Stoyan Kanturov

Stoyan Kanturov

Stojan Iwanow Kanturow ( Bulgarian Стоян Иванов Кантуров ; born September 14, 1884 in Pehčevo , today North Macedonia ; † June 22, 1959 in Blagoevgrad in Bulgaria ) was a Bulgarian revolutionary , freedom fighter, voivode of the BMARK ( Bulgarian Macedonian Revolution ) Successor organization IMRO ( Inner Macedonian Revolutionary Organization ) in Macedonia .

Stojan Kanturow was born in Pehčevo in 1884, a town in the Malesevo region . His parents sent him to Skopje , where he attended and graduated from the Bulgarian Pedagogical School. Then Kanturow worked as an apprentice in Negotino , Pehčevo and Padesch . He was probably accepted into the BMARK at that time. In 1903 he took part in the Ilinden Preobraschenie uprising . In 1906 he was arrested by the Ottoman police for his revolutionary activities and sentenced to 101 years in prison. After the Young Turkish Revolution of 1908, however, he was pardoned and released as part of an amnesty.

After the end of the First World War , Kanturow took part in the reconstruction of the IMRO in Macedonia. He became the leader of a Cheta and Voivode in the Malesevo region. From 1925 he was together with Boris Tikow head of IMRO for the Malesevo region.

During the Second World War , he was mayor of his hometown Pehčevo from April 1941 to September 1944. During the Days of Red Terror (September 9-12, 1944), Stojan Kanturow was arrested by Bulgarian communists in Gorna Jumaya and handed over to the Yugoslav communists in the Socialist Republic of Macedonia . In Skopje he was brought to justice for his revolutionary activities and membership of the IMRO and sentenced to death. However, he was subsequently pardoned and his sentence was commuted to life imprisonment. He spent the years from 1944 to 1953 in the notorious prisons in Idrizovo and Sremska Mitrovica . He was released in 1953, after which he moved to Bulgaria. He died on June 22, 1959 in Blagoevgrad.

literature

• Boris Nikolow: The Inner Macedonian Revolutionary Organization. Voivodes and guides (1893-1934). A biographical and bibliographical treatise . (from Bulgarian: Вътрешна Македоно-одринска революционна организация. Войводи и ръководители (1893–1934)