When the war began, the Jewish dressmaker Violeta Yakova was living in Sofia. She was a member of the Bulgarian Communist Party (BCP). In 1941, Bulgaria joined the alliance between Germany, Japan, and Italy, whereupon German troops were stationed in the country. Bulgarian Jews began to be increasingly persecuted. To fight back, Yakova joined a communist combat group within the BCP. Using the codename Ivanka, she performed acts of sabotage on critical infrastructure. The aim was to weaken the Germans and the collaborating Bulgarian government.
Members of the group also carried out assassinations of German agents, collaborators, and informants. In March 1943, Yakova shot dead the former war minister and leader of the nationalist Union of Bulgarian National Legions Hristo Lukov. She was wanted by the police as a result.
After several failed attacks, the BCP combat groups in the cities were folded, and Yakova was transferred to a partisan group in western Bulgaria. She was murdered in the village of Kondofrey, presumably shortly after her 21st birthday. The precise details of her death are not clear.