Revolutionary Alexander Radoslavov

Alexander Ivanov Radoslavov was a Bulgarian revolutionary, a voivode of the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organisation (IMARO), a botanist and one of Bulgaria's first mycologists. He founded and chaired the Bulgarian Botanical Society and also founded and chaired the Bulgarian Society of Naturalists.

He was born on 20 July 1878 in Tarnovo. He received his primary education in the village of Bebrovo and was orphaned young. He continued his education at lower-secondary schools in Elena and Ruse, and at secondary schools in Tarnovo, Gabrovo, Sliven and Varna. From 1899 he studied natural history in the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics at Sofia University "St Kliment Ohridski". In Sofia he joined the Bulgarian Secondary School Teachers' Union and became a member of its executive board and editorial committee.

In 1903, during his final year as a student, he interrupted his education and joined IMARO's activities in the Serres Revolutionary District. There he became secretary of Yane Sandanski's detachment. In the summer of 1903 he was a delegate to the Serres District Congress in Pirin and was elected to its governing body together with Dimitar Stefanov and Simeon Molerov. That same year Radoslavov helped Peyo Yavorov edit IMARO's underground newspaper "Svoboda ili Smart" (Freedom or Death) and participated in the Ilinden-Preobrazhenie Uprising.

Besides the revolutionary struggle, Alexander Radoslavov was active in botany and mycology. He founded the Bulgarian Botanical Society and the Bulgarian Society of Naturalists.