Васил Хаџи-Кимов

Vasil Hadzi Kimov was a Macedonian revolutionary, writer, and public figure. He was active in the Macedonian Youth Secret Revolutionary Organization, IMRO (United), and later the Bulgarian Action Committees.

Born in Novo Selo, Štip, he first joined the Yugoslav Communist Party but left in the 1920s to support the Macedonian cause. In Sofia he studied law, became a student activist, and opposed Ivan Mihailov’s leadership of IMRO. After the Comintern recognized a Macedonian nation in 1934, he broke with IMRO (United) and published works such as Does a Macedonian Nation Exist? and The Macedonian Bulgarians.

During World War II, Hadzhi-Kimov co-founded the Bulgarian Central Action Committee in Vardar Macedonia. After 1944 he was imprisoned for 11 years by Yugoslav authorities. Later he worked in Skopje and Sofia, continuing to write against the Macedonian national idea. He returned to Novo Selo after the Macedonian independence and died there in 1992.