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Nikola Karev
Никола Карев
President of Krusevo Republic
In office August 3, 1903 – August 13, 1903
Personal details
Born	November 23, 1877 Kırşova, Ottoman Empire
Died	April 27, 1905(1905-04-27) (aged 27) Near Rayçani, Ottoman Empire
Profession	Teacher

Nikola Yanakiev Karev (Bulgarian: Никола Янакиев Карев; Macedonian: Никола Јанакиев Карев, romanized: Nikola Janakiev Karev; November 23, 1877 – April 27, 1905) was a Macedonian Bulgarian revolutionary. He was born in Kruševo and died in the village of Rajčani both today in North Macedonia. Karev was a local leader of what later became known as the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization (IMRO). He was also a teacher in the Bulgarian Exarchate school system in his native area, and a member of the Bulgarian Workers' Social Democratic Party. Today he is considered a hero in Bulgaria and in North Macedonia.

Biography

Early years

Karev completed his early education at the Bulgarian school in Kruševo and in 1893 moved to Sofia, the capital of Principality of Bulgaria, where he worked as a carpenter for the socialist Vasil Glavinov. Karev joined the Socialist group led by Glavinov, and through him, made acquaintance of Dimitar Blagoev and other socialists, and became a member of the Bulgarian Workers' Social Democratic Party. In 1896 he participated in the Macedonian-Adrianople Social Democratic Group, created as part of the Bulgarian Workers' Social-Democrat Party. In 1898 Karev went back to Ottoman Macedonia and graduated from the Bulgarian Exarchate's gymnasium in Bitola. From 1900 he worked as a schoolmaster in the Bulgarian schools in the village of Gorno Divjaci and in his native Kruševo.

Political and revolutionary activity

The first Conference of Macedonian Socialists was held on June 3, 1900, near Kruševo, where they defined the core aspects of the potential creation of a separate Macedonian Republic, as a cantonized state, part of a future Balkan Socialist Federation, as a multinational polity offering equal rights to all its citizens. They maintained the slogan "Macedonia for the Macedonians", using Macedonian people as an umbrella term covering Bulgarians, Turks, Greeks, Aromanians, Albanians, Jews, etc., living in harmony in an independent state. In this period Karev joined the Internal Macedonian-Adrianople Revolutionary Organization and became a leader of a regional armed band (cheta).

On the eve of the Ilinden uprising, in May 1903, he was interviewed in Bitola by the correspondent of the Greek daily Akropolis Stamatis Stamatiou. In the interview, Karev expresses his position of a radical leftist. Stamatiou described him as a Bulgarized Macedonian. Per Stamatiou, Karev presented himself as a voulgarofron, (i.e. Bulgarophile), and replied he was a Macedonian. In response to an ironic question by Stamatiou, Karev also claimed to be a "direct descendant of Alexander the Great", but added that "history says he was a Greek". When asked what the revolutionaries wanted for Macedonia, Karev explained their plans to create a republic in the model of Switzerland, providing autonomy and democracy for its different "races". He added that Bulgaria's expectations to annex the region were miscalculated and that the revolutionaries would accept anyone's help in order to attain their goal.

During the Ilinden uprising of August 1903, when Kruševo was captured by the rebels, Karev allegedly authored the so-called Kruševo Manifesto, which called upon the local Muslim population to join forces with the Christians, and became the head of its provisional government. Amongst the various ethno-religious groups (millets) in Kruševo a Republican Council was elected with 60 members – 20 representatives from each one: Macedonian Bulgarians (Exarchists), Vlachs and Slav-speaking, Aromanian-speaking and Albanian-speaking Greek Patriarchists. The Council also elected an executive body – the Provisional Government, with six members (2 from each mentioned group). Though, an ethnic identification problem arose, because Karev called all the members of the local Council "brother Bulgarians", while the IMRO insurgents flew Bulgarian flags, killed several Greek Patriarchists, accused of being Ottoman spies, and subsequently assaulted the local Turk and Albanian Muslims. Karev himself tried to minimize the attacks on the Muslims and prevent the insurgents from looting indiscriminately. Before the encirclement of Kruševo, he escaped. Lasting only ten days, the Kruševo Republic was destroyed by Ottoman forces after intense fighting.

After Ilinden

After the uprising Karev went back to Bulgaria and became a political activist of the newly founded Marxist Bulgarian Social Democratic Workers' Party (Narrow Socialists). However, the Narrows denounced the Ilinden uprising as an adventure inspired by the Bulgarian government, that played into the hands of the Great Powers. In 1904, Karev made a legal attempt to return to Macedonia, taking advantage of the Bulgarian-Ottoman Amnesty Agreement for the participants in the Ilinden Uprising. He sent several applications for amnesty to Istanbul through the cabinet of the Bulgarian Prime Minister Racho Petrov. The applications were received by the Ottoman Amnesty Commission but remained unanswered, despite the intercession of the Bulgarian diplomatic agent in Istanbul, Grigor Nachovich.

On March 16, 1905, the chetas of Nikola Karev and Petar Atsev passed through the Kyustendil checkpoint of the IMARO and entered Ottoman territory. Soon after, Karev's detachment was discovered by Ottoman soldiers, and in the ensuing battle he was killed near the village of Rajčani, together with his comrades Dimitar Gyurchev and Krastyo Naumov.

Family

His two brothers, Petar and Georgi also participated in IMRO. During the First and the Second World Wars, when Vardar Macedonia was annexed by Bulgaria, they supported the Bulgarian authorities. After World War I, both were abused when the area was returned to Serbian administration. During the Second World War, Georgi was a Mayor of Krusevo. After 1944 they were imprisoned as Bulgarian fascists' collaborators in Communist Yugoslavia, where both died in the internment camp of Idrizovo in 1950 and 1951 respectively. Nikola's nephew Mihail, the son of Georgi, was also imprisoned on a charge of "opposing the idea of Communist Yugoslavia".

Legacy

After the Second World War the short-lived Kruševo Republic was absorbed into the historical narrative of the new Socialist Republic of Macedonia, as the new Communist authorities eradicated "pro-Bulgarian" sentiments. Despite Karev's Bulgarian national identification, he was an ethnic Macedonian, according to Macedonian historiography. After 1944 the name of Nikola Karev was present in the anthem of the Socialist Republic of Macedonia: "Today over Macedonia". It was removed in 1953 without explanation by the communist leadership led by Lazar Koliševski, as Nikola and his brothers Petar and Georgi were considered to be "Bulgarophiles".

Karev's remains were buried in Rajčani, a village near the locality where he was killed. In 1953, on the 50th anniversary of the Ilinden Uprising, they were transferred to his hometown Kruševo. In 1990, they were transferred to the nearby monument, called Makedonium.

In 2008, a large bronze equestrian monument of Nikola Karev was placed in front of Parliament Building in Skopje, cast by the Ferdinando Marinelli Artistic Foundry of Florence, Italy.

Notes

1. Per Chavdar Marinov at the eve of the 20th century the treatment of the Greek society towards the Macedonian Slavs was changed. Until then they were accepted as Bulgarians, but after the aggravation of the Bulgarian-Greek relations on the Macedonian question, it was proved that the Macedonian Slavs were in fact Greeks, and that their language was not Bulgarian. The name Bulgarians also was taken out of use for them. At the time, the Greek researchers claimed that the Slavophones were simply Slavicized Greeks. This idea suggests that the Macedonian Slavs had lost their original Greek language and culture over the centuries, and it was time to them to return to their Hellenic roots. For the Greek audience the Macedonian Slavs were in historical aspect Ancient Macedonians (i.e. Greeks), not related to the Bulgarians. They were labelled as Bulgarian-speaking Greeks and even Slavic-speaking "Macedonians". For more see: 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, pp: 290–291.
2. Tassos Kostopoulos compares Stamatiou's distrust towards Karev's self-presentation with the profession of a "purely Macedonian consciousness" of the Bulgarian Army colonel Anastas Yankov during his short passage through Greece on his way back from Macedonia to Bulgaria in December 1902, after the failed Gorna Dzhumaya Uprising, which, contrary to Karev's, was received cordially by Greek nationalists and taken at face value even by the most Slavophobe Greek newspapers. See Tassos Kostopoulos, Faire la police dans un pays etranger, pp. 5-6, n. 21.. Per Tchavdar Marinov the manifesto issued by Anastas Yankov during the Gorna Dzhumaya Uprising promulgated only a specific “local Macedonian” patriotism, a phenomenon that was described at the beginning of the twentieth century by foreign observers such as Henry Noel Brailsford and Allen Upward. They likewise noted the legend that Alexander the Great and Aristotle were “Bulgarians.” Obviously, by the late Ottoman period, the ancient glory of the region was exploited for self-legitimation by groups with different loyalties—Greek as well as Bulgarian. At that time the anarchist Pavel Shatev described the first vestiges of the process of an ethno-national differentiation between Bulgarian and Macedonian, while some people he met felt “only Bulgarians”, but others despite being Bulgarians "by nationality", felt themselves Macedonians above all. It was generating a new identity that, during that period, was still not necessarily exclusive vis-à-vis Greek or Bulgarian national belonging. Marinov claims that people as Yankov, although Bulgarians by national identification and Macedonian supranationalist by political conviction, began to promote rarely the prognostics of some different ethnicity, which after the First World War were transformed into definitive Macedonian nationalism. For more see: 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, pp: 293–294; 304.
3. Per Eleftheria Vambakovska, the interview, contains contradictory claims and actually begins with an illogical claim. Karev asserts he is a Bulgarian-minded ("Bulgarophron"), and on the first question of the reporter: "Are you a Macedonian", he answers with "yes". The reporter and the Greek audience then, regarded Macedonia as a Greek territory and hence the people living here, according to them, must be Greeks and descendants of Alexander the Great. That's why he was so persistently trying to persuade Karev, that he is Macedonian, i.e. Greek. And if he was not a Greek, then he is "Voulgarophron", "Bulgarized Macedonian", etc. Otherwise, it is easy to see that the interview was adopted for the Greek readers in 1903. The interview begins with a question "are you a Macedonian"? that means Karev's ethnic origin was more important for the interviewer – whether he is a "Macedonian", which to the Greeks was a synonymous of a "Greek". Otherwise, to the Greeks "Bulgarian-minded" was not so important – the conviction is acquirable and it can by changed. "Bulgarophron", literally translated would mean – a man who thinks like all the Bulgarians. On the other hand, Dalibor Jovanovski, who surmises the interview was conducted by Ion Dragoumis, the Greek deputy consul at Bitola, states that "n the interview, Karev stressed that he is Macedonian, not Bulgarian". See Далибор Јовановски, Пред Коминтерната, p. 75-76: For more see: Утрински Весник, Сабота, July 22, 2000 Архивски Број 329. По откривањето на интервјуто на Никола Карев за 'Акрополис' во 1903. Одважноста на претседателот на Крушевската Република. Елефтерија Вамбаковска, Глигор Стојковски; Академик Катарџиев, Иван. Верувам во националниот имунитет на македонецот, интервју за списание "Форум", 22 jули 2000, број 329.

References

1. Nikola Karev was a Bulgarian revolutionary, narrow socialist and teacher. He was an activist of the Macedonian-Adrianopolitan liberation movement and a participant in the Ilinden-Preobrazhenie uprising. For more: Пелтеков, Александър Г. Революционни дейци от Македония и Одринско. Второ допълнено издание. София, Орбел, 2014. ISBN 9789544961022, стр. 210-211.
2. From 1900 to 1903, Karev was a teacher at the Bulgarian schools in the village of Gorno Divjaci and in his native Kruševo. Билярски, Цочо. „Никола Карев, Председателят на Крушовската република“, Сите Българи заедно. Jan 31, 2012.
3. Bulgarians, inspired by the rise of nationalism, began to set up their own national churches and schools independently of the Patriarchate of Constantinople. In 1870 they were also allowed to establish an Exarchate, which, within the framework of the millet system, became more than a mere religious institution, coming to represent the Orthodox Bulgarians as a separate nation in the Ottoman Empire. As such, the Bulgarian Exarchate established a network of national schools where it took care of both religious and secular education of the Orthodox Bulgarians under its jurisdiction. For more see: Maria Schnitter, Daniela Kalkandjieva, Teaching Religion in Bulgarian Schools in Adam Seligman (ed.) Religious Education and the Challenge of Pluralism. New York: Oxford University Press, 2014, pp. 70-95.
4. In Macedonia, the education race produced the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization (IMRO), which organized and carried out the Ilinden Uprising of 1903. Most of IMRO’s founders and principal organizers were graduates of the Bulgarian Exarchate schools in Macedonia, who had become teachers and inspectors in the same system that had educated them. Frustrated with the pace of change, they organized and networked to develop their movement throughout the Bulgarian school system that employed them. The Exarchate schools were an ideal forum in which to propagate their cause, and the leading members were able to circulate to different posts, to spread the word, and to build up supplies and stores for the anticipated uprising. As it became more powerful, IMRO was able to impress upon the Exarchate its wishes for teacher and inspector appointments in Macedonia. For more see: Julian Brooks, The Education Race for Macedonia, 1878—1903 in The Journal of Modern Hellenism, Vol 31 (2015) pp. 23-58.
5. Aleksandar Pavkovic, Christopher Kelen, Anthems and the Making of Nation States: Identity and Nationalism in the Balkans; Bloomsbury Publishing, 2015, ISBN 0857726420, p. 168.
6. The politics of terror: the Macedonian liberation movements, 1893–1903, Duncan M. Perry, Duke University Press, 1988, ISBN 0-8223-0813-4, p. 172.
7. Николов, Борис Й. Вътрешна Македоно-одринска революционна организация. Войводи и ръководители (1893–1934). Биографично-библиографски справочник, София 2001, с. 74
8. We, the people: politics of national peculiarity in Southeastern Europe, Diana Mishkova, Central European University Press, 2009, ISBN 963-9776-28-9, p. 122.
9. Terrible Fate: Ethnic Cleansing in the Making of Modern Europe, Benjamin Lieberman, Rowman & Littlefield, 2013, ISBN 144223038X, p. 56.
10. Historical Dictionary of Macedonia, Historical Dictionaries of Europe, Dimitar Bechev, Scarecrow Press, 2009, ISBN 0810862956, Introduction.
11. Антони Гиза, Балканските държави и Македонския въпрос (превод от полски - Димитър Димитров, Македонски Научен Институт София, 2001) стр. 35.
12. Michalopoulos, G. (2014). Political parties, irredentism and the Foreign Ministry: Greece and Macedonia, 1878-1910 . Oxford University, UK.
13. ^ Stamatis Stamatiou, From Bitola. Interview with a member of the Committee.
14. The term means someone with pro-Bulgarian convictions. For its English translation see Philip Carabott, "The Politics of Constructing the Ethnic 'Other': The Greek State and Its Slav-speaking Citizens, ca. 1912 - ca. 1949", p. 151, Anastasia Karakasidou, "The Slavo-Macedonian 'non-minority'", p. 129, 153, n. 26 and Nada Boshkovska, Yugoslavia and Macedonia Before Tito: Between Repression and Integration (London/New York: I. B. Tauris, 2017), p. 8.
15. Michalopoulos, 163-164
16. See Далибор Јовановски, Пред Коминтерната, p. 75-6.
17. Dimitar Bechev Historical Dictionary of North Macedonia, Rowman & Littlefield, 2019, ISBN 1538119625, p. 166.
18. Keith Brown, The past in question: modern Macedonia and the uncertainties of nation, Princeton University Press, 2003, ISBN 0-691-09995-2, p. 230.
19. "Беше наполно прав и Мисирков во своjата фундаментална критика за Востанието и неговите раководители. Неговите укажуваньа се покажаа наполно точни во послешната практика. На пр., во ослободеното Крушево се формира градска управа составена од "Бугари", Власи и Гркомани, па во зачуваните писмени акти не фигурираат токму Македонци(!)..." Блаже Ристовски, "Столетиjа на македонската свест", Скопје, Култура, 2001, стр. 458.
20. The past in question: modern Macedonia and the uncertainties of nation, Keith Brown, Publisher Princeton University Press, 2003, ISBN 0-691-09995-2, pp. 81–82.
21. Michael Palairet, Macedonia: A Voyage through History (Vol. 2), Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2016, ISBN 1443888494, p. 149.
22. Keith Brown, Loyal Unto Death: Trust and Terror in Revolutionary Macedonia, Indiana University Press, 2013, ISBN 9780253008473, pp. 141–142.
23. Цочо Билярски, Никола Карев — председателят на Крушевската република, публикувано в Сите българи заедно на 31.01.2012.
24. Николов, Борис Й. Вътрешна македоно-одринска революционна организация: Войводи и ръководители (1893-1934): Биографично-библиографски справочник. София, Издателство „Звезди“, 2001. ISBN 954-9514-28-5, с. 74.
25. Пелтеков, Александър. Революционни дейци от Македония и Одринско. Второ допълнено издание. София, Орбел, 2014. ISBN 9789544961022. стр. 242; 324.
26. Македонска енциклопедија, том I. Скопје, Македонска академија на науките и уметностите, 2009. ISBN 978-608-203-023-4. с. 677.
27. Илюстрация Илинден, ноември 1941, година 13, книга 9 (129), стр. 13.
28. Ристески, Стојан. Судени за Македонија (1945–1985), Полар, Охрид, 1995, стр.311–324. Archived April 7, 2014, at the Wayback Machine
29. Коста Църнушанов, Македонизмът и съпротивата на Македония срещу него Унив. изд. "Св. Климент Охридски", София, 1992, стр. 478.
30. Contested Ethnic Identity: The Case of Macedonian Immigrants in Toronto, 1900-1996, Chris Kostov, Peter Lang, 2010, ISBN 3034301960, p. 84.
31. Two Krusevo natives were centrally involved in the action. Nikola Karev, from the community known as Bulgars, was the local representative to the central committee of the organization and was the military commander of the insurgent forces... Fieldwork Dilemmas: Anthropologists in Postsocialist States, Hermine G. De Soto, Nora Dudwick, Univ of Wisconsin Press, 2000, ISBN 978-0-299-16374-7, p. 37.
32. Yet the identity problem was glaring, Karev reportedly addressed an assembly of 60 Bulgarian, Greek and Vlach inhabitants, to establish his “temporary government” but he referred to those assembled “brother Bulgarians”. The revolutionaries flew Bulgarian flags, killed five Greek Patriarchists, accused to be Ottoman spies, and subsequently attacked the local Muslims (Turks and Albanians). Michael Palairet, Macedonia: A Voyage through History (Vol. 2), Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2016, ISBN 1443888494, p. 149.
33. "Macedonian revolutionary heroes are carefully treated. In addition to appropriating the historical legacies of the key founders of the original IMRO-Goce Delcev, Damian Gruev and Pere Tosev-Macedonian historians play up lesser figures, who might have given the slightest indication of "socialist" inclination or who were not openly Bulgarophiles. Thus there is glorification of men like Jane Sandanski, Dimo Hadji-Dimov, Petar Poparsov and Nikola Karev, who, because they defected from the IMRO or lost out in internecine organizational fights, have long been forgotten by chroniclers of the IMRO" For more see: Stephen E. Palmer, Robert R. King, Yugoslav communism and the Macedonian question, Archon Books, 1971, ISBN 0208008217, Chapter 9: The encouragement of Macedonian culture.
34. An excerpt from an article from a Macedonian newspaper "Utrinski vesnik", published on 22. 07. 2000, Archive number 329. Утрински Весник, сите права задржани, Сабота, July 22, 2000 Архивски Број 329.
    • Интервјуто на Никола Карев за грчкиот весник Акрополис, објавено на 8 мај 1903 година, е првото, досега познато интервју на член на најтесното раководство на ВМРО пред Илинденското востание. Овој исклучителен, слободно ќе може да се нарече, историски документ го откри и го преведе на македонски јазик г-ѓа Елефтерија Вамбаковска, вработена во Институт за национална историја. При вчерашната средба со г-ѓа Вамбаковска во редакцијата на "Утрински весник" најнапред не интересираше начинот на кој таа дошла до интервјуто. (in English) Nikola Karev's interview to the Greek newspaper "Acropolis", published on May 8, 1903, is the first, so far known interview by a member of the top leadership of the IMRO before the Ilinden Uprising. This is an exclusive, we can call it even a historical document discovered and translated into Macedonian by Mrs. Eleftheria Vambakovska working in the Institute of National History. At yesterday's meeting with Mrs. Vambakovska in the "Utrinski vesnik" we were interested in the way, she came to that interview.
    • – Утрински: Како ја коментирате содржината на интервјуто. Што значи терминот бугарофрон? (in English) Utrinski: How do you interpret the content of the interview. What does the term Bulgarophronos mean?
    • – Елефтерија Вамбаковска: Што се однесува до содржината на интервјуто оставам да суди науката и читателите. Мое мислење е дека тоа содржи контрадикторности и нелогичности. Интервјуто всушност и започнува со една нелогичност. Карев изјавува дека е Бугарин по убедување, а на првото прашање на новинарот: "Дали е Македонец", одговара со "да"! Самиот новинар го прогласува Карев за Македонец, но бугаризиран, а го започнува интервјуто со прашањето што е (по националност)? Се гледа дека за него поважно било етничкото потекло – дали бил Македонец, што за Грците било синоним за Грк. Инаку, тоа "по убедување" за нив не било важно – убедувањето се стекнувало и било менливо. Бугарофрон, во буквален превод би значело – човек што мисли на бугарски начин, којшто мисли како што мислат сите Бугари. Денес Грците имаат сличен термин – етникрофрон кој има слично значење, имено – човек што мисли на својата нација, односно Грк кој мисли на Грција. Денес Македонците во Егејска Македонија своите сонародници кои се погрчиле ги нарекуваат – етникофрони. За нив во 50-те и 60-те години се издаваа и посебни уверенија дека се етникофрони, а заедно со нив се издаваа и уверенија за подобност, кои беа потребни дури и за полагање на приемните испити на факултетите. (in English) Eleftheria Vambakovska: As to the content of the interview, I leave it free for interpretations by scientists and readers. My opinion is that it contains contradictory and illogical claims. The interview actually begins with an illogical claim. Karev asserts he is a Bulgarian by conviction ("Bulgarophronos"), and on the first question of the reporter: "Are you a Macedonian", he answers with "yes"! The reporter declared Karev was a Macedonian, but bulgarized one. The interview begins with a question "are you a Macedonian"? that means Karev's ethnic origin was more important for the interviewer – whether he is a "Macedonian", which to the Greeks was a synonymous of a "Greek". Otherwise, to the Greeks "(Bulgarian) by conviction" was not so important – the conviction is acquirable and it can by changed. "Bulgarophronos", literally translated would mean – a man who thinks like a Bulgarian, a man who thinks like all other Bulgarians. Today the Greeks have a similar term – ethnicophronos, which has similar meaning, namely – a man who thinks on his own nation – nationalist, a Greek who thinks about Greece. Today the Macedonians in Aegean Macedonia (Greece) call their countrymen who became hellenized, i.e. Greeks – ethnicophronos. For them during the 1950s and 1960s, were issued special certificates that they are ethnicophronos, and along with them were issued certificates of eligibility, which were necessary even for passing the entrance exams at the faculties.
    • – Утрински: Како го објаснувањето поврзувањето на територијата Македонија со етничкиот карактер на населението кое живее во неа? (in English) Utrinski: What is the explanation of the relation of the territory of Macedonia with the ethnic character of the population living in it?
    • – Елефтерија Вамбаковска: Новинарот, и не само тој, Македонија ја смета за грчка територија и оттука и луѓето кои тука живеат, според нив, мора да се Грци, потомци на Александар Македонски. Затоа и тој толку настојчиво се обидува да го убеди Карев дека e Грк. А, ако не е Грк тогаш е "бугарофрон", "бугаризиран Македонец" и тн. Инаку, лесно се воочува дека интервјуто во е "малку дотерано", приспособено за грчките читатели во 1903 година. (in English) Eleftheria Vambakovska: The journalist, and not only he, regards Macedonia as a Greek territory and hence the people living here, according to them, must be Greeks, descendants of Alexander the Great. That's why he is so persistently trying to persuade Karev, that he is Greek. And if he is not a Greek, then he is "Bulgarophonos", "Bulgarian Macedonian", etc. Otherwise, it is easy to see that the interview is "slightly tuned", adapted for the Greek readers in 1903.
35. After 1945, in ex-Serbian Macedonia, the authorities rehabilitated the idea of a separate Macedonian language, identity and consciousness, sponsoring the creation of a separate Macedonian Church. At the same time, official history rehabilitated only certain VMRO-era revolutionaries, like Goce Delcev, Nikola Karev and Dame Gruev, who they deemed deserving because they were not associated with the idea of union of Macedonia with Bulgaria. Meanwhile, most emphasis was placed on celebrating the joint Yugoslav history of the World War II Communist struggle. Other VMRO figures, like Todor Aleksandrov or Ivan Mihajlov remained blacklisted owing to their strong pro-Bulgarian stands. Historians today agree that the truth was not so black-and-white. Per Prof. Todor Cepreganov: Almost all Macedonian revolutionaries from that era at some point of their life took pro-Bulgarian stands or pronounced themselves as Bulgarians – this is not disputed. See: Sinisa Jakov Marusic, New Statue Awakens Past Quarrels in Macedonia, in Balkan Transitional Justice - BIRN, July 13, 2012.
36. Pål Kolstø, Strategies of Symbolic Nation-building in South Eastern Europe, Routledge, 2016, ISBN 1317049365, p. 188.
37. Блаже Ристовски (уредник) „Рациновите македонски народно-ослободителни песни“, „Матица македонска“, Скопје, 1993, 40 стр.
38. Последното интервју на Мише Карев: Колишевски и Страхил Гигов сакале да ги прогласат Гоце, Даме и Никола за Бугари! 02.08.2018 Денешен весник.
39. ^ Keith Brown, The Past in Question: Modern Macedonia and the Uncertainties of Nation, Princeton University Press, 2018, ISBN 0691188432, pp. 191–193.
40. Коста Църнушанов, Македонизмът и съпротивата на Македония срещу него, Унив. изд. "Св. Климент Охридски", София, 1992, стр. 336.
41. The phenomenon noted by Mise Karev, that Nikola carried Bulgarian baggage at some points in Yugoslav history, is confirmed by others in the town. They do not, however, necessarily link the origin of this version of Nikola Karev's career to a policy of disinformation by Kolisevski and his associates. Some people recall their grandparents’ unshakable conviction that in 1903 Karev addressed himself to his "brother Bulgarians" as recorded in the account given by Nicolaos Ballas... Karev's own close links to Sofia — he spent extended periods there before and after the Uprising — gave further grist to the rumor mill that associated him closely with pro-Bulgarian forces.. For more see: Keith Brown, The Past in Question: Modern Macedonia and the Uncertainties of Nation, Princeton University Press, 2018, ISBN 0691188432, p. 152.
42. "Првпат доаѓам на местото на погибијата на дедо ми Никола Карев" (in Macedonian). Dnevnik. April 29, 2015. Archived from the original on March 4, 2016.
43. "Ќе се издигне седумметарскиот споменик на Никола Карев" (in Macedonian). Skopje: Večer. September 13, 2011. Archived from the original on September 13, 2012. Retrieved June 27, 2012.

Bibliographies

• Пандев, К. "Устави и правилници на ВМОРО преди Илинденско-Преображенското въстание", Исторически преглед, 1969, кн. I, стр. 68–80. (in Bulgarian)
• Пандев, К. "Устави и правилници на ВМОРО преди Илинденско-Преображенското въстание", Извeстия на Института за история, т. 21, 1970, стр. 250–257. (in Bulgarian)
• 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. (in Macedonian)
• 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.
• Keith Brown,The Past in Question: Modern Macedonia and the Uncertainties of Nation, Princeton University Press, 2003.

• 1877 births
• 1905 deaths
• People from Kruševo
• Members of the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization
• Bulgarian Workers' Social Democratic Party politicians
• Bulgarian revolutionaries
• 20th-century Bulgarian educators
• Macedonian Bulgarians
• Revolutionaries from the Ottoman Empire