Racho Petrov Stoyanov (Bulgarian: Рачо Петров Стоянов) (3 March 1861 – 22 January 1942) was a leading Bulgarian general and politician.
Petrov was born in Shumen. A talented soldier, he was appointed Chief of General Staff at the age of 24 and was Minister of Defence at 27.[1] His stature was increased by the leading role he took in suppressing an army mutiny in 1887.[2] He married Sultana Pantaleeva Minchovich in 1887, with whom he had 3 children. After an unhappy marriage, they divorced in 1919.[3]
Both Petrov and his wife were personally close to Tsar Ferdinand I of Bulgaria[4] and in 1891 he was promoted by Ferdinand to the rank of colonel, the first officer to hold that rank in Bulgaria.[5] Petrov also attended Ferdinand's wedding to Princess Marie Louise of Bourbon-Parma in Italy in 1893.[6] Ferdinand's decision in 1894 to place Petrov in charge of the army completely, and thus outside the command of Prime Minister Stefan Stambolov, precipitated the resignation of the latter.[7]
As a politician, he twice served as Prime Minister of Bulgaria, initially as the non-party head of an interim administration in 1901, the only task of which was to organize the next election.[8] He returned as prime minister for a longer period from 1903 to 1906, having been appointed for fear of war after a Bulgarian insurrection in Ottoman Macedonia.[9] His government was particularly concerned with military matters and oversaw an armament program and extensive modernization of the Bulgarian army.[10]
During the Second Balkan War Petrov, by then a Lieutenant General, took command of the 3rd Army, leading it at the Battle of Bregalnica, a Serbian victory.[11]
During the First World War he served as head of the newly established Macedonian Military Inspection Oblast from December 1915 until October 1916.[12]