Revolutionary Hristo Makedonski

Hristo Nikolov, known as Makedonski or Makedoncheto, was a Bulgarian hajduk and revolutionary in the national liberation movement during the second half of the nineteenth century. He was born in 1834 or 1835 in the village of Gorni Todorak in the Kukush region, now Ano Theodoraki, Greece. His father died when Hristo was about one year old, after which he attended the Greek school in his native village. Later he joined his brothers in their father's trading business.

Hristo Nikolov became a hajduk in the detachment of Stoimen the Voivode, active in Maleshevo, and later participated in Georgi Rakovski's First Bulgarian Legion in Belgrade in 1862. He fought the Turks during the bombardment of the city and left for Romania after the legion was disbanded. In 1864–1865 he led a small detachment on Rakovski's instructions.

He joined the detachment of Hadzhi Dimitar and Stefan Karadzha and took up its flag after the Battle of Vishograd. After the detachment was defeated near Buzludzha Peak, he hid with two of its members and passed unnoticed through several towns in Bulgaria and Macedonia, eventually reaching the Athos Peninsula and finding refuge in Zograf Monastery. In 1869 he travelled via Constantinople to Odesa and from there to Romania. To avoid arrest, he adopted the names Hrista Nikolić and Hristaki Nikolaou and worked for Stefan Beron. He participated in the revolutionary activities of the Bulgarian emigrant community and in preparations for the Stara Zagora and April uprisings.

During the Serbo-Turkish War of 1876, Hristo Makedonski was voivode of a detachment of 200 Bulgarian volunteers. This detachment's flag was the same as Stefan Karadzha's, which Hristo Makedonski had managed to preserve.

The flag was sewn in Brăila in 1866 by Sultana Ruseva. It is considered a rare national relic, and in 1925 Hristo Makedonski's daughters, Titsa and Ekaterina, handed it over to the Ministry of War. Today the flag is held in the National Museum of Military History.

After the Liberation, Hristo Makedonski lived in Ruse, where he died on 5 July 1916.