Vlado Chernozemski

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Vlado Chernozemski

Vlado Chernozemski (the Driver) (Bulgarian: Владо Черноземски - Шофьора) (October 19, 1897 - October 9, 1934), born Velichko Dimitrov Kerin (Bulgarian: Величко Димитров Керин), was a Bulgarian revolutionary. He was born in the village of Kamenitsa (now part of Velingrad). He joined the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization in 1922. After killing Dimo Hadjidimov, leader of Bulgarian Communist Party in 1924 he was sentenced to death in 1928, but was granted an amnesty in 1932. He also murdered another member of the left wing of IMRO in 1930 on the order of Ivan Mihaylov.

Chernozemski also entered the region of Vardar Banovina with IMRO bands and participated in more than 15 battles with the Serbian police. At one point, Chernozemski planned to enter the League of Nations building in Paris and detonate himself to protest against the passivity of the world organization over the question of Macedonian independence but never carried out the plot^{[citation needed]}. He assassinated Alexander I of Yugoslavia in the port of Marseille, France on October 9, 1934^[1], and was himself killed immediately afterwards, 10 days before his 37th birthday. He was also thought to have shot and killed French Foreign Minister Louis Barthou until 1974, when it was revealed that the bullet actually came from a French policeman reacting to the shooting of King Alexander.