Toma Kostov Davidov (2 May 1863 - 15 March 1903) was a

Bulgarian Army The Bulgarian Army (), also called Bulgarian Armed Forces, is the military of Bulgaria. The commander-in-chief is the president of Bulgaria. The Ministry of Defense is responsible for political leadership, while overall military command is in ...

officer and participant in the Macedonian Revolutionary Movement, a vojvode of the Macedonian Supreme Committee, later becoming a commander in the

Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization The Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization (IMRO; ; ), was a secret revolutionary society founded in the Ottoman territories in Europe, that operated in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Founded in 1893 in Salonica, it initia ...

Biography

He was born in

Lovech Lovech (, ) is a city in north-central Bulgaria. It is the administrative centre of the Lovech Province and of the subordinate Lovech Municipality. The city is located about northeast from the capital city of Sofia. Near Lovech are the towns of ...

, then in the

Ottoman Empire The Ottoman Empire (), also called the Turkish Empire, was an empire, imperial realm that controlled much of Southeast Europe, West Asia, and North Africa from the 14th to early 20th centuries; it also controlled parts of southeastern Centr ...

on 2 May 1863. He participated as a volunteer in the

Serbo-Bulgarian War The Serbo-Bulgarian War or the Serbian–Bulgarian War (, ''Srăbsko-bălgarska voyna'', , ''Srpsko-bugarski rat''), a war between the Kingdom of Serbia and the Principality of Bulgaria, erupted on and lasted until . Despite Bulgaria's statu ...

. Davidov graduated a military school in Sofia together with

Gotse Delchev Georgi Nikolov Delchev (; ; 4 February 1872 – 4 May 1903), known as Gotse Delchev or Goce Delčev (''Гоце Делчев''),Originally spelled in older Bulgarian orthography as ''Гоце Дѣлчевъ''. - Гоце Дѣлчевъ. ...

and

Boris Sarafov Boris Petrov Sarafov ( Bulgarian and ; 12 June 1872 – 28 November 1907) was a Bulgarian Army officer and revolutionary, one of the leaders of Supreme Macedonian-Adrianople Committee (SMAC) and of the pro-Bulgarian, rightist wing of the In ...

. In the summer of 1895 Davidov participated in the

Supreme Macedonian Committee chetas' action The Supreme Macedonian Committee chetas' action in 1895 was an armed expedition of several chetas from Bulgaria into the Ottoman-ruled Macedonia and Thrace in the period of June-August 1895. Its aim was to provoke a general uprising in the are ...

, which was organized by the Macedonian Supreme Committee. After this action, Davidov joined the Bulgarian Officers' Brotherhoods. At the VІ Macedonian Congress in 1899 he was elected a member of the leadership of the Supreme Macedonian Committee along with Boris Sarafov, Anton Bozukov, Slavcho Kovachev and Hristo Sarakinov. At the VІІ Macedonian Congress in Sofia in 1900 he was re-elected vice-president of the committee. Then, disappointed by the ideological contradictions between the

Macedonian Bulgarian Macedonians or Macedonian Bulgarians (), sometimes also referred to as Macedono-Bulgarians, Macedo-Bulgarians, or Bulgaro-Macedonians are a regional, ethnographic group of ethnic Bulgarians, inhabiting or originating from the region of Ma ...

activists, in 1902 he left for Ottoman Macedonia as a vojvode of the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization. His ''cheta'' (fighter group) was active in the areas of

Bitola Bitola (; ) is a city in the southwestern part of North Macedonia. It is located in the southern part of the Pelagonia valley, surrounded by the Baba, Nidže, and Kajmakčalan mountain ranges, north of the Medžitlija-Níki border crossing ...

Ohrid Ohrid ( ) is a city in North Macedonia and is the seat of the Ohrid Municipality. It is the largest city on Lake Ohrid and the eighth-largest city in the country, with the municipality recording a population of over 42,000 inhabitants as of ...

and Demir Hisar. Once he told Gotse Delchev:

''I am not from Macedonia, but for its freedom I am ready to give my life in any moment.''

He was killed by Turkish ambush near village Odzoleni, near Ohrid, on 15 March 1903. On March 15, 2020, a commemorative plaque was erected on its frontal lobe in

North Macedonia North Macedonia, officially the Republic of North Macedonia, is a landlocked country in Southeast Europe. It shares land borders with Greece to the south, Albania to the west, Bulgaria to the east, Kosovo to the northwest and Serbia to the n ...

from local

activists. A few days later, it was destroyed by Macedonists.В току-що приетата в НАТО Северна Македония разбиха паметната плоча на български войвода, воювал за Македония
31 March, 2020. Factor.bg.
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References and notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Davidov, Toma 1863 births 1903 deaths People from Lovech Members of the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization Bulgarian revolutionaries Macedonia under the Ottoman Empire Bulgarian military personnel Assassinated Bulgarian people People from the Principality of Bulgaria People assassinated in the 20th century