Voivode Kara Tanas

Kara Tanas was a Bulgarian hajduk voivode born around 1770 in the village of Katunishte. He was initially active as a kardzhali brigand but joined the hajduks in the early 19th century.

His small, mobile company operated in the Nova Zagora, Yambol and Adrianople regions, the Balkan Mountains, the Ihtiman Sredna Gora, the Sveti Iliya Hills, the Bakadzhitsi Hills, Sakar, Strandzha and Thrace, reaching even the Aegean Sea and the Sea of Marmara.

During this period, Kara Tanas’s detachment grew from twelve to forty men, with whom he attacked Silivri before withdrawing. He also participated in the Russo-Turkish War of 1828–1829 and maintained contact with Boycho Voivode and Captain Georgi Mamarchev. Although the Russians prevented the detachments of Kara Tanas and Boycho Voivode from returning to continue the struggle in Bulgaria, Kara Tanas protected people from Zheravna who were emigrating to Russia.

After sixty years as a hajduk, Kara Tanas retired and settled in Northern Dobruja, where he died at an advanced age.