MEMBER OF NIKOLA PETKOV GROUP IN BULGARIA RELATES PRISON EXPERIENCES

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP80-00809A000600360611-3
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: C
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: July 21, 2011
• Sequence Number: 611
• Publication Date: December 6, 1950
• Content Type: REPORT

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/07/22 :CIA-RDP80-00809A000600360611-3
CLASSIFICATION CONFIDENTIAL V ~+~~'~~n' (~L
CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY REPORT
INFORMATION FROM
FOREIGN DOCUMENTS OR RADIO BROADCASTS CD NO,
COUNTRY
Bulgaria
SUBJECT
Political - Resistance
HOW
PUBLISHED
Monthly periodical
WHERE
PUBL"TSHED
Paris
~.
DATE
PUBLISHED
LANGUAGE
Jun - Jul 1950
Bulgarian
TXIS DOCUY [NT CONTAINS IN10pYATION AIfECTINO TX[ NATIONAL D[I{M![
01 TNt UNIT[D 6TAT[S pITNIN TN[ YGNINO 01 tS II0 NA3[ ACT t0
Y, !. C.. SI AND SS.At AY [N D[0. ITS iRANlYIlSION Op TN[ RtY[LRTI01.
01 ITS CONT[NTS IN ANY YANN[R TO AN UNAU TNO RI[[0 1[RSON IS IRO?
NI[ITID ST LAY. R[IRODU CTION 01 TNIS {ORY i! IRONI tIT[0.
DATE OF
INFORMATION 1949
SUPPLEMENT TO
REPORT NO.
SOURCE Osvobo?hdenie ~nti-Conmmunis~, Vol I, No 8-9, 1950.
MENIDER OF NIKOLA PETKOV GROUP
IN BULGARIA RELATES PRISON EXPERIENCES
A letter recently received from Bulgaria contains the following account
of prison methods under the present Communist regime, The writer says:
Some of my friends and I had formed a group which distributed pamphlets
inciting the peasants to resist the shipment of ell their agricultural pro-
duce to the USSR, This illegal organization was known as the Nikola Petkov
Group. As a result of our activity, I was arrested and brought to court,
although the work of the organization continued.
On 14 December 1947 I was transferred to the State Security agency in
Burgas and interrogated by Cap*.~~n Nikolov, supply officer of the 24th In-
fantry Regiment, .The following questions were asked: (1) Who had ordered
the group to write and distribute the pamphlets? (2) Did we have any con-
nections with the emigres and Dr G. M. Dimitrov personally? (3) What was
the ob,jecti~+e of~the organization and how many members did it include? (4)
From whom did we expect'to receive arms? I replied that I had no informs=
tion on say of these matters. This attitude infuriated my interrogators:
Nikolov, Buchvarov, Chakurov, Velyu Bsev, and Radko Milanov.
After months of torture, I was transferred to a prison, together with
Nikola Koatandinov, Captaitt Nizarov, Krustyu Vasilev, and Staykov, and tried
under Article 98, Paragraphs 1-6. I was sentenced to J.0 years imprisonment
at hard labor, and the others received prison terms of one year and 6 months.
During my term i.n prison, I was cha-:ned and submitr,2d to further beat-
ings and solitary confinement until, on 4 September 1949, I succeeded in es-
caping from the Ruse prison.
It may be stated in general that the treatment of political prisoners
is Bulgaria is eo harsh and cruel as to induce many of them to commit auicid~
rather than suffer the intolerable tortures. Beatings are a normal part of
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/07/22 :CIA-RDP80-00809A000600360611-3
 Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/07/22 :CIA-RDP80-00809A000600360611-3
~~N~1?EN1t~l
the daily routine, I once spent 6 months in the Burgas prison, deprived
of food parcels, mail, and visitors, and bound in a chain weighing !FO kilo-
grams, only for addressing Prison Director Stavrev as "Mr Director" instead
of "Comrade Director," Such measures are applied to all political prieon-
ere throughout the'Bulgarian prisons concen?~ration camps, and State Secur-
ity agenciea~ -- Detelin Selyashki ~robab].y a pseudonym]
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/07/22 :CIARDP80-00809A000600360611_3