 He won a scholarship and finished the Bulgarian Theological School in Constantinople.He returned in Macedonia and entered the Internal Macedonian-Adrianople Revolutionary Organization (IMARO) by joining the revolutionary bands of Stoyan Filipov and Stoyan Malchankov.After the liberation of Pirin Macedonia in the Balkan Wars in 1912, Atanasov worked in the tax administration of Nevrokop, today known as Gotse Delchev.