Gotse Delchev
Template:Short description {{#invoke:other uses|otheruses}} Template:Pp-vandalism Template:Family name hatnote Template:Use dmy dates Template:Infobox military person Georgi Nikolov Delchev (Template:Langx; Template:Langx; 4 February 1872 – 4 May 1903), known as Gotse Delchev or Goce Delčev (Гоце Делчев),<ref group="note">Originally spelled in older Bulgarian orthography as Гоце Дѣлчевъ. - Гоце Дѣлчевъ. Биография. П.К. Яворовъ, 1904.</ref> was a prominent Macedonian Bulgarian revolutionary (komitadji) and one of the most important leaders of what is commonly known as the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization (IMRO),<ref>Template:Multiref2</ref> active in the Ottoman-ruled Macedonia and Adrianople regions, as well as in Bulgaria, at the turn of the 20th century.<ref name="kb">Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Delchev was IMRO's foreign representative in Sofia, the capital of the Principality of Bulgaria.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> As such, he was also a member of the Supreme Macedonian-Adrianople Committee (SMAC),<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> participating in the work of its governing body.<ref name="dm">Template:Cite book</ref> He was killed in a skirmish with an Ottoman unit on the eve of the Ilinden-Preobrazhenie uprising.
Born into a Bulgarian family in Kilkis,<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Delchev was born into a family of Bulgarian Uniates, who later switched to Bulgarian Еxarchists. For more see: Светозар Елдъров, Униатството в съдбата на България: очерци из историята на българската католическа църква от източен обред, Абагар, 1994, Template:ISBN, стр. 15.</ref> then in the Salonika vilayet of the Ottoman Empire, in his youth he was inspired by the ideals of earlier Bulgarian revolutionaries such as Vasil Levski and Hristo Botev, who envisioned the creation of a Bulgarian republic of ethnic and religious equality, as part of an imagined Balkan Federation.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Delchev completed his secondary education in the Bulgarian Men's High School of Thessaloniki and entered the Military School of His Princely Highness in Sofia, but at the final stage of his study, he was dismissed from it as an alleged socialist. Then he returned to Ottoman Macedonia and worked as a Bulgarian teacher,<ref name="hp">Template:Cite book</ref> and immediately became an activist of the newly-found revolutionary movement in 1894.<ref name="detrez">Template:Cite book</ref>
Although considering himself to be an inheritor of the Bulgarian revolutionary traditions,<ref name="dm" /> he opted for Macedonian autonomy.<ref name="todorova">Template:Cite book</ref> Also for him, like for many Macedonian Bulgarians,<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> originating from an area with mixed population,<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> the idea of being 'Macedonian' acquired the importance of a certain native loyalty, that constructed a specific spirit of "local patriotism"<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> and "multi-ethnic regionalism".<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref> He maintained the slogan promoted by William Ewart Gladstone, "Macedonia for the Macedonians", including all different nationalities inhabiting the area.<ref>Template:Cite book, p. 56</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref name="karakasidou">Template:Cite book</ref> Delchev was also an adherent of incipient socialism.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>The earliest document which talks about the autonomy of Macedonia and Thrace into the Ottoman Empire is the resolution of the First congress of the Supreme Macedonian Committee held in Sofia in 1895. От София до Костур -освободителните борби на българите от Македония в спомени на дейци от Върховния македоно-одрински комитет, Ива Бурилкова, Цочо Билярски - съставители, Template:ISBN, Синева, 2003, стр. 6.</ref> His political agenda became the establishment through revolution of an autonomous Macedono-Adrianople supranational state into the framework of the Ottoman Empire, as a prelude to its incorporation within a future Balkan Federation.<ref>Template:Cite book, pp. 27-28</ref> Despite having been educated in the spirit of Bulgarian nationalism, he revised the Organization's statute, where the membership was allowed only for Bulgarians.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> In this way he emphasized the importance of cooperation among all ethnic groups in the territories concerned in order to obtain political autonomy.<ref name="detrez" />
Delchev is considered a national hero in Bulgaria and North Macedonia. Because his autonomist ideas have stimulated the subsequent development of Macedonian nationalism,<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> in the latter it is claimed he was an ethnic Macedonian revolutionary. Thus, Delchev's legacy has been disputed between both countries. Nevertheless, some researchers think that behind IMRO's idea of autonomy a reserve plan for eventual incorporation into Bulgaria was hidden.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Per some of his contemporaries and Bulgarian academic sources, Delchev supported Macedonia's incorporation into Bulgaria as another option too. Other researchers find the identity of Delchev and other IMRO figures to be open to different interpretations.
LifeEdit
Early lifeEdit
He was born to a large family on 4 February 1872 (23 January according to the Julian calendar) in Kılkış (Kukush), then in the Ottoman Empire (today in Greece), to Nikola and Sultana. He was christened as Georgi.<ref name="mm">Template:Cite book</ref> By the mid-19th century, Kılkış was populated predominantly with Macedonian Bulgarians<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>An 1873 Ottoman study, published in 1878 as "Ethnographie des Vilayets d'Andrinople, de Monastir et de Salonique", concluded that the population of Kilkis consisted of 1,170 households, of which there were 5,235 Bulgarian inhabitants, 155 Muslims and 40 Romani people. "Македония и Одринско. Статистика на населението от 1873 г." Macedonian Scientific Institute, Sofia, 1995, pp.160-161. </ref> and became one of the centers of the Bulgarian national revival.<ref name="va">Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Khristov, Khristo Dechkov. The Bulgarian Nation During the National Revival Period. Institut za istoria, Izd-vo na Bŭlgarskata akademia na naukite, 1980, str. 293. </ref> During the 1860s and 1870s it was under the jurisdiction of the Bulgarian Uniate Church,<ref>Template:Cite book </ref><ref>In one five-year period, there were 57 Catholic villages in the area, whilst the Bulgarian uniate schools in the Vilayet of Thessaloniki reached 64. Gounaris, Basil C. National Claims, Conflicts and Developments in Macedonia, 1870–1912, p. 186. </ref> but after 1884 most of its population gradually joined the Bulgarian Exarchate.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> As a student, Delchev studied first at the Bulgarian Uniate primary school and then at the Bulgarian Exarchate junior high school.<ref>Гоце Делчев, Писма и други материали, издирил и подготвил за печат Дино Кьосев, отговорен редактор Воин Божинов (Изд. на Българската академия на науките, Институт за история, София 1967) стр. 15.</ref> He also read widely in the town's chitalishte (community cultural center), where he was impressed with revolutionary books, and was especially imbued with thoughts of the liberation of Bulgaria.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> In 1888 his family sent him to the Bulgarian Men's High School of Thessaloniki, where he organized and led a secret revolutionary brotherhood.<ref name="jb">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Delchev also distributed revolutionary literature, which he acquired from the school's graduates who studied in Bulgaria. Bulgarian students graduating from high school were faced with few career prospects and Delchev decided to follow the path of his former schoolmate Boris Sarafov, entering the military school in Sofia in 1891. He became disappointed with life in Bulgaria, especially the commercialized life of the society in Sofia and with the authoritarian politics of the prime minister Stefan Stambolov,<ref name="jb" /> accused of being a dictator.<ref name="dm" />
Delchev spent his leaves from school in the company of emigrants from the Macedonian region, most of them belonged to the Young Macedonian Literary Society. One of his friends was Vasil Glavinov, a future leader of the Macedonian-Adrianople Social Democratic Group, a faction of the Bulgarian Social Democratic Workers Party.<ref name="mm" /> Through Glavinov and his comrades, he came into contact with different people, who offered a new form of social struggle. In June 1892, Delchev and the journalist Kosta Shahov, a chairman of the Young Macedonian Literary Society, met in Sofia with the bookseller from Thessaloniki, Ivan Hadzhinikolov. Hadzhinikolov disclosed at this meeting his plans to create a revolutionary organization in Ottoman Macedonia. They discussed together its basic principles and agreed fully on all scores. Delchev explained that he had no intention of remaining an officer and promised after graduating from the Military School, he would return to Macedonia to join the organization.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> In September 1894, only a month before graduation, he was expelled for his socialist sympathies.<ref name="ffap">Template:Cite book</ref><ref name="nla">Template:Cite book</ref> He was given the possibility to enter the Army again by re-applying for a commission, but he refused. Afterwards he returned to Macedonia to become a teacher and set up secret committees, based on Vasil Levski's example.<ref name="ffap" /> At that time, the revolutionary organization commonly known as Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization (IMRO) was in its early stages of development, forming its committees around the Bulgarian Exarchate schools.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Although, Delchev despised the Exarchate policy in Macedonia.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
Teacher and revolutionaryEdit
In Ottoman Thessaloniki, IMRO was founded in 1893, by a small band of anti-Ottoman Macedono-Bulgarian revolutionaries, including Hadzhinikolov. The earliest known statute of the Organization calls it Bulgarian Macedonian-Adrianople Revolutionary Committees (BMARC).<ref name="hp" /><ref>Template:Cite book </ref> It was decided at a meeting in Resen in August 1894 to preferably recruit teachers from the Bulgarian schools as committee members.<ref name="va" /> In 1894, Delchev became a teacher in an Exarchate school in Štip,<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> where he met another teacher, Dame Gruev, who was also a leader of the newly established local committee of the IMRO.<ref name="mm" /> Gruev told him about the existence of the Organization.<ref name="ffap" /> Delchev impressed Gruev with his honesty and joined the Organization immediately, gradually becoming one of its main leaders.<ref name="nla" /> After this, Gruev concentrated his attention on Štip, while Delchev attempted to win over the surrounding villages.<ref name="va" /> It is unknown how many active members the Organization had from 1893 to 1897. In a letter from 1895, Delchev explained that the liberation of Macedonia as a state lies in an internal uprising, that a systematic agitation was conducted in order for the population to be ready in the near future, otherwise the result of a premature uprising would be tragic.<ref>Mercia MacDermott, Freedom or Death: The Life of Gotsé Delchev, Journeyman Press, 1978, pp. 128-130.</ref> Despite his and Gruev's efforts, the number of members grew slowly.<ref name="nla" /> Delchev travelled during the vacations throughout Macedonia and established and organized committees in villages and cities. In this period, he adopted Ahil (Archilles) as his nom de guerre.<ref name="mm" /> Delchev also established contacts with some of the leaders of the Supreme Macedonian-Adrianople Committee (SMAC). Its official declaration was a struggle for the autonomy of the Macedonian and Adrianople regions.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> However, as a rule, most of SMAC's leaders were officers with stronger connections with the governments, waging terrorist struggle against the Ottomans in the hope of provoking a war and thus Bulgarian annexation of both areas. In late 1895 he arrived in Bulgaria's capital Sofia from the name of the "Bulgarian Central Macedonian-Adrianopolitan Revolutionary Committee" to prevent any foreign interference in its work.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> In 1896, he advocated for the establishment of a secret revolutionary network, that would prepare the population for an armed uprising against the Ottoman rule, based on Levski's example.<ref name="detrez" /> After spending the next school year (1895/1896) as a teacher in the town of Bansko, in May 1896 he was arrested by the Ottoman authorities as a person suspected of revolutionary activity and spent about a month in jail. Delchev participated in the Thessaloniki Congress of the IMRO in 1896.<ref name="nla" /> The Central Committee was placed in Thessaloniki. He, along with Petrov, wrote the new organization's statute, which divided Macedonia and Adrianople areas into seven regions, each with a regional structure and secret police, following the Internal Revolutionary Organization's example.<ref name="hp" /><ref name="petrov">"Спомени на Гьорчо Петров", поредица Материяли за историята на македонското освободително движение, книга VIII, София, 1927, глава VII, (in English: "Memoirs of Gyorcho Petrov", series Materials about history of the Macedonian revolutionary movement, book VIII, Sofia, 1927, chapter VII). </ref> Afterwards, Delchev gave his resignation as a teacher and in the same year, he moved back to Bulgaria.<ref name="py">Template:Cite book</ref>
Revolutionary activity as part of the leadership of the OrganizationEdit
From 1896 to 1902,<ref name="nla" /> he was a representative of the Foreign Committee of the IMRO in Sofia. Gyorche Petrov joined him as a representative in March 1897.<ref name="mm" /> At that time the Organization was largely dependent on the Bulgarian state and army assistance, that was mediated by him and Petrov.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Delchev envisioned independent production of weapons and traveled in 1897 to Odessa,<ref name="mm" /> where he met with Armenian revolutionaries Stepan Zorian and Christapor Mikaelian to exchange terrorist skills and especially bomb-making.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> That resulted in the establishment of a bomb manufacturing plant in the village of Sabler near Kyustendil in Bulgaria. The bombs were later smuggled across the Ottoman border into Macedonia.<ref name="py" /> In 1898 the Organization decided to create permanent acting armed bands (chetas) in every district, with Delchev as their leader.<ref name="bechev">Template:Cite book</ref>
He was the first to organize and lead a band into Macedonia with the purpose of robbing or kidnapping rich Turks. This activity of his had variable success.<ref name="mp">Template:Cite book</ref> His experiences demonstrate the weaknesses and difficulties which the Organization faced in its early years.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> In 1900, he resided for a while in Burgas, where Delchev organized another bomb manufacturing plant, whose dynamite was used later by the Boatmen of Thessaloniki.<ref>Иван Карайотов, Стоян Райчевски, Митко Иванов: История на Бургас. От древността до средата на ХХ век, Печат Тафпринт ООД, Пловдив, 2011, Template:ISBN, стр. 192–193.</ref> After the assassination of the Romanian newspaper editor Ștefan Mihăileanu in July, who had published unflattering remarks about the Macedonian affairs, Bulgaria and Romania were brought to the brink of war. At that time Delchev was preparing to organize a detachment which, in a possible war to support the Bulgarian army by its actions in Northern Dobruja, where a compact Bulgarian population was available.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> From 1901 to 1902, he made an important inspection in Macedonia, touring all revolutionary districts there. He also led the congress of the Adrianople revolutionary district held in Plovdiv in April 1902. Afterwards Delchev inspected IMRO's structures in the Central Rhodopes. The inclusion of the rural areas into the organizational districts contributed to the expansion of the Organization and the increase in its membership, while providing the essential prerequisites for the formation of its military power, at the same time having Delchev as its military advisor (inspector) and chief of all internal revolutionary bands.<ref name="py" />
After 1897 there was a rapid growth of secret officers' brotherhoods, whose members by 1900 numbered about a thousand.<ref>Modern history abstracts, 1450–1914, Volume 48, Issue 1–, American Bibliographical Center, Eric H. Boehm, ABC-Clio, 1997, p. 657.</ref> Much of the brotherhoods' activists were involved in the revolutionary activity of the IMRO.<ref>Template:Cite book </ref> He was among the main supporters of their activities.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Delchev aimed also for better coordination between IMRO and the Supreme Macedonian-Adrianople Committee. For a short time in the late 1890s Bulgarian lieutenant Boris Sarafov, who was a former schoolmate of Delchev became its leader, as he was promoted as a candidate by him and Petrov.<ref name="va" /> IMRO delegates Delchev and Petrov became by rights members of the leadership of the Supreme Committee in May 1899 and so the IMRO even managed to gain de facto control of the SMAC.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref name="nla" /> Until 1901, the two organizations had close cooperation. General Ivan Tsonchev and other fellow officers organized a faction against Delchev and Petrov.<ref name="hp" /> The relations between IMRO and SMAC deteriorated and in March 1901, he and Petrov sent a circular to local committee leaders of the internal organizations, denouncing the attempt of SMAC to seize the direction of IMRO. They ordered the termination of all relations with it, as well as ordered all local committees to refuse any transition of any armed group which did not have a pass signed by him or Petrov, and their weapons to be seized.<ref name="nla" />
The primary question regarding the timing of the uprising in Macedonia and Thrace implicated an apparent discordance not only between the SMAC and SMARO, but also among SMARO's leadership. At the Thessaloniki Congress of January 1903, where Delchev did not participate,<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> an early uprising was debated and it was decided to stage one in May 1903. This led to fierce debates among the representatives at the Sofia SMARO's Conference in March 1903. By that time two strong tendencies had crystallized within the SMARO. The right-wing majority was convinced that if the Organization would unleash a general uprising, Bulgaria would be provoked to declare war on the Ottoman Empire and after the subsequent intervention of the Great Powers the Ottoman Empire would collapse.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Delchev opposed the plan for a mass uprising,<ref name="bechev" /> instead supporting terrorist tactics and guerilla tactics such as the Thessaloniki bombings of 1903.<ref>Template:Cite book </ref><ref>Пейо Яворов, "Събрани съчинения", Том втори, "Гоце Делчев", Издателство "Български писател", София, 1977, стр. 62–66. Template:In lang In English: Peyo Yavorov, "Complete Works", Volume 2, biography Delchev, Publishing house "Bulgarian writer", Sofia, 1977, pp. 62–66. </ref> Finally, he had no choice but to agree to that course of action, at least managing to delay its start from May to August. Delchev also convinced the SMARO leadership to transform its idea of a mass rising involving the civil population into a rising based on guerrilla warfare. Towards the end of March 1903, Delchev with his detachment destroyed the railway bridge over the Angista river, aiming to test the new guerrilla tactics.<ref name="mm" /> Following that he set out for Thessaloniki to meet with Dame Gruev after his release from prison in March 1903. Delchev met with Gruev in late April, and they discussed the decision of starting the uprising. Delchev hoped that Gruev will argue for postponement of the uprising, but he wanted it to proceed. After the meeting, he left for Serres, with the intention of holding a regional congress to lay out his plans for the uprising.<ref name="mp" />
Death and aftermathEdit
On 28 April, the Bulgarian anarchist group Boatmen of Thessaloniki started terrorist attacks in the city. As a consequence martial law was declared in the city and many Ottoman soldiers and "bashibozouks" were concentrated in the Salonika vilayet. This increased tension led eventually to the tracking of Delchev's cheta and his subsequent death.<ref name="hp" /><ref>Template:Cite book </ref> Delchev and his cheta arrived in the village of Banitsa on 2 May for a meeting with Dimo Hadzhidimov, soon after a skirmish followed in which he was killed on 4 May 1903, with a shot to the chest,<ref name="nla" /> by Ottoman troops led by his former schoolmate Hussein Tefikov.<ref name="bechev" /><ref>Template:Cite book</ref> It occurred presumably after betrayal by local villagers, as rumors asserted.<ref>Пейо Яворов, "Събрани съчинения", Том втори, "Гоце Делчев", Издателство "Български писател", София, 1977, стр. 69. Template:In lang In English: Peyo Yavorov, "Complete Works", Volume 2, biography Delchev, Publishing house "Bulgarian writer", Sofia, 1977, p. 69. </ref> Thus the Macedonian liberation movement lost its most important organizer and ideologist, on the eve of the Ilinden–Preobrazhenie Uprising.<ref name="detrez" /> He was recognized as "the most capable and most honest Komitadji" by missionaries.<ref name="kb" /> After being identified by the local authorities in Serres, the bodies of Delchev and his comrade, Dimitar Gushtanov, were buried in a common grave in Banitsa. Following the skirmish, more than 500 arrests were made in various districts of Serres and 1,700 households petitioned to return to the Patriarchate.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Soon afterwards SMARO, aided by SMAC, organized the uprising against the Ottoman Empire, which after initial successes, was defeated with many casualties.<ref>Template:Cite book </ref> Two of his brothers, Mitso and Milan were also killed fighting against the Ottomans as militants in the SMARO chetas of the Bulgarian voivodas Hristo Chernopeev and Krstjo Asenov in 1901 and 1903, respectively. The Bulgarian government later granted a pension to their father Nikola, because of the contribution of his sons to the freedom of Macedonia.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> During the Second Balkan War of 1913, Kilkis, which had been annexed by Bulgaria in the First Balkan War, was taken by the Greeks. Virtually all of its pre-war 7,000 Bulgarian inhabitants, including Delchev's family, were expelled to Bulgaria by the Greek Army.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> During Balkan Wars, when Bulgaria was temporarily in control of the area, Delchev's remains were transferred to Xanthi, then in Bulgaria. After Western Thrace was ceded to Greece in 1919, the relic was brought to Plovdiv and in 1923 to Sofia, where it rested until after World War II.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> During World War II, the area was taken by the Kingdom of Bulgaria again and Delchev's grave near Banitsa was restored.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> In May 1943, on the occasion of the 40th anniversary of his death, a memorial plaque was set in Banitsa, in the presence of his sisters and other public figures.<ref>On the plate was this inscription: "In memory of fallen chetniks in the village of Banica on 4 May 1903 for the unification of Macedonia to the mother-country Bulgaria and to the eternal memory of the generations: Gotse Delchev from Kilkis, apostle and leader, Dimitar Gushtanov from Krushovo, Stefan Duhov from the village of Tarlis, Stoyan Zahariev from the village of Banica, Dimitar Palyankov from the village of Gorno Brodi. Their covenant was Freedom or Death." For more: Васил Станчев (2003) Четвъртата версия за убийството на Гоце Делчев, Дружество "Гоце Делчев", Стара Загора, стр. 9.</ref>
The first biographical book about Delchev was issued in 1904 by his friend and comrade in arms, the Bulgarian poet Peyo Yavorov.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> The most detailed biography of Delchev in English was written by English historian Mercia MacDermott called Freedom or Death: The Life of Gotse Delchev, published in 1978 and translated into Bulgarian in 1979.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
ViewsEdit
The international, cosmopolitan views of Delchev could be summarized in his proverbial sentence: "I understand the world solely as a field for cultural competition among the peoples".<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Per MacDermott, his saying presupposes a world without political and economic conflicts and one which has a very high degree of mutual friendship and co-operation on an international level.<ref name="ffap" /> In the late 19th century the anarchists and socialists from Bulgaria linked their struggle closely with the revolutionary movements in Macedonia and Thrace.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Thus, as a young cadet in Sofia Delchev became a member of a left-wing circle, where he was influenced by modern Marxist and Bakunin's ideas.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> His views were formed also under the influence of the ideas of earlier anti-Ottoman fighters as Levski, Botev, and Stoyanov,<ref name="todorova" /> who were among the founders of the Bulgarian Internal Revolutionary Organization, the Bulgarian Revolutionary Central Committee and the Bulgarian Secret Central Revolutionary Committee, respectively. Later he participated in the Internal Organization's struggle as a well-educated leader.
According to Mercia MacDermott, he was the co-author of BMARC's statute.<ref>"As a result of the (Salonica) Congress in 1896 a new Statute and Rules, providing for a very centralized form of organization were drawn up by Gyorché Petrov and Gotsé Delchev. The Statute and Rules were probably largely Gyorche's work, based on guidelines agreed by the Congress. He attempted to draw members of the Supreme Macedonian Committee into the task of drafting the Statute by approaching (Andrey) Lyapchev and (Dimitar) Rizov. When, however, Lyapchev produced a first article which would have made the Organization a branch of the Supreme Committee, Gyorché gave up in despair and wrote the Statute himself, with Gotsé's assistance." For more see: Mercia MacDermott, Freedom or Death: The Life of Gotsé Delchev, p. 144.</ref> Developing his ideas further in 1902 he took the step, together with other left-wing functionaries, of changing its nationalistic character, which determined that members of the organization could be only Bulgarians. The new supra-nationalistic statute renamed it to Secret Macedono-Adrianopolitan Revolutionary Organization (SMARO), which was to be an insurgent organization, open to all Macedonians and Thracians regardless of nationality, who wished to participate in the movement for their autonomy.<ref>Template:Cite book </ref> This scenario was partially facilitated by the Treaty of Berlin (1878), according to which Macedonia and Adrianople areas were given back from Bulgaria to the Ottomans, but especially by its unrealized 23rd. article, which promised future autonomy for unspecified territories in European Turkey, settled with Christian population.<ref>Template:Cite book </ref> His main goal, along with the other revolutionaries, was the implementation of Article 23 of the treaty, aimed at acquiring full autonomy of Macedonia and the Adrianople.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Delchev, like other left-wing activists, vaguely determined the bonds in the future common Macedonian-Adrianople autonomous region on the one hand,<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> and on the other between it, the Principality of Bulgaria, and de facto annexed Eastern Rumelia.<ref>Template:Cite book </ref><ref name="karakasidou" /> Even the possibility that Bulgaria could be absorbed into a future autonomous Macedonia, rather than the reverse, was discussed.<ref>Template:Cite book </ref> Per Bulgarian academic sources and his contemporaries, Delchev supported Macedonia's eventual incorporation into Bulgaria,<ref>Yordan Badev recalls in his memoirs that Gotse Delchev, Boris Sarafov, Efrem Chuchkov, and Boris Drangov had organized a group of Bulgarians born in Macedonia to propagate for the future unification of Macedonia and Bulgaria among the cadets of the military school in Sofia. For more see: Katrin Bozeva-Abazi, The Shaping of Bulgarian and Serbian National Identities, 1800s-1900s, thesis, McGill University Department of History, 2003, p. 189; Kosta Tsipushev recalls how, when he and some friends asked Gotsé why they were fighting for the autonomy of Macedonia and Thrace instead of their liberation and reunification with the motherland, he replied: Comrades, can't you see that we are now the slaves not of the Turkish state, which is in the process of disintegration, but of the Great Powers in Europe, before whom Turkey signed her total capitulation in Berlin. That is why we have to struggle for the autonomy of Macedonia and Thrace, in order to preserve them in their entirety, as a stage towards their reunification with our common Bulgarian fatherland... For more see: (MacDermott 1978:322); Pavlos Kyrou (Pavel Kirov) from Zhelevo claims in his memoirs that once, when Delchev came from Bulgaria, he met him in Konomladi. Delchev insisted there that Greek priests and schoolmasters are obstacles. He maintained also that all the local Slavophones are Bulgarians and they must work for Bulgarian cause, because its army will come and help them to throw off the Turkish yoke. For more see: Allen Upward, The East End of Europe, 1908: The Report of an Unofficial Mission to the European Provinces of Turkey on the Eve of the Revolution (Classic Reprint), BiblioBazaar, 2015, Template:ISBN, p. 326; In the memories of Andon Kyoseto, it is alleged that Delchev explained him that SMARO cannot win full freedom for Macedonia, but it will fight at least for autonomy. The ultimate goal of the Organization, according to Delchev, is a secrecy, but one day, sooner or later, Macedonia will unite itself with Bulgaria, and Greece and Serbia should not doubt in that. For more see: Б. Мирчев, Из спомените на Андон Лазов - Кьосето, сп. Родина, г. VІ, бр. 1, октомври 1931, стр. 12-14.; On 12 January 1903 his fellow Peyo Yavorov recorded one of Delchev's last messages in his shorthand notes, when they crossеd the misty border of Bulgaria to the Ottoman Empire entering Macedonia, namely: "I pointed out the misty area on Delchev, who was close to me and I said: Look, Macedonia welcomes us mourning!" But he answered: “We will tear away this veil and the sun of freedom will arise, but it will be a Bulgarian sun”. For more see: Милкана Бошнакова, Личните бележници на П. К. Яворов, Издателство: Захарий Стоянов, Template:ISBN, 2008.</ref><ref>Идеята за автономия като тактика в програмите на национално-освободителното движение в Македония и Одринско (1893–1941), Димитър Гоцев, 1983, Изд. на Българска Академия на Науките, София, 1983, c. 17.; in English: The idea for autonomy as a tactics in the programs of the National Liberation movements in Macedonia and Adrianople regions 1893–1941", Sofia, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, Dimitar v, 1983, p. 17. (55. ЦПА, ф. 226); срв. К. Ципушев. 19 години в сръбските затвори, СУ Св. Климент Охридски, 2004, Template:ISBN стр. 31–32. in English: Kosta Tsipushev, 19 years in Serbian prisons, Sofia University publishing house, 2004, Template:ISBN, p. 31-32. </ref> or its inclusion into a future Balkan Confederative Republic.<ref>Гоце Делчев. Писма и други материали, Дино Кьосев, Биографичен очерк, стр. 33. </ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> According to American historian Dennis P. Hupchick, he firmly opposed Macedonia's incorporation into Bulgaria.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Despite his Bulgarian loyalty, he was against any chauvinistic propaganda and nationalist disputes.<ref>Template:Cite book </ref> For militants such as Delchev and other leftists that participated in the national movement retaining a political outlook, national liberation meant "radical political liberation through shaking off the social shackles".<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> According to researcher James Horncastle, he believed that revolutionary terror was necessary to create an autonomous Macedonia.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Per Delchev, no outside force could or would help the Organization and it ought to rely only upon itself and only upon its own will and strength. He thought that any intervention by Bulgaria would provoke intervention by the neighboring states as well and could result in Macedonia and Thrace being torn apart. That is why the peoples of these two regions had to win their own freedom and independence, within the frontiers of an autonomous Macedonian-Adrianople state.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
LegacyEdit
Cold war periodEdit
In 1934 the Comintern gave its support to the idea that the Macedonian Slavs constituted a separate nation.<ref name="dawisha&parrott">Template:Cite book</ref> Prior to World War II, this view on the Macedonian issue had been of little practical importance. However, during the war these ideas were supported by the pro-Yugoslav Macedonian communist partisans, who strengthened their positions in 1943, referring to the ideals of Gotse Delchev.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> After the Red Army entered the Balkans in late 1944, new communist regimes came into power in Bulgaria and Yugoslavia. In this way their policy on the Macedonian Question was committed to the Comintern policy of supporting the development of a distinct ethnic Macedonian consciousness.<ref name="dawisha&parrott" /><ref>Template:Cite book</ref> The region of Macedonia was proclaimed as the connecting link for the establishment of a future Balkan Communist Federation. The newly established Yugoslav People's Republic of Macedonia, was characterized as the natural result of Delchev's aspirations for autonomous Macedonia.<ref name="lampe&mazower">Template:Cite book</ref>
Initially, the Macedonian communists questioned the extent of Delchev's alleged Macedonian national consciousness.<ref name="heraclides">Template:Cite book</ref> Macedonian communist leader Lazar Koliševski proclaimed him as "...one Bulgarian of no significance for the liberation struggles...".<ref>Мичев. Д. Македонският въпрос и българо-югославските отношения – 9 септември 1944–1949, Издателство: СУ Св. Кл. Охридски, 1992, стр. 91.</ref> In 1946, communist activist Vasil Ivanovski acknowledged that Delchev did not have a clear view of a "Macedonian national character", but stated that his struggle made the free and autonomous Macedonia a possibility.<ref name="heraclides" /> On 7 October 1946, under pressure from Moscow,<ref name="liotta">Template:Cite book</ref> as part of the policy to foster the development of Macedonian national consciousness, Delchev's remains were transported to Skopje.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> On 10 October, the bones were enshrined in a marble sarcophagus in the yard of the church "Sveti Spas", where they have remained since.<ref name="liotta" />
Delchev's name became part of the anthem of SR Macedonia - Today over Macedonia.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> According to Mishe Karev, a nephew of Nikola Karev, after the Tito–Stalin split in 1948, the Macedonian communist elite discussed the idea of scrapping Delchev's name from the anthem of the country and proclaiming him a Bulgarian, but this idea was declined.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Two towns were named in his honor: Delčevo in SR Macedonia in 1950 and Gotse Delchev in Bulgaria in 1951.<ref name="bechev" />
After realizing that the Balkan collective memory had already accepted the heroes of the Macedonian revolutionary movement as Bulgarians, Macedonian communist authorities exerted efforts to claim Delchev for the Macedonian national cause.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Aiming to enforce the belief that Delchev was an ethnic Macedonian, all documents written by him in standard Bulgarian were translated into standard Macedonian and presented as originals.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> As a result, Delchev was declared an ethnic Macedonian hero and Macedonian school textbooks began even to hint at Bulgarian complicity in his death.<ref name="hp" /> In the People's Republic of Bulgaria, before 1960, Delchev was given mostly regional recognition in Pirin Macedonia.<ref name="lampe&mazower" /> Afterwards, orders from the highest political level were given to reincorporate the Macedonian revolutionary movement as part of the Bulgarian historiography and to prove the Bulgarian credentials of its historical leaders. Since 1960, there have been long unproductive debates between the ruling Communist parties in Bulgaria and Yugoslavia about the ethnic affiliation of Delchev. Delchev was described in SR Macedonia not only as an anti-Ottoman freedom fighter, but also as a hero, who had opposed the aggressive aspirations of the pro-Bulgarian factions in the liberation movement.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> The claims on Delchev's Bulgarian self-identification, thus were portrayed as a recent Bulgarian chauvinist attitude of long provenance.<ref name="lampe&mazower" /><ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Nonetheless, the Bulgarian side made in 1978 for the first time the proposal that some historical personalities (e.g. Gotse Delchev) could be regarded as belonging to the shared historical heritage of the two peoples, but that proposal did not appeal to the Yugoslavs.<ref>Yugoslav — Bulgarian Relations from 1955 to 1980 by Evangelos Kofos from J. Koliopoulos and J. Hassiotis (editors), Modern and Contemporary Macedonia: History, Economy, Society, Culture, vol. 2, (Athens-Thessaloniki, 1992), pp. 277–280.</ref>
Post-communismEdit
Template:See also Delchev is regarded in Bulgaria and North Macedonia as a national hero.<ref>Template:Cite book </ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref> His ethnic identity has continued to be disputed in North Macedonia, serving as a point of contention with Bulgaria.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Some attempts were made for the joint celebration of Delchev between both countries.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Bulgarian diplomats were also attacked when honoring Delchev by Macedonian nationalists in 2012.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> On 2 August 2017, the Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borisov and his Macedonian colleague Zoran Zaev placed wreaths at the grave of Delchev on the occasion of the 114th anniversary of the Ilinden–Preobrazhenie Uprising.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Zaev expressed an interest to negotiate about Delchev.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> A joint commission on historical issues was also formed in 2018 to resolve controversial historical readings, including the dispute about Delchev's ethnic identity, which has been unresolved.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The Association of Historians in North Macedonia came out against the calls for a joint celebration of Delchev, seeing them as a threat to Macedonian national identity.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Per Macedonian historian Dragi Gjorgiev, the myth of Delchev is so significant among ethnic Macedonians that it is more important than documents, books, and pieces written by historians.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Macedonian philosopher Katerina Kolozova opined that Bulgaria should not negotiate regarding his self-identification, seeing him as important for the national myths of Bulgaria and North Macedonia.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Per anthropologist Keith Brown and political scientist Alexis Heraclides, the identity of Delchev and other IMRO figures is "open to different interpretations",<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> that are incompatible with the views of modern Balkan nationalisms.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
Per journalist Reuben H. Markham, Bulgarian Macedonians have regarded him as the greatest revolutionary leader.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> His memory has been traditionally honored by Bulgarian Macedonians.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> There are two peaks named after Delchev: Gotsev Vrah, the summit of Slavyanka Mountain, and Delchev Vrah or Delchev Peak on Livingston Island, South Shetland Islands in Antarctica, which was named after him by the scientists from the Bulgarian Antarctic Expedition. The Goce Delčev University of Štip in North Macedonia carries his name too.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Many artifacts related to Delchev's activity are stored in different museums across Bulgaria and North Macedonia. During the time of SFR Yugoslavia, a street in Belgrade was named after Delchev. In 2015, Serbian nationalists covered the signs with the street's name and affixed new ones with the name of the Chetnik activist Kosta Pećanac. They claimed that Delchev was a Bulgarian and his name has no place there.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Though in 2016 the street's name was changed officially by the municipal authorities to "Maršal Tolbuhin". Their motivation was that Delchev was not an ethnic Macedonian revolutionary, but a leader of an anti-Serbian organization with a pro-Bulgarian orientation.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> In Greece the official appeals from the Bulgarian side to the authorities to install a memorial plaque on his place of death are not answered. The memorial plaques set periodically by Bulgarians afterwards have been removed. Bulgarian tourists have been restrained occasionally from visiting the place.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
On 4 February 2023, on the 151st anniversary of the birth of the revolutionary, both the Macedonian and Bulgarian side paid their respects at the St. Spas Church in Skopje separately, while the delegation of North Macedonia declined the offer to jointly lay wreaths proposed by the Bulgarian delegation.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Many Bulgarian citizens who wanted to attend the event were held for hours at the border due to a claimed malfunction of the border system.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> However, problems with the admission of the Bulgarians continued even after the processing of their documents.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> As a result, many Bulgarian citizens and journalists were prevented from crossing.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Three citizens were detained, fined and banned from entering the country for 3 years, due to attempting to physically assault policemen.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> According to their lawyer, two of them were apparently beaten.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Bulgaria officially reacted sharply to these events.<ref>Bistra Roushkoca, Foreign Ministry: Today’s Actions of the Authorities in North Macedonia Have Seriously Damaged the Process of Restoring Trust. February 4, Bulgarian News Agency. Template:Webarchive</ref>
MemorialsEdit
- GotseDelchevMonument.jpg
Monument in Gotse Delchev, Bulgaria.
- Гоце Делчев – Благоевград – Крум Дерменджиев.JPG
Monument in Blagoevgrad, Bulgaria.
- Gotse Delchev Sofia.jpg
Bust in Sofia, Bulgaria.
- Monuments of Delcev and Gruev under Macedonian flag.JPG
Statues of Gotse Delchev and Dame Gruev on the Macedonia Square in Skopje, North Macedonia.
- The tomb of Goce Delčev in Skopje.jpg
The tomb of Gotse Delchev in the church Sv. Spas in Skopje.
- Delcevstatue-cityparkskopje.JPG
Statue of Delchev in the City Park of Skopje, given as a gift by the city of Sofia in 1946
- Monument Goce Delcev Strumica.jpg
Monument in Strumica, North Macedonia
- Школото во кое учителствувал Гоце Делчев во Штип6.jpg
Rectorate of Goce Delčev University of Štip, is located in the building of the former Bulgarian school in which Delchev was a teacher
NotesEdit
ReferencesEdit
Further readingEdit
- Пандев, К. "Устави и правилници на ВМОРО преди Илинденско-Преображенското въстание", Исторически преглед, 1969, кн. I, стр. 68–80. Template:In lang
- Пандев, К. "Устави и правилници на ВМОРО преди Илинденско-Преображенското въстание", Извeстия на Института за история, т. 21, 1970, стр. 250–257. Template:In lang
- Битоски, Крсте, сп. "Македонско Време", Скопје – март 1997, quoting: Quoting: Public Record Office – Foreign Office 78/4951 Turkey (Bulgaria), From Elliot, 1898, Устав на ТМОРО. S. 1. published in Документи за борбата на македонскиот народ за самостојност и за национална држава, Скопје, Универзитет "Кирил и Методиј": Факултет за филозофско-историски науки, 1981, pp 331 – 333. Template:In lang
- Fikret Adanir, Die Makedonische Frage: ihre entestehung und etwicklung bis 1908., Wiessbaden 1979, p. 112.
- Friedman, V. (1997) "One Grammar, Three Lexicons: Ideological Overtones and Underpinnings of the Balkan Sprachbund" in CLS 33 Papers from the 33rd Regional Meeting of the Chicago Linguistic Society. (Chicago : Chicago Linguistic Society)
- Димитър П. Евтимов, Делото на Гоце Делчев, Варна, изд. на варненското Македонско културно-просветно дружество "Гоце Делчев", 1937. Template:In lang