17 Facts About Rayko Daskalov

Rayko Daskalov led the republican Radomir Rebellion organised by deserted Bulgarian Army troops in 1918 against the government.

From 1919 to 1923 Daskalov was a prominent member of the BAPU governments which were in power in Bulgaria in the early post-World War I period.

Rayko Daskalov was born in the village of Byala Cherkva, located near Veliko Tarnovo in the central north of the Principality of Bulgaria.

Rayko Daskalov finished the High School of Commerce in Svishtov and in 1907 left for Berlin, the capital of the German Empire.

Rayko Daskalov joined the party in 1911 and by 1914 he had established himself as one of its more active figures.

Severely wounded in the arm in the skirmishes, Rayko Daskalov managed to escape to Thessaloniki, Greece by surrendering to the advancing Entente forces.

Rayko Daskalov suggested the establishment of BAPU's paramilitary force, the Orange Guard, which he personally commanded.

Rayko Daskalov was successively in charge of several ministries during BAPU's time in power: the Ministry of Agriculture and State Properties, the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Labour and the Ministry of Internal Affairs and National Health.

Rayko Daskalov was elected to parliament for three consecutive National Assembly terms, from 1919 to 1923.

Politically, Rayko Daskalov belonged to the radical leftist wing of BAPU.

Rayko Daskalov was a major opponent of the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organisation, an autonomist organisation in the region of Macedonia which took a stand against the terms of the Treaty of Neuilly that imposed Yugoslav and Greek rule over most of the region.

In February 1923, Rayko Daskalov was released from his duties as government minister and in May he was sent to Prague, the capital of Czechoslovakia, as Bulgarian minister plenipotentiary to that country.

Rayko Daskalov attempted to gather international support for the overthrown government and even founded a BAPU government in exile, though his efforts were of little practical effect.

On 26 August 1923, Rayko Daskalov was fatally shot on Holecek Street in the Smichov district of Prague by another IMRO associate, Yordan Tsitsonkov, under orders from IMRO leader Todor Aleksandrov.

Rayko Daskalov committed suicide there by hanging in January 1926.

On 9 February 1919, Rayko Daskalov married Nevena, an agrarian sympathiser from an affluent Sofia family.

Rayko Daskalov was initially interred in Prague's Olsany Cemetery; his burial ceremony was booed by anti-agrarian Bulgarian students in the city.