Pavel Shatev

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Pavel Shatev (1882 - 1951), was a revolutionary, and member of the left wing of the Macedonian-Adrianople revolutionary movement (IMARO, BMARC before 1902). He is considered ethnic Macedonian in the Republic of Macedonia and Bulgarian in Bulgaria.

He was born in Kratovo and graduated from the Bulgarian secondary school in Thessaloniki. In late April 1903, Shatev, with a group of young anarchists from the Gemidzhii Circle, launched a campaign of terror bombing. He used dynamite to blow up the French ship "Guadalquivir" which was leaving Thessaloniki harbour. He was captured and sentenced to death but later his sentence was changed to life imprisonment in Fezan - modern day Libya. In 1908, after the Young Turks revolution, Shatev was arrested, went to Bulgaria and graduated in law at Sofia University. In the next few years he worked as a teacher and journalist. In 1925 Shatev was one of the founders of Comintern - IMRO (United) in Vienna. During the 1930's he went back to Bulgaria and worked as a lawyer and publicist.

After the beginning of World War II Shatev was engaged in Communist conspiracy. As a political offender he was arrested and sentenced to 15 years prison. After the end of the war Shatev took part in the creation of the new People's Republic of Macedonia as a member of ASNOM. He was elected as Minister of Justice in the first communist government and later as vice - chairman of the Presidium of ASNOM. In the first elections for parliament, Shatev became a deputy. In 1948, disappointed with the policy of the new Macedonian authorities, he complained in letters to Stalin and to Georgi Dimitrov. As a result he was arrested and imprisoned for a year. After that, Shatev was taken into home custody in Bitola. On January 30, 1951, his dead body was found on Bitola's dung-hill.