Reasons for the Suppression of the Kresna Uprising
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Reasons For The Suppression Of The Kresna Uprising And Their Consequences
The Kresna Uprising and the general seething in this parts of the Turkish state were the result of great revolutionary movements on the Balkans and especially of the wars of that period: the Serbo-Turkish War and the Russo-Turkish War, and later the war among the Great Powers of Europe. The efforts of the Great Powers in Europe to ameliorate the international tensions had the opposite effect on the movements of those people enslaved by Turkey.
On the Balkans there were two powerful factors at work: the Bulgarian bourgeoisie that contributed much to bring the uprising to life and contributed equally to suffocate it; and the aims of Russian policy.
What emerged from the Congress of Berlin affected Bulgaria like a cold shower. The San Stefano Treaty, illusory though it was, made Bulgaria a vast state on the Balkans, and the Congress of Berlin popped the illusion, divided the Greater Bulgarian state in two, and tossed the Bulgarian borders again into the embrace of the Sultan. Hoping to attenuate somehow the decision to separate eastern Rumelia from the Bulgarian Principality and proclaiming it an autonomous region, the Bulgarians initiated war.
This reaction determined the reaction in Macedonia. The organ conceived to execute the policy aims of a Greater Bulgaria was Unity Committee, formed on 29 August, 1878 in the Bulgarian city of Trnovo. As far as the Macedonians were concerned, the operation of the Committee went through two phases: first, dedicated support to the liberation on Macedonia; and second, exploitation of the Macedonian anger and unrest for the purpose of fulfilling the goals of their own policies.
According to the words of Prince Dondukov, the Bulgarian bourgeoisie did all it could to keep things stirred up in Macedonia. Toward that aim, they enlisted the services of adventurers: the demobilized armies of Kalmikov (bearing the flag of the Don army), and Voitkevtich.
However, the Bulgarian bourgeoisie weren't satisfied with the mere consolidation and provocation of internal forces in Macedonia. They wanted to impose their own leadership, thereby placing their own egoistic aims above political necessity. This task was entrusted to the Sofia Committee, which proclaimed itself "Central." Through it were funneled the means from all the committees in Bulgaria, by it were determined and directed the tactics and activities of the uprising, and from it came the orders to eliminate any sort of independent action by the Macedonian rebels.
When the Beneficience Committee found that the rebels were acting contrary to the interests of Bulgarian policy, it sought to destroy the internal forces and eliminate the native leaders. Having lost all faith in the rebel forces, the Committee transferred the leadership of the uprising to Kyustendil villages. Natanail was named the new leader, and his adjutant, the Slovenian, Miroslav Hubmaer, was installed as the commander of headquarters.
But by that time, the beginning of 1879, the fate of the uprising had already been decided. Nevertheless, the support of the unrest in Macedonia continued as before, for it was now being emphasized by the Bulgarian bourgeoisie for purely propagandistic purposes. For at that time the constitutional assembly of Bulgaria was convened in Trnovo. There the basic laws of the new Principality were to be ratified.
According to putative thought, this assembly was actually formed to protest the Congress of Berlin, with an ear to the arguments from the Kresna Uprising. On the 24th and 25th of January, 1879, a meeting attended by Macedonians from throughout Macedonia was held in Kyustendil. Authorized representatives were chosen there: two Bulgarians from Trnovo, members of the Trnovo Beneficience Committee; and one Macedonian from Veles. Their task was to advance the interests of Macedonia before the constitutional assembly and before the public. These representatives developed a massive propaganda campaign for the joining of Macedonia with Bulgaria, and they instructed Natanail to send te1egrams from Kyustendil to inform the assembly of their aims.
The also sent communiqués to the Great Powers in Europe in the name of the Macedonian people.
The extent to which the Bulgarian bourgeoisie were interested in the liberation of the Macedonian people is demonstrated by their relations with the native leadership of the uprising, Stoyan Karastoilov and Dimitar Pop Georgiev Berovski. Refusing to be harnessed to the cart of Bulgarian interests, these two leaders were cruelly expelled from the uprising by order of the Sofia Committee. This, of course, devastated the integrity of the movement. And in the spring of 1879, when it became clear that the Great Powers were going to follow through and implement their decisions, the Beneficience Committee took steps, at the behest of ruling circles, to disband volunteer detachments. First, toward the end of April, 1879, the detachments were transferred to various parts of Macedonia, weakening the defenses. Then, on the 25th of May, after the Prince of Bulgaria had been chosen and the international tensions had relaxed somewhat in Europe, the remaining volunteer detachments were relieved of duty and sent home.
Another factor that influenced the appearance and then the disappearance of the uprising was the knot of interests the Great Powers had tied around the Balkans. The ropes of policy were extended chiefly by the Russians and the English.
Immediately after the Congress of Berlin, in the eastern Rhodope Mountain region, the Turks revolted against the Congress's decisions under the leadership of an Englishman, Sinclair. The Turks had just lost territory in two wars, one with the Russians, and one with the Serbs, and the Congress of Berlin did not plan on returning all of it to Turkish rule. The Turkish revolt, conceived and directed by British diplomacy, was calculated to counteract Russian support of rebel movements in Bulgaria. These rebel movements were, of course, also in protest to the Congress of Berlin resolutions. In response to this Anglo-Turkish move, the Russians stepped up their support of the rebel movements in the Rhodope Mountains. The seed for rebellion had been planted by the Turks; the international situation gave it birth.
To what extent the Russian Balkan policy influenced the outbreak of rebel movements in eastern Macedonia is the subject for another study. However, there is no doubt that the general proximity of the Russian army and specifically the capture of Gorna Dzhumaya by Russian detachments whipped up the rebellious activities of the enslaved Macedonian people. And when the Russians, having vested interests in the existence of a Greater Bulgarian state as provided by the San Stefano Treaty, began morally and materially aiding the rebel movements via the Russian high command in Bulgaria, the uprising in Macedonia was a virtual certainty. In the minds of the Macedonian rebels was the illusion that the Russians and the Russian army would come to their aid at a moment's notice.
Indeed, in the fall of 1878, the Russian military chiefs from Kyustendil, Dupnitsa, and Gorna Dzhumaya met at the Rila Monastery. It was at this meeting they discussed and decided to rise up and fight.
The link between the Russian army and the Macedonian rebel movements is amply documented.
Especially rich sources are the English and French diplomatic correspondences and documents of that time.
Despite the link between the Russians and the Macedonians, we shouldn't conclude that it was official Russian policy. In fact, official Russian policy was just the reverse. Bound by agreement with the other Great Powers to keep hands off the Balkans, the unauthorized Russian military support of the Macedonians complicated international and Balkan problems. Thus, when the uprising broke out, diplomatic representatives in Constantinople and St. Petersburg were furious and condemned not only the Russian army, but Prince Dondukov as well. However, it wasn't until a few months later that the Russians finally ceased giving aid to the Bulgarian Beneficience Committee. Among those involved in the uprising, this created the impression of a two-faced Russian policy and a general mood of ambivalence. In the first half of 1879, the Russians put an end to that. They brought their armed forces in line with official policy and cut off all further aid to the Beneficience Committee. Then, they demanded that Bulgaria respect the decision of the Congress of Berlin and cease provoking disturbances in Macedonia. One month later, Natanail sent all the volunteer detachments home.
There were also other external factors involved in the suppression of the uprising. It erupted just after the Russo-Turkish War and the Congress of Berlin, before the alterations made by the Great Powers in the Balkans could take full effect. So, in diplomatic circles and especially in the European press, the uprising was received as a potential spark for the greater conflagration. The press of those countries concerned circulated the most sensationalistic reports about the breadth, strength, and aims of the uprising. England was especially alarmed. They saw the Russian hand in the Balkan pot, stirring up trouble, seeking to destroy the work of the Congress of Berlin, and securing for themselves an outlet to the Mediterranean Sea.
Acting to protect its vital imperialistic interests in this corner of the world, England actively aided the Turks to hasten the liquidation of the Kresna Uprising and to prevent its spreading to other parts of Macedonia.
There were also internal causes that in no small way accounted for the collapse of the uprising.
In the first place, the Kresna Uprising and the general rebellious movements in Macedonia during that time, as has been emphasized, were not the result of systematic revolutionary activity, rather a spontaneous reaction.
The social conditions in Macedonia had not yet developed to the point at which a rebel leader, a subjective factor, could lead a mature revolutionary movement. That would come twenty years later. Then, the peasantry were not ready to bear the burden of a sustained and exhausting revolution. They had the resources to supply an uprising at Kresna, but not enough to supply an entire nation.
The level of a revolutionary consciousness and therefore the level of discipline played a significant role. Incidents of disobedience were not rare. Individual voivodes, who were haiduk leaders before the uprising, occasionally initiated action simply for the sake of personal gain. This caused even greater instability among the rebels who had already drawn lines between the internals and the externals.
The rebel leadership tried to unify all rebel forces in Macedonia by bringing forth their Prescripts. It was hoped that this document would block interference from the Beneficience Committee and provide the rebels with a single leadership. But it failed. Consequently, the uprising in eastern Macedonia was isolated from other parts of Macedonia. There were experienced soldiers from all over Macedonia, yet there weren't enough.
