ÿþ<html> <head> <meta http-equiv="Content-Language" content="en-gb"> <meta name="GENERATOR" content="Microsoft FrontPage 5.0"> <meta name="ProgId" content="FrontPage.Editor.Document"> <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=unicode"> <title>M. MacDermott - Yane Sandansky - 16</title> <style> <!-- p.MsoNormal {mso-style-parent:""; margin-bottom:.0001pt; text-autospace:none; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; margin-left:0pt; margin-right:0pt; margin-top:0pt} --> </style> </head> <body> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white" align="left"> <b> <span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Palatino Linotype; color: black"> <font size="4">FOR FREEDOM AND PERFECTION. </font></span><i> <span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Palatino Linotype; color: black"> <font size="4">The Life of Yané Sandansky</font></span></i></b><font size="4"><br> <b>Mercia MacDermott </b></span></font> </p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: Palatino Linotype; color: black; font-weight: 700"> 16. THEY THAT DIG HOLES FOR OTHERS TO FALL INTO. .</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white">&nbsp;</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: Palatino Linotype">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: Palatino Linotype; color: black"> The year had begun badly. And as it began, so it continued. Conspiracy, treachery and bloodshed followed one upon another in a depressing sequence, with little light relief or constructive achievement.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: Palatino Linotype">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: Palatino Linotype; color: black"> One of the first black spots was the defection of Stoyan Dimitrov Pelteka, nicknamed Indzheto (the Thin One). Born in the Shumen district of northern Bulgaria, Indzheto knew Turkish well. He came to Macedonia in 1904 with Sarafov s crony Lt Sotir Atanasov during the latter s ill-fated attempt to sow dissention in the Serres Region, but after Yané had sent the lieutenant back to the Principality, Indzheto had remained in the Region as a <i>chetnik. </i> Apparently he made a good showing, for, when Stoyu Hadzhiev set out for Sofia to attend the 1906 Congress, Indzheto was chosen to deputize for him in the Demir Hisar District. During Stoyu s absence, however, he was accused of an offence against a woman, and, presumably in order to avoid punishment, he defected to the Turks and became a Muslim. <a href="#1.">[1]</a> He evidently gave his new co-religionists a great deal of valuable information, for the affair brought in its wake a heavy crop of searches, torture and arrests, which disrupted the work in a district where previously things had been going reasonably well. Numerous peasants were beaten, and in the process, two actually died, without divulging anything; twenty people were gaoled, and a quantity of precious arms, including twenty Manlicher rifles and 150 bombs, were discovered and lost to the movement. <a href="#2.">[2]</a> The neighbouring Serres District was also adversely affected: a number of leading comrades were gaoled, among them the entire District Committee.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: Palatino Linotype">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: Palatino Linotype; color: black"> Indzheto was not the only problem in the Demir Hisar District. Serious quarrels had erupted among the District leaders, some of whom were opposed to Stoyu Hadzhiev. From the sparse, and often uncorroborated, evidence available, it is difficult to gain a detailed picture of the situation, but there appears to have been yet another attempt on the part of Supremist-oriented persons to take over the District. Demir Hisar had long been an object of Supremist attention, and its former <i>voivoda, </i>the illiterate <i>ex-haramiya Dyado </i>Iliya Kmrchovaliyata, still had local supporters who</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="2">&nbsp;</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="2">&nbsp;</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Palatino Linotype; color: black"> <b><a name="1."><font size="2">1. </font></a></b><font size="2">For details see memoirs of Stoyan Stoyanov, recorded by Ivan Harizanov, TDIA, f. 1508, op. 2, a.e. 2, pp. 51-58. Stoyanov was then one of the leaders of the Demir Hisar District.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="2">&nbsp;</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Palatino Linotype; color: black"> <b><a name="2."><font size="2">2. </font></a></b><font size="2">Minutes of Regional Congress 1907. TRA, f. 226, op. 1, a.e. 279 and 280.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="2">&nbsp;</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: Palatino Linotype">&nbsp;</span><img border="0" src="line_down.gif" width="596" height="18"></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Palatino Linotype; color: black"> <font size="2">268</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: Palatino Linotype">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: Palatino Linotype; color: black"> resented the appointment of Stoyu Hadzhiev. One of the trouble-makers was Georgi Zankov, who had come from Sofia on the invitation of Daev, and had been sent to help Stoyu in the Demir Hisar District. Here, according to Ivan Harizanov, <a href="#3.">[3]</a> he became involved in local  civil wars , and was sentenced to be disarmed and sent back to the Principality. The order was eventually rescinded, but Zankov went to Sofia of his own volition, together with another of Stoyu s opponents a woman named Tsveta Bozhova, who was the District Treasurer. In Sofia Zankov met Stoyu, who was still in the Principality buying arms and other supplies, and he also had discussions with Garvanov and Petmr Gudev, who was then both Prime Minister and Minister of the Interior. <a href="#4.">[4]</a> Zankov and Bozhova returned to Macedonia during the summer of 1907, together with Stefan Chavdara, who was Daev s assistant in the Drama District, and a dozen or so <i>chetnitsi </i>sent by Garvanov and Sarafov. According to Ivan Harizanov, they were soon involved in fresh conflicts with the regional leaders, but were treated with comparative leniency and managed to avoid drastic punishment.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: Palatino Linotype">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: Palatino Linotype; color: black"> If the Demir Hisar District was in a far-from-satisfactory state, so also was the Drama District, owing to the equivocal behaviour of its <i>voivoda, </i> Mihail Daev, who had remained in the Principality for a prolonged period after the Pastra incident, and who, on his return, had been guilty of certain  irregularities and of  exceeding his authority .</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: Palatino Linotype">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: Palatino Linotype; color: black"> Mihail Daev was a very charming and handsome young man, with progressive views and a gay, artistic nature. Born of rich parents in Balchik, a small town to the north of Varna, he had participated in the 1903 Rising in Strandzha, and arrived in the Serres Region under the influence of Petko Penchev, who came from the same part of the country and was his friend. In Macedonia, Daev soon endeared himself to one and all, with his sunny disposition and unfailing courage. Yané himself was deeply attached to him, as, indeed, he was to most of those who offered their lives and services to the Cause. The bold punitive actions which Daev, together with Panitsa, Peyu Radev, Dimitmr Zapryanov, Chavdara and others, carried out against Greeks who killed Bulgarians, did much to raise the prestige of the Organization. Thus it was Daev whom the Regional Committee sent to execute Sarafov at the beginning of 1905. But in Sofia, he had fallen under the influence of his victim and of Garvanov, and his friend Penchev had, without much difficulty, persuaded him to abandon the idea. <a href="#5.">[5]</a> The amnesty voted by the Rila Congress had temporarily saved both Sarafov and Daev from being called to account for their several</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="2">&nbsp;</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="2">&nbsp;</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Palatino Linotype; color: black"> <b><a name="3."><font size="2">3.</font></a></b><font size="2"> TDIA, f. 1508, op. 2, a.e. 8.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="2">&nbsp;</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Palatino Linotype; color: black"> <b><a name="4."><font size="2">4.</font></a></b><font size="2"> See Zankov s own statement recorded in the Minutes of the Third Congress of the Serres Region, TPA, f. 226, op. 1, a.e. 279 and f. 226, op. 1, a.e. 280. Zankov also mentions his meeting with Garvanov in an article written by himself, Bozhova, Chavdara and Zapryanov in <i>Ilinden </i>(No. 25, 27.II.1908), and says that it was at this point that he went over to Garvanov s side.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="2">&nbsp;</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Palatino Linotype; color: black"> <b><a name="5."><font size="2">5.</font></a></b><font size="2"> Ivan Harizanov, TDIA, f. 1508, op. 2, a.e. 8, pp. 18-19.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="2">&nbsp;</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: Palatino Linotype">&nbsp;</span><img border="0" src="line_down.gif" width="596" height="18"></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Palatino Linotype; color: black"> <font size="2">269</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: Palatino Linotype">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: Palatino Linotype; color: black"> offences. Further suspicion gathered around Daev when no action was taken against him by the authorities, either over the Pastra incident, or over a further incident in which he wounded a cavalry captain in a Sofia beer-house. Daev remained in the capital, but did not suffer the persecution meted out to the other <i>Serchani.</i></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: Palatino Linotype">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: Palatino Linotype; color: black"> When he finally returned to his District in the late spring of 1907, he aroused fresh suspicion by propagating ideas that smacked of Supremism, and he blotted his copybook still further with a disastrously unsuccessful attempt to kidnap a British colonel for ransom, undertaken without prior consultation with the Regional Committee.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: Palatino Linotype">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: Palatino Linotype; color: black"> On July 31, 1907, Daev and his comrades who included Buynov and Panitsa managed to seize Colonel Elliot as he was taking an early morning stroll in the village of Gyuredzhik. Unfortunately for the kidnappers, an Armenian lady, who was staying in the same house as the Colonel, saw what was happening through the window and she gave the alarm. Soldiers and gendarmes immediately gave chase and began shooting. In the ensuing confusion, Colonel Elliot broke free, drew his revolver, which his captors had neglected to remove, shot one<i> chetnik </i> dead, and wounded Panitsa and another man the latter so badly that he became paralyzed, and his comrades, unable to carry him away, put him out of his misery with a bullet.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: Palatino Linotype">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: Palatino Linotype; color: black"> Seventeen peasants, including the village headman, were subsequently arrested and charged with complicity in the kidnapping. Elliot gave evidence at their trial in Salonika (August 13, new style), and eight of them were found guilty. The village headman and two others were each sentenced to twelve years imprisonment, while of the other five who were found guilty solely on Elliot s evidence that he had seen <i>komiti </i>leaving their houses three were sentenced to five years, and two to three years only, in view of their advanced age (both were over seventy and very infirm, according to the British Consul-General). <a href="#6.">[6]</a></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="2">&nbsp;</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="2">&nbsp;</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Palatino Linotype; color: black"> <b><a name="6."><font size="2">6. </font></a></b><font size="2">Colonel Elliot s own report of the kidnapping is in the Public Record Office, London, P.O. 371/353, pp. 469-470. The trial is described by R.W. Graves, the British Consul-General in Salonika, who was present throughout. See Ibid., p. 493.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="2">&nbsp;</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Palatino Linotype; color: black"> <font size="2">In his report, Colonel Elliot who was attached to the Turkish Gendarmerie in the Drama Sanjak, makes no mention of the reason for his presence in Gyuredzhik. A Bulgarian source says that, after Elliot had arrived in Kavalla to inspect the British officers serving with the Turkish Gendarmerie, Daev lured him to Gyuredzhik by sending him a letter describing the terror suffered by the inhabitants owing to the billeting of Turkish soldiers there. Elliot is said to have agreed to be present at an inquiry, and the arrangement for the two men to meet were made through the headman, who was the only villager privy to Daev s real intentions. According to the same source, most of the persons arrested were peasants who had gone to Elliot s quarters in good faith in order to lodge complaints against the Turks. On the subject of Elliot s revolver, which the Colonel himself says remained undiscovered by the kidnappers, Panitsa s wife records in her memoirs (presumably based on what Panitsa himself told her) that her husband thought that everything had been pre-arranged between Daev and the Colonel, and therefore he insisted that Elliot be allowed to</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="2">&nbsp;</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: Palatino Linotype">&nbsp;</span><img border="0" src="line_down.gif" width="596" height="18"></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Palatino Linotype; color: black"> <font size="2">270</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: Palatino Linotype">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: Palatino Linotype; color: black"> Yané took the problems and disasters in his stride. Undismayed, he continued to move about the Region, carrying out routine tasks of inspection and administration. In March, he allowed his<i> cheta </i>to rest for a while in the Vlah village of Lopovo. The highest and remotest of all the Pirin villages, it was a place of natural peace and beauty, surrounded by forests and meadows, and watered by a mountain stream as clear as glass. At that time of the year, most of the Vlah inhabitants were still far to the south, on the mild snowless pastures beside the Aegean, but what was unacceptable to shepherds and their flocks represented a comfortable haven for Yané s spartan men, and they would frequently seek shelter and security in the half-deserted village.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: Palatino Linotype">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: Palatino Linotype; color: black"> This time, the Turks got wind of Yané s presence, and army units set out from Nevrokop, hoping to catch him in his lair. Yané, however, was more than a match for them. He positioned his men, reinforced by local militia, at all the key points leading to the village, so that the advancing Turks were surprised and beaten back. Vlah carriers, hauling logs down to a sawmill, further lowered the soldiers morale by advising them to go back at once because the village and the heights above were full of <i>komiti </i>who would not allow even a bird to fly over them. After two days fighting, the Turks gave up and withdrew to the more congenial plain. <a href="#7.">[7]</a></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: Palatino Linotype">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: Palatino Linotype; color: black"> Another of Yané s strongholds was the village of Kashina, which was a few miles down-stream from Lopovo, on the sunny, southern slopes of Pirin, low enough to be clear of the dark forests, and yet high enough to be hard of access for the Turkish authorities. The name of the village was derived from Kashik, the Turkish word for  spoon , for there was little fertile land in the vicinity and the inhabitants supplemented their meagre income by making and selling wooden spoons. There was a great variety of wood available, for walnuts, plums, pears, apples, mulberries, elms, oaks, willows, hornbeams and hazels grew in profusion on either side of the channel which diverted water from the river to the village, and above it there were mixed forests of beeches, pines and other trees. The valley of the Lopovo River above Kashina was Yané s special kingdom and retreat. No one could surprise him there because the valley is so narrow and its sides so precipitous that there is, in effect, only one way in, and a couple of sentries posted on a rock could ensure complete security and hold an army at bay. The path, carpeted with the rustling copper of fallen beech leaves, follows the river ever higher and higher, crossing and re-crossing its swift, clear waters in search of a foothold on the steep banks. At one place the river plunges sixty or more feet over the rocks in a water-</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Palatino Linotype; color: black"> <font size="2">&nbsp;</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Palatino Linotype; color: black"> <font size="2">&nbsp;</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Palatino Linotype; color: black"> <font size="2">keep his weapon. See <i>Plenyavane na angliiskiya polkovnik Eliot </i>(The capture of the English Colonel Elliot), <i>Ilyustratsia llinden </i>8 (38), 9 (39), 1934. Article by Stefan Avramov, based on the memoirs of Toncho Hadzhi Stoenchev and Vasil Shumenkov. See also memoirs of Ekaterina Izmirlieva-Panitsa, <i>Izvestiya na Instituta za Istoriya, </i>Vol. 12, 1963, pp. 144-145.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Palatino Linotype; color: black"> <font size="2">&nbsp;</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Palatino Linotype; color: black"> <b><a name="7."><font size="2">7.</font></a></b><font size="2"> Filyanov, Opus cit., pp. 53-54.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="2">&nbsp;</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: Palatino Linotype; color: black"> &nbsp;</span><img border="0" src="line_down.gif" width="596" height="18"></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Palatino Linotype; color: black"> <font size="2">271</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: Palatino Linotype">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: Palatino Linotype; color: black"> fall known as <i>Skoko </i>the Leap, whose spray floats down like mist onto a carpet of vivid emerald moss. Beyond the waterfall, the ravine widens into a little meadow, on which the <i>cheta </i>used to rest, and where, according to local people, Yané and his men held a solemn memorial meeting for Gotsé on the first anniversary of his death. Nearby is the Raven s Rock, an awesome cliff, which rises out of the zdravets-scented <a href="#8.">[8]</a> shadows of the forest to a height of some eight or nine hundred feet, and, near the base of the Rock, there is a cave, difficult to reach and barely discernible, in which the <i>cheta </i>would store their guns and ammunition.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: Palatino Linotype">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: Palatino Linotype; color: black"> When Yané came to Kashina, he always stayed in the house of an old woman named Zdravka, on the edge of the higher part of the village. From here, in the event of an emergency, he could easily slip away into the wilds of his beautiful  kingdom . Zdravka was a great character. Black-eyed and merry, she was so diminutive in size that people called her  Kunda <a href="#9.">[9]</a> Zdravka, but she was full of spirit, and she would chaff Yané, call him names, and even swear at him in a way that nobody else would dare to do, and he would take it all in good part, while his comrades split their sides with laughter. When he arrived, she would say:  What, you again? Anyone would think I was dying to see you, or needed you. Brother Yané, I can t stand it any more. Either kill me, or go to another house. When Yané explained that her house suited him, she retorted:  Is it made of gold then, or smeared with honey? He replied that she would have to put up with him until Macedonia was free, and then he would take her to see Salonika, but she declared that she would never live to see the day. Once, when Yané inquired what she was cooking for him, she called him  a plague , and said that she had not even cleaned her house, and there was he asking about food. Yané suggested that she ask her daughter-in-law to help her, but <i>Baba </i>Zdravka replied that Yané had filled her house with serpents and that no girl would consent to live in a den of snakes. Often she would upbraid him for undertaking a seemingly hopeless task:  You shoulder your gun and go from village to village, with a sword in your belt, like some beggar. If you were sensible, you d have a wife and children.  I have lots of children, Yané protested, referring to his <i>chetnitsi,  </i>not only these, but lots.  These children of yours are also off their heads! the old woman snapped. Once she pressed him further:  Yané, if you free Macedonia, will you get married? Who knows what fine lady from Salonika you ll choose. </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: Palatino Linotype">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: Palatino Linotype; color: black">  I m already married to two, Yané answered.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: Palatino Linotype">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: Palatino Linotype; color: black">  Bring them for me to see, <i>Baba </i>Zdravka demanded.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="2">&nbsp;</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="2">&nbsp;</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Palatino Linotype; color: black"> <b><a name="8."><font size="2">8.</font></a></b><font size="2"> <i>Zdravets </i>(geranium macrorrhizum) is a form of scented cranesbill, which grows wild, in great profusion, in the forests of S.E. Europe. The Bulgarian name is derived from a word meaning  health , and <i>zdravets </i>is widely used in folk rituals as a symbol of good luck.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="2">&nbsp;</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Palatino Linotype; color: black"> <b><a name="9."><font size="2">9.</font></a></b><font size="2"> From a Greek word <i>kontos </i>meaning  short .</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="2">&nbsp;</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: Palatino Linotype">&nbsp;</span><img border="0" src="line_down.gif" width="596" height="18"></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Palatino Linotype; color: black"> <font size="2">272</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: Palatino Linotype">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: Palatino Linotype; color: black">  They re here here they are, he said, pointing to his gun and his yataghan.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: Palatino Linotype">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: Palatino Linotype; color: black">  The devil take both your brides! cried the old woman, and so the sparks would fly, half in jest and half in earnest.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: Palatino Linotype">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: Palatino Linotype; color: black"> One Sunday in June, 1907, Yané and his  children were in Kashina, dancing the <i>horo, </i>together with the villagers, on a threshing floor, to the music of a drum and bagpipe, when a sentry reported that large numbers of Turkish soldiers were approaching Kashina from several directions. Yané was all for standing his ground and giving battle, but <i>Baba </i>Zdravka, who had been busy cooking for the <i>cheta, </i>ran up and addressed him without ceremony:  The devil take you, Yané! Go break your head! Off with you, because the troops are on the ridge, and you ll burn down the village if you don t make yourselves scarce! </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: Palatino Linotype">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: Palatino Linotype; color: black"> Yané obeyed the tiny spitfire, abandoned his intention of fighting, and led his men up along the water channel towards the river. Some of the women and girls went with them to collect dry sticks outside the village. A sudden mist came down, hiding the <i>cheta </i>from Turkish eyes, and the women returned to the village. They were met by soldiers, who asked them where they had been, and they said that they had been taking food to shepherds. The Turks let them go, but seized twenty or thirty of the men, and began to torture them in an attempt to discover where Yané was. It was <i>Baba </i>Zdravka who saved the situation. She boldly demanded to see the most important Turk, and spoke to him as directly and cogently as she spoke to Yané, telling him that there was no point in torturing innocent people so that they would not be able to work and pay taxes, that Yané had been in the village an hour and a half previously, but that he had left and was now on the heights above, with a vast quantity of men, watching what the Turks would do. Complaining that the Sultan was powerless to deal with the <i> komiti, </i>she invited the Turks to come and eat the food which she had prepared for the <i>cheta, </i>and their officer took the line of least resistance and agreed. After they had eaten, the Turks set out for Melnik, and the <i>cheta </i>returned to the village. <a href="#10.">[10]</a></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: Palatino Linotype">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: Palatino Linotype; color: black"> On August 22, 1907, the annual Regional Congress met in the village of Lovcha. After a few days, it moved to Libyahovo and then to Beltuntsi, presumably for security reasons. Earlier in the year, the Turks had surprised the Strumitsa Regional Congress, scattering the delegates and arresting many of them, and therefore Yané had brought his whole <i>cheta </i>to guard the Serres Congress, lest a similar disaster occur when the  flower of the Region s intelligentsia <a href="#11.">[11]</a> was gathered together in one place. There were 21 delegates <a href="#12.">[12]</a> in all, and the Congress was opened, according to traditional</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="2">&nbsp;</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="2">&nbsp;</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Palatino Linotype; color: black"> <b><a name="10."><font size="2">10.</font></a></b><font size="2"> See Memoirs of Georgi Panchev, OIM Blagoevgrad No. 2984; see also Filyanov, Opus cit., pp. 32-35.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="2">&nbsp;</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Palatino Linotype; color: black"> <b><a name="11."><font size="2">11.</font></a></b><font size="2"> Arnaudov, Opus cit., p. 18.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="2">&nbsp;</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Palatino Linotype; color: black"> <b><a name="12."><font size="2">12.</font></a></b><font size="2"> They included Yané, Chudomir, Kazepov, Dimitmr Ikonomov, Dimitmr Arnaudov, Panitsa, Buynov, Stoyu Hadzhiev, Panitsa s wife Ekaterina and Taskata Sersky, who</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="2">&nbsp;</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: Palatino Linotype">&nbsp;</span><img border="0" src="line_down.gif" width="596" height="18"></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Palatino Linotype; color: black"> <font size="2">273</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: Palatino Linotype">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: Palatino Linotype; color: black"> Bulgarian practice, by Yané, who, at the age of thirty-five, was the oldest person present. The meeting then elected, by a show of hands, a bureau consisting of Yané (Chairman), Dimitmr Arnaudov (Vice-chairman) and five secretaries, including Chudomir, whose signature appears with Yané s on the minutes of every session. The Congress began by paying homage to comrades who had died during the past year, and then elected two commissions one to examine the delegates credentials and one to prepare an agenda.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: Palatino Linotype">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: Palatino Linotype; color: black"> The first sessions were devoted to reports on the situation in each of the six districts. The reports were very frank, and often critical, and they revealed all kinds of problems and irregularities, such as unaudited accounts, unfulfilled decisions, buck-passing, squabbles between local workers, non-functioning committees, villages without an effective militia, difficulties arising from the influx of Albanian thugs into the Melnik area, Supremist influence in Vlahi, Ploski and Lyubovka, excessively long absences of certain <i> voivodi </i>Daev, in particular from their districts, the adverse consequences of  affairs , shortcomings in the courier services and frontier posts, the lack of educated cadres in the Region, the inordinate prevalence of theft and smuggling in the village of Obidim, etc., etc.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: Palatino Linotype">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: Palatino Linotype; color: black"> The Congress discussed all these problems and irregularities, and took decisions aimed at their elimination. One of the questions on which Yané himself spoke was the unsatisfactory state of the village militia. He considered that military training should be obligatory for all able-bodied members of the Organization, and recommended that all the districts should appoint instructors for the purpose, and that a special independent Regional military council of old and tried comrades be set up to organize military training. Chudomir agreed with him, but expressed doubts as to the wisdom of having two independent bodies in the Region, and recommended that the military council should be attached to the Regional Committee, but should have autonomous rights. The Congress accepted Chudomir s amendment, and two members of the Regional Committee were charged with forming a military council to organize compulsory training. They were to act autonomously and were accountable only to the Congress.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: Palatino Linotype">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: Palatino Linotype; color: black"> Cultural, economic and educational questions did not receive as much attention as they normally did at Serres Congresses, because the delegates considered that they had been sufficiently discussed and clarified at the previous Congress, and they voted for all the old decisions to remain in force. According to one of the delegates, Stoyan Stoyanov, from the village of Krushevo, Yané talked at some length on the question of how <i>chetnitsi </i>should be dressed and how they should comport themselves. Some delegates were in favour of the <i>chetnitsi </i> dressing like peasants and</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="2">&nbsp;</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="2">&nbsp;</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Palatino Linotype; color: black"> <font size="2">was the sole representative of the Serres District, although it was entitled to four delegates.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="2">&nbsp;</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: Palatino Linotype; color: black"> &nbsp;</span><img border="0" src="line_down.gif" width="596" height="18"></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Palatino Linotype; color: black"> <font size="2">274</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: Palatino Linotype">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: Palatino Linotype; color: black"> being indistinguishable from them. Yané took the opposite point of view: according to him, the <i>chetnitsi </i>should set an example of neatness and cleanliness, and should not wear beards. This last remark evidently turned all eyes to Yané s own black beard, carefully groomed and forked like that of a Russian General. Sensing their amusement, he said:  Don t look at me. I m already an old man; the people are used to my beard, and they ll think me a demagogue if I shave it off. <a href="#13.">[13]</a></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: Palatino Linotype">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: Palatino Linotype; color: black"> The Congress was critical of the Bulgarian Government, which it accused of using the liberation movement for its own interests and those of the monarchy, of trying to undermine the independence of the Organization, and of sowing dissention within its ranks. These accusations were, of course, not directed against the general public in Bulgaria, and when, in view of the ever-pressing problem of funds, Buynov proposed that the Congress consider how to take full material advantage of the emigré community in the Principality, Yané did not oppose the idea, for there was a world of political difference between accepting aid from a government and aid from individuals. Nevertheless, he reminded the delegates of the need to be very cautious in all relations with emigrés:  Such relations must be very formal, because any intimacy can lead to harm. Let us make use of the emigrés materially, but let us not enter into intimate relations with them. They are always weak-willed and much influenced by the Bulgarian Government, and can very easily become a channel for the furtherance of its interests. </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: Palatino Linotype">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: Palatino Linotype; color: black"> At the end of the discussion, the Congress empowered the Regional Committee to  utilize the emigrés materially, while dealing with some of them who hindered the Organization, and while being very cautious and formal in its relations with them . The main resolution on finance stated:  The Congress stresses the principle that the Organization must have its own financial means, as the guarantee of its independence. It creates sources by purely revolutionary means, and utterly rejects all material aid given by interested states which defile its independence.&quot;</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: Palatino Linotype">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: Palatino Linotype; color: black"> Under the item  external policy of the Organization , Buynov made the following statement:  The Organization must determine its attitude towards the European powers, on the one hand, and towards the neighbouring Balkan States, on the other, and, in particular, towards Bulgaria. For some time now, the European powers have been intervening in the affairs of the Turkish State with actions for reforms. In order to assess the significance of the reforms and our attitude towards them, we must make a separate analysis of the reasons for European intervention. It would be very naive to imagine that the European powers have engaged themselves in the affairs of Turkey out of good will and humanitarian feelings towards the tormented enslaved population. The reasons for this</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="2">&nbsp;</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="2">&nbsp;</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Palatino Linotype; color: black"> <b><a name="13."><font size="2">13. </font></a></b><font size="2">See memoirs of Stoyan Stoyanov, recorded by Ivan Harizanov, TDIA, f. 1508, op. 2, a.e. 2, p. 49, and f. 1508, op. 2, a.e. 8.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="2">&nbsp;</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: Palatino Linotype">&nbsp;</span><img border="0" src="line_down.gif" width="596" height="18"></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Palatino Linotype; color: black"> <font size="2">275</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: Palatino Linotype">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: Palatino Linotype; color: black"> are of another order. From every point of view, Turkish territory represents a rich field for the investment of European capital, which is trying to break through with all the means at its disposal. In other words, European capitalists are much interested in Turkish affairs, and it is well known that the policies of states are dictated by their capital. This is the reason for the intervention the purely economic interests of the states concerned. The capital invested in Turkey will, of necessity, find itself in opposition to the interests of the population, and, when it feels itself threatened, it will use all means through its states to defend its own interests. The Organization must properly define its attitude to the reforms, it must study the aims which they pursue, and it must determine the means which it will have to use against them. And thus, the measures for reform, under the veil of humanity and good-will necessary to deceive the enslaved population, pursue purely selfish aims. These aims are to maintain affairs in Turkey in apparent order, since order is an essential condition for the success of enterprises, and, at the same time, through this apparent order, to keep the dying Turkish state going for as long as possible, so that their capital can be well established, so as to have full economic power over the population after the disappearance of Turkey. In order to avoid the ugly economic slavery which Europe is preparing for the population, the Organization must oppose European capital with all the means at its disposal and take firm positions against it. It can only do this by explaining the significance and aims of the reforms as widely as possible, by strengthening the spirit of the population and by firmly leading the economic struggle. This requires the Organization to penetrate as widely as possible into the urban working population and intelligentsia, since they are in the places where capital is first invested and it is they upon whom the Organization must lean. </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: Palatino Linotype">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: Palatino Linotype; color: black"> A delegate from Demir Hisar (referred to in the Minutes by a pseudonym) said:  It is well known that not all the Powers are equally interested in Macedonian matters, and that they have conflicting interests here. The interests of Britain, for example, are directly opposed to those of Germany, thus preventing the latter from carrying out all it would like to here. The tangled interests of the European Powers are cleverly exploited by the Sultan for his own long-term consolidation, but, on the other hand, they represent a factor which is very favourable to the Organization, because they slow down the penetration of the directly interested states, and give the Organization time to prepare itself for the struggle against them. The Organization, however, must not pin hopes on anyone but itself. International relations on Macedonian questions are conditioned exclusively by the interests of various states, which will always defend them to the end, without the Organization being able to influence them in any way. Consequently, as a revolutionary organization, its work is to endeavour, using all available means, to consolidate itself in the struggle against foreign capital, by tightening up the organization of</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: Palatino Linotype">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: Palatino Linotype">&nbsp;</span><img border="0" src="line_down.gif" width="596" height="18"></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Palatino Linotype; color: black"> <font size="2">276</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: Palatino Linotype">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: Palatino Linotype; color: black"> the population, by strengthening the links between the Organization s separate districts and regions, so that they form one common whole, with well understood common interests, and by making all possible efforts to penetrate deeply and firmly predominantly in the most vital centres of the country. </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: Palatino Linotype">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: Palatino Linotype; color: black"> The views expressed by the two speakers quoted above formed the basis of the resolution adopted by the Congress after others had contributed to the discussion.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: Palatino Linotype">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: Palatino Linotype; color: black"> At the morning session on the following day, the delegates considered the problems of national propagandas. It was generally agreed that, since all national propaganda had an acquisitive character, it fanned national hatred among the enslaved population and hindered the proper development of the cause of liberation. Buynov again took the floor, and his speech was minuted as follows:  The development of the revolutionary movement considerably threatens the peace of Turkey. She does not feel sufficiently strong to wage a struggle to enforce order. Turkey studies all the surrounding factors interested in the solution of the problem, and seeing the involvement of Serbia and Greece, she provokes and encourages national hatreds. Here we can already see the clever policy of Hilmi Pasha, which seeks to deflect the Organization from its purely revolutionary path and supports foreign armed propagandas as long as they dissipate their energies in internal civil strife. For the Organization, having in mind the interests of the cause of liberation, there is only one road to deal most categorically with all armed national propagandas, giving them what they deserve. The propagandas are not a temporary phenomenon in the interior they are dictated by the deep-seated economic interests of the states concerned, which are not over-particular in their choice of means. These national hatreds have tormented the western areas for more than three or four years. They absorb our energies and hinder the proper development of the Organization. These struggles are being waged under conditions which are extremely awkward for us: the proximity of the frontiers, large <i>cheti </i>with <i>haramiya </i>tactics, relatively little pursuit by the Turkish army these are conditions sufficiently favourable for their existence. </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: Palatino Linotype">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: Palatino Linotype; color: black"> Taskata Sersky recommended relieving some of the better and more active comrades of their district duties and sending them to work in the threatened western areas of Macedonia. He suggested speedy consultation with the Strumitsa comrades about filling the gaps in the Salonika and Skopje Regions.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: Palatino Linotype">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: Palatino Linotype; color: black"> In conclusion, the delegates adopted a resolution which ran as follows:  Congress considers that the chief reasons for the worsening situation in the western areas are the constant internal, internecine strife and the absence of sensible organizational activity. It sees the constant replenishing of these provinces with new, educated forces, with firm discipline as a guarantee for an improvement in the situation. The need for united</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: Palatino Linotype">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: Palatino Linotype">&nbsp;</span><img border="0" src="line_down.gif" width="596" height="18"></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Palatino Linotype; color: black"> <font size="2">277</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: Palatino Linotype">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: Palatino Linotype; color: black"> collective action is more than imperative. Taking note of the recent shocks and storms provoked by the indiscriminate entry of mass <i>cheti </i>into these areas, it lays sole responsibility upon the Bulgarian Government and those workers from the ranks of the Organization who have fallen under its influence. Perplexed by the situation created, and having regard for the integrity of the Organization, it considers that the Region has a duty towards the population, which is constantly being subjected to ruin. It proposes that help in the form of people and means be sent speedily and in good time. It instructs the Regional Committee, in conjunction with the Strumitsa comrades, to consider methods and plans for the realization of the above decision according to the forces available. </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: Palatino Linotype">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: Palatino Linotype; color: black"> Under the heading  the unity of the Organization , the Minutes contain one short and categoric decision:  The Congress considers unity within the Organization as the chief guarantee of its success. It regards all externally inspired factional groupings as the fruit of alien interference, harmful to the independence and integrity of the Organization, and it appeals to all those active in the interior highly to value this independence. </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: Palatino Linotype">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: Palatino Linotype; color: black"> When the delegates turned their attention to the Higher Institutions of the Organization, Yané spoke on the role and activities of the Central Committee and the External Representatives, and stated that hitherto these institutions had done nothing because they had not acquired the necessary authority. He said it was a fact that everyone both legal and illegal workers turned for everything to the External Representatives, so that they had become a factor which had usurped the rights of the internal Higher Institutions, and therefore he proposed that they be abolished. Chudomir voiced the opinion that even if there were no External Representatives, there would still have to be people who would link the Internal Organization with the outer world. Yané insisted that there was no need for anything of the sort, and that, when necessary, special people could be sent from the interior, and that the need could partly be met by the editors of the Organization s newspaper. The Congress accepted his arguments, and passed a resolution blaming the External Representatives for the non-functioning of the Central Committee. The current External Representatives were, of course, the three right-wingers Matov, Garvanov and Sarafov.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: Palatino Linotype">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: Palatino Linotype; color: black"> Among the other more important decisions of the Congress was a resolution stressing the need for closer relations with other revolutionary organizations, in particular with Armenian and Russian organizations, and calling on the Regional Committee to take the necessary steps. Another matter which engaged the attention of the delegates was the lack of a newspaper to propagate the aims and ideals of the Organization. They decided to publish a regional organ and earmarked a considerable part of the Region s annual budget for the purpose.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: Palatino Linotype">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: Palatino Linotype; color: black"> Experience had shown that the Right-Wing  Consultative Meeting had not been entirely off the mark when it had criticized the <i>Statute </i>and</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: Palatino Linotype">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: Palatino Linotype">&nbsp;</span><img border="0" src="line_down.gif" width="596" height="18"></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Palatino Linotype; color: black"> <font size="2">278</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: Palatino Linotype">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"><i> <span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: Palatino Linotype; color: black"> Rules </span></i> <span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: Palatino Linotype; color: black"> adopted by the Rila Congress as unworkable. The Serres Congress also decided that their provisions were, in many respects, impracticable, and it empowered the new Regional Committee to appoint a commission which would prepare revised drafts for submission to the next General Congress. It is significant that, even in the face of the widening rift between the two wings of the Organization, the <i>Serchani </i>continued to think in terms of a future General Congress of the whole Organization, and optimistically elected seven delegates and three reserves to represent the Region in the event of such a Congress taking place.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: Palatino Linotype">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: Palatino Linotype; color: black"> After hearing the report of the delegates to the ill-fated General Congress of 1906, the Congress passed the following resolution:  The Congress approved the behaviour of the delegates. By their conduct, they prevented the legalization of a course contrary to the spirit of the Organization and its independence. It lays upon its future mandated representatives the obligation to be more categoric and to value the independence and purity of the Organization.&quot;</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: Palatino Linotype">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: Palatino Linotype; color: black"> On September 1st, at the fifteenth session of the Congress, the delegates considered the troubles in the Demir Hisar District, and listened to various explanations from the District Chairman and from Zankov and Bozhova. [14] Almost everyone came in for criticism. According to the Minutes, Yané severely criticized the behaviour of the District Committee during the Indzheto affair and in relation to Zankov. The latter he criticized for trying to undermine Stoyu s authority during his absence, and he also condemned the meetings between Zankov, Bozhova, Garvanov and Gudev as undesirable in view of the position in which the Organization found itself. Chudomir, who had recently been in the Demir Hisar District, also criticized Zankov s behaviour in relation to Stoyu. Stoyu himself admitted that he was partly to blame for the state of affairs in his district, and said that he had prolonged his stay in Sofia because Zankov and Bozhova had put him in a very awkward position.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: Palatino Linotype">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: Palatino Linotype; color: black"> At the end of the discussion, the delegates adopted the following</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="2">&nbsp;</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype"><font size="2">&nbsp;</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Palatino Linotype; color: black"> <b><a name="14."><font size="2">14. </font></a></b><font size="2">According to Panitsa s wife, Ekaterina Izmirlieva, Zankov and Bozhova were brought to the Congress under arrest, but, after long explanations, they had been allowed to remain as observers. See Memoirs of Ekaterina Izmirlieva-Panitsa published by Boyan Mirchev in <i>Izvestiya na Instituta za Istoriya, </i>Vol. 12, 1963. Ekaterina Izmirlieva was a delegate to the Congress and figures in the Minutes under the pseudonym  Kovalevska , while Bozhova is referred to as  Skot . In an article in <i>Ilinden, </i>(No. 25, 27.II.1908) Zankov and Bozhova allege that they arrived at the Congress without credentials because too short notice was given, and that this was why they were accepted only as observers. In general, they describe the Congress as a piece of gerrymandering on Yané s part. They do not, however, mention that they were censured by the Congress, and there are other discrepancies between what is contained in their article and what is recorded in the Minutes signed by twenty-two delegates. As regards the accusation that too short notice was given, there is evidence that Yané told the Razlog District Committee as early as June 24, 1907, during a visit to Bansko, to convene a district congress to elect delegates for the Regional Congress. See Memoirs of Hristo Kirov, p. 38.</font></span></p> <p