The Outbreak and Development of the Kresna Uprising
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The Outbreak And Development Of The Kresna Uprising
All these elements indicate that the situation in Macedonia, especially in the eastern region, was rife for action. It was simply a matter of concluding discussions and setting to work. All factors were present. Especially the political insofar as the representatives of the European powers had at the Congress of Berlin sanctioned the necessity of an "Organic Constitution" to be formulated in Eastern Rumelia. It was Article 23 of the Berlin Treaty that inspired hope, for it posed the notion of an administrative change in the political regime in Macedonia. Nevertheless, there was unrest everywhere in Turkey: in the Rhodope Mountains, in Bulgaria, and in Prizren (where the Albanian League was active), to name a few. And this was the response to the decisions of the Congress of Berlin.
In September, 1878, enough elements were present to begin organizing military activity in Macedonia. The newly established Beneficience Committees in Bulgaria were especially active in attempting to incite a rebellion. They were able to gather a great number of volunteers to be deployed in Macedonia.
Responding most enthusiastically were those who had volunteered in the Russian army. There was a large concentration of them along the northern border neat Kyustendil and Dzhumaya. Formed into detachments some were ordered to cross the border and to penetrate deep into Macedonia. Kalmikov, a Russian commander; was given one such order, however he was unsuccessful in carrying it out.
At about the same time the Bulgarian bourgeoisie placed the bishop, Natanail, in charge of organizing and leading the armed action in Macedonia. As a Bulgarian appointee, he worked independent of the Macedonian wishes and aspirations for freedom. On the 8 December, 1878, during his intensive preparations, Natanail met in the Rila monastery with the district chief of Kyustendil, Dzhumaya, and Dupnitsa. Dedo Ilyo and Dimitar Pop Georgiev Berovski also attended the meeting.
At the meeting Berovski was assigned to be deputy to Natanail. Berovski was to gather rebels and form them into detachments and also to enlist peasants as border guards at the border zone near Gorna Dzhumaya.
In and around the area of Kyustendil, voivodes acting on their own had unsuccessfully attempted to establish footholds on Turkish terrain. But at the meeting in the Rila monastery, all local detachments that were operating in the interior of the Pirin region of Macedonia were ordered to withdraw to Gorna Dzhumaya. One of the participants of the Kresna Uprising, Todor A. Strahinov, wrote, "Like the voivode, Stoyan, all the other voivodes in the Macedonian mountains, especially in the Pirin region, received the order to retreat to the border and then to ride by horseback to Dzhumaya." On the road to the border, Todor Palaskarya's detachment had a vicious clash near an Albanian quarter with the local bashibozouks and Turkish army. That was 13 September, 1878.
Arriving in Gorna Dzhumaya were the following detachments: Todor Palaskarya from the village of Belotintsi in the Nevrokop region; Stoyan Karastoilov from the village of Starchishta from the Nevrokop region; Kosta Kukoto from the village of Lakos in the Ser region; Kocho Lyutata from the village of Levunovo in the Melnik region; and Stoyko Paparevetsot from the village of Paparevo in the Melnik region.
The voivodes of these detachments held an advisory meeting to plan the coordination of the rebellion. Long discussions ensued over which area of Macedonia should be first to rise up in arms. Most Committee members and voivodes alike agreed on the proposal to launch an attack on the Turkish army stationed in the village of Tsarevo (Delchevo). However Stoyan Karastoilov opposed the proposal. He proposed that they attack the Turkish garrison at Kresna. All the other voivodes deferred to Stoyan's leadership, and they accepted his proposal. Subsequently, Stoyan Karastoilov, well known throughout the region as a just and courageous voivode, was made sole leader.
When the meeting at Gorna Dzhumaya concluded, the detachments gathered in the village of Srbinovo (today's Brensanovo). Here, a new organization was built for the uprising. Four units were formed, and a leader assigned to each. The leader of the first unit was Stoyan Karastoilov; the voivode, Kosta Kukoto, was placed in command of the second; the leader of the third was Stoyo Torolinko from Karshieka; and leading the fourth was the voivode, Krsto, from St. Vrach (Sandanski).
With the leadership primarily Macedonian, the so-called "Beneficience Committee, Unity," whose Gorna Dzhumaya branch was established on 3 October, 1878, tried to give the uprising an essentially Macedonian character. The Committee couldn't act contrary to the will of the people. So, the local leaders would guide them.
Earlier, the command of the uprising had been entrusted to an adventurer, an officer from the Russian army, Adam Ivanovich Kalmikov. When he failed to enter Macedonia through Kyustendil, he Was transferred to the Dzhumaya area for his reward where there was the possibility of his commanding the Macedonian uprising.
Thus all preparations for an armed rebellion in Macedonia were considered complete. The first strike was to be launched against the Turks lodged in inns in the village of Kresna. The uprising began during the early morning hours of 5 October, 1878. The first news from the scene of the attack reported: "Today, before dawn, the battle of the peasants from Kresna, Vlahi, and Oshtava against the Turks began. The Turks were surrounded in the Kresna inns. The battle continues. We have been sent three shipments of bullets, three shipments of kapaklii (rifles), and seven shipments of martinki (rifles). Don't hesitate a moment. The need for munitions is great." Kresna, 5. X. 1878; 3.5 AM. The report was signed by D. Pop Georgiev.
According to one eye witness, the attack on the Turkish garrisons at Kresna was described in the following way. First, the Major (Kalmikov - B. N.) came to Srbinovo where all the rebels had gathered. He gathered all the rebels together with the peasants from the surrounding villages. There were about four hundred people. Then, on the evening of the 4th (a Wednesday), they started off toward Kresna where the Turkish guard had been garrisoned in inns. And very early the next morning, they attacked.
After the nineteen-hour battle, the Turkish guard was conquered. A letter announcing the victory was sent from the rebels to the Beneficience Committee in Dzhumaya, to Sofia, to Dupnitsa, to Kyustendil, and to other places. Among other things, it said: "We Macedonians have accomplished our deed. Yesterday we fought for 19 hours against two companies of the Turkish regular army. After the battle, we had suffered one dead and three wounded. The Turks had twelve dead, eleven wounded, and 119 soldiers and two officers captured."
After the defeat of the Turkish garrison in Kresna, the Turkish army fell into confusion and disorganization, which availed a chance for rapid advancement and the widening of captured rebel territory. The village of Oshtava was taken on the same day. Then followed a violent battle for Vlahi; it later became the seat of the rebel leadership. After Novo Selo was captured on 8 October, a section of the rebels were transferred to the right bank of the Struma River. In short order they captured the villages of Moraska, Breznitsa, Budiltsi, Slivnitsa and Krushitsa.
Immediately after the first victories, the rebel leadership took steps to prepare against the eventual Turkish counterattacks from the rear. In order to secure the flanks, Todor Palaskarya's detachment was assigned to guard the road to Razlog, and the detachments of the voivodes, Zlatko, Georgi Oko, Ivan Atanasov, Indzheto and Mite Yurukot were stationed on the right bank of the Struma River.
Describing the initial development of the uprising, Prince Dondukov-Korsakov wrote in his report dated 17 November, 1878 to the Commander in Chief of the Russian Army on the Balkans, General Totleban: "On 8 October, the Macedonian rebels took the village of Grnchar, and on the 9th, Breznitsa, pushing back the Turks. Also on the 9th of October, the rebels clashed with the Turkish regular army, consisting of about 200 soldiers, in the village of Moraska. They forced the Turks to retreat and took not only Moraska, but also the surrounding villages of Slivnitsa, Budilnitsa, and Kalimantsi... Within the interior of Macedonia, the rebels took 26 villages. The residents were exultant by the successes and took up arms to join the rebels. Then they seized the line between Novo Selo and Peerin Palanka (presumed to be Petrich -B. N.) on the way to the village of Grnchar."
The advancement of the rebels from Kresna forced the Turks to withdraw from Karshieka as well. And when those voivodes assigned to guard noticed the retreat of the Turks, they too began to advance. With no resistance they captured the villages of Ribnitsa, Goreme and all other villages up to the villages of Starchevo, Palat, and Yakovo in the Petrich region. The headquarters of the rebellion was compelled to accept the influx of new volunteers. New detachments were formed and their numbers were swelling rapidly. A cavalry was formed under the command of the voivode, Nikolitsa Makedonski, and his lieutenant, Kosta Nikolaev from Tetovo.
The uprising spread well into the Melnik region. The Turks began retreating from some villages, offering no resistance. All Turkish detachments within an eight hour range of the center of the uprising were issued orders to surrender. In the region south of the uprising, near Melnik, rebel detachments appeared. The Turks abandoned Melnik and the surrounding villages and retreated to Petrich and Serez. Meanwhile, the uprising had begun to spread to Malesh as well.
During this initial phase of the uprising, rebel activity spread to three areas in the Ser sanjak district: Dzhumaya (today's Blagoevgrad area); the Melnik area (today's Sandanski area); and Mehomiya (today's Razlog region).
The Turkish army fled the Dzhumaya district, an operative zone during the uprising, because of the presence of the Russian army in Gorna Dzhumaya. The rebel forces were concentrated here. During this period the rebels liberated the Melnik, Petrich, and Pehchevo districts. So, in the Melnik district, which primarily included the plains to the left of the Struma River, the rebels liberated six villages: Senokos, Mechkul, Kresna, Oshtava, Vlahi and Novo Selo. All these villages are located in the slopes of the Pirin Mountains, where the Struma River exits the Kresna Gorge.
The greatest number of villages liberated were along the right side of the Struma River, in the mountainous region of Karshieka. This was primarily the Petrich region. The region is composed of forty-five villages, thirty of which were mentioned as having been liberated by the Macedonian Rebel army, fifteen of which were not mentioned. But because this region was virtually controlled by rebel forces, it is quite logical to assume that the remaining fifteen were liberated as well.
It can be stated with certainty that Berovo, in the Pehchevo region, was liberated.
By the end of November there were a total of 53 liberated areas in which resided 32,000 people.
These rebel victories surprised the Turkish command in Melnik, and the Turks were rendered helpless to oppose them. Consequently, according to Todor Strahinov, the Turkish military command sought a meeting with the rebels in order to reach an agreement, a cease fire, so the issues in dispute could be solved in a peaceful manner. The meeting between the two sides took place on 17 October, 1878, above the Turkish village of Gradeshnitsa. Among other rebel representatives attending the negotiations, there were Kalmikov, the voivode Stoyan, Kosta Kukoto, Anastas Zhostov, Ivan Trendyu, and Kosta Nikolaev. The negotiations failed. According to Strahinov's letter, the rebels, as should have been expected, demanded that the Turks completely withdraw from the region. The letter from Kalmikov and Berovski to the Dzhumaya Committee stated that the rebels demanded the Turks to surrender. The Turks did not respond to any of the rebels demands and took advantage of the hiatus to call up reinforcements.
During the calm, the Turks decided to liquidate the movement in the Melnik and Berovo areas. In Melnik they imprisoned most of the people important to the rebellion, people who were found in the nearby village of Sushtitsa. The Turkish regular army plundered the village of Orman Chiflik. This stirred local Macedonian detachments into action. They launched an attack on the army and then set fire to the Turkish village of Zevgeli, only a half hour away from Melnik. That in turn provided the Turkish army with sufficient motive to intensify their retaliation. Twelve villages around Melnik and about the same number of villages in the Demir Hisar region were victimized. At the same time the Turks attacked Berovo and the surrounding villages. A major clash occurred in the region of Albanitsa, the area to which the people fled after having withdrawn from Berovo. The local rebels were there too. After two days of battle, the Turks retreated, but about 200 families from this region had to cross into the Melnik terrain.
During the calm between 22 October and 27 October, the Turks were able to marshal a number of forces and arms. On 28 October, they attacked rebel positions. The battle lasted nine hours. The Turkish regular army was joined in the fight by peasants from the Turkish villages of Gradeshnitsa, Belitsa and Ploski. In the struggle for these three villages, the Turks outnumbered the rebels, and the rebels had a difficult time repelling the attack. Panic spread through the rebel ranks, and it was especially pronounced among the volunteers. Disorganized, they abandoned their positions and fled. Thanks to the local rebels, the so-called bandits, the Turks were unable to penetrate the front. Both sides held their positions. However, the rebel cavalry was completely wiped out, and the voivode, Stoyan, narrowly escaped death. Despite the fact that the rebels were able to hold their positions, their ranks were reduced, primarily due to disorganization. There was a genuine danger that if the Turks launched another attack, the rebels would not only be unable to maintain their present positions, but also be unable to defend other places as well. The Turks, on the other hand, were able to bolster their regular forces with reinforcements. The Turks spread news that their regular army had arrived in one section of Karshieka, near the villages of Gyurgyevo and Stinek, causing fear and panic among the residents.
However, after the battle on the 28th of October, the Turkish army was again forced to turn its attention to the unrest incited to its rear. On 1 November, 1878, the Turkish regular army sacked and burned the village of Chereshnitsa, which provoked a fierce reaction. Fleeing from the Turkish army few people were able to save themselves.
By decimating the unrest to the rear, the Turks were able to return to the business of suppressing the rebellion on the left bank of the Struma River. Armed with artillery, they entered the village of Vlahi on the 10th of November. Vlahi had been the rebel headquarters. The rebels were forced to abandon not only Vlahi, but Oshtava as well, and retreat to the village of Senokos. The following day the Turkish army advanced to the Kresna inns where the uprising had begun.
With this victory the Turks regained all the territory on the left side of the Struma River they had lost and pushed the rebels back to their exit points. The final tally was: twelve plundered and burned villages; about 200 homes destroyed; and numerous refugees. Despite this Turkish victory, the rebellion was not yet over.
