Revolutionary Stoyan Zaimov

Stoyan Stoyanov Zaimov (1858–1932) was a Bulgarian revolutionary, writer, educator and public figure.

Stoyan Zaimov began studying at the class school in Stara Zagora in 1867, where he met Vasil Levski. He became a member of the Secret Central Bulgarian Committee (SCBC). Over the following two years, he completed a teaching course in Plovdiv and taught at the Bulgarian Boys' School in Haskovo.

Between 1871 and 1873 he actively participated in establishing the Haskovo Local Revolutionary Committee and helped Atanas Uzunov prepare the attempt on the life of the Haskovo notable Hadzhi Stavri Primo. Zaimov was captured and sentenced to exile in Diyarbakır in Asia Minor, but escaped the following year and settled in Romania.

Zaimov became acquainted with prominent figures in the Bulgarian emigrant community, including Lyuben Karavelov and Hristo Botev, and actively joined their work. In 1875 he was assigned to carry out the plan to set Constantinople on fire, connected with the planned Stara Zagora Uprising. During this period he also took part in founding the Giurgiu Revolutionary Committee, which prepared the April Uprising of 1876.

In 1882, Stoyan Zaimov graduated from the Pedagogical Institute in Moscow and again taught in various Bulgarian towns. In 1892 he became chairman of the “Tsar Liberator Alexander II” committee, which raised funds to build a monument to Tsar Alexander II and a home for Bulgarian veterans.

In 1895, Stoyan Zaimov became a member of the permanent educational committee at the Ministry of Public Education and founded the journal “Uchilishten Pregled” (School Review), which ran from 1896 to 1949. He was director of the National Library in Sofia from 1903 to 1908.

From 1908 until his death in 1932, Stoyan Zaimov lived and worked in Pleven, where he was appointed director of the Administration of Military History House Museums and Monuments. His home in Pleven is today's “Stoyan and Vladimir Zaimov” Museum, and the monument-tomb of Stoyan and Vladimir Zaimov was built in 1960.

Stoyan Zaimov also played a role in establishing Bulgaria's modern memoir tradition, beginning work on “The Past” in 1884.

He died in Pleven in 1932.