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Biography

Goce Delčev (Гоце Делчев, also transliterated Gotze Delchev and Gotse Delchev; 1872-1903) was a Macedonian revolutionary and the leader of the Internal Macedonian-Adrianople Revolutionary Organisation (IMARO), the predecessor to the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization (IMRO) (which came to being after WWI).

Born on January 23, 1872 in Kukush (now Kilkis, nothern Greece), Delcev finished the local junior high school and the Bulgarian high school "St Cyril and Methodius" in Thessaloniki. He entered the Military academy in Sofia in 1891 but was expelled because he was a member of a socialist circle. Delchev became a teacher in Bulgarian in Stip in 1894, where he met Dame Gruev, the leader of the local committee of IMARO. As a result of the close friendship between the two, Delchev joined the organization in 1895 becoming before long its leader. Goce Delchev's involvement in the Macedonian-Adrianople Revolutionary Committee (as the organization was called until (1902) determined the most significant course in the history of the Macedonian liberation movement. The years between 1894 and 1903 represent the final and most efficient revolutionary sequence of his short life.

Delchev fought for Macedonian autonomy. As most of the other leaders of IMARO at the time, Delcev had a vision of a multiethnic and self-governing Macedonia. The international, cosmopolitan views of Delchev that elevated him far ahead of his time, could be summarized in his proverbial sentence: "I understand the world solely as a field for cultural competition among nations".

His correspondence with the other IMARO members covers extensive data on supplies, transport and storage of weapons and ammunition in Macedonia. Delchev initiated the idea for an independent production of weapons, which resulted in the establishment of a bomb manufacturing plant in the village of Sabler near Kyustendil in Bulgaria. The bombs were later smuggled across the Ottoman border into Macedonia.

The inclusion of the rural areas into the organizational districts contributed to the expansion of the organization and the increase in its membership, while providing the essential prerequisites for the formation of the military power of the organization, at the same time having Goce Delchev as its military advisor (inspector). Delchev's work-style defied the discrepancy between words and deeds.

The primary question regarding the timing of the uprising in Macedonia implicated an apparent discordance among the representatives, at the Sofia Conference in 1903 with Delchev opposing the uprising as premature.

Delcev died on May 4, 1903 in a skirmish with the Turkish police near the village of Banitza, Serres region while preparing the Ilinden uprising in Macedonia. The remains of Goce Delchev were transferred to the People's Republic of Macedonia, on October 10, 1946. The following day, they were enshrined in a marble sarcophagus which is until present displayed in the yard of the "Sv. Spas" ("Holy Savior") church in Skopje.

Letter from Nikola Karev to Gotze Delchev

Dear G(otze)

... In Krushevo and Bitola the night blocades appear almost every day, and a lot of affairs throw people in jail. We shouldnt wait anymore, Gotze. It is time for us to stand up and fight. We shouldnt wait for freedom from Greeks, neither from Bulgarians, but we Macedonians should fight for our Macedonia, ... As i am concerned, nobody can take away my courage and my patriotism. I am proud to report to you, that all our men are prepared to fight, with guns in their hands.

N(ikola)

Text of a letter of Delcev to Nikola Maleshevski

"Sofia, 01.05.1899,

Kolyo (Nikola),

I have received all letters which were sent by or through you. May the dissents and cleavages not frighten you. It is really a pity, but what can we possibly do when we ourselves are Bulgarians and all suffer from the same disease! If this disease had not existed in our forefathers who passed it on to us, we wouldn't have fallen under the ugly sceptre of the Turkish sultans...

Text of the IMARO statute

Statute of Internal Macedonian-Adrianople Revolutionary Organisation (amended at the general congress in 1906)

Chapter I. - Goal

Art. 1. - The goal of the Internal Macedonian-Adrianople Revolutionary Organization is to unite any and all dissatisfied elements in Macedonia and the Adrianople Vilyaet without regard to their nationality so that political autonomy can be gained for these two regions.

Art. 2. The Organization opposes any other country's intensions to divide and conquer these two regions...

Notes

1. The People's Republic of Macedonia was one of several federal entities of the Federal People's Republic of Yugoslavia until 1963 when constitutional and name changes were instituted.

External links

• Original Ottoman documents about the murder of Goce Delchev
• Excerpt from the memoirs of Enver Pasha referring to the struggle of the Ottoman government with IMARO

• Macedonia
• Macedonian revolutionaries
• 1872 births
• 1903 deaths