References - Part 07

References:

1. President of Republic of Macedonia – Branko Crvenkovski 2. "Социјалдемократски Сојуз на Македонија – Претседател". Sdsm.org.mk. Retrieved 10 June 2011. 3. RaoulWallenberg.net 4. Received a copy of the key of the city of Tirana

Tupurkovski - Dimitar Tupurkovski (1912-?)

Dimitar Mito Tupurkovski was born in the village Oshchima in 1912. He was only five weeks old when his father Vasil was brutally murdered by the retreating Turkish army. He was fortunate to have two older brothers who looked after him and financially helped him to get an education. From an early age, while studying in college, Mito found himself among progressive students and teachers. His experience shaped his life to endeavour on behalf of the oppressed and fight for justice, freedom, human rights and independence for all people everywhere.

Mito completed his education as a teacher, but with the fascist occupation of Macedonia he left his teacher’s position and joined the People’s Army of Liberation as a Partisan in the Aegean Brigade in which he achieved the rank of Captain. Later in 1944 he joined the Macedonian Army in Yugoslavia and in a short time reached the rank of Major.

After the war Mito remained in the Peoples’ Republic of Macedonia.

Reference: Benefit Society Oshchima, 75th Anniversary 1907-1982.

Uzunov - Hristo Uzunov (1878-1905)

Hristo Uzunov was the ideological leader of the revolutionary movement in the Ohrid Region. His father was a teacher actively involved in the revolutionary movement and his mother came from the family of revival activist Giorgi Chakalov from Struga.

Hristo Uzunov was born on October 22nd, 1878 to a poor family in Ohrid. After finishing level four in the pre-gymnasium school in Ohrid, during the period 1894-1896, Uzunov continued his education in the gymnasium in Solun, where he completed a teaching course, becoming a teacher. In Solun, which happened to be the centre of Macedonian revolutionary activities at the time, he joined the revolutionary movement and became President of the revolutionary centre in the gymnasium.

The revolutionary circle, as Giorche Petrov characterized it “the first step to activism”, with Uzunov at the helm, was responsible for the student protests in 1896 in Solun against the authorities and especially against the Exarchists. The student protesters in solidarity with the teachers, who were also revolutionaries, went on strike for twenty days. Among them was Damian Gruev who, as a result of his activities, made Uzunov a member of the revolutionary organization.

After Uzunov graduated from the Solun gymnasium he returned to Ohrid and took on a teaching job as well as the responsibility of organizing the revolutionary movement, not only in the city of Ohrid but also in the rural surroundings and outlying villages. As a result he became one of the first and most important organizers especially of the Macedonian villages which in time became the backbone of the rebellion. His activities earned him the title “soul of the uprising” and, for his leadership abilities, in 1901 he was made head of the revolutionary movement in the entire Ohrid Region. A few months later he became a member of the first revolutionary cheta and began work on building an army.

In January 1902 Hristo Uzunov, suspected of being involved in the revolutionary movement, was arrested by the Turks and put in jail in Bitola. He was released in March 1903 due the general amnesty given as part of the “Padar’s Reforms”. He immediately returned to Ohrid and in a few days took command of the Ohrid Revolutionary

Cheta. A little later he became the unofficial regional chief of the entire Ohrid and Drim Regions. He then resumed where he had left off rebuilding the armed forces and prepared for the immanent general uprising. He attended the May 3rd, 1903 Smilevo Congress under the title, leader of the Ohrid delegation.

In spite of objections that they were not yet ready for a general uprising, a decision was made at the Smilevo Congress to begin the rebellion on Ilinden, August 2nd, 1903. Uzunov immediately began preparations by establishing regional headquarters, arming his fighters, appointing the leadership and administration and drafting his war plans.

During the rebellion Uzunov’s cheta faired well and scored more victories than losses.

After the Ilinden rebellion, many of the Ohrid regional leaders left Ohrid and went to Sofia. Their departure left a bad feeling amongst the Macedonian people. A few leaders however, including Hristo Uzunov, remained and spent their time in the Smilevo mountains until December 1903 at which time they returned to their own regions and made attempts to reestablish the abolished Committees of the Macedonian Revolutionary Organization.

Uzunov returned to Ohrid and was successful in re-establishing contact between village organizations and the regional committee. During 1904 and 1905 Uzunov focused mainly on resisting foreign influence and resolving internal problems that the revolutionary organization was facing.

In March 1905 Uzunov went off on an inspection tour to Bitola and Krushevo. As he made his way to Czer, in Kichevo Region, on April 24th he and Krushevo commander, Vancho Srbakov, and eleven fighters found themselves surrounded by Turkish troops.

Unable to call for help or to escape the rebels were left with two options, surrender or die fighting. They made a decision to die fighting.

Before it was all over Uzunov wrote a note which in part said: "My last piece of advice to all my companions is to be sincere to our cause and to everyone who serves that cause, because only chastity and pure sincerity can raise the Internal Organization, and only they will save it from the abnormal situation in which it has been placed by our companions who have a distorted awareness. Please do your best to destroy, as soon as possible, those people within the present leadership of the Organization that have harmed the cause, those like Sarafov, and do not punish mere workers. Our idea will be accomplished..."

After handing over his note and his archival papers to the villagers, the two commanders and their eleven companions used their last bullets on themselves.

Hristo Uzunov’s revolutionary days ended with his death on April 24, 1905.

Reference: Pages 128-130 Macedonian Almanac 1985.

Vlahov - Dimitar Vlahov (1878-1953)

Dimitar Vlahov was born in 1878 in Kukush, Ottoman Empire (now Greek occupied Macedonia) and died in 1953 in Belgrad, SFRY (now Serbia).

Vlahov was a member of the Ottoman Parliament from the fall of 1908 to January 1910 (when he resigned from the Federative Party). He was a member of People's Federative Party. He was a Christian Orthodox by religion.

Dimitar Ianakiev Vlahov was a Macedonian revolutionary and a member of the left wing Macedonian-Adrianople revolutionary movement (also known as Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization (IMRO)). As with many other IMRO members of the time, historians from the Republic of Macedonia consider him to be an ethnic Macedonian.

He was born in Kukus and attended the Bulgarian Men's High School in Solun. After that he immigrated to the Kingdom of

Bulgaria and graduated from secondary school in Belogradtchik. Vlahov also studied chemistry in Germany and Switzerland, where he took part in socialist circles. However, he graduated in these subjects from Sofia University. Here he enrolled in the Bulgarian Social Democratic Workers' Party.

In 1903, Vlahov entered military service in an officer's school in Sofia. Then he worked as a teacher in the Bulgarian Men's High School in Solun where he was active in IMRO. During this period, he was arrested by the Ottoman authorities. In 1905, Vlahov was released and went back to Bulgaria where he worked as a teacher in Kazanlak. In 1908, after the Young Turks revolution he resumed working in the Bulgarian secondary school in Solun.

In the next few years, Vlahov was politically active as a member of the Ottoman Parliament as a representative from the People's Federative Party (Bulgarian Section). After the dissolution of the PFP in 1911, he became a member the Ottoman Socialist Party and in 1912 was elected again as a deputy in the Ottoman Parliament. After the Balkan Wars, Vlahov was a representative of the Kingdom of Bulgaria in high diplomatic and administrative positions in Odessa, Kiev, Pristina and Vienna. After World War I and the reestablishment of IMRO in 1920, Vlahov was elected as alternate member of its Central Committee, representing the left wing. At that time he was sent in Varna by Todor Alexandrov to establish contact between IMRO and Soviet Russia. Krastio Rakovski, his best man and prominent figure of the Comintern, served as his messenger. On behalf of IMRO, Vlahov departed for Moscow in July 1923.

In Vienna, in 1924, IMRO entered negotiations with the Comintern about collaboration between the communists and the Macedonian movement and the creation of a united Macedonian movement. Vlahov helped the subscription of the so-called May Manifesto about forming a Balkan Communist Federation and cooperating with the Soviet Union. After the subsequent rift between the organization and the Communists, the new leadership, headed by Ivan Mihailov, excluded him from the organization and he was sentenced to death but was not captured.

In 1925, he was one of the founders of the IMRO (United) in Vienna. He also became a member of the Bulgarian Communist Party. During the late 1920s, he worked in France, Germany and Austria as a Comintern publicist. During this period he was pursued by IMRO with several failed assassination attempts.

In 1932 as a member of IMRO (United), for the first time, Vlahov put the issue of recognizing Macedonia as separate nation in a lecture in Moscow. The question was also studied in the highest institutions of the Comintern and in the autumn of 1933, Dimitar Vlahov arrived in Moscow and took part in a number of meetings.

On January 11, 1934, the Political Secretariat of the Comintern adopted a special Resolution on the Macedonian Question. From 1936 to 1944, Vlahov lived in the Soviet Union and in 1944 he went to the new Yugoslavia to work for the Socialist Republic of Macedonia. However Macedonian activists like him, who came from the IMRO (United) and from the BCP, never managed to get rid of their pro-Bulgarian bias.

In 1948, during a meeting of the Central committee of the Macedonian Communist Party, he said that IMRO (United)’s in 1932 made a political mistake when it decided to form a separate Macedonian identity. Later, he was gradually pushed out of power by the pro-Yugoslav circles of Lazar Kolishevski. Vlahov died in Belgrade in 1953.