Strandzha Commune

Strandzha Commune
Странджанска комуна Странджанска република Малкотърновска република
← 1903 →
Capital		Centered around Malko Tarnovo
Government		Anarchy
Historical era		Ilinden–Preobrazhenie Uprising
•	Established	18 August 1903
•	Disestablished	8 September 1903
Today part of		Bulgaria

The Strandzha Commune or Strandzha Republic^[1] was a short-lived Bulgarian political entity, proclaimed during the Preobrazhenie Uprising in 1903 by Internal Macedonian Adrianople Revolutionary Organization rebels in Strandzha, in the Adrianople Vilayet of the Ottoman Empire.

By 1903, the anarchist Mihail Gerdzhikov became a guerrilla commander in the Internal Macedonian Adrianople Revolutionary Organisation’s armed wing in Thrace, the Mortal Combat Body which helped stage a revolt against the Ottomans in Adrianople Vilayet. In the Ilinden–Preobrazhenie Uprising Gerdzhikov's forces about 2,000 strong, facing a Turkish garrison of 10,000 well-armed troops, managed to establish a liberated zone in the Strandzha Mountains, centered in Vasiliko. This successful mass insurrection supported by militia operations allowed a large part of Eastern Thrace to be taken by the rebels. In the region the population celebrated for about three weeks. A new communitarian system was set up and all questions were resolved in a spirit of mutual agreement between Bulgarians and Greeks receded. The Turkish government was surprised by the uprising, taking extraordinary military measures to suppress it. The Ottomans managed to destroy the Strandzha Republic, committing atrocities against the rebel forces and the local population.

See also

• Kruševo Republic

References

1. Долу султана, да живее Балканската федерация, откъс от книгата "Националното освобождение и безвластният федерализъм" от Георги Хаджиев.

Source

• "Down with the Sultan, Long live the Balkan Federation!" The 1903 uprisings in Macedonia and Thrace