Skopje, 3 July 2026 (MIA)  

Darko JANEVSKI

“Dear Todor,

Forgive me, and may everyone else forgive me for failing Macedonia. I am dying here. I will lie down beside my dear Lora. I embrace you, deeply moved by the care you showed me during the days of great trials. Thank you for those nine hundred leva of aid from the organization, without which I would have long since died of hunger instead of a bullet, as is fitting for me.

Tell Macedonia, when you get there, that her son (I consider myself her son) will die in a free Bulgaria, burdened by a foul slander. And when Macedonia is free, led a comrade come to my grave and say: ‘Greetings from our martyr mother – she is finally happy!’

Extend my heartfelt greetings to your family.

I firmly shake the hands of Hristo Matov, Hristo Tatarchev, and Aleksandar Protogerov.

I embrace you. Farewell.

Yours,

Pejo

In those difficult days I was not able to settle my accounts. Please order everything you believe to be right to be done.”

These were the final words that Pejo Javorov wrote to the leader of IMRO, Todor Aleksandrov, in the last days of October 1914. Immediately after, on October 29, 1914, he took his own life.

A Different Time

Pejo Javorov was a Bulgarian poet of Armenian descent, but he was also a member of the IMRO, serving for a time on its central committee and as its representative abroad. But what makes him especially significant for Macedonia – even though he remains virtually unknown to a large number of Macedonians – is the fact that he was Goce Delchev’s first biographer. Javorov spent the final months of Delchev’s life in 1903 as a member of his revolutionary company, which allowed him to observe the man considered the ideologue of the Macedonian revolutionary movement on a daily basis and to publish his biography as early as 1904.

Javorov was a Bulgarian of Armenian descent, born in the village of Chirpan, just a dozen kilometers away from Plovdiv. However, he deeply grieved that he had “failed” Macedonia by dying in Sofia, Bulgaria, rather than in the land whose son he considered himself to be. He had no doubt that Macedonia would one day be free, yet he did not write what many would expect from a Great Bulgarian chauvinist: that freedom would lead to the long-awaited unification of the Bulgarian people. No, Javorov simply asked Aleksandrov that, when freedom finally came, a comrade would visit his grave to bring him greetings from their “martyr mother” – Macedonia – who was finally happy!

A Tragic Love

Looking back today, through modern eyes, how are we to understand Bulgaria’s current attitude to our country after reading the words this poet uttered just days before his death? And what was he? An Armenian, a Bulgarian, or a Macedonian? Or was he, simply, a man who could not stomach the enslavement of a people he considered his brothers and who admired their heroism? While Bulgarians rightfully claim him as one of their greatest poets, the man viewed himself as a son of Macedonia and wept he was dying in Bulgaria. In today’s divisions it is difficult to grasp such breadth of spirit.

The story of his death is a special story – one that, if we had any sense, would have inspired dozens upon dozens of contemporary poets and writers. Javorov was madly in love with and married to the poet Lora Karavelova (and yet, less than an hour after their wedding ceremony, he retreated to his room – not for their wedding night, but to put on his rebel uniform and depart for Macedonia because his company was marching out that very evening, leaving behind one of the most beautiful women in Bulgaria).

Lora was Javorov’s second wife. The first, Mina Todorova, died from tuberculosis. Lora was an exceptionally beautiful woman, as shown by the words of Todor Aleksandrov’s mother, Marija:

“Javorov often came to our house to see Todor. Two or three times he brought Lora along. Her beauty absolutely stunned us. She was so beautiful that two of my daughters, who saw her, talked about her all week. I don’t know why, but I dreaded their marriage. It was as if I had a premonition that something terrible would happen.” 

Javorov with Lora

A few months before their wedding, Lora sent Pejo two miniature portraits from Paris, on which she wrote:

“I am waiting for you to kiss me.” She also wrote: “...you are right here before me – with your sad, dreamy and pure eyes, your nervous and sensitive nostrils, the disillusioned and all-knowing folds around your month, and that rarely preserved boyish line on the lower part of your face, which, despite your desire to die young, is still full of so much longing to be seen.”

On September 19, 1912, Javorov and Karavelova were married. He left for Macedonia and it was precisely the days they spent apart that were the happiest of their brief marriage, which lasted just over a year. The letters they exchanged bear a witness to this.

He calls her “Lorichka,” “dear wife,” and writes that he “kisses her a thousand times”.

She responds with “my Javo,” “my dear, precious, only one,” asks forgiveness for not knowing “how to love you better”.

Lora impatiently awaited Javorov’s return, furnishing their apartment at 136 Rakovski Street. Her greatest desire was to care for him while he wrote his works. However, shortly after the poet’s return to Sofia, the scandals between the two begin.

In 1913, while Javorov was lying on the bed in their room, Lora Karavelova committed suicide in his presence. In the moments that followed, Javorov grabbed the pistol and shot himself. He survived the attempt but was left partially blind. The Bulgarian prosecution and judiciary were not convinced that this was the case, and charged him with murder. Unable to bear the weight of that “foul slander,” as he called it, he committed suicide in October 1914, shortly after penning his farewell letters. “I am going to lie down beside my dear Lora,” he wrote to Aleksandrov. To his family, he left instructions to bury him in his revolutionary attire: “If I could not die in Macedonia, let me at least die dressed as I was prepared for her.” With that, he put an end to both his struggle for Macedonia and one of the most magnificent love stories the people from this region have ever known.

Who aided the poet’s suicide?

The Fight for the Macedonian’s Pure Honor

The IMRO never believed that Javorov was Lora’s killer. Todor Aleksandrov and all the organization’s leadership at the time believed the poet’s word that he had not shot his wife in a fit of jealousy, as the Bulgarian prosecution claimed. At the same time, those closest to him, especially Aleksandrov, grew increasingly aware that Javorov intended to end his own life. The voivoda Milan Matov recalled the words of his brother, Hristo, regarding the situation:

“It’s dangerous, he might find a weapon and put an end to his suffering. If his eyesight were better, he would be himself again and useful to society. I am scared that you might be foolish enough to give him a pistol. I know how close you two are...” 

Todor Aleksandrov with the Blinded Javorov

After his suicide, a real investigation was launched to determine how Delchev’s biographer had managed to procure the pistol and the poison he used. His relative, Ganka Najdenova-Stoilova, who kept Javorov’s notes a secret for decades, discussed the matter with Vancho Mihajlov. She wrote down their conversation, which only became public in the 1990s:

“I remember my meeting with Ivan Mihajlov in 1942. The conversation turned to Javorov. Mihajlov spoke of Todor Aleksandrov’s deep friendship with him. I asked him if he knew which of the Macedonians had given the poet the poison

“I don’t believe it was a Macedonian – he replied firmly – least of all Aleksandrov. There isn’t a Macedonian alive who would help Javorov take his own life. Even Jane Sandanski didn’t kill him... Do not forget that Javorov fought in battles in Macedonia and was always prepared for such a death. In the barn at Goleshevo, they certainly wouldn’t have surrendered alive to the Turkish pursuit. But even there, any of his comrades would have thrown themselves in front of him to take the bullet meant for Javorov. You should write a book about Javorov. In that book, you must thoroughly debunk the widespread rumor that he received the poison and the pistol from the Macedonians. That is simply impossible...,” Najdenova recalled. 

Javorov with Goce Delchev

IMRO’s investigation did not produce any results. But the fight to clear Javorov’s name continued. In his testament he wrote:

“I swear in my mother’s grave that I told the truth about my wife’s death in the investigation.” Todor Aleksandrov and all of the IMRO believed these words without a single shred of doubt.

Last wish

A Laurel Over Me, a Sycamore Over Lora

“When the happy day arrives for me to go to her, a day I await with impatience, I ask my friends to arrange for me to be buried next to Lora. Let a laurel be planted over me, and a sycamore over her... Let ivy bind the two treets, and let a pink oak be planted there as well. Place a modest stone or a cross – and write our names...,” Javorov requested of his comrades in his testament.