Petar Angelov

Who was Petar Angelov?

Petar Dimitrov Angelov was a Bulgarian military officer and a revolutionary, a member of the Internal Macedonian-Adrianople Revolutionary Organization.

Petar Angelov was born in 1878 in Haskovo, in today’s Bulgaria, then part of the Ottoman Empire. After he finished a military academy he served as a sergeant in the 24-th infantry regiment. In 1900 he joined the revolutionary organization IMARO, and in 1903 he became a military instructor in the revolutionary band of Mihail Gerdzhikov in Odrin Thrace.

Petar Angelov was a delegate of the congress held at Petrova Niva on July 11, 1903, and was appointed leader of the Pirgopol revolutionary region in Strandzha. During the Ilinden-Preobrazhenie Uprising, he fought battles in Malko Tarnovo and defeated the Turkish troops in the villages of Madzhura, Kurfokoliba and Ineada.

After the end of the uprising, he went back to Bulgaria and from June 14, 1904, he became a leader in the region of Kriva Palanka. His revolutionary band had 25 members: 14 freedom fighters were born in the liberated parts of Bulgaria, Rudolf Goliyat came from Austria and Anton Hoshek was a Czech.