Mikhail Gerdzhikov was born on January 26th, 1877, in Plovdiv. He studied at the French College, where he received the nick-name Michelle. As a student there he started his revolutionary activities as the leader of a secret Macedonian revolutionary committee. Then he studied in Switzerland (Lozana and Geneva), where he made close connections with the revolutionary immigration.
In 1899 he comes back to Bulgaria as a teacher in Bitola and becomes a member of the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization. He becomes a close friend of Goze Delchev and his constant companion. He was the great mind that organized and led the Preobrazhenie Uprising.