Voivode Petar Nachev

Petar (Pop) Nachev Ikonomov was a Bulgarian officer and revolutionary, known as a voivode of the Macedonian Committee.

He was born on 20 August 1869 in Sliven, then in the Ottoman Empire. He graduated from the Military School in Sofia in 1889 and served as a second lieutenant in the 2nd Artillery Regiment in Vratsa. In February 1895, he entered the Higher Officers’ Course at the Military School in Sofia. He participated in establishing the Macedonian Organisation led by Trayko Kitanchev, and in June 1895 he left the army to help prepare the campaign by revolutionary detachments.

Lieutenant Petar Nachev commanded the Strumitsa Battalion, comprising 160 men, whose objective was to attack Strumitsa and destroy the artillery unit there. On 29 June, the battalion crossed the border at Novo Selo, but during the exhausting march Petar Nachev suffered a heart attack on Mount Golak. He decided to let the detachment proceed while he withdrew to rest. Realising that he could not continue and wishing not to burden the others, Nachev took his own life at the age of 26. After his death, Vasil Mutafov assumed command of the battalion.

Lieutenant Petar Nachev was buried in the forest beside a tributary of the Bregalnitsa River, near the village of Kalimantsi, 300 paces from the Tsarevo Selo–Shtip road.