Conclusion
The
Bulgarian campaign committees
were highly a patriotic deed of the Bulgarians in Macedonia
in 1941, determined by the invasion of the German army in Yugoslavia
and
the ruining or at least the shaking of the suppressing rule in the
region. It
was also determined by the friendly relations between Germany and Bulgaria,
by the hope that after
the German army the Bulgarian one would come.
The time
when those events took
place was a time of lack of authority. The Yugoslav rule was changed
with German,
after that with Bulgarian. The Serbs in the most places had run away
not being
afraid not as much of the Germans, but of the revenge of the local
Bulgarian
population. Only the Serbian authorities in Skopje
and Bitola
did
not escape. It was logical the Bulgarians to make an attempt to lake
control
and to avoid anarchy. The establishment of that rule continued long
after the
arrival of the Bulgarian army because the organization of the
administrative
authorities in the region and its transformation in inseparable
unity with Bulgaria
was
long-lasting process. Actually just on May 18, 1941 the German
military
command in Skopje
officially handed over the administrative power to the Bulgarian state.
But
when after a few months everything was organized, the campaign
committees
became somewhat useless. More precisely, they were historically doomed
to
adjourn.
The Central
Committee, perceiving
the importance of the campaign committees in Vardar Macedonia,
tried to make everything
to retain them. “Let the committees remain”, said Stephanov and
Hadzhikimov, “and
proceed with their work. Let them be under the control of the
government,
receive directives and instructions from it but not be adjourned,
because this
could be very offending for the people that have proved with their
deeds their
devotion to the “Tsar, people and country”. These people
created the
Bulgarian authorities in Vardar Macedonia in the time when the
ministries in
Sofia had no idea what was happening in the first day of the liberation
of Macedonia
at the arrival of the German army”.* The authors of that letter were
right to
some extent. The followers of IMRO, (Protogerovists), the followers of
IMRO
(united) and all other organizations and groups were forestall by two
not very
popular activists - Stephanov and
Hadzhikimov. The campaign committees were a manifestation of the whole
community not only of separate groups that was disliked by the
political
activists who eventually could have the possibility and the power to
pay
attention to this phenomenon. Nobody liked to be left behind.
So the
explanation that the
historians gave for the closing of the committees seemed unlikely, “Not
proper
appreciation of the campaign committees by the central Bulgarian
government”**. What an authority was that, that could not estimate the
importance of the committees for more than 100 days? That spoke no
good, to
it. No, the government had estimated very well their importance.-The
campaign
committees were a manifestation of the free thinking, of the
democratic spirit
and national authority. But it would be too much to be asked Tsar's Bulgaria
in
1941 to tolerate free thinking.
The Central
Committee even made a
proposition before the government to self-adjourn but the
committees at site
to continue their activities. That spoke of understanding those people
had of
the need of such committees not as organs of an authority, but as an
essential
means for revival of the Bulgarian spirit.
One of the
most important reasons
for the termination of the activity of the campaign committees was
the
suspicion of the authorities towards IMRO. That organization,
strong in the
past, and its followers were watched by the security authorities.
That
suspicion was reinforced in the end of June and the beginning of July
1941.
Great number of followers of IMRO participated in the campaign
committees and
that increased government's suspicion. Actually, Mihaylovists did not
remain
active, but proceeded to restoration of their structures. On July
5 in the
house of Ivan Piperkov in Skopje
held a conference of the followers of Ivan Mihaylov. Present were Kiril
Drangov, Vlado Kourtev, Dimitur Tsilev, Ivan Piperkov, Dimitur Giuzelev,
Dimitur Chkatrov and Atanas Albanski. A topic of discussion was
the
appointment of regional superiors of IMRO in the major towns in Macedonia - Skopje,
Bitola,
Prilep,
Veles, etc. A decision was made only for the superiors of two towns: in
Skopje as most suitable - Dr. Assen
Albanski and for Bitola
- Peter
Grebenarov. The task of those regional superiors was to work for
ameliorating
of the disagreement between the separate tendencies and preparation for
the
arrival of Ivan Mihaylov, who was in Zagreb.
***
Only two
days after the meeting, on
July 7, 1941 the Regional Director of Skopje A. Kozarov issued an order
No. 248
with which the activity of the BCCC and the local committees were
terminated.
Of course, the power did not act brutally in that case.
The absence
of interference by
organized political powers when the committees were formed outlined a
wide
white field on which the Bulgarians in Macedonia
wrote with capital letters their desire for accession with Bulgaria.
It
was their dream - the country for which since 1878 river of blood were
shed.
The campaign committees were organizations open to everybody as a
member
nevertheless of its beliefs. The most important conclusion that
could be made
for the campaign committees was that history allowed the
Macedonian Bulgarians
to make their self-determination without any pressure, without the
presence of
any coercion. The Bulgarians from Macedonia, representatives
of all
ranks and statuses - peasants, workers, intellectuals, craftsmen,
traders - as
well as of all parties and trends had used that historical chance. In
that
peculiar referendum they gave their vote for Bulgaria.
The
formation of the Bulgarian
campaign committees in Macedonia
- an original form of self-determination for the Macedonian Bulgarians
- was a
significant link in the whole chain of the struggle for national
liberation
that followed after the Berlin Congress.
* CSA, fund
1591, list 3, file 28, page 1.
** Daskalov, G.
“The Bulgarian campaign
committees...”, p. 66.
*** CSA, fund
1932, list 4, file 32, page 19-21.