Vladimir Tomov Poptomov (Bulgarian:ВладимирТомовПоптомов;February 8,1890,– May 1,1952) was a Bulgarian politician and diplomat,prominent member of the Bulgarian Communist Party and statesman of the People's Republic of Bulgaria.
Vladimir Poptomov was born as Vladimir Popiliev in February 1890 in the city of Belitsa,which at that time belonged to the Ottoman Empire. In 1911 he graduated from the pedagogical school in the city of Serres,after which he worked as a teacher in Bansko. [1] Vladimir's father,Toma Popiliev,was a Bulgarian exarchate priest who for 15 years headed the Bulgarian church and school community and was one of the leaders of the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization in Belitsa,killed by the Ottoman authorities. In 1912 he joined the Bulgarian Workers' Social Democratic Party. In 1914 he graduated from the School of Reserve Officers in Sofia and during the First World War he served as a junior lieutenant in the Bulgarian Army. [2] After the war he entered the Sofia University in 1919 and graduated in 1922.
Poptomov took part in the leadership of the BKP in Petrich and Gorna Jumae,in 1920 he was elected a deputy. During the September Uprising of 1923,he led the actions of the insurgents in Razlog and,after the suppression of the uprising,emigrated to Yugoslavia;in 1924 he was sentenced to death in absentia. In 1925,Poptomov became one of the founders of the International Macedonian Revolutionary Organization (IMRO) and became its political secretary,and until 1933 was the editor-in-chief of the newspaper “Macedonian Cause”published on its behalf. [3]
In 1934,Vladimir Poptomov went to Moscow,where he joined the All-Union Communist Party and worked in the Communist International. In 1936,a Bulgarian court sentenced in absentia to twelve years and six months in the process of IMRO. [2]
After the coup on September 9,1944,Poptomov returned to Bulgaria and became a member of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the BCP. From 1945 to 1949 he was editor-in-chief of the Rabotnichesko Delo newspaper,the official organ of the BCP. He became professor and the Sofia University in 1948. In 1948-1949 he worked as chief secretary at the National Council of the Fatherland Front. From August 1949 to May 1950,Poptomov served Minister of Foreign Affairs of Bulgaria and from January 1950 until his death in 1952 he was Deputy Chairman of the Council of Ministers. [4]
Vladimir Poptomov died on May 1,1952,in Sofia after suffering from a long illness. [5]
The Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization,was a secret revolutionary society founded in the Ottoman territories in Europe,that operated in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
Georgi Nikolov Delchev,known as Gotse Delchev or Goce Delčev,was an important Macedonian Bulgarian revolutionary (komitadji),active in the Ottoman-ruled Macedonia and Adrianople regions at the turn of the 20th century. He was the most prominent leader of what is known today as the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization (IMRO),a secret revolutionary society that was active in Ottoman territories in the Balkans at the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century. Delchev was its representative in Sofia,the capital of the Principality of Bulgaria. As such,he was also a member of the Supreme Macedonian-Adrianople Committee (SMAC),participating in the work of its governing body. He was killed in a skirmish with an Ottoman unit on the eve of the Ilinden-Preobrazhenie uprising.
Hristo Tatarchev was a Macedonian Bulgarian doctor,revolutionary and one of the founders of the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization (IMRO). Tatarchev authored several political journalistic works between the First and Second World War.
Vlado Chernozemski was a Bulgarian revolutionary and assassin. Also known as "Vlado the Chauffeur",Chernozemski is considered a hero in Bulgaria today. The official historiography in North Macedonia regards him as a controversial Bulgarian.
Metodi Tasev Shatorov - Sharlo was a Bulgarian Communist Party activist and also the temporary leader of the Regional Committee of Communists in Macedonia in 1940-1941. Like most left-wing politicians from Macedonia,during the 1930s he adopted the Resolution of the Comintern on the Macedonian question,about the recognition of a distinct Macedonian national identity. However,such Macedonian communist functionaries,originating from the Bulgarian Communist Party (BCP) and Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization (United),maintained pro-Bulgarian sentiments.
Todor Nikolov Panitsa was a Bulgarian revolutionary figure,active in the region of Macedonia. He was one of the leaders of the left wing of the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization.
Dimo Hadzhidimov was a 20th-century Bulgarian teacher,revolutionary and politician from Ottoman Macedonia. He was among the leaders of the left wing of Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization (IMRO),which he considered a Bulgarian creation.
Petar Chaulev was a Bulgarian revolutionary in Ottoman Macedonia. He was a local leader of the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization (IMRO).
Alexandar Protogerov was a Bulgarian Army general,politician and revolutionary,as well as a member of the revolutionary movement in the Ottoman regions of Macedonia,Thrace and Pomoravlje. Protogerov was a Bulgarian Freemason and held a leading position in the lodge where he was a member.
Dimitar Vlahov was a politician from the region of Macedonia and member of the left wing of the Macedonian-Adrianople revolutionary movement. As with many other IMRO members of the time,historians from North Macedonia consider him an ethnic Macedonian and in Bulgaria he is considered a Bulgarian. According to Dimitar Bechev,Vlahov declared himself until the early 1930s as a Bulgarian and afterwards as an ethnic Macedonian.
Tsola Nincheva Dragoycheva,also known under the pseudonym Sonya,was a Bulgarian politician of the Bulgarian Communist Party (BCP). A member of the illegal armed wing of the party in the 1920s,she spent years in prison and as an émigré in the Soviet Union. After World War II,she held a number of high posts and was part of the nomenklatura. From 1946 until 1990,she was continuously a member of the National Assembly of Bulgaria. On 11 December 1947 she became the first female member of a cabinet in the history of the country.
Lazar Poptraykov was a Macedonian Bulgarian revolutionary (komitadji). He was also a Bulgarian Exarchate teacher and poet from Ottoman Macedonia. He was one of the leaders of the Internal Macedonian-Adrianople Revolutionary Organization (IMARO) in the region of Kastoria (Kostur) during the Ilinden Uprising. Despite his Bulgarian identification,per the post-WWII Macedonian historiography he is considered as an ethnic Macedonian.
The "May Manifesto" of May 6,1924 was a paper in which the objectives of the unified Macedonian liberation movement were presented:independence and unification of partitioned region of Macedonia,fighting all the neighbouring Balkan monarchies,supporting the Balkan Communist Federation and cooperation with the Soviet Union.
Nikola Petkov Pushkarov (1874–1934) was the first Bulgarian soil researcher and founder of the soil science in Bulgaria. He was also an activist of the Internal Macedonian-Adrianople Revolutionary Organization.
Naum Hristov Tomalevski was a Bulgarian revolutionary,participant in the Macedonian revolutionary movement,member of the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization (IMRO).
Vasil Atanasov Ivanovski also known by his pseudonym Bistrishki,was a Bulgarian communist activist,publicist,theoretician of the Macedonian nation within the IMRO (United). According to the historiography in North Macedonia,Ivanovski is its founder and a prominent "fighter for the affirmation of the Macedonian national identity",and according to the Bulgarian historiography,he is known "for his wanderings on the Macedonian question". Per the Macedonian historian Ivan Katardžiev,such activists of the IMRO (United) and the Bulgarian Communist Party never managed to break with their pro-Bulgarian aspirations.
The Macedonian-Adrianople Social Democratic Group was a regional faction of the Bulgarian Workers' Social Democratic Party in the Ottoman Empire. According to Macedonian historians,most of its activists were ethnic Macedonians.
Petar Traykov Girovski was a Bulgarian Army officer,later activist of the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization. Afterwards he became close to some communist circles and after the Second World War participated in Yugoslav and Bulgarian politics.
Alekso Martulkov,born as Aleksandar Onchev Martulkov,was a publicist and one of the first socialist revolutionaries from the region of Macedonia. He was a member of the Bulgarian Workers' Social Democratic Party and later the People's Federative Party and the Bulgarian Communist Party. Simultaneously,he was a member of the IMRO and subsequently the IMRO (United). He advocated for the independence of Macedonia. Martulkov was also a member of the Bulgarian Parliament,as well as the Presidium of ASNOM and the parliament of SR Macedonia. He is considered a Macedonian in the Macedonian historiography and a Bulgarian in the Bulgarian historiography.
Naum Tyufekchiev,born on June 29,1864,in Resen,in the Ottoman Empire,was a Bulgarian and Macedonian revolutionary,explosives expert,tactician,and anarchist arms dealer. He was a member and leader of the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization (IMRO).