The Second Period of the Kresna Uprising

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The Second Period Of The Kresna Uprising

After the bloodshed, the Sofia Committee had to replace all of its people in the uprising. The commissars, the War Council members, and Kalmikov were dismissed and replaced. Now in charge of the rebel leadership was the Ohrid bishop, Natanail.

A familiar tolerance for the "internals" allowed Stoyan's allies and friends to give Stoyan a formal burial on 8 November. The military command exonerated Stoyan. Also, Berovski was released and returned to the battlefield.

After his arrest, Berovski's first communique to the Gorna Dzhumaya Committee was dated 12 November, 1878. He wrote a letter to the Committee president requesting to be briefed on the development of the uprising since his absence. He said that he stood against evil and that he would work to rectify the errors of the past. He reiterated emphatically that he disapproved of accepting foreigners into the rebel ranks from the Sofia Committee and that the Committee was making a comedy of the work of the people. Three days later, on 15 November, Berovski. again wrote from Kyustendil. It is apparent from the letter that he planned to return to the uprising, and he requested munitions sent to Karshieka.

Under what conditions was Berovski allowed to return to the uprising?

In the letter dated 23 January, 1879, written from the prison in Gorna Dzhumaya to the Ohrid bishop, Natanail, Berovski mentioned his return to the rebel ranks:

"After the murder of the voivode, Stoyan, I was in Dzhumaya. The rebels in Karshieka asked the Dzhumaya Beneficience Committee to send them a leader. Then the Committee sent me to Karshieka…."

Undoubtedly, given the circumstances that followed Stoyan Karastoilov's murder, the only person capable of consolidating the rebel ranks was Dimitar Pop Georgiev Berovski.

On 1 December, 1878, Berovski had already reached the village of Sushitsa, in the area of Karshieka. Primarily because of the bad winter, the Turks had not recaptured this area.

Upon his arrival in Sushitsa, Berovski eagerly set about rejuvenating and firming up the rebel ranks. His basic task was to organize the defense of Karshieka. First he asked the Dzhumaya Committee to supply him with an adequate amount of arms and ammunition. Then he called all able bodied men of the region to arms. They joined without hesitation. Then he brought all of Stoyan's people together to meet with the voivodes, Kosta and Anastas Zhostov. He enlisted their participation in the uprising.

Laconically, Berovski described the reorganization of the uprising and the establishment of rule in liberated territory. The latter was something no one had yet tried.

The following notes are excerpted from Berovski's personal diary which he began keeping on 26 November, 1878.

"on 26 November I left Dzhumaya for Karshieka with Pahomiya.

"On 8 December. I left Moravitsi for Goreme. I reprimanded Pahomiya. He was telling the common people that they were free to do whatever they pleased and that they could even fraternize with the Turks without suffering any consequences. He assailed me before the peasants, saying that I was malicious, that my activities will ruin the village, that they should heed neither my counsel nor my instructions. He gave them cause for disobedience and debauchery. I sent him back to Dzhumaya.

"9 December - I left for Tsaparevo. There I met with Zlatko and other rebels.

"10 December - I sent a letter with a boy to Razlog, Dobrilaki, Kolibite, and Nikudin for horses that we need for bringing weapons from Dzhumaya.

"12 December - I went to Sedelets.

"13 December - From Sedelets I sent 18 horses for weapons and I left for Igralishta.

"14 December. In Igralishta I gathered some people; I signed the Constitution of Management in Karshieka; the people chose Zlatko for captain. I noted who had weapons, what kind of weapons. I appointed officers.

"16 December. In Nikudin I appointed an officers council. I asked who had what kind of weapons and who was able to bear arms.

"17 December. I left for Dobrilaki.

"18 December. In Dobrilaki I appointed an officers council for Dobrilaki and for Razdol. I noted who had what kind of weapons and who could bear arms.

"19 December. I left for Tsaparevo.

"20 December. In Tsaparevo I appointed an officers council for Tsaparevo and for Krushitsa. I noted who had what kind of weapons and who could bear arms.

"23 December. In Sedelets I appointed officers. I noted who had what weapons and who could bear arms. I had to beat one man for disobedience in the village, and from another three I took one white medzhidia [a Turkish silver coin] each.

"26 December. In Igralishta I gathered under one command the enlisted soldiers from Igralishta, from Maalata and from Sedelets. I beat eight peasants for disobedience. All of them gathered in the village.

"28 December. In Tsaparevo I beat a peasant from Krstil because he spoke out against the order.

"1 January, 1879. I visited the soldiers in Dobrilaki.

"6 January. In Tsaparevo I gave two guards from Tetovo passes so they could get through the rebel lines to reach the Dzhumaya district.

"22 January. To the Ohrid metropolitan, what are the reasons and explanation for my arrest."

Although Berovski wrote very little about his own activities, his diary shows enough to see the steps he took to organize the rebel ranks in Karshieka and to establish a government out of the uprising. It clearly indicates the passion with Which Berovski set himself to the task of implementing the rules of the Constitution. Indeed, he was especially busy with the building of a revolutionary government in the liberated territory - a civil government, as it is called in the Prescripts. There was no liberated village in the Karshieka area that he didn't visit. He set up supervisorial councils everywhere he went. In the town records of Igrachishta, there is a document dated 14 December, 1878. It is an outline to "establish the system for the rebel leaders in the village of Karshieka for the Melnik district."

However, all of Berovski's activity, unflagging though it was, could not bear fruit. In the letter he wrote while in jail to Natanail, he made mention of his efforts - again with sparse words. "When I went to Karshieka, I worked to the limits of my strength. I gathered all those who had escaped from the Kresna battle. From their huts, I brought them: some came willingly, some by force. With village permission I appointed three officers per village. These officers chose Zlatko from Palat for the captain of all of Karshieka. He was to be judge. And it was up to him to ratify the constitutional document by which this country should be ruled. In accordance with this constitution, I accompanied the captain to all villages. We noted those who were capable of using weapons as well as what weapons they had. And to those without weapons, we distributed 72 rifles. In three places we appointed more than 100 men as regular soldiers. They were to be ready at a moment's notice. This system was to the benefit of all. The guards had already had two changes in ten days."

From his return to the uprising until his second arrest and second expulsion, Berovski obviously worked hard to implement the Prescripts. In a democratic way he tried to build a village government from the bottom up, from peasant to captain, a revolutionary government that would rule the liberated territory.

At the same time Berovski established the basis for the first Macedonian rebel army. It was a firm attempt to make secure the rewards gained by rebellion. It also embodied the ideas of autonomy and independence of the Macedonian uprising vis-à-vis foreign intentions to control Macedonia.

Berovski's activities won him the confidence of the peasants. He was able to increase participation and preparation not only in the liberated territory, but also in the periphery of the uprising, especially in the Petrich district.

The people in this area lived in constant fear of Turkish retaliation, something perhaps only the winter prevented. However, once Berovski began to organize the people, their fear diminished. In a response directed to the Turkish commander, on 11 December, 1878 the people publicly declared they would not bow into submission even though they had yet to be liberated. And on 13 December, they fought and defeated a Turkish regiment of 400 soldiers on the Lebnitsa River near the village of Gyurgyevo.

Berovski's efforts to organize also inspired greater cooperation and discipline among the rebels in the Karshieka region. There was a new influx of peasants into the ranks. People appeared with and without weapons.

According to a letter from Berovski dated 29 December, 1878, the rebel ranks accepted 550 new volunteers, 208 bearing only Crimean War rifles, 343 utterly without weapons. With the vast numbers of rebels native to the area, Berovski felt that they could begin accepting without fear volunteers sent from abroad. So, he accepted the Montenegrin, Andreya Nikolov, with 50 men; and he said that he would accept others only on the condition that they be ready to carry out their orders.

Indications are that a strong, peasant-based national movement was now taking shape, with its heart in Karshieka. However, just when Berovski's effort was about to bear fruit, he was arrested and imprisoned in Dzhumaya. And all traces of his work disappeared.

Why was Berovski put in jail when he had gone to Karshieka at the request of the Dzhumaya Beneficience Committee?

Indeed, Berovski went to Karshieka by consent of the Dzhumaya Committee, but he went without their faith. The Dzhumaya Committee openly expressed distrust in Berovski. Knowing Berovski's past attitude toward foreign volunteers among the rebel ranks, the Montenegrin, Andreya, and his detachment were ordered back to Sofia for fear of more trouble within the leadership of the uprising.

Simply, Berovski had begun assembling a provisional government, a government based on Prescripts that specifically nullified the Committee's authority over Macedonian affairs, save the Committee's material contributions. Those Prescripts made clear the Macedonian goals of autonomy and independence, of the freedom for independent actions and relations. There is no doubt that Berovski was imprisoned by order of the Central Committee of Unity. In his letter to Natanail, Berovski expresses his feeling about his arrest:

"The most faithful, the most honest, the most self-sacrificing in the people's movement is now in prison - his reward for his rectitude and heroism. I don't know the reasons for my arrest, Your Highness. From Your regards though I conclude that there is spiritual compassion for the first co-worker, as one has compassion for the first child. But is this the deed of the people?! ...

"I am a victim that has been forgotten, and no one should mourn my passing. Even if I were to have perished in Karshieka, Melnik, as Stoyan did in Kresna, Oshtava, that would have meant nothing..."

Berovski though was lucky for simply having been thrown in jail.

Berovski was prepared to meet the same destiny that met the voivode Stoyan, as can be seen from the above excerpt as well as from the letter to Berovski from his brother, Kostadin Pop Georgiev. The following was written while Berovski was still in the field.

"Brother Dimitriya:

"I came to Dzhumaya because of the voices that had spread to Kyustendil. I can hear them here. I've heard stories that people have been assigned to kill both you and me. So, as soon as you receive my letter, waste no time: come to Dzhumaya. The Ohrid bishop Natanail is here. He wants you to come so that you and he can reach an understanding. It is imperative that you believe what I'm writing to you."

There is no question: Berovski was expelled from the uprising because the representatives of the Bulgarian Committee Unity would not tolerate any independent rebel action.

The Bulgarian Beneficience Committee effectively strangled all independence of the Macedonian rebels and of the rebel leadership. Among the rebels and leaders the disaffection was profound. Resistance to Committee authority transformed into fear, resignation, and finally abandonment. The ranks disintegrated. The mood and condition of the uprising is expressed in the letter dated 8 January, 1879 from the well-known Macedonian linguist, historian, sociologist, and revolutionary, Georgi Pulevski, to one of his friends in Serbia, Despot Badzhovitch, also a Macedonian sociologist.

Pulevski wrote:

"My good friend, Despot:

"I received a letter from your brother, Kuzman, a month ago. I wrote back telling him to come here and to gather as many men as he could for a larger detachment. At the time I wrote to him, I believed we had been left alone to be for Macedonia. Not only I, but we all believed. And we were prepared to die: freedom or death, there was no third choice. But it's not like that. The wolf thinks one way, and the sheep another.

"A few days ago the bishop, Natanail, gave me your letter. I read it. You wrote, Despot, that you wanted to volunteer, and you promised in addition 1000 to 2000 volunteers. That's good, very good. But I will tell you not to come here, for there is something bad here. Here the Bulgarians are playing with us. Their water turns the water mill of Natanail. He is Macedonian but he turns toward Bulgaria.

"Let me tell you, our detachments have waited here for so long to fight the Turks, to secure our freedom, but they don't let us go. They set a fire. But now they want more ado in front of Europe. My soldiers are slowly deserting, and I have no reason to wait.

"If you indeed have 1000 to 2000 volunteers, ask to help the Serbian government. I think they are more humane. Then I will come with my detachments, and other detachments will follow, and all of us, together, will hit the Turks from the north.

"Don't give my letter to anyone, for it may fall into Natanail's hands.

"Let me know what you do, and give me enough time for proper action.

"8 January, 1879"

This letter clearly reveals the policies of the Bulgarian Beneficience Committee during the Kresna Uprising in Macedonia.

Even though Berovski's second expulsion from the uprising led to the disintegration of the organization that he painstakingly strove to create, it didn't necessarily bring on the automatic failure of the liberated territories. While they were not attacked, they remained in the hands of the rebels. At the beginning of February, 1879, the commander of the Turkish army in Petrich demanded that the people surrender peacefully or prepare to fight. The peasants immediately informed the officers in charge in Gorna Dzhumaya and requested aid.

The rebels did not respond to the Turkish orders. So, the Turkish armed forces invaded Karshieka and recaptured the entire Dzhumaya district which, according to the decision of the Congress of Berlin, had been returned to Turkey.

As early as the 20th of February, the Turkish regular army, consisting of about 800 soldiers, penetrated Karshieka and recaptured all of Igralishta and Tsaparevo. The uprising was left paralyzed. Natanail, now the leader of the uprising, considered all possible means for holding Karshieka in rebel hands, for the political pressure from Bulgaria demanded it of him.

At that time in Bulgaria the constitutional assembly was in session. The liberal, nationalistic circles of the Bulgarian bourgeoisie used it as a platform to assail the decision of the Congress of Berlin that nullified the San Stefano Treaty. The Kresna Uprising and general unrest in Macedonia were cited as evidence of the people's dissatisfaction with the decision of the Congress. In order to keep the trouble stirred up in Macedonia and thus add mettle to the Bulgarian point of view, Natanail himself went to the Karshieka battlefield to instill confidence in the rebels and tighten up the ranks. He also got in contact with the Russian General Chernyeev, well-known for his valor during the Serbo-Turkish conflict of 1876. Then he transferred the volunteer detachments stationed in Kyustendil to Karshieka. These detachments, commanded by the Slovenian, Hubmaer, had been used as diversions near Kriva Palanka. These efforts did succeed in slowing the advancement of the Turkish army. However, as has been said, these efforts were political as well as military, calculated not only to impede the Turks but also to persuade the Great Powers of Europe to amend their decisions of the Congress of Berlin. By the end of April, the Turks had vanquished the rebels from Karshieka and thus renewed their dominion over this part of Macedonia.

This meant the end of the rebel movement in the Ser sanjak and in the Pirin region of Macedonia. In the area around Demir Kapia though the remains of volunteer detachments continued to maraud. But the Kresna Uprising ceased to be.