Voivode Stoycho Garufalov

Stoycho Dimitrov Garufalov was a Bulgarian military officer and revolutionary, known as a voivode of the Supreme Macedonian-Adrianople Committee.

He was born on 18 February 1868 in Malko Tarnovo, then in the Ottoman Empire. He was the son of the revolutionary Dimitar Garufalov and the brother of Bishop Ivan Garufalov. Stoycho Garufalov completed his schooling in his home town and at the Bulgarian Catholic High School in Edirne before entering the Military School in Sofia in 1888. There he met Boris Sarafov. He graduated in 1890 and began serving in the 14th Macedonian Infantry Regiment.

He participated in the Macedonian Committee’s campaign by revolutionary detachments in 1895 as commander of a detachment in Lieutenant Petar Nachev’s Strumitsa Battalion. In 1896, he then organised a detachment that entered the Adrianople region to investigate the prospects for launching an organised revolutionary struggle.

From 1897, he was an active member of the secret officers’ organisation Bulgarian Liberation Brotherhoods and introduced Ivan Tsonchev to the officers’ brotherhoods.

In 1900, he was promoted to captain. He took part as voivode of a detachment from the town of Elena in the Gorna Dzhumaya Uprising of 1902, alongside Major Asen Cholakov and Hristo Sirakov.

During the First Balkan War, Garufalov served as a battalion commander in the 29th Yambol Infantry Regiment. In the Second Balkan War, he was wounded in fighting against Greek troops near Kukush. In the First World War, as a lieutenant-colonel, he commanded the 3rd Battalion of the 2nd Regiment of the 11th Division and subsequently served as commandant of various towns. He was awarded the Order of Bravery, 4th Degree, 2nd Class.

After the war, he served as head of the Military Liquidation Bureau in Sofia. He died in Sofia on 24 January 1924.