Voivode Krastyo Balgariyata

Krastyo Nikolov Georgiev, known as Krastyo Balgariyata and Dandana, was a Bulgarian soldier and revolutionary, a voivode of the Macedonian Committee and the Internal Macedonian-Adrianople Revolutionary Organisation (IMARO). Born in 1874 in Vratsa, then in the Ottoman Empire, he left the Bulgarian army in 1895 and joined the Macedonian Committee's armed detachment campaign.

In 1899, after being promoted to sergeant major, Krastyo Balgariyata became voivode of a detachment in IMARO's Tikvesh Revolutionary Area. In 1902 he was transferred as voivode to the Choken Revolutionary Area in the Adrianople Revolutionary District.

In 1903, on Mihail Gerdzhikov's instructions, he became voivode of a detachment in the Choken area and was also active in the Malko Tarnovo Revolutionary Area. During this period, under his leadership, the detachment successfully attacked the Turkish village of Hadzhitalashman, causing panic among the garrison and population.

Krastyo Balgariyata took part in the Ilinden-Preobrazhenie Uprising and subsequently in various battles during the First and Second Balkan Wars. He was promoted to second lieutenant in 1913, but shortly afterwards contracted cholera and died in the Cherna Skala area that same year.

His strict leadership style and intolerance of delays in his work led some compatriots to comment on and criticise him. Nevertheless, he is remembered as a voivode who played a key role in expanding the revolutionary network and organising the Bulgarian population in Macedonia. A street in Vratsa bears his name.