Revolutionary Ivan Apostolov

Ivan Apostolov, known by the nicknames "Koparan Chaush", "Daskala" and "the Macedonian", was a Bulgarian hajduk and revolutionary, an active participant in the Kresna-Razlog Uprising and later a voivode of the Internal Macedonian-Adrianople Revolutionary Organisation.

He was born in 1847 in the village of Kumanich, now in Greece, near the town of Dasoto, or in Belitsa. For many years he served as a hajduk voivode in his native region and participated in the Russo-Turkish War of 1877–1878. In 1879 he joined Orcho the Voivode's detachment and participated in the uprising in the Kresna region. As a result of the fighting, he was captured, sentenced and sent to prison on the island of Rhodes. In 1897 he received an amnesty, after which he became a teacher in his native village and joined the Supreme Committee's activities that year as a squad leader under Krastyo Zahariev.

He subsequently joined the Internal Macedonian-Adrianople Revolutionary Organisation in 1902, becoming voivode of a detachment in the Nevrokop region. He attended the meeting between Gotse Delchev and activists of the Serres Revolutionary District in February 1903. During the Ilinden-Preobrazhenie Uprising, he and his detachment took part in the attack on the Turkish garrison in Obidim, alongside other well-known revolutionaries including Yane Sandanski, Mihail Chakov, Stoyan Malchankov and Nikola Gruychin. On 13 and 14 September 1903, he participated with his detachment in the successful battle at Haramibunar, or Hajduk's Well. In 1905 he crossed into Macedonia with the detachments of Andon Kyoseto, Petar Milev and Kocho Molerov, but returned because of difficulties caused by snow.

Ivan Apostolov died in Dolna Banya in 1926.