Voivode Stoyo Kostov

Stoyo Kostov Topalov, known as Dyado Stoyo Voyvoda or Stoyo Skrizhovski, was a Bulgarian hajduk and revolutionary, born in the village of Skrizhovo in the Zihna district, then part of the Ottoman Empire and now Skopia, Greece, in 1846 or 1855. In 1875 he joined Kuku Voyvoda's detachment and later became an independent hajduk voivode, operating against Turkish bandit gangs around the Bozdag, Tsarna Gora and Alibotush Mountains. He mainly engaged in kidnapping wealthy merchants, chiefly Greeks and supporters of the Greek cause, for ransom, and learned to read and write in the mountains.

During the Kresna-Razlog Uprising in 1878, he participated with a detachment of forty men. After the uprising was crushed, he settled with his family in Dupnitsa. In 1885 he volunteered in the Serbo-Bulgarian War in Captain Kosta Panitsa's force.

In 1895 the Macedonian Committee recruited him for its armed detachment campaign. He headed the Third Serres Battalion, comprising about 200 fighters. However, conflict arose between him and the officers because he did not comply with the Committee's orders. As a result, some of the officers left the force, while he continued on his way. That same year, after burning the village of Dospat and unsuccessfully attempting to kidnap a Turkish estate owner, Stoyo Kostov died in an attack on the estate. His deputy voivode Krastyo Zahariev also died, after which the detachment dispersed.

Thus ended the life of one of the best-known and most influential Bulgarian voivodes, whose deeds remain recorded in the history of the struggle for the freedom of the Macedonian and Thracian lands.