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Ilinden–Preobrazhenie Uprising

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Ilinden–Preobrazhenie Uprising
Part of the Macedonian Struggle

Map of the uprising in the regions of Macedonia and Thrace,
with contemporary Ottoman frontiers and present-day borders
Date2 August 1903 – October 1903
Location
Ottoman Empire
Result Ottoman victory
Belligerents
IMRO
SMAC
Kruševo Republic
Strandzha Commune		  Ottoman Empire
Commanders and leaders
Strength
26,408 (IMARO figures)[3] 350,931[3]
Casualties and losses
IMARO figures:[3]
  • 994 insurgents killed / wounded
  • 4,694 civilians killed
  • 3,122 girls and women raped
  • 176 girls and women abducted
  • 12,440 houses burned
  • 70,835 people left homeless
 5,328 killed / wounded[3]
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The Ilinden–Preobrazhenie Uprising (Bulgarian: Илинденско-Преображенско въстание, romanized: Ilindensko-Preobrazhensko vastanie), consisting of the Ilinden Uprising (Macedonian: Илинденско востание, romanized: Ilindensko vostanie; Greek: Εξέγερση του Ίλιντεν, romanized: Exégersi tou Ílinden) and Preobrazhenie Uprising,[4][5][6] was an organized revolt against the Ottoman Empire, which was prepared and carried out by the Internal Macedonian-Adrianople Revolutionary Organization,[7][8] with the support of the Supreme Macedonian-Adrianople Committee, which included mostly Bulgarian military personnel.[9] The name of the uprising refers to Ilinden, a name for Elijah's day, and to Preobrazhenie which means Feast of the Transfiguration. The revolt lasted from the beginning of August to the end of October.

The rebellion in the region of Macedonia affected the Monastir Vilayet, supported by Macedonian Bulgarian revolutionaries, and to some extent of the Aromanian population of the region. A provisional government was established in the town of Kruševo, where the insurgents proclaimed the Kruševo Republic, which was overrun after just ten days, on August 12.[10] On August 19, a closely related uprising organized by Thracian Bulgarian revolutionaries in the Adrianople Vilayet[11] led to the liberation of a large area in the Strandzha Mountains, and the creation of a provisional government in Vassiliko, the Strandzha Republic. This lasted about twenty days before being put down by the Ottomans.[10] The insurrection also affected the vilayets of Kosovo and Salonika.[12] In practice, this uprising was designed as a belated replica of the Bulgarian April Uprising of 1876, which finished disastrous, but which the national narrative had transformed into culmination of the anti-Ottoman struggle.[13]

By the time the rebellion had started, many of its most promising potential leaders, including Ivan Garvanov and Gotse Delchev, had already been arrested or killed by the Ottomans. Towards the end of the uprising there was an attempt to convince the Bulgarian government to send the army against the Ottomans, but the government was pressured by the Great Powers to refrain from military intervention.[14] The revolutionaries managed to maintain a guerrilla campaign against the Ottomans for almost three months, but the uprising was suppressed. This was followed by a mass wave of refugees from the regions of Macedonia and Thrace, mostly to Bulgaria, but also to the US and Canada. Its greater effect was that it persuaded the European powers to attempt to convince the Ottoman sultan that he must take a more conciliatory attitude toward his Christian subjects in Europe.[15] Through bilateral agreement, signed in 1904, Bulgaria committed not to support the revolutionary movement, while the Ottomans undertook to implement the Mürzsteg Reforms, however neither happened.

The uprising is celebrated in both Bulgaria and North Macedonia as the peak of their nations' struggle against the Ottoman rule and thus its legacy has been disputed between both countries. While in Bulgaria it is considered as a general rebellion prepared by the joint revolutionary organization of the Bulgarians in the Ottoman Empire, with a common goal autonomy for Macedonia and Adrianople regions, in North Macedonia it is assumed that there were in fact two separate uprisings. Calls for common celebrations, especially from the Bulgarian side, did little to change this state of affairs.[16]

Prelude

[edit]
General Tsonchev's Supreme Committee's band
General Ivan Tsonchev's Supreme Committee's band
Voivodes in Odrin Vilayet before the uprising.

The competition for control between national groups took place largely via of propaganda campaigns in the Ottoman Empire, aimed at winning over the local population, and conducted largely through churches and schools. Various groups were also supported by the local population and the three competing governments.[17]

The Internal Macedonian-Adrianopolitan Revolutionary Organization (IMARO) was founded in Thessaloniki in 1893. The group had a number of name changes prior to and subsequent to the uprising. It was predominantly Bulgarian and supported an idea for autonomy for Macedonia and Adrianople regions within the Ottoman state with a motto of "Macedonia for the Macedonians".[17] IMARO's inspiration certainly belonged to the nineteenth-century Balkan practice whereby the powers maintained the fiction of Ottoman control over effectively independent states under the guise of autonomous status within the Ottoman state; (Serbia, 1829–1878; Romania, 1829–1878; Bulgaria, 1878–1908). Autonomy, in other words, was as good as independence. Moreover, from the Macedonian perspective, the goal of independence by autonomy had another advantage. More important, IMARO was aware that neither Serbia nor Greece could expect to obtain the whole of Macedonia and, unlike Bulgaria, they both looked forward to and urged partition. Autonomy, then, was the best prophylactic against partition, that would unite the multi-ethnic Macedonian population. However, the idea of Macedonian autonomy was strictly political and did not imply a secession from Bulgarian ethnicity.[18]

The Supreme Macedonian-Adrianople Committee (SMAC) was a group formed in 1895 in Sofia, Bulgaria, which enjoyed the covert but close cooperation with the Bulgarian government. The members of this group were called the Supremists, and advocated annexation of the region by Bulgaria.[19] The two groups had different strategies. IMARO sought to prepare a carefully planned uprising in the future,[19] but the Supremists preferred immediate raids and guerilla operations to foster disorder and a precipitate intervention from the Great Powers.[20] A leader of IMARO, Gotse Delchev, was a strong advocate for proceeding slowly. SMAC urged a speedy uprising although they had little faith in the internal movement.[18] Their president Danail Nikolaev thought that IMARO's idea for a peasant uprising was unreal and perceived Delchev as a "brash youngster". Nikolaev thought that for the struggle to succeed, trained soldiers were needed and also clandestine aid and finance of the Bulgarian government.[21]

On the other hand, a smaller group of conservatives in Salonica organized a Bulgarian Secret Revolutionary Brotherhood (Balgarsko Tayno Revolyutsionno Bratstvo). The latter was incorporated in IMARO by 1900 and its members as Ivan Garvanov, were to exert a significant influence on the organization. They were to push for the Ilinden–Preobrazhenie Uprising and later became the core of IMARO's right-wing faction.[22] In 1899, Garvanov developed a friendship with Supremists' new leader Boris Sarafov, through which Garvanov managed to come to eminence in IMARO. Despite the mutual hostility, in this period IMARO and the Supremists collaborated and with Sarafov's help Garvanov and some of the Supremists became members of the IMARO's central committee in Thessaloniki.

At the beginning of 1901, the arrested IMARO member Milan Mihaylov, who previously was a member of SMAC, revealed the names of other IMARO activists. As a result, a series of arrests were conducted, which would become known as the Salonica affair. Consequently many of the leaders of IMARO were arrested by the Ottomans, including the Central Committee members, others like Delchev took refuge in Bulgaria. In panic that IMARO would collapse, the Central Committee member Ivan Hadzhinikolov, before his arrest, gave the archive and accounts to Garvanov. In this way Garvanov took control of the Central Committee and became its leader. Allegedly the imprisoned IMARO leaders were betrayed by Garvanov in order for him to seize control, thus in the following period the Central Committee was a tool of Garvanov and the Supremists, and plans for the uprising began.[21] From January 15 to 17, 1903, Garvanov held an IMARO congress in Thessaloniki in order to promote the idea for an uprising that spring.[23] The representative of the Serres revolutionary district was firmly against, however to gain a positive answer, the participation at the congress was cautiously selected. After heated discussions, all the delegates present signed the protocol with an opinion on starting an uprising.[24] During this period, Racho Petrov's Bulgarian government supported IMARO's position that the rebellion was entirely internal. As well as Petrov's personal warning to Delchev in January 1903 to delay or even cancel the rebellion, the government sent out a circular note to its diplomatic representatives in Thessaloniki, Bitola and Edirne, advising the population not to succumb to pro-rebellion propaganda, as "Bulgaria was not ready to support it".[25] Also, the IMARO was warned by the Minister of War Mihail Savov, that the uprising must be postponed until May 1904, by which time the Bulgarian Army would be ready for military intervention.[26] 

The decision to start an uprising was final, but Garvanov wanted to discuss it with the other top people of the organization, therefore, in mid-January, he arrived in Sofia. There, the decision on starting an uprising was discussed with Gotse Delchev, Gyorche Petrov, Pere Toshev, Hristo Matov, Hristo Tatarchev, Mihail Gerdzhikov, and others. It became clear that among the top people of the organization there was no unanimity on this issue, but eventually everyone accepted the idea.[27] However, Delchev remained strongly at the position that they were not ready, he went to the Serres region where he met with Yane Sandanski who shared his view. Later he went to Thessaloniki for a meeting with Dame Gruev, who Delchev hoped that as a "heart of the organization" would argue for the postponement of the uprising, but Gruev wanted it to proceed and defended the moral inspiration of the decision.[21] In late April 1903, a group of young anarchists from the Gemidzhii Circle – graduates from the Bulgarian Men's High School of Thessaloniki launched a campaign of terror bombing, the so-called Thessaloniki bombings of 1903. Their aim was to attract the attention of the Great Powers to Ottoman oppression in Macedonia and Eastern Thrace. The attacks were followed by reprisals by the Ottoman army and bashibozouks (irregulars) in the countryside, and more IMARO members were arrested.[23][28] Delchev himself was killed by the Ottomans in May 1903.[21]

The congress of Smilevo took place from May 2 to 7, 1903. The decision from January to stage an uprising was debated.[23] 50 delegates, representing eight revolutionary districts, participated in the sessions of the congress. The delegates decided that Ottoman buildings should be occupied, the means of communication (roads, telegraphs) should be paralyzed, etc. The Monastir vilayet, which was best prepared, was chosen as the center of the uprising. The congress ordered the formation of chetas consisting of 30 to 50 revolutionaries.[29] The Bitola revolutionary region was split into districts, each headed by a voivode. A General Staff consisting of Dame Gruev, Boris Sarafov and Anastas Lozanchev, was elected. The General Staff made the decision that preparation for the uprising had to be finished by the end of May. There were setbacks during the preparations because in the kaza of Kastoria the Patriarchists under the leadership of the metropolitan, Germanos Karavangelis, had formed an anti-Bulgarian front.[23] In all revolutionary districts, the voidoves organized the storage of supplies which were hidden in the mountains. Medicines were bought from cities. Participants had to take a course of military training. During May, Gruev and Sarafov, accompanied by chetas, visited the Monastir vilayet to verify that all their instructions (such as storage of supplies) were being followed.[29] The General Staff set August 2, Elijah's day (July 20 in the Julian calendar), as the date of the uprising. On July 11 (June 28 in the Julian calendar), 1903, a congress was held in Petrova Niva. 47 delegates, which were guarded by several hundred men, participated in the sessions for four days. They decided to revolt in Adrianople on August 19 (August 6 in the Julian calendar), on the feast of the Transfiguration.[27]   

Garvanov, himself, was arrested by the Ottomans.[21] The aim of the uprising was to cause the Great Powers to intervene and to gain autonomy for the regions of Macedonia and Adrianople.[24] Old Russian Berdan and Krnka rifles as well as Mannlichers were supplied from Bulgaria to Skopje following the demand for higher rates of fire by Bulgarian army officer Boris Sarafov.[30] In his memoir, Sarafov wrote that the main source of funds for the purchase of the weapons from the Bulgarian army came from the funds of the kidnapping of Miss Stone, as well as from contacts in Europe.[31] Many Mauser rifles were gained from killed Ottoman soldiers as well.[29] 

Ilinden Uprising

[edit]
Unified chetas during the capture of Kleisoura.

On 28 July, the message was sent out to the revolutionary movements, though the secret was kept until the last moment. The uprising began on the night of August 2, and involved large regions in and around Bitola, around the south-west of Vardar Macedonia and the north-west of South Macedonia. That night and early the next morning, the town of Kruševo was attacked and captured by 800 rebels who were led by the locals Nikola Karev and Pitu Guli. On the day of the uprising the town of Smilevo was captured by the insurgents together with the General Staff and held off against the Ottoman siege for the next days. Other villages in the Bitola region were attacked as well, the local leader was Georgi Sugarev. The chetas of Luka Dzherov, Vancho Sarbakov and Arso Mitskov attempted to seize the town of Kičevo and engaged in several battles around it. In the Demir Hisar region, Yordan Piperkata with a group of 900 insurgents attacked the Ottoman garrison in the village of Pribilci, they further engaged in other battles in the region of Kičevo and Piperkata was eventually killed in one of them. Rebels led by Slaveyko Arsov attacked several villages in the region of Prespa, a fierce battle took place in Gorno Krušje, later the Ottoman bashi-bazouks in the village of Lefkonas were sieged for few days. The town of Kleisoura, near Kastoria, was taken by insurgents on August 5 under command of Vasil Chekalarov, after that the town of Nymfaio was captured for a short period as well. Later the chetas of Lazar Poptraykov and Chekalarov engaged in several battles in the region, of which the biggest was near the village of Dendrochori.

The Kruševo headquarters, among them are Nikola Karev, Todor Hristov and Antinogen Hadzhov (second, fourth and fifth from right to left in the down row).

On August 4, under leadership of Nikola Karev, a local administration called Kruševo Republic had been set up. That same day and the next, Turkish troops made unsuccessful attempts to retake Kruševo.[10] On August 12, following the Battle of Sliva and the Battle of Mečkin Kamen, a force of 18,000 Ottoman soldiers recaptured and burned Kruševo.[21][32] It was held by the insurgents against the numerous Ottoman forces for ten days.

On August 14, rebels under the leadership of Nikola Pushkarov, attacked and derailed a military train near Skopje. Kleisoura was finally recaptured by the Ottomans on August 27.[10] Other regions involved in the uprising included Ohrid, Giannitsa, Gevgelija, Tikveš and Kratovo in this regions the operations were headed by Hristo Uzunov, Apostol Petkov, Sava Mihaylov, Argir Manasiev, Petar Yurukov and Atanas Babata. In the Thessaloniki region, operations were much more limited and without much local involvement, due in part to disagreements between the factions of the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization (IMRO). There was also no uprising in the Prilep area, immediately to the east of Bitola.[10]

The banner of the insurgents from Ohrid with Bulgarian flag on it and the inscription Свобода или смърть, "Freedom or Death." The insurgents flew Bulgarian flags everywhere.[33][34]

The reason why the uprising was strategically chosen in the Bitola vilayet, and the broader southwestern region of Macedonia, was due to the fact that it was located the farthest from Bulgaria, attempting to showcase to the Great Powers that the uprising was purely of a Macedonian character and phenomenon.[35] Per one of the founders of IMARO – Petar Poparsov the idea to keep distance from Bulgaria, was because any suspicion of its interference could harm both sides: Bulgaria and the organisation.[36] In fact the uprising soon spread to the adjacent vilayets of Kosovo, Thessaloniki and Adrianople (in Thrace).[37]

Krastovden Uprising

[edit]

Rebel chetas active in the regions of Pirin Macedonia and Serres, led by Yane Sandanski, and a chetas of the Supreme Committee led by Ivan Tsonchev and Anastas Yankov, engaged in battles with the large Turkish forces. The fighting began in the Melnik region even before the planned date on the Feast of the Cross (Krastovden in Bulgarian, September 27) day and lasted until October 21, the local population was not involved as much as in other regions. In the Razlog Valley the population joined in the uprising,[10] the rebels tried to seize the town of Razlog and several fierce battles took place in the area lasting until October 9.

In areas encompassing the uprising of 1903, Albanian villagers were in a situation of being either under threat from IMRO četas or recruited by Ottoman authorities to end the uprising.[38]

Preobrazhenie Uprising

[edit]
The delegates at Rhodope Mountains congress.

According to Khadzhiev, the main goal of the uprising in Thrace was to give support to the uprisings further west, by engaging Turkish troops and preventing them from moving into Macedonia. Many of the operations were diversionary, though several villages were taken, and a region in Strandzha was held for around twenty days. This is sometimes called the Strandzha Republic or Strandzha Commune, but according to Khadzhiev "there was never a question of state power in the Thrace region."[10]

  • On the morning of August 19, 1903, attacks were made on villages throughout the region, including Vasiliko (now Tsarevo), Stoilovo (near Malko Tarnovo), and villages near Edirne.
  • On August 21, the harbor lighthouse at Igneada was blown up.
  • Around September 3 a strong Ottoman force began reasserting their control.
  • By September 8 the Turks had restored control and were mopping up.

Rhodope Mountains Uprising

[edit]

In the Rhodope Mountains, Western Thrace, the uprising expressed only in some cheta's diversions in the regions of Smolyan and Dedeagach.[39]

Aftermath

[edit]
Ruins of the village of Mokreni after the uprising.

The reaction of the Ottoman Turks to the uprisings was one of overwhelming force. The only hope for the insurgents was outside intervention, and that was never politically feasible. Indeed, although Bulgarian interests were favoured by the actions, the Bulgarian government itself had been required to outlaw the Macedonian rebel groups prior to the uprisings and sought the arrest of its leaders. This was a condition of diplomacy with Russia.[20][page needed] The waning Ottoman Empire dealt with the instability by taking vengeance on local populations that had supported the rebels. Casualties during the military campaigns themselves were comparatively small, but afterward, thousands were killed, executed or made homeless. Historian Barbara Jelavich estimates that about nine thousand homes were destroyed,[17][page needed] and thousands of refugees were produced. According to Georgi Khadzhiev, 201 villages and 12,400 houses were burned, 4,694 people killed, with some 30,000 refugees fleeing to Bulgaria.[10]

On September 29, the General staff of the Uprising sent the Letter N 534 to the Bulgarian government, appealing for immediate armed intervention:

"The General staff considers its duty to turn the attention of the respectable Bulgarian government to the disastrous consequences for the Bulgarian nation, if it does not carry out its duty towards its birth brothers here, in an impressive and active manner, as imposed by the power of the circumstances and the danger, which threatens the all-Bulgarian fatherland – through war."[40]

Letter from the General Staff of the Monastir (Bitola) Revolutionary Region to the Bulgarian Government, requesting military intervention for the salvation of the local Bulgarians.[41]

Still, Bulgaria was unable to send troops to the rescue of the rebelling fellow Bulgarians in Macedonia and Adrianople, Thrace. When IMARO representatives met the Bulgarian Prime-Minister Racho Petrov, he showed them the ultimatums by Serbia, Greece and Romania, which he had just received and which informed him of those countries' support for Turkey, in case Bulgaria intervened to support the rebels.[42] At a meeting in early October, the general staff of the rebel forces decided to cease all revolutionary activities, and declared the forces, excepting regular militias, to be disbanded.[10] The savagery of the insurrections and the reprisals did finally provoke a reaction from the outside world. In October, Franz Joseph of Austria-Hungary and Nicholas II of Russia met at Mürzsteg and sponsored the Mürzsteg program of reforms, which provided for foreign policing of the Macedonia region, financial compensation for victims, and establishment of ethnic boundaries in the region.[19][page needed] The reforms achieved little practical result apart from giving more visibility to the crisis. The question of competing aspirations of Greece, Serbia, Bulgaria, and local advocates for political autonomy were not addressed, and the notion of ethnic boundaries was impossible to implement effectively.

After the uprising, IMARO became more strongly associated with the Supremists, and with the goal of hegemony by Bulgaria.[20][page needed] In 1904, the Bulgarian government used its control over the Supremists to assume authority over IMARO. However, this resulted in IMARO splitting into a right-wing headed by Ivan Garvanov and Boris Sarafov, which favoured a pro-Bulgarian stance and a left-wing headed by Yane Sandanski.[43] The two wings engaged in outright conflict which meant mafia style killings on a larger scale. In this type of style, Garvanov and Sarafov were assassinated in 1907 by Todor Panitsa on the order of Sandanski.[21]

In any case, all of these concerns were soon overshadowed by the Young Turk revolution of 1908 and the subsequent dissolution of the Ottoman Empire.

Subsequent history

[edit]
The partition of Macedonia and Thrace in 1913.

The Balkan Wars of 1912 and 1913 subsequently split up Macedonia and Thrace. Serbia took a portion of Macedonia in the north, which roughly corresponds to North Macedonia. Greece took south Macedonia, and Bulgaria was only able to obtain a small region in the northeast, Pirin Macedonia.[19][page needed] The Ottomans managed to keep the Adrianople region, where the whole Thracian Bulgarian population was subjected to ethnic cleansing by the Ottoman Empire.[44][page needed] The rest of Thrace was divided between Bulgaria, Greece and Turkey following World War I and the Greco-Turkish War. Most of the local Bulgarian political and cultural figures were persecuted or expelled from Serbian and Greek parts of Macedonia and Thrace, where all structures of the Bulgarian Exarchate were abolished. Thousands of Macedonian Slavs left for Bulgaria. Some fled after the Greeks burned Kilkis, during the Second Balkan War, and the Treaty of Neuilly population exchange between Greece and Bulgaria saw 92,000 Bulgarians exchanged with 46,000 Greeks from Bulgaria.[45] Bulgarian (including the Macedonian dialects) was prohibited, and its surreptitious use, whenever detected, was ridiculed or punished.[46]

The Internal Macedonian-Adrianople Revolutionary Organization supported the Bulgarian Army during the Balkan Wars and World War I. After the Treaty of Neuilly, the combined Macedonian-Adrianopolitan revolutionary movement separated into two detached organizations: Internal Thracian Revolutionary Organisation and Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organisation and continued its struggle against Serbian and Greek authorities until 1934.[citation needed]

IMRO had de facto full control of Bulgarian Pirin Macedonia (the Petrich District of the time) and acted as a "state within a state", which it used as a base for hit and run attacks against Yugoslavia and Greece. IMRO began sending armed bands called cheti into Greek and Yugoslav Macedonia to assassinate officials and stir up the spirit of the oppressed population.[citation needed]

At the end of 1922, the Greek government started to expel large numbers of Bulgarians from Western Thrace into Bulgaria and the activity of the Internal Thracian Revolutionary Organization (ITRO) grew into an open rebellion. The organisation eventually gained full control of some districts along the Bulgarian border. In the summer of 1923, the majority of the Bulgarians had already been resettled to Bulgaria. Although detachments of the ITRO continued to infiltrate Western Thrace sporadically, the main focus of the activity of the organisation now shifted to the protection of the refugees into Bulgaria. IMRO's and ITRO's constant killings and assassinations abroad provoked some within Bulgarian military after the coup of 19 May 1934 to take control and break the power of the organizations.[citation needed]

Legacy

[edit]
Celebration of the Ilinden Uprising in Bitola during WWI Bulgarian occupation of Southern Serbia.[47]
Procession organised by the mayor of Kruševo, the IMRO komitadji Naum Tomalevski, marking the anniversary of the Uprising in 1918
Petrova Niva monument, dedicated to the Preobrazhenie Uprising, near Malko Tarnovo, Bulgaria.
Makedonium monument, dedicated to the Ilinden Uprising, Kruševo, North Macedonia.

The Ilinden–Preobrazhenie Uprising was celebrated by the Macedonian and Thracian diaspora in Bulgaria and by all factions within the IMARO. It was commemorated officially in Macedonia under Bulgarian rule when it occupied then South Serbia during World War I[48] and World War II.[49] Celebrations occurred also in 1939 and 1940 in defiance of the ban by Serb authorities.[50] The leaders of the Ilinden Uprising are today celebrated as national heroes in modern-day North Macedonia, and regarded as founders of the strive for Macedonian independence.[51] The Kruševo Republic and the names of the IMARO revolutionaries like Goce Delchev, Pitu Guli, Dame Gruev and Yane Sandanski were included into the lyrics of the anthem Denes nad Makedonija ("Today over Macedonia"). Today, August 2 is the national holiday in North Macedonia, known as Day of the Republic,[52] which considers it the date of its statehood in modern times. Since it is also the symbolic date on which in 1944 the People's Republic of Macedonia was proclaimed at the Anti-fascist Assembly for the National Liberation of Macedonia (ASNOM) as a constituent republic of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. The ASNOM event is now referred as the "Second Ilinden" in North Macedonia, and it is considered as fullfilment of the goals of the Ilinden Uprising.[51] In Bulgaria, Ilinden and Preobrazhenie days as anniversaries of the uprising are publicly celebrated on a local level, primarily in the Pirin Macedonia and Northern Thrace regions.[citation needed]

Controversy

[edit]
See also: Historiography in North Macedonia and Macedonian nationalism

There have been long-going disputes between parties in Bulgaria and North Macedonia about the ethnic affiliation of the insurgents. Although the ideas of a separate Macedonian nation were supported then only by a handful of intellectuals abroad,[53] and to the eve of the 20th century the membership of the IMARO was allowed only for Bulgarians,[54][55] the post-WWII Macedonian rendition of history has reappraised the Ilinden uprising as an allegedly anti-Bulgarian revolt, led by ethnic Macedonians.[56][57] The leader of the IMARO and architect of the uprising Ivan Garvanov,[58] is regarded there a Greater Bulgarian agent who pushed the decision for a premature uprising.[21][59] Bulgarian Army officers' significant participation is represented there as an alien element,[60] while the fact the Uprising's leaders were Bulgarian schoolmasters,[61] is neglected. Macedonian historians consider that the qualification of the uprising as Bulgarian is biased, one of the asserts they use is that it was a uprising of the Macedonian people regardless in which church they prayed, school they learned and which national name they carried.[62] Macedonian historians see the Ilinden Uprising and the Kruševo Republic as a part of the struggles for an independent state and nation as finally achieved by their own new state.[51] Macedonian sources tend to emphasize the autonomist aims, particularly from the leftist IMARO activists like Delchev and Sandanski. Also, the Supremists are blamed that they pushed for the premature insurrection to take place in 1903, which resulted for it to be doomed from the start.[63] The opinion of most Macedonian historians and politicians is that Preobrazhenie uprising was a Bulgarian uprising, not related with the Ilinden one, which was organized by Macedonians.[64] Nevertheless, some of the Macedonian historical scholarship and political élite have reluctantly acknowledged the Bulgarian ethnic character of the insurgents.[65][66][67] Krste Misirkov, regarded nowadays in North Macedonia as one of the most prominent proponents of Macedonian nationalism of the early 20th century, states in his brochure On the Macedonian Matters (1903) that the uprising was supported and carried out primarily by that part of Macedonia's Slavic population which had Bulgarian national identity.[68]

Historians from Bulgaria emphasize the undoubted Bulgarian character of the rebels, but tend to downplay the moves for political autonomy that were a part of the IMARO organization prior to the insurrections.[citation needed] In Bulgaria it is more common to refer to the Ilinden-Preobrazhenie uprising, giving equal status to the activities commenced at Preobrazhenie near to the Bulgarian coast of the Black Sea and limiting an undue focus on the Macedonian region. The dominant view in Bulgaria is that at that time the Macedonian and Thracian Bulgarians predominated in all regions of the uprisings and that Macedonian ethnicity did still not exist.[69] More, the first name of the IMRO was "Bulgarian Macedonian-Adrianople Revolutionary Committees". Initially its membership was restricted only for Bulgarians, and it was active not only in Macedonia but also in Thrace. Thus its early name emphasized the Bulgarian nature of the organization by linking the inhabitants of Thrace and Macedonia to Bulgaria. They suggest that IMRO revolutionaries in the Ottoman period did not differentiate between 'Macedonians' and 'Bulgarians'. Moreover, as their own writings attest, they often saw themselves and their compatriots as 'Bulgarians' and wrote in Bulgarian standard language.[70] Bulgarian sources tend to emphasize the moves within IMARO for hegemony with Bulgaria, as advocated by the Supremists and the right wing faction.[citation needed] On the other hand, according to the Bulgarian historian Tchavdar Marinov, the Ilinden Uprising is the founding myth of the Macedonian identity in all its formulations, and the Bulgarian state and historiography insists of connecting it with the Preobrazhenie Uprising in order to appropriate to some extent the myth of the Ilinden Uprising and include it in the Greater Bulgaria narrative. Since the uprising in Bulgaria does not have the same value as in North Macedonia and is less popular compared to the April Uprising of 1876, which is the Bulgarian foundation myth.[71] It has also to be noted that some attempts from Bulgarian officials for joint actions and celebration of the Ilinden uprising were rejected from Macedonian side as unacceptable.[72][73]

According to anthropologist Keith Brown there is evidence in the historical record to support the narratives of both historiographies.[6] Western historians generally refer simply to the Ilinden uprising, which marks the date on which uprising began. Some sources recognize these as two related but distinct insurrections, and name them the Ilinden uprising and the Preobrazhenie uprising.

Nevertheless, on August 2, 2017, the Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borisov and his Macedonian colleague Zoran Zaev placed wreaths at the grave of Gotse Delchev on the occasion of the 114th anniversary of the Ilinden–Preobrazhenie Uprising, after the previous day, both have signed a treaty for friendship and cooperation between the neighboring states.[74] The treaty also calls for a committee to "objectively re-examine the common history" of Bulgaria and Macedonia and envisages both countries will celebrate together events from their shared history.[75] According to Bulgarian officials, this commission has made little progress in its work for a period of two years.[76] Moreover in an interview on August 4, 2018 Zaev said that “the Ilinden uprising is Macedonian” and “if any citizen of Bulgaria wants to celebrate it, let them celebrate it.”[77] As result in 2020, Bulgaria blocked the candidature of North Macedonia to the European Union over an 'ongoing nation-building process' based on historical negationism of the Bulgarian legacy in the broader region of Macedonia.[78][79][80]

Honour

[edit]

In Bulgaria

[edit]

In North Macedonia

[edit]

Elsewhere

[edit]
[edit]
  • L'Illustration magazine depicting Macedonian Bulgarian refugees crossing the Ottoman - Bulgaria border after the Ilinden Uprising.
    L'Illustration magazine depicting Macedonian Bulgarian refugees crossing the Ottoman - Bulgaria border after the Ilinden Uprising.
  • One of the Kruševo chetas during the uprising
    One of the Kruševo chetas during the uprising
  • The events in the Ilinden Uprising as seen by the American New York Times; 14 August 1903.
    The events in the Ilinden Uprising as seen by the American New York Times; 14 August 1903.
  • A convoy of captured Bulgarian IMRO activists
    A convoy of captured Bulgarian IMRO activists
  • L'Illustration magazine depicting a refugee demonstration in Sofia, Bulgaria after the crushing of the Uprising.
    L'Illustration magazine depicting a refugee demonstration in Sofia, Bulgaria after the crushing of the Uprising.
  • A Puck Magazine satirical illustration showing the Russian puppets Bulgaria and Macedonia sword fighting, with the Bulgarian one about to decapitate the Macedonian, October 1903.[82]
    A Puck Magazine satirical illustration showing the Russian puppets Bulgaria and Macedonia sword fighting, with the Bulgarian one about to decapitate the Macedonian, October 1903.[82]
  • Museum in Smilevo dedicated to the Smilevo congress of May 1903, on which the decision for a uprising was confirmed and the date was chosen
    Museum in Smilevo dedicated to the Smilevo congress of May 1903, on which the decision for a uprising was confirmed and the date was chosen

See also

[edit]
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Ilinden-Preobrazhenie Uprising.

Footnotes

[edit]
  1. ^ a b c d Perry, Duncan (1988). The Politics of Terror. The Macedonian Revolutionary Movements, 1893–1903. Durham and London: Duke University Press. p. 136. ISBN 0-8223-0813-4.
  2. ^ a b Adanir, Fikret (1979). Die Makedonische Frage. Ihre Entstehung und Entwicklung bis 1908 [The Macedonian Question. Its Genesis and Development Until 1908]. Wiesbaden: Franz Steiner Verlag. ISBN 3-515-02914-1.
  3. ^ a b c d Македония и Одринско 1893–1903. Мемоар на Вътрешната организация. [Macedonia and Adrianople Region 1893–1903. A Memoir of the Internal Organization.] (in Bulgarian). Sofia: Internal Macedonian-Adrianople Revolutionary Organization. 1904.
  4. ^ Crampton, Richard J. (2005). A Concise History of Bulgaria. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9781139448239. p. 128.
  5. ^ Ivo Banac (1984). The National Question in Yugoslavia. Origins, History, Politics, Cornell University Press, p. 316. ISBN 0801494931.
  6. ^ a b Keith Brown (2013). Loyal Unto Death Trust and Terror in Revolutionary Macedonia. Indiana University Press. pp. 15-18. ISBN 9780253008473.
  7. ^ Bourchier, James David (1911). "Macedonia" . In Chisholm, Hugh (ed.). Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 17 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 216–222 [221, final para ]. Bulgarian Insurrection in 1903.
  8. ^ The Establishment of the Balkan National States, 1804–1920, C. & B. Jelavich, 1977, pp. 211–212
  9. ^ Victor. Roudometof, The Macedonian Question From Conflict to Cooperation? in Constantine Panos Danopoulos, Dhirendra K. Vajpeyi, Amir Bar-Or as ed., Civil-military Relations, Nation Building, and National Identity: Comparative Perspectives, Greenwood Publishing Group, 2004, ISBN 0275979237, p. 216.
  10. ^ a b c d e f g h i Khadzhiev, Georgi (1992). "The Transfiguration Uprising and the 'Strandzha Commune': The First Libertarian Commune in Bulgaria". Националното освобождение и безвластният федерализъм [National Liberation and Libertarian Federalism] (in Bulgarian). Translated by Firth, Will. Sofia: Artizdat-5. pp. 99–148. OCLC 27030696.
  11. ^ The Adrianople region became one of the Bulgarians' most coveted irredentas, second only to Macedonia. By the end of the 19th century, the total population in the Adrianople region amounted to almost one million people, nearly one-third of whom were Bulgarians...A Bulgarian national liberation movement began to develop immediately after 1878, in close cooperation with the national liberation movement in Macedonia, and acquired an organized character after the creation of the Internal Macedonian-Adrianopolitan Revolutionary Organization (IMARO) in 1893. It relied mainly on the refugees from the Adrianople region who were living in Bulgaria, but there was also an "internal" organization. Its actions culminated in the Preobrazhenie (Transfiguration) Uprising, which broke out two weeks after the Ilinden Uprising, on 6/19 August 1903. Raymond Detrez, Historical Dictionary of Bulgaria, Historical Dictionaries of Europe, No. 46, Scarecrow Press, 2006, ISBN 0810849011, p. 3.
  12. ^ Nadine Lange-Akhund, The Macedonian Question, 1893-1908, from Western Sources, East European Monographs, 1998; ISBN 0880333839, p. 125.
  13. ^ Bulgaria's national activists who were devoted to the Macedonian cause became convinced that Macedonian society was reproducing , with a time lag of thirty to forty years, the entire Bulgarian evolution of Vazrazhdane... They would go so far as to imitate the Bulgarian uprising of 1876 (the April uprising), which was disastrous, but which national discourse had transformed into the culmination of the revolutionary movement. They organized their own uprising in 1903 in Macedonia (the Ilinden Uprising), which was just as disastrous. The model was replicated so faithfully that in 1903 it included a revival of the absurd cannons made out of cherrywood that were used in 1876. For more see: Bernard Lory, The Ottoman Legacy in the Balkans. In: Entangled Histories of the Balkans - Volume Three. Brill, ISBN 9789004290365, pp. 380–381.
  14. ^ R. J. Crampton (2007) Bulgaria, Oxford History of Modern Europe, OUP Oxford, p. 167, ISBN 0191513318.
  15. ^ Akhund, Nadine (2009). "Muslim Representation in the Three Ottoman vilayets of Macedonia: Administration and Military Power (1878–1908)". Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs. 29 (4): 443–454.
  16. ^ The Ilinden Uprising is celebrated in both the North Macedonia and Bulgaria as the culmination of the respective nations’ struggle against Ottoman rule. There are multiple references to Ilinden and its leaders in Macedonia’s national anthem Denes nad Makedonija (Today over Macedonia). Over the years, the insurrection has been the subject of many works of fiction, films, and TV series produced in both countries. The ‘‘ownership’’ of Ilinden is, therefore, still a divisive issue. Calls for joint celebrations such as the one issued in 2006 by Macedonian prime minister Vlado Buckovski and his Bulgarian counterpart Sergej Stanisev, whose father was born near Strumica, did little to change this state of affairs. Bulgaria continued to demand that the upspring should be celebrated jointly. Dimitar Bechev (2019) Historical Dictionary of North Macedonia, Historical Dictionaries of Europe, Rowman & Littlefield, p. 143, ISBN 1538119625.
  17. ^ a b c Jelavich, B. (1983). History of the Balkans. Vol. 2. Cambridge University Press. pp. 92–93. ISBN 0-521-25448-5.
  18. ^ a b Ivo Banac (2015). The National Question in Yugoslavia: Origins, History, Politics. Cornell University Press. pp. 314–316. ISBN 9781501701931.
  19. ^ a b c d Jelavich, C.; Jelavich, B. (1977). The Establishment of the Balkan National States, 1804–1920. University of Washington Press. pp. 210–211. ISBN 0-295-95444-2.
  20. ^ a b c Crampton, R.J. (2005). A Concise History of Bulgaria (2nd ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 126–127. ISBN 9781139448239.
  21. ^ a b c d e f g h Palairet, Michael (2016). Macedonia: A Voyage through History (Vol. 2, from the Fifteenth Century to the Present). Cambridge Scholars. pp. 133–159. ISBN 978-1-4438-8849-3.
  22. ^ Революционното братство е създадено в противовес на вътрешната организация от еволюционистите. Уставът му носи дата март 1897 г. и е подписан с псевдонимите на 12 членове – основатели. Братството създава свои организации на някои места в Македония и Одринско и влиза в остър конфликт с вътрешната организация, но през 1899–1900 г. се постига помирение и то се присъединява към нея – Христо Караманджуков, "Родопа през Илинденско-Преображенското въстание" (Изд. на Отечествения Фронт, София, 1986), p. 100.
  23. ^ a b c d Vemund Aarbakke (2003). Ethnic Rivalry and the Quest for Macedonia, 1870-1913. East European Monographs. pp. 81, 107–116, 119–120. ISBN 0880335270.
  24. ^ a b Dimitar Bechev (2019). Historical Dictionary of North Macedonia. Rowman & Littlefield. pp. 141–143. ISBN 1538119625.
  25. ^ The Ilinden-Preobrazhenie Uprising of 1903, Dedicated to the 105th. anniversary from the events, Professor Dimitar Gotsev – Macedonian Scientific Institute. Archived 2008-10-30 at the Wayback Machine
  26. ^ Писма между ЦК на ВМОРО и Михаил Савов, в: Билярски, Цочо. Вътрешната македоно-одринска революционна организация (1893 – 1919 г.) – Документи на централните ръководни органи, Том I, Част I, УИ „Св. Климент Охридски“, София, 2007, стр.285 – 286
  27. ^ a b Mercia MacDermott (1978). Freedom or Death – The Life of Gotsé Delchev. London: Journeyman Press. pp. 328–330, 368, 372–373.
  28. ^ İpek Yosmaoğlu (2013). Blood Ties: Religion, Violence and the Politics of Nationhood in Ottoman Macedonia, 1878–1908. Cornell University Press. pp. 34–36, 39, 62, 249. ISBN 978-0801469794.
  29. ^ a b c Cite error: The named reference nla was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  30. ^ Keith Brown (2013). Loyal Unto Death: Trust and Terror in Revolutionary Macedonia. Indiana University Press. pp. 4–5, 8, 15–18, 35, 53, 148. ISBN 9780253008473.
  31. ^ and Basevski, Nikolov (1927). Spomeni na Dame Gruev, Boris Sarafov and Ivan Garvanov. Sofia: Press P. Glushkoz. pp. 146, 153.
  32. ^ "MIA". Archived from the original on April 5, 2012. Retrieved November 29, 2014.
  33. ^ National military history museum of Bulgaria, fond 260
  34. ^ Hugh Poulton. Who are the Macedonians. p. 57. Retrieved November 29, 2014.
  35. ^ Perry, Duncan M. (1980). "Death of a Russian Consul: Macedonia 1903". Russian History. 7 (1): 204. doi:10.1163/187633180x00139. ISSN 0094-288X. The long-awaited revolt began at dusk on Sunday, 2 August 1903, Saint Elijah's Day – or Ilinden. The insurrection was confined to Bitola Vilayet because, according to one source, it was farthest from Bulgaria, a factor designed to show the Great Powers that the revolt was purely a Macedonian phenomenon.
  36. ^ Тодор Петров, Цочо Билярски, Вътрешната македоно-одринска революционна организация през погледа на нейните основатели; Военно издателство; София, 2002, ISBN 954-509-233-5 стр. 205.
  37. ^ Raymond Detrez, The A to Z of Bulgaria (2nd ed.), Scarecrow Press, 2010, ISBN 0810872021, p. 217.
  38. ^ Brown, Keith (2003). The Past in Question: Modern Macedonia and the Uncertainties of Nation. Princeton University Press. p. 267. ISBN 9780691099958. "The Uprising in 1903 had involved mainly Slav-speaking Christians with the assistance of the Vlah population. Albanian villagers had largely found themselves either under threat from VMRO četas or recruited into the Ottoman effort to crush the Uprising."
  39. ^ Петко Т. Карапетков, Славейно. Пловдив, 1948 г., стр 216—219.
  40. ^ Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, Institute of History, Bulgarian Language Institute, "Macedonia. Documents and materials", Sofia, 1978, part III, No. 92.
  41. ^ Letter No. 534 from the General Staff of the Second Macedonian-Adrianople Revolutionary Region to the Bulgarian Government on the position of the insurgent Bulgarian population, requesting military intervention from Bulgaria, September 9, 1903, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, Institute of History, Bulgarian Language Institute, "Macedonia. Documents and materials", Sofia, 1978, part III, No.92: "To the Esteemed Government of the Principality of Bulgaria. In view of the critical and terrible situation of the Bulgarian population of the Monastir Vilayet following the devastations and cruelties perpetrated by the Turkish troops and bashibazouks, in view of the fact that these devastations and cruelties continue systematically, and that one cannot foresee how far they will reach; in view, furthermore, of the fact that here everything Bulgarian is running the risk of perishing and being obliterated without a trace by violence, hunger and by approaching poverty, the General Staff considers it its duty to draw the attention of the Esteemed Bulgarian Government to the fatal consequences for the Bulgarian nation, if it fails to discharge its duty to its own brothers here in an impressive and energetic manner, made imperative by force of circumstances and by the danger threatening the common Bulgarian homeland at the present moment ..."
  42. ^ The Ilinden-Preobrazhenie Uprising of 1903, Dedicated to the 105th. anniversary from the events, Professor Dimitar Gotsev – Macedonian Scientific Institute.
  43. ^ James Horncastle, The Macedonian Slavs in the Greek Civil War, 1944–1949; Rowman & Littlefield, 2019, ISBN 1498585051, p. 31.
  44. ^ Academician Lyubomir Miletich, "The Destruction of Thracian Bulgarians in 1913", Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, Sofia, State printing house, 1918. On-line publication of the phototype reprint of the first edition of the book in Bulgarian (in Bulgarian "Разорението на тракийските българи през 1913 година", Българска академия на науките, София, Държавна печатница, 1918 г.; II фототипно издание, Културно-просветен клуб "Тракия" - София, 1989 г., София).
  45. ^ "The Greek-Bulgarian exchange of populations". Macedonian Heritage. Retrieved November 20, 2021.
  46. ^ "The immediate effect of the partition was the anti-Bulgarian campaign in areas under Serbian and Greek rule. The Serbians expelled Exarchist churchmen and teachers and closed Bulgarian schools and churches (affecting the standing of as many as 641 schools and 761 churches). Thousands of Macedonian Slavs left for Bulgaria, joining a still larger stream from devastated Aegean Macedonia, where the Greeks burned Kukush, the center of Bulgarian politics and culture, as well as much of Serres and Drama. Bulgarian (including the Macedonian Slavic dialects) was prohibited, and its surreptitious use, whenever detected, was ridiculed or punished.", Ivo Banac, in The National Question in Yugoslavia. Origins, History, Politics, pp. 307–328, Cornell University Press, 1984, retrieved on September 6, 2007.
  47. ^ Илюстрация Илинден, София, октомври 1927, бр. 5, стр. 7-8. Любомир Милетич, На Илинденско Тържество в Битоля (1916).
  48. ^ Известно е че през 1918 г. в разгара на Първата световна война и в навечерието на контраофанзивата на войските на Антантата на Македонския фронт, страната ни отбелязва 15-годишнината от Илинденско-Преображенското въстание. Но малко известен е фактът, че с тази задача се залавя водачът на ВМОРО Тодор Александров, подпомогнат от ректора на Софийския университет „Св. Климент Охридски“ проф. Георги Шишков и тогавашния кмет на Крушево Наум Томалевски. For more see: Цочо В. Билярски, През 1918 година Тодор Александров организира честването на Илинденското въстание.
  49. ^ Ilinden left a durable trace in popular memories. It was commemorated by the diaspora in Bulgaria and all factions within the IMARO. A veteran organization was established in 1921...In the late 1930s, communists in Vardar Macedonia organized commemorations, defying the ban by the Serb authorities. Celebrations were institutionalized following the region's annexation by Bulgaria in April 1941. For more see: Dimitar Bechev, (2009) Historical dictionary of the Republic of Macedonia, Scarecrow Press, p. 96, ISBN 978-0-8108-5565-6.
  50. ^ Appealing to this positive historical inheritance, the Regional Committee of the KPJ in Macedonia organised Ilinden demonstrations in the towns before the war, in 1939 and 1940, as the most effective way of activating nationalism. For more see: Stefano Bianchini and Marco Dogo as ed., The Balkans: National Identities in a Historical Perspective, Longo, 1998, p. 125, ISBN 8880631764.
  51. ^ a b c James Frusetta (2004). "Common Heroes, Divided Claims: IMRO Between Macedonia and Bulgaria". In John R. Lampe, Mark Mazower (ed.). Ideologies and national identities: the case of twentieth-century Southeastern Europe. Central European University Press. pp. 110–121. ISBN 978-963-9241-82-4.
  52. ^ "August 2nd, non-working for Macedonian citizens". macedoniaonline.eu. July 29, 2008. Archived from the original on March 15, 2012. Retrieved July 30, 2008.
  53. ^ Dimitar Bechev, Historical Dictionary of the Republic of Macedonia, Historical Dictionaries of Europe, No. 68, Scarecrow Press, ISBN 0810862956, p. 140.
  54. ^ The revolutionary committee dedicated itself to fight for "full political autonomy for Macedonia and Adrianople." Since they sought autonomy only for those areas inhabited by Bulgarians, they denied other nationalities membership in IMRO. According to Article 3 of the statutes, "any Bulgarian could become a member". For more see: Laura Beth Sherman, Fires on the mountain: the Macedonian revolutionary movement and the kidnapping of Ellen Stone, Volume 62, East European Monographs, 1980, ISBN 0914710559, p. 10.
  55. ^ Denis Š. Ljuljanović (2023) Imagining Macedonia in the Age of Empire. State Policies, Networks and Violence (1878–1912), LIT Verlag Münster; ISBN 9783643914460, p. 211.
  56. ^ Gold, Gerald L. Minorities and mother country imagery, Memorial University of Newfoundland. Institute of Social and Economic Research, 1984, ISBN 0919666434, p. 74.
  57. ^ Initially the membership in the IMRO was restricted only for Bulgarians. Its first name was "Bulgarian Macedonian-Adrianople Revolutionary Committees", which was later changed several times. IMRO was active not only in Macedonia but also in Thrace (the Vilayet of Adrianople). Since its early name emphasized the Bulgarian nature of the organization by linking the inhabitants of Thrace and Macedonia to Bulgaria, these facts are still difficult to be explained from the Macedonian historiography. They suggest that IMRO revolutionaries in the Ottoman period did not differentiate between ‘Macedonians’ and ‘Bulgarians’. Moreover, as their own writings attest, they often saw themselves and their compatriots as ‘Bulgarians’. All of them wrote in standard Bulgarian language. For more see: Brunnbauer, Ulf (2004) "Historiography, Myths and the Nation in the Republic of Macedonia". In: Brunnbauer, Ulf, (ed.) (Re)Writing History. Historiography in Southeast Europe after Socialism. Studies on South East Europe, vol. 4. LIT, Münster, pp. 165–200 ISBN 382587365X.
  58. ^ Perry, Duncan. “Ivan Garvanov: Architect of Ilinden.” East European Quarterly 19, no. 4 (1986): 403–416.
  59. ^ Pero Korobar, Orde Ivanoski, The Historical Truth: The Progressive Social Circles in Bulgaria and Pirin Macedonia on the Macedonian National Question: Documents, Studies, Resolutions, Appeals and Published Articles, 1896–1956. Kultura, 1983, p. 277.
  60. ^ Keith Brown (2003) The Past in Question: Modern Macedonia and the Uncertainties of Nation, Princeton University Press, p. 175, ISBN 0691099952.
  61. ^ Bulgarian teachers in Macedonia constituted the backbone of the Internal organization while, according to their social profile, its leaders were quite often themselves former Exarchist teachers. For more see: Perry, Duncan. The Politics of Terror. The Macedonian Liberation Movements 1893–1903. Durham and London: Duke University Press, 1988. pp. 144–151, 182–183.
  62. ^ Ulf Brunnbauer (2004). "Serving the Nation: Historiography in the Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) after Socialism". Historien. 4: 166. doi:10.12681/historein.86.
  63. ^ Colliers Encyclopedia, Macedonia, 1993 edition.
  64. ^ "Интервју со д-р Васил Јотевски. Тешко е да се полемизира... Бранко Горгевски ("Дневник"), Народна волja број 2050". Retrieved November 29, 2014.
  65. ^ "Кој со кого ќе се помирува? Лидерот на ВМРО-ДПМНЕ и Премиер на Република Македонија, Љубчо Георгиевски одговара и полемизира на темата за национално помирување". Archived from the original on October 27, 2009. Retrieved November 29, 2014.
  66. ^ Академик Иван Катарџиев, "Верувам во националниот имунитет на македонецот", интервју, "Форум": "ФОРУМ - Дали навистина Делчев се изјаснувал како Бугарин и зошто? КАТАРЏИЕВ - Ваквите прашања стојат. Сите наши луѓе се именувале како "Бугари"..."; also (in Macedonian; in English: "Academician Ivan Katardzhiev. I believe in Macedonian national immunity", interview, "Forum" magazine: "FORUM - Whether Gotse Delchev really defined himself as Bulgarian and why? KATARDZHIEV - Such questions exist. All our people named themselves as "Bulgarians"...")
  67. ^ "Уште робуваме на старите поделби", Разговор со д-р Зоран Тодоровски, http://www.tribune.eu.com Archived 2007-10-11 at the Wayback Machine, 27. 06. 2005, also here (in Macedonian; in English: "We are still in servitude to the old divisions", interview with Ph. D. Zoran Todorovski, published on http://www.tribune.eu.com, 27. 06. 2005.
  68. ^ Misirkov, Krste (1903). За македонцките работи [On the Macedonian Matters] (PDF) (in Bulgarian and Macedonian). Sofia: Либералний клуб (The Liberal Club). p. 17.
  69. ^ "The Ilinden - Preobrazhenie Uprising of 1903". Authors: Hristo Hristov, Dimiter Kossev, Lyubomir Panayotov; Publisher: Sofia Press - 1983; in English language.
  70. ^ Brunnbauer, Ulf (2004) "Historiography, Myths and the Nation in the Republic of Macedonia". In: Brunnbauer, Ulf, (ed.) (Re)Writing History. Historiography in Southeast Europe after Socialism. Studies on South East Europe, vol. 4. LIT, Münster, pp. 165-200 ISBN 382587365X.
  71. ^ Alexis Heraclides (2021). The Macedonian Question and the Macedonians: A History. Routledge. pp. 45–46. ISBN 9780367218263.
  72. ^ "Сите ние сме Бугари". Македонски историци "на бунт" срещу общото честване на празниците ни. в-к "Дума", 07.06.2006. [dead link]
  73. ^ България и светът. 04 Август 2006, По съседски: Събития с балкански адрес. Новина № 2. Archived 2006-10-20 at the Wayback Machine
  74. ^ "PMs Borisov and Zaev place wreaths at Gotse Delchev's grave in Skopje, 2 August 2017, FOCUS News Agency". Archived from the original on April 19, 2019. Retrieved August 2, 2017.
  75. ^ Macedonia, Bulgaria Sign Historic Treaty, Renounce Rivalry, Aug. 1, 2017, The New York Times.
  76. ^ Georgi Gotev, Borissov warns North Macedonia against stealing Bulgarian history. EURACTIV.com. Jun 20, 2019.
  77. ^ Martin Dimitrov, Macedonia PM Apologises for Offending Bulgarians. Sophia, BIRN, August 10, 2018.
  78. ^ "Foreign Minister Zaharieva: Bulgaria Cannot Approve EU Negotiating Framework with North Macedonia - Novinite.com - Sofia News Agency". novinite.com. Retrieved December 9, 2020.
  79. ^ Titchener, Frances B.; Moorton, Richard F. (1999). The eye expanded: life and the arts in Greco-Roman antiquity. Berkeley: University of California Press. ISBN 978-0-520-91970-9. OCLC 43476423.
  80. ^ Benson, Leslie. (2004). Yugoslavia : a concise history (Rev. and updated ed.). Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire: Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 1-4039-9720-9. OCLC 559698344.
  81. ^ Пелистер
  82. ^ In order to explain the meaning of the caricature, we consulted with Dr. Vancho Gjorgjiev from the Institute of History at the Faculty of Philosophy in Skopje... In the caricature, the part where "Bulgaria" tries to cut off the head of "Macedonia" actually refers to Bulgarian diplomatic activities, as well as its duplicitous role in the insurrectionary movement in Macedonia... Bulgarian circles manipulated the term autonomous Macedonia, i.e. they sought for Macedonia to gain autonomy and then join the Bulgarian state. To achieve this goal... aimed at artificially staged insurrectionary movements in Macedonia, such as the so-called Gorna Dzhumaya Uprising of September 1902. The organizer... was the Supreme Macedonian Committee headed by Stoyan Mihaylovski and General Ivan Tsonchev, who acted in agreement with the Bulgarian government and Prince Ferdinand... The biggest consequence of the Supremists movement is that it greatly influenced the rise of the Ilinden Uprising in 1903... the Bulgarian government, which bore the burden of the Gorna Dzhumaja Uprising, with the intention of absolving itself of responsibility for future unrest in Macedonia, adopted a decision to administratively ban the Supreme Macedonian Committee... Bulgaria's duplicity did not end there... on February 5, 1903, the Bulgarian government... asked the leaders of the Macedonian Revolutionary Organization (MRO) to abandon the planned uprising... However, the refusal of the Macedonian Revolutionary Organization (MRO) to postpone the uprising at the request of Bulgaria is a demonstration of an independent Macedonian character... The part of the caricature where "Russia" is depicted refers to the diplomatic games of the Great Powers over the Macedonian question. Under the pressure of the uprising, two concepts for resolving the Macedonian question emerged among European diplomacy, the English one through autonomy and the Austrian one through reforms. During the diplomatic games, the Austrian concept prevailed. Austria-Hungary, supported by Germany, turned to Russia. The two Great Powers began negotiations at the highest level, which lasted from September 30 to October 3... The so-called Mürzsteg Reforms emerged from these negotiations. For more: Вистината за „заедничката историја“: Карикатурата од 1903 година за Македонија од американското списание „Пук“. Novamakedonija 07.11.2022

Sources

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