Lazar Poptraykov

Lazar Poptraykov (; ; 10April 187811/12 October 1903) was a Bulgarian revolutionary (komitadji). He was also a Bulgarian Exarchate teacher and poet from Ottoman Macedonia. He was a leader (voivode) of the Internal Macedonian-Adrianople Revolutionary Organization (IMARO) in the region of Kastoria (Kostur) and participated in the Ilinden Uprising, where he was killed.

Life

Lazar Poptraykov was born in Dambeni, Ottoman Empire (now Dendrohori, Greece), After completing his primary education in his native village, he continued to study at the Bitola Bulgarian Classical High School and afterwards at Thessaloniki's Bulgarian Men's High School. In Thessaloniki, one of his teachers was Pere Toshev. Poptraykov joined IMARO as early as 1895, inspired by Dame Gruev. Gruev initiated him and Kuzo Popstefov while they were attending the gymnasium. Per historian Douglas Dakin, Poptraykov was expelled from the Thessaloniki gymnasium for working against a teacher, however the Exarchist school inspector reconciled both of them and Poptraykov was returned after Poptraykov had complained in Sofia. In the academic year 1896/1897, he and Kuzo Popstefov were leading in the propaganda work for IMARO. During the holidays, they toured the villages in Kostur and were able to enlist people from almost every village of the region. In 1897, he published the folklore-essay study titled "The Position of the Bride in the Boy's House". He finished the Bulgarian Men's High School of Thessaloniki in the academic year 1897/1898. After his graduation, he was appointed as a teacher in his native village, According to Dakin, Konstantinos Christou, a fighter for Macedonian Committee and former member of IMARO, According to Karavangelis, Poptraykov was the worst enemy of Hellenism, who turned the peasants in favor of the Bulgarian national idea. When narrating his memoirs to author Penelope Delta in the 1930s, Karavangelis requested the concealment of the information that Poptraykov's head had been buried in the garden of the Metropolitan Cathedral of Kastoria, lest "the Bulgarians cause mayhem to find it and lay it to rest with great honors, if they find out".

Literature Лазар Поптрайков - "Възстанието в Костурско; от 20 юлий до 30 август вкл.", публикувано в "Бюлетин на в. Автономия; Задграничен лист на Вътрешната македоно-одринска организация", брой 44-47, София, 1903 година Report about the revolt in Kostur written by Lazar Poptraykov, Vasil Chakalarov, Manol Rozov, Pando Klyashev and Mihail Nikolov