The murder of Stefan Stambolov was an assassination, performed on July 15 (July 3 old style) 1895 in Sofia. A few days later, one of the iconic figures of the Kingdom of Bulgaria died.
The attack was carried out with the tacit support of the People's Party government and Prince Ferdinand I by a group of pro-Russian oriented Bulgarians, headed by Naum Tyufekchiev, who had committed several terrorist acts in the previous years.
The murder itself took place on the evening of July 15.
At 19:50, Stambolov leaves the Union Club and gets into a carriage, together with his friend and political associate Dimitar Petkov and his personal bodyguard Guncho. The truck driver Mircho Atsov is involved in the plot and is specially waiting in front of the club. Shortly after the departure, Bone Georgiev and Halyu appear in front of the carriage, and a little later Talyu, as Georgiev shoots at the carriage, and Halyu takes out a scimitar and quickly heads towards it. The coachman stops the coach, and the police stationed in front of the Union Club quickly move away from the scene. Stambolov jumps out of the carriage, after which Mircho Atsov drives off, taking Dimitar Petkov and the bodyguard to the neighboring street “Stefan Karadzha”.
Stambolov fled along “Rakovska“ back to the Union Club, but Hallyu catches up to him. When he attempts to shoot his assailant, he cuts his hand, then knocks him to the ground and, along with the other attackers, begins to hit him on the head, as they know that Stambolov usually goes out with protective mail under his clothes. When Guncho and Dimitar Petkov return to “Rakovska“ the attackers run away. Guncho starts chasing Hallyu, wounding him in the neck with his gun, but is stopped by two policemen who help the assassin escape. Halyu and Talyu run through the streets to the southeast and disappear in Perlovets, and Bone Georgiev retreats with Mircho Atsov's phaeton.
Meanwhile, Dimitar Petkov takes Stambolov to his home in a carriage.
Stambolov's entire face is slashed, both of his hands are almost completely cut off, and his right eye is taken out.
However, he is conscious and blames Hallyu, Naum Tyufekchiev and Prince Ferdinand for the attack. The wounds are severe and his condition is further aggravated by diabetes. After a slight improvement on July 16, Stefan Stambolov died at 3:35 a.m. on July 18, 1895.
In the period 1887-1894, Stefan Stambolov was the Prime Minister of Bulgaria, leading the country out of a severe constitutional crisis, confirming the new Prince Ferdinand. His rule has been accompanied by numerous attempts at a violent change of power organized by various groups linked to Russia, which refuses to recognize the legitimacy of the government and the prince.
After the removal of Stambolov from the government, Prince Ferdinand and the new government of Konstantin Stoilov continue to fear his influence and look for ways to compromise him, Dani Ivanov recalls in his blog. On August 24, 1894, he was briefly arrested for criticizing the prince in an interview with a German newspaper, and after his release he was stoned in the street by government supporters. Military Minister Racho Petrov organized an investigation trying to prove that Stambolov had organized the assassination attempt against himself in 1891, in which Finance Minister Hristo Belchev was killed.
After the investigation found no evidence of this, it was terminated at the end of the year.
A little later, a parliamentary commission of inquiry was formed, headed by Dimitar Mollov and including other prominent opponents of Stambolov, which tried to prove criminal activity by members of the previous government, but was also unsuccessful.
The assassination of Stefan Stambolov shocked the foreign press, especially in German-speaking countries, where comments linking the murder to the prince and the government appeared. At the same time, on the day after the attack, the Bulgarian delegation, which was in St. Petersburg and aimed at recognizing the prince from Russia, received an invitation to the long-delayed audience with Emperor Nicholas II.