Bas-relief of Nikola Vaptsarov

Nikola Yonkov Vaptsarov (1909-1942) was a Bulgarian poet whose work was mainly social and humanistic. Vaptsarov's only collection of poetry published during his lifetime, entitled Motor Songs, came out in 1940. Vaptsarov collaborated with the then illegal Bulgarian Communist Party and was an active anti-fascist. As a result of the Comintern's policies and the directives of the BCP, he was influenced by the ideas of Macedonism. In 1942, he was arrested and sentenced to death under the State Protection Act for organizing subversive activities against the established state order during the war. He was posthumously granted amnesty after 1944.