Todor Aleksandrov
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Todor Aleksandrov (March 4, 1881, Shtip (present day Republic of Macedonia) - August 31, 1924, Sugarevo, Bulgaria) was a 19th century Bulgarian revolutionary, a member of the Bulgarian Macedonian-Adrianople Revolutionary Committees (BMARC) since 1897 . The organization changed its name to IMARO in 1906 . He was sworn in at the age of 15, by Hristo Matov. IMARO was a rebel group active in Ottoman Macedonia and Thrace at the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century.
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[edit] Biography
Todor Aleksandrov (Тодор Александров, also transliterated as Alexandrov) was born on March 4, 1881 in the Novo Selo suburb of Shtip (present day Republic of Macedonia) to Aleksandar Poporushev and Marija Aleksandrova. In 1898, he finished the Bulgarian Pedagogical School in Skopje and became a Bulgarian teacher consecutively in the towns of Kocani, Kratovo, the village of Vinica, and Shtip. He also attended the Bulgarian Men's High School of Thessaloniki.
In 1903 Todor Aleksandrov distinguished himself as an extraordinary leader and organizer of the Kocani Revolutionary District. He was arrested by the Ottoman authorities on March 3, 1903 and sent to Skopje under enforced police escort during the same night. He was sentenced to five years of solitary confinement by the extraordinary court there. In April, 1904, he was released after an amnesty. Soon afterwards, he was appointed a head teacher in the Second high-school in Shtip. Aleksandrov, in co-operation with Todor Lazarov and Mishe Razvigorov, worked day and night to organize the Shtip Revolutionary District. The results of his activities were detected by the Ottoman authorities and in November 1904 he was forbidden to teach. On January 10, 1905 Aleksandrov's house was surrounded by a numerous troops but he succeeded in breaking through the military cordoned and immediately joined the cheta (band) of Mishe Razvigorov where he became its secretary. Aleksandrov attended the First Congress of the Skopje Revolutionary Region as a delegate from the Shtip district.
His deteriorating health lead him to become a teacher in Bulgaria - the Black Sea town of Burgas in 1906, but after learning about the death of Mishe Razvigorov, he abandoned his work as a teacher and returned to Macedonia at once. In November 1907, Aleksandrov was elected as a district vojvoda (commander) by the Third Congress of the Skopje Revolutionary District.
On August 2, 1909 the Ottomans made another attempt to arrest him but failed again. In the spring of 1910 he and his cheta traversed the Skopje region and organized the revolutionary activities. At the beginning of 1911, Todor Aleksandrov became a member of the Central Committee of the IMARO. In 1912, he became a vojvoda in the Kukush and Solun districts where he carried out a number of sabotages against Ottoman targets, facilitating this way the Macedonian cause in the First Balkan War. In 1913, he was at the head quarters of the Third brigade of the Macedonian Militia in the Bulgarian army. After 1913 he organized the IMARO resistance against other nationalities - Serbs and Greeks.
On November 4, 1919 Aleksandrov was arrested by the government of Aleksandar Stamboliyski but he succeeded to escape nine days later. In the spring of 1920, Aleksandrov went with a cheta to Serbian Macedonia where he restored the revolutionary organization and attracted the world's attention to the unsolved Macedonian question. At the end of 1922, there was a bounty of 250,000 denars placed on him by the Serbian authorities in Belgrade.
Todor Aleksandrov was assassinated when a traitor in his cheta shot him on August 31, 1924 in the Pirin Mountains.
[edit] Ethnicity of Todor Aleksandrov
As most of the events and developments in late 19th century Macedonia, the national and ethnic affiliations of Todor Aleksandrov are a contentious issue. He is regarded as an ethnic Bulgarian by the majority of historians and as an ethnic Macedonian by historians from the Republic of Macedonia. The latter argue that the use of the word "Bulgarian" in the 19th century Macedonia does not refer to ethnicity, and that it was synonymous with "Christian" or "Slav". Bulgarian historians argue that the Macedonian autonomy was never meant to have an "ethnic Macedonian" nature and note that no distinction between a "Macedonian" and "Bulgarian" existed at that time pointing to the use of "Adrianopolitan" alongside "Macedonian" in the documents of the IMARO. The article on Macedonians provides insight into the some of the ethno-historic complexities of the region. Also, it is a wikipedia policy to use self-identifying terms in a descriptive, rather than prescriptive manner.
In his letters, interviews and documents Todor Alexandrov consider himself as Bulgarian from Macedonia. The mean of this term in the correspondency of T. Alexandrov was ethnical. His enemies and friends consider him as Bulgarian too.
[edit] Notes
- ↑ BMARC and IMARO were the predecessors of the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization (IMRO). IMARO and IMRO changed names on several occasions. To avoid confusion, this article uses only the name and acronym "IMARO". For a detailed discussion of the organization and its history, please consult the dedicated article.
- ↑ Димитър Галев - "Тодор Александров - од автономиjа до самостоjна држава" (Скопje, 1995)
