Lyuba Kutincheva

Lyuba Kutincheva (; 15 May 191020 September 1998) was a Bulgarian traveller and polyglot who was known to speak at least seven languages. She travelled for almost a decade (1929–1938) in the Middle East, Far East, northern Africa and Europe.

Biography

Earliest years Kutincheva was born in Tarnovo in the Kingdom of Bulgaria on 15 May 1910 into a family of intellectuals. After 1913, the family lived in Southern Dobruja, which was historically part of Bulgaria but was held at that time by Romania. While she was still a student, she participated in the Internal Dobrujan Revolutionary Organisation with her father, which was a communist organization of Bulgarians dedicated to freeing their territory from Romania.

Lyuba graduated from a French high school in Bucharest, Romania. ) she went to Turkey, where she toured big cities to entertain audiences with tales of Bulgarian history, literature, poetry, manners and customs, and about the situation in Dobruja under Romanian rule. Her talks were "aimed at the Romanian authorities' attempts to assimilate the population of Dobruja."

One source, Borisov,

Mysteries remain The exact circumstances of Kutincheva's financial backing for her trips have never been identified. According to Pavlovich, Unfortunately, it is still unclear how Lyuba paid for her long stays abroad, although she reportedly sometimes lectured or worked in various places. It is equally unclear what the purpose of the trip was, as well as the notes she carefully collected from the authorities in each city she visited. One of the most curious hypotheses is that Lyuba was a spy funded by the Communist International.