2 avgust-Ilinden najveci makedonski drzavni praznik

2 avgust-Ilinden najveci makedonski drzavni praznik, borba za oslobodjenje od osmanliske imperije.

Neka je danas srecan i radostan dan za sve Makedonce ma gde bili.
Molio bih da se dusmani pogotovo bugari ne javljaju na ovoj temi i da tvrde da su to bugari organizovali.
Ovo je ozbiljna tema i nema mesta glupostima.


Jedna pesma za sve Makedonce gde god da su.

Zivela Makedonija

Pa srećan, srećan svima, naročito onome kome ne znam trenutnu lokaciju, pa ne mogu da mu čestitam...al' nema veze

provedite ga veselo

Nek je vecna slava Pitu Guliju i junacima koji su dali svoje zivote za slobodu...

Srecna slava svima koji slave Sv.Iliju.

Георгиевски: Имаме заеднички историски настани со Софија

„Вие не можете некои настани и некои личности да не ги одбележите заеднички. Во таа насока јас ќе ве потсетам дека и ние таков чин со господинот Костов направивме кога заедно положивме цвеќе на Св. Кирил и Методиј во Рим, а исто така ќе ве потсетам дека господинот Бучковски, исто даде, како спротивна политичка партија, даде изјава, кога беше премиер, дека е добро Илинденско-Преображенското востание да се слави заеднички, што јас во тоа време го поздравив."

http://www.a1.com.mk/vesti/default.aspx?VestID=120859



The so called Ilinden-Preobrazhenie Uprising was organized by the Bulgarian revolutionary movement in Macedonia and Thrace. This is Letter No. 534 from the General Staff of the Second Macedonian-Adrianople Revolutionary Region (Boris Sarafov, Dame Gruev and Anastas Lozanchev) to the Bulgarian Government on the position of the insurgent Bulgarian population, requestioning assistance from Bulgaria:


September 9th, 1903

To the Esteemed Government of the Principality of Bulgaria

In view of the critical and terrible situation of the Bulgarian population of the Bitolya 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 con sequences 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.

In the belief that the Esteemed Government is sufficiently well informed about the utter devastation of the vilayet, we consider it superfluous to repeat the facts in all their details here, and will confine ourselves to summing up the situation and the foreseeable consequences threatening our people in several points:

1. Both in the villages that have been burnt down or abandoned, and in the remaining Bulgarian villages, with very few exceptions, that part of the crop which was not burnt remains unharvested because any woman or man who appeared before the eyes of the patrolling troops and bashibazouks would be murdered; the crops are being gathered in by the Turkish population under the protection of the Turkish authorities. A large part of them, as well as of the plundered farm animals, are being used as provisions for the troops.

2. All equipment, implements and cattle used to till the land were destroyed by fire in the villages that were burnt down, while in the remaining villages, they were plundered by the troops and bashibazouks.

3. Almost all the small farm animals, which provide the means of livelihood for the greater part of the mountain population, were either destroyed or taken away, on orders from the authorities.

4. All burnt-down villages were pillaged before they were set on fire; the same fate befell literally all villages that have not yet been burnt; their houses were stripped to the walls, and their inhabitants - men, women and children, were forced to flee with only the clothes which they had on their backs.

5. In the burnt-down villages, religious rites were abandoned and the churches reduced to ashes, and in those villages which have escaped burning, the churches have been sacked, damaged and desecrated. In many places, the Turks used them as stables or latrines during their stay in the villages, e.g. in the villages of Tat-Mourounishta, Smilevo, Kriveni, Kroushe and others.

6. Not a single Bulgarian school is now open, or is likely to open, for the following reasons: a) the population has been scattered in consequence of the Turkish terror; b) almost all the teachers, as well as the priests, have joined the detachments, and will consequently not be considered eligible by the Turkish authorities for the posts they used to hold; c) no one gives a thought to learning when he is outlawed in the country where he lives, simply because he calls himself Bulgarian and fights against hunger.

7. At many places the Turkish authorities have announced to the popula tion which had not fled, that, if it wishes to be spared, it should accept the jurisdiction of the Patriarchate. There were cases of this kind in the regions of Ohrid, Bitolya, Lerin and Kostour, where the troops, accompanied by the Greek bishop, forced the population to surrender their arms and to recognize the Patriarchate.

8. After our first offensive, we were forced to adopt a passive course of ac tion, because, whenever we engaged in encounters with the mobilized Turkish battalions, either in skirmishes or from positions previously taken, depending on our tactics, the Turks after the end of fighting, would attack the unarmed men in the locality, and the women and children, killing all they could lay hands on, violating women and girls, setting fire to the villages that had not yet been burnt and to the woods around them, and taking away the farm animals that had been spared in earlier raids. There were cases of this kind in the villages of Armensko (Lerin district), where 114 old people, women and children were-massacred, Kroushe, Leoreka, Kriveni, Zlatari, Boino, Podmochani, Elha and others (Resen district), Plake, Rechitsa, Siroulya, Kouratitsa and others (Ohrid district); Smilevo, Dyavato (Bitolya district), etc., etc.

In view of the above, we call the attention of the Esteemed Bulgarian Government to the state of distress and helplessness to which our people have been reduced and to the sad and cruel fate threatening them in the immediate future, both as regards their property and health, and as regards their churches and schools. Being witnesses of this desperate plight, we venture to outline to you, in positive terms, the dark prospects of the future, as follows:

1. As a result of hunger, poverty and the approaching winter, one-third of our people is doomed to certain death.

2. As the farm animals and agricultural implements have fallen prey to fire or the Turks, the population, even if it is left in peace, having no means with which to till the land, will be compelled to give it up to the Turks and the fanatic supporters of the Greeks, and will thus entirely be reduced to the position of share-croppers or hired labourers.

3. The remaining part of the population, spiritually deprived and lacking the bare necessities of life, will be unable to resist the desire of the Turkish authorities and the tempting or threatening agitation of the unbridled Greek bishops and their organs, and is certain to accept the authority of the Greek Patriarchate, thereby being lost forever to the Bulgarian church and nation.

4. A further circumstance that we should not omit to mention is the following: For some time, now Catholic and Protestant missionaries have been approaching the Bulgarian population with secret proposals to accept the authority of their churches, if they wish to be protected from Turkish outrages. It will not be surprising if that part of the population that did not succumb to the Greek enticements might be prevailed upon to adopt Roman Catholicism or Protestantism.

In view of all this we are astonished that the Esteemed Government, which has the destinies of the Bulgarian people in its hands, can continue to look with such composure upon the systematic extermination of the Bulgarian population and the decline of our Bulgarian fame and honour before the world.

Placed at the head of the people's movement here, we appeal to you on behalf of the enslaved Bulgarians, to come to their assistance in the most effec tive way, i.e. by declaring war. We are confident that this call will be echoed by the people in Free Bulgaria.

Awaiting your patriotic intervention, we are pleased to inform you that we are keeping in readiness those of our armed forces which we have so far spared.

From the General Staff


ЦДНА, ф.176, оп 1, а.е. 1872, (л.л.. 243-244); the original is in Bulgarian.

First page of the letter:



Source: http://www.promacedonia.org/en/ban/ls3.html#92

The same text in contemporary Macedonian translation: http://www.angelfire.com/super2/vmro-istorija/Dokument/pismogssep.html

H. N. Brailsford

MACEDONIA: ITS RACES AND THEIR FUTURE

Methuen & Co., London, 1906

V. The Bulgarian movement


11. The General Rising of 1903 in Monastir

The moment for which the Bulgarian population had been preparing for ten years arrived on the festival of the Prophet Elias — the evening of Sunday, August the 2nd, 1903. The Turks and even the Europeans in Macedonia were taken by surprise. No one believed that a peasantry; to all appearance so crushed and brutalised, was really capable of a serious military demonstration on a scale which entitles it to the name of a general rising. It is true, there were rumours of what was coming. The peasants, when one talked of the future, would shake their heads and say wisely, "After the harvest you will see." But Macedonia is so used to threats and rumours that no one was seriously alarmed. Moreover, the relative calm which reigned throughout June and July had deceived the Turks, as it was intended to do. They still had some thought of making war on Bulgaria, and they were still concerned about the possibility of a fresh Albanian movement, and the result was that the greater part of their formidable army was grouped in the northern districts. In Monastir they had no more than fifteen thousand men, and these were scattered along the railway and throughout the interior. The chief command, moreover, belonged to Omer Ruchdi Pasha, an elderly and old-fashioned soldier, whose vacilla-

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tion and incapacity still further aggravated the consequences of the surprise which the Committee had organised.

The signal was given by the burning of some haystacks just outside the town of Monastir. The revolt was proclaimed, and the banners blessed in the village churches, and before the short summer night was over the beacons had raised the whole of the highlands which stretch westward to Ochrida, northward to Dibra, and southwards to Castoria and Klissoura. The plan of campaign had been carefully thought out in advance. For years the country had been divided into military zones, each with its permanent cadre of seasoned guerillas, and each with its recognised chief. When the signal was given the young men of the villages who formed the standing reserve of the peasant army dug up their buried rifles, assumed their cartridge-belts, and set off with their cloaks and provisions to the appointed rallying-place. Their first duties were simple. Everywhere they cut the telegraph lines — a measure which in itself paralysed the bureaucratic machine, and made of the Turkish officials, accustomed as they are to regard themselves as the hands and eyes of some distant superior at the end of a wire, mere agitated units. Next came the wrecking of the bridges and culverts along all the main roads — an easy task in a country where everything is in decay. At the same time the isolated inns which serve as military posts along the trunk roads were ruthlessly burned. The railway line between Monastir and Salonica was also cut, but not so completely or so often as it ought to have been. The first Turkish reinforcements, it is true, had to march over the mountains from Uskub to Monastir, but in a very few days the railway was working steadily once more. Finally, each band employed itself on the congenial task of burning the keeps and towers of the Albanian beys — fortresses built by forced labour, and nests of robbery and oppression — and sometimes, it must be added, in murdering their owners. Some isolated Turkish posts were also rushed and destroyed, and some convoys captured on the roads. In all these destructive activities the bands hurrying to


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group themselves around the Macedonian flag were practically unmolested and unopposed.

In all, the active ranks of the insurgent army in the Monastir Province mustered as nearly as I can estimate some five thousand men. It was no doubt a small force with which to oppose the large army of eighty thousand men which the Turks were soon able to assemble. It had no cavalry and no artillery — save two or three primitive pieces hollowed out of cherry-trees, according to the traditional plan followed in all Balkan risings. I should doubt if more than one man in four among the insurgents had ever been under fire before, or had practised marksmanship, although most of them had probably received some sort of drill. But they trusted each other and their leaders. They knew the mountain paths, and could march by night as well as day — a thing which no Turkish regiment will ever do. Their officers included not a few really capable guerilla chiefs. The headquarters were at first in the large village of Smilovo, half a day's journey from Monastir — one of those prosperous communities of migratory masons and carpenters which were the backbone of the insurrection. Here was gathered the general staff — Damian Groueff, Lozáncheff, and Boris Saráfoff. Saráfoff became the De Wet of the campaign, moving lightly about, accompanied by a picked band, and rallying the local levies, now in Florina and again in Ochrida, for some exceptional effort. Lozáncheff contrived by some unhappy chance to discredit himself in the eyes of his men. Groueff remained in command of the whole movement, and kept in touch with Monastir, where the consuls were regularly furnished with bulletins and reports, neatly manifolded and drafted in very tolerable French. Next in prestige was, I think, the southern detachment which worked in the Castoria-Klissoura region under the command of Tchakalároff of Smerdesh, a cruel but magnetic man, whose handsome presence and proverbial luck inspired his followers with complete confidence. The Resna contingent was commanded by a capable chief named Arsof, and the northern bands around Kruchevo were under a Vlach

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named Pitou Goulé, who was killed in the second week of the rising. The Ochrida, Kitchevo, and Florina contingents worked as a rule in smaller detachments and had no very conspicuous generals. [1] The population of the villages which gave themselves over unreservedly to the movement is about sixty thousand, but reinforcements came from some other villages as well. About one in six of the male population were under arms, which is certainly a considerable figure. The Committee could, no doubt, have put other reserves in the field if it had had a larger supply of good rifles. The favourite weapon was the Gras, a cheap, heavy, inaccurate, and altogether inferior rifle, with a single breech-loading action; but many bands wisely preferred the Martini, and some few had magazine rifles. The bands were certainly mobile when one compares them with the Turkish columns, but their action was confined to their own districts unless, indeed, they were driven from one region to another — a fate which ultimately befell both Groueff and Tchakalároff. On the whole, when one considers how small the area affected really is, this was a somewhat primitive plan. From the extreme west (Ochrida) of the rebellious region to the extreme east (Sorovitch) is not further than a good horseman, well mounted, can ride in two long summer days. From Castoria in the south to Kruchevo in the north is no further. But there were doubtless sound reasons for adopting the plan of isolated and local action. If the whole force had come together to achieve some large enterprise they would have had to abandon their plages and their families to the unchecked fury of the bashi-bazouks. Moreover, the country, though the distances are not great, is exceedingly mountainous, so that rapid marching was out of the question.

The first three weeks of the insurrection were a period of almost unchecked triumph. The Turks seemed incapable

1. The number of the several contingents were, roughly, as follows: Smilovo and Gjavata, about 650; Kruchevo, 400; Demir-Hissar, 420; Resna, 450; Presba, 300; Florina, 450; Castoria, 700; Ochrida, 880; Kitchevo, 350; Monastir Plain, 250. In all about 4,800. But I give these figures under reserve. I have seen no official lists.

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of thinking out a plan of campaign, and, save in the three towns of Monastir, Ochrida, and Castoria, the insurgents were almost everywhere supreme. They took the three country towns of Kruchevo, Klissoura, and Neveska — all of them Vlach centres perched in the most inaccessible positions upon the mountain-side. The Turkish garrisons either fled or succumbed with hardly a show of resistance. Demonstrations were also made against the towns of Resna and Kitchevo, but here the attack was never pressed home. In the three captured positions provisional governments were installed, the insurgents danced with the girls of the place in the town squares, and from the churches, bells (which the Christians rarely dare to ring) summoned the townsmen to hear glowing orations upon the duty of rebellion and the glorious prospect of freedom. These three weeks must have been the happiest interval which Macedonia has known since the coming of the Turks. The men flung away their fezes — badges of servitude — and walked erect without fear of a beating or a bastinado. It is to their credit that, instead of enjoying their brief triumph at the expense of their Greek rivals, they bore themselves tolerantly and abstained from violence — save that they levied money contributions from the captured towns. They acted indeed in the spirit of the proclamation which announced the outbreak of the insurrection — a document which shows that humane ideals do penetrate even into the Balkans, however hard the local conditions make it to observe them: —

"We are taking up arms against tyranny and barbarism: we are acting in the name of liberty and humanity; our work is above all prejudices of nationality or race. We ought therefore to treat as brothers all who suffer in the sombre Empire of the Sultan. To-day all the Christian populations are wretched, nor must we except even the Turkish peasants. We regard the Turkish Government as our sole enemy, and all who declare themselves against us whether as open foes or as spies, and all too who attack old men, women, and defenceless children instead of attacking us. It is against them that we direct our blows and from them we shall exact vengeance."
A sensible attempt was sometimes made to secure the neutrality of Mohamedan villages, and occasionally with

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success, as the following quaint document addressed by the notables of a Turkish village to the insurgent headquarters in Kruchevo proves:—

"We understand by the tenor of your letters that you are not evil men, that you have not left your hearths in order to attack the peaceful population (like ours), and that you are opposed only to the evildoers and to the Government which protects them. But those whom you seek are not to be found among us. They have fled to the towns. As for ourselves we promise to remain quiet. If your intention is to kill the innocent you have only to come here. May God help those whose quest is justice ! We have sent on your other letters to the neighbouring villages, which are also of our way of thinking."
For a brief period everything promised concord [2] and success. Indeed, the insurgents had to all appearances triumphed so easily that they gave themselves over to rejoicings and neglected to push their advantage by uniting their forces against the Turkish garrisons in such centres as Resna, Ochrida, Kitchevo, Castoria, and Sorovitch. Ochrida and Castoria could have been taken only at great cost, but the other places were by no means impregnable. It would be a mistake to consider this temporary triumph as a real military success, but it was and is of enormous moral importance. It was a brief hour of happiness in the long winter of misery, and the memory of it is still a stimulus, at least to the younger men.
2. It is proper in an impartial narrative to record the instances in which the insurgents were untrue to their ideal, (1) On the first day of the insurrection a detachment under Tchakalároff met a party of unarmed Moslems from the village Djerveni on the road to Castoria, and massacred twenty-four men and four boys in cold blood; four boys were spared. The village was afterwards besieged and burned. (2) Tchakalároff when driven from Klissoura made a raid with six hundred men into the Colonia district, which is purely Albanian. He burned six little hamlets — thirty houses in all. (3) Three Turkish villages were burned by way of reprisal in the Presba region. (4) The families of the Turkish officials in Kruchevo were well cared for and fed by the insurgents, while the town was in their hands, but during the attack two Turkish women were killed — possibly by accident. This was an isolated occurrence, and I believe the only occasion on which the insurgents were guilty of any wrong towards women. On the whole it is remarkable that so little barbarity was practised on the Christian side. The Committee behaved much better during the insurrection than either before or since. When it had the power to do incalculable ill it displayed self-control and moderation.


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The first sign of energy which the Turks displayed was the dispatch of a force of about three thousand men under Baktiar Pasha to retake Kruchevo. They had eighteen guns with them, and outnumbered the insurgents by ten to one. There was some skirmishing, but on the 12th of August, ten days after the capture of the place, the Bulgarians made some sort of composition with the Turks, probably paying a ransom to the Pasha, in return for which the Bulgarian quarter of the town was spared. The troops and the bashi-bazouks compensated themselves by falling mercilessly upon the Vlach quarter, inhabited by a wealthy community with Greek sympathies. In four days 366 houses and 203 shops were burned, at least 44 men and women, all non-combatants, were murdered in the streets (of whom only three were Bulgarians); some women were violated. The pillage, both of shops and houses was complete and systematic, and hundreds of the citizens were beaten and maltreated. The Bulgarians showed little bravery in this affair, and their conduct in abandoning the Vlach quarter to be pillaged was grossly unchivalrous. The Turks acted after their kind. They knew the Greeks too well to fear that even this massacre of a Philhellenic population would affect the pro-Turkish policy of the Greeks. Neveska and Klissoura were evacuated by the Bulgarians without a struggle — let us hope from a scruple about exposing the inhabitants to a vengeance similar to that which had overtaken Kruchevo.

About August 25th Nasir Pasha, who had now taken over the command from the feeble hands of Omar Ruchdi Pasha, began to apply a systematic plan of campaign. He is a semi-civilised person who speaks German, and has been much employed by the Sultan on special embassies of courtesy in various European capitals. He was fond of explaining that he modelled his "methods of barbarism" on those which we employed in the Transvaal. His plan was to burn all the villages of the revolted Bulgarians, and gradually to drive them into corners. He certainly had men enough to execute this scheme, and the country in which he had to operate was not really extensive, though very difficult. But there was always some gap in his cordons, some


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hitch in the time-table of co-operation, or else the regiments which should have been pursuing the insurgents found it more agreeable and interesting to pillage the defenceless villages and make war on the women and children. The Turks did so far succeed in certain zones that the bands were forced to concentrate, but they always managed to break through to some less harassed region. From August the 25th onwards the insurgents were acting purely on the defensive. They maintained their ground fairly well until the middle of September, skirmishing incessantly, marching and counter-marching, usually evading the Turks with success, but occasionally brought to a general engagement. After September the fighting was very desultory, and on November the 2nd the insurrection was officially declared at an end. In all, the Committee claims that about 150 skirmishes were fought, and in these they mustered anything from 20 to 600 men. Usually the bands operated in groups of from 80 to 200 fighting-men. The total casualties of the insurgent fighting-line in killed and wounded reached 746, which amounts to about 15 percent — a proportion which suggests resolute but not exactly desperate fighting. In most of these encounters the insurgents must have been outnumbered by at least ten to one, and if the Turks had been even respectable marksmen they would have lost very much more severely. They rarely if ever came to close quarters or used the bayonet. The whole campaign was a game of hide-and-seek in which small forces behind rocks and trenches exchanged shots with big battalions in the open. The bands which kept the field until the end of October achieved all the success which they could reasonably have hoped for. The climate would hardly have permitted a much more extended resistance. A sort of informal armistice permitted the bands to dissolve, and not more than a third of the armed men were compelled to surrender their rifles. Only very small groups, composed of the more desperate outlaws, remained under arms during the winter, refraining from aggression, satisfied if they could escape capture and keep the framework and the spirit of the organisation alive.


Online publication: http://www.promacedonia.org/en/hb/hb_5_11.html

12. The General Rising of 1903 in Thrace

To complete this brief account [1] of the military aspects of the insurrection, it is necessary to refer to the sympathetic revolts which occurred elsewhere. There was nothing approaching a general rising in the Uskub and Salonica Vilayets, but there was an active guerilla movement, particularly in the Struma valley, which attained its end of distracting the attention of the Turks and preventing them from throwing their entire army into the Monastir Vilayet. There were also several attempts upon the railways outside the Monastir Province, but these were hardly frequent or serious enough to be important. The chief effort outside Monastir was made in the Vilayet of Adrianople. Adrianople (Thrace) is one of the least known regions of Turkey. The great part of it is a rich plain inhabited by Bulgarians and Turks, with Greek settlements in the towns and along the coast. But of the Bulgarians of the plain a large proportion are Moslems (Pomacks). It is this greater prominence of the Mohamedan element which, in a political sense, distinguishes Thrace with its great plain, its rich rose-gardens and its tobacco fields from Macedonia — and Thrace begins virtually at Drama. The Christian Slavs of Thrace reproduce, I imagine, [2] the condition of the plain dwellers of Macedonia, who are too poor and too utterly crushed beneath the dominion of their Mohamedan neighbours to be capable of the military hardihood required for an open revolt in a country where there are no mountains of refuge. There is, however, a highland region to the north-east, forming a triangular wedge between the frontiers of free Bulgaria and the Black Sea shore, and here the peasantry is by majority Christian, and has been able to preserve its manhood. In this country around the little towns of Malko-Tirnovo and Kirk-kilissé the Committee has long been a power. This region suffered as heavily as Macedonia

1. The curious reader may consult the Memorandum of the Internal Organisation to which I have already referred. Even as adventure the stories which I heard from insurgent officers were seldom very interesting, turning as they did only on continual pursuits and escapes.

2. I have never travelled farther east than Doiran except by railway, and can only write at second hand of the political conditions which prevail in Thrace.


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during the persecution of 1903; its situation had in fact become so intolerable, mainly owing to the unchecked oppressions of the bashi-bazouks, that no less than 20,000 peasants — men, women and children — abandoned their homes and their crops during the months of May and June, on the eve of the harvest season, finding a refuge in free Bulgaria. In Thrace, indeed, one finds the Turkish system of government in all its native crudity. There are few consuls even in the town of Adrianople, and for some of amazing reason of political selfishness Russia and Austria have always refused to permit any extension of the Macedonian reforms to this derelict and forgotten region. Among these refugees the Committee naturally found the material for bands, and two weeks after the proclamation of the revolt in Monastir the flag, with its device of "Liberty or Death," was unfurled in the Adrianople Vilayet as well (August 18th). The insurrection followed much the same course upon a smaller scale. Roads, bridges, and telegraph-lines were destroyed, isolated garrisons were overpowered, the bashi-bazouks driven into flight or a show of meekness, and for two or three weeks the whole of this highland region was in the hands of the insurgents. They showed little enterprise, however, and no attempt was made to capture the town of Malko-Tirnovo. The Greeks of the coast were thrown into a panic, and imagined that the Bulgarians intended to massacre them. The insurgents numbered, so far as I can ascertain, some 1,200 men, and had only 46 men killed and wounded. A relatively enormous Turkish force was ultimately drafted into the Vilayet (it is said 40,000 men), rather with the object of menacing Bulgaria than of crushing a rebellion so inconsiderable. This movement had no military interest, but for a moment there seemed a bare chance of an exciting complication. On August the 3rd the Russian Consul of Monastir, M. Rostkovsky, an enterprising but violent man, who could never remember that an Albanian Moslem has a fiercer sense of personal honour than a Russian peasant, struck a gendarme who had omitted to salute him, and was murdered on the spot. This was the second fatality within


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four months among the Russian Consular Staff in Macedonia (the first affair being the assassination of M. Sterbina at Mitrovitza), and obviously it could not be passed over lightly. No one thought of demanding the punishment of the ruffians who were responsible for the massacres at Smerdesh and Monastir, but, as a Macedonian once remarked to me, "European blood is dear." Russia called for the dismissal of the Vali, the hanging of the murderer, and the punishment of several other scapegoats. To give more weight to her claims, the Black Sea fleet was put in motion and appeared in Iniada Bay off the Thracian coast, at the moment when the insurrection was at its height. The rebels were naïve enough to imagine that this coincidence had some bearings upon their own sufferings and their own hopes, and somehow failed to understand the sublime mental detachment of a Tsar who was capable at this supreme moment in the history of his kinsmen, the Southern Slavs, of sending his fleet to their shores with no other object than to mark his displeasure at the death of one of his consuls in a private and rather sordid brawl. But so it was. [3] The fleet lay at anchor, watched the flames of burning villages and beacon fires unmoved, and when a wretched gendarme had been hanged in Monastir sailed quietly home. Soon after its departure began the phase of massacre and devastation, but that development had no interest for the masters of the world's navies.

3. The first Secretary of the Russian Embassy came this morning to inform me that the Russian fleet would proceed to Iniada, but that its entry into Turkish waters was only intended to accentuate the gravity with which his Government regard the murder of the Russian Consul, and was not otherwise connected with the situation of affairs in Macedonia" (Blue-Book, Cd. 1875, p. 273).


Online publication: http://www.promacedonia.org/en/hb/hb_5_12.html

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towards the town, were massacred without distinction of age or sex. The younger women fared the worst, for, when the troops could catch them, they were often carried off to the Turkish camps and there kept for some days until the last brute who desired them had had his will. Many were shot while they sheltered behind the insurgents during the latter skirmishes of September and October, and sometimes the same bullet wounded a mother and her baby. [3] It was the impossibility of feeding and protecting the refugees which compelled the leaders to proclaim the insurrection at an end with the close of October; for the weather was still relatively mild (indeed, to us who came direct from England it seemed warm), though to be sure the mountains were already snow-clad, even on their lower-heights. The Turks had made war upon the women and children, and the men dared not prolong the unequal conflict with starvation. By the first week of November the population of the revolted districts had once more settled down, part of it on the sites of the ruined villages, part of it among friendly neighbours who had saved their roofs. Long before November the towns were crowded with helpless masses of starving women, who begged their bread from door to door, clamoured about the portals of the Bishops' palaces, and slept in the abandoned and ruined houses which abound in every Macedonian town.

It was at this stage that we first saw the condition of the returning villagers with our own eyes. Those who had found a roof beneath which to shelter in some friendly village were in an enviable case. They had lost everything indeed — crops, home, cattle, and household gear. They lived on the charity of neighbours, who as often as not had themselves been robbed. They owned nothing but the tattered summer garments in which they had fled three months before. They had neither blankets nor

3. One case of this kind we treated in our Ochrida hospital. It is fair to cite the contrary instances. One woman who had been shot by accident in the general fusillade when the troops rushed her village was kindly treated by the Turks, who gave her bread and water. I once saw a Turkish officer (after the insurrection) give his coat and gloves to a wounded Bulgarian woman. But such chivalry was rare.

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winter cloaks. At least there was still a thatch between them and the rain. But the majority were camped among their ruins, busied during the last warm days of the autumn in clearing away the rubble from some corner of their homes and erecting some sort of "lean-to" of wood and straw against a crumbling wall. Nothing but a photograph could convey an idea of the devastation. The villages were mere heaps of charred wood and blackened stone, buried beneath a red dust, which the rain converted into mud. A few walls still stood upright, the only hope for the winter. Where the churches had not been burned they were riddled with bullets, blackened with bivouac fires, pillaged, dishonoured, and defiled with the ordure of a camp. The wells were sometimes buried under the débris of fallen houses, and in one case at least poisoned with the carcases of beasts. The mills, like the houses, had been burned, their dams broken down, the machinery destroyed, and even their stones in some cases shivered into fragments. Of the horses and oxen which the peasants owned, even after the authorities had professed to recover the loot, not one in four remained. Of the sheep and other small beasts and the poultry I doubt if one in ten was left. Even the ploughs were burned or stolen. It was rarely, too, that a family recovered the clothing and utensils which it buried before its flight — the bashi-bazouks had the knack of finding spoil. Of the harvest most villages saved sufficient for four or six weeks, while a few in the upland places where the ripe crops had been left ungarnered had enough for three months at most. But more harrowing than the material ruin was the moral desolation. Women would stand on a frosty day, their breasts bare, their feet naked upon the icy ground, oblivious of cold and hunger, sobbing out some tale of how they had seen the dear head of son or husband beaten in before their eyes by soldier or bashi-bazouk. Not less to be pitied were the young men who had laid down their arms and returned to find neither wife nor home. I think of one whose case seemed to me a full world of commonplace miseries. He was a mason who worked in Constantinople to keep a family in a village near.

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Resna. He was driven out of the capital, with all his countrymen, early in the spring, and returned home with an empty money-belt. Three months of idleness followed, and, when the lot fell upon him, he went out with the village band. His wife was struck by a soldier, and died in premature child-birth. The father cared for the baby as best he could, but he could find no work, and he came to us begging that we would provide milk to save the life of the ailing child. The quick horror of painful deaths seemed less moving than this succession of everyday troubles, each due to some political catastrophe or some national hate. Nor was the misery at an end when the insurrection ceased. Hundreds of men were in gaol or in exile in some distant Armenian town, and, as the months went by, the ill-spelt missives, without date or signature, began to arrive, which told how one village leader after another had died of typhus on the way to Diarbekir. There were other troubles too, more secret and more horrible, which would come to our ears through some kindly doctor who used his skill, where the Turks would allow it, among the village folk. Two young girls, for example, in a single village, who had passed some days and nights of shame in a Turkish camp, at last gave way to madness as they realised that they must become mothers. And all the while amid the degradation and the suffering, the sickness, and the fear of famine, there weighed upon this defeated people the sense that all its sacrifice had been in vain. The Turks had triumphed; Europe was still heedless and unconcerned; Macedonia was still enslaved ; and we, who were doling out our blankets and our flour among them, were only keeping them alive to endure fresh oppressions and further shame. [4]


4. The statistics of the devastation can have little meaning to those who did not see it, but they deserve none the less to be cited. One hundred and nineteen villages in the Monastir Province were wholly or partially burned. Eight thousand four hundred houses were destroyed. Between fifty and sixty thousand persons were rendered homeless. The number of murdered non-combatants can hardly have been less than fifteen hundred. For these figures I can vouch. I add the totals for the whole of Macedonia and Adrianople, which the Bulgarians collected. I cannot verify them, but probably they are not much exaggerated — indeed, the figures for Monastir published in Sofia were sometimes less than those which I collected while making out relief lists in the villages. The total number of houses burned is given as 12,211; of homeless persons about 70,000; of refugees driven from Macedonia and Adrianople into Bulgaria, 30,000; of violations, 3,098; and of women and girls taken captive, 176; of persons imprisoned, 1,500.


Online publication: http://www.promacedonia.org/en/hb/hb_5_13.html

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sense of personal honour, as the Albanians have — for that a race must have carried arms and known no master. They neither love truth for its own sake nor scorn a meanness from self-respect. But some fellow-feeling, some sense of brotherhood, keeps them true. There are few secrets in the intimate common life of the village. Every one knows who is the Committee's agent, who harbours the wandering outlaws, who has a store of dynamite or of rifles buried in his yard. Most amazing of all is the ease with which the leaders of the revolution can travel unscathed from end to end of Macedonia. The villager who has grasped Saráfoff s hand will tell afterwards of his great experience, as a Scottish clansman might have boasted that he had seen Prince Charlie. All through the winter that followed the insurrection, Damian Groueff, the President of the Supreme Macedonian Committee, the real chief of the movement, and the organiser of the campaign, hibernated in a village not many miles from Monastir. The secret must have been the common property of thousands, and not one of them seems to have thought of selling it. In the spring M. Groueff actually entered Monastir itself, lodged in a Bulgarian house, and moved freely about in streets that swarm with soldiers, police, and spies. His presence was generally known to the Bulgarians of the place; but, despite the fact that a price had been placed on his head, not a man among them was found to prefer riches to loyalty. Nor was this an isolated occurrence. The insurgent chiefs constantly venture not only into Monastir but even into Salonica, yet no single instance of treason has ever been known to occur. When one compares this uniform immunity from treason with the history of Irish conspiracies, from the days of Wolfe Tone to the Phoenix Park murders, one is forced to admit that somewhere beneath the awkward reserve of the Bulgarian character there lies a fund of loyalty and steadfast faith more reliable than any picturesque or feudal chivalry.

I confess that I have sometimes wavered in my judgment of the Macedonian Committee. Fresh from Europe, and plunged suddenly into a world where men fight savagely


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for ideals which, to us who have achieved them, seem reverend and sacred, it is hard to believe that freedom can be won by methods which include so much of terrorism and assassination. Amid all the horrors of an insurrection that has failed, one asks whether these abstract political conceptions of self-government and nationality are worth the tears of a widow or the shame of a maid. But as the months go by one understands that these simple things of daily life, the right to plough in peace and reap in security, to marry without dishonour and rear children who need not cringe, can only be attained by a sweeping political change. Returned to Europe, it seems no less clear among the comfort and ignorance of a nation busied with the affairs of half the earth, that the wretched corner of Europe which agonises forgotten beyond the Balkans can only hope to rouse us to our duties by the violent means of open revolt, which in fact it has adopted. If one shrinks from the despotism which the Committee exerts, this also is true, that the people themselves control it, and the people themselves submit to a sacrifice which is necessary if they are to achieve their end by conspiracy and rebellion. In making a temporary sacrifice of their liberty they are giving up what they do not possess — and giving it up in the hope of winning it. Lastly, if the recklessness with which the Committee destroys life and risks it seems shocking, let us remember that life has no worth or price in Macedonia. We in Europe talk of life as though it had an absolute value. In fact its value is relative to the degree of security which a given society affords. It would be interesting to inquire what premium an English insurance company would ask upon the life of the average Macedonian villager.

The Bulgarians of Macedonia are to be judged not by the standard of morality and civilisation which in fact they have attained, but by their courage and their determination in striving for better things. The history of their ten years' struggle is their title to our sympathy. If they lack some of the dignified and gracious virtues which their Albanian neighbours possess, let us remember that the


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honour of the Albanian stands rooted in unfaithfulness. He renounced his religion, and received as his reward the right to bear himself erect, to carry weapons and to hector it, an overman amid a race of serfs. The Bulgarian held to the faith which the centuries had bequeathed to him, bowed himself to his daily task and his habitual sufferings, learned to lie before men that he might be true to God, and acquired the vices of a slave that he might keep the virtues of a martyr.




Online publication: http://www.promacedonia.org/en/hb/hb_5_14.html

Srećan praznik
Ako se ne varam Tatari prisvajaju Goce Delčeva?

Mjöllnir:

Srećan praznik
Ako se ne varam Tatari prisvajaju Goce Delčeva?

Kliknite za proširenje...

Още един расистки провокатор.

Yet another racist provocateur.

Crni Bugarin:

Още един расистки провокатор.

Yet another racist provocateur.

Kliknite za proširenje...

You wish to say that Bolgars aren't of Tatars(Turkish) descent who eventually became slavinized

Mjöllnir:

You wish to say that Bolgars aren't of Tatars(Turkish) descent who eventually became slavinized

Kliknite za proširenje...

When a Serbian hater has nothing to say against Bulgarians, he begins with these racist off-topics and slurs.

Оно што сам ја обавештен је да су бугарски агенти подметнули тај устанак да би изгинули Срби ради бугаризације Македоније.

Ненад:

Оно што сам ја обавештен је да су бугарски агенти подметнули тај устанак да би изгинули Срби ради бугаризације Македоније.

Kliknite za proširenje...

In the area of insurgent activity during 1903 in the Second Macedonian-Adrianople Revolutionary District (Bitola, Ohrid, Resen, Kostur, Lerin, Kichevo, Krushevo) and the Third Macedonian-Adrianople Revolutionary District (Ser, Drama, Nevrokop/Gotse Delchev, Razlog, Melnik) there were neither significant Serbian ethnic presence, nor Serbian guerrilla structures.

Srpski četnici na početku dvadesetog veka (1)

Makedonsko pitanje

I Srbija i Bugarska i Grčka htele su da gospodare jugom Balkana

Sultanovim fermanom, od 21. marta 1870. godine (svi datumi dati su po novom kalendaru), ustanovljena je Bugarska egzarhija na evropskim teritorijama Otomanske imperije. Termin "egzarhija" označava davanje verske samostalnosti jednom narodu unutar jedne patrijaršije, u ovom slučaju Carigradske, što je u uslovima teokratske Turske značilo priznanje prava Bugarima na punu versku i prosvetnu samostalnost.

Egzarhat je omogućio Bugarima da otpočnu široku akciju na pobugarivanju srpskog življa. Ova akcija je u početku bila prikrivena, zaogrnuta plaštom slovenstva, ali je vremenom iskazivala sve jasnije velikobugarski šovinizam. Njeni početni uspesi zasnivali su se na omraženosti patrijaršijskog (grčkog) sveštenstva među slovenskim življem, tako da je broj egzarhista ubrzo prevazišao broj patrijaršista (pripadnika Carigradske patrijaršije).

Rad Egzarhije bio je najpre usmeren na preotimanje patrijaršijskih crkava i proterivanje njihovih sveštenika, a zatim i na sve one koji su se opirali bugarizaciji. Na njenom udaru ubrzo su se našli srpski sveštenici, učitelji i narodni prvaci.

Berlinski kongres

Ratovi od 1876. do 1878. koje su protiv Turske pobedonosno vodile Rusija, Crna Gora i Srbija, okončani su San-Stefanskim mirom 3. marta 1878. godine. Odredbama ovog mira, rađenog po diktatu Rusije, predviđeno je teritorijalno proširenje za Crnu Goru, izvesne ispravke granica za Srbiju i stvaranje Velike Bugarske, koja bi osim Albanije, obuhvatila gotovo čitavu teritoriju Evropske Turske.

Odredbama Berlinskog kongresa (13.6. - 13.7.1878) poništene su odluke San-Stefanskog mira. Srbija, Crna Gora i Rumunija su stekle nezavisnost, a Bugarska status autonomne vezalne kneževine pod sizerenstvom sultana. Bugarska je stekla pravo da ima hrišćansku vladu i narodnu vojsku i određene su joj znatno uže granice u odnosu na San-Stefanski mir. Crna Gora je dobila gradove: Nikšić, Spuž, Podgoricu, Žabljak, Bar, Plav i Gusinje. Srbija je proširena niškim, pirotskim, topličkim i vranjskim okrugom.

Još 1878. godine došlo je do ustanka Srba u kumanovskoj kazi (srezu). Ovaj ustanak, kao i nešto kasnije Brsjačka buna (1880), nastali iz oslobodilačkih težnji srpskog naroda i želje za ujedinjenjem sa maticom Srbijom, prethodili su Srpskoj četničkoj akciji.

Iz navedenih razloga u Srbiji, Bugarskoj i Grčkoj kristalisalo se kao prioritetno "makedonsko pitanje", čijim bi rešenjem u svoju korist svaka od njih dobila u ruke "ključ Balkana". Zato su one isticale svoje razloge temeljeći ih na istorijskim, etničkim i političkim uporištima. Grčka je svoje pretenzije zasnivala na davnašnjoj provinciji Makedoniji šireći maksimalno njene granice, Bugarska na San-Stefanskom miru, a Srbija na živoj srednjevekovnoj tradiciji osvedočenoj srpskim zadužbinama, jezičkoj srodnosti i raširenosti krsne slave - tipično srpskog obeležja.

Međutim, bugarska verska i prosvetna propaganda nisu dale očekivane rezultate. Štaviše, otvaranjem srpskih konzulata u Skoplju, Bitolju i Solunu, povećan je broj srpskih škola, kao i broj povratnika Patrijaršiji.

Zbog toga je Bugarska oružanom teroru osnivajući ilegalne organizacije VMRO (Vnatrešna makedonska revolucionerna organizacija) 1893. u Solunu i VMOK (Vrhoven makedono-odrinski komitet ) 1894. u Sofiji. Godine 1896. VMRO proširuje aspiracije na Jedrenski vilajet (pokrajinu) i menja naziv u VMORO; takođe, donosi novi ustav, po kome najviši organ postaje Centralni komitet. Otuda će se pripadnici VMORO ubuduće nazivati "centralistima", a VMOK "vrhovistima".

Ove organizacije, protivstavljene do isključivosti, radi sprečavanja međusobnih sukoba, sporazumele su se da vrhovisti dobiju Kosovski i Bitoljski, a centralisti Jedrenski i Solunski vilajet. Ipak, ovaj sporazum bio je mrtvo slovo na papiru, pošto su, pljačke radi, jedni drugima zalazili u teren. Jedino u čemu su se slagali bila je srbofobija. Stoga je 1897. godine u Solunu osnovano "Društvo protiv Srba".

Grčki andart

Izveštavajući o ovome bugarski list "Narodno pravo" pisao je da je cilj Društva da "ognjem i mačem iskoreni Srbe iz Makedonije". Na čelu Društva bio je Damjan - Dame Grujev, profesor bugarske gimnazije u Solunu i nekadašnji pitomac Društva "Sveti Sava" i u njemu su bili i vrhovisti i centralisti.

Odgovarajući na pojačani pritisak Bugara, Grci su 1901. stupili u oružanu akciju. Prvu andartsku četu obrazovao je konsturski mitropolit Karavangelis, s namerom da suzbije bugarske akcije i istakne grčke pretenzije u Evropskoj Turskoj.

Termini andart, četnik i komita su sinonimi i označavaju pripadnika revolucionarnog komiteta. Grci su koristili termin andart, a Srbi i Bugari termine četnik i komita.

Piše: Vladimir Ilić, Glas javnosti

Srpski četnici na početku dvadesetog veka (2)

Neuspeli Ilindenski ustanak

Žestoka turska odmazda, spaljeno oko 150 sela, organizatori pobegli u Bugarsku

Neuspeli ilindenski ustanak, koji je u organizaciji VMORO otpočeo 2. avgusta 1903. u Bitoljskom vilajetu, okončan je posle deset dana žestokim turskim odmazdama. Vojska i bašibozuk (neregularne jedinice) spalili su oko 150 sela (blizu 40.000 ljudi ostalo je bez domova), veliki broj hrišćana je ubijen i oko 10.000 prinuđeno je da emigrira.

Organizatori ustanka Boris Sarafov, Damjan Grujev, Anastas Lozančev i Nikola Karev na vreme su pobegli u Bugarsku, ostvarivši svoj osnovni cilj, internacionalizaciju "makedonskog pitanja".

Carevi Austrougarske i Rusije, Frac Josif II i Nikola II, kao mandatori evropskih sila, sklopili su, 2. oktobra 1903. u štajerskom zamku Mircšteg, plan reformi za Makedoniju. Mircšteškim sporazumom bila je predviđena kontrola sprovođenja reformnog plana preko austrougarskog i ruskog civilnog agenta, reorganizacija žandarmerije pod komandom stranog generala i nadzorom njemu potčinjenih stranih oficira, učešće hrišćana u upravnoj i sudskoj vlasti, amnestija ustanika, obeštećenje postradalih, repatrijacija izbeglica, itd.
Nastanak komiteta

Porta je, krajem januara 1904. prihvatila reformni plan iz koga su bile izuzete samo oblasti sa znatnim ili pretežnim arbanaškim življem. Prema rasporedu reforma žandarmerije, austrougarski oficiri su dobili Kosovski vilajet, ruski Solunski, italijanski Bitoljski, dok je Dramski sandžak (okrug) pripao engleskim, a Sereski francuskim oficirima.

Do stvaranja Srpskog komiteta, kojim je Srbija stupila u četničku akciju, došlo je na inicijativu dr Milorada Gođevca, šefa lekara beogradske opštine. On je, vršeći po službenoj dužnosti sanitarnu kontrolu beogradskih aščinica, pekara i buregdžinica, čiji su vlasnici bili iz Stare Srbije i Makedonije, svojom blagonaklonošću i predusretljivošću, stakao veliki ugled kod ovih ljudi.

Tu se upoznao sa vojvodom Stojanom Donskim, pripadnikom VMORO, koji je u Beogradu provodio zimu. Donski ga je uputio u metode i statut VMORO. Gođevčeva zamisao bila je da, prema iskustvima bugarske, formira odgovarajuću srpsku organizaciju.

Za ovu ideju najpre je pridobio bankara Luku Ćelovića, a zatim advokata Vasu Jovanovića, sabrata iz masonske lože "Pobratim". Ubrzo im je prišao penzionisani ministar, vojni general Jovan Atanacković, u čijoj je kući u Krunskoj ulici, u leto 1903. osnovan Srpski komitet.

U okviru Komiteta formirane su tri sekcije: revolucionarna, propagandna i finansijska. Članovi Srpskog komiteta postali su: Jovan Atanacković, Milorad Gođevac, Luka Ćelović, akademici Ljubomir Kovačević, Ljubomir Jovanović i Ljubomir Stojanović, političari Živan Živanović, Ljubomir Davidović i Jaša Prodanović, major Petar Pešić, činovnik Ministarstva inostranih dela Milutin Stepanović, restorater Svetozar Stefanović i trgovac Dimitrije Ćirković.

Na istom sastanku izabrani su za članove Centralnog odbora Jovan Atanacković (predsednik), Milorad Gođevac, Ljubomir Davidović, Ljubomir Jovanović, Jaša Prodanović, Dimitrije Ćirković, Luka Ćelović, hotelijer Golub Janić, trgovac Nikola Spasić i Milutin Stepanović (blagajnik i sekretar). Takođe donet je i statut Komiteta pod nazivom: "Ustrojstvo (Ustav) Tajnog srbo-maćedonskog udruženja (organizacija)".

U zoru 30. avgusta položili su zakletvu članovi novoosnovanog Vranjskog odbora, koji će ubrzo postati Izvršni odbor četničke organizacije. Za predsednika je izabran kapetan Živojin Rafajlović, sekretara učitelj Mihailo Stevanović - Mile Cupara, blagajnika kafedžija Panta Jovanović, dok su članovi postali inspektor Monopola duvana Milan Graovac, šef železničke stanice Dragiša Lukić i apotekar Velimir Karić.
Kola sestara

Istoga dana, u beogradskoj dvorani "Kolarac", na inicijativu slikarke Nadežde Petrović, osnovano je humanitarno društvo za pomoć ilindanskim pogorelcima - Kolo srpskih sestara. Prikupljenih 60 napoleona odnele su u Makedoniju Nadežda Petrović i Mica Dobri i predale ih upravitelju porečkih škola Marku Ceriću, poznatom nacionalnom radniku.

Konačno, 30. avgust je obeležen i mitingom na Pozorišnom trgu u Beogradu pod parolom:"Sloboda svim neoslobođenim Srbima sa Srbijom zajedno ili smrt i samoj Srbiji".

Mitingu, koji je presudno uticao na stupanje Srbije u ilegalnu oružanu akciju, održanom pred oko 10.000 ljudi, prisustvovali su kao predstavnici političkih stranaka: radikal Aca Stanojević, samostalac Ljubomir Stojanović, naprednjak Živojin Perić i liberal Živan Živanović.

Govornici su bili: prota Aleksa Ilić, profesor Rista Odavić, Živan Živanović, velikoškolci Jevrem Simić i Jovan Đaja i Porečanin Naum Jamandijević, obučen u belu nošnju svoga kraja. Jamandijević, čiji je govor izazvao oduševljenje prisutnih, rekao je:
"Mnogo je godina proteklo kako Maćedonija čeka povratak Srbije. Nas su Arnauti i Bugari bili, a vi ste ćutali. Turci nas sada gone, sve se na nas okomilo. Duša je u podgrlac došla. Ginimo kao što Srbi ginu, kao potomci Kraljevića Marka! Vi nas ne smete ostaviti! Ako mi u Makedoniji izginemo i vi ćete!"

Ubrzo po formiranju Centralnog i Izvršnog odbora osnovan je Pododbor u Nišu, a kasnije i u nekim drugim mestima Srbije. Njihov zadatak bio je da propagiraju četničku akciju i prikupljaju pomoć u novcu i materijalu. Ove pododbore osnivali su najugledniji meštani. Na terenu, u Kumanovu, Skoplju i Bitolju, već su postojali odbori, nastali samoorganizovanjem tamošnjih Srba. Njima su veliku pomoć pružali konzulati u Bitolju i Skoplju.

Piše: Vladimir Ilić, Glas javnosti

Srpski četnici na početku dvadesetog veka (3)

Borba protiv Bugarskog terora

Naoružanje četnika: puška, patrontaš (redenik), kama, bombe, i poneki revolver

Zadaci Centralnog odbora bili su da: a) vodi revolucionarnu akciju i vrši nacionalnu propagandu na terenu i u Srbiji;
b) imenuje šefove gorskih štabova (po pravilu mladi oficiri), vojvode i četovođe;
v) obezbeđuje odsustva oficirima i podoficirima koji odlaze na teren poslati od Ministarstva vojnog i to isključivo preko Ministarstva inostranih dela i

g) formira čete i obezbeđuje ih finansijski i materijalno. Zadaci Izvršnog odbora bili su da:
a) vrši prebacivanje četa na teren i prihvata ih na povratku u Srbiju;
b) omogućava prenos oružja, municije i drugog materijala;
v) obezbeđuje sigurnost postojećih i po potrebi otvara nove kanale;
g) odabira sposobne putovođe i
d) prima šifrovane poruke sa terena i sprovodi ih Centralnom odboru kao nadređenom.

Prvenstveni cilj Srpske četničke akcije bio je borba protiv bugarskog oružanog terora i propagande, a konačni oslobođenje ovih krajeva i njihovo ujedinjenje sa Srbijom. Do sukoba sa andartima nije dolazilo jer srpske čete nisu išle južno od Bitolja, a grčke severno.

Prve bombe

Četa je bila osnovna borbena jedinica snage od 5 do 50 ljudi. Na čelu čete bio je vojvoda (ređe četovođa - kandidat za vojvodu), čije su naredbe bespogovorno izvršavane. Naoružanje četnika činili su: puška, patrontaš (redenik), kama (nož sa obostranom oštricom), bombe, a neki su imali i revolver. Pored toga, vojvode su dobijale dvogled.

Puške su bile raznih sistema, kalibara i vatrene moći, što je otežavalo snabdevanje odgovarajućom municijom. Pored zastarelih berdanovih, martinijevih, pibodijevih i graovih, bilo je i modernih manliherovih, a takođe i najboljih pušaka toga vremena - srpskih brzometki. Na ovima se prethodno skidao grb Srbije i oznaka kragujevačkog zavoda, kako u slučaju eventualne zaplene ne bi mogla biti optužena zvanična Srbija. Kame su pravili nožari, a bajoneti su išli uz puške.

U patrontaše je moglo da stane oko 200 metaka i to je bila količina s kojom je svaki četnik mogao da računa za vreme boravka na terenu, pošto je dopuna bila neizvesna. Stoga je posebna pažnja posvećivana streljačkoj obuci, te ne čudi što su svi četnici bili dobri strelci.

Prve četničke bombe pravljene su po recepturi bugarskog vojvode, prof. Nikole Puškareva, tako što su u bronzane lopte stavljana eksplozivna punjenja (smeša kalijum hlorata i šećera), zatim je uvođen štrapin koji je fiksiran, uz istovremeno zatvaranje otvora, voskom i gutaperkom. Bomba se aktivirala paljenjem spoljašnjeg kraja štapina. Vremenom, ove bombe, ručne izrade, zamenjene su efikasnijom srpskom bombom, oblika čuturice i torpedo - bombom.

Odeća je bila izrađena od sukna bele, sure ili crne boje i prilagođena nošnji Skopske Crne Gore, Veleškog Azota, Poreča i Zegligova (kumanovska oblast). Na glavi su nošene uglavnom šubare, šajkače ili kape slične crnogorskoj. Obuća su bili opanci, a kao ogrtač korišćeni su džemadan ili mintan (gunj) i oficirska pelerina.

Osnovna osobina srpskih četa bio je njihov, prevashodno odbrambeni karakter. One su izbegavale sukobe sa turskom vojskom da ne bi izazivale turske represalije prema stanovništvu, a prihvatale su ih samo kada su bile primorane. Glavni zadatak srpskih četa bio je da što duže ostanu na terenu i organizuju srpska sela za samoodbranu od bugarskih četa. Sukobi su, prema tome, jedino izazivani kada se javljala potreba "čišćenja" terena od bugarskih četa. Predaja je srpskim četnicima bila zabranjena.

Srpski četnici su se zaklinjali da će poštovati tuđu imovinu i čast. Nasrtaj na ove najstrože je kažnjavan. Odavanje tajne ili otuđivanje oružja kažnjavano je smrću. Rad na terenu zasnivao se na principima hijerarhije i subordinacije. Na vrhu lestvice bio je šef gorskog štaba. Četnici su smeli od seljaka da prime besplatno samo hleb i vodu. Sve ostalo plaćano je u zlatu i po punoj vrednosti. Zato su čete, prilikom odlaska na teren, dobijale od Izvršnog odbora izvesnu sumu.

Akcije samo noću

Čete su marševale noću, a odmarale se danju, sakrivene u šumi, pećini ili kod pouzdanih jataka. Ovaj dnevni odmor nazivao se "danik". Prilikom odmora obavezno je postavljana straža. Četnici su se odmarali i spavali obučeni i obuveni, sa bombama i redenicima na sebi i puškom nadohvat. Čete su se kretale u koloni po utvrđenom rasporedu i to: stotinak metara ispred čete, kao patrola, išli su putovođa i jedan iskusniji četnik, iza njih drugi putovođa za kojim je na rastojanju od nekoliko koraka bio vojvoda, koga su na istoj razdaljini pratili ostali četnici.

Na začelju kolone bili su iskusni, a u sredini, novi ili manje iskusni četnici.

Četama je prilikom odlaska na teren određivan rejon, po kome su, sve vreme boravka neprekidno krstarile. Rejon se nije smeo napuštati do dolaska smene, a od ovoga se moglo odstupiti jedino po odobrenju ili naredbi šefa gorskog štaba.

Piše: Vladimir Ilić, Glas javnosti

Srpski četnici na početku dvadesetog veka (4)

Srbiju zvali "Božija kuća"

To je bilo njeno šifrovano ime među ustanicima

Prvi organizator četničke akcije na terenu bio je Aksentije Bacetović - Baceta Rujanac. On je uspostavio dva gorska štaba i to, za Istočno i Zapadno Povardarje, odnosno, za predvardarske i prekovardarske krajeve. Ovakva podela terena ostala je do Balkanskih ratova.

Ranjene i obolele četnike, koje nije bilo moguće prebaciti u Srbiju, lečili su seoski vidari, a kada su mogućnosti dozvoljavale dr Mihailo Šuškalović u internatu Srpske gimnazije u Skoplju. Takođe, smešteni su i u manastir Sv. Prohor Pčinjski.

Posebnu ulogu u zbrinjavanju obolelih, ranjenih i onesposobljenih za bilo kakav rad imala su društva "Kolo srpskih sestara" i naročito, "Srpska braća". Ona su se finansirala iz dobrovoljnih priloga i članarine. Redovni i najveći priložnik bila je "Beogradska zadruga", pre svega zahvaljujući predsedniku Luki Ćeloviću.

Dobrovoljci

U organizovanju Srpske četničke akcije učestvovao je veliki broj istaknutih ljudi tog vremena, među kojima su bili: predstavnici naučne elite, generali, viši oficiri, viđeni političari, pripadnici ekonomske elite i fakultetski obrazovani ljudi raznih profila. Akcijom je neposredno rukovođeno iz Konzularnog odeljenja Ministarstva inostranih dela, a u njoj su učestvovala i ministarstva: vojno, prosvete i crkvenih dela, finansija i unutrašnjih dela.

Četnici su poticali od domaćeg stanovništva, dobrovoljaca iz Srbije, Crne Gore, Austro-Ugarske i prebeglica i iseljenika iz Evropske Turske. Među njima je bilo onih različitog imovnog stanja i obrazovanja; najviše seljaka, ali i oficira, podoficira, učitelja, studenata, sveštenika, činovnika, zanatlija i dr.

Kao što je već navedeno, međusobna prepiska učesnika Akcije bila je obavezno šifrovana. Na samom početku korišćene su opisne šifre, tzv. kriptonimi, a ubrzo su uvedene i numeričke. Tako, na primer, šifra "Božija kuća" označavala je Srbiju, a adresa "Gospodinu u Božijoj kući" bila je upućena predsedniku Izvršnog odbora u Vranju.

Pored toga, uobičajeni nazivi su bili: štap - puška, jabuke - bombe, kafa - barut, šećer - otrov, golemiot ili starac - šef gorskog štaba, brabonjci - Turci, Smirana - Skoplje, Venecija - Vranje, Jerusalim - Bitolj, Berlin - Beograd, Neptun - Poreč, itd.

Tipičan primer ovakvog šifrovanog telegrama bio je izveštaj sekretara Izvršnog odbora Mihaila Stevanovića predsedniku Rafajloviću, koji se tada nalazio u Beogradu. Tekst je govorio o pogibiji čete vojvode Anđelka Aleksića na Šupljem Kamenu kod Kumanova i glasio je:
"Vagon koji si poslao sa 23 bureta propao. Popucali obruči i sve se vino rasulo".

Numeričke šifre je Konzularno odeljenje Ministarstva inostranih dela dostavljalo odborima u Srbiji i konzulatima u Staroj Srbiji u Makedoniji, koji su ih dalje prosleđivali. Šifre su povremeno menjane. To je činjeno uvek kada se sumnjalo da su provaljene, a nekada i iz preventivnih razloga. Na njima su radili najsposobniji stručnjaci iz oblasti kriptografije, među kojima su bili i takvi naučnici, kao akademci Ljubomir Klerić i Mihailo Petrović Alas.

Upotreba pseudonima (četničkih imena), koje su imali svi istaknuti učesnici Srpske četničke akcije u Srbiji i na terenu, imala je opravdanje zato što su turski diplomati pažljivo pratili Državne šematizme Kraljevine Srbije trudeći se da, za ilegalnu četničku akciju, optuže zvaničnu Srbiju.

Osim toga, akteri na terenu, svojim pseudonimima štitili su od turske i bugarske odmazde, ne samo svoju porodicu, već često i svoja sela. Ipak, bilo je slučajeva da su neki od poznatih vojvoda (Gligor Sokolović Jovan Babunski) bili prinuđeni da svoje porodice presele u Srbiju.

Šifrant M. Alas

Četnička imena najčešće su izvođena iz geografskih toponima, zatim, iz nacionalne prošlosti i legende, vlastitih imena i nadimaka, imena revolucionara, i sl. Takvi pseudonimi bili su: Nikodije Stefanović - Timočki, Ilija Jovanović - Časlav Pčinjski, Sreten Rajković - Rudnički, Pavle Blažarić - Bistrički, Panta Radosavljević - Dunavski, Mijajlo Ristić -Džervinac, Jovan Stojković - Babunski, Gligor Sokolović - Nebregovski, Petko Ilić - Nagorički, Jovan Stanojković - Dovezenski, Gligorije Ristić - Đorđe Skopljanče, Jovan M. Jovanović "Pižon" - Rade Neimar, Mihailo Ristić - Iguman Pajsije, Ljubomir Davidović - Ljutica Bogdan, Savatije Milošević - Ivan Kosančić, Vojin Popović - Vuk, Dušan Dimitrijević - Dule, Svetozar Ranković -Toza, Dimitrije Aleksić - Ditko, Micko Krstić - Pavlovski, Jovan Grković - Gapon, Jerotije Topalović - Marat, Vojislav Tankosić - Škilja, Stevan Nedić - Ćele, Ljubomir Vulović - Ljuborad, itd.

Piše: Vladimir Ilić, Glas javnosti

Jedno vidjenje, Savremenik, http://forum.krstarica.com/showpost.php?p=6211659&postcount=53

За почетак србске четничке акције на југу, био је пресудан такозвани ''Илинденски устанак'' који су у августу 1903. подигли бугарски агенти у Крушеву.

О ''Илинденском устанку'' много је писано у последњих сто година, а нарочито у комунистичко време, после Другог светског рата. Комунисти су тај такозвани устанак искористили за камен темељац непостојеће ''македонске нације,'' а дан ''устанка'' су прогласили за дан ''македонске државности.''

Све је то било у циљу разбијања и комадања србског националног бића и србских територија. Стварањем непостојеће македонске нације и републике, Србији су одузете исконске територије које је са тешком муком ослобађала 1912. и 1918. и одбранила их и од Турака, Бугара и Арнаута.

Због тога је важно да се представи права истина о ''Илинденском устанку.'' ''Илинденски устанак'' су подигли бугарски агенти који су хтели да оружаним устанком издејствују реакцију великих сила помоћу којих ће да се створи аутономна Македонија, у којој ће Бугарска да одржава ред, и коју ће првом приликом да припоји себи, као источну Румелију 1885. године.

Да би бугарска држава одбацила пред светом сваку одговорност, и да би доказала да у целој Македонији живе само Бугари, одлучено је да се устанак подигне у Битољском вилајету.

За главно место подизања устанака је одређена варош Крушево, 30 километара од Прилепа, и која се налази на висини од 1280.метара. То је била једина варош у Македонији у којој нису живели Турци. У Крушеву које је тада имало око 15.000 становника, живели су претежно Цинцари, мада је било и Срба и Бугара. У вароши је укупно било око 30 турских војника и жандарма.

Бугари су за напад на Крушево окупљали своје људе из разних делова Македоније, а пристигао им и већи број комита из Бугарске.

За дан почетка устанака је одређен 20. јули, дан Светог Илије, 1903.године, и на тај дан је око 400 слабо наоружаних ''устаника'' кренуло да заузме Крушево. Већи део ''устаника'', њих 240, опколили су касарну у којој је био 21 турски војник. После краће борбе, турски војници су успели да побегну, а само један од њих је наишао на заседу и погинуо. Други део ''устаника'' је опколио жандармериску станицу у којој се налазила и поштанско-телеграфска станица. У станици су била шесторица жандарма који су пружили отпор, али су се предали чим им је зграда запаљена. Иако су се предали, Бугари су их побили на лицу места.

Бугарска је одмах почела да прави сензацију од освајања Крушева. Из Софије је јављано целој Европи да је бугарски народ у Македонији подигао устанак и да је ''победио'' турски ''гарнизон'' у Крушеву и ослободио велику и богату македонску варош Крушево.

Турска влада је брзо реаговала и предузела све мере да брзо угуши побуну. Оредила је Етем-пашу да руководи војском која је требала да угуши побуну. За то време је из Бугарске дошао Борис Сарафов са својим штабом и око 200 људи који су га пратили, да из непосредне близине прати ''устанак.''

Да поново поврати Крушево био је задужен Бахтијар-паша, командант дивизије у Битољу. Он је под својом командом имао око 8.000 војника, наоружаних Маузеровим модерним пушкама и са 8 топова. Када је стигао пред Крушево, Бахтијар-паша је послао два битољска трговца да позову побуњенике на предају, а да он даје реч да ће Крушево бити поштеђено сваког разарања и пљачке ако се мирно, без борбе преда.

Председник бугарског револуционарног одбора у Крушеву, Никола Карев, је бахато одговорио да ће бранити Крушево. Тог дана су ''устаници'' вршили последње припреме за одбарану, утврђујући прилазе вароши. Неколико стотина, ''устаника'' се спремало да одбрани ''Крушевску републику'' од велике турске војске потпомогнуте бројним арнаутским башибозлуком.

Сутрадан ујутру, турска војска је почела да опкољава Крушево. Око поднева је почело наступање. Чим се појавила турска пешадија, ''устаници'' су отворили ватру, али је тај отпор кратко трајао, јер је у међувремену турска артиљерија почела да бомбардује Крушево. Када су прве гранате пале на варош, ''устаници'' су заједно с народом почели панично да беже у оближње шуме. ''Храбри устаници'' су бацали пушке и бежали са својих утврђених положаја. У тој борби око Крушева је погинило 6 турских војнка и десетак ''устаника.''

Последњи је кренуо да бежи крушевски војвода Пито Гули. Пито Гули је по народности био Куцовлах, а по занимању калајџија. Њега су са крушевском четом од 20 ''устаника'' опколили Турци на месту званом Мечкин камен, и све поубијали. У тој борби на Мечкином камену погинуло је и око 30 турских војника.

Крушево је опљачкано и спаљено до темеља. Осим Крушева, турска војска и арнаутски башибозлук су попалили неколико десетина села у Битољском вилајету.

Борис Сарафов се са целим својим штабом и многобројним бугарским војводама вратио у Бугарску, чим је увидео да је ''устанак'' пропао. Највећи ''херој'' пропалог ''Илинденског устанка'' је до данас остао Куцовлах Пито Гули. Њега и Бугари и ''Македонци'' прослављају као свог великог јунака и националног хероја. У преувеличавању ''Илинденског устанка'' најдаље су после Другог светског рата отишли комунисти.

Такозвани устанак, комунисти су приказали као херојску борбу ''македонског народа'' за своје ослобођење. У борбама за сламање ''Илинденског устанка'' погинула су 43 турска војника и жандарма. Комунисти су у својим измишљотинама наводили број, који је више од сто пута преувеличан. Они су наводили да су Турци у ''Илинденском устанку'' имали око 5.300 мртвих и рањених војника. ''Илинденски устанак'' је неславно пропао, али је имао тешке последице за Србски народ у целој Македонији, а нарочито у Битољском вилајету, где су се десила највећа разарања и највеће страдање цивилног становништва.

Одмах после овог неуспелог ''устанка'', Бугари су организовано кренули да убијају Србе. У сваком крају је направљен списак свих Срба које треба поубијати.

Бугари су још 1896. донели одлуку да се по свим крајевима Македоније поведе енергична борба против Срба, а после пропалог ''Илинденског устанка,'' одлучено је да се Срби потпуно физички униште и затру у целој Македонији. До тада појединачна убиства Срба прерасла су у масовна. Бугарски терористи су зверски убијали Србе. Без икакве милости су клали децу, жене и старце, вадили им очи, секли руке, увек остављајући поруке на телу својих жртава да ће тако проћи свако ко се не одрекне србског имена. Бројне комитске бугарске чете су упадале у србска села вршећи масовне покоље, терајући Србе на силу да пређу на њихову страну и да постану Бугари.

До ослобођења 1912. године, бугарски зликовци су убили више од 3.000 најугледнијих Срба у Македонији. Да би одбранили голе животе од побеснелих Бугара, Срби су почели да се организују за одбрану, у чему им је притекао у помоћ и широк круг србских националиста у Краљевини Србији. Тако је отпочела четничка акција на југу Србских земаља.

О истини везаној за ''Илинденски устанак'' писали су детаљно војвода Василије Трбић, Драгиша Стојадиновић, Стеван Симић и други србски национални борци, који су били у прилици да те догађаје прате са терена и да се информишу из прве руке.

Eто шта такозвани Македонци славе.... Мало већи оружани инцидент, али до максимума преувеличан.

ljuba miljkovic:

Eто шта такозвани Македонци славе.... Мало већи оружани инцидент, али до максимума преувеличан.

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H. N. Brailsford called these events "The General Rising of 1903" and gave these estimations of its results:


4. The statistics of the devastation can have little meaning to those who did not see it, but they deserve none the less to be cited. One hundred and nineteen villages in the Monastir Province were wholly or partially burned. Eight thousand four hundred houses were destroyed. Between fifty and sixty thousand persons were rendered homeless. The number of murdered non-combatants can hardly have been less than fifteen hundred. For these figures I can vouch. I add the totals for the whole of Macedonia and Adrianople, which the Bulgarians collected. I cannot verify them, but probably they are not much exaggerated — indeed, the figures for Monastir published in Sofia were sometimes less than those which I collected while making out relief lists in the villages. The total number of houses burned is given as 12,211; of homeless persons about 70,000; of refugees driven from Macedonia and Adrianople into Bulgaria, 30,000; of violations, 3,098; and of women and girls taken captive, 176; of persons imprisoned, 1,500.

Online publication: http://www.promacedonia.org/en/hb/hb_5_13.html.


This uprising was something much more significant than "a small armed incident".