Stefan Jakimov Dedov (; ; 28 October 1869 – 19 September 1914) was a journalist, writer and early proponent of the Macedonian Slavs' ethnonational distinctiveness. He publicly expressed the idea of a Macedonian nation distinct from the Bulgarians, as well as a separate Macedonian language. He also self-identified occasionally as a Bulgarian.Коста Църнушанов (1992). Македонизмът и съпротивата на Македония срещу него (in Bulgarian). Университетско изд-во "Св. Климент Охридски". pp. 61–62.
Biography Dedov was born in 1869 in Ohrid in the Ottoman Empire (now North Macedonia). He worked as a teacher there prior to working as a postal worker in Berkovitsa and Ruse, Bulgaria. In 1898, he moved to Belgrade, where he began studying at the Faculty of Law (1898–1902). Тhere he, along with Dijamandija Mišajkov, founded the "Macedonian club", and published the newspaper Balkanski glasnik (Balkan Herald) in French and Serbian. The newspaper expressed the idea for an independent Macedonian state, nation and language. Later the Serbian government banned the club and suppressed the newspaper.
In 1902, he went to Saint Petersburg together with Mišajkov and became one of the founders of Macedonian Scientific and Literary Society in October. Along with Mišajkov, the next month, he sent a memorandum to the Russian government calling for Macedonian autonomy, recognition of Macedonian Slavs as a distinct ethnic group and a distinct Macedonian Slavic language, as well as an independent church, among other things.
Dedov went to Sofia in 1903 and published the newspaper Balkan. There he espoused pro-Bulgarian views in his publications."We have all understood that the common Bulgarian fatherland is where the Bulgarians live, without distinguishing political borders...Now where to make a difference between a Macedonian and a free Bulgarian, when no such difference is made between a Macedonian and a Thracian?...Let it not be forgotten that we are fighting for the Bulgarian name, that we are suffering because we want to be Bulgarians..." (in "Kurier", issue 19, December 25, 1904). For more: Църнушанов, Коста. Македонизмът и съпротивата на Македония срещу него. София, Университетско издателство „Св. Климент Охридски“, 1992. с. 61. However he also aided Krste Petkov Misirkov in the printing of On Macedonian Matters and created a branch of the Macedonian Scientific and Literary Society with him on 23 November, but it was disbanded by the Bulgarian police after two days.
In 1904 he published the newspaper Kurier (Courier). He was a contributor for the Den (Day) and Balkanski Kurier (Balkan Courier) newspapers, mostly under the pseudonym Ridski or R. Dedov cooperated with some Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization activists, though he was suspected of being a pro-Serbian activist by the organization. He was killed in 1914 by an associate of Todor Aleksandrov - Slave Ivanov. Reporting on his death, the Belgrade newspaper Politika described him as an "honorary Serbian commercial agent".Ристовски, Блаже. Крсте П. Мисирков (1874 – 1926). Прилог кон проучувањето и развитокот на македонската национална мисла, Скопје 1966, с. 811, бел. 1095.
His son, Evtim Dedov was a prominent Bulgarian sports journalist, director of the Levski sports newspaper and general secretary of the "Levski" Sport Club.Евтим Дедов, "Спортен вестник Левски (за вечните съперници Левски и Славия)", брой 140, 141, 142, 143, София, 1935 година.Димитър П Иванчев и колектив, Български периодичен печат, 1844-1944: анотиран библиографски указател, Том 1, Български библиографски институт, Народна библиотека "Кирил и Методий." Наука и изкуство, 1962, стр. 436.
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