Revolutionary Kraycho Samohodov

Kraycho Samohodov was born around 1845 in Panagyurishte and was one of the town's best-educated people of his time. He studied at the local graded school and learned Greek and Turkish through frequent journeys with his father to the Aegean region. For a time, he worked as a teacher and at the konak, the Ottoman administrative headquarters.

As a member of the local revolutionary committee of the Internal Revolutionary Organisation, he took an active part in preparing the April Uprising. Samohodov guarded the Oborishte Assembly as leader of his own detachment, which operated in Sredna Gora. He was one of Georgi Benkovski's trusted associates and served as standard-bearer and commander of a hundred men in the Flying Detachment during the uprising.

After the uprising's defeat, he continued his revolutionary activities, leading a small detachment in Sredna Gora. During the Russo-Turkish War, he joined the Russian army in the Sredna Gora region and provided considerable assistance in breaking the Turkish defences there.

After the Liberation, he and Captain Petko Voivode defended the Bulgarian population against the Turks in the Rhodope Mountains and Aegean Thrace. He also took part in the struggle to unite the divided Principality of Bulgaria and Eastern Rumelia and served as a volunteer in the Serbo-Bulgarian War.

Konstantin Jireček appointed Samohodov to a senior position in the Ministry of Education, but during the first Stambolovist regime he was persecuted and subjected to repression. Even his pension was taken away.

He died in 1900.