1. Georgi Nikolov Delchev, known as Gotse Delchev or Goce Delcev, was a prominent Macedonian Bulgarian revolutionary and one of the most important leaders of what is commonly known as the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization, active in the Ottoman-ruled Macedonia and Adrianople regions, as well as in Bulgaria, at the turn of the 20th century.
Gotse Delchev was killed in a skirmish with an Ottoman unit on the eve of the Ilinden-Preobrazhenie uprising.
Gotse Delchev completed his secondary education in the Bulgarian Men's High School of Thessaloniki and entered the Military School of His Princely Highness in Sofia, but at the final stage of his study, he was dismissed from it as an alleged socialist.
Gotse Delchev maintained the slogan promoted by William Ewart Gladstone, "Macedonia for the Macedonians", including all different nationalities inhabiting the area.
Gotse Delchev is considered a national hero in Bulgaria and North Macedonia.
Per some of his contemporaries and Bulgarian academic sources, Gotse Delchev supported Macedonia's incorporation into Bulgaria as another option too.
Gotse Delchev read widely in the town's chitalishte, where he was impressed with revolutionary books, and was especially imbued with thoughts of the liberation of Bulgaria.
Gotse Delchev distributed revolutionary literature, which he acquired from the school's graduates who studied in Bulgaria.
Bulgarian students graduating from high school were faced with few career prospects and Gotse Delchev decided to follow the path of his former schoolmate Boris Sarafov, entering the military school in Sofia in 1891.
Gotse Delchev became disappointed with life in Bulgaria, especially the commercialized life of the society in Sofia and with the authoritarian politics of the prime minister Stefan Stambolov, accused of being a dictator.
Gotse Delchev spent his leaves from school in the company of emigrants from the Macedonian region, most of them belonged to the Young Macedonian Literary Society.
Gotse Delchev explained that he had no intention of remaining an officer and promised after graduating from the Military School, he would return to Macedonia to join the organization.
Gotse Delchev was given the possibility to enter the Army again by re-applying for a commission, but he refused.
In 1894, Gotse Delchev became a teacher in an Exarchate school in Stip, where he met another teacher, Dame Gruev, who was a leader of the newly established local committee of the IMRO.
Gotse Delchev impressed Gruev with his honesty and joined the Organization immediately, gradually becoming one of its main leaders.
Gotse Delchev travelled during the vacations throughout Macedonia and established and organized committees in villages and cities.
Gotse Delchev established contacts with some of the leaders of the Supreme Macedonian-Adrianople Committee.
Gotse Delchev participated in the Thessaloniki Congress of the IMRO in 1896.
Gotse Delchev envisioned independent production of weapons and traveled in 1897 to Odessa, where he met with Armenian revolutionaries Stepan Zorian and Christapor Mikaelian to exchange terrorist skills and especially bomb-making.
Gotse Delchev was the first to organize and lead a band into Macedonia with the purpose of robbing or kidnapping rich Turks.
In 1900, he resided for a while in Burgas, where Gotse Delchev organized another bomb manufacturing plant, whose dynamite was used later by the Boatmen of Thessaloniki.
At that time Gotse Delchev was preparing to organize a detachment which, in a possible war to support the Bulgarian army by its actions in Northern Dobruja, where a compact Bulgarian population was available.
Gotse Delchev led the congress of the Adrianople revolutionary district held in Plovdiv in April 1902.
Gotse Delchev was among the main supporters of their activities.
Gotse Delchev aimed for better coordination between IMRO and the Supreme Macedonian-Adrianople Committee.
At the Thessaloniki Congress of January 1903, where Gotse Delchev did not participate, an early uprising was debated and it was decided to stage one in May 1903.
Gotse Delchev opposed the plan for a mass uprising, instead supporting terrorist tactics and guerilla tactics such as the Thessaloniki bombings of 1903.
Gotse Delchev convinced the SMARO leadership to transform its idea of a mass rising involving the civil population into a rising based on guerrilla warfare.
Gotse Delchev hoped that Gruev will argue for postponement of the uprising, but he wanted it to proceed.
Gotse Delchev was recognized as "the most capable and most honest Komitadji" by missionaries.
Virtually all of its pre-war 7,000 Bulgarian inhabitants, including Gotse Delchev's family, were expelled to Bulgaria by the Greek Army.
The first biographical book about Gotse Delchev was issued in 1904 by his friend and comrade in arms, the Bulgarian poet Peyo Yavorov.
The most detailed biography of Delchev in English was written by English historian Mercia MacDermott called Freedom or Death: The Life of Gotse Delchev, published in 1978 and translated into Bulgarian in 1979.
The international, cosmopolitan views of Gotse Delchev could be summarized in his proverbial sentence: "I understand the world solely as a field for cultural competition among the peoples".
Gotse Delchev's views were formed under the influence of the ideas of earlier anti-Ottoman fighters as Levski, Botev, and Stoyanov, who were among the founders of the Bulgarian Internal Revolutionary Organization, the Bulgarian Revolutionary Central Committee and the Bulgarian Secret Central Revolutionary Committee, respectively.
Per Bulgarian academic sources and his contemporaries, Gotse Delchev supported Macedonia's eventual incorporation into Bulgaria, or its inclusion into a future Balkan Confederative Republic.
Gotse Delchev thought that any intervention by Bulgaria would provoke intervention by the neighboring states as well and could result in Macedonia and Thrace being torn apart.
In 1946, communist activist Vasil Ivanovski acknowledged that Gotse Delchev did not have a clear view of a "Macedonian national character", but stated that his struggle made the free and autonomous Macedonia a possibility.
On 7 October 1946, under pressure from Moscow, as part of the policy to foster the development of Macedonian national consciousness, Gotse Delchev's remains were transported to Skopje.
Gotse Delchev's name became part of the anthem of SR Macedonia - Today over Macedonia.
Gotse Delchev was described in SR Macedonia not only as an anti-Ottoman freedom fighter, but as a hero, who had opposed the aggressive aspirations of the pro-Bulgarian factions in the liberation movement.
Gotse Delchev is regarded in Bulgaria and North Macedonia as a national hero.
The Association of Historians in North Macedonia came out against the calls for a joint celebration of Gotse Delchev, seeing them as a threat to Macedonian national identity.
Per Macedonian historian Dragi Gjorgiev, the myth of Gotse Delchev is so significant among ethnic Macedonians that it is more important than documents, books, and pieces written by historians.
Gotse Delchev's memory is honored especially in the Bulgarian part of Macedonia and among the descendants of Bulgarian refugees from other parts of the region, where he has been regarded as one of the greatest revolutionary leaders.
Many artifacts related to Gotse Delchev's activity are stored in different museums across Bulgaria and North Macedonia.