REMEMBRANCE IN TIME - Index of

Lora DONCHEVA: The Group of Immigrant Anarchists … 39
Banya village 36 . A record appeared in the press 37 . In the record a scout described the fact
of capturing the group in a documentary and artistic narrative style. The exposed version
was basically according to facts established by the security forces.
The tragic fate of paratroopers anarchists generated a doubt of treachery among
anarchists immigrants from I. Rachev’s group. They connected the leak of information
that reached Bulgarian authorities for the upcoming mission with the name of D. Hadjiev.
Rachev said in his memoirs that Hr. Nestorov had shared with him his suspicions that D.
Hadjiev was an agent of State Security. They both came up with that conclusion
independently of each other. Bogdan thought that the boss was recruited by National
Security in the summer of 1948 when he was arrested and then released. According to
them both: "When Hadjiev was arrested he was very scared for his life and therefore
accepted the offer to serve National Security. He was promised by the agents to be
released immediately and be allowed to go to France through Turkey" 38 . On this occasion,
I. Drandov wrote that in order to avoid arrest and trials in Bulgaria they used their
Bulgarian correspondent B. Yanev, to "alerted for the arrival of the "heroes" in order to
avoid future relations with the "revolutionaries" of the U.S. office". This was adopted by
opponents as an act of betrayal, but he concludes that "all Bulgarian emigration in Paris
knew about the mission and that’s why the Bulgarian Embassy also found out about it,
through its agents" 39 . Among the archive files there is an issue of "P. Maznev” anarchy
group in Debelets of 1991, which is an interview with Stefan Nikolov of Smochan
village, who worked as an agent of Internal troops. He claimed that G. Hadjiev was in
touchs with agents at the embassy in Paris and the leak for Hr. Nestorov’s group came to
the Bulgarian authorities through this channel 40 .
What are the summaries and conclusions that can be made based on the facts? Studied
documents are an evidence for the reasons which made the three immigrant anarchists to
participate in that dangerous mission organized with the assistance of the U.S.
intelligence. The main motives for this are the lack of concern and activities by the
immigration in order to support the resistance against the communist regime in Bulgaria.
Amid the conflicts among the immigrant anarchists and the differences in views upon the
way of fight against communist rule Nestorov is deeply convicted that more action rather
than theoretical disputes is needed. He chooses the way to Bulgaria to assist in creating an
organized resistance movement in the country. Although the group leader H. Nesterov is
described as a controversial figure in the archives, indisputable fact is that among the
anarchists within the country and abroad he is known as a brave, uncompromising
anarchist who shows his devotion to the ideas of anarchism.
Available information shows that the mission of immigrant anarchists was doomed from
the very beginning. Not only the negative attitude of some of the anarchists immigrants
and some gaps in the organization in Bulgaria, but the lack of objective and accurate
information about the situation in the country, determined the failure of the mission.
According to Stoyan Tzolov, convicted in the trial against anarchists in 1948, "these
dedicated and brave comrades ... had no precise idea of the real situation here and the
complete uselessness of such an action ..." 41 . Studied documents do not give final and
comprehensive answers to all questions related to the mission of the three anarchists. The
betrayal thesis, thanks to which National Security gets information about the arrival of the
group remains unclear. Details of the activities of paratroopers during the period
September 1953 - March 1954 in an attempt to create an organized resistance movement
against the Communist government also have to be analyzed in details. Still there is a
lacks of sufficient information about the role of immigration beyond the anarchists’
community in the preparation and organization of the mission as well as contacts between