{{Short description|Bulgarian revolutionary (1874–1913)}} {{Infobox Soldier | honorific_prefix = Voivode | name = Vasil Chekalarov | native_name = {{lang|bg|Васил Христов Чекаларов}} | image = File:Vasil Chekalarov voivoda.jpg | caption = Vasil Chekalarov {{circa|1908}} | birth_date = 1874 | death_date = 9 July 1913 | birth_place = [[Smardesh]], [[Monastir Vilayet]], [[Ottoman Empire]] | death_place = [[Belkamen]], [[Ottoman Empire]] | birth_name = Vasil Hristov Chekalarov | allegiance = * {{flagicon image|Flag of the IMRO.svg}} [[Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization|IMRO]] * {{flag|Kingdom of Bulgaria}} | branch = [[File:Bulgaria war flag.png|20px|border]] [[Bulgarian Army]] | unit = [[Macedonian-Adrianopolitan Volunteer Corps]] | battles = {{tree list}} * [[Ilinden Uprising]] * [[Macedonian Struggle]] * [[Balkan Wars]] ** [[First Balkan War]] ** [[Second Balkan War]]{{KIA}} {{tree list/end}} | spouse = Olga Chekalarova | signature = File:Vasil Chekalarov Signature (vectorized).svg }}
'''Vasil Hristov Chekalarov''' ([[Bulgarian language|Bulgarian]]/{{langx|mk|Васил Христов Чекаларов}}; 1874 – 9 July 1913) was a [[Bulgarians|Bulgarian]]<ref>By Order No. 1232, issued in Sofia on December 13, 1910 by the Minister of Justice: Hristo Slaveykov, having regard to: 1) that Vasil Hr. Chekalarov from the village of Smardesh - Macedonia, submitted an application on December 10, 1910, registered under entry No. 38.669, in which he requests to be recognized as a Bulgarian subject, on the basis of Article 8 of the Bulgarian Citizenship Act; 2) that the documents attached to his application show that he was born in the village of Smrdesh - Macedonia, and that he is of Bulgarian origin, as born to Bulgarian parents; 3) that from the same documents it appears that, after leaving his native place, he settled in the city of Sofia, with the intention of establishing a permanent residence within the territory of the Kingdom; 4) that since, as from the above, it is established that he satisfies the conditions required by law, his application to be recognized as a Bulgarian subject is subject to satisfaction; Therefore, and in accordance with Art. 8 of the Bulgarian Citizenship Act, We hereby decree: That the following person, Vasil Hr. Chokalarov from the village of Smardesh - Macedonia, be recognized as a Bulgarian subject, for which the necessary certificate shall be issued to him. For more see: [https://www.strumski.com/biblioteka/?id=3618 Васил Чекаларов от с. Смърдеш, Костурско, Егейска Македония - "Заповед за българско поданство", публикувано в "Държавен вестник", бр. 46, София, 2 март 1911 година.]</ref><ref>{{cite book |author=[[Apostolos Vacalopoulos]] |title=Modern history of Macedonia (1830-1912) |location=Thessaloniki |date=1988 |page=192 |publisher=Barbounakis}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |author=Theodora Dragostinova |title=Between Two Motherlands: Nationality and Emigration Among the Greeks of Bulgaria, 1900–1949 |date=2011 |publisher=Cornell University Press |isbn=9780801461163 |pages=33–34}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |title=A Concise History of the Balkan Wars, 1912-1913 |date=1998 |publisher=Hellenic Army General Staff, Army History Directorate |isbn=9789607897077 |pages=128, 297}}</ref> revolutionary and a leader of the Kastoria district as part of the [[Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organisation]] (IMRO) in Macedonia. [[H. N. Brailsford]] described Chekalarov as one of the chiefs of the Bulgarian insurgent movement and "cruel but competent general" of the southern insurgents in [[Macedonia (region)|Macedonia]].<ref>{{cite book |url=http://www.promacedonia.org/en/hb/index.html |author=H. N. Brailsford |title=Macedonia: Its Races and Their Future |location=London |date=1906 |publisher=Methuen & Co |pages=35–36; 145}}</ref>
He was a leading ''[[komitaji]]'' in the bands of IMRO and took part in the battles against the [[Ottoman Empire|Ottoman]] authorities as well as before the [[Ilinden-Preobrazhenie Uprising|Ilinden Uprising]] as after it. In the 1900s, he created a channel for illegal purchase and transfer of firearms from Greece to Southern Macedonia.
==Life==
===Early life=== Vasil Chekalarov was born in 1874 in the village Smardesh (modern [[Krystallopigi]], [[Greece]]). His father was a migrant labourer like many men in the village. Chekalarov studied [[Greek language|Greek]] at a local [[Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople|Patriarchist]] school. He also apparently learned [[Albanian language|Albanian]], perhaps while in the village markets west of Smardesh, closer to the town of [[Korçe]].<ref name="rg">{{cite journal |title="Scores dead in Smerdesh": a micro-study of intercommunal violence and international intrigue in Ottoman Macedonia |pages=100–101, 106–108, 110–112 |url=https://hdl.handle.net/10945/56435 |author=Ryan Gingeras |date=2012 |journal=Balkanistica |volume=25 |issue=1 |hdl=10945/56435 }}</ref> Apart from Greek and Albanian, Chekalarov also spoke [[Bulgarian language|Bulgarian]] and the local Slavic dialect.<ref name="dd">{{cite book |title=The Greek struggle in Macedonia, 1897-1913 |author=Douglas Dakin |pages=52, 65–66, 69–70, 101–102, 105 |publisher=Museum of the Macedonian Struggle |date=1993 |isbn=978-960-7387-00-4 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DYtpAAAAMAAJ}}</ref> His father made him stop attending school after the fourth grade. Chekalarov worked as his father's apprentice, who was then a mason. Afterwards, his father sent him to study in the newly established [[Principality of Bulgaria]]. Chekalarov finished high school in [[Shumen]] in eastern Bulgaria, while working at local construction sites.<ref name="rg" /> Back in Macedonia, he was imprisoned on the charge of violating a Greek female teacher in 1893. He escaped and returned to Bulgaria where he worked in a [[quarry]] and learned to work as a cobbler.<ref name="dd" /> Chekalarov organised a fraternity among other workers from [[Kastoria]] in Bulgaria. While working in a factory in the area of Sofia, he befriended another migrant from Ottoman Macedonia, Bulgarian military officer [[Boris Sarafov]]. The two became close friends and Chekalarov expanded his network. Sarafov encouraged Chekalarov to join the [[Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organisation]] (IMRO). Chekalarov, who did not have any military experience, was initiated into the Organisation.<ref name="rg" />
===Revolutionary activity=== [[File:Vasil Chakalarov2.jpg|left|thumb|309x309px|Vasil Chekalarov during the occupation of [[Kleisoura, Kastoria|Kleisoura]] in the Ilinden Uprising of 1903.]] [[File:Vasil Chekalarov head.jpg|left|thumb|249x249px|The severed head of Vasil Chekalarov c. 1913]] He returned to his village in 1900 to begin his revolutionary activity. Chekalarov contributed to the growth and development of the IMRO in the fields of supply and organisation. Due to the [[Greco-Turkish War (1897)|war between Greece and the Ottoman Empire in 1897]], the Greco-Ottoman border was heavily guarded on both sides. Chekalarov was the main procurer for IMRO in its southern districts. He was able to cross across the Ottoman-Greek border posing as an Albanian merchant. As he was fluent in both Greek and Albanian, he developed contacts in [[Athens]] connected to the international trade in weapons. Chekalarov transformed his native village into a hub of IMRO activity, trafficking rifles and using the village as a base to store explosive materials he imported from abroad.<ref name="rg" /> As a commander of the district of Kastoria, through his contact and field work with senior leaders (especially those who had received a military education in Bulgaria), he learned bomb-making and developed his own personal network of weapon smugglers and sponsors.<ref name="oxt">{{cite book |title=The Oxford Handbook of the History of Terrorism |date=2022 |publisher=Oxford University Press |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FfNQEAAAQBAJ |editor1=Carola Dietze |editor2=Claudia Verhoeven |page=370 |isbn=978-0-19-985856-9 }}</ref> Along with other band leaders from the neighbouring villages of [[Dendrochori, Kastoria|Dambeni]], [[Kotas, Florina|Roulia]] and [[Gavros, Kastoria|Gabresh]], Chekalarov maintained a strict regime of discipline and extortion in the northern parts of Kastoria.<ref name="rg" /> Per historian [[Ryan Gingeras]], he and other band leaders gained reputations as merciless killers with beheadings, house burnings, bombings, and shootings regularly conducted as tools to enforce local discipline, take revenge, or alter the political landscape of a region.<ref name="oxt" /> His control over the region did not go unchallenged. Ottoman forces patrolled the region. The metropolitan [[Germanos Karavangelis]], who was appointed to the Patriarchist bishopric of Kastoria in 1900, sent bands to counter the influence of Chekalarov's bands, to maintain the interests of Greece and the [[Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople|Patriarch]]. Ottoman authorities supported and protected Karavangelis, who was seen as useful for [[Countervailing power|countervailance]].<ref name="rg" /> In 1901, Chekalarov murdered an Ottoman informant in the village [[Makrochori|Konomladi]], as well as a woman from the village, who betrayed [[Gotse Delchev]]'s cheta by informing the Ottomans.<ref>{{cite book |author=Mercia MacDermott |title=Freedom or Death: The Life of Gotsé Delchev |publisher=Journeyman Press |date=1978 |page=270 |isbn=0-904526-32-1}}</ref> In his diary on 29 December 1902, he wrote about a "[[Grecoman]]" priest who tried to convince Chekalarov and his comrades that they were Greeks, afterwards claiming that they were neither Greeks nor Bulgarians, but Macedonians, which Chekalarov perceived as being ignorant about history.<ref>{{cite book |url=http://www.promacedonia.org/bmark/vch/index.htm |author=Vasil Chekalarov |title=Дневник 1901-1903 |editor1=Ива Бурилкова |editor2=Цочо Билярски |trans-title=Diary 1901-1903 |location=Sofia |publisher=Синева |date=2001 |page=188 |language=bg}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Каква била реакцијата на Васил Чекаларов кога погрчениот поп Герман му кажал дека Македонците се потомци на Александар Македонски |url=https://tribuna.mk/kakva-bila-reakcijata-na-vasil-chekalarov-koga-pogrcheniot-pop-german-mu-kazhal-deka-makedoncite-se-potomci-na-aleksandar-makedonski/ |website=Tribuna |date=9 July 2021}}</ref> In 1903, Ottoman patrols remained active around Smardesh. Ottoman soldiers brought reservists and local volunteers, who often stole things and ransacked homes during their searches for revolutionaries and weapons. In response, Chakalarov organised several mass demonstrations to gain more support for IMRO and undermine the credibility of the Ottoman counter-insurgency.<ref name="rg" />
Throughout March, Chekalarov remained in and around Smardesh alongside Sarafov, who was then a regional commander, and who was making preparations for a secret congress of IMRO to be held in the village [[Smilevo]]. On 10 April, Chekalarov and Sarafov were surprised by Ottoman troops who suddenly appeared on the hills around Smrdesh. In panic, Chekalarov sent messengers to neighbouring villages to gain reinforcements. Several hundred peasant recruits from the villages [[Moschochori, Florina|Vampeli]], [[Ieropigi|Kosinec]] and Dambeni arrived, appearing behind the soldiers and started shooting at them. While the Ottomans remained pinned down by gunfire from revolutionaries in Smrdesh and from the peasant rebels behind them, Chekalarov and Sarafov fled to the mountains. Chekalarov returned to Smrdesh on 14 May. In Smilevo, the central committee of IMRO voted to begin preparations for a mass uprising later that summer. Chekalarov's main base was destroyed after the burning of his village due to a skirmish with Ottomans.<ref name="rg" /> On 31 May 1903, Chekalarov participated in a battle in Lokvata, fought on a mountain slope by villagers from Dambeni, chetas (armed groups) and prominent [[komitadjis]] who inflicted disproportionate casualties on a much larger [[Ottoman Army (1861–1922)|Ottoman force]]. His brother Foti died in the battle.<ref>{{cite book|last=Michailidis|first=Iakovos D.|chapter=On the Other Side of the River: The Defeated Slavophones and Greek History|editor-last=Cowan|editor-first=Jane K.|title=Macedonia: The Politics of Identity and Difference|year=2000|publisher=Pluto Press|isbn=9780745315898|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SXGd04cB59EC&pg=PA74|page=74}}</ref>
Ahead of the [[Ilinden uprising]], his men clashed repeatedly with Ottoman troops. Between June and July, Chekalarov executed around ten civilians from villages neighbouring Smardesh for collaboration with the authorities.<ref name="rg" /> Chekalarov also clashed with former IMRO member [[Kottas]] and at the end of June, he attacked the village Roulia with his komitadjis and gained the lower part of the village, but Kottas held out in the upper part of the village with his men.<ref name="dd" /> During the uprising in August 1903, he commanded the insurgents in the region of Kastoria.<ref>{{cite book |editor=Dimitar Konstantinov Kosev |title=Bulgaria Past & Present: Studies on History, Literature, Economics, Sociology, Folklore, Music & Linguistics: Proceedings of the Second International Conference on Bulgarian Studies |date=1982 |publisher=Publishing House of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences |page=53}}</ref> On the first day of the uprising, Chekalarov murdered 26 Muslims at the village [[Agios Antonios, Kastoria|Zervaini]]. Chekalarov managed to occupy [[Nymfaio|Neveska]] on 19 August.<ref name="dd" /> He was able to partially avenge the destruction of Smardesh in late August, when he and several hundred insurgents attacked Bildishta, which was seen as a centre of Muslim and Albanian attacks on Smardesh. IMRO insurgents also burned down several Albanian villages west of Smardesh.<ref name="rg" /> At the end of October, Chekalarov, like many of the leaders, acknowledged the defeat of the uprising. Chekalarov, dressed as an Aromanian, along with around 20 people, crossed the Greek border at Velemisti. In Greece, he was arrested along with the rest and held for two weeks, but they were able to arrive in Sofia at the end of November.<ref name="dd" />
After the uprising, he fought against the Greek [[Struggle for Macedonia]].<ref>{{cite book |title=Makedonska enciklopedija |trans-title=Macedonian Encyclopedia |date=2009 |publisher=MANU |page=1612 |language=mk |editor=Blaže Ristovski}}</ref> In March 1908, he attended the Kyustendil Congress of IMRO.<ref>{{cite book |author=M. Sukru Hanioglu |title=Preparation for a Revolution: The Young Turks, 1902-1908 |date=2001 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=9780199771110 |pages=198–199}}</ref> As a commander of a Bulgarian guerrilla band, Chekalarov supported the [[Greek army|Hellenic Army]] in the [[First Balkan War]] in 1912-1913.<ref>{{cite book |url=http://www.promacedonia.org/hs/hs_c_2.html |author=Hristo Silyanov |title=От Витоша до Грамос. Пътят на една чета през Освободителната война 1912 |location=Sofia |date=1920 |language=bg}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |title=Македоно-Одринско опълчение 1912-1913. Личен състав по документите на Дирекция "Централен военен архив" |location=Sofia |date=2006 |pages=794, 892 |publisher=Главно управление на архивите при Министерския съвет |language=bg |isbn=9789549800524}}</ref> Later he fought on the side of the Bulgarian Army on the front in [[Eastern Thrace]] in the composition of the [[Macedonian-Adrianopolitan Volunteer Corps]]. He was killed by Greek troops during the [[Second Balkan War]] at Belkamen (modern [[Drosopigi, Florina]], Greece) on 9 July 1913 and his head was publicly displayed in Florina.<ref name="vt">{{cite book |title=Museums, Transculturality, and the Nation-State: Case Studies from a Global Context |date=2022 |isbn=9783839455142 |publisher=transcript Verlag |editor1=Nina Samuel |editor2=Susanne Leeb |pages=162, 164}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |author=Георги Генов |title=Беломорска Македония: 1908 - 1916 |location=Toronto, New York |publisher=Благотворително издание на бежанците от Вардарска и Егейска Македония, емигранти в САЩ и Канада, Veritas et Pneuma Publishers Ltd., Multi-lingual Publishing House |date=2007 |isbn=978-954-679-146-7 |page=241 |language=bg}}</ref>
==Legacy== In 1934, a Bulgarian village was renamed [[Chakalarovo]] in honour of Vasil Chekalarov.<ref>Мичев, Николай, Петър Коледаров. Речник на селищата и селищните имена в България 1878-1987, София, 1989, стр. 68.</ref> In the early 1950s the Yugoslav government submitted a memorandum to the UN, where the population in [[Bulgarian Macedonia]] was declared a "[[Yugoslav Macedonia|Yugoslav Macedonian]] minority", persecuted by the authorities in Sofia. A lot of old IMRO revolutionaries, including Chekalarov's wife Olga, declared themselves against these Yugoslav allegations.<ref>{{cite book |author=Stoyan Germanov |title=Македонският въпрос 1944 - 1989. Възникване, еволюция, съвременност |trans-title=The Macedonian Question 1944 - 1989. Origin, evolution, actuality |publisher=Macedonian Scientific Institute |location=Sofia |date=2014 |edition=2nd |page=134 |language=bg |url=http://www.mni.bg/2022/01/docent-stoyan-germanov.html?m=1}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |quote=Во таа смисла, кон крајот на 1951 година југословенската влада испратила Меморандум до Организацијата на обединетите нации, во која укажала на прогонот и теророт од страна на бугарските власти врз „југословенското малцинство“. Поради тоа, група поранешни македонски револуционери и членови на нивните семејства кои останале на територијата на Бугарија, истапиле со специјална декларација против „југословенските претензии“. Декларацијата е потпишана од Ѓорѓи Поп Христов, Андон Ќосето, Димитар Занешев, Лазар Томов, Александра Хаџи Димова (сопругата на Димо Хаџи Димов) и Олга Чекаларова (сопругата на Васил Чекаларов). (English: In this regard, towards the end of 1951, the Yugoslav government sent a Memorandum to the United Nations, in which it pointed out the persecution and terror by the Bulgarian authorities against the „Yugoslav minority“. Therefore, a group of former Macedonian revolutionaries and members of their families who remained on the territory of Bulgaria, came out with a special declaration against “Yugoslav pretensions”. The declaration was signed by Gjorgji Pop Hristov, Andon Kjoseto, Dimitar Zanešev, Lazar Tomov, Aleksandra Hadži Dimova (the wife of Dimo Hadži Dimov) and Olga Čekalarova (the wife of Vasil Čekalarov.) |author=Ванчо Ѓорѓиев |title=Андон Јанев Ќосето |publisher=Филозофски факултет – Скопје |date=2016 |page=241 |language=mk}}</ref>
His diary, describing the period from 1901 to 1903, whose originals were preserved by a relative of his, was published in 2001 in [[Sofia]].<ref>Чекаларов, Васил. Дневник 1901 – 1903 г. София, ИК „Синева“, 2001. {{ISBN|954-9983-11-0}}.</ref> [[Gane Todorovski]] wrote a poem about him.<ref>{{cite book |editor1=Sonja Stojmenska-Elzeser |editor2=Vladimir Martinovski |title=Literary dislocations |date=2012 |publisher=Institute of Macedonian literature |location=Skopje |isbn=978-9989-886-93-5 |page=606}}</ref> An equestrian statue depicting him was placed in [[Skopje]] in 2013 as part of the [[Skopje 2014]] project. Before the placement of the statue, he was unknown to the general public in [[North Macedonia]]. The [[Macedonian historiography]] and the [[Bulgarian historiography]] regard him as a hero.<ref name="vt" /> A street started bearing his name in [[Varna, Bulgaria|Varna]] in 2018.<ref>{{cite web |title=Варненска улица ще носи името на войводата Васил Чекаларов |language=bg |date=27 November 2018 |website=Kmeta.bg |url=https://kmeta.bg/varnenska-ulica-ste-nosi-imeto-na-vojvodata-vasil-chekalarov/}}</ref>
==External links== * [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wSpBujcxbkc A folk song about Vasil Chakalarov] at [[YouTube]] * [http://strumski.com/biblioteka/?id=692 Лазар Поптрайков - "Въстанието в Костурско; от 20 юлий до 30 август вкл.", публикувано в "Бюлетин на в. Автономия; Задграничен лист на Вътрешната македоно-одринска организация", брой 44-47, София, 1903 година] Report about the revolt in Kostur (Kastoria) written by Lazar Poptraykov, Vasil Chakalarov, Manol Rozov, Pando Klyashev and Mihail Nikolov * {{Commons inline}}
==References== <references/>
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Chekalarov, Vasil}} [[Category:1874 births]] [[Category:1913 deaths]] [[Category:Bulgarians from Aegean Macedonia]] [[Category:Members of the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization]] [[Category:Bulgarian military personnel of the Balkan Wars]] [[Category:Bulgarian revolutionaries]] [[Category:Bulgarian people in Ottoman Macedonia]] [[Category:Balkan Wars casualties]] [[Category:Bulgarian military personnel killed in action]] [[Category:People from Florina (regional unit)]] [[Category:Emigrants from the Ottoman Empire to Bulgaria]]