IMRO – Bulgarian National Movement

The Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization (IMRO; ; ), was a secret revolutionary society founded in the Ottoman territories in Europe, that operated in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Founded in 1893 in Salonica, it initially aimed to gain autonomy for Macedonia and Adrianople regions in the Ottoman Empire, however, it later became an agent serving Bulgarian interests in Balkan politics. IMRO modeled itself after the earlier Bulgarian Internal Revolutionary Organization of Vasil Levski and accepted its motto "Freedom or Death" (Свобода или смърть). According to the memoirs of some founding and ordinary members, in the Organization's earliest statute from 1894, the membership was reserved exclusively for Bulgarians. It used the Bulgarian language in all its documents and in its correspondence. The Organisation founded its Foreign Representation in Sofia, Bulgaria in 1896. Starting in the same year, it fought the Ottomans using guerrilla tactics, and in this, they were successful, even establishing a state within a state in some regions, including their tax collectors. This effort escalated in 1903 into the Ilinden–Preobrazhenie Uprising. The fighting involved about 15,000 IMRO irregulars and 40,000 Ottoman soldiers. After the uprising failed, and the Ottomans destroyed some 100 villages, the IMRO resorted to more systematic forms of terrorism targeting civilians. Also, the Ilinden disaster splintered IMRO and signalled the beginning of a fratricidal conflict between the left-wing faction ("federalists") who continued to favor autonomy as step towards independent Macedonia inside a Balkan Federation, and the right-wing faction ("centralists") which favored unification with Bulgaria. The division was based partially on ideology, and partly in terms of personality and locality, and it would plague the Macedonian revolutionary movement over the next decades.

During the Balkan Wars and the First World War, the organization supported the Bulgarian army and joined Bulgarian war-time authorities when they temporarily took control over parts of Thrace and Macedonia. As for the Balkan Wars the division of the area among the Balkan states, was seen by the IMRO's adherents as entailing the partition of Macedonia. Retaining the unity of Macedonia seemed crucial in this period for IMRO, autonomism as a political tactic was abandoned, and annexationist positions were supported, aiming eventual incorporation of occupied areas into Bulgaria. The desire to size most of Macedonia and Thrace within a Bulgarian state lay behind the Bulgarian decision to enter each of these three wars. The Bulgarian government first attached the IMRO chetas as auxiliaries of its army in the Balkan wars and then drafted the former paramilitaries directly into it, as Bulgarian military personnel during the First World War. IMRO arose then from a clandestine organization into an important factor of the Greater Bulgarian policy, supporting the Bulgarisation of the area. Additionally, some guerrilla companies formed by IMRO-irregulars, participated in several massacres of Serbs in the areas of Azot, Skopska Crna Gora and Poreče. Regular Bulgarian troops took control of the region while komitadjis were appointed mayors or prefects and served as gendarmerie corps. IMRO detachments participated in the suppression of the Serbian Toplica uprising.

After the First World War the combined Macedonian-Thracian revolutionary movement separated into two detached organizations, IMRO and ITRO. Simultaneously, the "federalists" split up and formed the Macedonian Federative Organization and later IMRO (United). After this the IMRO earned a reputation as an ultimate terror network, seeking to change state frontiers in the Macedonian regions of Greece and Serbia (later Yugoslavia). They contested the partitioning of Macedonia and launched raids from their Petrich stronghold into Greek and Yugoslav territory. Their base of operation in Bulgaria was jeopardized by the Treaty of Niš, and the IMRO reacted by assassinating Bulgarian prime minister Aleksandar Stamboliyski in 1923, with the cooperation of other Bulgarian elements opposed to him. In 1925 the Greek army launched a cross-border operation to reduce the IMRO base area, but it was ultimately stopped by the League of Nations, and IMRO attacks resumed. A conflict over the leadership arose and Ivan Mihailov ordered the assassination of Aleksandar Protogerov, which sparked a fratricidal war between the so called "Mihailovists" and "Protogerovists". In the interwar period the IMRO also cooperated with the Croatian Ustaše, and their ultimate victim was Alexander I of Yugoslavia, assassinated in France in 1934. After the Bulgarian coup d'état of 1934, their Petrich stronghold was subjected to a military crackdown by the Bulgarian army, and the IMRO was reduced to a marginal phenomenon.

The organization changed its name on several occasions, but the name VMRO (IMRO) remained most noted. After the fall of communism in the region, numerous parties claimed the IMRO name and lineage to legitimize themselves. Among them, the right-wing parties established in the 1990s, " VMRO-BND" in Bulgaria and "VMRO-DPMNE" in then Republic of Macedonia.

Ottoman era

Origins and goals

The organization was founded in 1893 in Ottoman Thessaloniki by a small band of anti-Ottoman Macedono-Bulgarian revolutionaries, who considered Macedonia an indivisible territory and all of its inhabitants ''" Macedonians"'', no matter their religion or ethnicity. In practice, IMRO was established by Bulgarians and most of their followers were Bulgarians. The organization was a secret revolutionary society operating in the late 19th and early 20th centuries with the goal of autonomous Macedonia and Adrianople regions. At that time IMRO was often called "the Bulgarian Committee", while its members were designated as '' Comitadjis'', i.e. "committee men". Initially, they were against the aspirations of neighboring states in the area and saw the future autonomous Macedonia and Southern Thrace as a multi-ethnic entity. It appears likely that at the early stages of the struggle, a possible desired outcome of the autonomy was unification with Bulgaria. Other possible aims were the idea of transforming the Balkans into a federal state, in which Macedonia and Thrace would enter as equal members and ultimately the idea of independent Macedonia. The idea of autonomy was strictly political and did not imply a secession from Bulgarian ethnicity. Even those, who advocated for independent Macedonia and Thrace, never doubted the predominantly Bulgarian character of the Slavic population in both areas. The organization was founded by Hristo Tatarchev, Dame Gruev, Petar Pop-Arsov, Andon Dimitrov, Hristo Batandzhiev and Ivan Hadzhinikolov. All of them were closely connected with the Bulgarian Men's High School of Thessaloniki.

According to Hristo Tatarchev's "Memoirs", IMRO was first called simply the Macedonian Revolutionary Organization (MRO), and the word "Bulgarian" was later dropped from its statue.In his memoirs from 1928 Tatarchev, when mentioning its first name and structure, noted that he does not remember it very clearly, making the remark: "as far as I can remember." So far, no statutes or other basic documents with a similar name have been discovered from this period. According to Macedonian specialist Ivan Katardziev, the Organization never bore an official name MRO. In Tatarchev's own recollections from 1934 he maintains that in the first statute, the membership was allowed for every Bulgarian, from any region and that the possibility for membership of other nationalities was open in 1896 in a new statute. It seems he had mix up in his different memoires the circumstances from the first and from the second congresses of IMRO, hold in 1894 and 1896 respectively, when a different statutes were adopted. However neither statutes nor regulations, or other basic documents with such names have not yet been found. Thus, according to the Macedonian historian Ivan Katardžiev, the organization never bore as an official name the designation "Macedonian Revolutionary Organisation". It is believed by the historians that in 1894 or 1896, this probably unofficial name, was changed to Bulgarian Macedonian-Adrianople Revolutionary Committees (BMARC); and the organisation existed under this name until 1897 or 1902, when it was changed to Secret Macedonian-Adrianople Revolutionary Organization (SMARO). Some Macedonian historians also acknowledge the existence of the name "ВMARC" in the very early period of the Organisation (1894–1896), while others dispute it. Thus, in North Macedonia it is generally assumed that in the period 1896–1902, the name of the organization was "SMARO". It is not disputed that the organization changed its name to Internal Macedonian-Adrianople Revolutionary Organization (IMARO) in 1905 and it is under this name referred to in Bulgarian historiography. After disbanding itself during the first Bulgarian annexation of Macedonia (1915–1918), the organization was revived in 1919 under the name Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization (IMRO), under which it is generally known today.

The ''Adrianople Region'' was the general name given by the Organization to those areas of Thrace which, like Macedonia, had been left under Turkish rule i.e. most of it, where the Bulgarian element predominated in the mixed population, too. The organized revolutionary movement in Thrace dates from 1895, when Dame Gruev recruited Hristo Kotsev, born in Shtip, who was then a teacher in the Bulgarian Men's High School of Adrianople, and gradually committees were established in a large area.

The stated goal of the original Committee was to unite all elements dissatisfied with the Ottoman oppression in Macedonia and the Adrianople Vilayet, eventually obtaining political autonomy for the two regions. In this task, the organisation hoped to enlist the support of the local Aromanians and Megleno-Romanians, Greeks and even Turks. Efforts were concentrated on moral propaganda and the prospect of rebellion and terrorist actions seemed distant. The organization developed quickly: only in a matter of a few years, the Committee had managed to establish a wide network of local organisations across Macedonia and the Adrianople Vilayet. These usually centered around the schools of the Bulgarian Exarchate and had as leaders local or Bulgarian-born teachers. The leadership thought that it was using Bulgaria as a source of funds and was "working under a Bulgarian mask" while establishing its own non-Bulgarian agenda.

Furthermore, some of the leaders espoused radical socialist and anarchist ideas and saw their goal as the establishment of a new form of government rather than unification with Bulgaria. Eventually, these considerations led the organisation to change its statute and accept as members not only Bulgarians but all Macedonians and Adrianopolitans regardless of ethnicity or creed. In reality, however, besides some Aromanian members, its membership remained overwhelmingly Bulgarian Exarchist.
Although IMRO was predominantly ethnic Bulgarian since its establishment, it favoured the idea of an autonomous Macedonia and preferred to disassociate itself from official Bulgarian policy and was not under government control. Its founding leaders believed that an autonomous movement was more likely to find favour with the Great Powers than one which was a tool of the Bulgarian government.

Armed struggle against the Ottomans

The initial period of idealism for SMARO ended, however, with the Vinitsa Affair and the discovery by the Ottoman police of a secret depot of ammunition near the Bulgarian border in 1897. The wide-scale repressions against the activists of the organization led to its transformation into a militant guerilla organization, which engaged into attacks against Ottoman officials and punitive actions against suspected traitors. The guerilla groups of SMARO, known as " chetas" (чети) later (after 1903) also waged a war against the pro-Serbian and pro-Greek armed groups during the Greek Struggle for Macedonia.

SMARO's leadership of the revolutionary movement was challenged by two other factions: the Supreme Macedonian-Adrianople Committee (SMAC) in Sofia (''Vurhoven makedono-оdrinski komitet'' – Върховен македоно-одрински комитет) and a smaller group of conservatives in Salonica – Bulgarian Secret Revolutionary Brotherhood (''Balgarsko Tayno Revolyutsionno Bratstvo''). The latter was incorporated in SMARO by 1899, its members as Ivan Garvanov, were to exert a significant influence on the organization. They were to push for the Ilinden-Preobrazhenie Uprising and later became the core of IMRO right-wing faction.

Although SMARO and SMAC shared the goal of autonomy there were several critical differences between them. The SMARO thought that autonomy can be achieved by waging an insurgency campaign that would allure the attention and intervention of the Great Powers, as it was the case previously in other Balkan examples. While for the SMAC the liberation was achievable only by cooperation with Bulgaria and especially the Bulgarian army. Furthermore, the SMARO preferred an independent Macedonia as part of a future Balkan Federation, on the other hand for the SMAC the autonomy was a first step to unification with Bulgaria. Finally, and probably most critically, the SMARO was much more ambiguous to the term Macedonian, for them being the regions inhabitant was more important than ethnicity, while for the SMAC being Macedonian was equivalent to being Bulgarian.James Horncastle (2019). The Macedonian Slavs in the Greek Civil War, 1944–1949; Rowman & Littlefield, , pp. 29-31. SMAC became known earlier than SMARO, after the 1895 raids into Turkish territory it organised from Bulgaria. Its founders were Macedonian immigrants in Bulgaria as well as Bulgarian army officers. They became known as the "supremists" or "externals" since they were based outside of Macedonia. The supremists resorted to terrorism against the Ottomans in the hope of provoking a war and thus Bulgarian annexation of Macedonia. For a time between 1899-1901 SMARO leaders managed to gain control of the SMAC but it soon split into two factions: one loyal to the SMARO and one led by some officers close to the Bulgarian prince. The second one staged an ill-fated uprising in Eastern Macedonia in 1902, where they were opposed militarily by local SMARO bands led by Yane Sandanski and Hristo Chernopeev, who were later to become the leaders of the IMARO left-wing.

The initial leaders of the "left" were Goce Delchev and Vasil Glavinov. Delchev imagined Macedonia as a multi-ethnic region and promoted the motto ''Macedonia for the Macedonians''. A friend and close associate of Delchev was the left-wing politician Vasil Glavinov, who although lived in Bulgaria, focused on the political activism that imagined the creation of state Macedonia as a republic inside the Balkan Federation. Glavinov and Delchev edited several Socialist newspapers in which they promoted this ideas.Denis Ljuljanovic (2023). Imagining Macedonia in the Age of Empire, State Policies, Networks and Violence (1878-1912), Lit Verlag, , p. 219. Delchev's views were emphasized in the statue of SMARO from 1896 which he co-wrote with Gjorche Petrov