Voivode Vando Gyoshev

Vasil Georgiev Tanov, known as Vando Gyoshev, Vando Voivode and Old Vando, was a Bulgarian voivode and revolutionary in IMARO. 

Vando Gyoshev was born in 1858 in the village of Leskovo, which was in the Ottoman Empire. His age is recorded in 1860. He joined the Internal Macedonian-Adrianople Revolutionary Organisation (IMARO) as early as 1893, beginning as a courier and later joining the ranks of the voivodes.

In 1894, Vando Gyoshev was compelled to drive the Greek bishop out of the village after he tried to replace the Bulgarian priest with a Greek one. This incident caused tension between the communities. In 1898, his brother Stoyan was killed, prompting Vando Gyoshev and Ichko Babyanski to take revenge by killing the Greek supporter Stoyan Chelepiev, father of the future Greek guerrilla captain Vande Chelepiev.

Pursued by the Turkish authorities, Vando Gyoshev fled to Enidzhe Vardar, where he joined Ivancho Karasuliyata's detachment in 1902 together with his sons Goshko and Michko. After the Ilinden-Preobrazhenie Uprising, he became friends with Apostol Petkov and in 1904 recruited his own son Georgi Vandev as a detachment member.

In 1912, at the outbreak of the Balkan War, Vando Gyoshev joined the Macedonian-Adrianople Volunteer Corps in the First Separate Partisan Company. He defeated Ottoman regular troops near the village of Kriva on 9 October 1912 and liberated Enidzhe Vardar on 19 October. On 15 December, however, Vando and his son were arrested and sentenced to death. They were imprisoned in Yedi Kule, where Georgi managed to escape, while Vando was abused, starved, poisoned and finally killed in 1917.

The Macedonian Brotherhood in Sveti Vlas, which operated between 1925 and 1934, bore Vando Gyoshev's name in memory of his brave and resolute spirit.