Revolutionary Milan Matov

Milan Apostolov Matov, known by the pseudonyms Danton and Rakovski, was a Bulgarian revolutionary who actively participated in the Ilinden-Preobrazhenie Uprising in 1903 and held important positions in the Internal Macedonian-Adrianople Revolutionary Organisation (IMARO).

Milan Matov was born on 8 November 1875 in Struga, then part of the Ottoman Empire. He was the eleventh child of Apostol Matov and Petra Chakarova. Milan Matov was close to his elder brother Hristo Matov, who was also a well-known revolutionary and IMARO ideologue.

In 1896 Milan Matov became a member of IMARO and enrolled at the Bulgarian Classical High School in Bitola. There he organised a youth revolutionary circle and participated in various revolutionary activities. In 1899, after the Macedonian Committee's armed detachment campaign, Matov changed his decision and joined IMARO.

Milan Matov was imprisoned in 1902 following the murder of Evtim Maynov. In the spring of 1900 he attended a course in the use of dynamite in Sofia, organised by Boris Sarafov and Gotse Delchev. After his release from prison, Milan Matov became a member of Struga's town revolutionary committee and became actively involved in revolutionary activity.

During the Ilinden-Preobrazhenie Uprising in 1903, Milan Matov served in Luka Grupchev's detachment in the Struga district. After the uprising was defeated, he remained committed to the revolutionary struggle and participated in the First Balkan War (1912–1913) and the Second Balkan War (1913). He was one of the principal organisers of the Tikvesh Uprising in June and the Ohrid-Debar Uprising in September 1913, directed against Serbian rule in Vardar Macedonia.