Voivode Kostadin Zelnikov

Kostadin Georgiev Zelnikov, nicknamed Zelnika, was a Bulgarian revolutionary and hajduk who served as IMARO commander in the Maleshevo region.

He was born in 1869 in Rusinovo, then in the Ottoman Empire. He later became a hajduk and actively joined the struggle to free the local population from Ottoman rule.

Recruited by Dimitar Gushtanov, Zelnikov joined the Internal Macedonian-Adrianople Revolutionary Organisation. In summer 1897, he led the first band in Maleshevo, formed to organise the local population and prepare an uprising.

In spring and summer 1900, the band in which he served operated around Petrich and elsewhere in Macedonia. Its principal task was to prepare Bulgarians for an uprising against Ottoman rule. Dimitar Atanasov, known as Garcheto, and his younger brother Ivan Anastasov Garcheto also joined.

Zelnikov was killed in 1906 at Suvi Laki in the Rusinovo Mountains. He became a symbol of anti-Ottoman resistance and an important figure in the history of Macedonia and the Bulgarian liberation movement.