The Struggle of the Macedonian People in the Pirin Region of Macedonia for religious and educational Independence up to the Kresna Uprising

Од Wikibooks

The Struggle Of The Macedonian People In The Pirin Region Of Macedonia For Religious And Educational Independence - Up To The Kresna Uprising

Kresna is a small village in the Pirin region of Macedonia. It rests inclined on the slopes of the gorge bearing the same name, just where the Struma River runs through the gorge and out to the Sandanski-Petrich plain.

On the 17th of October, 1878, Macedonian rebels attacked a Turkish garrison quartered in the village inns and proclaimed the beginning of the uprising. It was the beginning of the struggle for liberation from the Ottoman Empire's domination and oppression, from Turkish feudalism, for the creation of their own Macedonian state, for Macedonian freedom. After that attack, the village name was ascribed to the uprising, a name that will forever hold significance in Macedonian history: "The Kresna Uprising." This name has stuck despite the fact that the rebels themselves christened it the "Macedonian Uprising."

It can be said that the Kresna Uprising represents a fractured moment in the history of the Macedonian people. Fractured in the sense that those who were fighting for cultural and educational emancipation, for the Macedonian national identity, joined forces with the haiduks who had theretofore marauded sporadically and impulsively. It also represents a stage, rich with experience, in the development toward an all-inclusive and systematically led national revolutionary organization which would raise the consciousness of the masses and would teach the necessity of material and moral sacrifice in order to secure individual freedom.

Despite the fact that it coincided with activities foreign to the aspirations of the Macedonian people and to the rebels themselves, the Kresna Uprising was by no means an anomaly. It represented aspirations for freedom and independence from every kind of domination, whether it be the Ottoman Empire or the Bulgarian bourgeoisie (a threat that would develop during the course of the struggles). Neither was it an act motivated by a lust for power. It was a natural expression of all of Macedonia, especially of the region in which the uprising .occurred, a natural expression that led them during the initial period of the struggle.

The Kresna Uprising erupted in the eastern part of Macedonia, administratively known as the Ser sanjak (a subdivision of a Turkish province). This area possessed a rich cultural and educational tradition. During Turkish domination, the educational activities were never extinguished. And through these centuries of darkness, the monasteries were preserved.

An appreciable growth in the economy of this area of Macedonia toward the end of the eighteenth and the beginning of the nineteenth centuries enabled narrow contacts with Central Europe. This opened new opportunities for advancement in education. New ideas were especially well-received in the mountainous areas of the region. In 1810, the first school was opened in the village of Godlevo-Razlog district. In the plains region further south, Macedonian farmers found themselves not only beset by economic woes but also inundated by Greek religious and educational propaganda which sought to deny all that was Macedonian.... However, things began to change in 1860.

In 1860, resistance against Greek religious and educational predominance began to appear throughout all of Macedonia. With the creation of independent Macedonian religious and educational organizations in mind, the struggle was directed against the Greek bishops, and against the predominance, and further efforts to intrude the Greek language in education. It was, however, also a struggle against the economic positions of the Greek bourgeoisie in Macedonia and against their denationalization policy whose aim was to realize the idea of a Greater Greece on the Balkans. This was the beginning of the organized struggle in this part of Macedonia against the efforts of Constantinopole and the Greek Patriarchy.

The struggle against the Constantinopole Patriarchy in Macedonia was arduous and exhausting. It demanded from its participants, and especially from its leaders, perseverance and readiness for self-sacrifice. Dimitar Pop Georgiev not only led the Kresna Uprising, but also initiated the expulsion proceedings against the Greek bishop of Berovo. The following excerpts from Georgiev's writings recall his participation in the struggle against Greek religious propaganda and the dangers he risked as a result:

"In 1874, after the shameful expulsion of the Greek bishop, Yerotey Kamboshiyac (born in Strumitsa), from the village of Berovo, the religious question in the Maleshevo region changed its character. The relations with the Turkish governmental officials became so strained that it was impossible to convince them that they might provoke political confrontations. On the Friday after Easter, the holiday of St. Mary Balakliya, ten to fifteen thousand people came to the village of Berovo. The majority of them wanted to take the bishop from the protective hands of the government. They feared neither the mudir (the Turkish ruler of the district) nor the zaptii (guards). The people took their weapons and beat them, forcing them to obey the will of the people. In order to spare the bishop's life, the government officials, rendered impotent, unwillingly yielded to the demands of the people. The people's will could not be bent. To mollify the people, the bishop was shamefully expelled by the government not only from Berovo, but from the district as well. He was not even allowed to spend the night in the district. When he said good-bye to Maleshovo forever, to our minds, he got just what he deserved. But I, as a representative of the district with regard to religious questions and vekii (authorized liaison between the Macedonians and the Turks) for all governmental affairs, had to deprive Diar Bekir (a fortress) of my presence. Of course, it was necessary for me to give up willingly all my rights as a citizen and leave Maleshevo so that I wouldn't fall captive of the Turkish government. I was able to escape through Kyustendil, then to Pazardzhik, and from there by train to Constantinopole.

"As for the consequences of the past on the religious questions, I won't indulge in an argument here. That would lead me away from the fascinating and sometimes scandalous events of my narrative. But just in passing, I'll mention that after my escape to Constantinopole, the Turkish authorities reacted brutally: fleecing, beating, imprisoning, and generally visiting tribulation on the people of Maleshevo."

The struggle in eastern Macedonia against the Greek Patriarchate began to spread among all the people, and make itself felt in other regions as well. All Balkan peoples who found themselves under Ottoman authority, especially the Bulgarians, were taking part. With time, the more the struggle developed, the more severe and exhausting it became, and the more the participants - the Macedonians and the Bulgarians - aided one another. Of course, the measure of assistance provided depended upon the level of economic development. At that time, the Bulgarian people had a more highly developed bourgeoisie class and, accordingly, greater facility for aiding the struggle of the Macedonian people against Greek expansion.

However, corresponding to the help of the Bulgarian bourgeoisie with the escalation of Macedonia's anti-Patriarchate movement was the escalation of their aspirations for Macedonia. The Bulgarian bourgeoisie stepped up their efforts to impose their language in the education of Macedonians and thereby spread the national name.

Although anti-Patriarchate sentiment was prevalent in Bulgaria and Macedonia, the leadership was centered in Constantinopole in the hands of a wealthy group of Bulgarians. As the struggle gained momentum, the more blatant were the efforts of this group to consolidate their leadership, and the more open were the efforts to make the struggle exclusively Bulgarian in character. Thus, even at the outset, the co-operative Macedonian and Bulgarian struggle against Greek propaganda made manifest two aims: to eradicate the Greek influence in Bulgaria and in Macedonia; and to impose an enduring Bulgarian influence in Macedonia by subjugating the religious and educational institutions that had just been liberated from Patriarchate dependence.

In other words, even in the incipient stages of the struggle, the class and national ambitions of the Bulgarian bourgeoisie were vigorously present. And the presence was felt in issues regarding language, education, and the independence of national churches. However, contradictions appeared between the two bourgeoisies, contradictions which would acquire an enduring character through the course of historical development. The resistance in Macedonia gained strength against the imposition of the new foreign cultural predominance, and against the exploitation of the Macedonian people.

The earliest information regarding the dissatisfaction with and resistance to the Bulgarian language as used in Macedonian education dates back to 1848. It came from the pen of Nikola Pop Philipov (born in Bansko), a teacher in the Ser sanjak in eastern Macedonia.

With time, the efforts to curb Macedonian religious and educational autonomy grew coarser and more intense. And the Macedonian resistance grew more decisive.

In this, the eastern region of Macedonia, the clash with Greater Bulgarian ambitions was sharply expressed in 1872 when, despite the support of all the church school parishes for Priest Hariton's election to the newly established diocese of Nevrokop-Drama, Melnik Eparchy, the Exharchy denied his ordination. Moreover, to reduce his influence in Macedonia as deputy to the Exharch, he was sent far away from this district to Berkovitsa, Bulgaria.

However, such suppression of the will of the people served only to kindle an open revolt in the area. The following year the people seceded from the Bulgarian Exharchy and joined the Catholic church.

The well-known Bulgarian sociologist, Petko R. Slaveikov, was sent personally to Macedonia to determine the reasons for Macedonian dissatisfaction with the Greater Bulgarian propaganda and to ascertain the depth and width of that dissatisfaction. He concluded this sentiment was the continuation of disenchantment with the intrusion of the Bulgarian language, a sentiment that was present even before the establishment of the Bulgarian Exharchy. Among other reasons cited, Slaveikov said that the dissatisfaction was a result of "envy because of the predominance of Bulgarian speech in literature." In one of his letters addressed to the Bulgarian Exharchate, he wrote:

"This dissatisfaction turned into disbelief in the church leaders and created the thought for the emphasizing of the local Macedonian speech as a literary Bulgarian language and the formation of the Macedonian-Bulgarian hierarchy... The thought of separatism appeared in small secret circle in Constantinopole. Those who asked for the archimandrite Hariton's ordination as bishop were members of this circle.

Speaking about the dimensions of that movement Slaveikov points out that it was an expression of the widely held notion to create a unified church in Macedonia to which Hariton would be appointed as bishop of Ser and Melnik.

In a word, the eruption of the Kresna Uprising in eastern Macedonia, that is in the area of what is known today as Pirin Macedonia, appears as a logical consequence of a complex set of cultural and educational conditions. The struggle for religious and educational independence from the authority of the Greek-Constantinopole Patriarchate, and from the predominant imposition of Bulgarian religious and educational propaganda (up until the appearance of the revolutionary movements on the Balkans in 1875 - 78, and the Russo-Turkish Wars) was an expression and function of the national movement of the Macedonian people whose basic aims at that time were cultural self-reliance, independence, and individualization.

It should be pointed out that the cultural self-reliance in Macedonia in general, and in the Ser region especially, was far from being ingenuous. To assert themselves, the Macedonian people had to overcome the resistance of the Turkish governmental authorities, the severe pressure of the Phanariotic propaganda which battled for predominance, and at the same time to pose their own cultural and political identity vis-à-vis that of Greater Bulgaria.

However, as the struggle developed, it nurtured the revolutionary instinct and knowledge of the masses. They began to recognize the need for widening and deepening the struggle by the use of means beyond weapons and national sentiment. All of this was of great importance for the Kresna Uprising. For it was here, in this part of Macedonia where the aspirations for self-reliance and independence were clearly expressed, thus providing not only a developmental step but direction as well.

Armed Struggles Against the Ottoman Forces before the Uprising

From the middle of the 19th century, another movement developed parallel to the religious and educational struggle against the economic and cultural domination of the Constantinopole Patriarchy in Macedonia. Although spontaneous and transient in character up until 1876, the haiduk movement developed as resistance against the Turkish tyranny and exploitation of the Macedonians.

This sort of resistance in Macedonia was not something new. It existed throughout the entire Turkish reign over the Balkans. However, what distinguished the haiduk movement from the earlier, similar activities was its transformation into a component of national renaissance. Although at the outset the religious and educational struggle and the haiduk movement had absolutely no common bond, during their development, these two expressions of Macedonian resistance began to converge. They became two separate phenomena with the same goal: the national liberation of the Macedonian people.

From the middle of the 19th century on, the chief cause of the haiduk movements was rooted in the political and economic decline of the Ottoman Empire. After 1856, Turkey stepped up its exploitation and taxation of the working masses. This in combination with the introduction of products from western Europe caused the collapse village economies, and the local craftsmen were left without markets for their wares.

The first haiduks in eastern Macedonia appeared prior to the Crimean War. They were small bands of men. One man in particular, Ilyo Voivode (Ilyo Markov), gained a reputation as a haiduk leader. He became a haiduk in 1849. With his deeds of bravery and audacity, he soon became a legend. The glory of Ilyo sprang from his meting out justice on various thieves. He became so well-known and his reputation so exaggerated by the people of this part of Macedonia, that the Russian Consul, Nayden Gerov, in Plovdiv, accepting the legend of Ilyo for fact, proposed to make use of him as a means for inciting rebellion. The Consul reckoned that in the event of a successful uprising, the rebellion would spread throughout Macedonia, Thrace and Bulgaria.

Around the year 1862, more extensive preparations for an uprising had already been made in western Macedonia. Here, Spiro Dzherov Makedonski tried to organize an uprising in Bitola in which, according to some unconfirmed reports, about 83 villages from Bitola, Lerin, Ohrid, and Resen were involved. However, the uprising was aborted by treachery. Spiro Makedonski, the initiator of the uprising, fell into the hands of the authorities.

The haiduk movement, of course, was not characterized by a systematic approach. Their activities would flair up like an explosion and then die down to smouldering embers, only to ignite once again. The well-known collector of Macedonian folk songs, Stefan Verkovich, mentions the haiduk movement in the Pirin region of Macedonia in one of his letters dated May 15, 1873: "For more than thirteen years, haiduk bands have not disturbed the Pirin and Maleshevo Mountains... However, yesterday I found out from a reliable source that since the Day of St. George, two larger bands have been active in that area. Each of them has twenty members and they have already marauded savagely in the Melnik and Maleshevo regions; they tried to convince me that the haiduks have not yet attacked good people, only tax collectors, usurers, vineyard guards and chiflik (feudal estate) custodians. The reason being that they, as Turks, torture the poor in a hundred different ways. If that is true, then these bands will be the avengers for the unprecedented injustices perpetrated against the Christian population, and not simply outlaws and criminals."

At about the same time (1873), in another report from the Voden region, the merchant, Hadzhi Tasho, said that people were preparing for an uprising in that area of Macedonia. With a sum of 200 lira, a group of fifteen people were buying gun powder and arms and were storing the goods in secret places.

To be sure, all the data regarding the resistance in Macedonia at that time by no means indicates a massive movement. The event is important though insofar as it appeared in a period of general turmoil, while subjugated nations throughout the Balkans were chafing under the Turkish reign.

And the general resistance did not pass simply as unrest without corollary reaction elsewhere. What happened in Bosnia during the Bosnian Uprising, what happened in Bulgaria during the "April Uprising," indeed what was happening throughout the Balkans had no choice but to find an outlet in Macedonia. It was this climate that gave birth to the Razlovtsi Uprising; the first shot was fired .on May 8, 1876.

As is known, Dimitar Pop Georgiev Berovski was not only the spirit and spark of the Razlovtsi Uprising, but one of the most important people in the Kresna Uprising as well. He was born in 1840 in Berovo; his father was the priest, Georgi Dimitriev. He finished primary school in Berovo and in 1858 he enrolled at the Theological Seminary in Odessa. However, because of his rebellious nature, he was expelled from the Seminary. Then he went on to Belgrade where he joined the Serbian army. After he served his time in the army, he returned to Berovo and became one of the main leaders of the resistance against the Greek bishop from Strumitsa. The bishop was expelled from Berovo in 1874.

Because of his activities, Berovski was forced to leave his native town and escape to Constantinopole. There, however, he found himself dogged constantly by the Turkish police, so he moved to Salonika. In reference to this part of his life, Berovski wrote: "Once again I escaped the pursuit of the Constantinopole police. Then I left secretly for Salonika.

"In and around Salonika I was able to live without the Turkish authorities knowing of my whereabouts for half a year. Here I had a chance to get detailed information about the Hercegovina uprising. The opportunity allowed me to follow all the movements of the Turkish army on land and at sea - when they arrived by train via Mitrovitsa on their way to Bosnia-Hercegovina. The largest movements of armies toward Bosnia-Hercegovina was around the end of 1875 and the beginning of 1876.

"The news about the Hercegovina uprising, the movement of Turkish troops, and my situation became equally unbearable. My impatience grew from day to day. I decided to organize an uprising in Macedonia in December of 1875, hoping to provide relief to the Hercegovina uprising by detaining part of the Turkish armies.. ."

Berovski intended to expand the uprising beyond the borders of his home district, Malesh, and to incite the neighboring districts of Strumitsa, Petrich, and Melnik. However, intentions are one thing, and possibilities are quite another. Despite arduous efforts, the organized uprising was limited to Razlovtsi and nearby villages. Quick and forceful action by the Turkish army prevented the uprising from spreading. Thus, the uprising was suppressed. Only Berovski's detachment was left to reconnoiter in the mountains around Melnik, Petrich and Osogovo. But thanks to the support of the people, the detachment was able to allude capture and sustain themselves on the open terrain for an entire year. Later, after the Russo-Turkish war broke out, they guarded the people against the plunder of the retreating Turkish armies.

The uprising was doomed from the outset. Their resources consisted of that which was donated by two escaped villagers. They were inspirited by the romantic fervor of a young group. Their efforts lacked definition, concrete planning and perspective. They placed tremendous stock in the vain promises of support from the Serbian army. Pressure and intimidation were used on villagers who weren't ready to respond to the call of rebellion. And they found themselves totally isolated from other parts of Macedonia. However, as it was, the action provided not only an introduction to the later national revolutionary struggles of the Macedonian people, but above all, the precious experience of militancy which Berovski and his detachment would rely on for the Kresna Uprising of 1878.

Rebellious Movements in Northeast and Eastern Macedonia in 1878

The Razlovtsi Uprising of 1876 forced the Turkish authorities to undertake energetic measures, primarily intimidation and terrorism, to eradicate the revolutionary movements at their roots. Those especially victimized were the more progressive people, the craftsmen and merchants.

This policy wreaked extensive damage on the economic activity of the country, and conditions grew even worse during the two wars: the Serbo-Turkish war of 1876, and the Russo-Turkish war of 1876 -78. Great masses of Turkish refugees flooded Macedonia, arriving from areas that had been the sites of battles and from territory lost by the Turks. The general contempt of these refugees for the …[…]…[Ethnic Macedonian] population combined with the Turkish authorities efforts to resettle them in Macedonia made the situation almost intolerable. Wherever there was rule, it was arbitrary, and wherever there wasn't, there was anarchy. During and after the wars the Turkish army marched back and forth across the Balkans, either heading for a front or retreating from one, and they plundered heedlessly in both directions. The Kumanovo and Kriva Palanka regions suffered most, especially from the Turkish irregular army, the bashibazouks. Of course, other regions of Macedonia were harassed as well: by July, 1878, twelve villages in the Bitola district were burned to the ground.

An impassioned description of prevailing conditions in Macedonia during the l870s was penned in a complaint lodged with the English Consul in Salonika:

"The news of His Excellency's arrival in Dzhumaya gave hope to us Macedonians, the citizens of the Maleshevo district. We have suffered incessantly up till now. The Turkish tyranny and the causes for our suffering are well known to the educated and the humanitarian of Europe; and through our cables of 1874 addressed to the British emissary in Constantinopole, the beneficent England is most acutely aware of our plight.

"The constant killings, arrests, unjust taxation, denigration of our religious beliefs, the raping of our women, daughters and sisters are all habits of pleasure for the Turks. We cannot confide this secret and pain except in the English Consul in Salonika. Your humanitarian advice gave us our last hope and encouraged us to address You with our numerous petitions of protest. But in lieu of satisfactory results, we received reprisals deserved of the ignoble. So, on May 8, 1876, before the eyes of the world, we were compelled to protest with weapons in our hands. If we could attract the attention of the Turkish government, it might ask itself, what evil has made us so desperate, what would force us to bring our last drop of blood to the alter of Europe? The Turkish government, however, did not respond as we had hoped."

The conditions of pressure and arbitrary rule created an atmosphere of insecurity in Macedonia. That, of course, fed the resistance and led to the strengthening of the haiduk movement in the country. The wars against Turkey also intensified the resistance. Although illusory, the visage of a liberated Macedonia being near at hand generated impatience and the revolutionary mood gained fervor. The presence of Macedonian volunteers in the Serbian army during the Serbo-Turkish war, and in the Russian army during the Russo-Turkish war is an indication of the intensity of the mood - a mood that affected the uplifting of the people's spirit.

There were 350 to 400 Macedonian volunteers in the ranks of the Serbian army during the Serbo-Turkish conflict; and during the Russo-Turkish war, 400 Macedonians joined the Russian ranks. Volunteers worthy of special mention are Dr. Konstantin Vezenkov an intellectual from Krushevo, and the leaders of the haiduk movement, Ilyo Markov, known as Dedo Ilyo Maleshevski, Dimitar Trifunov, Ivan Robev, and Georgi Puleski. The participation of the well-known Macedonian educator, poet, historian, linguist, and revolutionary, Georgi Puleski, should be especially noted. Wherever there was a battle against Turkish tyranny, Puleski could be found in the front lines, hoping his efforts would help bring closer the day of his country's liberation.

The great measure of hope for the final liberation from centuries of Turkish rule was supplanted by an equal measure of disappointment when news reached the Macedonians that the signing of a peace treaty had halted the Russian and Serbian armies at Macedonia's threshold. Defeated expectations were most deeply felt in the northeastern regions of Macedonia where the people had had direct contact with the Russian and Serbian armies. And it was here where the disappointment was transformed into an armed movement aiming to break the grip of Turkish rule. That movement included the entire northeastern area of Macedonia, the Kumanovo and Kriva Palanka regions, and a healthy part of eastern Macedonia, specifically the mountainous territory of the Ser sanjak The initial shock of disappointment rapidly resolved into anger and new hopes: perhaps the conditions set forth by the treaty were only temporary; perhaps, while the Turks were weakened by war, a mere few forces might be able to topple Turkish rule in the area. With such notions in mind, the population began to arm itself. At the same time, spontaneously assembled bands began to appear, moving along the border areas in close proximity to the Serbian army. These bands were composed primarily of Macedonians, volunteers, from the Serbian army. Soon after the 19th of January, 1878, when the Serbian army captured Vranyé, the bands descended from Mount Kozyak into the Pchinya Valley. The retreating Turkish army and the proximity of the Serbian encouraged almost all the villages in the Mount Kozyak, German, and Palanka regions to rise up in revolt.

So began the movement in the Kumanovo and Kriva Palanka regions. At first, the animosity toward the Turkish population that had been seething inside for centuries burst forth with a vengeance. Although the Serbian army was able to restore a measure of order and discipline among the rebellious and avenging peasants, the revolt remained a spontaneous and sporadic movement without much prospect of enduring success. As the date for the Congress of Berlin neared, the Turkish government, acting on the advice of its allies, adopted strict measures to liquidate all unrest within its borders. Of highest priority were the disturbances along the Serbian border, so Turkey deployed appropriate military forces. By the end of May, 1878 after the rebels encountered the Turkish regular army, the rebellion began to disintegrate. The fact that the Turkish authorities did not harshly treat those peasants caught without weapons in their hands attenuated the wrath and aided in quelling disturbances.

The Preparations for Organizing the Rebellion in Macedonia The Strengthening of the Haiduk Movement

The light measures required to suppress the rebellious movements in the Kumanovo and Kriva Palanka regions were, in any event, neither a sign of the languishing of the revolutionary mood in Macedonia, nor a decline in the desire for freedom and independence. On the contrary, the situation on the Balkans and especially in Macedonia constantly stoked the atmosphere, keeping warm the struggle for overthrowing Turkish rule. After the wars, the haiduk movement, having now a wealth of experience and tradition, did not fade away, but rather developed and grew.

Despite temporary vacillations after the rebellion in Razlovtsi (1876), the haiduk movement was expanding in the region in which the Kresna Uprising would erupt - in the regions of Pianets, Malesh, Pirin, and further south. Thus, the situation created by the peace treaty between Russia and Turkey helped to bring about the increase in the haiduk movement by the beginning of January, 1878. Taking advantage of the chaos in the country, Ilyo Maleshevski led a group of Macedonian voivodes and about 150 rebels into the Pianets region in northern Macedonia. They captured the town of Tsarevo Selo (today's Delchevo) and twelve to fourteen villages in the surrounding area. They established their own government. For two months this liberated territory functioned as an independent island between the Russian army in Kyustendil and the Turkish army. But, by the end of March, the Turks marched in and recaptured the area.

In short, the entire mountainous region of this part of Macedonia, the area which was later to the uprising's battlefield, was a hot bed of unrest.

After the San Stefano Treaty was signed, the number of haiduk bands in Macedonia increased. There was a direct relation between the increase in the number of bands and the Treaty's stipulation that the Russian army would occupy Macedonia. It was decided that the army would be broken down into detachments or local occupying units and thus take over the country.

Of course, soon after the signing of the agreement, the Russian command in Bu1garia took immediate steps to realize the decrees of the agreement. As Dondukov himself said, the decisions made and the steps taken to implement them could not be hidden from the Macedonians. So, when the decision was rescinded, and Russian soldiers were not sent into Macedonia, the Macedonians were bitterly disappointed. Dashed hopes sent them into collective protests and turmoil. Especially affected were the border areas where the people were in direct contact with the Russian army and were more or less aware of the plan to have Macedonia occupied by Russian armies.

Dissatisfaction was emphatically expressed in the eastern, that is the Pirin, region of Macedonia. The following were the causes: According to the Odrin Peace Treaty, the Russians were allowed to occupy Gorna Dzhumaya in order to establish either their own government or a Serbian government. Without awaiting final approval by the Commission, the Russian army entered the town on the 11th of February and organized its own government immediately. The coming of the Russians to Gorna Dzhumaya caused jubilation among the people. Their woods in the Pirin region of Macedonia had been filled with haiduks for such a long time. Now, some could return to the town. Then, on the 13th of February, the demarcation line was drawn crossing southwest of the town, and the Russians had to withdraw. Now, the haiduk bands that had earlier crisscrossed the Pirin and Malesh regions gathered even greater numbers. Among them was the band of Berovski.

A report by Todor A. Strahinov, one of the participants in the rebellion, best expresses the rapidity with which the number of haiduks grew and some of the reasons people joined the bands. He did not link the joining of the haiduks with external or abstract causes; rather, he considered it a consequence of the Turkish authorities' treatment of the Macedonian people - the plundering, the torture, the injustice. Moreover, in writing about his own case, two years prior to his joining the haiduks (1876), Strahinov notes that his involvement with the local church activities prompted Turkish authorities to harass him and others who had worked for the church. Two years later, when local Turks robbed and plundered the village church, Strahinov and his friends protested and sought punitive action against the Turks. Instead, Strahinov met with persecution. He was forced to flee into the hills and join one of the haiduk bands.

Strahinov's experience was typical. Those people who had participated in the religious and educational struggle against the Phanariotic propaganda before the war were now subjected to harassment and assault by the authorities. Rather than endure the persecution, people sought refuge by joining haiduks. And as a result, the number of haiduk bands increased.

Stoyan Karastoilov's band exemplifies the way in which the haiduks dealt with the sudden influx of members. Karastoilov was from the village of Starchishta - Nevrokop. He was one of the important participants in the Kresna Uprising and one of the leaders of the haiduk movement in the Ser region. Early on, there was only one large band in the Nevrokop, Melnik and Demir Hisar regions, the band of Todor Palaskarya. But by April, 1878, because of the inrush of new haiduks, the band had to be divided into two groups. Stoyan Karastoilov became the leader of the second group. His band consisted only of peasants from the village of Starchishta. He led his band through the entire Ser region, displaying a great aptitude for mobility. He confronted the Turks often. On March 20, 1878, just outside the village of Dolno Brodi, his band had a fierce fight with the Turks. The people from the village came out in support of the haiduks. But when the haiduks retreated into the hills, the Turks intensified their persecution of the villagers. And that, of course, drove a new wave of peasants into the haiduk bands. Strahinov reports that soon Karastoilov's band grew too large and had to be divided. Kosta Kukoto from the village of Lakos was appointed as the voivode for the new band.

By the end of August, these bands were joined by two others: the band of voivode Kocho Lyutata from the village of Levunovo; and Stoiko's band from Tsaparevo.

Dondukov reports that before the uprising in the Ser region there were about 12 bands.

While the haiduk movement developed in eastern Macedonia, the Ser sanjak, haiduk movements in other parts of Macedonia were also on the increase. The implementation of decisions reached at the Congress of Berlin were felt throughout Macedonia. But another factor to consider was the flow of Turkish refugees from territory captured by the Serbs and Russians into Macedonia. According to the newspaper, Die Presse, in the Ser sanjak area alone there were 3,000 refugees. They were an incubus for the indigenous population. The local authorities neither wanted to nor were able to limit the influx. Again, according to the newspaper, their presence caused an increase in Christian bands as protest against the Islamic Turks. Three rebel bands appeared in the Bitola sanjak and soon merged to make a single band of about 150 rebels. At the foot of Mount Bigla, between Bitola and the Ohrid and Prespa regions, Stoyan Voivode's band of 500 rebels was active. Another two bands appeared in Veles. One was led by Ilyo Voivode. It was reported that this band wanted to march to Salonika where Ilyo was a popular leader. The other was led by the priest, Kostadin, and numbered about 200. This latter band consisted primarily of opolchentsi (volunteer soldiers) who had fought in the Russo-Turkish War.

The development of the haiduk movement resulted in Turkish retaliations. In Razlog within a one month period, ten people were killed. In the Melnik region the kajmakam (a representative of the vizier) decimated about twenty villages in the Karshieka region along the right bank of the Struma River. His justification was that he suspected preparations for an uprising. In early June he entered the region with five to six hundred regular soldiers and bashibazouks, and began to lay waste to the villages. People fled toward the borders. The kajmakam then crossed to the Struma's left bank and attacked the Kresna, Vlahi, and Oshtava villages. When he heard that a band of haiduks was on his trail, he withdrew to Melnik.