Revolutionary Lazar Madzharov

Lazar (Pop) Ivanov Madzharov, also known as Bosilkov, was a Bulgarian revolutionary and activist in the Internal Macedonian-Adrianople Revolutionary Organisation (IMARO). He has been described as the second most important figure in the Adrianople Revolutionary District after Mihail Gerdzhikov.

Lazar Madzharov was born in 1872 in the village of Negovan in the Lagadina district, the son of Archimandrite Ivan (Yona) Madzharov, the Bulgarian episcopal vicar in Thessaloniki. In 1892 he graduated from the Bulgarian Boys' High School in Thessaloniki and became a teacher in Zheravna and the village of Rila.

In 1897 the Exarchate appointed him head teacher of the Bulgarian schools in Lozengrad. He joined IMARO and became leader of the local revolutionary committee, expanding the organisation's network in the Lozengrad district. In 1899 he went underground and accompanied Gotse Delchev on his tour of the Adrianople region in 1900.

After the Keremidchioglu affair, Madzharov became commander of a detachment that restored and expanded the shattered committee network. In 1902 he attended IMARO's Plovdiv Congress and was elected voivode of the Lozengrad Revolutionary Area. In 1903 he became voivode of a detachment and took part in the Ilinden-Preobrazhenie Uprising.

After the uprising, Lazar Madzharov strengthened the organisation in the Rhodope Mountains and Western Thrace. At the congress in Varna in 1904, he was elected a member of the Adrianople region's representation abroad. He attended the Rila Congress in 1905.

Lazar Madzharov met a tragic end in 1907, when he died in the village of Ladzhakyoy in the Dedeagach district together with Petar Vaskov, Georgi Geshanov, Chanko Karabrakanov and Yanaki Milkov. His sacrifice and efforts are inscribed in the history of the Macedonian-Adrianople liberation movement.