Revolutionary Petar Lesev

Petar Vasilev Lesev was born in Yambol on 16 March 1891. After completing secondary school in his hometown, he began teaching. In November 1911, he joined Sekula Oraovdolski's Veles detachment as deputy voivode. After the voivode's death on 18 January 1912, Lesev was elected district voivode for Veles.

He actively participated in the First and Second Balkan Wars as a volunteer in Todor Alexandrov's detachment. Later, he became voivode of a detachment operating in the Veles region. He joined the First Company of the Fourth Bitola Battalion of the Macedonian-Adrianople Volunteer Corps and fought Serbian forces. He was wounded on 9 July 1913 and received the Order for Bravery, Fourth Class, for his courage.

In 1915, he operated as a voivode in the Veles, Štip and Radoviš regions. After Bulgaria entered the First World War, Lesev's detachment joined the Partisan Unit of the Eleventh Macedonian Infantry Division. Lesev and his men participated in liberating Radoviš and establishing Bulgarian authority there. For the remainder of the war, he served in Lieutenant Nikola Lefterov's partisan company.

During the Second World War, Aleksandar Stanishev appointed Lesev district governor of Kratovo in 1943, when the territories were annexed by Bulgaria.