1. Boris Petrov Sarafov was a Bulgarian Army officer and revolutionary, one of the leaders of Supreme Macedonian-Adrianople Committee and of the pro-Bulgarian, rightist wing of the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization.
20 Facts About Boris Sarafov
1. 2.
Boris Sarafov is considered an ethnic Macedonian in North Macedonia, having identified occasionally as a Macedonian in his life.
3.
Boris Sarafov was born in 1872 in the village Libyahovo, Nevrokop region, in the Salonica vilayet of the Ottoman Empire.
4.
Boris Sarafov grew up schooled through the Bulgarian Exarchate's school in Nevrokop and the Bulgarian Men's High School of Thessaloniki.
5.
Later Sarafov attended the Military School of His Majesty in Sofia, the capital of the recently created Principality of Bulgaria.
6.
In 1895 Boris Sarafov became a member of the Macedonian Supreme Committee and was released from the Army.
7.
Boris Sarafov led an insurgent operation in Ottoman Macedonia and occupied Melnik for a few days.
8.
Boris Sarafov had apparently overstepped his prerogatives by plotting the assassination of a Romanian newspaper editor Stefan Mihaileanu, who had published unflattering remarks about the Committee.
9.
In 1901 Boris Sarafov was stripped of his chairmanship and jailed for a month.
10.
Boris Sarafov had travelled widely in Europe raising funds for a war against the Turks.
11.
In 1902, Boris Sarafov visited Belgrade trying to gain Serbian support for a "Macedonia for the Macedonians" to oppose the Bulgarian annexationists in Macedonia.
12.
In November 1903, Boris Sarafov made another visit there, when he obtained a significant grant of money from the Serbian government for allowing the entry of the first Serbian bands into Macedonia, which decision was sharply criticised by other IMARO activists.
13.
In 1903, Krste Misirkov claimed Boris Sarafov was in opposition to the Bulgarian administration.
14.
Yet, Boris Sarafov maintained a balanced, pro-Bulgarian policy, which was opposed by the more radical, leftist, and pro-autonomist faction.
15.
In 1902 Boris Sarafov was elected among the leaders of the Internal Macedonian-Adrianople Revolutionary Organization.
16.
Boris Sarafov supported the start of the Ilinden Uprising and participated in it.
17.
Boris Sarafov resorted back to his old ways, turning against left-wing leading figures such as Yane Sandanski and Hristo Chernopeev, earning him much suspicion.
18.
Finally, as a result, Boris Sarafov was sentenced to death by the leftists.
19.
Boris Sarafov was assassinated in 1907 in Sofia together with Ivan Garvanov by Todor Panitsa, a trusted man of Yane Sandanski.
20.
In PR Bulgaria and SR Macedonia, Boris Sarafov was not well received in the official historiographies.