Nikola Karev

Who was Nikola Karev?

Nikola Janakiev Karev was a revolutionary in Ottoman-ruled Macedonia. He was born 23 November 1877 in Kruševo and died 27 April 1905 in the village of Rajčani, both today in the Republic of Macedonia. Karev was a local leader of what later became known as the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization. He was also a socialist and a member of the Bulgarian Workers' Social Democratic Party. He is considered a Bulgarian in Bulgaria and a Macedonian in the Republic of Macedonia.

His two brothers, Petar and Georgi also participated in IMARO. During the First and the Second world wars, when Vardar Macedonia was anexed by Bulgaria, they supported Bulgarian authorities. As result, after 1944 they were imprisoned in SFR Yugoslavia in concentration camps, where both were killed in 1950 and 1951 respectively.