Vasil Chekalarov

Vasil Hristov Chekalarov (Васил Христов Чекаларов) or Vasil Tcakalarov (1874 in Smardesh, Ottoman Empire, today Krystallopigi, Florina regional unit, Greece – July 9, 1913 in Belkamen, today Drosopigi, Florina regional unit) was a Bulgarian revolutionary and one of the leaders of Internal Macedonian-Adrianople Revolutionary Organisation in Macedonia. H. N. Brailsford described Chekalarov as the "cruel but competent general" of the Bulgarian insurgents in Macedonia. Despite his Bulgarian self-identification, per post-WWII Macedonian historiography he was an ethnic Macedonian.

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-Preobrazhenie 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-Adrianople Revolutionary Organization (IMARO) organizers of the military campaign against the Greek Struggle for Macedonia.

As a commander of a Bulgarian guerilla band, Chekalarov supported the Greek 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 honor of Vasil Chekalarov.