Nikola Vaptsarov, Bulgarian poet and author (died 1942)

Nikola Yonkov Vaptsarov was a Bulgarian poet and Bulgarian Communist Party activist. Working most of his life as a machinist, he only wrote in his spare time. Despite the fact that he only ever published one poetry book, he is considered one of the most important Bulgarian poets. In the latter part of his life, as a Macedonian nationalist, he was the driving force of the Macedonian Literary Circle until World War II when it was disbanded, and its attempts to awaken Macedonian identity were abandoned. Vaptsarov joined the resistance movement and because of his subversive activities in favor of the Soviet Union and against the Bulgarian government and the German troops in Bulgaria, he was arrested, tried, sentenced and executed the same night by a firing squad.