Revolutionary Petar Poparsov

Petar Poparsov was a Bulgarian revolutionary and one of the founders and ideologists of the Internal Macedonian-Adrianople Revolutionary Organisation (IMARO). He played an important role in establishing the organisation and is known as a prominent Bulgarian public figure.

In 1893, together with Dame Gruev, Dr Hristo Tatarchev, Ivan Hadzhinikolov, Anton Dimitrov and Hristo Batandzhiev, Poparsov founded IMARO. He wrote the organisation's first statutes and, under the pseudonym "Vardarski", published the book "Stambolovism in Macedonia and Its Representatives", criticising Stefan Stambolov's regime and the Bulgarian Exarchate. In it he expressed support for self-government and the traditional rights of the Bulgarian-Macedonian communities.

Poparsov was a Bulgarian teacher in various towns, including Skopje, Thessaloniki, Veles, Prilep and Štip. In 1897, after the Vinica Affair was uncovered, he was arrested and sentenced to life imprisonment. He was amnestied in 1902 and continued his revolutionary activities. In 1905 he participated in the Rila Congress and was elected a foreign representative in Sofia.

After IMARO split in 1907, Poparsov became an activist of its left wing and supported the physical elimination of some of the organisation's leaders. He was in Macedonia from the Young Turk Revolution of 1908 until the Second Balkan War.

He continued to play an important role in the historical context of the Macedonian question and revolutionary activity in the early twentieth century.