Gotse Delchev
Template:Short description {{#invoke:other uses|otheruses}} Template:Pp-vandalism Template:Family name hatnote Template:Use dmy dates Template:Infobox military person Georgi Nikolov Delchev (Template:Langx; Template:Langx; 4 February 1872 – 4 May 1903), known as Gotse Delchev or Goce Delčev (Гоце Делчев),<ref group="note">Originally spelled in older Bulgarian orthography as Гоце Дѣлчевъ. - Гоце Дѣлчевъ. Биография. П.К. Яворовъ, 1904.</ref> was a prominent Macedonian Bulgarian revolutionary (komitadji) and one of the most important leaders of what is commonly known as the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization (IMRO),<ref>Template:Multiref2</ref> active in the Ottoman-ruled Macedonia and Adrianople regions, as well as in Bulgaria, at the turn of the 20th century.<ref name="kb">Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Delchev was IMRO's foreign representative in Sofia, the capital of the Principality of Bulgaria.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> As such, he was also a member of the Supreme Macedonian-Adrianople Committee (SMAC) for a period,<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> participating in the work of its governing body.<ref name="dm">Template:Cite book</ref> He was killed in a skirmish with an Ottoman unit on the eve of the Ilinden-Preobrazhenie Uprising.
Born into a Bulgarian Millet affiliated family in Kukush (today Kilkis in Greece),<ref name="Johnson">Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Delchev was born into a family of Bulgarian Uniates, who later switched to Bulgarian Еxarchists. For more see: Светозар Елдъров, Униатството в съдбата на България: очерци из историята на българската католическа църква от източен обред, Абагар, 1994, Template:ISBN, стр. 15.</ref> then in the Salonika vilayet of the Ottoman Empire. In his youth he was inspired by the ideals of earlier Bulgarian revolutionaries such as Vasil Levski and Hristo Botev, who envisioned the creation of a Bulgarian republic of ethnic and religious equality, as part of an imagined Balkan Federation.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Delchev completed his secondary education in the Bulgarian Men's High School of Thessaloniki and entered the Military School of His Princely Highness in Sofia, but at the final stage of his study, he was dismissed for holding socialist literature.<ref name="Heraclides">Template:Cite book</ref><ref name="hp">Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Then he returned to Ottoman Macedonia and worked as a Bulgarian Exarchate schoolteacher, and immediately became an activist of the newly-found revolutionary movement in 1894.<ref name="detrez">Template:Cite book</ref>
Although considering himself to be an inheritor of the Bulgarian revolutionary traditions,<ref name="dm" /> he opted for Macedonian autonomy.<ref name="todorova">Template:Cite book</ref> For him, like for many Slavic Macedonian prominent intellectuals, originating from an area with mixed population,<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref name="Ljuljanovic">Template:Cite book</ref> the idea of being 'Macedonian' acquired the importance of a certain native loyalty, that constructed a specific spirit of "local patriotism" and "multi-ethnic regionalism".<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> He maintained the slogan promoted by William Ewart Gladstone, "Macedonia for the Macedonians", including all different nationalities inhabiting the area.<ref>Template:Cite book, p. 56</ref><ref name="Mishkova">Template:Cite book</ref><ref name="karakasidou">Template:Cite book</ref> Delchev was also an adherent of incipient socialism.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref name="Ljuljanovic"/><ref name="Tunçay">Template:Cite book</ref> His political agenda became the establishment through revolution of autonomy for Macedonia and Adrianople regions into the framework of the Ottoman Empire, which in the case of Macedonia would lead to her full independence and inclusion within a future Balkan Federation.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref name="Johnson"/><ref name="Banac">Template:Cite book</ref><ref name="Heraclides"/> Despite having been educated in the spirit of Bulgarian nationalism, he was an opponent of the incorporation of Macedonia inside Bulgaria.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref name="nla">Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref name="Ljuljanovic"/><ref name="todorova"/> Furthermore, he revised the Organization's statute, where the membership was allowed only for Bulgarians, in order for it to depart from the exclusively Bulgarian nature, and IMRO begun to acquire a more separatist stance.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref name="Banac"/><ref>Template:Cite book</ref> In this way he emphasized the importance of cooperation among all ethnic groups in the territories concerned in order to obtain full political autonomy.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref name="detrez" />
Delchev is considered a national hero in Bulgaria and North Macedonia. In the latter it is claimed he was an ethnic Macedonian revolutionary. Thus, his legacy has been disputed between both countries.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> Delchev's autonomist ideas have stimulated the subsequent development of Macedonian nationalism.<ref name="Marinov">Template:Cite book</ref><ref name="Heraclides"/> Nevertheless, for part of the members of IMRO behind the idea of autonomy a reserve plan for eventual annexation by Bulgaria was hidden.<ref name="Ipek">Template:Cite book</ref><ref >Template:Cite book</ref> Per some of his contemporaries, closely associated with him, Delchev supported Macedonia's incorporation into Bulgaria as another option too.<ref name="Ljuljanovic"/> Other researchers find the identity of Delchev and other IMRO figures to be open to different interpretations.
Life
Early life
He was born to a large family on 4 February 1872 (23 January according to the Julian calendar) in Kılkış (Kukush), then in the Ottoman Empire (today in Greece), to Nikola and Sultana. He was christened as Georgi.<ref name="mm">Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>An 1873 Ottoman study, published in 1878 as "Ethnographie des Vilayets d'Andrinople, de Monastir et de Salonique", concluded that the population of Kilkis consisted of 1,170 households, of which there were 5,235 Bulgarian inhabitants, 155 Muslims and 40 Romani people. "Македония и Одринско. Статистика на населението от 1873 г." Macedonian Scientific Institute, Sofia, 1995, pp.160-161. </ref><ref>Khristov, Khristo Dechkov. The Bulgarian Nation During the National Revival Period. Institut za istoria, Izd-vo na Bŭlgarskata akademia na naukite, 1980, str. 293. </ref> During the 1860s and 1870s, Kukush was under the jurisdiction of the Bulgarian Uniate Church,<ref>Template:Cite book </ref><ref>In one five-year period, there were 57 Catholic villages in the area, whilst the Bulgarian uniate schools in the Vilayet of Thessaloniki reached 64. Gounaris, Basil C. National Claims, Conflicts and Developments in Macedonia, 1870–1912, p. 186. </ref> but after 1884 most of its population gradually joined the Bulgarian Exarchate.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> As a student, Delchev studied first at the Bulgarian Uniate primary school and then at the Bulgarian Exarchate junior high school.<ref>Гоце Делчев, Писма и други материали, издирил и подготвил за печат Дино Кьосев, отговорен редактор Воин Божинов (Изд. на Българската академия на науките, Институт за история, София 1967) стр. 15.</ref> He also read widely in the town's chitalishte (community cultural center), where he was impressed with revolutionary books, and was especially imbued with thoughts of the liberation of Bulgaria.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> In 1888 his family sent him to the Bulgarian Men's High School of Thessaloniki, where he organized and led a secret revolutionary brotherhood.<ref name="jb">Template:Cite web</ref> Delchev also distributed revolutionary literature, which he acquired from the school's graduates who studied in Bulgaria. Bulgarian students graduating from high school were faced with few career prospects and Delchev decided to follow the path of his former schoolmate Boris Sarafov, entering the military school in Sofia in 1891. He became disappointed with life in Bulgaria, especially the commercialized life of the society in Sofia and with the authoritarian politics of the prime minister Stefan Stambolov,<ref name="jb" /> accused of being a dictator.<ref name="dm" />
Delchev spent his leaves from school in the company of socialists and Macedonian-born emigrants, most of them belonged to the Young Macedonian Literary Society.<ref name="jb" /> One of his friends was Vasil Glavinov, a future leader of the Macedonian-Adrianople Social Democratic Group, a faction of the Bulgarian Social Democratic Workers Party.<ref name="mm" /> Through Glavinov and his comrades, he came into contact with different people, who offered a new form of social struggle. In June 1892, Delchev and the journalist Kosta Shahov, a chairman of the Young Macedonian Literary Society, met in Sofia with Ivan Hadzhinikolov, a bookseller from Thessaloniki (Salonika). Hadzhinikolov disclosed at this meeting his plans to create a revolutionary organization in Ottoman Macedonia. They discussed together its basic principles and agreed fully on all scores. Delchev explained that he had no intention of remaining an officer and promised after graduating from the Military School, he would return to Macedonia to join the organization.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> In September 1894, only a month before graduation, he was expelled for his socialist and revolutionary ideas.<ref name="va">Template:Cite book</ref><ref name="ffap">Template:Cite book</ref><ref name="nla"/> He was given the possibility to enter the Army again by re-applying for a commission, but he refused. Afterwards he returned to Macedonia to become a teacher and set up secret committees, based on Vasil Levski's example.<ref name="ffap" /> At that time, the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization (IMRO) was in its early stages of development, forming its committees around the Bulgarian Exarchate schools in order to exploit the extensive school system.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
Teacher and revolutionary
In Ottoman Salonika, IMRO was founded in 1893, by a small band of anti-Ottoman Macedono-Bulgarian revolutionaries, including Hadzhinikolov. The earliest known statute of the Organization calls it Bulgarian Macedonian-Adrianople Revolutionary Committees (BMARC).<ref name="hp" /><ref>Template:Cite book </ref> It was decided at a meeting in Resen in August 1894 to preferably recruit teachers from the Bulgarian schools as committee members.<ref name="va" /> Although Delchev despised the Exarchate policy in Macedonia, in 1894 he became a teacher in an Exarchate school in Štip.<ref name="mp">Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref> There he met another teacher, Dame Gruev, who was also among the founders of IMRO and a leader of the newly established local committee.<ref name="mm" /> Gruev told him about the existence of the Organization.<ref name="ffap" /> Delchev impressed Gruev with his honesty and joined the Organization immediately, gradually becoming one of its main leaders.<ref name="nla" /> Delchev advocated for the establishment of a secret revolutionary network, that would prepare the population for an armed uprising against the Ottoman rule, based on Levski's example.<ref name="detrez" /> They shared common views with Gruev that the liberation had to be achieved internally by a Macedonian organization without any foreign intervention.<ref name="nla" /><ref name="va" /> Therefore, Gruev concentrated his attention on Štip, while Delchev attempted to win over the surrounding villages.<ref name="va" /> It is unknown how many active members the Organization had from 1893 to 1897. Despite his and Gruev's efforts, the number of members grew slowly.<ref name="nla" /> In a letter from 1895, Delchev explained that the liberation of Macedonia as a state lies in an internal uprising for which a systematic agitation was conducted in order for the population to be ready in the near future, otherwise the result of a premature uprising would be tragic.<ref name="mm" /> Delchev travelled during the vacations throughout Macedonia and established and organized committees in villages and cities. In this period, he adopted Ahil (Archilles) as his nom de guerre.<ref name="mm" /> Furthermore, he organized secret border crossing points towards Bulgaria near Kyustendil for easier infiltration of revolutionary propaganda literature.<ref name="nla" />
Delchev also established contacts with some of the leaders of the Supreme Macedonian-Adrianople Committee (SMAC). Its official declaration was a struggle for the autonomy of the Macedonian and Adrianople regions.<ref>The earliest document which talks about the autonomy of Macedonia and Thrace into the Ottoman Empire is the resolution of the First congress of the Supreme Macedonian Committee held in Sofia in 1895. От София до Костур -освободителните борби на българите от Македония в спомени на дейци от Върховния македоно-одрински комитет, Ива Бурилкова, Цочо Билярски - съставители, Template:ISBN, Синева, 2003, стр. 6.</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref> However, as a rule, most of SMAC's leaders were officers with strong connections with the Bulgarian governments and prince Ferdinand, waging terrorist struggle against the Ottomans in the hope of provoking a war and thus Bulgarian annexation of both areas. In late 1895 he arrived in Bulgaria's capital Sofia from the name of the "Bulgarian Central Macedonian-Adrianopolitan Revolutionary Committee" to prevent any foreign interference in its work.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> In February 1896, he met SMAC's new leader Danail Nikolaev, their conversation was turbulent and short. Namely, Nikolaev asserted that the only way to freedom was with trained Bulgarian soldiers and clandestine aid and finance of the Bulgarian government. Moreover, he considered Delchev a brash youngster and deemed unreal and absurd the idea of peasant uprising by revolutionary impulsion of the Macedonian Slavs.<ref name="nla" /><ref name="mp" /> SMAC wanted IMRO to be subordinated to them, and Bulgarian army officers to dominate their activity, while IMRO wanted to remain independent of Bulgarian governmental control.<ref name="Ipek" /> After spending the 1895/1896 school year as a teacher in the town of Bansko, in May 1896 he was arrested by the Ottoman authorities as a person suspected of revolutionary activity and spent about a month in jail. Delchev participated in the Thessaloniki Congress of the IMRO in 1896.<ref name="nla" /> The Central Committee was placed in Salonika. He, along with Gyorche Petrov, wrote the new organization's statute, which divided Macedonia and Adrianople areas into seven regions, each with a regional structure and secret police, following the Internal Revolutionary Organization's example.<ref name="hp" /><ref name="petrov">"Спомени на Гьорчо Петров", поредица Материяли за историята на македонското освободително движение, книга VIII, София, 1927, глава VII, (in English: "Memoirs of Gyorcho Petrov", series Materials about history of the Macedonian revolutionary movement, book VIII, Sofia, 1927, chapter VII). </ref> Afterwards, Delchev gave his resignation as a teacher and in the same year, he moved back to Bulgaria.<ref name="py">Template:Cite book</ref>
Revolutionary activity as part of the leadership of the Organization
The Central Committee regarded as necessary to have trustworthy permanent representatives in Sofia in order to mediate the tense relations with the SMAC, because IMRO looked to avoid a break since it was largely dependent on Bulgarian state material and financial assistance. Thus, from November 1896, Delchev was put in charge of the Foreign Representation of the IMRO alongside Petrov who joined him in March 1897. Besides the dialogue with the SMAC, they were assigned to acquire funds or additional support and preserve ties with all those in the Bulgaria who were approving of the Macedonian cause.<ref name="mm" /><ref name="Mishkova"/><ref name="nla" /> Delchev envisioned independent production of weapons and traveled in 1897 to Odessa,<ref name="mm" /> where he met with Armenian revolutionaries Stepan Zorian and Christapor Mikaelian to exchange terrorist skills and especially bomb-making.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> That resulted in the establishment of a bomb manufacturing plant in the village of Sabler near Kyustendil in Bulgaria. The bombs were later smuggled across the Ottoman border into Macedonia.<ref name="py" /> In the period from 1897 to 1898 the Organization decided to create permanent acting armed komitadji bands (chetas) in every district, with Delchev as their leader.<ref name="bechev">Template:Cite book</ref> He was the first to organize and lead a band into Macedonia with the purpose of robbing or kidnapping rich Turks. This activity of his had variable success.<ref name="mp"/> His experiences demonstrate the weaknesses and difficulties which the Organization faced in its early years.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
After 1897 there was a rapid growth of secret Bulgarian army officers' brotherhoods, whose members by 1900 numbered about a thousand.<ref>Modern history abstracts, 1450–1914, Volume 48, Issue 1–, American Bibliographical Center, Eric H. Boehm, ABC-Clio, 1997, p. 657.</ref> Much of the brotherhoods' activists were involved in the revolutionary activity of the IMRO, collecting funds and petitions in support of the Macedonian cause.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> They were formed on the initiative of Petrov by officers with whom he managed to develop good raport, one of them being the lieutenant Boris Sarafov.<ref name="nla" /> Delchev was also among the main supporters of their activities.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Relations with the SMAC did not improve and remained tense until 1899. In May that year, on the 6th Congress of the SMAC, Sarafov was elected as new president after being proposed by Petrov and Delchev.<ref name="va" /> However, their first choice was Dimitar Blagoev by whose socialist ideas Delchev was specifically influenced, but he declined. Thus, they settled for Delchev's former schoolmate Sarafov, who they saw as favorable to IMRO's ideas even though their personalities differed.<ref name="nla" /><ref name="Heraclides" /> IMRO delegates Delchev and Petrov became by rights members of the leadership of the SMAC in May 1899, thus this signaled the start of a period of close cooperation.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref name="nla" /> Although Sarafov proved capable of propagating the Macedonian cause and raise money, he was also arrogant and unpredictable, so Delchev and Petrov were unable to utilize him.<ref name="Heraclides" />
In 1900, Delchev resided for a while in Burgas, where he organized another bomb manufacturing plant, whose dynamite was used later by the Boatmen of Thessaloniki.<ref>Иван Карайотов, Стоян Райчевски, Митко Иванов: История на Бургас. От древността до средата на ХХ век, Печат Тафпринт ООД, Пловдив, 2011, Template:ISBN, стр. 192–193.</ref> In March 1900, Gotse Delchev, accompanied by Lazar Madzharov, went on a tour of Strandzha Mountain, aiming better coordination between Macedonian and Thracian revolutionary committees, returning to Burgas in mid-April.<ref>Иван Карайотов, Стоян Райчевски, Митко Иванов: История на Бургас. От древността до средата на ХХ век, Печат Тафпринт ООД, Пловдив, 2011, Template:ISBN, стр. 192 – 193</ref> After the SMAC's assassination of the Romanian newspaper editor Ștefan Mihăileanu in July, who had published unflattering remarks about the Macedonian affairs, Bulgaria and Romania were brought to the brink of war. At that time Delchev was preparing to organize a detachment which, in a possible war to support the Bulgarian army by its actions in Northern Dobruja, where a compact Bulgarian population was available.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Meanwhile, Sarafov was reelected as president in August, and with that the involvement of Delchev and Petrov in the SMAC's work resumed. However, deep disagreements still existed, essentially concerning the ultimate aim of the autonomy which in IMRO's case was independent Macedonia as part of a future Balkan Federation, while for the SMAC it was unification with Bulgaria. Other instances were difference in mentality and social origin between "schoolteachers" and "officers", of which the latter desired to command the liberation operations, as well as the distrust by them in the idea of a peasant uprising led by teachers. The chief figure in this contemptuous attitude was General Ivan Tsonchev, who was intimate with the Bulgarian prince Ferdinand and his court.<ref name="nla" /> He was also the leader of those who intended through the cooperation to subordinate IMRO and he begun to work against Delchev and Petrov.<ref name="hp" /> Tsonchev and his supporters insisted on an immediate uprising which will be led by Bulgarian army officers. Consequently, Delchev with Petrov resisted Tsonchev's faction, as they asserted that the time for a uprising is not ripe since the population is still not ready to liberate itself, thus political agitation and guerilla fighting should proceed. On the other hand, Tsonchev's faction briefly contemplated assassinating them. Towards the end of 1900, the relations between the IMRO and SMAC deteriorated gradually.<ref name="va" /><ref name="nla" /> Furthermore, the ideologically inclined Ivan Garvanov offered Tsonchev control over IMRO, after managing to become de facto its leader by acquiring the archive and accounts, following the arrest of the Central Committee members in the beginning of 1901.<ref name="mp" /> Therefore, in March 1901, Delchev alongside Petrov sent a circular to local IMRO committee leaders, denouncing the attempt of SMAC to seize the direction of IMRO. They ordered the termination of all relations with it, as well as ordered all local committees to refuse any transition of any armed group which did not have a pass signed by him or Petrov, and their weapons to be seized.<ref name="nla" /> Delchev intended to promote an election list directed against Tsonchev at SMAC's 9th Congress in July 1901.<ref name="va" /> Nevertheless, Sarafov was replaced by Stoyan Mihaylovski, while Tsonchev became the vice-president and assumed full control with his officers. After this, the relations between the SMAC and IMRO were limited and increasingly hostile.<ref name="nla" /> In September, Delchev and Petrov were replaced as foreign representatives of IMRO. From 1901 to 1902, Delchev made an important inspection in Macedonia, touring all revolutionary districts there. He also led the congress of the Adrianople revolutionary district held in Plovdiv in April 1902. Afterwards he inspected IMRO's structures in the Central Rhodopes. The inclusion of the rural areas into the organizational districts contributed to the expansion of the Organization and the increase in its membership, while providing the essential prerequisites for the formation of its military power, at the same time having Delchev as its military advisor (inspector) and chief of all internal revolutionary bands.<ref name="py" /> In August, despite being invited he refused to attend the 10th Congress of the SMAC, which escalated the crisis with IMRO.<ref name="nla" />
In late December 1902, Garvanov unexpectedly declared that a congress of IMRO will take place the following month. Particularly intended for a date of a general uprising in 1903 to be decided.<ref name="nla" /> By that time two strong tendencies had crystallized within IMRO. The Bulgarian nationalist majority was convinced that if the Organization would unleash a general uprising, it will lead to the collapse of the Ottoman Empire.<ref name="Tunçay"/> On the other hand, the leaders of the IMRO leftists, Delchev with Petrov strongly protested, elaborating that the komitadjis are not adequately prepared and a premature uprising will only result in massacre, endangering the whole organization as well.<ref name="bechev" /><ref name="Tunçay"/> However, without waiting for their reaction, Garvanov organized the Salonika Congress on 15 January 1903, with only 17 delegates cautiously selected to be favorable to his ideas.<ref name="mp" /><ref name="nla" /> Delchev did not participate nor any of the other leaders or founders of IMRO.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> A general uprising was debated and under the influence of Garvanov it was decided to stage one in May 1903. The opponents of the decision refused to recognize it.<ref name="nla" /> Delchev, with the anarchist Mihail Gerdzhikov, proposed instead intensifying terrorist tactics and guerilla tactics, which came to approval and postponement of the uprising by Garvanov's supporters, on the condition that it will lead to provoking revolts in the districts estimated sufficiently prepared.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Пейо Яворов, "Събрани съчинения", Том втори, "Гоце Делчев", Издателство "Български писател", София, 1977, стр. 62–66. Template:In lang In English: Peyo Yavorov, "Complete Works", Volume 2, biography Delchev, Publishing house "Bulgarian writer", Sofia, 1977, pp. 62–66.</ref> Thus Delchev and Petrov established terror units, which were associated with the anarchist organization Macedonian Secret Revolutionary Committee.<ref name="Tunçay"/><ref name="nla" /><ref name="hp"/> With the arrival of spring, IMRO multiplied the attacks, and the violence grew significantly. Delchev went to Macedonia to meet in the Serres region with Yane Sandanski seeking support and understanding, as he was always ideologically concurred to him, and he shared the view to oppose the general uprising decision.<ref name="mp" /><ref name="mm" /> Towards the end of March 1903, Delchev with his band destroyed the 30 meters long Salonika-Istanbul railway bridge over the Angista river between Serres and Drama, aiming to test the new terror tactics.<ref name="mm" /><ref name="nla" />
Death and aftermath
In late April he set out for Thessaloniki to meet with Dame Gruev after his release from prison in March 1903. Delchev hoped that he will argue against the uprising, but Gruev wanted it to proceed since the course of events had become unrepairable. Therefore, Delchev agreed to prepare as much he can in the Serres district and headed that way with the intention of holding a regional congress in Serres to lay out his plans for the uprising.<ref name="mp" /> At the same time, the terror initiated by IMRO culminated on 28 April when the Boatmen of Thessaloniki started their terrorist attacks in the city, of whom only Delchev knew they will happen.<ref name="nla" /> As a consequence martial law was declared in the city and many Ottoman soldiers and "bashibozouks" were concentrated in the Salonika vilayet. This increased tension led eventually to the tracking of Delchev's cheta and his subsequent death.<ref name="hp" /><ref>Template:Cite book </ref> With his cheta he arrived in the village of Banitsa on 2 May for a meeting with Dimo Hadži Dimov. Soon after, they were surrounded and a skirmish followed in which Delchev was killed on 4 May 1903, with a shot to the chest,<ref name="nla" /> by Ottoman troops led by his former schoolmate Hussein Tefikov.<ref name="bechev" /><ref>Template:Cite book</ref> A consular source reported that the skirmish occurred after betrayal by local villager.<ref>Пейо Яворов, "Събрани съчинения", Том втори, "Гоце Делчев", Издателство "Български писател", София, 1977, стр. 69. Template:In lang In English: Peyo Yavorov, "Complete Works", Volume 2, biography Delchev, Publishing house "Bulgarian writer", Sofia, 1977, p. 69. </ref> The Ottomans sent his severed head to Salonika.<ref name="mp" /> Thus the Macedonian liberation movement lost its most important organizer and ideologist, on the eve of the Ilinden Uprising.<ref name="detrez" /> He was recognized as "the most capable and most honest Komitadji" by missionaries.<ref name="kb" /> After being identified by the local authorities in Serres, the bodies of Delchev and his comrade, Dimitar Gushtanov, were buried in a common grave in Banitsa. Following the skirmish, more than 500 arrests were made in various districts of Serres and 1,700 households petitioned to return from Exarchist to Patriarchist jurisdiction.<ref name="Ipek" /> Soon afterwards IMRO, aided by SMAC, organized the uprising against the Ottoman Empire, which after initial successes, was defeated with many casualties.<ref>Template:Cite book </ref> Two of his brothers, Mitso and Milan were also killed fighting against the Ottomans as militants in the IMRO chetas of the Bulgarian voivodas Hristo Chernopeev and Krastyo Asenov in 1901 and 1903, respectively. The Bulgarian government later granted a pension to their father Nikola, because of the contribution of his sons to the freedom of Macedonia.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> During the Second Balkan War of 1913, Kilkis, which had been annexed by Bulgaria in the First Balkan War, was taken by the Greeks. Virtually all of its pre-war 7,000 Bulgarian inhabitants, including Delchev's family, were expelled to Bulgaria by the Greek Army.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> During Balkan Wars, when Bulgaria was temporarily in control of the area, Delchev's remains were transferred to Xanthi, then in Bulgaria. After Western Thrace was ceded to Greece in 1919, the relic was brought to Plovdiv and in 1923 to Sofia, where it rested until after World War II.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> During World War II, the area was taken by the Kingdom of Bulgaria again and Delchev's grave near Banitsa was restored.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In May 1943, on the occasion of the 40th anniversary of his death, a memorial plaque was set in Banitsa, in the presence of his sisters and other public figures.<ref>On the plate was this inscription: "In memory of fallen chetniks in the village of Banica on 4 May 1903 for the unification of Macedonia to the mother-country Bulgaria and to the eternal memory of the generations: Gotse Delchev from Kilkis, apostle and leader, Dimitar Gushtanov from Krushovo, Stefan Duhov from the village of Tarlis, Stoyan Zahariev from the village of Banica, Dimitar Palyankov from the village of Gorno Brodi. Their covenant was Freedom or Death." For more: Васил Станчев (2003) Четвъртата версия за убийството на Гоце Делчев, Дружество "Гоце Делчев", Стара Загора, стр. 9.</ref>
The first biographical book about Delchev was issued in 1904 by his friend and comrade in arms, the Bulgarian poet Peyo Yavorov.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> The most detailed biography of Delchev in English was written by English historian Mercia MacDermott called Freedom or Death: The Life of Gotse Delchev, published in 1978 and translated into Bulgarian in 1979.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
Views
The international, cosmopolitan views of Delchev could be summarized in his proverbial sentence: "I understand the world solely as a field for cultural competition among the peoples".<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Per MacDermott, his saying presupposes a world without political and economic conflicts and one which has a very high degree of mutual friendship and co-operation on an international level.<ref name="ffap" /> In the late 19th century the anarchists and socialists from Bulgaria linked their struggle closely with the revolutionary movements in Macedonia and Thrace.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Thus, as a young cadet in Sofia Delchev became a member of a left-wing circle, where he was influenced by modern Marxist and Bakunin's ideas.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> His views were formed also under the influence of the ideas of earlier anti-Ottoman fighters as Levski, Botev, and Stoyanov,<ref name="todorova" /> who were among the founders of the Bulgarian Internal Revolutionary Organization, the Bulgarian Revolutionary Central Committee and the Bulgarian Secret Central Revolutionary Committee, respectively. Later he participated in the Internal Organization's struggle as a well-educated leader.
According to MacDermott, based on the Bulgarian historian Konstatin Pandev, he was the co-author of BMARC's statute, although this is disputed.<ref>"As a result of the (Salonica) Congress in 1896 a new Statute and Rules, providing for a very centralized form of organization were drawn up by Gyorché Petrov and Gotsé Delchev. The Statute and Rules were probably largely Gyorche's work, based on guidelines agreed by the Congress. He attempted to draw members of the Supreme Macedonian Committee into the task of drafting the Statute by approaching (Andrey) Lyapchev and (Dimitar) Rizov. When, however, Lyapchev produced a first article which would have made the Organization a branch of the Supreme Committee, Gyorché gave up in despair and wrote the Statute himself, with Gotsé's assistance." For more see: Mercia MacDermott, Freedom or Death: The Life of Gotsé Delchev, p. 144.</ref><ref>"During Gotsé's lifetime, the Organization had three Statutes: the first was drawn up by Damé Gruev in 1894, the second by Gyorché Petrov, with some help from Gotsé, after the Salonika Congress in 1896, and the third by Gotsé in 1902 (this was an amended version of the second). Two of these Statutes have come down to us: one entitled 'The Statute of the Bulgarian Macedonian-Adrianople Committees' (BMARC) and the other - 'The Statute of the Secret Macedonian-Adrianople Revolutionary Organization' (SMARO). Neither, however, is dated, and it was long assumed that the Statute of the Secret Macedonian-Adrianople Revolutionary Organization was the one adopted after the Salonika Congress of 1896." For more see: Mercia MacDermott, Freedom or Death: The Life of Gotsé Delchev, p. 157.</ref><ref name="nla"/> Delchev initiated the changing of the exclusively Bulgarian character of the organization, which determined that members of the organization could be only Bulgarians. Accordingly, a new supra-nationalistic statute was created by him and Petrov in 1896 or 1902, with whom under a new name the Secret Macedono-Adrianopolitan Revolutionary Organization (SMARO), was to become an insurgent organization, open to all Macedonians and Thracians regardless of nationality, who wished to participate in the movement for their autonomy.<ref name="nla"/><ref name="Banac"/> This aim was especially facilitated by the unrealized 23rd. article of the Treaty of Berlin (1878), which promised future autonomy for unspecified territories in European Turkey, settled with Christian population.<ref>Template:Cite book </ref> Delchev's main goal, along with the other revolutionaries, was the implementation of Article 23 of the treaty, aimed at acquiring full autonomy of Macedonia and the Adrianople.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Delchev is considered to be the leader of the leftist faction within IMRO, which firmly opposed the inclusion of Macedonia into Bulgaria, and sought the autonomy to evolve in independence for Macedonia, with her subsequent incorporation into a envisioned Balkan Federation.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref name="Tunçay"/> Despite his Bulgarian loyalty, he was against any chauvinistic propaganda and nationalist disputes over Macedonia and the Adrianople.<ref name="Banac" /><ref>Template:Cite book </ref> On the other hand, per Bulgarian academic sources and some of his contemporaries, Delchev supported Macedonia's eventual incorporation into Bulgaria.<ref>Yordan Badev recalls in his memoirs that Gotse Delchev, Boris Sarafov, Efrem Chuchkov, and Boris Drangov had organized a group of Bulgarians born in Macedonia to propagate for the future unification of Macedonia and Bulgaria among the cadets of the military school in Sofia. For more see: Katrin Bozeva-Abazi, The Shaping of Bulgarian and Serbian National Identities, 1800s-1900s, thesis, McGill University Department of History, 2003, p. 189; Kosta Tsipushev recalls how, when he and some friends asked Gotsé why they were fighting for the autonomy of Macedonia and Thrace instead of their liberation and reunification with the motherland, he replied: Comrades, can't you see that we are now the slaves not of the Turkish state, which is in the process of disintegration, but of the Great Powers in Europe, before whom Turkey signed her total capitulation in Berlin. That is why we have to struggle for the autonomy of Macedonia and Thrace, in order to preserve them in their entirety, as a stage towards their reunification with our common Bulgarian fatherland... For more see: (MacDermott 1978:322); Pavlos Kyrou (Pavel Kirov) from Zhelevo claims in his memoirs that once, when Delchev came from Bulgaria, he met him in Konomladi. Delchev insisted there that Greek priests and schoolmasters are obstacles. He maintained also that all the local Slavophones are Bulgarians and they must work for Bulgarian cause, because its army will come and help them to throw off the Turkish yoke. For more see: Allen Upward, The East End of Europe, 1908: The Report of an Unofficial Mission to the European Provinces of Turkey on the Eve of the Revolution (Classic Reprint), BiblioBazaar, 2015, Template:ISBN, p. 326; In the memories of Andon Kyoseto, it is alleged that Delchev explained him that SMARO cannot win full freedom for Macedonia, but it will fight at least for autonomy. The ultimate goal of the Organization, according to Delchev, is a secrecy, but one day, sooner or later, Macedonia will unite itself with Bulgaria, and Greece and Serbia should not doubt in that. For more see: Б. Мирчев, Из спомените на Андон Лазов - Кьосето, сп. Родина, г. VІ, бр. 1, октомври 1931, стр. 12-14.; On 12 January 1903 his fellow Peyo Yavorov recorded one of Delchev's last messages in his shorthand notes, when they crossеd the misty border of Bulgaria to the Ottoman Empire entering Macedonia, namely: "I pointed out the misty area on Delchev, who was close to me and I said: Look, Macedonia welcomes us mourning!" But he answered: “We will tear away this veil and the sun of freedom will arise, but it will be a Bulgarian sun”. For more see: Милкана Бошнакова, Личните бележници на П. К. Яворов, Издателство: Захарий Стоянов, Template:ISBN, 2008.</ref><ref>Идеята за автономия като тактика в програмите на национално-освободителното движение в Македония и Одринско (1893–1941), Димитър Гоцев, 1983, Изд. на Българска Академия на Науките, София, 1983, c. 17.; in English: The idea for autonomy as a tactics in the programs of the National Liberation movements in Macedonia and Adrianople regions 1893–1941", Sofia, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, Dimitar v, 1983, p. 17. (55. ЦПА, ф. 226); срв. К. Ципушев. 19 години в сръбските затвори, СУ Св. Климент Охридски, 2004, Template:ISBN стр. 31–32. in English: Kosta Tsipushev, 19 years in Serbian prisons, Sofia University publishing house, 2004, Template:ISBN, p. 31-32. </ref><ref>Гоце Делчев. Писма и други материали, Дино Кьосев, Биографичен очерк, стр. 33. </ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Per Anastasia Karakasidou, Delchev and others with same ideas like him often left the links between an independent Macedonia and neighboring Bulgaria ill-defined.<ref name="karakasidou"/> For militants such as Delchev and other leftists that participated in the national movement retaining a political outlook, national liberation meant "radical political liberation through shaking off the social shackles".<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> According to researcher James Horncastle, he believed that revolutionary terror was necessary to create an autonomous Macedonia.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Per Delchev, no outside force could or would help the Organization and it ought to rely only upon itself and only upon its own will and strength. He thought that any intervention by Bulgaria would provoke intervention by the neighboring states as well and could result in Macedonia and Thrace being torn apart. That is why the peoples of these two regions had to win their own freedom and independence, within the frontiers of an autonomous Macedonian-Adrianople state.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
Legacy
Communist period
During World War II, the Macedonian communist partisans associated their struggle with the ideals of Delchev and IMRO. The culmination of the struggle was the establishment of the Socialist Republic of Macedonia in 1944.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref name="dawisha&parrott">Template:Cite book</ref> In late 1944, new communist regimes came into power in Bulgaria and Yugoslavia and their policy on the Macedonian Question was committed to the supporting of a distinct Macedonian nationality.<ref name="dawisha&parrott" /><ref>Template:Cite book</ref> The region of Macedonia was proclaimed as the connecting link for the establishment of a future Balkan Communist Federation.
The newly formed Socialist Republic of Macedonia was integrated into the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, and was characterized as the natural result of Delchev's aspirations for autonomous Macedonia.<ref name="lampe&mazower">Template:Cite book</ref> Initially some of the Macedonian communist leaders, such as Lazar Koliševski, questioned the extent of Delchev's alleged Macedonian national consciousness.<ref name="Heraclides"/><ref>Мичев. Д. Македонският въпрос и българо-югославските отношения – 9 септември 1944–1949, Издателство: СУ Св. Кл. Охридски, 1992, стр. 91.</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In 1946, communist activist Vasil Ivanovski acknowledged that Delchev did not have a clear view of a "Macedonian national character", but stated that his struggle made the free and autonomous Macedonia a possibility.<ref name="Heraclides" /> On 7 October 1946, with the approval of the Bulgarian government, by the initiative of Todor Pavlov,<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> as a gesture of goodwill and as part of the policy to foster the development of Macedonian national consciousness, Delchev's remains were transported from Sofia to Skopje.<ref name="liotta">Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref> On 10 October, the bones were enshrined in a marble sarcophagus in the yard of the church "Sveti Spas", where they have stayed since.<ref name="liotta" />
After realizing that the Balkan collective memory had already marked the heroes of the Macedonian revolutionary movement as Bulgarians, Macedonian communist authorities considered this unjustified and exerted efforts to reclaim Delchev for the Macedonian national cause.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> As a result, Delchev was declared an ethnic Macedonian hero and a symbol of the republic. His name is referred to in the Macedonian anthem - Today over Macedonia.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> The town of Delčevo was named after him in 1950.<ref name="bechev" /> Alongside Yane Sandanski, they became the most praised revolutionary national heroes, honored with publications and monuments. They were also portrayed as fighters against the pro-Bulgarian assimilative right-wing factions, namely the Supreme Macedonian Committee.<ref name="lampe&mazower"/><ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Macedonian school textbooks began even to hint at Bulgarian complicity in Delchev's death.<ref name="hp" /> The economic historian Michael Palairet considers plausible that Delchev was betrayed by SMAC's members with the help of Garvanov, as Macedonian historians have asserted, but a diplomatic source reported that he was betrayed by a local peasant.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Aiming to enforce the belief that Delchev was an ethnic Macedonian, all documents written by him in standard Bulgarian were translated into standard Macedonian and presented as originals.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> The claims on Delchev's Bulgarian self-identification thus were portrayed as a recent Bulgarian chauvinist attitude of long provenance.<ref name="lampe&mazower" /><ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
In the People's Republic of Bulgaria, before the late 1950s, Delchev was given mostly regional recognition in Pirin Macedonia and the town Gotse Delchev was named after him in 1950.<ref name="lampe&mazower" /><ref name="bechev" /> However, afterwards Bulgaria returned to its old policy and started vigorously denying the existence of a Macedonian nation.<ref name="lampe&mazower"/> Accordingly, orders from the highest political level of the Bulgarian Communist Party were given to reincorporate the Macedonian revolutionary movement as part of the Bulgarian historiography and to prove the Bulgarian credentials of its historical leaders.<ref name="Heraclides"/><ref name="lampe&mazower"/> Since 1960, there have been long unproductive debates between the ruling Communist parties in Bulgaria and SFR Yugoslavia about the ethnic affiliation of Delchev. Nonetheless, the Bulgarian side made in 1978 for the first time the proposal that some historical personalities (e.g. Delchev) could be regarded as belonging to the shared historical heritage of the two peoples, but that proposal did not appeal to the Yugoslavs.<ref>Yugoslav — Bulgarian Relations from 1955 to 1980 by Evangelos Kofos from J. Koliopoulos and J. Hassiotis (editors), Modern and Contemporary Macedonia: History, Economy, Society, Culture, vol. 2, (Athens-Thessaloniki, 1992), pp. 277–280.</ref>
Post-communism
Template:See also Delchev is regarded in Bulgaria and North Macedonia as a national hero.<ref>Template:Cite book
</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref> His ethnic identity has continued to be disputed in North Macedonia, serving as a point of contention with Bulgaria.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Some attempts were made for the joint celebration of Delchev between both countries.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Bulgarian diplomats were also attacked when honoring Delchev by Macedonian nationalists in 2012.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> On 2 August 2017, the Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borisov and his Macedonian colleague Zoran Zaev placed wreaths at the grave of Delchev on the occasion of the 114th anniversary of the Ilinden Uprising.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Zaev expressed an interest to negotiate about Delchev.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> A joint commission on historical issues was also formed in 2018 to resolve controversial historical readings, including the dispute about Delchev's ethnic identity, which has been unresolved.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> On 9 October 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 joint historical commission to reach an agreement about Delchev.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The Association of Historians in North Macedonia came out against the calls for a joint celebration of Delchev, seeing them as a threat to Macedonian national identity.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Per Macedonian historian Dragi Gjorgiev, the myth of Delchev is so significant among ethnic Macedonians that it is more important than documents, books, and pieces written by historians.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Macedonian philosopher Katerina Kolozova opined that Bulgaria should not negotiate regarding his self-identification, seeing him as important for the national myths of Bulgaria and North Macedonia.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Per anthropologist Keith Brown and political scientist Alexis Heraclides, the identity of Delchev and other IMRO figures is "open to different interpretations",<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> that are incompatible with the views of modern Balkan nationalisms.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> According to historian James Frusetta, during the time of the People's Republic of Bulgaria and SR Macedonia, the vague left populism and anarcho-socialism espoused by Delchev were transformed into overt socialism.<ref>National heroes were called upon to serve as symbols for the new socialist ideologies—assuming their actions could be reconciled as being properly progressive in nature. The vague populism or anarchism espoused by such IMRO leaders as Gotse Delchev and Yane Sandanski was transformed into overt socialism, of the sort ascribed to them in both Document 1 and Document 2.9 The Macedonian revolutionary movement as a whole was characterized as a mass-based national liberation movement fighting foreign oppression. As such, it served as a precursor to the movements that established the People’s Republic of Bulgaria and the Yugoslav Socialist Republic of Macedonia. In this common approach, the revolutionary nature of IMRO and its struggle against backward, regressive Ottoman rule was tied to the later, pro-socialist left wing of IMRO in the 1920s and its opposition to the repressive monarchist regimes of the period. Both, in turn, were tied to more recent struggles against fascism, against the former “bourgeois” regimes of both states, and against the new, postwar threat of American imperialism.
For more see: Frusetta, James. Common Heroes, Divided Claims: IMRO Between Macedonia and Bulgaria. Ideologies and National Identities, p. 110-130. In: Lampe, John, et Mark Mazower, Ideologies and National Identities. Central European University Press, 2006, https://books.openedition.org/ceup/2424.
</ref>
Per journalist Reuben H. Markham, Bulgarian Macedonians have regarded him as the greatest revolutionary leader.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> His memory has been traditionally honored by Bulgarian Macedonians.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> There are two peaks named after Delchev: Gotsev Vrah, the summit of Slavyanka Mountain, and Delchev Vrah or Delchev Peak on Livingston Island, South Shetland Islands in Antarctica, which was named after him by the scientists from the Bulgarian Antarctic Expedition. The Goce Delčev University of Štip in North Macedonia carries his name too.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Many artifacts related to Delchev's activity are stored in different museums across Bulgaria and North Macedonia. During the time of SFR Yugoslavia, a street in Belgrade was named after Delchev. In 2015, Serbian nationalists covered the signs with the street's name and affixed new ones with the name of the Chetnik activist Kosta Pećanac. They claimed that Delchev was a Bulgarian and his name has no place there.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In 2016 the street's name was changed officially by the municipal authorities to "Maršal Tolbuhin". Their motivation was that Delchev was not an ethnic Macedonian revolutionary, but a leader of an anti-Serbian organization with a pro-Bulgarian orientation.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In Greece the official appeals from the Bulgarian side to the authorities to install a memorial plaque on his place of death are not answered. The memorial plaques set periodically by Bulgarians afterwards have been removed. Bulgarian tourists have been restrained occasionally from visiting the place.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
On 4 February 2023, on the 151st anniversary of the birth of the revolutionary, both the Macedonian and Bulgarian side paid their respects at the St. Spas Church in Skopje separately, while the delegation of North Macedonia declined the offer to jointly lay wreaths proposed by the Bulgarian delegation.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Many Bulgarian citizens who wanted to attend the event were held for hours at the border due to a claimed malfunction of the border system.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> However, problems with the admission of the Bulgarians continued even after the processing of their documents.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> As a result, many Bulgarian citizens and journalists were prevented from crossing.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Three citizens were detained, fined and banned from entering the country for 3 years, due to attempting to physically assault policemen.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> According to their lawyer, two of them were apparently beaten.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Bulgaria officially reacted sharply to these events.<ref>Bistra Roushkoca, Foreign Ministry: Today’s Actions of the Authorities in North Macedonia Have Seriously Damaged the Process of Restoring Trust. February 4, Bulgarian News Agency. Template:Webarchive</ref>
Memorials
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Monument in Gotse Delchev, Bulgaria.
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Monument in Blagoevgrad, Bulgaria.
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Bust in Sofia, Bulgaria.
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The tomb of Gotse Delchev in the church Sv. Spas in Skopje.
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Statue of Delchev in the City Park of Skopje, given as a gift by the city of Sofia in 1946
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Monument in Strumica, North Macedonia
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Rectorate of Goce Delčev University of Štip, is located in the building of the former Bulgarian Exarchate school in which Delchev was a teacher
Notes
References
Further reading
- Пандев, К. "Устави и правилници на ВМОРО преди Илинденско-Преображенското въстание", Исторически преглед, 1969, кн. I, стр. 68–80. Template:In lang
- Пандев, К. "Устави и правилници на ВМОРО преди Илинденско-Преображенското въстание", Извeстия на Института за история, т. 21, 1970, стр. 250–257. Template:In lang
- Битоски, Крсте, сп. "Македонско Време", Скопје – март 1997, quoting: Quoting: Public Record Office – Foreign Office 78/4951 Turkey (Bulgaria), From Elliot, 1898, Устав на ТМОРО. S. 1. published in Документи за борбата на македонскиот народ за самостојност и за национална држава, Скопје, Универзитет "Кирил и Методиј": Факултет за филозофско-историски науки, 1981, pp 331 – 333. Template:In lang
- Fikret Adanir, Die Makedonische Frage: ihre entestehung und etwicklung bis 1908., Wiessbaden 1979, p. 112.
- Friedman, V. (1997) "One Grammar, Three Lexicons: Ideological Overtones and Underpinnings of the Balkan Sprachbund" in CLS 33 Papers from the 33rd Regional Meeting of the Chicago Linguistic Society. (Chicago : Chicago Linguistic Society)
- Димитър П. Евтимов, Делото на Гоце Делчев, Варна, изд. на варненското Македонско културно-просветно дружество "Гоце Делчев", 1937. Template:In lang
External links
- Pages with broken file links
- 1872 births
- 1903 deaths
- People from Kilkis
- People from Salonica vilayet
- Members of the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization
- Macedonian Bulgarians
- Bulgarians from Aegean Macedonia
- Bulgarian revolutionaries
- Bulgarian educators
- Bulgarian Men's High School of Thessaloniki alumni
- Bulgarian military personnel
- Balkan federalists