A Leipzig trial defendant and anti-Nazi activist
A Bulgarian Communist activist acquitted with Dimitrov and Popov in the Reichstag fire trial of 1933. He went to the USSR and in 1941 joined an operation intended for Bulgaria. After the group landed in Greece by mistake, he was killed in combat.
Also known as: Vasil Taneff · Wassil Tanew
Activities and affiliations
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1919–
Bulgarian Communist Party (BKP)
Political and party leadership -
1931–1932
Bulgarian Communist Party (BKP)Main
Political and party leadership
Career Timeline
- 1933The Bulgarian Communist Party and Leipzig
- 1941Death in Greece in 1941
The Bulgarian Communist Party and Leipzig
Joining the Bulgarian Communist Party in 1919, Tanev participated in the uprising of 1923 and studied in the USSR after imprisonment and exile. He served on the party Politburo in 1931–1932. Arrested in Berlin in 1933, he became a Reichstag fire defendant but was acquitted with Dimitrov and Popov.
Death in Greece in 1941
On the night of 5–6 October 1941 Tanev departed with a special group intended to operate in Bulgaria behind Axis lines. The group landed in Greece by mistake, and he was killed on 9 October. Some English accounts transpose dates; the Bulgarian sources and Soviet encyclopaedia give a different chronology.