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Ilinden Uprising
Илинденско востание
Date2 August 1903 – November 1903
Location
Manastir (Bitola), Adrianople, Salonica, and Kosovo vilayets of the Ottoman Empire
Result Suppression of the uprising. 30,000 refugees
Belligerents
IMARO
SMAC
Kruševo Republic
Strandzha Republic		 Ottoman Empire
Commanders and leaders
Strength
26,408 (IMARO figures)[3] 350,931 (IMARO figures)[3]
Casualties and losses
IMARO figures:[3]
  • 994 insurgents killed or wounded
  • 4,694 civilians killed
  • 3,122 girls and women raped
  • 176 girls and women kidnapped
  • 12,440 houses burned
  • 70,835 people left homeless
 5328 wounded or killed (IMARO figures)[3]

The Ilinden Uprising (Template:Lang-mk, Ilindensko vostanie) of 2 August 1903, was an organized revolt against the Ottoman Empire, which was prepared and carried out by the Internal Macedonian-Adrianople Revolutionary Organization.[4][5] The name of the uprising stems from Elijah's day (Macedonian: Илинден), which Macedonians celebrate on the 2 of August. The revolt lasted from the beginning of August to the middle of October and covered a vast territory in Macedonia.

The rebellion affected most of the central and southwestern parts of the Monastir Vilayet receiving the support mainly of the local Macedonian peasants, and to some extent of the Aromanian population of the region.[6] 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.[7] The insurrection engulfed also the vilayets of Kosovo and Salonika.[8]

The uprising survivors managed to maintain a guerrilla campaign against the Turks for the next few years, but 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.

Prelude

At the turn of the 20th century, the Ottoman Empire was crumbling, and the lands they had held in Eastern Europe for over 500 years were passing to new rulers. Macedonia was a region adjacent to the recently independent Greek, Bulgarian and Serbian states, but nevertheless it remained under the control of the Ottoman Turks. Each of the neighboring states based claims to Macedonia on various false historical and ethnic composition grounds. The competition of the neighboring countries for control over Macedonia started back in the first half of the XIX century. The oldest of the assimilation campaigns was the Greek, later on came the Bulgarian and Serbian ones. Their aim was to terrorize or seduce the local Macedonian population into submission, which took place largely through the churches and schools. Schools and churches in Macedonia were under the ecclesiastical jurisdiction of the Patriarchate of Bulgaria and the Greek Patriarchate, so the school lessons and church masses were given in Bulgarian and Greek respectively with the intention of assimilating the local Macedonian population. The only way for Macedonians at that time to receive an education was in a language that was foreign to them. Macedonians were fed up with this situation and wanted to gain their own ecclesiastical and academic independence.

General Tsonchev's Supreme Committee's band
General Tsonchev's Supreme Committee's band

The Internal Macedonian-Adrianopolitan Revolutionary Organization (IMARO), founded in Thessaloniki in 1893, had a number of name changes prior to and subsequent to the uprising. It was predominantly Macedonian and supported an idea for autonomy for Macedonia and Adrianople regions within the Ottoman state with a motto of "Macedonia for the Macedonians". It rapidly began to be infiltrated by members of Macedonian Supreme Committee, a group formed in 1894 by Macedonian emigrants in Sofia, employed by the Bulgarian state to implement its "expand-and-assimilate" policy towards Macedonia. This group was called the Supremists, and advocated annexation of Macedonia by Bulgaria. After the Thessaloniki affair (Macedonian: Солунска афера) in 1901, the Supreme Committee managed to take over the IMARO, since the top IMARO officials were imprisoned as a result of the affair. One might suspect the Supreme Committee to be the culprit of the affair. Prior to August 1903, IMARO commanded by supremasists managed to convince revolutionaries from Bitola to start the uprising, even though they were not ready for one. The Supreme Committee was under orders from the Bulgarian royal court to start an uprising in Macedonia, which will trigger the Turks to start a fierce massacre on enemy combatants and ferocious reprisals to innocent civilians, inform the Western powers that the uprising was Bulgarian in character and that the Turks are slaughtering Bulgarians, which will give Bulgaria a legitimate claim to invade and conquer Macedonia.

Since the term autonomy was regularly used in relation to the Macedonian Question, it is essential to note its sense and reason. Its 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. Autonomy, then, was the best prophylactic against partition, that would preserve the territorial integrity of Macedonia.

Vojvods in Odrin Vilayet before the uprising.

The two groups had different strategies. IMARO as originally conceived sought to prepare a carefully planned uprising in the future, but the Supremacists preferred immediate raids and guerilla operations to foster disorder and a precipitate interventions.[9][page needed][10][page needed][11][page needed] 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 1902 but 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 IMRO right-wing faction.[12][page needed] One of the founding leaders of IMARO, Gotse Delchev, was a strong advocate for proceeding slowly, but the Supremacists pressed for a major uprising to take place in the summer of 1903. Delchev himself was killed by the Turks in May 1903.[citation needed]

Meanwhile, in late April 1903, a group of young anarchists from the Gemidzhii Circle, launched the so-called Thessaloniki bombings of 1903. Their aim was to attract the attention of the Great Powers to Ottoman oppression in Macedonia. As a response to the attacks, the Turkish Army and bashibozouks (irregulars) massacred many innocent Macedonians in Thessaloniki, and later in Bitola.

Hristo Chernopeev's band in 1903.

By these circumstances the Supremacists' plan went ahead. Under a leadership from the supremasist Ivan Garvanov, IMARO made a decision about military revolt. Garvanov, himself, did not participate in the uprising, because of his arrest and exile in Rhodes. The day chosen for the uprising was August 2 (July 20 in the old Julian calendar), the feast day of St.Elijah.

During the discussions, Racho Petrov's government supported IMARO's position of an entirely internal character of the rebellion.

Old Russian Berdan and Krnka rifles as well as Mannlichers were purchased from Bulgaria and transported to Skopje following the insistence for faster rapid fire by the revolutionary Boris Sarafov.[13] In his memoir, Sarafov states that the main source of funds for the purchase of the weapons from the Bulgarian army came from the kidnapping of Miss Stone as well as from contacts in Europe.[14]

Ilinden Uprising

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The banner of the insurgents from Ohrid with a flag on it and the inscription Свобода или смърть (freedom or death) written in Cyrillic alphabet.
The flag of the Struga insurgent detachment.

An account of the dates and details of the uprising were recorded by the anarchist author Georgi Khadziev which was translated by Will Firth. 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 what is now North Macedonia and some of the north of Greece. That night and early the next morning, the town of Kruševo was attacked and captured by 800 rebels. Concurrently, after three days of fighting followed by a siege starting on August 5, the town of Smilevo was captured by the rebels. The town of Kleisoura, near Kastoria, was taken by insurgents about August 5. On August 14, under the leadership of Nikola Pushkarov, some bands near Skopje attacked and derailed a military train. In Razlog the population joined in the uprising. This was further east, in Pirin Macedonia in present-day Bulgaria.[7]

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.[7] On August 12, following the Battle of Sliva, a force of 3,500 Ottoman soldiers[15] recaptured and burned Kruševo. It had been held by the insurgents for just ten days. Kleisoura was finally recaptured by the Ottomans on August 27.[7]

Other regions involved included Ohrid, Florina, and Kičevo. 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.[7]

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.[16] 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.[17] In fact the uprising soon spread to the adjacent vilayets of Kosovo, Thessaloniki and Adrianople (in Thrace).[18]

Aftermath

A convoy of captured IMRO activists.

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 favored 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.[11][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,[19][page needed] and thousands of refugees were produced. According to Georgi Khadziev, 201 villages and 12,400 houses were burned, 4,694 people killed, with some 30,000 refugees fleeing to Bulgaria.[7]

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."[20]

Subsequent history

Letter from the General Staff of the Monastir (Bitola) Revolutionary Region to the Bulgarian Government.
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 Aegean Macedonia in the south, and Bulgaria was only able to obtain a small region in the northeast: Pirin Macedonia.[21][page needed] The Ottomans managed to keep the Edirne region, where the whole Thracian Bulgarian population was put to total ethnic cleansing by the Ottoman Empire.[22][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, joining a still larger stream from devastated Aegean Macedonia, where the Greeks burned Kilkis, the center of Bulgarian politics and culture, as well as much of Serres and Drama, Greece. Bulgarian (including the Macedonian Slavic dialects) was prohibited, and its surreptitious use, whenever detected, was ridiculed or punished.[23] Internal Macedonian-Adrianople Revolutionary Organization supported the Bulgarian army during the Balkan Wars and World War I. After the post-World War I 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 regimes in the following period to 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

Makedonium monument, dedicated to the Ilinden Uprising, Kruševo, North Macedonia.

Portrayals of the insurrections by later historians often reflect ongoing national aspirations. Historians from Republic of Macedonia see them as a part of the move for an independent state as finally achieved by their own new nation. There is, in fact, very little historical continuity from the insurrections to the modern state, but Macedonian sources tend to emphasize the early goals of political autonomy when IMARO was established. The Supremacist faction pushed for the insurrections to take place in the summer of 1903, while the left wing argued for more time and more planning.[24] Western historians generally refer simply to the Ilinden uprising, which marks the date on which uprising began.

The leaders of the Ilinden uprising are celebrated as heroes in Republic of Macedonia. They are regarded as Macedonian patriots and as founders of the drive for Macedonian independence in Macedonia. The names of the IMARO revolutionaries like Gotse Delchev, Pitu Guli, Dame Gruev and Yane Sandanski were included into the lyrics of the anthem of the Socialist Republic of Macedonia Denes nad Makedonija ("Today over Macedonia"). Today, 2 August is the national holiday in Republic of Macedonia, known as Day of the Republic,[25] which considers it the date of its first statehood in modern times. It is also the date on which, in 1944, a People's Republic of Macedonia was proclaimed at ASNOM as a constituent republic of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. The ASNOM event is now referred as the 'Second Ilinden' in Republic of Macedonia, though there is no direct link to the events of 1903. In Bulgaria, the St. Elijah's day (Ilinden) is celebrated by ethnic Macedonians as the anniversary of the Ilinden uprising in Pirin Macedonia.

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.[26] 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.[27]

Honour

In Bulgaria

In Republic of Macedonia

Elsewhere

See also

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Ilinden-Preobrazhenie Uprising.

Footnotes

  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 Cite error: The named reference IMARO_memoir was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  4. ^ J. D. B. (1911). "Macedonia (Bulgarian Insurrection of 1903)". The Encyclopaedia Britannica; A Dictionary of Arts, Sciences, Literature and General Information. Vol. XVII (LORD CHAMBERLAIN to MECKLENBURG) (11th ed.). Cambridge, England: At the University Press. p. 221. Retrieved 18 July 2018 – via Internet Archive.
  5. ^ The Establishment of the Balkan National States, 1804–1920, C. & B. Jelavich, 1977, pp 211–212
  6. ^ Autonomy for Macedonia and the vilayet of Adrianople (southern Thrace) became the key demand for a generation of Slavic activists. In October 1893, a group of them founded the Bulgarian Macedono-Adrianopolitan Revolutionary Committee in Salonica...It engaged in creating a network of secretive committees and armed guerrillas in the two regions as well as in Bulgaria, where an ever-growing and politically influential Macedonian and Thracian diaspora resided. Heavily influenced by the ideas of early socialism and anarchism, the IMARO activists saw the future autonomous Macedonia as a multinational polity, and did not pursue the self-determination of Macedonian Slavs as a separate ethnicity. Therefore, Macedonian (and also Adrianopolitan) was an umbrella term covering Bulgarians, Turks, Greeks, Vlachs, Albanians, Serbs, Jews, and so on. While this message was taken aboard by many Vlachs as well as some Patriarchist Slavs, it failed to impress other groups for whom the IMARO remained the Bulgarian Committee.' Historical Dictionary of Republic of Macedonia, Historical Dictionaries of Europe, Dimitar Bechev, Scarecrow Press, 2009, ISBN 0810862956, Introduction.
  7. ^ a b c d e f Khadziev, Georgi (1992), Down with the Sultan, Long live the Balkan Federation!, retrieved 3 September 2007 An excerpt from the book "National Liberation and Libertarian Federalism" (Natsionalnoto osvobozhdeniye i bezvlastniyat federalizum), translated by Will Firth.
  8. ^ Nadine Lange-Akhund, The Macedonian Question, 1893-1908, from Western Sources, East European Monographs, 1998; ISBN 0880333839, p. 125.
  9. ^ Gewehr, W.M. (1967), The Rise of Nationalism in the Balkans, 1800–1930, Archon books, ISBN 0-208-00507-2, first published in 1931, by H. Holt & Co.
  10. ^ Schevill, F. (1971), The History of the Balkan Peninsula, Harcourt, Brace & Co, ISBN 0-405-02774-5, first printed in 1922.
  11. ^ a b Crampton, R.J. (1997), A concise history of Bulgaria (2nd ed.), Cambridge University Press, ISBN 0-521-61637-9
  12. ^ 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).
  13. ^ Brown, Keith S. (2013). Loyal Unto Death: Trust and Terror in Revolutionary Macedonia. Indiana University Press. pp. pg 148. ISBN 9780253008350. {{cite book}}: |pages= has extra text (help)
  14. ^ and Basevski, Nikolov (1927). Spomeni na Dame Gruev, Boris Sarafov and Ivan Garvanov. Sofia: Press P. Glushkoz. pp. pg 146, pg 153. {{cite book}}: |pages= has extra text (help)
  15. ^ "MIA". Archived from the original on 2012-04-05. Retrieved 29 November 2014.
  16. ^ 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.
  17. ^ 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.
  18. ^ Raymond Detrez, The A to Z of Bulgaria; Edition 2, SCARECROW Press, 2010, ISBN 0810872021, p. 217.
  19. ^ Jelavich, B. (1983), History of the Balkans, vol. 2, Cambridge University Press, ISBN 0-521-25448-5
  20. ^ Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, Institute of History, Bulgarian Language Institute, "Macedonia. Documents and materials", Sofia, 1978, part III, No.92.
  21. ^ Jelavich, C.; Jelavich, B. (1977), The Establishment of the Balkan National States, 1804–1920, University of Washington Press, ISBN 0-295-95444-2 Volume 8 of the 11 volume series A History of East Central Europe.
  22. ^ 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).
  23. ^ "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.
  24. ^ Colliers Encyclopedia, Macedonia, 1993 edition.
  25. ^ "August 2nd, non-working for Macedonian citizens". macedoniaonline.eu. 2008-07-29. Retrieved 30 July 2008.
  26. ^ PMs Borisov and Zaev place wreaths at Gotse Delchev’s grave in Skopje, 2 August 2017, FOCUS News Agency.
  27. ^ Macedonia, Bulgaria Sign Historic Treaty, Renounce Rivalry, Aug. 1, 2017, The New York Times.
  28. ^ Пелистер

Sources

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