Vangeliya Pandeva Gushterova (; , ; 3 October 1911 – 11 August 1996), commonly known as Baba Vanga (), was a Bulgarian attributed mystic and healer who claimed to have foreseen the future. Blind since her teenhood, she spent most of her life in the Rupite area of the Belasica mountains in Bulgaria.
During the Cold War, she became widely known in parts of Eastern Europe for her alleged abilities of clairvoyance and precognition. After the fall of communism, including after her death in 1996, her persona has remained popular.
Biography
Premature birth and naming
On , Vanga was born to Pando Surchev and Paraskeva Surcheva in Strumica in the Salonica vilayet of the Ottoman Empire (now North Macedonia). She was a premature baby who suffered from health complications. In accordance with local tradition, the baby was not given a name until she was deemed likely to survive. When the baby first cried out, a midwife went into the street and asked a stranger for a name. The stranger proposed Andromaha (Andromache). According to Krasimira Stoyanova, Vanga's niece and biographer, many women in Strumica then had Greek names, but the midwife rejected the proposed name because she did not like it. Another stranger's proposal was also a Greek name, which was accepted due to its popularity and adapted to the Bulgarian version: Vangeliya.
In the two years following Vanga's birth, during 1912 and 1913, two Balkan wars were fought, concluding with the deeply unpopular Bucharest treaty (1913), according to which Strumica was ceded to Bulgaria.
Childhood
During her childhood, Vanga's father was an Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization activist in the pro-Bulgarian branch, who seemed to have a strong sense of local Macedonian identity. 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. This left Vanga dependent on the care and charity of her neighbor.
After the war, Strumica was ceded to the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (i.e., Kingdom of Yugoslavia). Royal Yugoslav authorities arrested Vanga's father because of his pro-Bulgarian activity. They confiscated all of his property and the family fell into poverty for many years. Her father, being a widower, eventually remarried, thus providing a stepmother to his daughter.
Blindness
In 1923, Vanga and her father moved to Novo Selo. According to Stoyanova, she was found after a long search, covered with dirt, stones and branches. Stoyanova described her as very frightened, and her eyes were covered with sand and dust; she was unable to open them because of the pain. She had two unsuccessful operations in Skopje, while the third operation was only partial, because her father lacked money. This resulted in a gradual loss of sight. 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. After the death of her stepmother, she returned home to take care of her younger siblings. The family lived in poverty. In 1939, Vanga contracted pleurisy and was ill for eight months. The doctor's opinion was that she would die soon, but she recovered.
Attracting believers during World War II
During World War II, Yugoslavia was invaded and carved up 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. Bulgarian tzar Boris III had reportedly visited her too. including, reportedly, General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union Leonid Brezhnev.
Building her own church and death
Vanga later moved to the village Rupite. She had Orthodox Christian beliefs. In 1990, she declared St. Petka as her patron saint and decided that a church dedicated to her should be constructed. In the 1990s, the church was built in Rupite with money left by her visitors, She was buried near her church.
Many of the people who were close to her have stated that she never made some of the predictions attributed to her.
Some predictions attributed to her by her followers include:
<!-- List contains major and notable attributed predictions. It is not intended to include every attributed prediction. -->
Some predictions that have proven to be false include:
|The 44th president of the United States was the "last US president" Her Rupite house was also opened for visitors on 25 March 2014.
In 2012, Vanga was posthumously awarded the title "Honorary Citizen" by the Municipal Council of Petrich.
Vanga's alleged predictions and persona have remained popular in parts of Southeast Europe, primarily Bulgaria and North Macedonia, as well as parts of Eastern Europe, especially Russia. "The Great Encyclopedia of Vanga" is a Russian online project dedicated to her. In the 2010s, three Russian documentaries What Vanga was silent about (), Vanga: the seen and unseen world (), and Vanga the Great (), were released.
In the 2020s, Vanga's persona has continued to grow on the Internet.