population census conducted in 1946, the number of Gypsies in Bulgaria was 170,011 (Илиева, 2012, p. 67). Normally, we should bear in mind that it is a relatively common phenomenon (both in the past and nowadays) that in these censuses, parts of the Gypsy population would declare another ethnic identity (most often Turkish or Bulgarian). Still, the discrepancy in the figures is too drastic. Shakir Pashov himself, in his manuscript, is much more restrained and close to reality with regard to the number of the Gypsy population in Bulgaria in the 1950s (see above).
This is a reference (developed by Shakir Pashov in quasi-historical terms) to the legend of the Gypsy leader Berko. According to it, the Gypsy leader Berko travelled all over Europe, and when he reached the place of the present-day town of Berkovica, he saw that there were many chestnuts and said that it was an excellent place to settle. That’s how the town, named after him, had originated (
Романо еси , 1948b, p. 4).In the original, the date is November 9, which is clearly a typographical error. It refers to September 9, 1944, when the Communist Party came to power in Bulgaria.
Source:
10. Statement (1949)
[To:] Bulgarian Communist Party, 3rd District Committee.
Copy: Central Committee of the Bulgarian Communist Party.
STATEMENT
From Primary Party Organisation Saliko [1].
3rd district, Gypsy minority, Sofia.
Comrades,
In view of the lessons learned from the historical decisions of the 5th Congress of the Bulgarian Communist Party [2], our Party organisation which did not have influence among the Gypsy minority until recently, thanks to the immediate help by the 3rd District Committee of the Bulgarian Communist Party and responsible communist comrades at the National Council of the Fatherland Front, managed to take over the leadership of the Central Gypsy Theatre Roma, by uniting all honest and non-partisan actors among our minority and thus became a leading factor in the socio-political life of the Gypsies in Sofia.
This activity of the Party organisation received the approval of all honest Gypsies, but it also embittered our class enemies, who immediately made an attempt to stop its development.
Our member of parliament, Shakir Mahmudov Pashov, considering that the United Cultural and Educational Organisation of the Gypsy Minority in Bulgaria and the Central Gypsy Theatre Roma should be led exclusively by the personality of Pashov and not by the Party organisation, and not being able to work with the latter, looking for support in circles that uncritically approve of his personal politics, has put himself in the position of a unifier of anti-communist sentiments among our compatriots.
In our judgement, he became delirious after his election as a member of parliament. In support of the above, we cite the following facts:
A few months ago, the Central Gypsy Theatre Roma was under the leadership and direct control of the United Cultural and Educational Organisation of the Gypsy Minority led by Pashov, and he had shaped the management of the theatre according to his requirements. He proclaimed himself the chief director of the theatre. He appointed his son Mahmud Shakirov Pashov as the treasurer of the same, his other son ASEN and his daughter-in-law TSVETANKA ASENOVA as artists, as well as many other friends of his. In this way, the theatre was created not for an idealistic purpose but rather for a career opportunity. In order to make sure that his actions are uncontrolled and surrounding himself with his loyal friends, he raised a barrier for the entry of party activists into the theatre.
Seriously committed to the creation of a high-art Gypsy theatre, the National Council of the Fatherland Front – Minority Commission, together with representatives of our Party organisation and the leaders of the Cultural and Educational Organisation, at a joint conference, condemned the entire activity of the theatre, and decided:
In order to make sure that the theatre will carry out its future activities in a proper way, it should be attached to the Minority Commission at the National Council [of the Fatherland Front], under its direct assistance and control, and personally to comrade Dobri Bodurov.
In order to increase the quality of the theatre productions and select the best of our artistic and musical personnel throughout the country, we should conduct examinations.
In order to help the theatre start its activity immediately, the Committee for Science, Art and Culture should be asked to provide material assistance.
With the attachment to the National Council of the Fatherland Front, the theatre has been placed on sound planning foundations. The previous ignorant, unaccountable and irresponsible state of the overall theatre activity was discontinued. Comrade Pashov did not like all this, and as he was not a part of the theatre’s management, he launched insidious action aiming to undermine the theatre’s new leadership.
On 15 January this year, Shakir Mahmudov Pashov organised a delegation that went to Comrade Dobri Bodurov and maliciously tried to defame the new management of the theatre, consisting of Communist comrades and those recommended by the National Council of the Fatherland Front.
The facts about the proper management of the theatre refuted all their slanders.
He has incited the spreading of the chauvinist and evil slander that we have “handed over the theatre to the Bulgarians” – what is meant here is the National Council of the Fatherland Front. Shakir Mahmudov Pashov and Mahmud Shakirov Pashov believe that as long as they are not in the theatre, it has become “Bulgarian”.
They have spread the slander that the National Council of the Fatherland Front “imposed” its own people in the theatre while at the Constituent Conference, they themselves signed the protocol for the new reconstruction and management of the theatre.
One of their actions is bashing. They often resort to threats and beat anyone who disagrees with their views, especially if the latter are communists.
The son of the MP, Mahmud Shakirov Pashov, during the extended plenum of the Central Initiative Committee, on August 21, last year, in the club of the Gypsy minority, beat our party member comrade Tsvetan Nikolov Koev with a chair in the head, and as a result he lay in bed for a whole month. The purpose of the beating was to demoralise all the delegates.
During the meeting, Mahmud Shakirov Pashov also beat party member Angel Blagoev Sotyrov. He attends all our sessions without right and always provokes scandals. His father does not take any measures, despite repeated warnings from various sides.
Once, when Shakir Mahmudov Pashov’s son had to hand over the theatre documents to the new theatre management, he even raised a chair to hit a member of the admissions committee.
Mahmud Shakirov Pashov’s provocations in the rehearsal hall during working hours have become more frequent in recent time, for which the Board of Directors of the theatre notified the Minority Commission at the National Council of the Fatherland Front in writing.
Using his father’s position as a Member of Parliament and acting on his behalf and according to his instructions, Mahmud Shakirov Pashov began obsessively collecting signatures from the artists for a statement to the National Council of the Fatherland Front with a copy to comrade Valko Chervenkov [3], aimed at defaming the theatre. He went several times to artist Nina Elmazova’ home and forced her to sign a statement in which he slandered the new management of the theatre. In the end, the woman was forced to sign. He also offered ballet dancer Gorcho Petsev Krustev to sign the statement, promising him recruitment in the “new theatre” that his father would establish. Gorcho Petsev’s wife kicked him out of her home.
Recently, Shakir Mahmudov Pashov offered the Artistic Director of the theatre, comrade Zhecho Yanev Zhechev, to accept his two sons and daughter-in-law in the theatre as a condition to stop the intrigues against the theatre.
Considering the above facts, our Party Organisation decided:
To demand the immediate labour mobilisation of Mahmud Shakirov Pashov, in order to guarantee the peaceful work of the theatre and the United Cultural and Educational Organisation of the Gypsy Minority.
To make a request to an authority in charge to persuade MP Shakir Mahmudov Pashov to stop the intrigues against the theatre and to eliminate the anti-communist sentiments among the Gypsy minority, which in our opinion, he is able to do.
We remind you that these intrigues have become increasingly acute in recent time. All members of the Party organisation ask that the resolution of this serious matter be speeded up because the annual meeting of the Gypsy minority is about to be held, and there is a danger that Shakir Mahmudov Pashov will escalate his actions to undesirable extremes. The comrades who worked directly among the Gypsy minority and knew well the contradictions existing in the organisation are familiar with the above cases in detail, namely:
Krum Ivanov – Instructor at the 3rd District Committee of the Bulgarian Communist Party.
Anton Antonov – Secretary of the Minority Commission at the National Council of the Fatherland Front.
Dobri Bodurov – Secretary of the National Council of the Fatherland Front.
Gocho Grozev – Secretary at the National Council of the Fatherland Front.
With this statement, we ask for the decisive opinion of the Central Committee of the Bulgarian Communist Party regarding the Member of Parliament Shakir Mahmudov Pashov, as the main leader and instigator of all intrigues and struggles, to guarantee the proper development of the United Cultural and Educational Organisation of the Gypsy Minority, its offspring – the Central Gypsy Theatre Roma, and the Primary Party Organisation Saliko of the Gypsy minority.
Cheery Bolshevik greetings!
Sofia, 25 February 1949.
On behalf of the Party organisation:
Secretary: … [signature] (Tair Selimov).
Members:
… [signature] (Lyubomir Aliev).
… [signature] (Sulyo Metkov)
… [signature] (Angel Blagoev).
… [signature] (Asan Osmanov).
Notes
The Primary Party organisation of the Gypsy minority from the 3rd district of Sofia was named after Saliko German (Yasharov), a young Gypsy from Sofia who died in the front in the so-called Fatherland War (Bulgaria’s participation in the military actions against Germany during the WWII on the territory of Yugoslavia and Hungary after September 1944. (
Неве рома , 1957e, p. 2).This refers to the Fifth Congress of the Bulgarian Workers’ Party (communists), held in December 1948, at which the Party re-adopted the name Bulgarian Communist Party.
Valko Chervenkov at that time headed the Bulgarian Communist Party.
Source: CDA, f. 1 Б, op. 8, a.e. 596, l. 39–41.
11. Plan for Operational Intelligence Work (1950)
Strictly confidential! I confirm.
Inspector Department ‘A’ (…).
March 28, 1950.
To: Comrade Inspector Department ‘A’ – Department 1.
PLAN
[…]
For the operational intelligence work among the Gypsy minority with objects Central Committee of the Gypsy organisation for the fight against racism and war [1], Theatre Roma, newspaper Novo drom [2] (New Way), Sports society Naangle.
The Gypsy minority in our country represents an impressive mass of 160,000 people, the majority of whom have relations to the Turks in our country by language, religion, and others, and have some common interests with the Turks. The phenomenon of the end of last year and the first quarter of this year is particularly characteristic with regard to the immigration of the Turks. A large part of the Gypsies in the districts of Plovdiv, Stara Zagora, Haskovo, Ruse, Pleven, and others, along with the Turks, have submitted applications for immigration carried away by the general psychosis of departing for Turkey. In this regard, they are helped by the action of the Turkish teachers, who agitate them to go to Turkey and persuade them that they are not Gypsies, but Turks. The Gypsies feel more Turks, which is why they appear as Turks on documents. […]
The desire of part of the Gypsies to immigrate to Turkey is characteristic of the Muslim Gypsies. The rest of the Gypsies are included in their Organisation to Fight against Racism and Fascism [3], and there are efforts to integrate them fully into the Fatherland Front. However, the leadership of this organisation has two rival groups that hinder the organisation’s right course. The Chairman of the organisation, Shakir Pashov, created a group of Emin Eminov, Raycho Kochov, Naydo Yasharov, Demir Rustemov, Ismail Shakirov and others, who started a factional struggle against the better members of the organisation – Lubomir Aliev – director of the Theatre Roma, Sulyo Metkov Mutev – councillor in the Dimitrovsky District Council, Tair Selimov – instructor at the National Council of Fatherland Front, and others, accusing them of having sold out to the Bulgarians, [and] of betraying the interests of the minority. This division in leadership had its impact on the minority and often led to fights.
This state of hostility between the Gypsies [was] well used by the reactionary elements to discredit the Fatherland Front and the Bulgarian Communist Party. Given the lack of systematic and thorough work with the Gypsy minority in the entire country [4], the following more urgent tasks are planned for this quarter:
To create an intelligence and information apparatus that will serve the management of the Gypsy organisation, the management of the Theatre Roma, the editors of the newspaper Novo drom, the management of the Naangle sports society and other enemy elements.
To investigate the heads of the organisation, place them under surveillance and ON [5] of those for whom there is information of conducting enemy activities.
To send a special letter to the county authorities alerting them to take measures for conducting intelligence service to the minority. The following activities are planned for carrying out the above tasks:
I. WITH REGARD TO NEWLY OPEN INTELLIGENCE SURVEILLANCE RECORDS
1. Active surveillance ‘DURAK’ [6] – Sofia. The person Shakir Mahmudov Pashov, before September 9, 1944, was the head of the Muslim organisation Istikbal, which was under the patronage of the then Turkish reactionary circles. The purpose of this organisation was to educate the Gypsies in the Turkish spirit: he opened a school for learning the Turkish language, reading and writing, for which he was also paid a sum of money. He himself passed for a Turk. Before September 9, [1944], he fled to Turkey for unknown reasons. According to the secretary of the City Leadership of the Gypsy organisation [7], Pashov was a conspiracy-Mihailovist [8]. In 1933, during the elections, he held public meetings and campaigned for General Lazarov, Smilo and Doncho Arsov. After the death of the Coburg, [Tzar] Boris, Pashov organised the Gypsies and led them en masse to honour the mortal remains of the same.
After September 9, [1944], Pashov was smart to accustom himself to the new situation and managed to become an MP. As such, he passed among the Gypsies as their “King” [9]. He ordered the clubs of their organisations to place his portrait between the portraits of comrades Stalin and Dimitrov. After he was not elected as an MP in the last elections [10], he was embittered and started instigating a schism in the Gypsy organisation. For this, he was summoned and punished with a final warning.
Given the facts mentioned above, the same should be placed under active surveillance with a plan envisaging measures.
Deadline for implementation – the May 10, 1950.
Responsible – OR [11] (…).
[…]
Agreed, [Head] of the Group: (…).
Compiled by: OR (…).
Notes
The United Common-Cultural Educational Organisation of the Gypsy Minorities in Bulgaria Ekhipe (as is the name of the organisation according to its Statute – see above) is presented with different names in documents and in press publications (including in the Gypsy newspapers) at that time, e.g. General Organisation of the Gypsy Minority for the Fight against Fascism and Racism (CDA, f. 1 B, op. 6, a.e. 235, l. 5) and alike.
In this document, the Gypsy newspaper Nevo drom (New Way) is misspelt as ‘Novo drom’.
See Note 1.
From this, it becomes clear that until the beginning of 1950 (i.e. more than five years after the seizure of power by the Communist Party), State Security did not actually pay any particular attention to the Gypsy population.
ON – operational intelligence surveillance.
‘durak’ – ‘fool’ in Russian.
The secretary of the Gypsy organisation is Tair Selimov (see Pashov, 1957, p. 121). 8. This refers to the Democratic Alliance – a political coalition created in the 1920s.
It refers to the Democratic Alliance, a political coalition formed in the 1920s.
According to widespread rumours, at a celebration in the Fakulteta quarter, Shakir Pashov was declared the “king of the Gypsies” and was presented with an iron crown made by local blacksmiths, which after his arrest was kept in the Museum of the Ministry of Internal Affairs.
Reference to the parliamentary elections held on December 18, 1949.
OR – operational intelligence worker.
Source: AKRDOPBGDSRSBNA, f. 13, op. 1 a.e. 774, l. 26–29.
12. State Security Report (1950)
Strictly confidential! I confirm.
Inspector Department ‘A’ (…).
June …, 1950.
To: Inspector Department ‘A’
REPORT From the operative worker (…) – Department I, Department “A”, 5th group The second quarter of 1950 from 1 April 1950 to 30 June 1950 with regard to the Gypsy minority
1. OPERATIONAL SITUATION
In the second quarter of 1950, no acute enemy activity was detected among the Gypsy minority. Rumours were spreadр in most cases expressing dissatisfaction with the allocated duties. What is characteristic for this quarter is that on April 7 of this year, the Central management of the United Cultural and Educational Organisation of the Gypsy Minority in Bulgaria had a meeting in which the activities of Shakir Mahmudov Pashev were examined, and the following decisions were made:
For his demonstrably anti-people activity before September 9, 1944, as an associate of the police [1], and for destructive activity after that date, the leadership of the Gypsy minority punished Pashov by removing him from his position of Chairman of the [United] Cultural and Educational Organisation of the Gypsy Minority in Bulgaria and excluded him forever from the ranks of the organisation. Nikola Petrov Terzobaliev [2] from the city of Sliven was elected as the Chairman of the [United] Cultural and Educational Organisation of the Gypsy Minority in Bulgaria.
Embittered by his expulsion from the organisation and from the party, Shakir Pashov has begun a factional battle against the better Gypsy communists. During the quarter, Pashov sent about 160 reports to all the presidents of the Gypsy organisation in the country. In these statements, he defended himself by saying that he was not guilty and so on. In the neighbourhood of Brick Factories, home to about 500 Gypsies and to himself, he made great efforts to separate these Gypsies from the other Gypsies in Sofia and to oppose them against each other. For example, on St George’s Day, their holiday, Pashov wanted to organise big celebrations in the Brick Factories neighbourhood and to attract the Gypsies to his side. He also tried to organise a Gypsy music group in order to undermine the authority of the Theatre Roma. […]
2. WITH REGARD TO CONTINUING SURVEILLANCE
А) The Durak active surveillance operation on Shakir Mahmudov Pashov was opened on May 8, 1950, based on the fact that the object headed the Muslim organisation Istikbal in the past. As of today, he was expelled from the Gypsy organisation and from the Bulgarian Communist Party as a former collaborator of the police and has engaged in a factional struggle. The nature of the surveillance operation is to establish his enemy’s activity and hand him over to the court. The object is under surveillance by agent Melnik.
[…]
8. NEWLY OPENED ON FILES
А/ Judas surveillance record on the person Emin Eminov Yumerov, opened on April 29, 1950. He is the former director of the Theatre Roma and close to Shakir Mahmudov Pashov, with whom he runs a factional group which fights against the progressive elements of the minority. During the quarter, measures were planned and carried out, such as the referral of an agent and intelligence search from department “B”. Additional implementation measures will be planned for the next quarter.
[…]
10. GENERAL ASSESSMENT OF THE WORK WITH REGARD TO THE GYPSY MINORITY
During the reporting period of the second quarter, the work with the Gypsy minority achieved good results. Since there had been no work on this object, it was necessary to recruit a qualitative and quantitative intelligence agency with which we could quickly penetrate this minority and start operations [3]. Thus, during this quarter, two agents and an informant were recruited, through which we will be able to closely monitor the activity of the objects who are under surveillance. The operations during the quarter included: one active surveillance, one preliminary surveillance, and 1 OND; some of the persons detected in these operations were identified and studied, and they will be placed under surveillance in the current quarter. However, in terms of the intelligence and information apparatus, it is necessary to recruit more agents and informants in order to be able to cover the object of the Gypsy minority comprehensively. They must be recruited from the close environment of the reactionary elements, and especially those objects who are under surveillance, so we can uncover their enemy goals and intentions.
[…]
Compiled OR … [signature] (…).
Notes
Regarding the accusations against Shakir Pashov for cooperation with the police before September 9, 1944, see more details below.
For Nikola Terzobaliev in more detail (see Marushiakova & Popov, 2022).
This is another confirmation of the fact that the State Security began to work actively on the Gypsy issues only at the end of 1950 and on a relatively limited scale (judging by the number of operations).
Source: AKRDOPBGDSRSBNA, f. 13, op. 1 a.e. 774, l. 30–32.
13. Information Note from the State Security (1954)
Strictly confidential!
INFORMATION NOTE
Re: SHAKIR MAHMUDOV PASHOV, born on October 20, 1898, in Sofia, living [in] Sofia, 144 Emil Markov Street, Krasno selo [neighbourhood], ironworker by profession, non-partisan (former a member of the Bulgarian Communist Party and an MP), accused of being an agent provocateur.
In Department II of the State Security, there is a letter from the Directorate of the People’s Militia from 1950 to the Cadres Department of the Central Committee of the Bulgarian Communist Party, which states that the Directorate has materials revealing that SHAKIR MAHMUDOV PASHOV was a secret collaborator of the police, before September 9, 1944. The inspection found the following:
In 1951, SHAKIR M. PASHOV was arrested by the Metropolitan Department [of] the Ministry of Internal Affairs, where he was investigated because he cooperated with the police. The investigation established that SHAKIR MAHMUDOV PASHOV originates from a craftsman Gypsy family. His lucrative occupation (ironworker) raised him economically, and he became popular among the Gypsy minority, which he headed. PASHOV’s political activity consisted of unprincipled drifting among various political parties without a clear political outlook. He was guided by his personal interests.
In 1930, PASHOV left for Turkey without regular documents with a friend of his. They were deported from Turkey according to the established rules. They brought him to the Police Directorate in Sofia. Here at the police, PASHOV has signed a declaration of cooperation with the police.
During 1941-[19]44, PASHOV maintained close ties with the police agents IVAN RACHEV and the chief of the 10th police station, NIKOLA SHTERKOV. PASHOV indicated to them progressive Gypsies, who were then interned and sent to brutal labour [1].
After September 9, 1944, PASHOV skilfully concealed his past activities and once again stood at the head of the Gypsy minority and was elected an MP to represent them. As an MP, he took secrets from the National Assembly, which he gave to pronounced enemies – the followers of Nikola Petkov [2].
Pursuing egotistic career goals, PASHOV stopped at nothing to achieve them. He has wrongly accused and slandered progressive Gypsies who have hindered him in some way in his career advancements. He pursued an incorrect nationalist policy among the Gypsy minority. For his cooperation with the police and subversive activities among the Gypsy minority, in 1951, SHAKIR M. PASHOV was sent to a labour camp for one year. Considering that the case of his cooperation with the police was already acted upon, I SUGGEST discontinuing the work on this report.
Agreed. Suggested.
Head of Department I: … (signature). Investigator: … (signature).
February 13, 1954.
Notes
This refers to the practice of labour mobilisation following the Law on Labour Obligation, adopted by the government of Alexander Stamboliyski as early as 1920.
This refers to the supporters of the ‘Bulgarian Agricultural People’s Union – Nikola Petkov’, who were in opposition to the Communist Party when Shakir Pashov was an MP.
Source: CDA, f. 2124 К, op. 1, a.e. 108107, l. 3–4.
14. Information Note from State Security (1959)
INFORMATION NOTE
for SHAKIR MAHMUDOV PASHOV, born in November 1897, in the city of Sofia (re letter No. 1104, dated December 24, 1958, of the Central Committee of the Bulgarian Communist Party).
From the examination of the police materials for SHAKIR MAHMUDOV PASHOV, the following was established:
On April 16, 1925, he was detained by the police in Sofia. In his testimony, Pashov wrote that the reasons for his detention are unknown. He noted that he was not a member of either the Bulgarian Communist Party or the Bulgarian Agricultural People’s Union but had been a member of the Democratic Party since 1921.
Until the time of the railway strike, he was working in the railway workshop in Sofia and was a member of the Railway Union, but then he resigned and opened a private iron workshop. During the 19th June coup in 1923, the same person, as a member of the Democrats, took part in night patrolling around Sofia. This was done by order of the club of the Democratic Party. It is not clear when he was released from the police.
On August 4, 1930, he wrote a statement to the police on the occasion of his return from Turkey. In his testimony, he noted that together with his friends Ivan Stoyanov and Vasil Peykov, they decided to go to Turkey to look for work since they were unemployed. Crossing illegally into Turkish territory, they were detained by the Turkish authorities and handed back to Bulgaria. It is not clear how long he stayed at the police.
After September 9, 1944, there were reports about him that he had been a secret collaborator of the police in the past. Because of the above, in 1951, Pashov was detained by the authorities of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, and in the course of the investigation, the following was established: […] [1]
Because of his above activity, Pashov was sent to the Belene labour and educational residential institution, where he stayed from September 10, 1951 to August 10, 1953.
Sofia, 13 January 1959.
Head of Department: … (signature). Head of Section: … (signature).
Notes
The relevant passages from the previous State Security Information Note are repeated almost verbatim (see above).
Source: CDA, f. 2124 К, op. 1, a.e. 108107, l. 1–2.
15. Report Note (1981)
To: Comrade Lazar Prichkapov, Head of the Propaganda and Agitation Department of the Central Committee of the Bulgarian Communist Party.
REPORT NOTE
Re: The funeral of Shakir Mahmudov Pashov from Sofia.
The funeral took place on 7 October this year in the cemetery of the Malashevtsi neighbourhood.
About 130–150 people attended the funeral, primarily Bulgarian Gypsies from all areas of Sofia. From the neighbourhood organisation [of the Bulgarian Communist Party] in Druzhba Housing Complex, in which the deceased was a member, two people attended the funeral – the secretary of the Party bureau and another bureau member. The latter delivered a speech in the ritual hall on behalf of the communists and the public from the neighbourhood. In his speech, the speaker emphasised that the deceased had been a member of the Bulgarian Communist Party since 1919 and had actively participated in the struggle against fascism and capitalism, for the happiness of his proletarian brothers, that he had been elected as a member of parliament as a communist twice – in 1931 and 1945, and for services to the people he was awarded many medals, including the Georgi Dimitrov medal. The speaker did not mention anything about his national origin and his activities as the head of the Gypsy Theatre Roma and editor of the newspaper Upbringing [2].
Mustafa Aliev, director at Bulgarian Television, also spoke in the ritual hall. He called the deceased “Our Father”, the founder of the progressive movement of the Gypsies in Bulgaria; emphasised that his life – the life of a communist fighter for the people’s happiness – is and will be an example for the living; that his work will live on.
Tihomir Tairov gave a speech at the grave. He also focused on his activities as the head of the Gypsy cultural and educational organisation, calling the deceased the “progenitor” of the progressive movement of the Gypsies in Bulgaria.
Both Mustafa Aliev and Tairov emphasised that the deceased was faithful throughout his life to the cause of the Bulgarian Communist Party. He worked actively to turn the decisions of the Bulgarian Communist Party into action for the happiness and well-being of the entire Bulgarian people. Before placing the deceased in the grave, a ritual was performed according to the dogmas of Islam – in a special room, the deceased corpse was washed, and then openly, in front of all present, the hodja pronounced the prayer appropriate for the occasion with chanting and kowtow.
Gospodin Kolev [1].
October 8, 1981.
Sofia.
Notes
This report was prepared by Gospodin Kolev, who at that time worked in the apparatus of the Central Committee of the Bulgarian Communist Party (for more details, see Marushiakova & Popov, 2022).
Significantly, the speaker did not use the original name of the newspaper Terbie (in Turkish) but its translation into Bulgarian.
Source: CDA, f. 16, op. 89, a.e. 139, l. 44–45.
16. Remembrance (1982)
On October 5, 1982, one year had passed since the death of
SHAKIR MAHMUDOV PASHOV
Let everyone remember the organiser of the Gypsy Cultural-Educational Organisation in Bulgaria, the creator and organiser of the newspaper Romano esi.
The founder of the Central Gypsy Theatre Roma.
The communist, anti-fascist and fighter against Capitalism and Fascism.
The first Gypsy MP in the Grand National Assembly.
The man with a big heart.
We give a bow!
Notes
This is an obituary on the occasion of the first anniversary of Shakir Pashov’s death (see Illustrations).
It is not written on behalf of whom the obituary was printed.
Source: ASR, f. Shakir Pashov.