Nikola Karev

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Nikola Karev : biography

November 23, 1877 – 27 April 1905

Biography

Karev completed his early education in Kruševo and in 1893 moved to Sofia in independent Bulgaria, where he became a member of the Bulgarian Workers’ Social Democratic Party. Later he went back to Ottoman Macedonia and graduated from the Bulgarian Exarchate’s gymnasium in Bitola. After that he worked as Bulgarian teacher in the region of Kruševo.Николов, Борис Й. Вътрешна Македоно-одринска революционна организация. Войводи и ръководители (1893-1934). Биографично-библиографски справочник, София 2001, с. 74 In this period he joined IMRO and became a leader of a regional armed band (cheta). During the Ilinden Uprising of August 1903, when Kruševo was captured by the rebels, Nikola Karev authored the Kruševo Manifesto, which outlined the aims of the Uprising, and became the head of its provisional government. The republic lasted only ten days, from 3 August to 13 August, when after intense fighting it was destroyed by Ottoman government forces. After the uprising Karev went back to Bulgaria and became political active in the Bulgarian Workers’ Social Democratic Party. In 1905 he was killed during an attempt to enter Ottoman Macedonia with a group of IMRO fighters.

Excerpt from the photograph of the 1900-1901 graduates, among whom was Nikola Karev, from the Bulgarian Gymnasium in Bitola. A panel from the Ilinden memorial in Kruševo, showing the monument of Nikola Karev at "Gumenya" in Kruševo, uncovered on August 2, 1953, and two photographs: Nikola Karev with Kruševo teachers and students photographed in 1900 in the Kruševo grove and Nikola Karev with the 1900-1901 graduates from the Bulgarian Gymnasium in Bitola.

Notes

  1. One of the first names of the organisation was "Bulgarian Macedonian-Adrianople Revolutionary Committees" (BMARC оr БМОРК), which was later changed to Secret Macedonian-Adrianople Revolutionary Organisation (SMARO, ТМОРО). There is a dispute between Bulgarian historians (Pandev, 1969, 1970) and Yugoslav (later Macedonian) historians (Bitoski, 1997) regarding when the renaming took place: 1896/97 or 1902. Most Western scholars seem to have accepted Pаndev’s view (Poulton, 2000; Adanir, 1979; Perry, 1988) although prior to the publication of his article Bulgarian historiography seemed to agree that the name SMARO dates back to 1896/7 (e.g., Silyanov, 1933, vol. 1, p. 46). Hugh Poulton writes that "The organisation repeatedly and confusingly changed its name, often as a reflection of the balance between pro-Bulgarian and pro-Macedonian autonomists. It appears to have originally been called the Bulgarian Macedonian-Adrianopolitan Committee (BMORK—the ‘O’ standing for Odrin or Adrianopole). In 1902 it changed its name to the Secret Macedonian Adrianopolitan Revolutionary Organisation (TMORO) while from 1905 it was first known as VMORO and then simply VMRO, where the ‘V’ stands for ‘inner’ in Bulgarian."
  2. Interview with Elefterija Vambakovska, Macedonian Institute for National History, article "Одважноста на претседателот на Крушевската Република", and interview with Nikola Karev from May 8, 1903, article "Разговорот на грчкиот новинар со Никола Карев", Macedonian newspaper "Utrinski vesnik", published on 22. 07. 2000, archive number 329.
  3. Keith Brown,The Past in Question: Modern Macedonia and the Uncertainties of Nation, Princeton University Press, 2003.
  4. An interview with Nikola Karev for the Greek newspaper "Akropolis", 8 May 1903