During the First Balkan War (1912–1913) he was in command of the 3rd Army which decisively defeated the Turks at Lozengrad and Lule Burgas in Thrace.
Notable natives include politician Petar Gudev (1862–1932), officer Radko Dimitriev (1859–1918) and Shibil, a 19th-century Turkish Roma brigand who served as Yordan Yovkov's prototype for a hajduk character, as well as possibly the noted socialist Christian Rakovsky (1873–1941).