People's Liberation Insurgent Army
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The People's Liberation Insurgent Army (NOVA; Bulgarian: Народоосвободителната въстаническа армия, НОВА) was the partisan resistance organization of the communist movement in Bulgaria during the Second World War from March 1943 to 9 September 1944. It was the largest resistance organization of Bulgaria during the Second World War.
The partisan movement in Bulgaria appeared in the second half of 1941 and consisted of multiple separate partisan detachments.
Political leadership the partisan detachments was exercised by the Politburo of the Bulgarian Communist Party. It was operationally managed by the Central Military Commission of the BCP with Commander Tsvyatko Radoinov and members Hristo Mihailov, Boyan Balgaranov, Petar Mihailov, Gocho Grozev, Georgi Minchev, Ivan Maslarov, Dimo Dichev. Among the collaborators were Anton Ivanov, Anton Yugov, Petar Bogdanov, Nikola Vaptsarov, Anton Popov, Atanas Romanov.
The victory of the Soviet troops at Stalingrad aroused great enthusiasm among the leaders and participants of the partisan movement. In March 1943, it was decided to create a People's Liberation Insurrectionary Army on the basis of partisan detachments. The aim was to create a unified command and better coordination of the actions of the increased number of guerrilla units after the Battle of Stalingrad on the instructions of the GRU of the Red Army.[1]
In April 1943, the Central Military Commission was reorganized into the General Staff of the People's Liberation Insurgent Army, and the territory of Bulgaria was divided into 12 partisan operational zones. The leadership of each operational zone included a commander, his deputy, a chief of staff, and a political commissar.
In the summer of 1944, the People's Liberation Insurgent Army included 9 partisan brigades, 35 battalions and detachments, 2 couples and several small combat groups. As of early September 1944, the People's Liberation Insurgent Army included 1 partisan division, 9 partisan brigades and 37 partisan detachments and combat groups.
The partisan forces numbered up to 9,900 during the heyday of the movement. According to some researchers, after the Communists and their allies seized power, the number of living guerrillas was 5,654, to which should be added 1,988 members of battle groups and 12,252 fugitives. Account should also be taken of the losses of NOVA, who were 3,055 killed in battle, executed, died of wounds and imprisoned in 1941–1944. As well as the killed partisans, members of battle groups and fugitives, participants in the war against Nazi Germany until 9 May 1945.[2]