Todor Aleksandrov Poporushov (Bulgarian/Macedonian: Тодор Александров Попорушов; 4 March 1881 – 31 August 1924), anglicised as Todor Alexandrov, was a Macedonian Bulgarian revolutionary, Bulgarian army officer, and teacher. He initially favoured the annexation of Macedonia to Bulgaria, but later switched to the idea of an Independent Macedonia as a second Bulgarian state on the Balkans. Aleksandrov was a member of the Internal Macedonian-Adrianople Revolutionary Organisation (IMARO) and later part of the Central Committee of the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organisation (IMRO), as well as its leader.
Aleksandrov, who was deemed "anti-Macedonian" in Yugoslav Macedonia, is still a controversial persona due to his pro-Bulgarian views in today North Macedonia, but there have been efforts to rehabilitate him. Though, this has caused political and public controversies.
Life
Early life and revolutionary activity
thumb|200px|right|Aleksandrov in uniform of the [[Macedonian-Adrianopolitan Volunteer Corps of the Bulgarian Army during the Balkan Wars.]]
thumb|300px|right|Todor Aleksandrov and [[Aleksandar Protogerov as Bulgarian Army officers during the First World War.]]
Aleksandrov was born in Novo Selo, Ottoman Empire (now North Macedonia), on 4 March 1881. Aleksandrov was of Bulgarian Orthodox origin. He was the second child and the only son of Aleksandar Poporushov and Maria Hadzhiyaneva. His father was a Bulgarian Exarchate teacher. Aleksandrov completed his four-year primary school and first grade at the progymnasium in Radoviš, where his father worked as a teacher. In 1893, he and his family returned to Štip, In 1911, he became part of the new Internal Macedonian-Adrianopolitan Revolutionary Organisation's Central Committee. He was an officer in the 11th Macedonian Infantry Division.
By the end of the war, Aleksandrov married Evangeliya (Vangelia) Bayaltsalieva, with whom he had two children - Aleksandar and Maria. After World War I, he proposed an autonomous Macedonia with Salonika as the capital. In 1919, the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organisation (IMRO) was restored, with him, Aleksandar Protogerov and Petar Chaulev being part of the Central Committee. However, Aleksandrov was recognised as the leader and many people called it "Aleksandrov's VMRO." IMRO's left-wing distrusted him and questioned the authenticity of his autonomist agenda, seeing him as a proponent of the Bulgarian annexationist agenda. Both him and Protogerov were arrested by the Bulgarian Agrarian authorities after they came to power in August 1919, who charged them with war crimes, but they managed to escape with the help of Bulgarian officers on 13 November 1919. Afterward, they established a stronghold of the IMRO in the Petrich district, which they ran like an independent state. Taxes were also imposed on the locals and funds were given by the Italian authorities, who were supporting them against Yugoslavia.
Before the 1920 Constitutional Assembly election in the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (Yugoslavia), he encouraged people in Vardar Macedonia to vote for communist candidates. The Minister of Interior Aleksandar Dimitrov ordered the arrest of the IMRO leaders, but they went underground. Under pressure by the Bulgarian government, Aleksandrov and Protogerov promptly denied in a declaration on 1 August through the Bulgarian press that they have ever signed any agreement, claiming that the May Manifesto was a communist forgery. The assassins were closely related with the pro-communist IMRO voivode and rival Alekso Vasilev. A memorial service was held in his honour in Sofia, attended by around 10,000 people. It also considered him as anti-Macedonian. Aleksandrov also had negative reception in the People's Republic of Bulgaria due to his participation in the suppression of the local Communist rebellion in 1923, but he was partially rehabilitated in the 1980s. After the independence of present-day North Macedonia, efforts were made by Macedonian politicians and historians to rehabilitate Aleksandrov. Most Macedonian historians have regarded him as "the biggest traitor to the Macedonian cause" due to his pro-Bulgarian views for a long time, while other historians have called him out for his alleged involvement in many assassinations of other IMRO members and other political and military figures of the time. On the other hand, other historians have referred to him as "the soul and the brain of the Macedonian resistance" and as "Macedonia's Robin Hood", attributing to him remarkable organisational skills and will. VMRO-Union of Macedonian Associations also was inspired by his legacy.
A local association of Bulgarians raised a monument of the revolutionary on 2 February 2008 in the city of Veles. In the following night the resident received a number of threats and the monument was twice thrown down by unknown individuals. Soon after, the monument was removed at the insistence of local authorities, as an unlawful construction. This incident caused Bulgarian president Georgi Parvanov to call upon the Macedonian government to review the history of Aleksandrov's deeds on his meeting with Branko Crvenkovski in the town of Sandanski. In June 2012, a new statue called "Macedonian Equestrian Revolutionary" was erected in Skopje. As a consequence, an outcry among older residents erupted almost immediately when they noted the anonymous rider's similarity to the historical figure. In October, a few months after the setting of the monument, a board appeared on it with the name of Todor Aleksandrov.
In March 2021, the new Skopje municipal council majority by the Social Democratic Union of Macedonia decided to rename the names of many local sites. Thus, the bridge named after Aleksandrov and the street named after the organisation he led - IMRO, were renamed. The former Skopje Mayor from VMRO-DPMNE Koce Trajanovski reacted that his successor Petre Šilegov has deleted part from the Macedonian history at the request of Bulgaria. A monument of Aleksandrov was erected in his birthplace of Novo Selo, Štip, in August 2024. He had been honoured by VMRO-DPMNE governments between 2006 and 2017.