Voivode Mihail Lazarov

Mihail Lazarov was a Bulgarian non-commissioned officer and revolutionary, known as the Kočani voivode of the Supreme Macedonian-Adrianople Committee.

He was born in Lom, where he completed his elementary education. He joined the Bulgarian army and served as a non-commissioned officer in the 15th Lom Infantry Regiment.

In 1898 he joined the regiment's Secret Macedonian-Adrianople Brotherhood of Non-Commissioned Officers, where he established connections with Hristo Chernopeev, Nikola Bozhkov, Ivan Savov and other revolutionaries. In 1901, as voivode of a thirteen-man detachment, he was sent by the Supreme Macedonian-Adrianople Committee to operate in the Kočani region. However, Krastyo Asenov and Sava Mihaylov disarmed his detachment while it was still in the Gorna Dzhumaya region, forcing it to return across the border.

In the spring of 1902, Mihail Lazarov became voivode in the Maleshevo region, where he fought a major engagement against Turkish troops in the Plačkovica Mountains, near Momina Cheshma. In 1903 he returned to the Kočani region and took an active part in preparing the Ilinden–Preobrazhenie Uprising.

Mihail Lazarov thus played a significant role in the Macedonian revolutionary struggle for liberation and independence from Ottoman rule.