The Events in Kresna after the Expulsion of Berovski

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The Events in Kresna after the Expulsion of Berovski

After Berovski was expelled from the uprising, the Sofia Committee, with the aid of the three members of the Commission and the reinstatement of Kalmikov, was able to wrest control from the hands of the rebels. Yet they were unable to raise the morale; neither were they able to resolve the conflicts between the volunteers from abroad and the native rebels. Although the voivode Stoyan accepted the orders issued from the Committee, he exercised an independent mind in carrying them out. He was labeled the "most independent Macedonian leader and the hero of the rebellion."

Especially hot was the rift among the rebels themselves, between the volunteers and the internals. Some refused to submit to the new rebel leadership. Heady from having confronted and defeated the Turks in the village of Gradeshnitsa on 28 October, they now began to take independent action, attacking Turkish positions on their own.

The ranks were disintegrating. During a consultation in Vlahi, each detachment was given specific orders. Kalmikov, as head commander, decided to inspect the forces, to see how well the orders were being carried out. What he found was shocking. Where 60 men had been assigned to guard a position, there were only 10. At other positions, instead of the 300 who had been assigned, he found between 50 and 60 men. And in the most important position, one that safeguarded communications between Serez and Dzhumaya, out of the 140 assigned, he found only 60.

Disintegration reached the command. In Vlahi where the rebel headquarters were still located, Kalmikov and his friends began drinking heavily. The efforts of the commissars to return them to their senses sparked a quarrel, and had it not been for the voivode Stoyan's intervention, the quarrel would have become a blood bath. The hatred smouldering in the hearts of the two camps thus became apparent, and each hour it threatened to come to a bloody end.

The Turks undertook sweeping measures to suppress the uprising throughout the entire area. Weakened, poorly armed, internally divided, disappointed and embittered, the rebels were ill prepared to confront the Turkish army. The only attempt to put up some form of resistance was the voivode, Stoyan, and his rebels. But he was unsuccessful. Under pressure of the Turkish army, he was forced to retreat to the village of Srbinovo in the Demir Kapia Mountains.

Having had to retreat to the border area and then forbidden to retaliate for tactical reasons, the rebels were furious. They were without food. They were stranded. They made their impatience and anger manifest, which especially sharpened the conflict between the voivode, Stoyan Karastoilov, and the commissars. Kalmikov, unable to forget his earlier humiliation, insisted on settling the matter himself.

Base intrigues and rumors began to spread about the voivode. Their single purpose was to discredit Stoyan among the rebels so that it would be easier for them to accept the idea of his execution. It was a successful campaign. On the night of 25 November, Stoyan and his friend were killed.

Describing this vicious incident, Todor Strahinov, who himself was considered dangerous as a collaborator of Stoyan's, said that this killing was premeditated treachery carried out in ambush. According to Strahinov, the incident developed in the following way. Mechkul returned to Oshtava from a nearby village on the 25th of November. At night they were unexpectedly held in their rooms under guard, The voivode, Stoyan. and another friend were murdered as they slept. Just prior to the murder, two rebel guards were wounded.

In order to justify Stoyan's murder as a bona fide punitive measure meted out for breaking rebel laws, a charge was fabricated ex post facto. Judgement was handed down from a fictitious "Court Martial" which was supposedly held on 24 November, 1878 in the village of Oshtava. Presiding over the affair was the "Provisional Head Administration of Macedonia." They had sentenced Stoyan to death. The document bearing the bogus decision was signed by "the Ataman of the Macedonian Rebels, Adam I. Kalmikov" and six of his confederates, none of whom were Macedonian.

Today, historians do no equivocate: the charge against Stoyan Karastoilov was fabricated to justify his murder.

The murder of Stoyan Karastoilov was in no small way motivated by personal revenge. Buried deep under political camouflage, it was an act of revenge perpetrated against the most genuine of Macedonian rebel leaders, a man who maintained his faith in the idea that the Macedonian rebels themselves could lead their own struggle for liberation.

Kalmikov's last obstacle to full control had been removed. However, the rebels began to battle among themselves. Fearing further reprisals, Stoyan's friends and allies attacked the Commission headquarters. Then, before anyone could counter attack, they stealthily ran by night to Dzhumaya. But even in Dzhumaya they were unsafe, so they stole off to Sofia.

Stoyan's murder also set off a great wave of dissatisfaction in Bulgaria, for he had been an extremely popular rebel against Turkish domination.

Irreparable clashes occurred between the remaining rebel leaders and the Beneficience Committee, the latter's authority now having all but dissipated. Stoyan's death brought to an end the first period of the Kresna Uprising.