site.btaAugust 31, 2024: 100 Years Since Assassination of Todor Aleksandrov

Bulgarian revolutionary, army officer, politician and teacher Todor Aleksandrov was shot dead on August 31, 1924. Aleksandrov was Central Committee member and leader of the Central Committee of the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organisation (IMRO). He left a permanent trace in Bulgarian national history, historian Assoc. Prof. Dr. Angel Dzhonev from the Institute for Historical Studies at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences (BAS) told BTA.

Todor Aleksandrov Poporushev was born on March 4, 1881 in Shtip. He grew up in a Bulgarian revivalist environment - he graduated from a Bulgarian school and became a Bulgarian teacher. At the end of the 19th century, Todor Aleksandrov joined the liberation movement of the Macedonian Bulgarians, the IMRO. He served at various levels of its hierarchy. For some time he was also a teacher in Burgas, Dzhonev told BTA.

Todor Aleksandrov participated in the Balkan wars and the First World War, he was also active in the interwar period. He imposed himself as an irrefutable factor - as a man who shared the idea that Macedonia should become part of a united and integral Bulgaria, for which he actively worked. 

The assassination took place in the afternoon of August 31. The witness was Alexandrov's colleague in the Central Committee Gen. Alexander Protogerov. In the very first documents issued after Alexandrov's assassination, he was referred to as "legendary leader".

Actions were started in the liberation movement to perpetuate his memory.