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 - 6</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"> 6. THE COMING OF CAIN</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white">&nbsp;</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span style="font-size:12.0pt; font-family:&quot;Palatino Linotype&quot;">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: Palatino Linotype; color: black"> It is easy to imagine the relief which Yané must have felt when the gold was safely lodged and the women restored to their dear ones. Past were the endless weeks of hiding and being hunted, the agonizingly slow days of waiting and long nights of fleeing, when even the sun and the moon acted as enemy spies, and when the vulnerability of the women set the men at greater risk. Gone was the oppressive weight of the tiny babe, and the terror of its crying. . .</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span style="font-size:12.0pt; font-family:&quot;Palatino Linotype&quot;">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: Palatino Linotype; color: black"> Yet it seems that a few nights unbroken sleep and a few days freedom from abnormal anxiety were rest enough for Yané. Even before Gotsé had returned from Macedonia, Yané set out with a <i>cheta </i>of twelve through Kyustendil, and Krmstyu Asenov did the same. By chance, on the frontier between Macedonia and the Principality, they met Gotsé, and therefore they both turned back and accompanied him to Sofia, where the money was officially handed over to the Organization. Then, leaving Gotsé in Sofia, Yané, Asenov and Chernopeev set out once more on tours designed to combat Supremist propaganda.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span style="font-size:12.0pt; font-family:&quot;Palatino Linotype&quot;">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: Palatino Linotype; color: black"> Relations between the Internal Organization and the Supreme Committee had reached a deplorable state of mutual antagonism. During the autumn of 1901, there had been lengthy discussions between the members of the Supreme Committee and Tushé Deliivanov and Dimitmr Stefanov <a href="#1.">[1]</a>  the Organization s External Representatives but agreement was reached only on matters of secondary importance. By December 1901, things had reached such an <i>impasse </i>that Deliivanov and Stefanov sent a circular to all Macedonian Societies in the Principality, informing them that the Organization was permanently breaking off all relations with the Supreme Committee in its present form. The Supreme Committee replied that, for its part, it was breaking off relations with the External Representatives, but would continue to maintain its links with the Organization as such. It regarded the two men as the representatives, not of the Organization, but of a group whose  lair was in Free Bulgaria , and it considered them to be superfluous. <a href="#2.">[2]</a> This was an attempt to drive a wedge between the leaders</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span style="font-family:&quot;Palatino Linotype&quot;"><font size="2">&nbsp;</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span style="font-family:&quot;Palatino Linotype&quot;"><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"> In September 1901, the Central Committee had appointed Deliivanov and Stefanov in the place of Gotsé, who was touring Macedonia, and Gyorché, who had been interned in Turnovo, following his release from prison.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span style="font-family:&quot;Palatino Linotype&quot;"><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"> See Supreme Committee Circular to member societies, dated 19.XII.1901. BIA NBKM, f. 224, a.e. 81, p. 686. Successive Supreme Committees had longed to rid</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span style="font-family:&quot;Palatino Linotype&quot;"><font size="2">&nbsp;</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span style="font-size:12.0pt; font-family:&quot;Palatino Linotype&quot;">&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">95</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span style="font-size:12.0pt; font-family:&quot;Palatino Linotype&quot;">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: Palatino Linotype; color: black"> of the Organization, who were anxious to avoid the disaster of an ill-prepared rising, and the membership, who were eager for action and less mindful of the consequences. In pursuit of this aim, the Supremists dropped their previous line of argument that officers could lead an uprising better than teachers in favour of one that was far more insidious, namely, that the leaders of the Organization did not really want a rising at all and were simply living on the backs of the members. Supremist <i>cheti </i>toured the villages, propagating this slander, citing as proof of their insinuations the Organization s slowness in delivering guns already paid for, and making airy promises of massive help from the Principality and Russia. All the peasants had to do was to agree to support the Supreme Committee in its plans for an uprising in the summer or autumn of 1902. Where persuasion failed, force or treachery was used; leading members of the Organization, both in the frontier towns and in Macedonia, were threatened, beaten up, abducted or denounced to the Turks. <a href="#3.">[3]</a> In his stronghold in the Petrich area, Doncho Zlatkov chased out the teachers, who were usually local pillars of the Organization, until there was seldom more than one teacher to every five or six villages, and this teacher was usually a local man with little more than elementary education. Outsiders and people with better qualifications could seldom stand the state of affairs created by Doncho, and would leave after only a short stay. In areas where there was no teacher, the population was more susceptible to Supremist propaganda. <a href="#4.">[4]</a></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span style="font-size:12.0pt; font-family:&quot;Palatino Linotype&quot;">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: Palatino Linotype; color: black"> Not even Gotsé Delchev himself was immune from the unbrotherly behaviour of the Supremists, some of whom harassed his <i>cheta </i>as he was returning to the Principality in late February or early March, 1902, and killed one of his <i> chetnitsi</i> Georgi<i> </i>Ivanitsa Danchov, from Svishtov, who had been unfit to travel further and had remained behind in a hut with several other invalids. <a href="#5.">[5]</a></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span style="font-size:12.0pt; font-family:&quot;Palatino Linotype&quot;">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: Palatino Linotype; color: black"> It must not be supposed that all the constituent societies of the Supreme Committee endorsed these encroachments upon the Organization s territory and prerogatives. There was considerable disquiet among members, and a</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span style="font-family:&quot;Palatino Linotype&quot;"><font size="2">&nbsp;</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span style="font-family:&quot;Palatino Linotype&quot;"><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">themselves not only of Stefanov and Deliivanov, but also of Gotsé and Gyorché, whose stubborn opposition to military adventures and premature risings was a major stumbling-block to the officers.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span style="font-family:&quot;Palatino Linotype&quot;"><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"> See <i>Delo </i>(the Cause), edited by the poet Peyu Yavorov, No. 1 (31.XII.1901), No. 3 (14.I.1902), No. 6 (11.II.1902), No. 7 (18.II.1902), No. 21 (2.VI.1902), and Nos. 25-26 (8.VII.1902).</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span style="font-family:&quot;Palatino Linotype&quot;"><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 Memoirs of Georgi Kotsev, OIM, Blagoevgrad, No. 1680, p. 86.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span style="font-family:&quot;Palatino Linotype&quot;"><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"> The incident is described in detail in the unpublished memoirs of Alexander Kostov Dmrvodelsky, from Vratsa, who took part in the kidnapping of Miss Stone, and, as the youngest <i>chetnik, </i>was given the task of being the women s constant guard. After their release, he joined Gotsé s <i>cheta, </i>and witnessed the harrassment. According to him, the commander of the Supremist <i> cheta </i>was Sofroni Stoyanov, who, like Gotsé, had been at the Military School. <i>Delo </i>(No. 23, 16.VI. 1902) ascribes the actual murder of Danchov to Doncho.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span style="font-family:&quot;Palatino Linotype&quot;"><font size="2">&nbsp;</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span style="font-size:12.0pt; font-family:&quot;Palatino Linotype&quot;">&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">96</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span style="font-size:12.0pt; font-family:&quot;Palatino Linotype&quot;">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: Palatino Linotype; color: black"> number of societies <a href="#6.">[6]</a> were in favour of calling an Extraordinary Congress to discuss the Committee s failure to observe the directives of Congress regarding the different roles of the two organizations. As early as October 1901, the Society in Ruse had broken off relations with the Supreme Committee, as a token of solidarity with the Dupnitsa society, after the latter s complaints about Saev. <a href="#7.">[7]</a> The Supreme Committee, however, brushed aside all complaints as malicious gossip and rumour, and it assured its society members that it respected the directives and regarded the frontier between the Principality and Turkey as the frontier between the two organizations. Thus many members were deceived as to the real situation, and all efforts to call an Extraordinary Congress failed.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span style="font-size:12.0pt; font-family:&quot;Palatino Linotype&quot;">&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 March 1902, the Organization s External Representatives again sent a circular to all Macedonian Societies in the Principality, in the hope that, once enlightened as to the real situation, they would cease to support the Tsonchev Committee. The writers began by saying that it must be assumed that public opinion had been misled, since there could be no other explanation for a legal body like the Supreme Committee behaving as it was. They then described in some detail the activities of the Supremist <i>cheti, </i>their attempt to dictate  an act of madness , and their attacks upon members of the Organization, and the letter ends with an appeal to their free brothers, if they do not want to help, then at least not to hinder the cause of the Macedonian Bulgarians. <a href="#8.">[8]</a></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span style="font-size:12.0pt; font-family:&quot;Palatino Linotype&quot;">&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 Tenth Regular Congress, held at the end of July 1902, there was indeed a split between those societies which supported General Tsonchev and those which did not, but to little purpose. Tsonchev was able to secure a majority simply because those societies which had opposed him during the previous year were not admitted. The opposition was thus numerically weak, and, after the annual report had been accepted by the Tsonchevist majority, the minority, led by Hristo Stanishev, walked out and held a congress of its own elsewhere. <a href="#9.">[9]</a> Thus two rival committees came into being, each trying to win over as many societies as possible. General Tsonchev was in no way deterred by the split: with a staggering display of demagogy, he continued to pay lip service to the principle of non-intervention in the affairs of the Internal Organization, while working might and main to undermine the authority of its leaders and to impose his own plans upon its members.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span style="font-size:12.0pt; font-family:&quot;Palatino Linotype&quot;">&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 concluding his business with Gotsé, Yané left Sofia again early in April 1902, having agreed with Chernopeev and Asenov that they should tour the villages on the right bank of the Struma, while he visited those on the left. Their task was to open the eyes of the people to the realities of</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span style="font-family:&quot;Palatino Linotype&quot;"><font size="2">&nbsp;</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span style="font-family:&quot;Palatino Linotype&quot;"><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"> <i>Delo, </i>No. 13, 4.IV.1902, gives the number as being about 30.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span style="font-family:&quot;Palatino Linotype&quot;"><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"> BIA NBKM, f. 244, a.e. 25, p. 2525.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span style="font-family:&quot;Palatino Linotype&quot;"><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"> BIA NBKM, f. 224, a.e. 81, p. 1009.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span style="font-family:&quot;Palatino Linotype&quot;"><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"> For a more detailed account of the Congress, see MacDermott, Opus cit., pp. 311-312.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span style="font-family:&quot;Palatino Linotype&quot;"><font size="2">&nbsp;</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span style="font-size:12.0pt; font-family:&quot;Palatino Linotype&quot;">&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">97</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span style="font-size:12.0pt; font-family:&quot;Palatino Linotype&quot;">&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 situation and to dissuade them from co-operating with the Supremists. This task was not an easy one. In the frontier villages there were many who had once seen Russian soldiers and had tasted freedom; the very proximity of a free Bulgarian state was a spur to struggle, and the peasants were dazzled by the appearance of uniformed Bulgarian officers with promises of Russian aid and speedy reunification with their brothers of the Principality. In many places already the Organization was swimming against the current: the people wanted freedom and they were prepared to fight for it; they wanted to believe the officers promises, and they listened with only half an ear to the Organization s warnings.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span style="font-size:12.0pt; font-family:&quot;Palatino Linotype&quot;">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: Palatino Linotype; color: black">  Our plan, Yané recalled,  was to explain to the people the aim of the Organization and why it was making preparations, and to explain that it was not true that the Organization was not thinking of a rising, but that it did not want one when the Supremists did. We explained how the Supremists differed from us. We said that they were the people of the Court and that they wanted to get hold of the Organization in order to play with the Cause. Through the rising which they are propagating, we said, they want first to disorganize us, and, secondly, as officers, having said that they will proclaim a rising, they want to do so at all costs. . . We said that, as we saw it, a rising could take place only if everybody was ready, without relying on promises from outside; that we first have to be sure that the whole people is prepared. All this had to be organized, and, when it was clear that we were sufficiently strong, a decision for a rising could be taken. <a href="#10.">[10]</a> He solemnly warned them, however, against lightly embarking on a rising in which they could find themselves alone, outnumbered and at the mercy of the Turks.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span style="font-size:12.0pt; font-family:&quot;Palatino Linotype&quot;">&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 Yané s <i>cheta </i>consisted of sixteen men, including Sava Mihailov, Georgi Skrizhovsky (from Skrizhovo, near Drama), Petmr Milev (from Kosach, near Radomir), Andrea Kazepov (from the Resen district), Spiro Petrov and Georgi Bazhdarov. In his memoirs, Yané proudly recalls that all of them had at least two or three years high-school education. Mihailov, Skrizhovsky and Bazhdarov were all teachers by profession; Kazepov had full high-school education, while Milev had reached the sixth grade of a Sofia high-school.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span style="font-size:12.0pt; font-family:&quot;Palatino Linotype&quot;">&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 crossed the frontier at a point where it followed the course of the Rila River, a few miles north of Gorna Dzhumaya, and an Organization courier took them to the village of Delvino. Here they spent a couple of days, talking to the people along the lines of the  plan , before going on to Hmrsovo and Marulevo to do the same. Ahead of them, a Supremist <i>cheta, </i>led by a certain Captain Georgi, was moving from village to village, busily sowing false hopes and slanders. In Marulevo, Captain Georgi s agitation against the leaders of the Organization had borne fruit in the shape of a massive dose of mercury which Yané detected in the bacon</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span style="font-family:&quot;Palatino Linotype&quot;"><font size="2">&nbsp;</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span style="font-family:&quot;Palatino Linotype&quot;"><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"> Miletich, Book VII, pp. 24-25.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span style="font-family:&quot;Palatino Linotype&quot;"><font size="2">&nbsp;</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span style="font-size:12.0pt; font-family:&quot;Palatino Linotype&quot;">&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">98</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span style="font-size:12.0pt; font-family:&quot;Palatino Linotype&quot;">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: Palatino Linotype; color: black"> supplied to his men. When Yané sent a messanger to Gradevo, requesting that a courier be sent to guide them thither, the local leader refused on the grounds that both Captain Georgi and Captain Yordan Stoyanov [11] were in the village with their <i>cheti, </i>and he feared lest Yané s arrival should result in a battle. Yané concluded that the Supremists had set up an ambush, and therefore he decided to bypass Gradevo and go instead to Nedobmrsko (present day Dobmrsko), a village high in the southern slopes of Rila. The Supremists had not yet penetrated the villages of Razlog, and the local committees were fully ready to repell them in accordance with the declared policy of the Organization. Indeed, when Yané and his men arrived in the village of Godlevo, they found the Bansko <i>cheta </i>waiting, just in case the visitors turned out to be Supremists! From Godlevo they went to Bansko itself, where Yané provisioned his <i>cheta, </i>and summoned the Nevrokop <i>cheta </i>to join him, so that together they could deal with the Supremist <i>cheti, </i>which were now in the area of Vlahi.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span style="font-size:12.0pt; font-family:&quot;Palatino Linotype&quot;">&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 Nevrokop <i>voivoda </i>was Atanas Shabanov Teshovaliyata, a peasant, from Teshovo, who had become a <i>haidut </i>after beating up a gang of Turkish bullies, and had served his time in bands led by Doncho and other <i>haramii, </i>before Gotsé, with his characteristic care for the individual, had managed to win him for the idea of organized struggle, as opposed to private vengeance. Once convinced, Atanas Teshovaliyata forsook his old life and never looked back, and, when Yané called him to Bansko, he was already a <i>voivoda </i>of some two or three years standing. Since he was illiterate, a one-time teacher, named Hristo Kuslev, acted as his  secretary . The Organization always preferred to have educated people in leading positions, but genuinely reformed <i>haramii, </i>with their experience in guerrilla warfare and their intimate knowledge of the forests and mountains were too valuable to waste, and they were, therefore, given command of <i>cheti, </i>with a  secretary to assist them with paperwork and to act as what later generations would call a  political commissar .</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span style="font-size:12.0pt; font-family:&quot;Palatino Linotype&quot;">&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 Nevrokop <i>cheta </i>arrived, Yané added the Bansko <i>cheta </i>to the group under his command and sent a messenger to Vlahi to make arrangements for their reception. The people there replied that, while they could not refuse to receive them, there were Supremist <i>cheti </i>in the vicinity and they feared for the safety of their village in the event of a clash between the rival <i>cheti. </i>Yané, however, was not to be deterred. They crossed the high ridge of Pirin under its summit El-tepe and because, although it was early May, there was still thick snow, they slid down the other side on their bottoms, carrying their guns horizontally across their backs and shoulders. Lower down, on the Vlahi River, there were a number of sawmills, and Yané was able to find out what the position was in the village below. In fact, the Supremist <i>cheti </i>had moved on, and Yané s men</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span style="font-family:&quot;Palatino Linotype&quot;"><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"> <b><a name="11."><font size="2">11.</font></a></b><font size="2"> There were two Supremist officers called Stoyanov Sofroni Stoyanov and Yordan Stoyanov. Yané does not mention the first name of the officer in question, but from other sources, it can be established that it is Yordan.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span style="font-family:&quot;Palatino Linotype&quot;"><font size="2">&nbsp;</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span style="font-size:12.0pt; font-family:&quot;Palatino Linotype&quot;">&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">99</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span style="font-size:12.0pt; font-family:&quot;Palatino Linotype&quot;">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: Palatino Linotype; color: black"> were able to spend three or four days in Vlahi, talking to the people, who were surprised to see Yané, because the Supremists had told them that he had gone abroad with Miss Stone s ransom!</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span style="font-size:12.0pt; font-family:&quot;Palatino Linotype&quot;">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: Palatino Linotype; color: black"> From Vlahi they went on to Oshtava. There, too, they called the people together and urged them not to be taken in by the Supremists. Nikola Svetetsov remembers Yané s visit to the village of Ezerets, near Oshtava:  Once the <i>voivoda </i> called a few of his most loyal people together in the house of Angelush Srebrinchev. Seated on the <i>minder, </i>his proud and magnificent figure alone seemed to fill the pokey little room. Just one glance at him was enough to make one start. His dark eyes glowed and reflected the flame of the ikon-lamp. He spoke clearly and precisely, as though he knew how everything was going to happen. Not only would he brook no objections, but his very manner of speech did not permit one to make any such mistake. He spoke to us about the plans and aims of the Supremist bands, which were frequently appearing in our district. He was excellently acquainted with the tactics of the Supreme Committee in Sofia, and strove to preserve the purity of the Organization. He set the tasks and made Angelush Srebrinchev responsible. The <i>cheti </i>were to be isolated and were to receive no support from the local population. For traitors a terrible doom. <a href="#12.">[12]</a></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span style="font-size:12.0pt; font-family:&quot;Palatino Linotype&quot;">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: Palatino Linotype; color: black"> Their next port of call was Senokos, where, again, the Supremists had been before them, with tales of imminent intervention by Russian troops who would be coming to the Principality in connection with the consecration of the memorial church at Shipka. <a href="#13.">[13]</a> Yané asked Mitso Chakalsky, the the leader of the local committee, what he thought was the difference between the Organization and the Supreme Committee, whether it was merely a question of  me and not you , or whether it was something much deeper, and he was encouraged to find that Mitso appreciated the dangers inherent in Supremist policy, and had in no way been taken in. Neither had the committee in Kresna, the next village where they visited. In Mechkul, however, the situation was far from satisfactory, because the village leader had embezzled committee money and had fled with the Supremists for fear of being called to account. Yané collected the people together and exhorted them not to yield to Supremist pressure. The <i>cheta </i> then returned to Senokos, where they heard that Stoyanov was a few miles away in Smrbinovo.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span style="font-size:12.0pt; font-family:&quot;Palatino Linotype&quot;">&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 an attempt to put an end to this absurd and dangerous situation in which Bulgarian worked against Bulgarian, Yané and Mitso decided to invite Stoyanov to a public debate in the presence of five or six delegates from each of the surrounding villages, and Yané wrote him a courteous</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span style="font-family:&quot;Palatino Linotype&quot;"><font size="2">&nbsp;</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span style="font-family:&quot;Palatino Linotype&quot;"><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"> Memoirs collected by Kuzman Dimitrov Petrov.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span style="font-family:&quot;Palatino Linotype&quot;"><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"> The Battle of the Shipka Pass was one of the major engagements of the Russo-Turkish War, 1877-1878, and the church commemorates the Russian soldiers who died for Bulgaria s Liberation.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span style="font-family:&quot;Palatino Linotype&quot;"><font size="2">&nbsp;</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span style="font-size:12.0pt; font-family:&quot;Palatino Linotype&quot;">&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">100</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span style="font-size:12.0pt; font-family:&quot;Palatino Linotype&quot;">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: Palatino Linotype; color: black"> enough letter:  <i>Bay</i> <a href="#14.">[14]</a> Stoyanov, I have learnt that you are nearby; since both you and we are working for the people, let us call them together to a meeting and explain ourselves to them, etc. Stoyanov s reply was far from polite:  Who do you think you are?! I am a delegate of the Supreme Committee, and the people don t have to know what we are doing. Yané wrote a second letter; then a third. In reply, Stoyanov challenged Yané to a duel.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span style="font-size:12.0pt; font-family:&quot;Palatino Linotype&quot;">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: Palatino Linotype; color: black"> Seeing that Stoyanov was trying to avoid a dialogue, Yané took his men to Smrbinovo and stationed them four to a house in one part of the village. <a href="#15.">[15]</a> He then began to investigate the situation, and found that the village leader had also run away because of irregularities in the committee s accounts, and the peasants had largely succumbed to Supremist influence. Yané called them together, and they came armed. He spoke to them, and some of them said that the Supremists had taken everything upon themselves, and that the village leader and the priest would kill them if they found out that they had come to see Yané. Stoyanov had apparently even tried to incite them to betray Yané. In reply, Yané told them that <i>he </i>had no intention of teaching them to betray, and that his men would not move from the village and were prepared to fight any Turks who might arrive a prospect which would not be welcome to the peasants. Since the Supremists had alleged that Sava Mihailov had embezzled money for which he had given receipts, he proposed that they sort out the accounts in public, and he invited the peasants to produce the receipts in Sava s presence. The account books, however, were kept by the priest, who failed to appear and could not be found. The<i> cheta </i>therefore remained in the village, and, after eleven days, the priest was discovered, hiding in his cellar with his gun ready. He was dragged out and challenged to furnish proof that Sava had indeed embezzled the money. This he was unable to do, and finally it came out that he himself had embezzled it.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span style="font-size:12.0pt; font-family:&quot;Palatino Linotype&quot;">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: Palatino Linotype; color: black"> While in Smrbinovo, Yané wrote a letter to Gotsé, dated 21.V.1902:</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span style="font-size:12.0pt; font-family:&quot;Palatino Linotype&quot;">&nbsp;</span></p> <blockquote> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: Palatino Linotype; color: black">  Brother Ahil, <a href="#16.">[16]</a></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span style="font-size:12.0pt; font-family:&quot;Palatino Linotype&quot;">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: Palatino Linotype; color: black"> Of all the villages in this part of the Dzhumaya district, Smrbinovo and Gradevo will be difficult to put in order. The reasons are that the whole strength of the Supremists is with them. Here we are already twelve days in Smrbinovo, and we have succeeded to some extent in convincing the people that they have been deceived, and everybody admitted it, but there are four people who hinder and won t allow this population to assemble and establish full order.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span style="font-size:12.0pt; font-family:&quot;Palatino Linotype&quot;">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: Palatino Linotype; color: black"> Stoyanov s <i>cheta </i>is also here in the same village. They are taking around with them, bound, <i>chorbadzhiya </i>Georgi from Sushitsa, from</span></p> </blockquote> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span style="font-family:&quot;Palatino Linotype&quot;"><font size="2">&nbsp;</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span style="font-family:&quot;Palatino Linotype&quot;"><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"> <i>Bay </i>is a polite form of address to a man somewhat older than oneself.</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="15."><font size="2">15.</font></a></b><font size="2"> Like Vlahi, Smrbinovo consisted of several scattered settlements, so that it was possible for both <i>cheti </i>to be in the village without even catching sight of each other. </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="16."><font size="2">16.</font></a></b><font size="2"> Ahil, i.e. Achilles, was Gotsé s pseudonym.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span style="font-family:&quot;Palatino Linotype&quot;"><font size="2">&nbsp;</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span style="font-size:12.0pt; font-family:&quot;Palatino Linotype&quot;">&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">101</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span style="font-size:12.0pt; font-family:&quot;Palatino Linotype&quot;">&nbsp;</span></p> <blockquote> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: Palatino Linotype; color: black"> whom they want 200 <i>liri </i>ransom. He s had fifty <i>liri </i>and he wants the rest. We asked the people of Smrbinovo to hand him over to us, but they refused to do this. We invited Stoyanov to a meeting in front of the population, but he refused to do that either. You will see his refusal from his letters here enclosed.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span style="font-size:12.0pt; font-family:&quot;Palatino Linotype&quot;">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: Palatino Linotype; color: black"> Do send drugs for syringes and internal use immediately. Hristo is to pass through Bistritsa, without fail.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span style="font-size:12.0pt; font-family:&quot;Palatino Linotype&quot;">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: Palatino Linotype; color: black"> Sandansky your brother.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: Palatino Linotype; color: black"> Smrbinovo. <a href="#17.">[17]</a></span></p> </blockquote> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span style="font-size:12.0pt; font-family:&quot;Palatino Linotype&quot;">&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 the meantime, Stoyanov had moved to the village of Oranovo, but Yané did not pursue him further and returned to Razlog. The Nevrokop <i>cheta </i>went back to its own district, and several of Yané s men, including Sava, also departed.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span style="font-size:12.0pt; font-family:&quot;Palatino Linotype&quot;">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: Palatino Linotype; color: black"> From Bansko, Yané wrote Nikola Maleshevsky a letter <a href="#18.">[18]</a> that was also intended for Gotsé s attention:</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span style="font-size:12.0pt; font-family:&quot;Palatino Linotype&quot;">&nbsp;</span></p> <blockquote> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: Palatino Linotype; color: black">  Send us poison for dogs and for people, powders for coughs and for headaches, quinine, stomach drops in larger quantities, and bandages. You must send us all these medicaments at once; also more pamphlets with Dimov s report. <a href="#19.">[19]</a> And you, too, take the plunge and write a wee letter; tell us what s happening in your part of the world. Enough of silence. Regards to all the comrades.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span style="font-size:12.0pt; font-family:&quot;Palatino Linotype&quot;">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: Palatino Linotype; color: black"> Hristo, Kolé, Filip and Georgi are returning. They won t give their reasons for this, although I invited them several times to do so. I gave them half a Napoleon for the journey. They are permanently excluded from the interior, but, as for there, they can stay, if they are useful to you. The reason for their return, as far as I can find out, is the difficult life. You ask them about this and write to me. Before they set out, they were informed that life in the <i> cheta </i>is hard and not for everybody. In the case of some quarrel or other with their comrades, they can be transferred to another <i>cheta, </i>but not to Bulgaria.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span style="font-size:12.0pt; font-family:&quot;Palatino Linotype&quot;">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: Palatino Linotype; color: black"> Send newspapers, pamphlets and so forth regularly, and also write to us more often, and keep me informed of everything that concerns the Cause. We have grown extremely dull-witted. Nobody anywhere is going to send us any spiritual food. You know that the Centre (the Central Committee in Salonika M.M.) is far away, and if you don t do something, there s nowhere. I think that there has to be a little</span></p> </blockquote> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span style="font-family:&quot;Palatino Linotype&quot;"><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="17."><font size="2">17.</font></a></b><font size="2"> Gotsé<i> Delchev, spomeni, dokumenti, materials </i>(prepared by the Institute of History, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences) Sofia, 1978, pp. 327-328.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span style="font-family:&quot;Palatino Linotype&quot;"><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="18."><font size="2">18.</font></a></b><font size="2"> Ibid., pp. 329-330.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span style="font-family:&quot;Palatino Linotype&quot;"><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="19."><font size="2">19.</font></a></b><font size="2"> The Report referred to is one entitled <i>The Macedonian Question and the Teacher</i>, delivered by Dimo Hadzhidimov at a three-day teachers conference held in Pleven during April 1902.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span style="font-family:&quot;Palatino Linotype&quot;"><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">102</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span style="font-size:12.0pt; font-family:&quot;Palatino Linotype&quot;">&nbsp;</span></p> <blockquote> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: Palatino Linotype; color: black"> more and swifter communication between workers, which, I think, will be in the best interests of our Organization itself.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span style="font-size:12.0pt; font-family:&quot;Palatino Linotype&quot;">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: Palatino Linotype; color: black"> Greet the people at home and all the comrades. Written in Borovsko (Bansko-M.M.) to brother Maleshevsky on the fifteenth of June, this year (1902).</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span style="font-size:12.0pt; font-family:&quot;Palatino Linotype&quot;">&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 kiss you fraternally, </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: Palatino Linotype; color: black"> Sandansky Yaneto. <a href="#20.">[20]</a></span></p> </blockquote> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span style="font-size:12.0pt; font-family:&quot;Palatino Linotype&quot;">&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 Supremists insinuations that Yané and his men were in the movement only for what they could get out of it were as absurd as they were untrue. Life in a <i> cheta </i>was exceedingly hard, and only those who were both physically and morally tough could survive its daily rigours and privations. Patriotic young men who came to Macedonia with romantic notions of outlaw life in the greenwood, with visions of succulent lamb roasted <i>haidut</i>-fashion and accompanied by the  sparkling wine extolled in folksongs, found the reality not merely very different, but often beyond their powers of endurance. Even for the peaceful hiker, unencumbered with heavy weapons, the paths of Pirin are not easy. Time and the prehistoric movement of glaciers have turned the higher portion of the mountain into a honey-comb of  circuses or corries deep horse-shoe formations, often containing lakes, and clustered together back to back, and side to side. He who would pass from one to another must scale the precipitous walls by stoney paths that zig-zag their way up to narrow, sometimes knife-edge, saddles and passes, between the sharp conical peaks, and down into the next cauldron-like valley. For all her beauty, Pirin remains an exacting, capricious mountain. Even on a summer s night, she may choose to adorn her every blade of grass with the glittering silver of hoar frost, and everywhere, over the green goodness of her scented meadows, numerous morains, scattered boulders and the grey skeletons of uprooted trees bear witness to the violence of natural forces. Not for nothing did Spartacus and his fellow-Thracians call her  Orbelus  the Snowy One; not for nothing did the ancient Slavs imagine that the God of Thunder dwelt among her peaks; not for nothing did Slav and Turk alike call her highest point the Mount of Storms.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span style="font-size:12.0pt; font-family:&quot;Palatino Linotype&quot;">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: Palatino Linotype; color: black"> Men who joined the <i>cheti </i>had to be prepared and capable of making forced marches across this terrible mountain that simultaneously protected them and tried them to the limit of their strength. They had to be able to sleep, if necessary, in the snow, to endure the discomfort of wet clothing and to survive on whatever food was available. It was a firm rule in the Organization for <i> chetnitsi </i>to be content with whatever the peasants gave them, without demanding anything special. Georgi Bazhdarov, who was with the <i>cheta </i>in that spring of 1902, has described how their usual</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span style="font-family:&quot;Palatino Linotype&quot;"><font size="2">&nbsp;</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span style="font-family:&quot;Palatino Linotype&quot;"><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="20."><font size="2">20.</font></a></b><font size="2">  Yaneto is a more intimate form of  Yané .</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span style="font-family:&quot;Palatino Linotype&quot;"><font size="2">&nbsp;</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span style="font-size:12.0pt; font-family:&quot;Palatino Linotype&quot;">&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">103</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span style="font-size:12.0pt; font-family:&quot;Palatino Linotype&quot;">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: Palatino Linotype; color: black"> fare was bean soup in which  the spoon seldom caught a bean , and cheese which was as hard and dry as a stone. The <i>cheta </i>ate meat or fat bacon only on the rare occasions that they bought it themselves. Sometimes when bad weather and worse paths upset their plans, they found themselves without food and would keep up their failing strength by eating lumps of sugar sprinkled with <i>Ether Sulphuricum</i> as long as the sugar lasted. The cottages in which they took shelter were mostly filthy and crawling with lice, which left tracks in the ashes on the hearth. <a href="#21.">[21]</a></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span style="font-size:12.0pt; font-family:&quot;Palatino Linotype&quot;">&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 always described the rigours of life with the <i>cheti </i>to those who wanted to join him, and tried to make sure that new recruits understood what they were letting themselves in for, before he accepted them. But sometimes, as in the case of the four mentioned in his letter, the hardships proved more than they were prepared to stand. On one occasion, a group of students came from the Principality to join him in the campaign against the Supremists in the Kresna area. At Predela, near Bansko, an ox was slaughtered for meat, but the students were unable to eat the coarse corn bread provided by the peasants, and ate only the meat. When they arrived in Mechkul, they were given barley bread, and were so hungry that they ate it, to Yané s great satisfaction. <a href="#22.">[22]</a> On a second occasion, a newly recruited student was unwilling to wade through the cold water of the River Bistritsa, on the way from Chereshnitsa to Kalimantsi. The courier who was guiding the <i>cheta </i>offered to carry the man on his back, but Yané would not allow it, and insisted that the student enter the water like everybody else. When the same student grew out of breath when climbing a hill, and began to lag behind, Yané said:  Why did you come? Didn t I tell you what life in a <i> cheta </i>was like? <a href="#23.">[23]</a></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span style="font-size:12.0pt; font-family:&quot;Palatino Linotype&quot;">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: Palatino Linotype; color: black"> Early in June, Yané received a letter from the Melnik district asking him to come and help since the peasants were in rebellious mood and were demanding rifles, saying that if they did not get them within thirty days, they would call in Doncho, who was promising free guns. Yané set out across Pirin, but on the way, at a place called Chaira, he fell ill, seized with a fit of giddiness which caused him to fall. Two peasants from Malki Tsalim came and took Yané to their village, but his indisposition does not seem to have lasted long, and he was soon back in harness. On June 23, he called the teachers and other prominent persons from the surrounding villages to a meeting in Debrené, <a href="#24.">[24]</a> and spoke to them  about the history</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span style="font-family:&quot;Palatino Linotype&quot;"><font size="2">&nbsp;</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span style="font-family:&quot;Palatino Linotype&quot;"><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="21."><font size="2">21. </font></a></b><font size="2">Memoirs of Georgi Bazhdarov, TPA, f. 229, op. 1, a.e. 73, pp. 18, 21-22.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span style="font-family:&quot;Palatino Linotype&quot;"><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="22."><font size="2">22.</font></a></b><font size="2"> From the recollections of Ivan Noykov, of Sugarevo, quoted by Georgi Kotsev, Opus cit., p. 77. No date is given, but it is possible that the dissatisfied <i> chetniks </i>may have been the same students, since there is a coincidence in the places mentioned.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span style="font-family:&quot;Palatino Linotype&quot;"><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="23."><font size="2">23.</font></a></b><font size="2"> Ibid.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span style="font-family:&quot;Palatino Linotype&quot;"><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="24."><font size="2">24.</font></a></b><font size="2"> According to tradition, Debrené was founded by Vitan and his five sons, who had fled from Debmr, in Western Macedonia, after killing a bey. The latter had come to the wedding of Vitan s daughter, Nerandzha, and, after having been received as an honoured guest, had attempted to carry off the bride. This particular bey had apparently made a habit of stealing girls who took his fancy. Another fugitive family</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span style="font-family:&quot;Palatino Linotype&quot;"><font size="2">&nbsp;</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span style="font-size:12.0pt; font-family:&quot;Palatino Linotype&quot;">&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">104</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span style="font-size:12.0pt; font-family:&quot;Palatino Linotype&quot;">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: Palatino Linotype; color: black"> of the Organization, and its aim, about the differences between us and the Supremists, and about the task of paralyzing the harmful activity of the Supremists . <a href="#25.">[25]</a> It transpired that Captain Georgi, with a force of five or six men (the rest had left him, one by one, to go back to the Principality) was somewhere near the village of Lyubovka, but when Yané attempted to find out exactly where he was, in order to meet him, the Captain fled to the Karshiak, on the far side of the Struma.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span style="font-size:12.0pt; font-family:&quot;Palatino Linotype&quot;">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: Palatino Linotype; color: black"> Again Yané made no attempt to pursue the Supremist <i>cheta, </i>but continued with the task of building the Organization in the villages of the Melnik district. For Yané, it was both a homecoming and a setting forth. The Melnik district, with its ancient town and many villages scattered about the slopes of Pirin and the hilly lowlands, was not only the land of his birth. Entrusted to him by the Organization, it was also destined to be the central arena of his activity for years of tireless and uncompromising toil in the name of his espoused ideal.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span style="font-size:12.0pt; font-family:&quot;Palatino Linotype&quot;">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: Palatino Linotype; color: black"> Wondrously beautiful is the land that lies between Pirin and Belasitsa: a southern garden, walled with mountains and drenched in sunlight, through which the Struma flows calmly towards the bright Aegean. Wherever one stands under the intense blue sky, amid a patchwork of grapes, grain, cotton, poppies and sesame, vistas of distant peaks and ridges greet the eye. Here Pirin sheds her alpine snows and evergreens, and appears in fantastic southern guise in towering pyramids and shafts of weathered sandstone that change in hue from honey-gold in the glow of dawn and evening to dazzling white in the heavy heat of noonday. Here, above Petrich, Belasitsa stretches rampart-like across the south-western horizon, dark with forests, as though still dressed in mourning for the martyred soldiers of Tsar Samuil, for the fifteen thousand men who looked their last upon the beauty of the earth, here, in this fair Bulgarian land, before the Byzantines put out their eyes. <a href="#26.">[26]</a> And here, two thousand years ago, Spartacus was born, and the land that he beheld in dreams, in Capua and by the camp-fires of the risen slaves, was this same land that Yané, too, called home and sought to free.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span style="font-size:12.0pt; font-family:&quot;Palatino Linotype&quot;">&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 the task of building the Organization in the Melnik district, Yané was assisted by Gushtanov, a teacher from Serres, and by the Demir Hisar <i>cheta, </i>commanded by <i>Dyado </i>Iliya Argirov Kmrchovaliyata, <a href="#27.">[27]</a> another </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">from the wedding founded the nearby village of Belevehchevo (the name was originally Belevezhdovo, meaning  of the white eyebrows  a reference to the appearance of Zlatin, its founder). A third family that of the <i>kum </i> (sponsor at a wedding) went higher into Pirin and founded the village of Bozhdovo. See the memoirs of Georgi Kotsev. Kotsev was a native of Debrené.</font></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white"> <span style="font-famil