Yane Sandanski

Infobox revolution biography
name=Jane Ivanov Sandanski
lived= May 18, 1872–April 22, 1915
dateofbirth= May 18, 1872
placeofbirth= Vlahi, Ottoman Empire (present-day Bulgaria)
dateofdeath= death date and age|1915|4|22|1872|5|18
placeofdeath=


caption= Portrait of Yane Ivanov Sandanski
alternate name=Jane Sandanski
movement=
organizations= Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization (IMRO)
monuments=
prizes=
religion= Eastern Orthodox christian (assumed)
footnotes=

Yane Ivanov Sandanski or Jane Ivanov Sandanski ( _bg. Яне Сандански, _mk. Јане Сандански) (May 18, 1872, Vlahi, Ottoman Empire (present-day Bulgaria) - April 22, 1915 near Melnik, Bulgaria) was a revolutionary, one of the leaders of the BMRC since 1895 (SMARO from 1902 and IMARO from 1905) in the Serres region and head of the extreme leftist wing of the organization. [Among Yané’s personal books is a copy of Plehanov’s "Anarchism and Socialism, translated into Bulgarian by Georgi Bakalov, and published in Varna in 1898.] He is considered an ethnic Bulgarian in Bulgaria [He established a political party, called "People's Federative Party (Bulgarian section)" and noted in its statute (written in literary ).]

Biography

Sandanski was born in the Bulgarian populated village of Vlahi near Kresna in Ottoman Empire on May 28, 1872. [ [http://www.kroraina.com/knigi/en/mm/mm_1.htm Mercia MacDermott. For Freedom and Perfection. The Life of Yane Sandansky, 1988, Published by Journeyman, London, ISBN 1851720146 : 9781851720149, OCLC 16465550, pg. 1.] ] His father Ivan participated as a flag carrier in the Kresna-Razlog Uprising. After the crush of the uprising, in 1879 his family moved to Dupnitsa, Bulgaria, where Sandanski received his elementary education. Until 1895 Sandanski was a Bulgarian state employee.

Yane Sandanski was involved in the Revolutionary Movement in Macedonia and Thrace and became one of its leaders. Since the start of his revolutionary activity, he gained popularity because he protected the local villagers in Pirin Macedonia from the tyranny of the Ottomans, organizing courts and taught self-defence. Sandanski lived and fought in the Pirin region, and that is why the people gave him the nickname "Pirin Tsar" (Pirinski Tsar). He was one from the organizers of the "Miss Stone Affair" - America's first modern hostage crisis. On September 3, 1901, a Protestant missionary named Ellen Stone set out on horseback across the mountainous hinterlands of Balkan Macedonia and was ambushed by a band of armed revolutionaries. Sandanski was also active in the anti-Ottoman Ilinden-Preobrazhenie Uprising.

Since 1908 until the Balkan Wars he supported the movement of the Young Turks. After the Young Turk Revolution during the Second Constitutional Era Sandanski was also founder and leader of the one of the left political parties in Ottoman Macedonia - People Federative Party (Bulgarian section), which headquarter was in Thessaloniki. His dream was the creation of a Balkan Federative Republic according to the plans of the Balkan Socialist Federation and Macedonia as a part of that Federation. [In the Directive issued by the Federalists in 1904, the Balkan Federation was stated to be the ‘sole way for the salvation of all’, and their whole subsequent policy stemmed from their recognition of the fact that, in order to solve the Macedonian problem in a manner satisfactory to the Bulgarian population, it was necessary for the Organization to win the good will and trust of all the nationalities who lived there. More recently, the escalation of chauvinist activity on the part of the Greeks and Serbs, inspired and financed by their respective governments, had led a number of people to the realization that, since an autonomous Macedonia would, to all intents and purposes, be a Bulgarian Macedonia, the Greeks and Serbs would never countenance its establishment, and therefore the achievement of autonomy for Macedonia—however desirable from the Bulgarian point of view—was not a practical possibility, unless it were to come about as part of a much wider progressive political process involving the whole Turkish Empire and the other Balkan states.(See Pavel Deliradev, Razvitieto na federativnata ideya, Makedonska misal, Book 5-6, 1946, pp. 203-208.)] He demanded that the IMARO should embrace all nationalities in the region, not only Bulgarians. ["Today, all of us, Turks, Bulgarians, Greeks, Albanians, Jews and others, we have all sworn that we will work for our dear Fatherland and will be inseparable, and we will all sacrifice ourselves for it, and, if necessary, we will even shed our blood." - This part of Yané’s speech held in the town of Nevrokop during the Young Turk Revolution is quoted from a hand-written leaflet, bearing the seal of the Razlog Committee for Union and Progress, and a price, i.e. the leaflet was one of many copies made for sale. The leaflet was found among the papers of Lazar Kolchagov of Bansko, and was published by Ivan Diviziev in Istoricheski Pregled, 1964, Book 4 (Nov Dokument za Yané Sandansky). [http://promacedonia.org/en/mm/mm_19.htm#13.] ] In this way it would be possible to create a healthy system aimed at the organisation of a mass uprising. ["“Long ago you are regarding our Macedonian-Adrianopole question only as Bulgarian question. The struggle we are on, you consider as the struggle for triumph of the Bulgarian nationality over the others which are living with us. Let forget henceforth who is Bulgarian, who is Greek, who is Serbian, who is Vlah, but remember who is underprivileged slave.”" - A letter to the Greek citizens of Melnik, (Революционен лист (Revolutionary Sheet), № 3, 17.09.1904)] Later Sandanski and his faction actively supported the Bulgarian army in the Balkan wars of 1912–1913, initially with the idea, that their duty is to fight for autonomous Macedonia, [ Ј. Богатинов - "Спомени", бр.11 од в. „Доброволец“, 1945 г.] but later fighting for Bulgaria. [The Russian journalist Viktorov-Toparov, who met Yané in May 1913, wrote: At the beginning of 1913, when the Serbian and Greek occupation regime forced the Macedonian Bulgarians once again to consider the fate of their country, serious doubts had assailed Sandanski. And I shall always remember that evening in 1913 when Sandansky came to me to confide his doubts and vacillations: "There, look this always happens when someone is freed by force of arms! How fine it would have been if Macedonia could have freed herself! But now it’s happened, our duty is to fight alongside Bulgaria, and for Bulgaria" - Sŭvremena Misŭl, 15.V.1915, pp. 24-25.] After the wars, Pirin Macedonia was ceded to Bulgaria and he resettled again in the Kingdom.

Controversy

The Macedonian liberation movement consisted of three major factions. Led by his excessive ambitions, Sandanski came into conflict with the majority — thе "Centralists" in IMARO and the "Varhovists". Although initially a member of the Bulgarian nationalistic "Varhovists" band, later Yane Sandanski and his Seres group (the "Federalists") proclaimed a fight for an autonomous Macedonia which was to be included in a Balkan Federation. On the other hand, the aim of the bigger fraction (the Centralists), as well as that of the other revolutionary organization - "Macedonian Supreme Committeee" (Varhovists), was to incorporate Macedonia into Bulgaria.

Arguably Sandanski's greatest sin in the context of the whole movement was the assassination of Ivan Garvanov and Boris Sarafov, both members of the IMARO's Central Committee. He came to regret these and other murders later. [“We are all Bulgarians, Taso (i.e. Atanas), but we are killing ourselves for nothing. It is hard for me..." (The words are quoted in the memoirs of his adherent Atanas Yanev and published in "Eho" newspaper, 26.05.1972)] Because of that he was even sentenced to death by the "Centralists" and the "Varhovists". The Bulgarian authorities investigated the assassinations and suspected Sandanski was the main force behind them. On the other hand he was amnestied by the Bulgarian Parliament after the support he gave to the Bulgarian Army during the Balkan wars.

Despite extreme leftist he also had never rejected the Bulgarian Exarchate as an institution, or denied that it had a role to play in the life of the Macedonian Bulgarians. [When, at the People Federative Party Congress, some more extreme left-winger began to attack the Exarchate during a debate on education, Yané, who was chairing the session, rose to his feet and said: ‘Leave the Exarchate alone! The situation in Turkey is still fluid.’ There was a great commotion, and Yané adjourned the session. During the interval, he went over to the delegate who had attacked the Exarchate and said: ‘You know nothing! If it should so happen that the Bulgarians in Macedonia don’t get what they want, I shall defend the Exarchate with a weapon in my hand.(Dnevnik, 11.VIII.1909. The debate in question took place on 7.VIII.1909.)] Sandanski also collaborated with the Young Turks, opposing other factions of IMARO and the "Macedonian Supreme Committee", which fought against the Ottoman authorities in this period.

The "Centralists" and the "Varhovists" organised several unsuccessful assassination attempts against Sandanski. They came closest to achieving their goal in Thessaloniki, where Tane Nikolov managed to kill two other "Federalists" and heavily wounded Sandanski.Eventually, Sandanski was killed near the Rozhen Monastery on April 22, 1915, while travelling from Melnik to Nevrokop, by local IMARO activists. [ [http://www.krumblagov.com/fifty/27.php The fifty biggest assaults in Bulgarian history, Blagov, Krum] 50-те най-големи атентата в българската история. Крум Благов. Издателство Репортер. 21.09.2000. ISBN 9548102447]

Legacy

In both Bulgaria and the Republic of Macedonia Sandanski is considered a national hero and one of the most prominent revolutionary figures of the XX century. He is even mentioned in the National Anthem of the Republic of Macedonia. The town Sveti Vrach in Bulgaria was renamed to Sandanski in 1949. Sandanski Point on the E coast of Ioannes Paulus II Peninsula, Livingston Island, Antarctica bears his name as well.

Quotes

* From an interview with the Serbian writer Branislav Nusic:::B.N.: "These events concern the most closely and most directly us as small nations — Serbians, Bulgarians, Greeks. That's why I came here to investigate these events.::Y.S.: "The future life of small nations doesn't have any conditions. - Sandanski answered readily. - Bulgaria and Serbia did wrong because they followed their own interests. Their main goal wasn't freedom for this people here, but their selfish interests, expanding of their states. After these events, they would stay where they are, and we would make fatherland here.:: [...] ::B.N.: "...So, you are not allowed to enter Bulgaria?"::Y.S.: "I dare not go to Bulgaria, but I don't need it. Here is my Bulgaria" (speaking about Macedonia) [ [http://img137.imageshack.us/img137/7005/isfn4.jpgPolitics newspaper, 21, VII 1908, Belgrade] ]

References

Further reading

* Mercia MacDermott. For Freedom and Perfection. The Life of Yane Sandansky, 1988, Published by Journeyman, London, ISBN 1851720146 : 9781851720149, OCLC 16465550 [http://www.kroraina.com/knigi/en/mm/index.htm]
* Memoirs of Yane Sandanski (original edition in Bulgarian) [http://www.promacedonia.org/bmark/lm_voevodi/1_0.htm]