Mamin Kolyu
Voivode Mamin Kolyu | |
|---|---|
 Mamin Kolyu c. 1907 | |
| Native name | Мамин Колю |
| Birth name | Nikola Koev Nikolov (Никола Коев Николов) |
| Born | 20 March 1880 Haskovo, Eastern Rumelia, Ottoman Empire (now Bulgaria) |
| Died | 30 July 1961 Haskovo, People's Republic of Bulgaria |
| Allegiance | |
| Service/ | |
| Relations | Tane Nikolov (uncle) |
| Other work | Police officer Miller |
Nikola Koev Nikolov (Bulgarian: Никола Коев Николов; 20 March 1880 – 30 July 1961), known as Mamin Kolyu (Мамин Колю, "Mummy's Kolyu", Kolyu being a diminutive of Nikola) was a Bulgarian revolutionary of the Internal Macedonian-Adrianopolitan Revolutionary Organization (IMARO) who fought for the liberation of Macedonia and Thrace from Ottoman rule.
Mamin Kolyu was born on 20 March 1880 in
During the Ilinden–Preobrazhenie Uprising of 1903, he set the Ottoman gendarmerie's barracks in Kruševo on fire together with Kosta Hristov Popeto. As the uprising was crushed, he returned to Bulgaria. In 1904, he assaulted the Turkish consul's carriage in Sofia together with Alyabaka, injuring the consul's bodyguard and forcing the Bulgarian government to sentence them. Six months later, they were quietly released without amnesty and told to stay out of the government's way. Upon his release he immediately headed to Macedonia and served as a revolutionary under Kosta Popeto, Ivan Naumov, Apostol Petkov and Ichko Gyupchev. During the unrest at the time he joined Hristo Chernopeev's band to dethrone and capture Sultan Abdul Hamid II from Istanbul and take him to Thessaloniki.
From 1912 on, Mamin Kolyu was an under-voivode and flag bearer in his uncle Tane Nikolov's band and took part in the Balkan Wars, becoming an independent voivode. In the winter of 1912 and the spring of 1913, he participated in the Bulgarian Exarchate's christianization mission in the Rhodopes. After the liberation of Western Thrace (which was ceded to Bulgaria per the Treaty of Bucharest), Mamin Kolyu married in a village near Gyumyurdzhina (today Komotini, Greece). From 1914 to 1919 he lived in Bulgarian Ksanti (today Xanthi, Greece) and Komotini and was a policeman for some time. In 1920–1924, when the region was already part of Greece, he collaborated with the Internal Thracian Revolutionary Organisation in Haskovo and Western Thrace.
In 1924, Mamin Kolyu withdrew from his revolutionary activities and worked as a miller in