[6] Vanga was born on 3 October 1911 to Pando Surchev and Paraskeva Surcheva in Strumica in the Salonica vilayet of the Ottoman Empire (now North Macedonia).

Another stranger's proposal was also a Greek name, which was accepted due to its popularity and adapted to the Bulgarian version: Vangeliya.

[8] Her mother died while giving birth when Vanga was three years old, while her father was conscripted into the Bulgarian Army during World War I.

[12] In 1925, Vanga was taken to a school for the blind in the city of Zemun, in the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (now Serbia), where she spent three years and was taught to read Braille, play the piano, knit, cook, and clean.

[14] During World War II, Yugoslavia was invaded and dismembered by the Axis powers and Strumica was annexed by Bulgaria.

At that time Vanga attracted believers in her alleged ability to heal and soothsay—a number of people visited her, hoping to get a hint about whether their relatives were alive, or seeking the place where they died.

Gushterov, a Bulgarian soldier from the village of Krandzhilitsa near Petrich, had come to town seeking revenge for his brother's killing.

Dimitar was then conscripted in the Bulgarian Army and was stationed in Northern Greece, which was annexed by Bulgaria at the time.

[17] After World War II, the Bulgarian police and communist party tried to suppress Vanga's activities, but she continued to be visited by people.

[8] After police control and social pressure reduced in the 1960s, she was employed by the Petrich municipality and Institute of Suggestology (part of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences).

In the 1960s, the main task of the newly established Institute of Suggestology employing her was to study her alleged abilities.