Bio

Наум Тюфекчиев (Bulgarian: Наум Тюфекчиев, romanized as Naum Tûfekčiev) was born on 29 June 1864 in Resen, then part of the Ottoman Empire (now in North Macedonia). He studied pyrotechnics in Liège, Belgium.

He became known as a Bulgarian revolutionary, explosives expert, tactician, and anarchist arms dealer. He was a member of the Supreme Macedonian-Adrianople Committee (SMAC) and was counted among its leaders.

He worked as an instructor in urban tactics and pyrotechnics. He also collaborated with several foreign revolutionary movements, including the Armenian Revolutionary Federation, the Committee of Union and Progress, the Bulgarian Red Brotherhood, and the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party.

In 1894 he took part in founding the Macedonian Youth Society with other activists. He helped set up the first revolutionary explosives workshops in the Russian Empire and shared his technical knowledge with groups that sought to build similar capabilities.

Murder Story

In 1891, Tyufekchiev participated in a conspiracy to assassinate Stefan Stambolov, the Bulgarian Prime Minister, who was widely criticized by revolutionary circles for authoritarian governance and diplomatic cooperation with the Ottoman Empire. The plot failed to kill Stambolov but resulted in the death of Hristo Belchev, Bulgaria’s Minister of Finance, who was killed during the attack.

Following the incident, Tyufekchiev’s brother Dencho Tyufekchiev was arrested, tortured, and later died in custody. Naum Tyufekchiev escaped first to Serbia, then to Odesa in the Russian Empire. Bulgarian authorities sentenced him to death in absentia.

In 1892, using false documents under the name Ivan Hristo, Tyufekchiev traveled to Constantinople, where he assassinated Georgi Valkovich, a Bulgarian physician, diplomat, and close associate of Stambolov. Following the killing, he fled again to the Russian Empire.

The Ottoman authorities sentenced him in absentia to 15 years of imprisonment, while Bulgarian intelligence suspected that Russian secret services may have facilitated the assassination.

In May 1894, Tyufekchiev co-founded the Macedonian Youth Society, a revolutionary intellectual organization. After the fall of Stambolov, he returned to Bulgaria and participated in conspiracies that culminated in Stambolov’s assassination on 19 July 1895, though Tyufekchiev was later acquitted due to insufficient evidence.

By 1903, Tyufekchiev had become president of an anarchist action committee within SMAC and participated in the Ilinden–Preobrazhenie Uprising against Ottoman rule. He also engaged in revolutionary operations in Albania, maintaining contact with Albanian leader Faik Konica.