Revolutionary Kostadin Samardzhiev-Dzhemoto

Kostadin Samardzhiev, known as Dzhemoto, was born on 15 May 1884 in the village of Dabilja in the Strumitsa district of the Ottoman Empire, now in Bulgaria. He graduated from the Bulgarian Teacher Training School in Skopje in 1903, where he met other revolutionaries such as Hristo Babamov, Iliya Makazliev and Alekso Martulkov from Veles.

In 1905 Samardzhiev was arrested and confined in Thessaloniki's Yedi Kule prison. From May 1906 to July 1908 he served as a fighter under Hristo Chernopeev. He was also secretary of the Strumitsa District Revolutionary Committee and played an important role in organising local revolutionary activities.

After the Young Turk Revolution of 1908, Samardzhiev resumed legal activity and became a müdür, a local administrator, in the Strumitsa district. In 1909 he was one of the founders of the People's Federative Party in Thessaloniki. Soon, however, he left the party and continued working to restore the revolutionaries' organisational network around Strumitsa.

In 1910, together with other revolutionaries, he moved to Macedonia and participated in a series of battles with the Turkish authorities. Shortly afterwards he was appointed head of the Strumitsa district committee of the Internal Macedonian-Adrianople Revolutionary Organisation.

Samardzhiev's tragic death came on 1 August 1911, when he died in a firefight with Turkish troops near his native village. He was one of the many freedom fighters and an active local leader who fought for Macedonia's liberation.