On May 21, 1922, Alexander Grekov, chairman of the People's Agreement and director of the newspaper "Slovo", was killed in front of his home in the center of Sofia. He was born in Sofia on December 5, 1884 and is the son of Dimitar Grekov. He graduated from law in Paris and devoted himself to diplomatic activities, recalls "Focus".
After the end of the Inter-Allied War in 1913, he was included in the Bulgarian delegation that led the negotiations in Constantinople for the signing of a peace treaty between Bulgaria and Turkey. After the beginning of the First World War 1914-1918, Grekov headed the Bulgarian Legation in Paris, and later in Stockholm.
After the signing of the Thessaloniki Armistice in 1918, he was a Bulgarian diplomatic representative in Bern. In 1919, he was sent as a commissioner to the headquarters of the inter-Allied government in Western Thrace.
Due to disagreement with the policy of the BZNS, he resigned in 1920 and turned his attention to journalistic and public activities. In 1921, he was one of the founders of the People's Agreement. The organization included non-partisan activists and reserve officers who were against the government of the BZNS and the left-wing forces.
The role of central leadership was played by the Sofia Committee, headed by Grekov. At the end of 1921 and the beginning of 1922, local groups were established in a number of other cities in the country, where there were military garrisons. The official announcement of the organization took place on March 15, 1922, and on April 10, its printed organ - the newspaper "Slovo" - began to be published.
In general, the attitude of the Prime Minister from the Bulgarian National Socialist Union of Socialists, Alexander Stamboliyski, towards journalists is quite curious. During the year in question, 1922, legal cases were brought against over 100 journalists, recalls the newspaper "Desant".
The inaction of the investigation continues to be desperate. Suddenly, neither in a wedge nor in a sleeve, the whole of Sofia dawned on June 11, plastered under and over the road with "Anarchist", an illegal newspaper - the organ of the anarchist communists in Bulgaria. It explains that Grekov was killed because he was the head of some association of tobacco exporters, which cruelly exploited the workers. This was immediately taken up by the government newspapers "Zemedelsko zname" and "Pobeda".
The Bulgarian Communist Party publication "Narodna armiya" also intervened in the story, specifying that the idea was to put a constitutional mask on the coup, and that Alexander Grekov was supposed to be the prime minister.
Alexander Grekov's article "Anarchy" actually exposes Stamboliyski's rule as an opportunity for ministers and other leaders of the Agricultural Union to impose a system of corruption that has never existed in Bulgaria. Just one example: after the government decides at a meeting to raise the price of gas, one of the ministers, with proxies, quickly buys up almost all the available gas in the kingdom, in order to resell it at the new price.
The murder of Alexander Grekov will be attributed to the anarchists. This will officially happen in a month and a half, when Pano Chuklev, director of "Orient Tabak," and Ivan Ivanov, chief director of the Sofia prison, will be killed. The editorial office of the "Utro" newspaper will receive a letter in which anarchists will take responsibility for the murders. Chuklev's name will be linked to that of Grekov.
After the murder of Alexander Grekov in May 1922, Professor Alexander Tsankov was appointed in his place. Together with the Military Union, the People's Agreement participated in the preparation and execution of the coup d'état on June 9, 1923, and took over the government of the country until June 21, 1931.