Macedonian Revolutionary Organization Македонска Револуционерна Организација (mk) | |
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Active | October 1893 - May 1908 |
Allegiance | United Macedonia |
Branch | MFO, ITRO, Ilinden Organization, IMRO (U), MSRC, SMAC, IDRO, Gemidžii |
Size | 2 million (1905 estimate)[1] |
Motto(s) | Freedom or Death[2] |
Engagements |
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Commanders | |
Ceremonial chief | Hristo Tatarčev (1893 - 1896) Gjorče Petrov (1896 - 1897) Hristo Matov (1896) (acting leader)[4] Ivan Hadži Nikolov (acting leader)[4] Hristo Kocev (1897) Grigor Popev (1897) (acting leader) Pere Tošev (1897 - 1898) |
Macedonian Revolutionary Organization[5][6] also known as the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization (Macedonian: Македонска Револуционерна Организација, Внатрешна Македонска Револуционерна Организација, romanized: Makedonska Revolucionerna Organizacija, Vnatrešna Makedonska Revolucionerna Organizacija), often times shorten to MRO or IMRO (VMRO in Macedonian) was a revolutionary organization created by Macedonians in 1893, it's main objective was the liberation of Macedonia and Thrace from the Ottoman Empire.[7]
The Revolutionary Organization was created in October 1893 in the town of Solun, now known as Thessaloniki,[8] where the first congress was held, Hristo Tatarčev, the founder of the organization around the time was working as a teacher in a local school in Solun, he and a group of his friends realized the terrible conditions Macedonia and Thrace were in, so decided to form a revolutionary Organization that would liberate Macedonia from the Ottoman Empire.[9]
The organization would go on to create multiple headquarters in Skopje, Veles, Ohrid, Struga, Prilep and many more.[10] Eventually in 1903 it would try to free itself from the Ottoman Empire with the beginning of the Macedonian uprising in August 2nd, also known as the Ilinden Uprising. At first it would have some success and freed some places in Western Macedonia but by november-december of 1903 the uprising would be crushed. Because of this failure the organization would try a more diplomatic way of bringing freedom to Macedonia and some have even suggested the idea of a Balkan federation.[11]
Diplomatic peace would not be succesful and in May 1908, after the May congress the organization would be officially ended with the last leader of the organization being Jane Sandanski, the organization after it ended would be split into two, the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization (United) and the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization (Autonomous). IMRO (United) would end up becoming socialist and would fight for the recognition of the Macedonians, while IMRO (Autonomous) would become terrorist and anarchist and it would eventually turn towards fascism and would help Nazi Germany during WW2.
The legacy of IMRO in Macedonia is undeniable, it helped with spreading the concept of Macedonian unity and the Macedonian language, culture and history, multiple streets, cities and even villages have the names of members of the Macedonian Revolutionary Organization, According to some analysis the Macedonian Revolutionary Organization is the second most famous thing from Macedonia, first being Alexander the Great, According to journalist Sotir Kostov, regarding the Macedonian Revolutionary Organization
The role of the Macedonian Revolutionary Organization in building the Macedonian identity, language and culture is great, immeasurable. It is actually decisive for the birth and creation of Macedonian statehood. Although the idea of Macedonian statehood appeared in history and has been present since more recently (from the 6th to the 10th century), however, it began to be legally and politically formed and built in the second half of the 19th century, in the pre-MRO and pre-Ilinden periods.
- Sotir Kostov[12]
Multiple Macedonian revolutionaries who worked with the MRO are mentioned in the national anthem of the Republic of Macedonia which is known as Denes nad Makedonija (which translates to Today over Macedonia). In the anthem they also include the Kruševska Republica which was created by Macedonian revolutionaries from the MRO.[13] Despite the organization being pro-Macedonian and advocating pro-Macedonian ideals many Bulgarian historians consider it as Bulgarian, this is mostly due to the anti-Macedonian opinion in Bulgarian media created by the known xenophobic dictator Todor Zhivkov.[14][15][16][17]
The concept of a organization that would help in liberating Macedonia wasn't a new one, during the berlin congress the treaty said that Macedonia should have been granted autonomy, but the Ottoman goverment refused,[19] seeing how mistreated the Macedonians were, some revolutionaries decided to create a organization that would free them.[20] Dame Gruev along with Hristo Tatarčev decided to gather their friends who were all mostly working as teachers in local schools in Thessaloniki, back then known as Solun, to create a unified organization.
The organization would be created on October 23, 1893 in the house of Gruev's friend, known as Ivan Hadži Nikolov in Thessaloniki,[21] the street being Chelebi-Makal (now known in modern days as Fillipou),[22] several others would show up for their first meeting, in it they would talk about a lot of stuff about the future of the organization and their main goal, the first main goal was proposed by Petar Pop Arsov and had support from Ivan Hadži Nikolov too, since both thought it would be easier and more simple if they only tried to gain autonomy for Macedonia and be given more rights in the Ottoman Empire.[23] Nikolov proposed the first five rules of the organization, those being:
Rule 1 - The Organization should be secret and hidden
Rule 2 - Her goal is to earn autonomy for the region of Ethnic Macedonia.
Rule 3 - Only people born in Macedonia can be members, no matter their ethnicity, religion or gender.
Rule 4 - The main motto should be "Autonomy for Macedonia"
Rule 5 - The organization should act independently so it doesn't come under the influence of foreign organizations— Ivan Hadži Nikolov, [24]
"The first constitution and rules of the revolutionary organization have not yet been found, therefore the only indicators are the memoirs of the founders of the organization, and according to them we can draw the following conclusion that the first name of the organization is the Macedonian Revolutionary Organization (MRO)"
— Bulgarian State Historical Archive, 2004, [25]
The first name has been in dispute between Bulgarian and Macedonian historians for a long time, because of a lack of archiving the first name of the organization isn't for sure, originally for most of its history the organization had been known as the Macedonian Revolutionary Organization[28] but then in 1961, Ivan Katardžiev during his visit to the Bulgarian state archives received a strange document from Bulgarian historians which had a unknown previously not known document which says the first name of the organization was Bulgarian Macedonian-Adrianopolitan Revolutionary Committees.
At first Katardžiev believed it was legit and began believing that the first name was BMARC, but eventually after the 1970s he would begin to change his mind, mostly because later in a inteview in a magazine he would state that "the data from the memoir literature are not in accordance with the content of that “Constitution”"[29]
But despite all of this, most sources have shown that it's called MRO. Tatarčev, the first president of the organization said in his memoirs that they got Petar Pop Arsov to write the consitution of the organization and decide the name, he used the constituion of the Internal Revolutionary Organization as an inspiration, and from what they decided the first name of the organization was Macedonian Revolutionary Organization and that their committee was called the Central Macedonian Revolutionary Committe (Macedonian: Централен Македонски Револуционерен Комитет, romanized: Centralen Makedonski Revolucioneren Komitet).[5][26]
Multiple old revolutionaries of IMRO call the organization as the Macedonian Revolutionary Organization, for example Dimitar Vlahov in his book in 1925 in Vienna titled "the battle of the Macedonian people for freedom" he stated that in 1893 the founders of the organization called it the Macedonian Revolutionary Organization and not BMARC.[32] According to Gjorče Petrov, the second president of the organization, when he first joined it there was no real constitution or rule book but instead a small list of rules, with the beginning reading "Rules of the Macedonian Revolutionary Organization"[33]
The statute itself has been called into question as many inconsistencies were found within it, one example is the opening title which reads out as “български“ despite the fact that back then it was actually spelled “бѫлгарски” . And even older Bulgarian historians called the first name of the organization as Macedonian Revolutionary Organization, and not BMARC, such as Yordan Badev, a Bulgarian historian about Macedonian history, in his work about the biography and legacy of Dame Gruev he wrote that the first name of the revolutionary organization was MRO.[34]
According to Petar Pop Arsov himself, the creator of the constitution he said that the first name was neither MRO nor BMARC, but infact "Committee for acquiring the political rights of Macedonia, given to it by the Treaty of Berlin"[27] and that later the name was changed to MRO. But when making the new constitution of MRO he said he sent it to a printing press in Romania but it got burned before it could be printed, so the first constitution is considered lost media.[27] Many outside sources and newspapers also noted how the name at the time used by the organization was Macedonian Revolutionary Organization, which means both outside and inside members of the organization named the organization as Macedonian Revolutionary Organization and not Bulgarian Macedonian-Adrianopolitan Revolutionary Committees.[35][36][37][38]
In one of the books of Vancho Gjorgjiev, a historian who is an expert about the Macedonian Revolutionary Organization he discovers a seal from perhaps one of the oldest surviving documents from the Macedonian Revolutionary Organization, in it is a document from Dame Gruev to Hristo Tatarčev about the state of the organization, interesting enough the document has a seal which reads "Freedom or Death, Central Macedonian Revolutionary Comittee"[39] written in the Ilinden alphabet, this proves that the name BMARC had never been used and that CMRC and MRO had been the first names[40] that had been used until 1897 when it was changed to SMARO.[41]
During the creation of MRO the purpose of the organization was talked about and at first they could not reach an agreement, some wanted independence but some wanted autonomy, eventually they agreeded on autonomy and then independence.[42] Since to many revolutionaries and members autonomy was only a basic beginning and that after more and more autonomy over the years they would gain independence from the Ottoman Empire, that way less funding had to be spend on milltary war since they knew they could win overtime.[43]
Yet according to Hristo Tatarčev, the founder of the organization. the reason he accepted autonomy over independence was because he knew the organization was still young and weak and that by gaining independence would be too tough to do alone, so he accepted autonomy hoping that eventually his plan would work out and they could find better conditions, he also proposed that if they cannot gain autonomy or independence then they can unite with a foreign balkan country who was independent at the time, like Serbia, Bulgaria. or even creating a united and possibly a socialist balkan federation which would treat everybody as equals and would be powerful aganist outside forces.[44] He is known for saying:
We could not act differently and predetermine the fate of the Macedonian people, we left it to them to forge their own destiny: would we join Bulgaria or would we become a member for a Balkan confederation. Whatever their interests dictate later, they are free to do as he pleases
— Hristo Tatarčev
Some sources also state that the original goal was to re-implement rule 23 of the Berlin congress but Hristo changed his mind since to him it was more complicated and harder to do, so according to him he decided to rewrite the consitution so it alters the goal and instead of being about rule 23 of the Berlin congress it would be about Autonomy of Macedonia.[45] The concept of creating a independent Macedonian state was not new to the Macedonian Revolutionaries at MRO, Hristo the founder of the organization made it very clear that autonomy was only the first step of freedom for the Macedonians and that underneath the autonomy plan was a secret plan for creating a free Macedonian state.
See also: Thrace |
The region of Thrace (known as Adrianople at the time) had a sizeable population that wanted to also gain independence or autonomy along with the Macedonian Revolutionary Organization,[42] this caused a discussion between the founders on whether or not they should include Thrace as their main goal, according to Hristo, the founder:
Thrace, which was referred to by the Central Committee at the end of 1895. in order to include it in the program of MRO, it was also the object of long discussions: would it be rational and useful for the liberation cause of the christian tribe and it was finally unanimously adopted that it should not be treated separately from Macedonia and should constitute one a unique cause with Macedonia when all efforts are already being made to match Macedonia's readiness. Based on the above-mentioned discussions, it was decided to amend the constitution, as it allowed that every Macedonian and Thracian, regardless of religion or gender could be a member of the Organization...
— Hristo Tatarčev, [46]
Around 1895, two years after the founding the organization they created a branch dedicated to Thracian independence, with the main leaders of the branch being the anarchist Mihail Gerdžikov and the millitary leader Lazar Madžarov,[47] they were both locals from Thrace and close allys to the Macedonian Revolutionary Organization.[48] Mihail he would rise the ranks and eventually even lead some brigades and groups in Thrace.[49] Тhe first meeting of the Thracian branch was held in 1895 in Plovdiv in the house of Mihail Gerdžikov.[50] They had high hopes that their leadership would work and they knew very well that Bulgaria would not help out but perhaps even sabotage their efforts, this is because Thrace took a sizeable amount of southern Bulgaria.[51]
Thrace would become the 7th district in the Macedonian Revolutionary Organization.[52] Some historians share different opinions on how Thrace really got included in the organization, some believe that Hristo, the founder was forced to include Thrace in his plans, some believe that since Thrace was under control of the Bulgarian exarchate they wanted to include it since most were raised under the Bulgarian Exarchate and its educational schools and churches in the cities.[53] Eventually in 1896 the organization would change its name to SMARO (Secret Macedonian Adrianople Revolutionary Organization),[54] where they'll rewrite the constitution so membership is for all Macedonians and residents of Thrace regardless of the Thracians gender, nationality and religion.[55]