Georgi Nikolov “Goce” Delcev

Macedonian Revolutionary. He was born in Kukush (now Kiklis), a town in what is now northern Greece that was then part of the Ottoman Empire. Educated at the Salonika Military Academy,he was expelled a month before graduation because of his political activities. He became a teacher and studied revolutionaries including George Washington, Giuseppe Garibaldi and Giuseppe Mazzini, and socialist philosophers including Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, becoming dedicated to the cause of independence from the Ottomans. As a leader of the Internal Macedonian-Adrianople Revolutionary Organization (IMARO), he fought for Macedonian autonomy, envisioning a multiethnic and self-governing republic. Delcev used his training to expand IMARO's military activities, including independent production of weapons, and inclusion of rural areas in IMARO's efforts, which increased membership and the support it drew from the region's population. While en route to a congress intended to plan a region-wide uprising, Delcev was killed by Turks in Banista, a town in what is now northern Greece, which was destroyed by the Greek Army during 1913's Second Balkan War. Originally buried there, his remains were moved to Skopje after World War II, when Greece expelled ethnic Bulgarians and Macedonians. Delcev's efforts are recognized as critical to the overthrow of the Turks, and he is regarded as a national hero in Bulgaria and a founding father of the modern Republic of Macedonia. There are two towns named in his honor, Bulgaria's Gotse Delchev and Macedonia's Delcevo. In addition, two mountains are named for him, Gotsev Vrah in Bulgaria and Delcev Peak on Antarctica's Livingston Island. Stip, Macedonia's Goce Delcev University is also named for him.