Dimitar Blagoev

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Dimitar Blagoev (Bulgarian: Димитър Благоев) (14 June 1856 – 7 May 1924) was a Bulgarian political leader.

Blagoev was born in the village of Zagorichani in the region of Macedonia (today Vasiliada in Agioi Anargyroi, Kastoria, Greece), at that time part of the Ottoman Empire. He was a founder of the Social-Democratic Workers' Party of Bulgaria in 1891 and became the leader of its left wing which split from the SDP in 1903 to found the Social Democratic Workers Party of Bulgaria known as 'The Narrows' (narrow socialists). He was against foreign intervention by the Great Powers in south east Europe, believed in a federal Balkan area and opposed Bulgaria's military engagements in the Second Balkan war and WWI. In 1919 the party joined the Communist International and became the Bulgarian Communist Party with Blagoev at its head. The city of Gorna Dzhumaya in today's Blagoevgrad Province in Bulgaria was named after him Blagoevgrad.