Voivode Puyo

Puyo (Puyko) Vlachkov Chanin (? – 1849) was a Bulgarian voivode known as a fighter against Ottoman rule. He was a co-organiser of the Niš Uprising and was extradited twice from the Principality of Serbia. Puyo Vlachkov was born in the village of Boynitsa, Vidin Sanjak, into the family of a wealthy peasant named Valchko Chanin, a grandson of a migrant from Macedonia named Arso.

Puyo Valchakov and other villagers attacked and burned the police station in Golemanovo, responding to the local authorities' call for revolt. After this incident, the authorities in Vidin requested Puyo Valchakov's extradition from the Serbian authorities, but the request was rejected. Uprisings broke out in other villages, including Halovo, Chernomashnitsa and Brakevtsi, and were suppressed by force by the Ottoman authorities.

Because of the threat of military conflict, Serbia's director of foreign affairs, Avram Petronijević, decided to hand Puyo Valchakov and his associates over to the Ottomans. They were captured and imprisoned in Vidin, where Puyo Valchakov was hanged, while his associates were released the following year after Prince Stefan Bogoridi intervened.

On 25 October 2009 a monument to Puyo Valchakov was erected in his native village. The local school is also associated with him and is considered the successor of the church school where his son, Valcho Puev Valchev, both studied and taught.