Revolutionary Kostadin Molerov

Kostadin Molerov, also known as Kocho Molerov or Suodolski, was a Bulgarian revolutionary and folklorist, and an active member of the Internal Macedonian-Adrianople Revolutionary Organisation (IMARO).

He was born on 8 November 1876 in the village of Bansko, then part of the Ottoman Empire and now in Bulgaria. Kostadin was the son of Georgi Molerov and grandson of the painter Simeon Dimitrov Molerov. In 1896 he completed the teacher-training courses at the Bulgarian Boys' High School in Thessaloniki and joined IMARO. He participated actively in the revolutionary struggle and was arrested and imprisoned in Skopje in 1899.

In 1902 he fled to Bulgaria and took charge of IMARO's station in Ladzhene. In the summer of 1903 he participated in the Ilinden–Preobrazhenie Uprising as a member of the Razlog district leadership alongside Dimitar Todev and Anton Shipkov.

After the uprising he abandoned revolutionary activity and went to Lausanne, graduating in sociology in 1908. He taught in various towns, including Vratsa, Sliven and Dupnitsa.

In 1912 he fought in the Balkan War as voivode of a partisan detachment of the Macedonian-Adrianople Volunteer Corps, which participated in the liberation of Razlog.

After the First World War he returned to his native Bansko and became headmaster of the local school. Alongside his active revolutionary work, he also pursued folklore research.

Kostadin Molerov died on 24 October 1957 in his native Bansko, leaving a rich legacy of struggle for freedom and cultural enrichment of his home region.