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Template:Infobox revolution biography Georgi Nikolov Delchev (1872-1903) (Bulgarian and Macedonian: Георги Николов Делчев, known as Gotse Delchev, also spelled Goce Delčev) was an important 19th century revolutionary figure in Ottoman ruled Macedonia and Thrace. He was one of the leaders of what is commonly known today as Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization (IMRO), a paramilitary organization active in Ottoman Empire at the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century. At his time the name of the organization was Bulgarian Macedonian-Adrianople Revolutionary Committees (BMARC), later changed to Secret Macedonian-Adrianople Revolutionary Organization (SMARO).

Biography

He was born in a large family on February 4, 1872 in Kukush, Ottoman Empire (now Kilkis, Greece) then populated predominantly with Macedonian Bulgarians . Delchev graduated from the local Bulgarian junior high school and later the Bulgarian men's high school "St Cyril and Methodius" in Thessaloniki. He entered the military school in Sofia in 1891, but in 1894, a month before the graduation, he was expelled because his political activity as a member of illegal socialist circle. The same year Delchev became a teacher in a Bulgarian exarchate school in Štip, where he met Dame Gruev, the leader of the local committee of BMARC. As a result of the close friendship between the two, Delchev joined the organization in 1895 and before long, became one of its main leaders. After spending the next school year (1895/1896) as a teacher in the town of Bansko, he moved to the Principality of Bulgaria where he, together with Gjorche Petrov, became a representative of the Internal organization in the principality.

Delchev's involvement in BMARC was an important moment in the history of the Macedonian-Adianople liberation movement. The years between 1896, when he left the Exarchate's educational system and 1903 when he died, represented the final and most effective revolutionary phase of his short life. His correspondence with other BMARC/SMARO members covers extensive data on supplies, transport and storage of weapons and ammunition in Macedonia. Delchev envisioned independent production of weapons, which 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. made two short visits to the Adrianople area of Thrace in 1896 and 1898. In 1900 he inspected the SMARO's detachments in Eastern Thrace again, aiming better coordination between Macedonian and Thracian revolutionary organizations. He also led the congress of the Adrianople revolutionary district held in Plovdiv in April 1902. Afterwards Delchev inspected the SMARO's structures in the Eastern 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 the military power of the organization, at the same time having Delchev as its military advisor (inspector) and chief of all internal revolutionary bands.

Delchev aimed also better coordination between SMARO and the Supreme Macedonian-Adrianople Committee (SMAC). Its official declaration was also a struggle for autonomy of Macedonia and Thrace. However as a rule, most of SMAC's leaders were with stronger connections with the governments, waging terrorist struggle against the Ottomans in the hope of provoking a war and thus Bulgarian annexation of both areas. For a short time in the late 1890s Boris Sarafov, who was conjuring revolutionary ideas that later proved to be at odds with the policy of the government, became its leader. At that period SMARO even managed to gain de facto control of the SMAC. Nevertheless it soon split into two factions: one loyal to the SMARO and one led by some officers close to the Bulgarian prince. Delchev opposed this officers' insistent attempts to gain control over the activity of SMARO. When the second faction staged an ill-fated uprising in Eastern Macedonia in 1902, it was opposed militarily by local SMARO bands. The primary question regarding the timing of the uprising in Macedonia and Thrace implicated an apparent discordance not only among SMAC and SMARO, but also among the representatives at the Sofia SMARO's Conference in 1903 with Delchev opposing the uprising as premature. Finally, he had no choice but agree to that course of action, at least managing to delay its start from May to August. Delchev died on May 4, 1903 in a skirmish with the Turkish police near the village of Banitza, located in the Serres region, present day Greece, probably after betrayal by local villagers, as rumours asserted, while preparing the Ilinden-Preobrazhenie Uprising. After his death in 1903 SMARO aided by SMAC organised the Uprising against the Ottomans, which after the initial successes, was crushed with much loss of life.

During the Second Balkan War of 1913, the Greeks captured Kukush, annexed by Bulgaria in the First Balkan War, by which it was almost completely destroyed. Virtually all of its pre-war 7,000 Macedono-Bulgarian inhabitants, including Delchev's family were expelled into Bulgaria. The village of Banitza, where Delchev was buried was also destroyed by the Greek Army and whole of the population was expelled into Bulgaria too. However, Delchev's remains were transferred to Sofia during World War I, when Bulgaria controlled again part of Aegean Macedonia, where they rested until after the Second World War. During World War II and the subsequent Bulgarian annexation of Northern Greece (1941-1944) the grave-place of Delchev near Banitsa was restored.

After 1944, the Bulgarian policy on the Macedonian Question changed to serve the activities of the Communist regime, as part of the Comintern conception to stimulate the development of a distinct ethnic Macedonian consciousness into the region of Macedonia. However, at first Delchev was proclaimed by the Communist political leader of newly established Yugoslav People's Republic of Macedonia, Lazar Koliševski as: "...one Bulgarian of no significance for the liberation struggles...". But on October 10, 1946, under the direct pressure from Moscow, the mortal remains of the revolutionary Delchev were transported to Skopje and the following day, they were enshrined in a marble sarcophagus, which is until present displayed in the yard of the church "Sveti Spas". After 1948 Bulgaria gradually shifted to its previous view, that Macedonian Slavs are in fact Bulgarians. However, the Yugoslav authorities successfuly removed any Bulgarian influence and created sistematically a distinct Slavic consciousness, that inspired identification with the new state. As result, Delchev was promulgated an ethnic Macedonian hero there and the school textbooks written in the recently codified Macedonian language began even to hint at Bulgarian complicity in his death. Nevertheless, according to the former VMRO-DPMNE leader Lyubcho Georgievski, if Delchev was still alive in SFRY during the late 1940s, he would have finished up in the internment camp of Idrizovo, like other IMRO activists of that time.

Delchev's views

The international, cosmopolitan views of Delchev that elevated him far ahead of his time could be summarized in his proverbial sentence: "I understand the world solely as a field for cultural competition among the peoples". In the late 19th century the Bulgarian anarchists and socialists linked their struggle closely with the revolutionary movements in Macedonia and Thrace. Thus, no wonder as young cadet in Sofia Delchev became at first a member of a left circle, where he was strongly influenced by the modern than Marxist and Bakunin's ideas and later part of the IMRO political struggle. As one of its leaders he was co-author of the statute of the Bulgarian Macedonian-Adrianople Revolutionary Committees (BMARC), where was determined that members of BMARC could be only Bulgarians. Delchev as supra-nationalistic theoretician of the Internal Organization, took the step together with other left functionaries of changing this statute and in a departure from its nationalistic character, renamed it Secret Macedono-Adrianopolitan Revolutionary Organization (SMARO). The SMARO was to be an insurgent organization, open to all Macedonians and Thracians regardless of nationality, who wished to participate in the movement for Macedonian an Thracian autonomy. However, in general, there was not a clear political agenda behind IMRO's idea about an autonomy. Delcev as the other left-wing activists, vaguely determined the bonds between the future autonomous Macedonia and Adrianople regions on the one hand and on the other, between them and then under Ottoman vassalage Principality of Bulgaria. It is claimed that Delchev's personal view was much more likely to see unification with Bulgaria as a natural final outcome of this autonomy, or in case of that would be impossible, inclusion in a future Balkan Confederation. In fact, for militants such as the socialist 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". Despite the efforts of the post-1945 Macedonian historigraphy to represent Delchev as Macedonian separatist, in his own time the idea of a separate Macedonian nation was as yet only promoted by small circles of intellectuals, whose calls were in general unpopular. There aren't any indications suggesting his doubt about the Bulgarian ethnic character of the Macedonians at that time. The Bulgarian ethnic self-identification of Delchev has been recognized аs from leading international researchers of the Macedonian Question, as well as from the Macedonian historical scholarship, although reluctantly.

Delchev's legacy

Delchev is today regarded both in Bulgaria and in the Republic of Macedonia as an important national hero, and both nations see him as part of their own national history. His memory is honoured especially in the Bulgarian parts of Macedonia and among the descendants of Bulgarian refugees from other parts of the region, where he is regarded as the most important revolutionary from the second generation of freedom fighters. His name appears also in the national anthem of the Republic of Macedonia - "Denes nad Makedonija". There are two towns named in his honour: Delchev in Bulgaria and Delčevo in the Republic of Macedonia. There are also two peaks named after Delchev: the highest peak of Slavyanka Mountain, v Vrah and Delchev Peak on Livingston Island, South Shetland Islands in Antarctica. Delchev Ridge on Livingston Island bears also his name. The University of Štip in the Republic of Macedonia carries his name too. The Bulgarian side made several times a proposal that the disputed historical personalities (e.g. Delchev) could be regarded as belonging to the shared historical heritage of the two peoples, but it did not appeal to the Yugoslavs and after the breakup of Yugoslavia to the Macedonians.

Memorials

• The tomb of Goce Delčev in the church Sv. Spas (Holy Savior) in Skopje, Macedonia
• Statue of Goce Delchev in Skopje, Macedonia.
• Bust of Delchev in Varna, Bulgaria. Bust of Delchev in Varna, Bulgaria.
• Monument of Delchev in Blagoevgrad, Bulgaria. Monument of Delchev in Blagoevgrad, Bulgaria.

See also

• Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organisation
• Macedonian Question
• History of the Republic of Macedonia
• History of Bulgaria

Notes

1. "On February 4, 1872, Delchev was born in a town in the Ottoman Empire, north of Salonika; it was called Kukush by its Bulgarian inhabitants." See: Balkan ghosts: a journey through history, Robert D. Kaplan, Vintage books, 1994, ISBN 0679749810, p. 58.
2. MacDermott, Mercia. 1978. Freedom or Death: The Life of Delchev. Published by The Journeyman Press, London and West Nyack. 405 pp. ISBN 0-904526-32-1. Translated in Bulgarian: Макдермот, Мерсия. Свобода или смърт. Биография на Гоце Делчев, София 1979, с. 86-94.
3. Пейо Яворов, "Събрани съчинения", Том втори, "Гоце Делчев", Издателство "Български писател", София, 1977, стр. 30. Template:Bg icon In English: Peyo Yavorov, "Complete Works", Volume 2, biography " Delchev", Publishing house "Bulgarian writer", Sofia, 1977, p. 30.
4. Пейо Яворов, "Събрани съчинения", Том втори, "Гоце Делчев", Издателство "Български писател", София, 1977, стр. 32-33. Template:Bg icon In English: Peyo Yavorov, "Complete Works", Volume 2, biography Delchev, Publishing house "Bulgarian writer", Sofia, 1977, pp. 32-33.
5. Memoirs of Georgi Vasilev. Prinosi kam istoriyata na Makedono-odrinskoto revolyutsionno dvizhenie. Vol IV, p. 8, 9. From the memoirs of Petar Kiprilov, priest in the village of Pirok. Opus cit. p. 157.
6. Пейо Яворов, "Събрани съчинения", Том втори, "Гоце Делчев", Издателство "Български писател", София, 1977, стр. 39. Template:Bg icon In English: Peyo Yavorov, "Complete Works", Volume 2, biography Delchev, Publishing house "Bulgarian writer", Sofia, 1977, p. 39.
7. For example in a speech, addressed to the VIII extraordinary congress of the Bulgarian promilitary Supreme Macedono-Adrianopolitan Organisation in Sofia on April 7, 1901: "Само ако тукашната организация одобрява духът на вътрешната организация и не се стреми да й дава импулс, въздействие, т. е. не й се бърка в нейните работи, само в такъв случай може да съществува връзка между тия две организации.", НБКМ — БИА, ф. 224, а. е. 8, л. 602, in English: "Only if the external organization approves the spirit of the internal organisation /IMRO, editor's note/ and doesn't aspire to give it impulse, influence, i.e., it doesn't meddle in its affairs, only in such case relation between these two organisations could exist."; the document is kept in the SS. Cyril and Methodius National Library, the Bulgarian Historical Archive department, fund 224, archive unit 8, page 602).
8. Пейо Яворов, "Събрани съчинения", Том втори, "Гоце Делчев", Издателство "Български писател", София, 1977, стр. 62-66. Template:Bg icon In English: Peyo Yavorov, "Complete Works", Volume 2, biography Delchev, Publishing house "Bulgarian writer", Sofia, 1977, pp. 62-66.
9. Пейо Яворов, "Събрани съчинения", Том втори, "Гоце Делчев", Издателство "Български писател", София, 1977, стр. 69. Template:Bg icon In English: Peyo Yavorov, "Complete Works", Volume 2, biography Delchev, Publishing house "Bulgarian writer", Sofia, 1977, p. 69.
10. Към Бяло море по стъпките на Гоце.
11. Прибиране костите на великия революционер апостола Гоце Делчев, Михаил Чаков, списание "Македония", 1998 г.
12. Standart News online, 2003.05.06. И брястът е изсъхнал край гроба на Гоце, Владимир Смеонов - наш пратеник в Серес.
13. Politics, power, and the struggle for democracy in South-East Europe, Volume 2 of Authoritarianism and Democratization and authoritarianism in postcommunist societies, Karen Dawisha, Bruce Parrott, Cambridge University Press, 1997, ISBN 0521597331, pp. 229-230.
14. Мичев. Д. Македонският въпрос и българо-югославските отношения - 9 септември 1944-1949, Издателство: СУ Св. Кл. Охридски, 1992, стр. 91.
15. Dismembering the state: the death of Yugoslavia and why it matters, P. H. Liotta, Lexington Books, 2001, ISBN 0739102125, p. 292.
16. The Macedonian Conflict: Ethnic Nationalism in a Transnational World, Loring M. Danforth, Princeton University Press, 1997, ISBN 0691043566, p. 68.
17. Europe since 1945. Encyclopedia by Bernard Anthony Cook, Taylor & Francis, 2001, Volume 2, ISBN 0815340583, pg. 808.
18. Who are the Macedonians? Hugh Poulton, C. Hurst & Co. Publishers, 2000, ISBN 1850655340, p. 117.
19. Кој со кого ќе се помирува? Originally published in the Skopje newspaper Impulsî from 7 July and 14 July 1995.
20. Пейо Яворов, "Събрани съчинения", Том втори, "Гоце Делчев", Издателство "Български писател", София, 1977, стр. 13. Template:Bg icon In English: Peyo Yavorov, "Complete Works", Volume 2, biography Delchev, Publishing house "Bulgarian writer", Sofia, 1977, p. 13.
21. Georgi Khadzhiev, National liberation and libertarian federalism, Sofia 1992, pp. 99-148
22. How Russia shaped the modern world: from art to anti-semitism, ballet to Bolshevism, Steven Gary Marks, Princeton University Press, 2002, ISBN 0691096848, p. 29.
23. "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).
24. ...At first the revolutionary organization began to work among the Bulgarian population, even not among the whole of it, but only among this part, which participated in the Bulgarian Exarchate. IMRO treated suspiciously to the Bulgarians, which participated in other churches, as the Greek Patriarchate, the Eastern Catholic Church and the Protestant Church. As to the revolutionary activity among the other nationalities as Turks, Albanians, Greeks and Vlahs, such question did not exist for the founders of the organization. This other nationalities were for IMRO foreign people... Later, when the leaders of IMRO saw, that the idea for liberation of Macedonia can find followers among the Bulgarians non-Exarchists, as also among the other nationalities in Macedonia, and under the pressure from IMARO-members with left, socialist or anarchist convictions, they changed the staute of IMRO in sence, that member of IMARO can be any Macedonian and Adrianopolitan, regardless from his ethnicity or religious denomination... See: “Борбите на македонския народ за освобождение”. Димитър Влахов, Библиотека Балканска Федерация, № 1, Виена, 1925, стр. 11.
25. Ivo Banac. (1984). The National Question in Yugoslavia: Origins, History, Politics. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press. ISBN 978-0801494932, p. 315.
26. We, the People: Politics of National Peculiarity in Southeastern Europe, Diana Mishkova, Central European University Press, 2008, ISBN 9639776289, p. 111.
27. Fields of wheat, hills of blood: passages to nationhood in Greek Macedonia, 1870-1990, Anastasia N. Karakasidou, University of Chicago Press, 1997, ISBN 0226424944, p 282.
28. Freedom or Death. The Life of Gotsé Delchev by Mercia MacDermott, The Journeyman Press, London & West Nyack, 1978, p. 322.
29. 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. 34.; 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 34. Among others, there are used the memoirs of the IMRO revolutionary Kosta Tsipushev, where he cited Delchev, that the autonomy then was only tactics, aiming future unification with Bulgaria. (55. ЦПА, ф. 226); срв. К. Ципушев. 19 години в сръбските затвори, СУ Св. Климент Охридски, 2004, ISBN 954-91083-5-X стр. 31-32. in English: Kosta Tsipushev, 19 years in Serbian prisons, Sofia University publishing house, 2004, ISBN 954-91083-5-X, p. 31-32.
30. Таjните на Македониjа.Се издава за прв пат, Скопjе 1999. in Macedonian - Ете како ја објаснува целта на борбата Гоце Делчев во 1901 година: "...Треба да се бориме за автономноста на Македанија и Одринско, за да ги зачуваме во нивната целост, како еден етап за идното им присоединување кон општата Болгарска Татковина". In English - How Delchev explained the aim of the struggle against the Ottomans in 1901: "...We have to fight for autonomy of Macedonia and Adrianople regions as a stage for their future unification with our common fatherland, Bulgaria."
31. Гоце Делчев. Писма и други материали, Дино Кьосев, Биографичен очерк, стр. 33.
32. Review of Chairs of History at Law and History Faculty of South-West University - Blagoevgrad, vol. 2/2005, Културното единство на българския народ в контекста на фирософията на Гоце Делчев, автор Румяна Модева, стр. 2.
33. Internationalism as an alternative political strategy in the modern history of Balkans by Vangelis Koutalis, Greek Social Forum, Thessaloniki, June 2003.
34. Collective memory, national identity, and ethnic conflict: Greece, Bulgaria, and the Macedonian question, Victor Roudometof, Greenwood Publishing Group, 2002, ISBN 0275976483, p. 79.
35. The Macedonian Question: Britain and the Southern Balkans 1939-1949, Dimitris Livanios, Oxford University Press US, 2008 ISBN 0199237689, p. 15.
36. The Macedonian Conflict: Ethnic Nationalism in a Transnational World, Loring M. Danforth, Editor: Princeton University Press, 1997, ISBN 0691043566,p. 64.
37. Perry, Duncan M. (1988). The Politics of Terror: The Macedonian Revolutionary Movements, 1893-1903, Durham, NC and London: Duke University Press.), p.23.
38. Delchev, openly said that “We are Bulgarians” (Mac Dermott, 1978:192, 273, quoted in Danforth, 1995:64) and addressed “the Slavs of Macedonia as ‘Bulgarians’ in an offhanded manner without seeming to indicate that such a designation was a point of contention” (Perry, 1988:23, quoted in Danforth, 1995:64). See: Center for Documentation and Information on Minorities in Europe - Southeast Europe (CEDIME-SE), Macedonians of Bulgaria, p. 5.
39. Академик Иван Катарџиев, "Верувам во националниот имунитет на македонецот", интервjу, "Форум": "ФОРУМ - Дали навистина Делчев се изјаснувал како Бугарин и зошто? КАТАРЏИЕВ - Ваквите прашања стојат. Сите наши луѓе се именувале како „Бугари“..."; also (in Macedonian; in English: "Academician Ivan Katardzhiev. I believe in Macedonian national immunity", interview, "Forum" magazine: "FORUM - Whether Delchev really defined himself as Bulgarian and why? KATARDZHIEV - Such questions exist. All our people named themselves as "Bulgarians"...")
40. "Уште робуваме на старите поделби", Разговор со д-р Зоран Тодоровски, www.tribune.eu.com, 27. 06. 2005, also here (in Macedonian; in English: "We are still in servitude to the old divisions", interview with Ph. D. Zoran Todorovski, published on www.tribune.eu.com, 27. 06. 2005.
41. Проштавање и национално помирување (3), д-р Антонио Милошоски, Утрински Весник, бр. 1760, 16 окт. 2006, In English: Forgiving and national reconcilement (3), Ph.D. Antonio Miloshoski, Utrinski Vesnik, issue 1760, 16.10.2006.
42. Bones of Contention: The Living Archive of Vasil Levski and the Making of Bulgaria's National Hero, Maria N. Todorova, Central European University Press, 2008, ISBN 9639776246, pp. 76-77.
43. Yugoslav - Bulgarian Relations from 1955 to 1980 by Evangelos Kofos from J. Koliopoulos and J. Hassiotis (eds), Modern and Contemporary Macedonia: History, Economy, Society, Culture, vol. 2, (Athens-Thessaloniki, 1992), pp. 277--280.
44. Created by the Bulgarian sculptor Lyubomir Dalchev in 1946, donated from the city of Sofia to the city of Skopje in 1948.

References

• Пандев, К. "Устави и правилници на ВМОРО преди Илинденско-Преображенското въстание", Исторически преглед, 1969, кн. I, стр. 68—80. Template:Bg icon
• Пандев, К. "Устави и правилници на ВМОРО преди Илинденско-Преображенското въстание", Извeстия на Института за история, т. 21, 1970, стр. 250-257. Template:Bg icon
• 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:Mk icon
• Hugh Pouton Who Are the Macedonians? , C. Hurst & Co, 2000. p. 53. ISBN 1-85065-534-0
• Fikret Adanir, Die Makedonische Frage: ihre entestehung und etwicklung bis 1908., Wiessbaden 1979, p. 112.
• Duncan Perry The Politics of Terror: The Macedonian Liberation Movements, 1893-1903 , Durham, Duke University Press, 1988. pp. 40–41, 210 n. 10.
• 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:Bg icon
• Пейо Яворов, "Събрани съчинения", Том втори, "Гоце Делчев", Издателство "Български писател", София, 1977. Template:Bg icon In English: Peyo Yavorov, "Complete Works", Volume 2, biography " Delchev", Publishing house "Bulgarian writer", Sofia, 1977.

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• 1872 births
• 1903 deaths
• People from Kilkis Prefecture
• Bulgarian revolutionaries
• Macedonian revolutionaries (ethnic group)
• Bulgarians from Aegean Macedonia
• Ottoman-era Macedonia (Greece)