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Todor Panitsa

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Todor Panitsa
Born(1879-07-02)July 2, 1879
Oryahovo, Bulgaria
DiedMay 8, 1925(1925-05-08) (aged 45)
Vienna, Austria
Allegiance
BranchBulgarian Army
UnitMacedonian-Adrianopolitan Volunteer Corps
Battles / wars
Spouse
​
​
(m. 1907⁠–⁠1925)​

Todor Nikolov Panitsa (Bulgarian: Тодор Николов Паница; July 2, 1879 – May 8, 1925) was a Bulgarian revolutionary figure,[1] active in the region of Macedonia. He was one of the leaders of the left-wing of the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization.

Biography

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Panitsa was born on July 2, 1879,[2] in Oryahovo, northwestern Bulgaria, a town located on the right bank of the Danube.[3] He grew up in the family of Nikola Panitsa from Tarnovo and Mitanka Peltekova from Svishtov.[4] He studied in Lom, where according to journalist Mihail Dumbalakov, he became familiar with Macedonian matters through his brother.[5] Panitsa became an orphan and went to live with his uncle in Varna, where he completed his secondary education.[6] For around three years, Panitsa served as a cavalryman in the Bulgarian army.[7] He became part of the Macedonian liberation movement in 1902.[3] Like Yane Sandanski, he started off in a band of the Supreme Macedonian-Adrianople Committee.[6] Afterwards, Panitsa joined the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization (IMRO) band of Nikola Pushkarov in 1902, being active in the Skopje, Kumanovo and Kratovo regions.[2] He participated in the Ilinden Uprising in the Skopje region.[6] During 1904, he organized his own band in Varna, and returned to Ottoman Macedonia, where he met Sandanski,[6] becoming one of his closest associates.[3] Panitsa later served as Mihail Daev's deputy.[6]

The failure of the Ilinden Uprising reignited the old rivalries between the varying factions of the Macedonian revolutionary movement. From 1907 he was the Drama district voivode and a member of the Serres revolutionary committee.[2] Panitsa married his schoolteacher fiancée Ekaterina Izmirlieva on May 17 and Daev was his best man.[6][8] However, IMRO preferred its "illegal" members to be unmarried, since family ties would prevent them from being entirely committed to the revolutionary cause. As a result, Panitsa was censured for his marriage by the Serres committee, which declared his action to be "a bad principle and incompatible with the morals and customs of the country, and impossible under the conditions of our revolutionary life". The committee also expelled Panitsa's wife from the Serres region.[6] After discovering Daev's letter where there was a conspiracy against Sandanski, Panitsa revealed it to Sandanski.[6][9] Panitsa was originally assigned by Boris Sarafov to assassinate Sandanski,[10] however Panitsa remained loyal to Sandanski.[11] On October 10, 1907, the Serres committee sentenced Boris Sarafov, Ivan Garvanov and Mihail Daev to death.[6] After Daev's death, the committee assigned Panitsa to assassinate Sarafov and Garvanov, organizing their assassinations. Panitsa went to Sofia and established contact with IMRO's right-wing, pretending that he was disillusioned with Sandanski.[6] Panitsa assassinated Sarafov and Garvanov at Sarafov's house in Sofia on November 28, 1907, both on orders from Sandanski.[12] Panitsa managed to escape with the help of relatives and associates.[6] The assassination deepened the differences inside IMRO, leading to Sandanski being sentenced to death and the final disintegration of IMRO through a conflict between the right-wing and the left-wing.[13]

During the Young Turk Revolution, together with Sandanski, he cooperated with the Young Turks. After the revolution, he became a member of a left-wing political party in the Ottoman Empire - People's Federative Party (Bulgarian Section).[13] Panitsa led IMRO volunteer corps, which joined the Salonica Expedition Army in suppressing the 1909 revolt against the Young Turk Revolution.[3] Panitsa was a socialist and considered his compatriots as Bulgarians.[6]

During the Balkan Wars, he was part of the Macedonian-Adrianopolitan Volunteer Corps.[14] Panitsa supported the Bulgarian Army's operations in eastern Macedonia then.[3] Panitsa later performed intelligence activity for the Bulgarian army in the area of the city of Drama.[15] During the First World War, he was wounded in the battles of the Bulgarian army against the French in Krivolak.[7] In March 1917, the Panagia Eikosifoinissa Monastery was attacked and plundered by a paramilitary group led by him and under the guidance of Czech journalist Vladimir Sis.[16] Panitsa later performed police functions for the Bulgarian army in the area of the city of Serres.[15] After the war, Panitsa became a leader of the left-wing (federalist) faction of IMRO.[3] In December 1921, left-leaning deserters formed the Macedonian Federative Organization, in which Panitsa was active. The Bulgarian minister of defense Aleksandar Dimitrov started a campaign against the IMRO after his visit to Belgrade in May 1921. Dimitrov decided upon an anti-IMRO guerrilla movement, entrusting the job to Panitsa and other federalists. In October 1921, Dimitrov was assassinated by the IMRO. Panitsa's federalists, with the assistance of the Bulgarian government, set out to destroy the IMRO, but in the ensuing clashes the federalists were scattered by IMRO. The federalists were defeated by IMRO in Nevrokop, from which Panitsa had to flee.[17]

After the defeat of the Communist uprising of September 1923 in Bulgaria, the new government repressed leftist Macedonian organizations aided by the IMRO. The fleeing federalists placed themselves in Yugoslav service, joining the Association against Bulgarian Bandits. Panitsa, who had moved meanwhile from Greece to Belgrade, served as advisor of this Association. Later he went to Vienna, where the rest of the federalist leadership was reassembled, seeking foreign contacts.[17] Here they established contact with the Comintern and the Bulgarian Communist Party (BCP) and Panitsa became a Soviet spy and an associate of the Military Department of the BCP.[18][need quotation to verify] In Vienna, he assisted the leftist Dimitar Vlahov.[19]

He went secretly to Greece in 1924 and discussed with Greek communist leaders the possibility of receiving logistical support and shelter behind the Greek border in the case a coup was organized by the IMRO and the Communist Party of Greece against Aleksandar Tsankov's government.[20] In 1924, as a member of the Macedonian Federative Organization's leadership, he participated in the drafting of the May Manifesto,[21] as well as in the negotiations.[12] The agreement was reached with the IMRO. The revelation that IMRO, a Bulgarian nationalist organization, officially sanctioned such a separatist and communist-influenced document, caused uproar in its ranks. Aleksandar Protogerov and Todor Aleksandrov revoked their signatures to the agreement.[19][21] In 1925, Panitsa lived with his wife and their son in Vienna. He was posing as a Serbian merchant under the name Dimitri Arnautović.[21][22] IMRO then labeled Panitsa as a servant of foreign interests and sentenced him to death. On May 8, 1925, while he was at the Burgtheater in Vienna, during the last act of the play Peer Gynt, he was shot and killed by Mencha Karnicheva, an activist of the IMRO's right wing in Vienna.[22] Karnicheva told police that she committed the murder in revenge for Panitsa's role in the executions of dissidents.[23][24]

Legacy

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He was buried in the Serbian section of the Vienna Central Cemetery on May 15, 1925.[22] His son Kosta became a doctor and died in 1948.[8] The right to the usage of Panitsa's grave expired in 1991 and an ex mark was placed on it. His gravestone was recovered by three Macedonians and donated to the Museum of the Republic of North Macedonia in February 2023.[22][25] A monument honoring him is in his hometown.[26]

References

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  1. ^ Vanǵa Čašule, ed. (1972). From Recognition to Repudiation: Bulgarian Attitudes on the Macedonian Question. Kultura. p. 98.
  2. ^ a b c Blaže Ristovski, ed. (2009). Makedonska enciklopedija [Macedonian Encyclopedia] (in Macedonian). MANU. p. 1113.
  3. ^ a b c d e f Dimitar Bechev (2009). Historical Dictionary of the Republic of Macedonia. Scarecrow Press. p. 168. ISBN 9780810862951.
  4. ^ Герджиков, Михаил. Спомени, документи, материали, Издателство „Наука и изкуство“, София, 1984, стр. 410.
  5. ^ Михаилъ Думбалаковъ (1933). Презъ пламъцитѣ на живота и революцията, том I (in Bulgarian). Sofia: Печатница „Художникъ“. pp. 26–27.
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Mercia MacDermott (1988). For Freedom and Perfection: The Life of Yané Sandansky. London: Journeyman Press. pp. 201, 269, 282, 284–287, 364–365. ISBN 978-1-85172-014-9.
  7. ^ a b Боян Драганов (2008). Зад завесата на големите скандали: Volume 1 (in Bulgarian). Ахат. pp. 126, 129. ISBN 978-954-9664-01-0.
  8. ^ a b Slavcho Koviloski (April 10, 2025). "Екатерина Паница (Измирлиева) потомок на фамилија револуционери и интелектуалци". Nova Makedonija (in Macedonian).
  9. ^ Nadine Lange-Akhund (1998). The Macedonian Question, 1893-1908, from Western Sources. East European Monographs. p. 263. ISBN 9780880333832.
  10. ^ Keith Brown (2003). The Past in Question: Modern Macedonia and the Uncertainties of Nation. Princeton University Press. pp. 176–178, 271. ISBN 9780691099958.
  11. ^ Maria Todorova, ed. (2004). Balkan Identities: Nation and Memory. Hurst. p. 245. ISBN 9781850657156.
  12. ^ a b Alexis Heraclides (2021). The Macedonian Question and the Macedonians: A History. Routledge. pp. 46, 49. ISBN 9780367218263.
  13. ^ a b Denis Š. Ljuljanović (2023). Imagining Macedonia in the Age of Empire: State Policies, Networks and Violence (1878-1912). Lit Verlag. pp. 219, 221. ISBN 9783643914460.
  14. ^ Galina Pindikova, ed. (2006). Македоно-одринското опълчение, 1912-1913: личен състав по документи на Дирекция "Централен военен архив" (in Bulgarian). Главно управление на архивите при Министерския съвет. p. 894. ISBN 9789549800524.
  15. ^ a b Boyan Mirchev (1963). Спомени на Екатерина Иванова Измирлиева - Паница (in Bulgarian). Sofia: Izvestiya na Instituta za Istoriya, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences. pp. 17–18.
  16. ^ Diana Mishkova; Roumen Daskalov, eds. (2025). Balkan Historiographical Wars: The Middle Ages. Springer Nature Switzerland. p. 180. ISBN 9783031901133.
  17. ^ a b Ivo Banac (1988). The National Question in Yugoslavia: Origins, History, Politics. Cornell University Press. pp. 323–324. ISBN 978-0-8014-9493-2.
  18. ^ Разведка и контрразведка в лицах, Анатолий Валентинович Диенко, Русскій міръ, 2002, стр. 375.
  19. ^ a b Andrew Rossos (2008). Macedonia and the Macedonians: A History. Hoover Press. pp. 157–158, 132. ISBN 978-0-8179-4883-2.
  20. ^ Evangelos Kofos (1993). Nationalism and Communism in Macedonia: Civil Conflict, Politics of Mutation, National Identity. A. D. Caratzas. pp. 87–88. ISBN 9780892415403.
  21. ^ a b c Rosen Tahov (September 28, 2024). "Краят на един македонстващ ренегат". Trud (in Bulgarian).
  22. ^ a b c d Darko Leitner-Stojanov (2023). "Надгробната плоча со натпис на Тодор Паница во Виена" [The tombstone with the inscription of Todor Panica in Vienna]. Glasnik (in Macedonian). North Macedonia: Институт за национална историја: 195–199.
  23. ^ "Woman Takes Her Revenge in Death— Kills Man in Box at Vienna Theatre; Cites Bulgarian Murders In 1923 As Her Motive For Attack With Gun", The Windsor (ON) Star, May 9, 1925, p.17 (VIENNA, May 9.— While the Burg Theatre was ringing last night with the chorus of the fifth act of Peer Gynt, a woman arose from the audience and fired six shots toward a nearby box, killing one man and wounding two others. The woman was identified as Mencia Karniciu, aged 22. The man killed was Todor Arnautovitch-Panizza, aged 46.")
  24. ^ 8 май 1925 г. Във виенския Бургтеатър Менча Кърничева застрелва Тодор Паница ("8 May 1925: In Vienna's Burgtheater, Mencha Karnicheva shoots Todor Panitsa)"
  25. ^ "Музејот на Македонија ја доби надгробната плоча на Тодор Паница благодарение на тројца Македонци од Виена". Радио Лидер (in Macedonian). February 23, 2023.
  26. ^ ""Ди Пресе" за убиството на Тодор Паница: Атентат во ложата два". Nezavisen (in Macedonian). December 1, 2020.
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  • Media related to Todor Panitsa at Wikimedia Commons
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