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The Ilinden Uprising (Ilinden-Preobrazhenie Uprising) of August 1903 was an organised revolt of the Bulgarians living in the Ottoman Empire prepared and carried out by the Internal Macedonian-Adrianople Revolutionary Organisation (IMARO, predecessor to IMRO).

The uprising took place in the Bitola vilayet and the northeastern part of Adrianople vilayet — parts of the regions of Macedonia and Thrace. The rebellion in the Bitola vilayet was proclaimed on August 2, 1903, St. Elijah's Day (Ilinden in Bulgarian), almost two weeks ahead of schedule. The Adrianople vilayet joined the uprising on August 19, 1903, the Transfiguration (Preobrazhenie in Bulgarian).

The rebellion in Macedonia affected most of the central and southwestern parts of the Bitola Vilayet receiving the support of the peasant Bulgarian and Vlach population of the region. Provisional governments were established in three localities, all of them Vlach mountain villages, viz Kruševo (near Prilep), Neveska near Florina and Klisura near Kastoria. In Kruševo the insurgents proclaimed the so called Krushevo Republic under the presidency of Bulgarian school teacher Nikola Karev.

The rebellion in the Adrianople Vilayet led to the liberation of a vast area in Mount Strandzha and to the creation of a provisional government in Tsarevo (Vasiliko). Though the rebellion in both regions initially was successful, the intervention of Turkish regular army led to the dissolution of the rebels' detachments. The suppression of the uprising entailed some 15,000 victims, 70,000 homeless, over 12,000 destroyed or burnt houses and over 30,000 refugees to neighbouring Bulgaria.

By the time the rebellion had started, many of its most promising potential leaders, including Goce Delčev, had already been killed in skirmishes with the Ottomans, and the effort was quashed within eleven days. The survivors managed to maintain a semi-successful guerilla campaign against the Turks for the next few years, but its greater effect was that it persuaded the European powers to attempt to convince the Ottoman sultan that he must take a more concilliatory note toward his Christian subjects in Europe.

This led to the Murzsteg Program, by which the various powers appointed observers in Macedonia. Though little came of this, in was a motivating factor in the ensuing Balkan Wars, which split up Macedonia between a nothern area under Serbian (and later Yugoslav) control, a southern area under Greece and a small northeastern one under Bulgaria.

• Macedonia
• History of Bulgaria
• Ottoman Empire