Hajduk Velko

Hajduk Velko Petrov or Velko Petrovich (Serbian: Вељко Петровић or Veljko Petrović) was a Bulgarian hajduk and active participant in the First Serbian Uprising.

He was born in 1780 in the village of Lenovac in the Zaječar district. His father, Petar the Cheesemaker, was a wealthy man who owned thousands of sheep. Velko had two brothers – Milutin, also a participant in the First Serbian Uprising and subsequently a Serbian official in Negotin, and Milko, who later commanded a Bulgarian detachment in the Russian army during the Russo-Turkish War of 1828 – 1829 and was killed near Silistra.

At fifteen, Velko Petrovich became a servant to a Turk in Vidin but soon escaped and joined a hajduk detachment. At twenty-three he was a hajduk in Stanoje Glavaš's detachment. In 1804 he participated in an uprising instigated by Glavaš's detachment. In 1806 he fought for Belgrade alongside the Vulićević brothers' detachment.

By 1807 Velko Petrovich commanded a Bulgarian force numbering several thousand, which captured almost the entire Crna Reka nahiye and attracted Bulgarian volunteers from as far away as the Sofia district. The following year he operated in the Vidin district, and in 1809 he had 8,000 men and waged guerrilla warfare south of Vidin, provoking continual revolts in the area.

In 1810 he received a gold Russian decoration for bravery. During the fighting near Varvarin he was wounded in his left arm, which was permanently disabled. In 1811 he became voivode of the Timok region. In the summer of 1813 Velko attacked Vidin Fortress with 3,000 Bulgarians, but, left without support from the Serbian interior, he was repelled by the 16,000-strong Turkish army stationed there, which advanced into the Bulgarian lands in the Timok region that he had liberated. The voivode fortified Negotin with trenches and towers and successfully repelled attacks for three weeks. His brothers Milutin and Milko, Hadzhi Nikola Mihaylov, Stoyan Abrash and other Bulgarian leaders fought alongside him. Hajduk Velko died on 9 August 1813 in this battle with the Turks at Negotin.