Voivode Petar Topalov

Petar Petkov Topalov, also known as Dimitar Topalov or Dimitar Voynyagovetsa, was the Bulgarian voivode of a revolutionary detachment in 1867.

He was an exceptionally close associate and confidant of Vasil Levski during the latter’s stay in Voynyagovo in 1864–1866 and afterwards. In 1866, he and Levski fled from Voynyagovo to Wallachia after the killing of two Turks from the neighbouring village of Okchilar, present-day Kliment, caused tensions. In Wallachia, he changed his name to Dimitar to evade Turkish pursuit and settled in Bolgrad.

He subsequently contacted Stefan Karadzha and assembled a detachment, with which he crossed the Danube to join Panayot Hitov’s group in the Balkan Mountains. Petar Topalov’s detachment comprised 15 men. They entered Ottoman territory towards the end of May 1867, but Hitov was defeated, while Topalov was wounded and hid in a sheepfold. Betrayed by the local notable, he was taken from prison to prison but managed to escape and find refuge in Wallachia.

In 1876, Topalov’s name appears again as a representative of the Bulgarian Revolutionary Central Committee (the Giurgiu Committee) for the Sliven revolutionary district. His great-grandson was the partisan commander Kosta Mitev Topalov (Karamfil), who lived from 1920 to 1943.