Gotse Delchev

Infobox revolution biography
name=Georgi Nikolov "Gotse" Delchev
Гоце Делчев
lived= January 23, 1872–May 4, 1903
dateofbirth= January 23, 1872
placeofbirth= Kilkis, Ottoman Empire (now Greece)
dateofdeath= death date and age|1903|5|4|1872|1|23
placeofdeath= Banitsa, Ottoman Empire (now Greece)


caption= Portrait of Goce Delčev
alternate name= Goce Delčev
movement=
organizations= leader of the Bulgarian Macedonian-Adrianopolitan Revolutionary Committees(later SMORO, IMORO, IMRO)
monuments=
prizes=
religion= Eastern Catholic (Uniate) or
Eastern Orthodox Christian (assumed)
footnotes=

Georgi Nikolov Delchev (1872-1903), (Bulgarian and Macedonian: Георги Николов Делчев), was an important 19th century revolutionary figure in Ottoman Macedonia and Thrace. He was one of the leaders of what is nowadays commonly referred to as the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization (IMRO). One of the first names of the organisation was "Internal Macedonian-Adrianople Revolutionary Committees" (IMARC), which was later changed to Secret Macedonian-Adrianople Revolutionary Organisation (SMARO), while from 1905 it was first known as IMARO and then IMRO. This organization was active in Ottoman Macedonia and Thrace at the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century.

Biography

Born on January 23, 1872 in Kilkis (Кукуш; Kukush), present day Greece, Delchev finished the local Bulgarian junior high school and the Bulgarian high school "St Cyril and Methodius" in Thessaloniki. He entered the Military academy in Sofia in 1891, but was expelled because he was a member of a socialist circle. Delchev became a Bulgarian language teacher in a Bulgarian school in Stip in 1894 [MacDermott, Mercia. 1978. Freedom or Death: The Life of Gotse 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.] , where he met Dame Gruev, the leader of the local committee of BMARC/SMARO. As a result of the close friendship between the two, Delchev joined the organization in 1895 becoming before long one of its main leaders. The next school year (1895/1896) he was a teacher in the town of Bansko and after that he moved to Bulgaria, where together with Gjorche Petrov he became the representative of the internal organisation in Bulgaria. [Пейо Яворов, "Събрани съчинения", Том втори, "Гоце Делчев", Издателство "Български писател", София, 1977, стр. 30. bg icon In English: Peyo Yavorov, "Complete Works", Volume 2, biography "Gotse Delchev", Publishing house "Bulgarian writer", Sofia, 1977, p. 30. ]

Gotse Delchev's involvement in IMARO was an important moment for the history of the Macedonian liberation movement. The years between 1894 and 1903 represented the final and most effective revolutionary phase of his short life. Delchev fought for Macedonian autonomy. As most of the other leaders of IMARO at the time, Delchev had a vision of an independent multiethnic Macedonia. 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 peoples". [Пейо Яворов, "Събрани съчинения", Том втори, "Гоце Делчев", Издателство "Български писател", София, 1977, стр. 13. bg icon In English: Peyo Yavorov, "Complete Works", Volume 2, biography "Gotse Delchev", Publishing house "Bulgarian writer", Sofia, 1977, p. 13.] His correspondence with the other IMАRO 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. [Пейо Яворов, "Събрани съчинения", Том втори, "Гоце Делчев", Издателство "Български писател", София, 1977, стр. 32-33. bg icon In English: Peyo Yavorov, "Complete Works", Volume 2, biography "Gotse Delchev", Publishing house "Bulgarian writer", Sofia, 1977, pp. 32-33. ] 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 Gotse Delchev as its military advisor (inspector) and chief of all internal revolutionary bands. [Пейо Яворов, "Събрани съчинения", Том втори, "Гоце Делчев", Издателство "Български писател", София, 1977, стр. 39. bg icon In English: Peyo Yavorov, "Complete Works", Volume 2, biography "Gotse Delchev", Publishing house "Bulgarian writer", Sofia, 1977, p. 39. ]

The primary question regarding the timing of the uprising in Macedonia implicated an apparent discordance among the representatives, at the Sofia Conference in 1903 with Delchev opposing the uprising as premature. [Пейо Яворов, "Събрани съчинения", Том втори, "Гоце Делчев", Издателство "Български писател", София, 1977, стр. 62-66. bg icon In English: Peyo Yavorov, "Complete Works", Volume 2, biography "Gotse Delchev", Publishing house "Bulgarian writer", Sofia, 1977, pp. 62-66. ] 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 the rumours asserted, while preparing the Ilinden-Preobrazhenie Uprising in Macedonia. [Пейо Яворов, "Събрани съчинения", Том втори, "Гоце Делчев", Издателство "Български писател", София, 1977, стр. 69. bg icon In English: Peyo Yavorov, "Complete Works", Volume 2, biography "Gotse Delchev", Publishing house "Bulgarian writer", Sofia, 1977, p. 69.] Delchev's remains were transferred to Sofia during World War I, when Bulgaria controlled part of Aegean Macedonia, where they rested until after the Second World War. After 1944 the Bulgarian policy was changed to serve the Communist regime's activity on the Macedonian Question. In 1946 the government in Bulgaria "recommended" the liquidation of the Macedonian Scientific Institute. The entire museum collection including the mortal remains of the revolutionary Gotse Delchev were transported in the newly established People's Republic of Macedonia on October 10, 1946.. The following day, they were enshrined in a marble sarcophagus which is until present displayed in the yard of the "Sv. Spas" ("Holy Savior") church in Skopje.

Delchev's legacy

in the Republic of Macedonia carries his name.

Ethnicity of Gotse Delchev

As most of the events and developments in late 19th century Macedonia, the national and ethnic affiliations of Gotse Delchev are a contentious issue. In some of his correspondence (all of his letters and papers are written without exception in literary Bulgarian language) he described himself as an ethnic BulgarianGotse Delchev is identifying himself as Bulgarian in his .] . In some documents, created by him, he defined Slav population in Macedonia as Bulgarian, for example in a circular letter written in March 1901Окръжно послание, Дино Кьосев, "Гоце Делчев. Писма и други материали", Издание на Института за история при Българската академия на науките, София, 1967, №230, (in English: Circular letter, Dino Kyosev, "Gotse Delchev. Letters and other materials", published by the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, Institute of History, Sofia, 1967, №230).] . According to the "Memoirs" of Gjorche Petrov Delchev was the co-author of the statute of the Macedonian-Adrianople Revolutionary Committee in 1896"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).] , where Chapter II., Art. 3. determines: "A member of BMARC can be any Bulgarian, independent of gender, who isn't discredited with anything dishonestly...". He was unambiguously considered as ethnic Bulgarian from many of his closest friends like Peyo Yavorov, the author of his first biographyIn his biography Yavorov portrays Delchev as a prominent member of the Bulgarian national liberating movement, for example in its introduction, where he compares him with other iconic Bulgarian revolutionaries, Vasil Levski and Hristo Botev( [http://www.slovo.bg/showwork.php3?AuID=130&WorkID=3502&Level=2 here] , in Bulgarian)] , written shortly after Delchev's death. He also was Officer Cadet in the Military School in Sofia and later worked as Bulgarian language teacher in a Bulgarian Exarchate's school in Stip. On the other hand, he also embraced the idea of a common Macedonian and Adrianople autonomous region, based on the 23th article of the Treaty of Berlin (1878), uniting Macedonians and Adrianopolitans regardless of ethnicity or creed, and also opposed to the direct involvement of the Bulgarian state authorities in the liberational struggle in Macedonia and Adrianople areas. [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 вътр/ешната/ 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 local organization /"the Supreme Macedono-Adrianopolitan Organisation, based in Sofia, editor's note"/ approves the spirit of the inner 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).] The heterogeneous elements in his statements and work have resulted in his treatment as an ethnic "Bulgarian" by "Bulgarian" historians and as an ethnic Macedonian by some historians from the Republic of Macedonia. Their latter argue is that the use of the word "Bulgarian" in the 19th century Macedonia does not refer to ethnicity, and that it was synonymous with "Christian" or "Slav".In the late 19th century, Bulgarian could be used as a general identifying term based on religion for any Christian belonging to the Bulgarian Exarchate within the Ottoman Empire. It could also mean a person who spoke Bulgarian, or identified as Bulgarian. Identifying as Bulgarian did not exclude additional ethnic identification as ethnic Macedonian (assuming such an ethnic orientation existed at that time), Vlach or Greek. (Friedman 1997)] Bulgarian historians argue that the Macedonian autonomy was never meant to have an "ethnic Macedonian" nature and note that no contradiction between a "Macedonian" (as a regional and supranational term) and "Bulgarian" (as an ethnic term) existed at that time, pointing to the use of "Adrianopolitan" alongside "Macedonian" in the documents of the BMARC/SMARO.It is claimed (mostly by Bulgarian scholars) that at the time, Macedonian was used as a regional identifier for a person living in the region of Macedonia, and the modern ethnic sense of the word was nonexistent or at its beginnings. In this context, identifying as Macedonian in a regional sense did not exclude identification as ethnic Bulgarian.] Nevertheless, some contemporary Macedonian historians like Academician Ivan Katardzhiev, [http://www.manu.edu.mk/departments.htm director of the Historical Sciences section] in the Department of Social Sciences in the Macedonian Academy of Sciences and ArtsАкадемик 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 [http://www.forum.com.mk/Arhiva/Forum37/megaintervju/megaintervju.htm here] (in Macedonian; in English: "Academician Ivan Katardzhiev. I believe in Macedonian national immunity", interview, "Forum" magazine: "FORUM - Whether Gotse Delchev really defined himself as Bulgarian and why? KATARDZHIEV - Such questions exist. All our people named themselves as "Bulgarians"...")] and the director of the Macedonian state archive, Ph. D. Zoran Todorovski"Уште робуваме на старите поделби", Разговор со д-р Зоран Тодоровски, www.tribune.eu.com, 27. 06. 2005, also [http://www.tribune.eu.com/articles/79.html 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.] agree with the thesis of Bulgarian ethnic consciousness of Gotse Delchev, while the vast majority disagrees.

Respect to Gotse Delchev

See also

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

Notes

References

* Пандев, К. "Устави и правилници на ВМОРО преди Илинденско-Преображенското въстание", "Исторически преглед", 1969, кн. I, стр. 68—80. bg icon
* Пандев, К. "Устави и правилници на ВМОРО преди Илинденско-Преображенското въстание", "Извeстия на Института за история", т. 21, 1970, стр. 250-257. 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. 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. bg icon
* Пейо Яворов, "Събрани съчинения", Том втори, "Гоце Делчев", Издателство "Български писател", София, 1977. bg icon In English: Peyo Yavorov, "Complete Works", Volume 2, biography "Gotse Delchev", Publishing house "Bulgarian writer", Sofia, 1977.