Misplaced Pages

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Danny (talk | contribs) at 16:40, 30 September 2004. The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

The Kruševo Republic was a short-lived attempt by a group of Macedonian nationalists to create an independent Macedonian state on August 2, 1903, in territories then occupied by the Ottoman Empire. It was so-called because it was centered around the town of Kruševo, near Prilep. The instigators of this effort were the members of the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization (VMRO), a group that tried to distinguish the Macedonian national identity from that of the neighboring Greeks, Serbs, and Bulgarians. Though the group was perceived by the Turks as an effort to promote Bulgarian expansionism, Goce Delčev (1872-1903), a young ideologue of the group declared, "Whoever hankers after unification with Bulgaria and Greece may consider himself a good Bulgar or Greek, but not a good Macedonian."

By the time the new republic was proclaimed, 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 brought Macedonia under Serbian, and later Yugoslav control.