Sirakova, Mariola, 1904-1925

Born 1904 - Kilifarevo, Bulgaria, died May 28th 1925 - Belovo, Bulgaria.

Born in Kilifarevo, Bulgaria on 14th August 1904, the student-actress Mariola Sirakova belonged to a well-off family. She revolted from an early age against her social background and became an anarchist communist when she went to the Girls High School at Tarnovo in 1919.

She regularly took part in secret anarchist meetings.

She began a relationship with another Bulgarian anarchist, Gueorgui Cheitanov. She associated with other important anarchists like Petar Maznev, Georgi Simeonov Popov, and others. In her frre time, she acted in the Orpheus Theatre Company in Kilifarevo.
In 1922-23 she studied in Pleven. She often hid wanted anarchists like Vassil Popov and Valko Shankov

In 1923 a military coup led to the butchery of 35,000 workers and peasants. The armed resistance that followed ended with the bomb attack by the Communist Party on Sofia cathedral which was aimed at the country's elite. A massive campaign of repression was then unleashed by the fascists and military against the revolutionary movement.

Mariola was arrested by the police, and raped and brutally beaten. In June 1924 she returned to Kilifarevo. She was arrested again, but soon released. She gave support to the Kilifarevo cheta (armed guerilla unit), bringing them food, medicine and clothes and caring for the wounded.

Special police detachments were set up to hunt Cheitanov down. All the guerrillas united into a single detachment, being forced to disperse towards the end of May. Cheitanov and Mariola Sirakova, were caught in an ambush and arrested. They were taken to Belovo railway station and shot with 12 other prisoners on May 28th June 1925.

After her martyr's death, her younger brother Georgu carried on the struggle for anarchism and was imprisoned by the Communists in the concentration camp of Belene.

Nick Heath
From Organise! 52 by the Anarchist Federation