# Todor Aleksandrov

Todor Aleksandrov Poporushov (Bulgarian/Macedonian: Тодор Александров Попорушов; 4 March 1881 – 31 August 1924), anglicised as Todor Alexandrov, was a Macedonian Bulgarian revolutionary, Bulgarian army officer, politician and teacher. He initially favoured the annexation of Macedonia to Bulgaria, but later switched to the idea of an Independent Macedonia as a second Bulgarian state on the Balkans. Aleksandrov was a member of the Internal Macedonian-Adrianople Revolutionary Organisation (IMARO) and later part of the Central Committee of the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organisation (IMRO), as well as its leader.
In North Macedonia, his persona is controversial, but there have been efforts to rehabilitate him. Though, this has caused political and public controversies.

## Life

Aleksandrov was born in Novo Selo, Ottoman Empire (now North Macedonia), on 4 March 1881. He was the second child and the only son of Aleksandar Poporushov and Maria Hadzhiyaneva. His father was a Bulgarian Exarchate teacher. He completed his secondary education in Štip. In the 1890s, he studied at the Bulgarian Pedagogical School in Skopje. He worked as a schoolteacher in Kočani, Štip, and Burgas. In 1903, he became a member of the Internal Macedonian-Adrianopolitan Revolutionary Organisation in Štip, being recruited by Hristo Matov. Among his supporters, he came to be known as "Old Man" or "Uncle Todor". He was arrested by the Ottoman authorities on 3 March 1903 and sent to Skopje under police escort. He was sentenced to five years in prison. In April 1904, he was released after an amnesty. He rose up to the rank of leader of the Skopje district in 1907. Aleksandrov organised dynamite attacks against the Ottoman Empire in 1909. In 1911, he became part of Internal Macedonian-Adrianopolitan Revolutionary Organisation's Central Committee. He took part in the Balkan Wars as a military commander. In this period, he favoured the annexation of Macedonia by Bulgaria. During World War I, along with Aleksandar Protogerov, he took over the region of Štip. When he was a Bulgarian military officer, he also participated in the violent suppression of the Toplica Uprising in 1917. He had received the Order of Military Merit.
After World War I, he proposed an autonomous Macedonia with Salonika as the capital. In 1919, the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organisation (IMRO) was restored, with him, Aleksandar Protogerov and Petar Chaulev being part of the Central Committee. However, Aleksandrov was recognised as the leader and many people called it "Aleksandrov's VMRO." IMRO's left-wing distrusted him and questioned the authenticity of his autonomist agenda, seeing him as a proponent of the Bulgarian annexationist agenda. Yugoslav authorities regarded him and Protogerov as war criminals. Both him and Protogerov were arrested by the Bulgarian Agrarian authorities after they came to power in August 1919, who charged them with war crimes, but they managed to escape with the help of Bulgarian officers on 13 November 1919. Afterward, they established a stronghold of the IMRO in the Petrich district, which they ran like an independent state. Taxes were also imposed on the locals and funds were given by the Italian authorities, who were supporting them against Yugoslavia. Before the 1920 Constitutional Assembly election in the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (Yugoslavia), he encouraged people in Vardar Macedonia to vote for communist candidates. The Minister of Interior Aleksandar Dimitrov ordered the arrest of the IMRO leaders, but they went underground. During Dimitrov's campaign against the IMRO, Aleksandrov ordered IMRO left-winger and Bulgarian Agrarian National Union ally Gyorche Petrov's assassination. His bands made attacks into Vardar Macedonia, controlled by Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes. After IMRO's participation in the 9 June 1923 overthrow of Bulgarian prime minister Aleksandar Stamboliyski, his men led by Ivan Mihailov, tortured and murdered him. In August, under his orders, IMRO revolutionary Yordan Tsitsonkov assassinated Bulgarian Agrarian politician Rayko Daskalov. IMRO also participated in the suppression of the 1923 September uprising, organised by the Bulgarian Communist Party.
He was not satisfied with the new Bulgarian government led by Aleksandar Tsankov and turned to Soviet Union's support. As Aleksandrov's envoy, Dimitar Vlahov negotiated with the Comintern. In 1924, in Vienna, he signed the May Manifesto along with Protogerov and Chaulev, declaring IMRO's fight for an independent Macedonia in an alliance with the communists. He had also made an agreement with the communists against an uprising, but they had violated it in September 1923. Failing to secure Aleksandrov's cooperation, the Comintern decided to discredit him and published the contents of the Manifesto on 28 July 1924 in the "Balkan Federation" newspaper. Todor Aleksandrov and Aleksandar Protogerov promptly denied through the Bulgarian press that they have ever signed any agreements, claiming that the May Manifesto was a communist forgery. The Democratic Alliance-led government also pressured him to revoke his signature on 1 August. Shortly after, Aleksandrov was assassinated in unclear circumstances on 31 August 1924 in the Pirin Mountains. He had a wife called Vangelia and two children, Aleksandar and Maria. IMRO blamed a pro-communist faction for the assassination, but others blamed circles close to the Bulgarian throne. The Bulgarian government blamed the left-wing for his assassination.

## Legacy

The Macedonian historiography in the Yugoslav era regarded Aleksandrov as part of a group of "bulgarianised renegades of the Macedonian revolutionary and liberation movement". The historiography then also considered his IMRO as fascist. Aleksandrov also had negative reception in the People's Republic of Bulgaria due to his participation in the suppression of the Bulgarian Communist Party in 1923, but he was partially rehabilitated in the 1980s. After the independence of present-day North Macedonia, efforts were made by Macedonian politicians and historians to rehabilitate Aleksandrov. Most Macedonian historians have regarded him as "the biggest traitor to the Macedonian cause" due to his pro-Bulgarian views for a long time, while other historians have called him out for his alleged involvement in many assassinations of other IMRO members and other political and military figures of the time. On the other hand, other historians have referred to him as "the soul and the brain of the Macedonian resistance" and as "Macedonia’s Robin Hood", attributing to him remarkable organisational skills and will. VMRO-Union of Macedonian Associations also was inspired by his legacy. A boulevard in Sofia, Bulgaria, was named after him in the 1990s.
A local association of Bulgarians raised a monument of the revolutionary on 2 February 2008 in the city of Veles. After the local administration refused to provide a place for the bust, it was raised in the yard of a local Bulgarian resident. In the following night the resident received a number of threats and the monument was twice thrown down by unknown individuals. Soon after, the monument was removed at the insistence of local authorities, as an unlawful construction. This incident caused Bulgarian president Georgi Parvanov to call upon the Macedonian government to review the history of Aleksandrov's deeds on his meeting with Branko Crvenkovski in the town of Sandanski. In June 2012, a new statue called "Macedonian Equestrian Revolutionary" was erected in Skopje. As a consequence, an outcry among older residents erupted almost immediately when they noted the anonymous rider's similarity to the historical figure. Earlier the same month the opposition Social Democrats took to the streets to protest the changing of hundreds of street names, including a bridge that was to be named after Aleksandrov. In October, a few months after the setting of the monument, a board appeared on it with the name of Todor Aleksandrov.
In March 2021, the new Skopje municipal council majority by the Social Democratic Union of Macedonia decided to rename the names of many local sites. Thus, the bridge named after Aleksandrov and the street named after the organisation he led - IMRO, were renamed. The former Skopje Mayor from VMRO-DPMNE Koce Trajanovski reacted that his successor Petre Šilegov has deleted part from the Macedonian history at the request of Bulgaria. A monument of Aleksandrov was erected in his birthplace of Novo Selo, Štip, in August 2024. He had been honoured by VMRO-DPMNE governments between 2006 and 2017. Aleksandrov Peak on Graham Land, Antarctica, is named after Todor Aleksandrov.

## Memorials

* Monument of Aleksandrov in Kyustendil, Bulgaria.
* Monument of Aleksandrov in Burgas, Bulgaria.
* Monument of Aleksandrov in Veles, Macedonia, demounted in 2008.
* Bust of Todor Aleksandrov in Sofia, Bulgaria.