Vasil Chekalarov

Vasil Hristov Chekalarov (Bulgarian/Васил Христов Чекаларов) or Vasil Tcakalarov (1874 – 9 July 1913) was a Bulgarian revolutionary and one of the leaders of Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organisation in Macedonia. H. N. Brailsford described Chekalarov as the "cruel but competent general" of the Southern insurgents in Macedonia. He considered the adherents of Macedonist ideas to be Grecomans. He was a leading komitaji in the bands of the Bulgarian Macedonian-Adrianople Revolutionary Committees and took part in the battles against the Ottoman authorities as well before the Ilinden Uprising as after it. In 1901-1902 he created a channel for illegal purchase and transfer of firearms from Greece to Southern Macedonia. In 1904 he migrated into Bulgaria and became one of the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization (IMRO) organizers of the military campaign against the Greek Struggle for Macedonia.

As a commander of a Bulgarian guerilla band, Chekalarov supported the Hellenic Army in the First Balkan War 1912-1913. Later he fought on the side of the Bulgarian Army on the front in Eastern Thrace in the composition of the Macedonian-Adrianopolitan Volunteer Corps.

He was killed by Greek troops during the Second Balkan War and his head was publicly displayed in Florina. In 1934 a Bulgarian village was renamed Chakalarovo in honour of Vasil Chekalarov.