Atanas Razdolov

Razdolov's writings supported Macedonian separatism and liberation,^[9] being among the first in Bulgaria to publish such opinions publicly. He expressed positions that were pro-Socialist and pro-Macedonian independence.^[10] Razdolov authored 97 poems, which were published in twelve books and six short stories. He published his first book, Poems of the Apostles, in 1895 and in it, encouraged Macedonians to fight for Macedonia's freedom.^[11] In one of his poems dedicated to Ilyo Maleshevski he named him as a great Macedonian hero.^[12] In 1896 he would publish another book titled "Unhappy Macedonia" one of the more notable songs were called "To the Macedonians".^[13] Razdolov had anarchist views. He supported an armed struggle to achieve liberation of Macedonia from the Ottoman Empire and fending off any encroachments from neighboring countries. In 1914 after the Balkan Wars, Razdolov published his book "The future of the Balkan Peninsula" in which emphasized that all roads led to the autonomy of Macedonia, to the triumph of the motto "Macedonia for the Macedonians", for everyone to have equal rights as a citizen and live a free life, the way he was born, and not the Serb to forcefully make him Serb, the Greek to make him Greek, the Bulgarian to make him Bulgarian, and the Vlach to make him Vlach. ^{[citation needed]}

According to some of his contemporaries in Bulgaria, Razdolov was a controversial person.^[14] Mihail Dumbalakov claimed he was a famous person but insane cynic.^[15] Per Evtim Sprostranov, Razdolov was a half-mad and drunkard who was engaged in financial blackmail.^[16] Petar Karchev wrote about Razdolov that a poetry could not be sought in his poems, but there was hidden the deep bitterness of an honest but failed revolutionary.^[17] The patriarch of Bulgarian literature, Ivan Vazov, met him during a scandal in public transport in Sofia. Razdolov travelled without a ticket and Vazov paid for it for him, while Razdolov curiously offered to sell him the copyright of his unpublished book.^[18] Per Dimo Kazasov, he was a nondescript and poorly dressed man who made a living by writing illiterate and thoughtless patriotic poems.^[19] According to assessments of his personality from Bulgarian historians, he was a Bulgarian revolutionary^[20] who later switched to far left-wing political positions and accepted the ideas of Macedonism after the Balkan Wars.^[21]

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  Bust of Razdolov in Berovo
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  Cover of The future of the Balkan Peninsula

• Vasil Tocinovski (2009). РАСКАЗОТ НА МАКЕДОНСКИОТ 19 ВЕК. Институт за македонска литература. ISBN 978-9989-886-75-1. Retrieved 8 April 2023.