{{Short description|1878-79 anti-Ottoman Bulgarian uprising}} {{Use mdy dates|date=September 2019}} {{Infobox military conflict | conflict = Kresna–Razlog uprising | width = | partof = the Macedonian Question | image = File:The Stamp Of The Kresna Macedonian Uprising 1878.jpg | image_size = 200px | caption = The stamp of the chief of staff of the Macedonian (Kresna) Uprising Berovski {{circa|1878}} | date = October 5, 1878 – May 25, 1879<br />({{Age in years, months, weeks and days|month1=10|day1=05|year1=1878|month2=05|day2=25|year2=1879}}) | place = Ottoman Empire *Salonika Vilayet (Pirin Macedonia) | coordinates = | map_type = | map_relief = | latitude = | longitude = | map_size = | map_marksize = | map_caption = | map_label = | territory = | result = Ottoman victory | status = | combatants_header = | combatant1 = {{flagicon image|Flag of Bulgaria.svg}} Unity Committee | combatant2 = {{flag|Ottoman Empire}} | combatant3 = | commander1 = Adam Kalmikov<br>Dimitar Popgeorgiev<br>Nathanael of Ohrid<br>Stoyan Karastoilov{{Assassinated}}<br>Stefan Stambolov<br>Nikola Obretenov<br>Ludwik Wojtkiewicz | commander2 = | commander3 = | units1 = | units2 = | units3 = | strength1 = More than 400 | strength2 = More than 8,000 | strength3 = | casualties1 = 9 insurgents killed at the village of Moraska<br>568 insurgents killed at Kresna Gorge in January | casualties2 = 121 Ottomans taken as prisoners of war at Kresna<br>50 Ottomans killed at Bansko | casualties3 = Hundreds of Christian civilians killed by the bashi-bazouks<br>25,000–35,000 refugees fled to the Principality of Bulgaria | notes = | campaignbox = }} The '''Kresna–Razlog uprising''' ({{langx|bg|Кресненско-Разложко въстание|translit=Kresnensko-Razlozhko vastanie}}), also known as the '''Kresna uprising''' ({{langx|mk|Кресненско востание|translit=Kresnensko vostanie}}),<ref>Кресненското востание во Македонија 1878 – 1879. Материјали од Научниот собир одржан по повод 100-годишнината од востанието во Берово, 2-4 октомври 1987 година. Македонска академија на науките и уметностите, Скопјe, 1982 година.</ref><ref name= "Bechev"/> was an anti-Ottoman Bulgarian uprising that took place in Ottoman Macedonia,<ref>{{cite book |author=Laszlo Valki |title=Changing Threat Perceptions and Military Doctrines |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan |date=1992 |isbn=1349120626 |page=219 |quote=The Macedonian Question emerged in 1878, as a result of the provisions of the Berlin Congress, by virtue of which Macedonia and the region of Adrianople were taken away from the newly formed Bulgarian state and given back to the Ottoman Empire. Up until that time, the national liberation struggle of Macedonia had been an inseparable part of the Bulgarian struggle against Ottoman domination. In response to the unjust provisions of the Berlin Congress (1878), the Kresna-Razlog uprising broke out in September of the same year.}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |author=Anna Mazurkiewicz |title=East Central European Migrations During the Cold War |date=2019 |publisher=De Gruyter |isbn=9783110607901 |page=63 |quote=The desire for uniting the ethnic Bulgarian lands and the brutal policies of the Ottoman authorities in Macedonia and Thrace sparked immediate resistance and led to organized efforts for liberation from Ottoman rule and uniting with Bulgaria. The struggle against the dictates of the Treaty of Berlin started almost straight away and every revolt against the Ottomans in Macedonia and Thrace, crushed with extreme brutality, was followed by mass emigration of the survivors population. This was the case with the Kresna-Razlog uprising (5 October 1878 – spring 1879) when 30,000 people escaped to Bulgaria.}}</ref> predominantly in the areas of modern Blagoevgrad Province in Bulgaria in late 1878 and early 1879.<ref>{{cite book |quote=Activists in Bulgaria staged a rising in the Kresna-Razlog region of eastern Macedonia, but it was not well coordinated and was suppressed with ease. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Ylz4fe7757cC&dq=macedonian+uprising+kresna+bulgarians&pg=PA85 |title=A concise history of Bulgaria |author=R. J. Crampton |publisher=Cambridge University Press |date=2005 |page=85 |isbn=0-521-61637-9}}</ref><ref name= "Poulton">{{cite book |quote=A major Bulgarian uprising took place in October 1878 in the north-east of the Razlog-Kresna region. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ppbuavUZKEwC&q=A+major+Bulgarian+uprising+took+place+in+October+1878+in+the+north-east+of+the+&pg=PA49 |title=Who are the Macedonians? |author=Hugh Poulton |page=49 |publisher=Indiana University Press |date=2000 |isbn=1-85065-534-0}}</ref><ref name="dp">{{cite book |quote=To press the case, in January 1879, five chetas entered Macedonia from Bulgaria, apparently assisted by Edinstvo groups. In the end about three thousand bashibozuks (Muslim irregulars) engaged 568 insurgents, nearly all of them from Bulgaria, north of Melnik at Kresna Gorge, in a battle that lasted two days. When it was over, all the guerrillas had been killed. Although few Slavs from Macedonia actually participated, some revolutionaries paradoxically complained about what they regarded as the low level of support received from Bulgaria. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=28nQRUIN7qIC&q=uprising+kresna+&pg=PA15 |title=Stefan Stambolov and the emergence of modern Bulgaria, 1870-1895 |author=Duncan M. Perry |publisher=Duke University Press |date=1993 |isbn=0-8223-1313-8 |pages=14–15}}</ref> It was named by the insurgents as the ''Macedonian uprising''.<ref>Дойно Дойнов, Кресненско-Разложкото въстание, 1878-1879. Принос за неговия обхват и резултати, за вътрешните и външнополитическите условия, при които избухва, протича и стихва. Издателство на Българската Академия на науките. София, 1979, [http://www.promacedonia.org/dd2/dd_1_3.html] Г. Кацаров и Ив. Кепов. Цит. съч., д. № 87, 88, с. 55. В писмо до Джумайския комитет Д. Попгеоргиев хвърля вината на доброволците. “Комитите ни само на пиенето били юнаци”, а в писмо на Г. М. Николчев от Кресна от 29 октомври още по-определено се казва: “Началникът на щаба на македонското востание г. Д. п. Георгиев задължава мя да Ви явя, че вчерашната победа е наша, сос храбростта на македонските харамии, а доброволците избегаха кой где виде, П. Буховски (поп Константин - б.м.) побегна и дойде да ся бие с нашето полицейско управление, да живеят храбрите харамии с войводите си.”</ref>
The uprising was prepared by the Unity Committee and on the local level, it was led by Dimitar Popgeorgiev, Nathanael of Ohrid and Stoyan Karastoilov.<ref name= "Bechev">{{cite book |title=Historical Dictionary of the Republic of Macedonia |author=Dimitar Bechev |publisher=Scarecrow Press |date=2009 |isbn=978-0810855656 |page=122}}</ref> The centers from which the uprising was coordinated were Gorna Dzhoumaya and Kyustendil.<ref name="dd" /> Also, it was supported by detachments which had infiltrated the area from the Principality of Bulgaria and Eastern Rumelia.<ref name="rd">{{cite book |author=Raymond Detrez |title=Historical Dictionary of Bulgaria |publisher=Rowman & Littlefield |date=2014 |isbn=978-1442241800 |page=279}}</ref> The insurgents consisted of local Macedonian Bulgarians and former members of the Bulgarian Volunteer Corps. They captured the Kresna Gorge, but soon the Unity Committee and the chetas' commanders clashed over leadership, thus Popgeorgiev was removed from his position and Karastoilov was murdered.<ref name= "Bechev"/> The uprising lost its momentum and was crushed by the Ottomans.
In modern-day there are conflicting interpretations of the uprising between the Bulgarian historiography and the Macedonian historiography.<ref name="va">{{cite book |author=Vemund Aarbakke |title=Ethnic Rivalry and the Quest for Macedonia, 1870-1913 |publisher=East European Monographs |date=2003 |isbn=9780880335270 |pages=56–58}}</ref><ref name= "Poulton"/>
== Prelude == [[File:SanStefano1.jpg|thumb|right|250px|Annex to the Treaty of San Stefano, showing the borders of Bulgaria]] [[File:SouthEast Europe 1878.jpg|thumb|right|250px|Southeastern Europe after the Congress of Berlin]] The revolutionary circles in Bulgaria concurred at once with the idea of inciting an uprising in Macedonia. On August 29, 1878, a meeting of representatives from the Bulgarian revolutionaries was convened in the town of Veliko Tarnovo in order to implement the plan. This meeting resulted in the creation of a committee called ''Edinstvo'' (Unity). The initiative for this belonged to Lyuben Karavelov, Stefan Stambolov and Hristo Ivanov. The task of this new committee was to establish similar committees throughout Bulgaria, to maintain strict contact with them, and work toward the same end: "''unity of all the Bulgarians''" and the improvement of their present political situation.<ref>The Macedonian Question - Origin and Development, 1878-1941 Dimiter Minchev, Ph.D. Sofia, 2002. [http://www.promacedonia.org/en/dm/dm_1.html]</ref> [[File:Litografia.jpg|thumb|right|250px|Separated Bulgaria after the Treaty of Berlin - a lithograph by Nikolai Pavlovich. Principality of Bulgaria (in the middle), Eastern Rumelia (leftward) and Macedonia (right at the back)]]
The "Edinstvo" committees formed toward the end of August and in early September 1878. The committees also had to give moral and material help to the resistance struggles in Eastern Rumelia and Macedonia against the decisions of the Berlin Treaty.<ref name="dd">{{cite journal |title=The 1878-79 Kresna-Razlog Uprising |doi=10.1163/187633379X00210 |journal=Southeastern Europe |volume=6 |issue=1 |date=1979 |publisher=Brill |author=Doyno Doynov |pages=223, 227–231}}</ref> In Sofia, many refugees from Macedonia took part in the preparations of the uprising.<ref name="va" /> The committee in Sofia collected funds, while Nathanael of Ohrid established ''Edinstvo'' branches in Kyustendil, Dupnitsa and Gorna Dzhumaya, and recruited rebel bands.<ref name="mm">{{cite book |author=Mercia MacDermott |author-link=Mercia MacDermott |title=For Freedom and Perfection: The Life of Yané Sandansky |date=1988 |publisher=Journeyman Press |location=London |isbn=978-1-85172-014-9 |pages=21, 23}}</ref>
On September 8, 1878,<ref name="va" /> as part of the preparation for the uprising, the Rila Monastery hosted a conference attended by Metropolitan Nathanael of Ohrid, Dimitar Popgeorgiev - Berovski, Ilyo Voyvoda, Mihail Sarafov, the voivode Stoyan Karastoilov and other high-ranking figures. It was decided that peasant guards were to be organized for the protection of the frontier, for the defense of the Bulgarian population, and for the uprising's preparation.<ref name="dd" /> They decided to start the uprising at Kresna.<ref name="va" />
== Uprising == [[File:Berovski letter.jpg|right|200px|thumb|Letter from Dimitar Popgeorgiev - Berovski to Georgi Pulevski, with a personal stamp that states "Macedonian Uprising, Chief of Staff, D. P. Georgiev" in Bulgarian<ref>НВИМ, вх. No. 30, 33/59 г., оригинал (National Museum of Military History, Bulgaria, number 30, 33/59 y., original)</ref>]] thumb|right|200px|An act on the organizational arrangement of the Macedonian (Kresna) Uprising from 1878, which regulates the duties of the Headquarters, the chiefs and the rebels [[File:Maritsa-1878-12-19-0004 Crop.jpg|thumb|right|200px|Appeal of the "Provisional Bulgarian Government in Macedonia" from November 10, 1878, published in the newspaper "Maritsa" in Plovdiv, Eastern Rumelia.<ref>{{cite book |title=Македония: Сборник от документи и материали |location=Sofia |publisher=Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, Institute of history |date=1978 |page=353 |trans-title=Macedonia: Collection of documents and materials |language=bg}}</ref><ref>Дойно Дойнов, Кресненско-Разложкото въстание, 1878-1879. Принос за неговия обхват и резултати, за вътрешните и външнополитическите условия, при които избухва, протича и стихва. (1979), стр. 125-126.</ref>]] Early at dawn on October 5, 1878, 400 insurgents attacked an Ottoman army unit stationed at Kresna inns. The battle lasted for 18 hours, and the insurgents defeated the Ottomans. This attack marked the beginning of the uprising. The bands who participated were under the leadership of Stoyan Karastoilov. Other participants were former members of the Bulgarian Volunteer Corps and peasants from the neighboring village of Vlahi.<ref name="dd" /> Bulgarian Orthodox Christians of villages such as Kresna, Oshtava, Mechkul, Senokos, Osikov, and Vrabcha also actively participated in the uprising.<ref name="wad">{{cite book |title=War and Diplomacy: The Russo-Turkish War of 1877–1878 and the Treaty of Berlin |isbn=9781607811503 |pages=130–133 |editor1=M. Hakan Yavuz |editor2=Peter Sluglett |publisher=University of Utah Press |date=2011}}</ref> The insurgents took the whole Ottoman army unit, which consisted of 119 soldiers and 2 officers, as prisoners. Then the insurgents continued southward and secured the villages of Oshtava, Vlahi, and Novo Selo. In subsequent battles, insurgents captured 43 towns and villages, reaching the villages of Belitsa and Gradeshnitsa. To the south-west, the insurgents, established their sway over almost the entire Karshijak region, while to the south-east the positions of the insurgents were along the Predela, over the town of Razlog. In addition to the direct military operations of the insurgents, there were separate detachments operating in the south and to the west in Macedonia. There were also disturbances, and delegations were sent to the headquarters of the Uprising with requests for arms and for aid. Popgeorgiev and the former Cossack sotnia commander Adam Kalmikov assumed general leadership of the uprising.<ref name="dd" /> Ludwik Wojtkiewicz, a Polish man serving in the Russian army, was also a commander.<ref>{{cite journal |title=Bulgarian Affairs in the Second Half of the 19th c. in Polish Historiography since 1989 |journal=Slavia Meridionalis |pages=7–8 |doi=10.11649/sm.1920 |author1=Antoni Cetnarowicz |author2=Krzysztof Popek |date=2019|volume=19 |doi-access=free }}</ref> The headquarters of the uprising, which was organized in the course of the military operations, was headed by Dimitar Popgeorgiev. ''Elders' Councils'' were also set up, as well as local police organs of the revolutionary government who were assigned certain administrative functions in the liberated territories. At the village of Moraska, 9 insurgents were surrounded. Having exhausted their ammo, they started a physical fight, but they were killed.<ref name="dd" />
During the uprising, Nathanael of Ohrid coordinated the distribution of money, rifles, and ammunition, which came from Bulgarian areas.<ref name="dv">{{cite book |title=Containing Balkan Nationalism: Imperial Russia and Ottoman Christians, 1856-1914 |date=2016 |author=Denis Vovchenko |publisher=Oxford University Press |pages=207–208 |isbn=9780190276676}}</ref> The Edinstvo Committee in the town of Gorna Dzhoumaya played an important part in organizing, supplying and assisting the uprising. The committee was headed by Kostantin Bosilkov, who was born in the town of Koprivshtitsa and who had worked for many years as teacher in the Macedonian region.<ref name="dd" /> Disagreement arose among the leaders of the uprising. With the support of the Edinstvo Committee, Kalmikov expelled the local leaders headed by Popgeorgiev, who was removed from his position and arrested. Afterwards Kalmikov prepared a plot against Karastoilov to take his money and loot, and had him killed on the pretext that he broke discipline when he traditionally rounded up sheep and cattle, and plundered the rich farmers, both Christian and Muslim.<ref>[http://www.promacedonia.org/dd2/dd_1_5.html Дойно Дойнов Кресненско-Разложкото въстание, 1878-1879, Българската Академия на науките, София, 1979, с. 60-68.]</ref><ref name="va" />
During the military operations in the Kresna region, an uprising broke out on November 8, 1878, in the Bansko-Razlog valley. The detachment of volunteers from northern Bulgaria, led by Banyo Marinov, a revolutionary and volunteer from the Russo-Turkish War (1877–1878), played an important part in that uprising. It was promptly joined by scores of local insurgents, and, after a fierce skirmish, it succeeded in liberating the town of Bansko.<ref name="va" /> 376 insurgents defeated and killed 50 Ottomans there. Neighboring villages such as Dolno Draglishte, Gorno Draglishte, Godlevo, and Dobarsko also rose up in revolt, while the villages of Banya (inhabited by Pomaks) and Mehomiya were attacked.<ref name="wad" /> Due to bad organization, the insurgents were only able to hold Bansko for a week before it was recaptured by the Ottomans.<ref name="va" /> The whole uprising in the area was suppressed by the Ottomans in the same period.<ref name="wad" /> More than 8,000 regular soldiers and bashi-bazouks drove the insurgents back to the village of Kresna. Hundreds of women, children and old men were victims of the bashi-bazouks.<ref name="dd" /> As a result, 25,000—35,000 refugees fled to the Principality of Bulgaria.<ref name="rd" /><ref>{{cite book |title=Кресненско-Разложкото въстание, 1878-1879: Принос за неговия обхват и резултати, за вътрешните и външнополитическите условия, при които избухва, протича и стихва |author=Дойно Дойнов |publisher=Издателство на Българската Академия на науките |location=Sofia |date=1979 |page=85 |language=bg}}</ref>
An appeal was launched by the insurgents on November 10, 1878, which read: "...And so, brothers, the time has come to demonstrate what we are, that we are a people worthy of liberty, and that the blood of Kroum and Simeon is still flowing in our veins; the time has come to demonstrate to Europe that it is no easy task when a people want to cast away darkness."<ref name="sum">{{cite book |url=http://www.promacedonia.org/dd2/dd_summary.html |chapter=The Kresna-Razlog Uprising 1878-1879 (Summary) |author=Doyno Doynov |publisher=Bulgarian Academy of Sciences |title=Кресненско-Разложкото въстание, 1878-1879: Принос за неговия обхват и резултати, за вътрешните и външнополитическите условия, при които избухва, протича и стихва |date=1979}}</ref> The same political opposition to the Berlin Treaty expressed in the insurgents' Appeal was also evident in the letter of the Melnik district rebels of December 11, 1878, which they sent to the Petrich ''kaymakam'': "We assure you, and you must know, that we have not been incited by anyone; however, when we realized that, at the Berlin Congress, the European Powers had again left us under your administration, we took up arms, and we shall not lay them down until we are united with the Bulgarian Principality, as was promised in the Treaty of San Stefano by Sultan Hamid himself."<ref name="mm" /><ref>[http://www.promacedonia.com/en/dm/dm_1.html The Macedonian Question - Origin and Development 1878-1941] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210726130609/http://www.promacedonia.com/en/dm/dm_1.html |date=July 26, 2021 }}. Colonel Dimiter Minchev, Ph.D. (Sofia, 2002)</ref> The leadership was reorganized, and new tactics were adopted by the end of the year. A Central Committee (consisting of Nathanael of Ohrid, Stefan Stambolov, and later also Nikola Obretenov) was formed, which took control of the uprising. The committee made the decision to prepare an uprising in the spring of 1879 inside Macedonia. More than 400 insurgents were assigned for the task. Stambolov and Obretenov insisted on dispatching emissaries to Macedonia who were to organize and arm the locals, based on the 1876 April Uprising, but they were unable to convince Nathanael.<ref name="dd" /> In a two-day battle at Kresna Gorge against 3,000 bashi-bazouks in January 1879, 568 insurgents were killed.<ref name="dp" /> On February 13, 1879, Berovski visited the Constituent Bulgarian Assembly during the uprising in maintenance of unification of Bulgaria and Macedonia.<ref>{{cite book |title=Macedonia: Documents and Materials |date=1978 |location=Sofia |publisher=Bulgarian Academy of Sciences |url=http://www.kroraina.com/knigi/en/ban/ls1.html#18 |chapter=Credentials for the participation of Bulgarians from Macedonia in the Constituent Assembly of the Principality |orig-date=February 13, 1879}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |author=Doyno Doynov |title=Комитетите "Единство". Ролята и приносът им за Съединението 1885 |location=Sofia |publisher=Наука и изкуство |date=1985 |page=140}}</ref> In a letter to the Bulgarian Constituent Assembly on March 14, 1879, Nathanael wrote about the restoration of national unity on the basis of the San Stefano Treaty and the aim to liberate the Bulgarians in Macedonia "from the heavy burden of the Turkish yoke."<ref name="dv" /> A group which crossed into Macedonia in May 1879 could not achieve its goal due to the lack of preliminary organization. After passing across the Vardar River, destroying the railway line and engaging in several battles, it scattered and was disbanded.<ref name="dd" />
The representatives of the Provisional Russian Administration in Bulgaria Dondukov-Korsakov and Petr Alabin, who sympathized with the struggle in Macedonia, were reprimanded by the Russian Emperor in person. In this manner, the uprising was left without Russian military, diplomatic and political support. Russia, which was exhausted both financially and militarily and under pressure by the other Great Powers, had to conform to the decisions of the Berlin Congress in relation to Macedonia. Russia also aimed to preserve the Bulgarian character of Eastern Rumelia.<ref name="sum" />
== Legacy == [[File:Dolno-Draglishte-memorial-plaque.jpg|thumb|right|240px|Memorial plaque of Kresna-Razlog Uprising in village Dolno Draglishte, Bulgaria]] The uprising is celebrated in both Bulgaria and North Macedonia as part of their nations' struggle against the Ottoman rule.
The Macedonian historiography has claimed the uprising as part of the Macedonian national movement and that the insurgents strived for Macedonian independence from the Ottoman Empire based on The rules of the Macedonian rebel committee headed by Berovski.<ref name= "Poulton"/><ref name="ch">{{cite book |editor1=Eleonora Naxidou |editor2=Yura Konstantinova |title=Christian Networks in the Ottoman Empire: A Transnational History |date=2024 |publisher=Central European University Press |isbn=9789633867754 |page=111}}</ref> Macedonian historians do not regard the uprising as a protest against the Berlin Treaty. They also emphasize the local character of the uprising and the autonomist attitude of the leaders, also the fact that it was called ''Macedonian uprising'' by the insurgents, claiming that the uprising was seized by the Bulgarians.<ref name="va" /><ref name= "Bechev"/> Furthermore, they claim that one of the vital reasons the uprising failed was because of the conflict between the headquarters headed by Berovski and Karastoilov (the internal Macedonian conception) from one side and the Edinstvo Committee and Nathanael of Ohrid (the outside Bulgarian conception) from the other. Namely, they claim that the Edinstvo Committee arranged the arrest of Berovski and the assassination of Karastoilov in order to seize control of the uprising. Also, the letter from Georgi Pulevski (a participant in the uprising) from 1879 is pointed out, in the letter he blames the Bulgarians and Nathanael of Ohrid for deceiving the insurgents.<ref>Letter from Pulevski to Despot Badžović:''"...So, when I wrote to him, I still believed that we were going to fight for Macedonia. And not only me, we all believed here and were ready to die; either freedom or death - there is no third. But it was not so. The wolf thought one thing, and the shepherd another. A few days ago, grandfather bishop Nathanael gave me a letter from you. I read it. You write, Despot, that you want to volunteer and promise 1000-2000 volunteers. That is very good. But what I will say to you is not to come here with people, because there is something bad here. Here the Bulgarians are playing with us and turning water on their own mill together with the black-cap Nathanael, who is Macedonian, but oriented towards Bulgarian more. I will tell you, with the chetas we have been waiting for so long to go towards the Turkish land and fight for our freedom, but they do not let us go..."'' For more: Архив Србије-Београд, фонд: Министартво просвете, П. бр. 981/8.ВИ.1879 г.</ref><ref>Никола Минов (2015). “Македонското востание (1878-1879)“, in Ратко Дуев (ур.), Востанијата во Македонија. Филозофски факултет, УКИМ, Скопје, pp. 157-175.</ref>
In the Bulgarian historiography, the uprising is interpreted as a continuation of the April Uprising in 1876 and a protest against the Treaty of Berlin.<ref name="va" /><ref name= "Poulton"/> According to historian Doyno Doynov, the goals of the leaders and organizers of the uprising were to revoke the decisions of the Berlin Congress, to liberate the regions inhabited by the Bulgarians, and to unite with the Principality of Bulgaria.<ref name="dd" /> Bulgarian historians consider ''The rules of the Macedonian rebel committee'' to be one of the forgeries fabricated by Slavko Dimevski.<ref>Христо Христов, Писма и оправки. По следите на една историко-документална фалшификация, (Исторически Преглед, 1983, кн. 4, с. 100—106).</ref><ref>Църнушанов, К. За още един фалшификат на скопските историци. – Военноисторически сборник, 1984, No 3, 94–113;</ref><ref>Билярски, Ц., И. Пасков. Писма на Петко Рачев Славейков по унията в Македония през 1874 г. – Векове, 1989, No 1, 55–77.</ref> They have also pointed at the existence of an identical document with completely different contents titled "Temporary rules about the organisation of the Macedonian Uprising" prepared by Stefan Stambolov and Nathanael of Ohrid.<ref>[http://www.promacedonia.org/dd2/dd_2_3.html Дойно Дойнов Кресненско-Разложкото въстание, 1878-1879, София 1979, с. 71, бел. 323, с. 154, с. 163-164, бел. 235]</ref> The documentation about the uprising's preparation and course, as well as diplomatic reports of European representatives in the Ottoman Empire, confirm the uprising as a Bulgarian one, with the aim to include Macedonia in the Bulgarian state.<ref name="ch" /><ref>Колектив, Македонският въпрос (1968) Историко-политическа справка. Институт за история при БАН. София, стр. 37.; И. Бурилкова, Ц. Билярски (2012) Македонският въпрос в българо-югославските отношения 1968-1989. Част 1-2, Архивите говорят. Том 65-66; Държавна агенция "Архиви", София, стр. 56.</ref> A distinct Macedonian national identity was not developed at that time, while the designation "Macedonian" had a regional meaning.<ref>{{cite book |quote=Macedonian historians refer to some data from the anti-Ottoman movement for national “liberation” which presumably confirm a certain attempt for emancipation vis-à-vis the neighboring nations and a more “ethnic” usage of the term “Macedonians.” The latter is to be found in the so-called “Rules Constitution” of a “Committee of the Macedonian Uprising” as well as in its “Military directives” that are deemed to be composed during the ill-fated uprising of Kresna-Razlog in the autumn of 1878. These documents trace a project of administrative structure of a future autonomous Macedonian state while the Slavs from the region are named “Macedonians” instead of Bulgarians or Serbs. The Bulgarian historians denounce the authenticity of both documents. But even if one assumes that they are authentic, they were literally “excavated” by modern historians: the marginal influence of theirs is confirmed by the fact that they left virtually no trace in the public sphere of the late 19th century. |author=Tchavdar Marinov |chapter=We, the Macedonians: The Paths of Macedonian. Supra-Nationalism (1878-1912) |title=We, the People: Politics of National Peculiarity in Southeastern Europe |date=2009 |editor=Diana Mishkova |publisher=Central European University Press |isbn=9786155211669 |pages=131–132}}</ref><ref name="Fine">{{cite book|title = The Early Medieval Balkans, A Critical Survey from the Sixth to the Late Twelfth Century |last = Fine | first = J. | year = 1991 | publisher = University of Michigan Press |pages=36–37|isbn = 0-472-08149-7|quote=Until the late nineteenth century both outside observers and those Bulgaro-Macedonians who had an ethnic consciousness believed that their group, which is now two separate nationalities, comprised a single people, the Bulgarians. Thus the reader should ignore references to ethnic Macedonians in the Middle Ages which appear in some modern works. In the Middle Ages and into the nineteenth century, the term Macedonian was used entirely in reference to a geographical region. Anyone who lived within its confines, regardless of nationality, could be called a Macedonian. Nevertheless, the absence of a national consciousness in the past is no grounds to reject the Macedonians as a nationality today.}}</ref><ref name=Danforth>{{cite book|last=Danforth|first=Loring M.|title=The Macedonian Conflict: Ethnic Nationalism in a Transnational World|publisher=Princeton University Press|date=10 November 2020|isbn=978-0691043579|pages=60|quote=Many disinterested observers at the time concluded that the Slavic-speaking inhabitants of Macedonia were “Bulgarians” (R.King 1973:187) and that the term “Macedonian” was not used to identify people as belonging to a distinct “Macedonian” ethnic or national group. Rather “Macedonian” was either used in a general regional sense to designate all the inhabitants of Macedonia regardless of their ethnicity, or it was used more specifically to refer to the Slavic-speaking Christians living in the geographical area of Macedonia.}}</ref><ref name=Owsinski>{{cite book|last1=Eberhardt|first1=Piotr|last2=Owsinski|first2=Jan|title=Ethnic Groups and Population Changes in Twentieth Century Eastern Europe: History, Data and Analysis|publisher=Routledge|date=2002|isbn=0765606658|pages=350|quote=The total number and the ethnic composition of the Macedonian population at the turn of the 20th century are very difficult if not impossible to determine. Three different assessments of the historical ethnic demography in Macedonia exist: Serbian, Bulgarian, and Greek. Each of these assessments concerns a different area, and none treats 'Macedonians' as a separate nation. At this time, no 'Macedonian' national identity had yet taken shape.}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |quote=Macedonian historians naturally challenge the unity of the Bulgarian people. They stress the local character of an uprising which was later taken over by the Bulgarians...It is stressed that the uprising was called the Macedonian uprising by the insurgents. Here we encounter the problem that in many sources the population is called Macedonian Bulgarians. In most cases it is not clear if the words Macedonia/Macedonian have anything else than a regional (as opposed to national) sense. |title=Ethnic rivalry and the quest for Macedonia, 1870-1913 |author=Vemund Aarbakke |publisher=East European Monographs |date=2003 |isbn=0880335270 |pages=57–58}}</ref> In an application for a veteran pension to the Bulgarian Assembly in 1882, Pulevski expressed his regret about the failure of the unification of Ottoman Macedonia with Bulgaria.<ref>ЦДИА, София, ф. 708, оп. 1, арх. ед. 397, л. 5-6. и сл.</ref><ref>Glasnik na Institutot za nacionalna istorija, Volume 30, Institut za nacionalna istorija (Skopje, Macedonia), 1986, pp. 295–296.</ref><ref>Срђан Тодоров, О народности Ђорђа Пуљевског. В Етно-културолошки зборник, уредник Сретен Петровић, књига XXIII (2020) Сврљиг, УДК 929.511:821.163 (09); {{ISBN|978-86-84919-42-9}}, стр. 133-144</ref> Bulgarian patriarch Kiril published a book about the uprising called ''The Resistance against the Berlin Treaty: The Kresna Uprising'' in Sofia in 1955.<ref name="dd" /> According to it the main headquarters of the uprising was located in the town of Bosilegrad, Bulgaria (modern Serbia).<ref>{{cite book |author=Patriarch Kiril of Bulgaria |title=Съпротивата срещу Берлинския Договор. Кресненското въстание |trans-title=The Resistance against the Berlin Treaty: The Kresna Uprising |location=Sofia |publisher=Bulgarian Academy of Sciences |date=1955 |page=101 |language=bg}}</ref>
== See also == *National awakening of Bulgaria *Razlovci uprising *Liberation of Bulgaria *Bulgarian unification *Ilinden–Preobrazhenie Uprising *Tikveš uprising
== Footnotes == {{Reflist|2}}
== Sources == * Дойно Дойнов. Кресненско-Разложкото въстание, 1878-1879 Принос за неговия обхват и резултати, за вътрешните и външнополитическите условия, при които избухва, протича и стихва. (Издателство на Българската Академия на науките. София, 1979) (Doyno Doynov. Kresna–Razlog uprising 1878-1879: On its scope and results, internal and external political circumstances in which it starts, continues, and ends. Sofia. 1979. Published by the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences)[http://www.promacedonia.org/dd2/index.html] * Bulgarian Academy of Sciences – Institute of History Bulgarian Language Institute - Macedonia, Documents and Materials. Sofia 1978 [http://www.kroraina.com/knigi/en/ban/index.html] * Балканските Държави И Македонският Въпрос - Антони Гиза.(превод от полски - Димитър Димитров, Македонски Научен Институт, София, 2001) [http://www.kroraina.com/knigi/ag/ag_1_8.html]
==External links== {{commons-inline}}
{{Great Eastern Crisis}} {{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kresna-Razlog Uprising}} Category:Bulgarian rebellions Category:Rebellions in the Ottoman Empire Category:1878 in Bulgaria Category:1879 in Bulgaria Category:Conflicts in 1878 Category:Conflicts in 1879 Category:19th-century rebellions Category:Macedonia under the Ottoman Empire Category:1878 in the Ottoman Empire Category:Great Eastern Crisis Category:Macedonian Question Category:Persecution of Christians in the Ottoman Empire Category:19th-century massacres of Christians