Mara Buneva

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Bulgarian revolutionary (1902–1928)

title: "Mara Buneva" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["1902-births", "1928-deaths", "people-from-tetovo", "people-from-kosovo-vilayet", "bulgarian-revolutionaries", "yugoslav-macedonia", "members-of-the-internal-macedonian-revolutionary-organization", "bulgarian-people-in-ottoman-macedonia", "bulgarian-people-in-serbia", "bulgarian-people-in-yugoslavia", "deaths-by-firearm-in-yugoslavia", "bulgarian-nationalist-assassins", "1928-suicides"] description: "Bulgarian revolutionary (1902–1928)" topic_path: "science/biology" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mara_Buneva" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary Bulgarian revolutionary (1902–1928) ::

::data[format=table title="Infobox person"]

FieldValue
native_nameМара Бунева
birth_placeTetovo, Ottoman Empire
birth_date
death_placeSkopje, Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes
death_date
imageMara Buneva.jpg
organizationIMRO
::

| native_name = Мара Бунева | birth_place = Tetovo, Ottoman Empire | birth_date = | death_place = Skopje, Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes | death_date = | image = Mara Buneva.jpg | organization = IMRO Mara Buneva (Мара Бунева; 1902 – January 13, 1928) was a Macedonian Bulgarian revolutionary, a member of the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization, who assassinated Velimir Prelić, a former Serbian Chetnik commander and Yugoslav legal official of the Skopje Oblast. She shot herself in the chest, and subsequently died in a hospital a few hours after the attack, while Prelić died a few days later.

In general Buneva is considered a heroine in Bulgaria, while in North Macedonia she is regarded as a controversial Bulgarophile. Her death is commemorated annually at the place where she shot herself on Vardar in Skopje.

Biography

Buneva was born in 1902, in Tetovo, then in the Kosovo Vilayet of the Ottoman Empire (present-day North Macedonia). Her family originates from the village of Setole. She was raised as a Bulgarian Exarchist. After being under Bulgarian occupation during World War I, Vardar Macedonia became part of a Serbian province called South Serbia in the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes. Her father Nikola Bunev became then the mayor of Tetovo. At that time Buneva studied at the Skopje's Girls' High School.

In 1919, Buneva moved to Bulgaria. There she studied at the Sofia University, and married a Bulgarian officer. In 1926, she divorced, and under the influence of her brother Boris, also a Bulgarian officer, Buneva joined the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization (IMRO). Later on direct order by the leader of the IMRO, Ivan Mihaylov, she was trained in Sofia for fulfilling of future terrorist actions. In 1927, she went back to Yugoslavia and opened a shop in Skopje with a conspiratorial mission.

There she managed to acquaint herself with Velimir Prelić, the legal adviser of the Serbian governor of the Skopje district. Prelić was instrumental in arrests of young local students, members of Macedonian Youth Secret Revolutionary Organization (MYSRO). The organization was discovered by the authorities in May 1927 and its leaders were arrested. In a trial in Skopje against 20 of them, most were sentenced in December to long-term imprisonment. As a result, IMRO ordered the execution of Prelić. The task was given to Buneva. Mencha Karnicheva, assassin of Todor Panitsa and Mihaylov's wife, who strongly inspired her, met her before the assassination in Skopje in 1928. At the appointed time on January 13, 1928, Buneva intercepted him on his way to lunch and shot the official after which she committed suicide. On the next day, the Serbian police buried Buneva's body at an unknown place. Prelić also died in hospital a few days later and was buried in Skopje.

Legacy

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e5/Mara-buneva_plate_1943.jpg" caption="A commemorative plate was mounted at the death place of Buneva in 1943 by the Bulgarian authorities, later destroyed by the Yugoslav communist authorities."] ::

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/50/Buneva_plate_Skopje_2005_bTV.bg.jpg" caption="bTV]] - news screenshot, showing а broken plate commemorating Buneva on the Vardar river levee, after being destroyed by local ultra-nationalists."] ::

After her death, the Serbian authorities attempted to remove every trace of her. IMRO celebrated her as a hero and martyr. The first Macedonian Patriotic Organization ladies auxiliary branch was created in Toronto in 1928 and named after her. Bulgaria and its diaspora celebrated her as a martyr for the freedom of Macedonia. During the Second World War, Bulgaria annexed Vardar Macedonia and at the place of her death, a commemorative plate was mounted. Two commemorative ceremonies also occurred in Skopje. Members of the Bulgarian regime, including Mihaylovists and collaborators, attended the commemorative event dedicated to her in Skopje in 1942, while Mihaylov himself sent a bouquet from Croatia. Members of MYSRO also honored her. Partisans perceived the plate in Skopje as a symbol of the occupation regime. According to historian Mile Todorovski, partisan groups vandalized the area around the plate with anti-regime and communist slogans. Her commemorative plate was destroyed by the new Yugoslav communist authorities. In the period after the Second World War, Mihaylov stated that she should be annually commemorated in Skopje by the Bulgarian youth.

In the post-communist period, VMRO-Union of Macedonian Associations' (now VMRO-BND) political platform embraced her legacy, along with Mihaylov's. The women's association of the organization was named "Mara Buneva" in the early 1990s, while in 1994 the organization published a 16-page brochure about her. Since the beginning of the 2000s, almost every year on the day of her death, Bulgarians from North Macedonia and Bulgaria, particularly VMRO-BND activists, have been illegally mounting new commemorative plates. However, the plates are quickly removed or destroyed. Members of the Radko Association were the first to initiate a commemoration of her in Skopje in 2001 in the post-communist period. On January 13, 2002, a memorial service dedicated to her at the St. Demetrious Church in Skopje was attended by politicians, members of VMRO-DPMNE, members of the Radko Association and others. A commemorative plate dedicated to her was unveiled by a member of VMRO-DPMNE after the service. The Macedonian Orthodox Church has regularly hosted religious services dedicated to her. In January 2007, the celebration ended with a fight in Skopje, resulting in around 15 people being injured and an official note being sent from the Bulgarian embassy in Skopje to the authorities. Former Macedonian Prime Minister Ljubčo Georgievski claims that to be against Buneva means not to have adequate knowledge of the history, to defend Prelić and the Greater Serbian cause. According to Bulgarian officials, the repetitive incidents in Skopje are part of an ongoing anti-Bulgarian campaign there. During the 2000s, Macedonian historian Zoran Todorovski perceived the assassination as a highly moral and heroic act.

No official in North Macedonia has honored her in front of her memorial plate. Some Macedonian associations in the 2010s have declared Buneva as an ethnic Macedonian heroine, claiming she was appropriated by the Bulgarians. In 2015, the right-wing non-governmental organization "Macedonian Patriotic Association – Todor Aleksandrov" placed a commemorative plate in Macedonian on her deathplace. She has been a controversial figure in North Macedonia, being interpreted either as a "Great Bulgarian chauvinist" or a "Macedonian heroine against the Bulgarian occupier". Such an interpretation is an example of misinterpretation of historical facts. For Bulgaria, she is a "legendary Bulgarian revolutionary", and her act left a "deep imprint on Bulgarian history". In the same year, another commemorative event was organized by the Bulgarian Cultural Club in Skopje. A wax figure of Buneva was set up in the Museum of the Macedonian Struggle, alongside Mihaylov's, opened in 2011 in Skopje, as part of the Skopje 2014 project. According to Macedonian historians, placing wax figures of controversial figures like her only causes further confusion in Macedonian national history. The Macedonian public perceived the placement of the figures as partisanship. The members of the Bulgarian Cultural Club of Skopje condemned her appropriation within the Macedonian national narrative. On January 16, 2024, a film about her called The Avenger (2023) was screened at the Bulgarian Culture and Information Centre in Skopje. Streets in Sofia and Blagoevgrad are named after her, as well as the Buneva Point in Antarctica has been named after her by the Bulgarian Antarctic Institute.

References

References

  1. Nationalism, Margaret H. Lamb, Heinemann Educational Books, 1975, p. 31.
  2. Encyclopedia of Motherhood, Volume 1, Andrea O'Reilly, SAGE, 2010, {{ISBN
  3. (2022). "Memory and Religion from a Postsecular Perspective". Taylor & Francis.
  4. (17 January 2024). "Macedonian Bulgarian Revolutionary Mara Buneva Commemorated with Film Screening in Skopje".
  5. "Атентаторката на Прелиќ не живее во меморијата на Македонците. На панихидите доаѓаат тие што се чувствуваат Бугари и ја негираат македонската нација. В. Цветаноски, Утрински вестник. 22.02.2007 г.".
  6. "Бугарската окупаторска власт и' оддаде незапаметена почит, Која е контроверзната тетовка што ја слават Бугарите? В. Цветаноски, Утрински вестник. 23.02.2007 г.".
  7. Historical Dictionary of the Republic of Macedonia, Dimitar Bechev, Scarecrow Press, 2009, {{ISBN
  8. (1976). "Полог". Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts.
  9. Подвигът на Мара Бунева, Цочо Билярски, ИК "Анико", 2010, {{ISBN. 9789548247115, стр. 16.
  10. Иван Михайлов: отвъд легендите, Том 1, Иван Гаджев, УИ "Св. Климент Охридски", 2007, стр. 787.
  11. Contested Ethnic Identity: The Case of Macedonian Immigrants in Toronto, 1900-1996, Chris Kostov, Peter Lang, 2010, {{ISBN
  12. „Националноосвободителната борба в Македония, 1919 - 1941 г.“, Колектив, ИК „Знание“, София, 1998 г., стр.221.
  13. link. (2014-01-16)
  14. Naum Trajanovski. (2021). "“A Patriotic Act for Macedonia”: The Mnemohistory of Commemorations of Mara Buneva in Skopje (2001-2018)". Contemporary Southeastern Europe.
  15. Terrorism and the Politics of Social Change: A Durkheimian Analysis, James Dingley, Ashgate Publishing, Ltd., 2013, {{ISBN
  16. Бунев, Борис. Кратки бележки из живота на Мара Бунева, 7 август 1936 година, в: Билярски, Цочо. Подвигът на Мара Бунева (съкратено издание), Анико, София, 2010, стр.45.
  17. Kedourie, Elie. (1993). "Nationalism". Blackwell Publishing.
  18. Dmitar Tasić. (2020). "Paramilitarism in the Balkans: The Cases of Yugoslavia, Bulgaria, and Albania, 1917-1924". Oxford University Press.
  19. Whose Are You?: Identity and Ethnicity Among the Toronto Macedonians, Peter Vasiliadis, Ams Press Inc, 1989, {{ISBN. 0404194680, p. 238.
  20. [https://web.archive.org/web/20140116132948/http://macedonian-library.com/documents.php?sec=2&cid=16&album=96&pid=4333 Македонска библиотека, Снимки, документи и материали за историята на българите от областта Македония. Паметник на Мара Бунева в Скопие през 1943 г.]
  21. Dmitar Tasić. (2019). "The Macedonian Youth Secret Organisation (MYSRO) 1922-1927: A New Moment in Macedonian Struggle". Geschichte und Regionen / Storia e regione.
  22. (13 January 2014). "Искршена поставената плоча за Мара Бунева".
  23. (January 14, 2002). "Бугарофилите одржаа панихида за Мара Бунева". Utrinski vesnik.
  24. Stefan Troebst. (2003). "Historical Politics and Historical “Masterpieces” in Macedonia before and after 1991".
  25. Катерина Тосева, „Потрошиха паметника на Мара Бунева", [https://news.bg/press/potroshiha-pametnika-na-mara-buneva-lekarite-si-spretnaha-stachen-komitet.html 15.01.2007, News.bg.]
  26. "Georgievski: Pro Serbian ideas and installations are putting the country in danger, Independent Balkan News Agency, 15.01.2014.".
  27. "The Sofia Echo, Mon, Jan. 22. 2007, Anti-Bulgarianism in Macedonia.".
  28. В Скопие отбелязаха годишнина от смъртта на Мара Бунева. Над 600 родолюбиви българи почетоха паметта на Мара Бунева, предаде репортер на БГНЕС. [https://www.bgnes.bg/v-skopie-otbelazakha-godishnina-ot-sm-rtta-na-mara-buneva BGNES, 14.01.2023.]
  29. ТМРО: Мара Бунева е Македонка достојна за почит. [https://www.mkd.mk/makedonija/partii/tmro-mara-buneva-e-makedonka-dostojna-za-pochit 14 јануари 2014, МКД.мк.] {{Webarchive. link. (2022-09-04)
  30. Македонците си присвоиха и Мара Бунева. [https://frognews.bg/art-jungla/makedontsite-prisvoiha-mara-buneva.html FROG NEWS, 12.01.2015].
  31. Лозанка Пейчева и колектив, Конструиране на българско национално културно наследство в чужбина. Paradigma, 2022, {{ISBN. 9543264961, p. 117.
  32. Восъчни фигури на Мара Бунева и Ванче Михайлов в Скопие. [https://blitz.bg/svyat/voschni-figuri-na-mara-buneva-i-vanche-mikhaylov-v-skopie_news53754.html 18 Юни 2009, Blitz.bg].
  33. [https://data.aad.gov.au/aadc/gaz/scar/display_name.cfm?gaz_id=139002 Buneva Point]. SCAR Composite Gazetteer of Antarctica

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1902-births1928-deathspeople-from-tetovopeople-from-kosovo-vilayetbulgarian-revolutionariesyugoslav-macedoniamembers-of-the-internal-macedonian-revolutionary-organizationbulgarian-people-in-ottoman-macedoniabulgarian-people-in-serbiabulgarian-people-in-yugoslaviadeaths-by-firearm-in-yugoslaviabulgarian-nationalist-assassins1928-suicides