Revolutionary Danail Nikolaev

Danail Tsonev Nikolaev was a Bulgarian officer born on 30 December 1852 in Bolgrad in the Russian Empire. He took part in the Serbian-Turkish War, the Russo-Turkish War of 1877–1878, the Unification of the Principality of Bulgaria with Eastern Rumelia, and the Serbo-Bulgarian War. He served as Minister of War before the Balkan Wars. He became the first General of the Infantry in the Bulgarian army and is known as the "patriarch of the Bulgarian army". He began his military career as an officer in the Russian army and continued in the Eastern Rumelian Militia, where he held important posts and played a key role during the Unification of Bulgaria and Eastern Rumelia.