Panayot Hitov

Around 1864–1865, Hitov began to regard his actions as part of the national liberation movement, and was in correspondence with Georgi Rakovski.

According to Rakovski's plan as presented in "1867 Provisional Law on the National and Forest Bands", Hitov was to be the chief Bulgarian voivode.

He settled in Belgrade, living there as a pensioner and becoming a supporter of the idea that Bulgaria's liberation struggle should be co-ordinated with Serbia's anti-Ottoman actions.

Without taking Levski's advice into consideration, he signed an agreement with the Montenegrin voivode Matanović to organize a joint uprising in Bulgaria, Bosnia, Herzegovina and Albania.

According to the plan, Panayot Hitov was supposed to lead a band of soldiers, but this was not carried out due to the Serbian government's objections.