First statute of the IMRO

Due to the lack of original protocol documentation, the first statute of the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization (IMRO) is unknown and is subject to dispute among researchers. The dispute also includes its first name, as well as its statute's authenticity, its dating, authorship, ethnic character, etc.[2] Certain contradictions and inconsistencies exist in the testimonies of the founding members of the Organization. In general, the Organization was often called "the Bulgarian Committee" on the eve of the 20th century.[3][4]

Excerpt from the statute of BMARC, (1894 or 1896; in Bulgarian language)[1]
Statute of the Bulgarian Macedonian-Adrianople Revolutionary Committees
Chapter I. – Goal
Art. 1. The goal of BMARC is to secure full political autonomy for the Macedonia and Adrianople regions .
Art. 2. To achieve this goal they [the committees] shall raise the awareness of self-defense in the Bulgarian population in the regions mentioned in Art. 1., disseminate revolutionary ideas – printed or verbal, and prepare and carry on a general uprising.
Chapter II. – Structure and Organization
Art. 3. A member of BMARC can be any Bulgarian, independent of gender, ...

Dispute

The revolutionary organization set up in 1893 in Ottoman Thessaloniki changed its name several times before adopting in 1919 its last and most common name i.e. Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization (IMRO).[5] The repeated changes of name of the IMRO has led to an ongoing debate between Bulgarian and Macedonian historians, as well as within the Macedonian historiographical community.[6] The crucial question is to which degree the Organization had a Bulgarian ethnic character and when it tried to open itself to the other Balkan nationalities.[7] As a whole, its founders were inspired by the earlier Bulgarian revolutionary traditions.[8] All its basic documents were written in the pre-1945 Bulgarian orthography.[9]

Excerpt of the draft of the statute of the SMARO made by hand on the statute of the BMARC by Gotse Delchev or Petar Poparsov.[10] The Organization changed its name and dropped 'Bulgarian' from it, appealing to all dissatisfied elements, regardless of their nationality, to win through a revolution, political autonomy for both regions.[11][12]

According to the founding member Hristo Tatarchev's Memoirs written in 1928, the IMRO was first called the Macedonian Revolutionary Organization (MRO). This name is also present in contemporary sources.[13][14][15][16] According to another founding member Petar Poparsov, its first name was "Committee for acquiring the political rights of Macedonia, given to it by the Treaty of Berlin".[17] Per Tatarchev, the founders of the IMRO had Zahari Stoyanov's memoir about the April Uprising of 1876, in which the statute of the Bulgarian Revolutionary Central Committee (BRCC) was published, which they took as a model for the organization's first statute.[18] Statutes and regulations with such names have not yet been found.[19] According to Tatarchev, the Adrianople region was not included in the organization's program at first, but was later added in 1896.[20][21]

In 1961, Macedonian historian Ivan Katardžiev discovered a statute and regulations in Skopje naming the organization Bulgarian Macedonian Adrianople Revolutionary Committees (BMARC).[22][23] Copies of this statute and the regulations were later found also in Bulgaria.[24] According to this statute, membership of the Organization was restricted only to Bulgarians.[25] This fact is confirmed by Tatarchev in his memoires from 1934.[26][27] Katardžiev claimed that this was the first statute of the organization and under this name it existed from 1894 until 1896 when it was changed to Secret Macedono-Adrianopolitan Revolutionary Organization (SMARO). Some international, Bulgarian and Macedonian researchers have adopted the view that this was the first statute, i.e. the first official name of the organization.[28][29][30][31] According to some Macedonian researchers, the author of this statute was Petar Poparsov.[32] Many historians in North Macedonia question the authenticity of this statute and claim that IMRO-activists had an ethnic Macedonian identity,[33] while the designation Bulgarian is thought to had rather a religious connotation then.[34][35]

Bulgarian historians, such as Konstantin Pandev, see the statute of BMARC as a confirmation of the Bulgarian ethnic character of the organization.[36] They insist that except the national designation "Bulgarian" in the name of the BMARC,[37][38] another part of its name was related also to the then vilayet of Adrianopole.[39][40] whose Bulgarian population has not being contested in North Macedonia today.[41][42] In Bulgaria is maintained that the designation BMARC lasted from 1896 until 1902 when it was changed to SMARO. Some international and many Bulgarian historians have adopted this view.[43][44][45][46] The name of BMARC, as well as information about its statute, was mentioned in the foreign press of that time, in Bulgarian diplomatic correspondence, and exists in the memories of some revolutionaries and contemporaries.[47] Some Bulgarian historians assume that the authors of this statute were Gotse Delchev and Gyorche Petrov.[48] Bulgarian researchers suppose that the founding statute of the IMRO still hasn't been discovered or it hasn't survived.[49] According to Petar Poparsov, the first statute's swatch was sent to be printed in Romania, where it burned down in a fire.[50] Thus the first preserved statute of the organization is that of the BMARC.[51] Many Bulgarian researchers assume the first name of the organization during 1894-1896 was Macedonian Revolutionary Organization or Macedonian Revolutionary Committee.[52] According to them, the definition Macedonian then had a regional meaning.[53]

The next statute of SMARO opened membership in the Organization to every Macedonian or Adrianopolitan, regardless of their ethnic origin.[54] The common political agenda declared in the SMARO's statute was to achieve political autonomy of both regions. In 1905 the organization changed its name to Internal Macedonian-Adrianople Revolutionary Organization (IMARO).[55]

See also

Footnotes

  1. "The Macedonian Revolutionary Organization used the Bulgarian standard language in all its programmatic statements and its correspondence was solely in the Bulgarian language...After 1944 all the literature of Macedonian writers, memoirs of Macedonian leaders, and important documents had to be translated from Bulgarian into the newly invented Macedonian." For more see: Bernard A. Cook ed., Europe Since 1945: An Encyclopedia, Volume 2, Taylor & Francis, 2001, ISBN 0815340583, p. 808.
  2. Marinov, Tchavdar. We, the Macedonians: The Paths of Macedonian Supra-Nationalism (1878–1912) In: We, the People: Politics of National Peculiarity in Southeastern Europe. Budapest: Central European University Press, 2009, ISBN 9786155211669. pp. 114-115.
  3. Dimitar Bechev, Historical Dictionary of the Republic of Macedonia, Scarecrow Press, 2009, ISBN 0810862956, Introduction, p. Iviii.
  4. Tchavdar Marinov, Famous Macedonia, the Land of Alexander: Macedonian identity at the crossroads of Greek, Bulgarian and Serbian nationalism in Entangled Histories of the Balkans - Volume One: National Ideologies and Language Policies with Roumen Daskalov and Tchavdar Marinov as ed., BRILL, 2013, ISBN 900425076X, p. 300.
  5. Raymond Detrez, Historical Dictionary of Bulgaria; Historical Dictionaries of Europe; Rowman & Littlefield, 2014, ISBN 1442241802, p. 253-254.
  6. Alexis Heraclides, The Macedonian Question and the Macedonians: A History. Routledge, 2020, ISBN 9780367218263, pp. 40-41.
  7. Vemund Aarbakke (2003) Ethnic rivalry and the quest for Macedonia, 1870-1913, East European Monographs, ISBN 9780880335270, p. 97.
  8. IMRO group modelled itself after the revolutionary organizations of Vasil Levski and other noted Bulgarian revolutionaries like Hristo Botev and Georgi Benkovski, each of whom was a leader during the earlier Bulgarian revolutionary movement. Around this time ca. 1894, a seal was struck for use by the Organization leadership; it was inscribed with the phrase "Freedom or Death" (Svoboda ili smart). For more see: Duncan M. Perry, The Politics of Terror: The Macedonian Liberation Movements, 1893–1903, Duke University Press, 1988, ISBN 0822308134, pp. 39–40.
  9. Bernard A. Cook ed., Europe Since 1945: An Encyclopedia, Volume 2, Taylor & Francis, 2001, ISBN 0815340583, p. 808.
  10. Bulgarian researcher Tsocho Bilyarski claims that the corrections were made by Delchev, but according to the Bulgarian historian Dino Kyosev, this handwriting is Poparsov's style. For more see: Цочо Билярски, Още един път за първите устави и правилници и за името на ВМОРО преди Илинденско-Преображенското Въстание от 1903 г. В сборник Дойно Дойнов. 75 години наука, мъдрост и достойнство, събрани в един живот. ВСУ ”Черноризец Храбър”; 2004, ISBN 9549800407.
  11. The change was reflected in the revised IO statutes of 1902 which dropped 'Bulgarian' from the title ; this was now TMORO , and appealed to all dissatisfied elements in Macedonia, not merely Bulgarian ones. For more see: Hugh Poulton, Who are the Macedonians? 2000, Hurst,ISBN 9781850655343, p. 55.
  12. Kat Kearey (2015) Oxford AQA History: A Level and AS Component 2: International Relations and Global Conflict C1890-1941. ISBN 9780198363866, p. 54.
  13. Brown, Keith (2013). Loyal Unto Death Trust and Terror in Revolutionary Macedonia. Indiana University Press. p. 191. ISBN 9780253008473.
  14. Perry M., Duncan (1988). The Politics of Terror and The Macedonian Liberation Movements, 1893-1903. Duke University Press. p. 203. ISBN 9780822308133.
  15. Horncastle, James (2019). The Macedonian Slavs in the Greek Civil War, 1944–1949. Lexington Books. p. 43. ISBN 9781498585057.
  16. Maria Todorova (2004). Balkan Identities: Nation and Memory. C. Hurst & Co. Publishers. p. 238. ISBN 1850657157.
  17. ВМОРО през погледа на нейните основатели. Спомени на Дамян Груев, д-р Христо Татарчев, Иван Хаджиниколов, Антон Димитров, Петър Попарсов. Съст. Т. Петров, Ц. Билярски. Св. Георги Победоносец; София, 2002, ISBN 9545092335; с. 203-207.
  18. Duncan M. Perry, The Politics of Terror: The Macedonian Liberation Movements, 1893–1903, Duke University Press, 1988, ISBN 0822308134, pp. 39–40.
  19. Цочо Билярски, Първите програмни документи на ВМОРО до есента на 1902 г., Известия на държавните архиви, София, 2004, кн. 87, с. 200-275.
  20. Freedom or Death, The Life of Gotsé Delchev, by Mercia MacDermott, Journeyman Press, London & West Nyack, 1978, p. 230.
  21. Димитър Г. Войников, Българите в най-източната част на Балканския полуостров - Източна Тракия. Първо издание, Гл. 23. Административно деление на Европейска Турция. Конгресът на Българските македоно-одрински революционни комитети (БМОРК) в Солун (1896 г.) Обединение на Македонското и Тракийското революционно движение ИК „Коралов и сие”, София 2002.
  22. Иван Катарџиев, Некои прашања за уставите и правилниците на ВМОРО до Илинденското востание, ГИНИ V/1, Скопје 1961. стр. 149 – 164.
  23. Константин Пандев (2000) Националноосвободителното движение в Македония и Одринско 1878-1903, Гутенберг, ISBN 9789549943092, стр. 140.
  24. Пандев, Константин. „Устави и правилници на ВМОРО преди Илинденско-Преображенското въстание“, Исторически преглед, 1969, кн. I, стр. 68 – 80
  25. The revolutionary committee dedicated itself to fight for "full political autonomy for Macedonia and Adrianople." Since they sought autonomy only for those areas inhabited by Bulgarians, they denied other nationalities membership in IMRO. According to Article 3 of the statutes, "any Bulgarian could become a member". For more see: Laura Beth Sherman, Fires on the mountain: the Macedonian revolutionary movement and the kidnapping of Ellen Stone, Volume 62, East European Monographs, 1980, ISBN 0914710559, p. 10.
  26. Цочо Билярски (1994) Д-р Христо Татарчев: Първият ръководител на ВМРО: Биогр. очерк. Знание, стр 50-54; ISBN 9546210056.
  27. "Три суштествени ставови се најдоа во уставот на Револуционерната организација: цел, состав и средства. Како цел, како што е кажано погоре, се прифати автономијата на Македонија, а како член на Организацијата се допушти секој Бугарин, од кој и да е крај, да може да биде член на организацијата, откако ке се покрсти според воспоставената формула – клетва пред евангелие и кама како симбол на одговорност пред Бога и татковината, и тоа по убедување, но не и против својата волја. Тоа решение да се примаат за членови на Организацијата само Бугари ни се диктираше от суштината и карактерот на заговорот, поради што во прво време требаше да се врбуваат членови од оние средини кои беа најугнетени, интелектуално и морално издигнати, цврсти и издржливи по карактер. Во тој однос бугарскиот народ беше најсоодветен и сигурен елемент и при тоа го претставуваше мнозинството во земјата така што Револуционерната организација можеше да се потпре на него без големи ризици. Најпосле, основачите на конспирацијата произлегуваа од средината на бугарскиот народ, така што тој афинитет им беше и многу природен. Тие не се поколебаа да ги вметнат во Организацијата дури и своите родители, браќа и др. во редовите на заговорот." Виктор Христовски, "Македонската револуционерна организација и д-р Христо Татарчев", "Мислата за слобода кај македонскиот народ; Конституирање на Македонската револуционерна организација", Скопје, 2017 г. ISBN 9786082452197, стр. 427.
  28. Hugh Poulton, Who are the Macedonians? Hurst, 2000; ISBN 1850655340, p. 53.
  29. Dimitar Bechev, Historical Dictionary of North Macedonia, 2019; Rowman & Littlefield, ISBN 9781538119624, p. 145.
  30. Carl Cavanagh Hodge as ed., Encyclopedia of the Age of Imperialism, 1800-1914, 2008, Greenwood Press; ISBN 9780313043413, p. 441.
  31. Ѓорѓиев, Ванчо, Петар Поп Арсов (1868–1941). Прилог кон проучувањето на македонското националноослободително движење. 1997, Скопjе, стр. 60-63.
  32. Манол Пандевски (1987) Македонското ослободително дело во XIX и XX век, Т.1, Националното прашање во македонското ослободително движење: 1893-1903, стр. 86.
  33. James Frusetta "Common Heroes, Divided Claims: IMRO Between Macedonia and Bulgaria". Central European University Press, 2004, ISBN 978-963-9241-82-4, pp. 110–115.
  34. Pandevska, M. (2012). The term “Macedonian(s)” in Ottoman Macedonia: On the map and in the mind. Nationalities Papers, 40(5), 747-766. doi:10.1080/00905992.2012.705265
  35. Pandevska, Maria; Mitrova, Makedonka. (2020). The Concept of the millet in Turkish dictionaries: Its alteration and the impact on Ottoman Macedonia. Balcanica Posnaniensia. Acta et studia. 26. 171-192. DOI:10.14746/bp.2019.26.10
  36. Bulgarian historians for their part, such as Konstantin Pandev (the first to introduce a periodization based on the names), insist that BMORK lasted longer and this proves the essential Bulgarian character of the movement. For more see: Alexis Heraclides, The Macedonian Question and the Macedonians: A History. Routledge, 2020, ISBN 9780367218263, pp. 40-41.
  37. As a Bulgarian historian, Pandev underlined the fact that, since its foundation the organization chose its Bulgarian identity by selecting the name “Bulgarian revolutionary committees." For more see: Nadine Lange-Akhund, The Macedonian Question, 1893-1908, from Western Sources, 1998 ISBN 9780880333832, p. 39.
  38. Цочо Билярски (1994) Д-р Христо Татарчев: Първият ръководител на ВМРО: Биогр. очерк. Знание, стр 7; ISBN 9546210056.
  39. The Adrianople region became one of the Bulgarians' most coveted irredentas, second only to Macedonia. By the end of the 19th century, the total population in the Adrianople region amounted to almost one million people, nearly one-third of whom were Bulgarians...A Bulgarian national liberation movement began to develop immediately after 1878, in close cooperation with the national liberation movement in Macedonia, and acquired an organized character after the creation of the Internal Macedonian-Adrianopolitan Revolutionary Organization (IMARO) in 1893. It relied mainly on the refugees from the Adrianople region who were living in Bulgaria, but there was also an "internal" organization. Its actions culminated in the Preobrazhenie (Transfiguration) Uprising, which broke out two weeks after the Ilinden Uprising, on 6/19 August 1903. Raymond Detrez, Historical Dictionary of Bulgaria, Historical Dictionaries of Europe, No. 46, Scarecrow Press, 2006, ISBN 0810849011, p. 3.
  40. The dogma of Macedonian historiography is that it was an 'ethnic Macedonian' organisation and the acronym IMARO has been routinely abbreviated in Macedonian historiography to IMRO to avoid difficult questions about the presence in the same organisations of people nowadays described as 'ethnic Macedonians' from geographic Macedonia – together with 'ethnic Bulgarians' from the Vilajet of Adrianople. In these cases, a present-day reality is projected wholesale into the past. For more see: Kyril Drezov, Macedonian identity: an overview of the major claims in The New Macedonian Question with J. Pettifer as ed., Springer, 1999, ISBN 0230535798, p. 55.
  41. The modern Macedonian historiographic equation of IMRO demands for autonomy with a separate and distinct national identity does not necessarily jibe with the historical record. A rather obvious problem is the very title of the organization, which included Thrace in addition to Macedonia. Thrace was a region, as Tchavdar Marinov points out, “whose population was never claimed by modern Macedonian nationalism. For more see: İpek Yosmaoğlu, Blood Ties: Religion, Violence and the Politics of Nationhood in Ottoman Macedonia, 1878–1908, Cornell University Press, 2013, ISBN 0801469791, pp. 15.
  42. The "Adrianopolitan" part of the organization's name indicates that its agenda concerned not only Macedonia but also Thrace — a region whose Bulgarian population is by no means claimed by Macedonian nationalists today. Marinov, Tchavdar. We, the Macedonians: The Paths of Macedonian Supra-Nationalism (1878–1912) In: We, the People: Politics of National Peculiarity in Southeastern Europe. Budapest: Central European University Press, 2009, ISBN 9786155211669 p. 115.
  43. Duncan Perry The Politics of Terror: The Macedonian Liberation Movements, 1893–1903, Durham, Duke University Press, 1988. pp. 40–41.
  44. Fikret Adanir, Die Makedonische Frage: ihre entstehung und etwicklung bis 1908. Wiessbaden 1979, p. 112.
  45. Лабаури Дмитрий Олегович, Болгарское национальное движение в Македонии и Фракии в 1894–1908 гг., Идеология, программа, практика политической борьбы, София, Академическое изд. им. проф. Марина Дринова, 2008, стр.7,
  46. Ivo Banac, "The National Question in Yugoslavia. Origins, History, Politics", Cornell University Press, 1984, pp. 307–328.
  47. Цочо Билярски, Още един път за първите устави и правилници и за името на ВМОРО преди Илинденско-Преображенското Въстание от 1903 г. В сборник Дойно Дойнов. 75 години наука, мъдрост и достойнство, събрани в един живот. ВСУ ”Черноризец Храбър”; 2004, ISBN 9549800407.
  48. Христо Христов, Енциклопедия: Пирински край. А-М; Благоевград, том 1, 1994, ISBN 9789549000610, стр. 178.
  49. Alexis Heraclides, The Macedonian Question and the Macedonians: A History. Routledge, 2020, ISBN 9780367218263, pp. 40-41.
  50. ВМОРО през погледа на нейните основатели. Спомени на Дамян Груев, д-р Христо Татарчев, Иван Хаджиниколов, Антон Димитров, Петър Попарсов. Съст. Т. Петров, Ц. Билярски. Св. Георги Победоносец; София, 2002, ISBN 9545092335; с. 203-207.
  51. Първият й запазен устав е от Солунския общ конгрес от пролетта на 1896 г. В него организацията е назована Български македоно-одрински революционни комитети. For more: Ива Бурилкова, Цочо Билярски, БКП, Коминтернът и македонският въпрос (1917-1946) - Том 2; Държавна агенция „ Архиви”, 1998, ISBN 9549800040, стр. 563.
  52. Стоян Германов (1992) Руската общественост и революционното движение в Македония и Одринско 1893-1908. Унив. изд-во "Св. Климент Охридски". стр. 14.
  53. Иван Н. Николов, ВМРО и Иван Михайлов в защита на българщината, 2008, УИ Св. "Кл. Охридски", ISBN 9789549384116, стр. 65.
  54. The IMARO activists saw the future autonomous Macedonia as a multinational polity, and did not pursue the self-determination of Macedonian Slavs as a separate ethnicity. Therefore, Macedonian (and also Adrianopolitan) was an umbrella term covering Bulgarians, Turks, Greeks, Vlachs, Albanians, Serbs, Jews, and so on. While this message was taken aboard by many Vlachs as well as some Patriarchist Slavs, it failed to impress other groups for whom the IMARO remained, as the British journalist and relief worker Henry Brailsford and others called it, ‘‘the Bulgarian Committee.’’ For more see: Bechev, Dimitar. Historical Dictionary of the Republic of Macedonia, Historical Dictionaries of Europe, Scarecrow Press, 2009, ISBN 0810862956, Introduction.
  55. Peter Kardjilov, The Cinematographic Activities of Charles Rider Noble and John Mackenzie in the Balkans (Volume One) Cambridge Scholars Publishing; 2020, ISBN 9781527550735, p. 3.
  56. Захари Стоянов. Текст на устава на БРЦК публикуван в "Записки по българските въстания". София: Виртуалната библиотека „Словото“ из том 1 на Записките. Разкази на очевидци, 1870-1876. 1977.
  57. Устав на Българските македоно-одрински революционни комитети, съставен след Солунския общ конгрес на организацията, [Солун, 1896 г.]. София: Вътрешната Македоно-одринска революционна организация (1893-1919 г.) – документи на централните ръководни органи. Том 1. Част 1. Съст. Ц. Билярски, И. Бурилкова. София: Държавна агенция „Архиви”, стр. 127-128. 2007.
  58. Ванчо Ѓорѓиев, "Устав и Правилник на Бугарските Македоно - Одрински Револуционерни Комитети [1894 г.] (PDF). Скопје: "ВМРО 1893-1903. Поглед низ документи", Матица Македонска. 2013.
  59. According to a note left by the historian Lyubomir Panayotov, the editor of Hristo Karamandzhukov's memoirs, the BMARC regulations were found in the revolutionary's archive. They were issued in 1898, and were replaced by a new ones in 1902, however in the Smolyan revolutionary subdistrict, they continued to be in use afterwards. Христо Ив. Караманджуков, Родопа през Илинденско-Преображенското въстание. (Изд. на Отечествения Фронт, София, 1986) стр. 107.
  60. Архив Гоце Делчев, Съставители Ива Борилкова и Цочо Билярски, Издателство: Захарий Стоянов, 2020; ISBN 9789540914275, Предговор.
  61. Ковачовъ, Владиславъ. Автономна Македония (PDF). София: Печатница С. М. Стайковъ. 1919.
  62. Вътрешната македоно-одринска революционна организация (1893-1919 г.) Документи на централните ръководни органи (устави, правилници, мемоари, декларации, окръжни, протоколи, наредби, резолюции, писма). Т. І, ч. 1 и 2. Съст. Ц. Билярски, И. Бурилкова. УИ "Св. Климент Охридски", 2007, ISBN 9789549800623 стр. 142.
  63. Георги Баждаров, "Войните и Македонския въпрос" (PDF). София: сп. "Македония. Политическо, научно и литературно списание", год. I, книга IV, София, печатница „Витоша“. 1922.
  64. Въ Македония и Одринско: Спомени на Михаилъ Герджиковъ. II. Първиятъ Централенъ комитетъ на ВМРО.: Спомени на д-ръ Христо Татарчевъ. Съобщава Л. Милетичъ (PDF). София: Материяли за историята на македонското освободително движение, Издава Македонскиятъ Наученъ Институтъ, Книга IX, Печатница П. Глушковъ. 1928.
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