The Kruševo Republic would be one of the world’s oldest democracies today

Based on this infographic map, it would be the 12th-oldest today if it had lasted since its declaration on 3 August 1903. Of course, the republic lasted a mere 10 days. Yet while many countries today have democratic systems, it is important to recognize how uncommon these ideals were in 1903. This is why we must continue to commemorate this republic that did not even last a fortnight.

Nikola Karev, a 25-year-old local teacher, was considered President of the Kruševo Republic. A few months prior to the Ilinden Uprising which established this republic, Karev was interviewed by Greek journalist Stamatis Stamatiou. He described his vision for Macedonia as a liberated autonomous republic modelled after Switzerland, with its different peoples living in peace. Karev describe himself in this interview as a Macedonian and a direct descendant of Alexander the Great. He went on to state that his revolutionary committee was not Bulgarian, that Bulgaria had miscalculated if it had been expecting to annex Macedonia, and that his committee would accept anyone’s help — whether Bulgaria’s or another party’s — as long as it meant freedom for Macedonia.

Per Nikola Kirov, Karev authored the Kruševo Manifesto during the Ilinden Uprising. The manifesto called upon the local Muslim population to join forces with the republican rebels, stating that the uprising did not have a religious or ethnic basis.

The republic was set up with an assembly consisting of 60 members, reportedly split equally among the three major groups of the town: those adhering to the Bulgarian Exarchate, those adhering to the Greek Patriarchate, and the Vlachs. In a speech at the assembly, Karev expressed his hope that this republic, in which there is governance by the people with equal representation for all religions and nationalities, would be a model for the rest of the fatherland.

The Ottoman response to the republic was extraordinary. They crushed the uprising and set part of the town ablaze. The Ottomans and Albanian bashi-bazouks looted the city afterwards. Some locals were forced to sign a declaration that the atrocities and the plundering had been done by the rebels.

What became of the Ilinden Uprising leaders? Basically, they did not quit until they were finally killed:

• Pitu Guli was killed during the uprising, defending the Kruševo Republic on its second-to-last day of existence.
• Karev was killed in 1905 attempting to re-enter Ottoman Macedonia with a band of rebels, at the age of 27.
• Gjorgi Sugarev in 1906 went to Mariovo to fight off rising bands of Greek rebels. Perhaps as a result of a betrayal, his band became surrounded by Ottoman forces and a battle ensued. Despite inflicting major damage upon the Turks, Sugarev’s entire band had been killed. He had just one bullet left, with which he took his own life at about 30 years of age.
• Dame Gruev was, along with his band of rebels, killed by Ottoman forces in the village of Rusinovo at the end of 1906.
• Boris Sarafov was assassinated in Sofia in 1907 by Todor Panica on orders of Jane Sandanski, the result of splitting factions in the greater movement.

118 years later, where do we stand on Karev’s vision for Macedonia?

For the decade after the Ilinden Uprising, Macedonia remained under Ottoman rule. After the Balkan Wars, it was split by the kingdoms of Bulgaria (Pirin), Greece (Aegean), and Serbia (Vardar). Pirin and Aegan Macedonia remain today controlled by governments outside Macedonia, in Sofia and Athens respectively. Bulgaria regards the population of Pirin Macedonia as Bulgarian and suppresses any displays of ethnic Macedonian consciousness there. Greece has successfully performed an ethnic cleansing of the Slavic and Vlach communities of Aegean Macedonia.

Vardar Macedonia was part of the Kingdom of Serbia and then the Kingdom of Yugoslavia until World War II, after which it became a constituent republic of Socialist Yugoslavia. While ultimate control was in Belgrade and this was a one-party Communist regime, Macedonia had its own government in Skopje and was declared the nation-state of the ethnic Macedonians. The rights of ethnic minorities were guaranteed by the constitution.

Finally in 1991, independence came for the Republic of Macedonia, the first democracy within the region of Macedonia since the Kruševo Republic. It certainly was not a perfect Switzerland-like republic over the next nearly three decades, but it was a government by the people of Macedonia.

In 2019, however, the Republic of Macedonia ceased to exist. Without the approval of its people, the country’s name was changed. Since this time, it can be said that Macedonia is again controlled by outside forces rather than by the Macedonian people. The Republic of North Macedonia is not the vision Karev and all the others had over a century ago.

Is all hope lost? Certainly not. The revolutionaries of the Ilinden Uprising started from scratch against a powerful and oppressive empire that had ruled their fatherland for centuries. Today, a republic exists in Macedonia. While it has gone astray from the interests of its people, it can be made better than ever before.

It is time to get up and fight. Let us not wait for freedom from either the Greeks or the Bulgarians, but let us Macedonians fight for our Macedonia, which strengthens our organization among the villagers and let us not mention the claims that “all Macedonians worked for the accession of Macedonia to Bulgaria or Greece.”

As for me, no one will be able to take away my courage and patriotism.

It is my pleasure to tell you that all of our boys are ready to fight with gun in hand.

-Nikola Karev, in a letter to Goce Delčev (1902)