The People's Liberation Insurgent Army (NOVA) (Bulgarian: Народоосвободителната въстаническа армия (НОВА)) was the partisan resistance organization of the communist movement in Bulgaria during the Second World War from March 1943 to 9 September 1944.
The aim was to create a unified command and better coordination of the actions of the increased number of guerrilla units after the Battle of Stalingrad on the instructions of the GRU of the Red Army.
[1] In April 1943, the Central Military Commission was reorganized into the General Staff of the People's Liberation Insurgent Army, and the territory of Bulgaria was divided into 12 partisan operational zones.
In the summer of 1944, the People's Liberation Insurgent Army included 9 partisan brigades, 35 battalions and detachments, 2 couples and several small combat groups.
Despite their inferior numbers, the NOVA troops benefited from the BCP support network within the civilian population and skillfully waged a guerilla war: they temporarily held captured small villages, attacked farms for supplies, organized sabotage in factories and assassinated prominent government officials.
[3] In the winter of 1943–1944, the government mobilized up to one hundred thousand soldiers and police in an attempt to deliver a decisive blow to NOVA but those actions had only limited success.
Also, it was announced the creation of the Bulgarian People's Army, which included fighters of the NOVA partisan detachments and combat groups of the BCP, activists of the Resistance movement and 40 thousand volunteers.