Revolutionary Hristo Tatarchev

Hristo Nikolov Tatarchev, also known as A. Svetomirov, was a Bulgarian doctor, revolutionary and military officer, an active participant in revolutionary events in Macedonia and the Adrianople region in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Born in Macedonia, Tatarchev completed his medical education and became a doctor.

He actively participated in the revolutionary struggle in Macedonia and the Adrianople region and became a member of the Bulgarian Secret Central Revolutionary Committee (BSCRC). He founded the Internal Macedonian-Adrianople Revolutionary Organisation (IMARO) and played an important role in its development.

In 1894 he chaired the organisation's Resen Congress and became chairman of the Thessaloniki Congress in 1896, when the organisation began to be called the Bulgarian Macedonian-Adrianople Revolutionary Organisation (BMARO). He participated in preparing and leading the Ilinden-Preobrazhenie Uprising of 1903.

In 1901 he was exiled to Bodrum Fortress with other IMARO leaders, but was pardoned in 1902 and became active in revolutionary work. He participated in establishing the Macedonian Federative Organisation in 1920.

In 1944 he refused an offer from the German authorities during the Second World War to become president of the Independent Republic of Macedonia. He spent the final years of his life in exile in Turin, where he died on 5 January 1952.