Ilinden–Preobrazhenie Uprising

's Supreme Committee's band s in Adrianople vilayet before the uprising. The competition for control between national groups took place largely via of propaganda campaigns in the Ottoman Empire, aimed at winning over the local population, and conducted largely through churches and schools. Various groups were also supported by the local population and the three competing governments. The Internal Macedonian-Adrianopolitan Revolutionary Organization (IMARO) was founded in Thessaloniki in 1893. The group had a number of name changes prior to and subsequent to the uprising. It was predominantly Bulgarian and supported an idea for autonomy for Macedonia and Adrianople regions within the Ottoman state with a motto of "Macedonia for the Macedonians". The Supreme Macedonian-Adrianople Committee (SMAC) was a group formed in 1895 in Sofia, Bulgaria, which enjoyed the covert but close cooperation with the Bulgarian government. The members of this group were called the Supremists, and advocated annexation of the region by Bulgaria. The two groups had different strategies. IMARO sought to prepare a carefully planned uprising in the future, On the other hand, a smaller group of conservatives in Thessaloniki organized a Bulgarian Secret Revolutionary Brotherhood (Balgarsko Tayno Revolyutsionno Bratstvo). The latter was incorporated in IMARO by 1900 and its members as Ivan Garvanov, were to exert a significant influence on the organization. They were to push for the Ilinden–Preobrazhenie Uprising and later became the core of IMARO's right-wing faction. In 1899, Garvanov developed a friendship with Supremists' new leader Boris Sarafov, through which Garvanov managed to come to eminence in IMARO. Despite the mutual hostility, in this period IMARO and the Supremists collaborated and with Sarafov's help Garvanov and some of the Supremists became members of the IMARO's central committee in Thessaloniki. At the beginning of 1901, the arrested IMARO member Milan Mihaylov, previously member of SMAC and assigned to IMARO on Sarafov's suggestion, revealed the names of other IMARO activists. As a result, a series of arrests were conducted, which would become known as the Salonica affair. Consequently many of the leaders of IMARO were arrested by the Ottomans, including the Central Committee members, others like Delchev took refuge in Bulgaria. In panic that IMARO would collapse, the Central Committee member Ivan Hadzhinikolov, before his arrest, gave the archive and accounts to Garvanov. In this way Garvanov took control of the Central Committee and became its leader. Allegedly the imprisoned IMARO leaders were betrayed by Garvanov in order for him to seize control, thus in the following period the Central Committee was a tool of Garvanov and the Supremists, and plans for the uprising began. During this period, Racho Petrov's Bulgarian government supported IMARO's position that the rebellion was entirely internal. As well as Petrov's personal warning to Delchev in January 1903 to delay or even cancel the rebellion, the government sent out a circular note to its diplomatic representatives in Thessaloniki, Bitola and Edirne, advising the population not to succumb to pro-rebellion propaganda, as "Bulgaria was not ready to support it". Also, the IMARO was warned by the Minister of War Mihail Savov, that the uprising must be postponed until May 1904, by which time the Bulgarian Army would be ready for military intervention. Prior to the uprising, the Bulgarian government had been required to outlaw the Macedonian rebel groups and sought the arrest of its leaders. This was a condition of diplomacy with Russia. Delchev himself was killed by the Ottomans in May 1903. Many Mauser rifles were gained from killed Ottoman soldiers as well. ==Ilinden Uprising==

during the capture of Kleisoura. with Bulgarian flag on it and the inscription Свобода или смърть ( "Freedom or Death") , Todor Hristov and Antinogen Hadzhov (second, fourth and fifth from right to left in the down row). On July 28, in the Bitola revolutionary region, instructions and proclamations for the people were sent to the voivodes. in the Manastir vilayet. The uprising was chosen in the Manastir vilayet allegedly because it was located the farthest from Bulgaria, attempting to showcase to the Great Powers that the uprising was purely of a Macedonian character and phenomenon. Per one of the founders of IMARO – Petar Poparsov, the idea to keep distance from Bulgaria, was because any suspicion of its interference could harm both sides: Bulgaria and the organization. The telegraph lines to Bitola were cut. The Bulgarians announced the beginning of the uprising by setting the haystacks of Muslim peasants on fire in the villages near Bitola. An attack on Resen failed. On the same day, several chetas, consisting of 400 men, led by four voivodes, captured the town of Kleisoura. After the eruption of the uprising, IMARO's leaders sent a declaration to the Great Powers, writing: The uprising began with attacks on Turks and Albanians. In the kaza of Bitola, they burned the fields in villages like Ramna, Lera, Bratin Dol, etc. Attacks on Muslims also occurred in the kazas of Florina, Kastoria and Demir Hisar. Most of the Ottoman troops were stationed in the Kosovo vilayet. Many Muslims in the Manastir vilayet had to organize their self-defense. In the areas of Ohrid and Debar, Muslims from the villages that had been attacked in the beginning of the uprising counter-attacked. Turks and Albanians from the villages Dolenci, Lera and Ramna destroyed the village Šrpce. Peasants took part in the uprising. Sometimes peasants harbored the insurgents or gave them food. On August 11, in Gevgelija in the Salonica vilayet, a bridge further away from the station was bombed, as well as that between Florina and Kinali. A Muslim militia from the area of Pribilci took part in the pillaging of Kruševo. Greek diplomats tried discreetly assisting Ottoman efforts to suppress the rebellion. In the Kosovo vilayet, the uprising was confined to the southern part because IMARO's leaders did not want any confrontations with the local Albanians. IMARO's committees were also not as present in the vilayet as they were in Manastir. Krastovden Uprising Some historians describe the rebellion in the Serres revolutionary district as Krastovden Uprising (Holy Cross Day Uprising), because on September 14 the revolutionaries there also rebelled. Rebel chetas active in the regions of Pirin Macedonia and Serres, led by Yane Sandanski, and chetas of the Supreme Committee led by Ivan Tsonchev and Anastas Yankov, engaged in battles with the large Turkish forces. The fighting began in the Melnik region even before the planned date on the Feast of the Cross (Krastovden in Bulgarian, September 27) day and lasted until October 21, the local population was not involved as much as in other regions. In the Razlog Valley the population joined in the uprising. ==Preobrazhenie Uprising and Rhodope Mountains Uprising==

On August 19, a revolt by Bulgarians began in the Ottoman province of Adrianople. Mihail Gerdzhikov, Georgi Kondolov, Stamat Ikonomov, and Lazar Madzharov were the commanders in this district. ==Suppression==

In mid-August, the Anatolian forces, from the vilayet of Kosovo, along with Albanian militia units as supporting forces, The Great Powers also pressured Bulgaria to not intervene. At a meeting in early October, the general staff of the rebel forces decided to cease all revolutionary activities, and declared the forces, with the exception of regular militias, as disbanded. The peasants began to return home. Many surrendered to Ottoman authorities. During the first week of October, 1,700 rifles were returned to the vali of Manastir. The uprising was suppressed by the end of October. ==Aftermath==

after the uprising. A reason for the failure of the uprising was the absence of outside support by the Great Powers and neighboring countries. Another reason was because they were insufficiently prepared in terms of preparation (training, strategy and planning) and the insufficient weapons they had. After the suppression of the uprising, 30,000 Bulgarian Christians from Ottoman Macedonia and Thrace went to the Principality of Bulgaria. Half of these refugees came from Eastern Thrace. An IMARO memorandum issued in 1904 made the following estimates: 5,000 casualties, 205 villages burned down, 70,000 homeless, 30,000 refugees to Bulgaria and the United States. Writing after the uprising in 1903, Krste Misirkov called it a "complete fiasco" and argued that the main reason why the uprising failed was due to its "Bulgarian bias", although he also argued that it "prevented Macedonia from being partitioned" and it did signal the beginning of growing Macedonian Slav self-awareness. All political prisoners, including participants and organizers of the Ilinden uprising, were released. Greek and Serbian bands used the weakening of Bulgarian activity to strengthen themselves and staged a series of attacks in Macedonia. The two wings engaged in outright conflict which meant mafia-style killings on a larger scale. In this style, Garvanov and Sarafov were assassinated in 1907 by Todor Panitsa on the order of Sandanski. The rest of Thrace was divided between Bulgaria, Greece and Turkey following World War I and the Greco-Turkish War. Most of the local Bulgarian political and cultural figures were persecuted or expelled from Serbian and Greek parts of Macedonia and Thrace, where all structures of the Bulgarian Exarchate were abolished. Thousands of Macedonian Slavs left for Bulgaria. Some fled after the Greeks burned Kilkis, during the Second Balkan War, and the Treaty of Neuilly population exchange between Greece and Bulgaria saw 92,000 Bulgarians exchanged with 46,000 Greeks from Bulgaria. Bulgarian (including the Macedonian dialects) was prohibited, and its surreptitious use, whenever detected, was ridiculed or punished. ==Legacy==

. , the IMRO komitadji Naum Tomalevski, marking the anniversary of the Uprising in 1918 monument, dedicated to the Preobrazhenie Uprising, near Malko Tarnovo, Bulgaria. monument, dedicated to the Ilinden Uprising, Kruševo, North Macedonia. The uprising was commemorated by the Macedonian and Thracian diaspora in Bulgaria, and by all factions within the IMARO. In the Kingdom of Yugoslavia during the interwar period, the local celebration of the event was passively ignored or actively repressed by Yugoslav officials. Celebrations occurred also in 1939 and 1940 in defiance of the ban by Serb authorities. The Bulgarian regime recognized the legacy of the event as its own during World War II and granted pensions to veterans, but excluded those who were perceived as engaging in "anti-Bulgarian or anti-state expression or activity." Ilinden veteran Panko Brashnarov spoke in the first session of Anti-fascist Assembly for the National Liberation of Macedonia (ASNOM) on August 2, 1944, emotionally declaring a "Second Ilinden" of the Macedonian people, which announced the establishment of the Socialist Republic of Macedonia. ASNOM president Metodija Andonov-Čento regarded the session as "the result of a rather long period of blood, battles and superhuman efforts of the Macedonian people, beginning with 1903". In the first session, the day of the Ilinden Uprising's anniversary was proclaimed as an official holiday, known as Day of the Republic. As a result, the uprising later became one of the most potent foundation myths of Macedonian nationalism. Some of the Macedonian communist leaders, such as Lazar Koliševski, initially questioned the Macedonian national character of the uprising and of the IMRO revolutionaries from that period. Per him, the meeting of the communists that took place on Ilinden 1944 had nothing to do with the Ilinden uprising of 1903. During the brief entente between Bulgaria and Yugoslavia from 1946 to 1948, Macedonian historians gained access to Sofia's archival materials and published accounts, on whose basis they claimed Ilinden as an early expression of Macedonian adherence to national liberation with ideals of brotherhood and unity. During the Greek Civil War, many of SNOF's leaders adopted noms de guerre, that had been used by participants in the Ilinden Uprising. SR Macedonia granted monthly pensions and commemorative medallions (Ilinden spomenica) to Ilinden veterans whose applications were successful. However, those who were prosecuted in a court for criminal acts against the people and the state were excluded. Greek historiography has downplayed the uprising as the work of extremists. Bulgarian historians began emphasizing the Bulgarian identity of the uprising's participants again. According to political scientist Alexis Heraclides, the Macedonian narrative considers the uprising as being of ethnic Macedonian or pan-Macedonian (multi-ethnic) character. is regarded there as a Greater Bulgarian agent who pushed the decision for a premature uprising. Bulgarian Army officers' participation is represented there as an alien element, while the fact the uprising's leaders were Bulgarian schoolmasters, is neglected. The leaders of the Ilinden Uprising are celebrated as national heroes in modern-day North Macedonia, and regarded as founders of the strive for Macedonian independence. The Kruševo Republic and the names of the IMARO revolutionaries like Gotse Delchev, Pitu Guli, Dame Gruev and Yane Sandanski are included into the lyrics of the Macedonian national anthem Denes nad Makedonija ("Today over Macedonia"). Since the day is also the symbolic date on which in 1944 the SR Macedonia was proclaimed at ASNOM's first session as a constituent republic of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, the ASNOM event is referred as the "Second Ilinden" in North Macedonia. Macedonian historians connected the uprising with the National Liberation Struggle during World War II, thus SR Macedonia was regarded as having fulfilled the goals of the uprising. In the Macedonian narrative, there have been attempts to establish a continuity between Ilinden and other events such as the establishment of IMARO in 1893, Karposh's uprising and the battle of Chaeronea. This campaign was promoted by the Macedonian Academy of Sciences and Arts. Starting from the communist period, Bulgarian academics began speaking about the Ilinden-Preobrazhenie Uprising, linking both uprisings. In Bulgaria, it is officially called by that term, considered as a joint struggle of the Bulgarians from Macedonia and Thrace. According to Heraclides, the Bulgarian historian Tchavdar Marinov explained to him that the Ilinden Uprising is the founding myth of the Macedonian identity in all its formulations, and the Bulgarian state has tried to appropriate the myth of the Ilinden Uprising and include it in the pan-Bulgarian narrative, since the uprising in Bulgaria does not have the same value as in North Macedonia and is much less popular compared to the April Uprising of 1876, which is the Bulgarian foundation myth. Attempts from Bulgarian officials for joint actions and celebration of the Ilinden uprising were rejected from the Macedonian side as unacceptable. According to anthropologist Keith Brown, there is evidence in the historical record to confirm the narratives of the three historiographies (Macedonian, Bulgarian and Greek). The treaty also resulted in the creation of an intergovernmental historical commission to "objectively re-examine the common history" of Bulgaria and Macedonia and envisages both countries will celebrate together events from their shared history. In an interview on August 4, 2018, Zaev said that "the Ilinden uprising is Macedonian" and "if any citizen of Bulgaria wants to celebrate it, let them celebrate it." On October 9, 2019, the Bulgarian government issued its "Framework Position" on the enlargement of the European Union for North Macedonia and Albania, including a condition for the intergovernmental historical commission to reach an agreement about the uprising. In 2020, Bulgaria blocked the candidature of North Macedonia to the European Union over an 'ongoing nation-building process' based on historical negationism of the Bulgarian legacy in the broader region of Macedonia. ==Honors==

In Bulgaria • Ilindentsi village in Strumyani Municipality, in Blagoevgrad Province is named after the uprising • Preobrazhentsi village in Ruen Municipality, in Burgas Province is named after the uprising • Ilinden village in Hadzhidimovo Municipality, in Blagoevgrad Province is named after the uprising • Ilinden, Sofia is a district of Sofia, located in the western parts of the city, named after the uprising • OMO Ilinden-Pirin, ethnic Macedonian organization in Bulgaria • Ilinden (organization) was a veteran nonpolitical organization set up by Bulgarian refugees from Macedonia. In North Macedonia • Ilinden Municipality, in the Skopje region • Ilinden, the seat of Ilinden Municipality • Ilinden is a peak on Baba Mountain in Pelister National Park • FK Ilinden 1955 Bašino, football club near Veles • FK Ilinden Skopje, football club in the village of Ilinden Elsewhere • Ilinden Peak on Greenwich Island in the South Shetland Islands, Antarctica, is named after the uprising • Rockdale Ilinden FC football club in Sydney, Australia ==Gallery==

File:Macedonian refugees in Bulgaria, 1903.jpg|L'Illustration magazine depicting Macedonian Bulgarian refugees crossing the Ottoman - Bulgaria border after the Ilinden Uprising. File:BASA-1932K-1-435-1.jpg|One of the Kruševo chetas during the uprising File:Macedonians Take Towns - New York Times August 14 1903.jpg|The events in the Ilinden Uprising as seen by the American New York Times; August 14, 1903. File:IMARO Activists - Bulgarian Comitadjii - Captured by the Allies Police.jpg|A convoy of captured Bulgarian IMRO activists File:Macedonian demonstration in Sofia after the Ilinden Uprising.JPG|L'Illustration magazine depicting a refugee demonstration in Sofia, Bulgaria, after the crushing of the Uprising. File:Puck magazine, 1903 October 7.jpg|A Puck Magazine satirical illustration depicting Bulgaria and Macedonia as Russian puppets, sword fighting, with the Bulgarian one about to decapitate the Macedonian one, October 1903. File:Викиекспедиција Железник 264.jpg|Museum in Smilevo dedicated to the Smilevo congress of May 1903, on which the decision for a uprising was confirmed and the date was chosen ==See also==