FOR FREEDOM AND PERFECTION. The Life of Yané Sandansky
Mercia MacDermott

24. THE TENTH CHAIN AND THE TENTH KNIFE

By the end of the war, Yané was physically and emotionally exhausted. Like the storms which weather and wear away the granite of Pirin, the years of unremitting strain and struggle had left their mark upon him, and he had long felt the need for a complete rest. [1] During the Second Balkan War, he was even toying with the idea of taking a holiday in America, since he feared that in Bulgaria he would not be left in peace. [2] Yané’s ‘American dream’ represents, perhaps, the only occasion on which he was guilty of truly ‘Utopian’ thinking, and it is an indication of how desperately weary he must have felt. Yet he did not go, for he had neither passport, nor money of his own, and, above all, his roots were so deep in Pirin that, like the great pines, he could not tear himself away from his native land. And it was there that he withdrew to lick his wounds and recover his health, after the avalanche of events which had left him bruised and gasping. The wounds were psychological, rather than physical. The world had fallen to pieces around him; his cherished dreams had dissolved into a hideous, mocking nightmare from which there was no awakening, and no escape. Not since the days of his first disillusion with the Supremists, not since Gotsé had opened his eyes to the truth, had he felt so hurt and so bewildered. The Russian journalist Viktorov-Toparov described the change wrought in him by the war in these words: ‘This was no longer the Yané Sandansky who commanded the respect of his enemies not so much by his courage as by the firmness of his convictions. Something had darkened within him, faith in something very big and important had been lost, and his clear, shining hope was veiled in a heavy, misty shroud.’ [3]

In this grey, twilight period of his life, the place in which he chose to live was the Rozhen Monastery on the sunlit uplands above Melnik, ringed with a golden labyrinth of crumbling sandstone canyons. The reasons for his choice are not known. Perhaps he felt that since his ‘kingdom’ was now under official Bulgarian administration, and he was still an outlaw, it would be unwise to reside in Melnik itself. Perhaps he wanted the complete quiet and independence, combined with reasonable comfort, which only the

1. Early in 1911, Dr Tenchev told Mustakov that Yané was thinking of going away somewhere to rest. Military Archives f. 23, op.II, a.e. 163, pp. 1-5.

2. Memoirs of Lt. Zografov, OIM Blagoevgrad, No. 1511.

3. Sŭvremenna misŭl, 15.V.1915.

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monastery could give him. Whatever the reason, it was here that he went with his sister, after he had disbanded his cheti at the end of July 1913. The monastery was empty, deserted by the Greek monks who had so tormented the peasants of the surrounding villages, and as yet no Bulgarian monks had come to take their place. [4] If it was a fortress that Yané was seeking, there were few places in the Melnik area more suitable for the purpose. The monastery is an irregular, six-sided building, with massive stone walls surrounding a court-yard containing a low church, invisible from outside. A little white tower, dainty and pavilion-like, rises above the rosy-tiled roof to provide an observation point with visibility second only to an eagle’s-eye view. The main entrance to the monastery is barred by heavy iron gates, studded with nails and scarred with ancient bullet holes. Above the gateway are holes through which defenders can pour boiling oil and brimstone upon the heads of attackers. Inside, all is peace and beauty. Trees and green grass grow among the flag-stones of the courtyard, vines trail from beam to beam, and pure mountain water flows unceasingly from the spout of a stone fountain. The interior façade of the monastery is open and welcoming, with wooden verandahs, linked by stairways, running the whole length of the walls, three storeys high to the north and two to the south.

Yané chose for himself two rooms on the upper floor of the southern wing of the monastery, with windows offering superb views over meadows and canyons. One window opened into a little balcony which hung like a swallow’s nest on the outer wall of the building. Here, without leaving the monastery, without even leaving his room, Yané could slip out into the sunshine or the moonlight, with a touch of the old freedom which he had known amid the forests and crags of Pirin. In the larger room he would receive guests and visitors, while the smaller one, which led off it, served as his bedroom and private sanctum. Here he slept on a wooden bed covered with a bear skin, with pillows made of deer and fox skins. A fox-skin rug decorated the wall beside his bed, and nearby he had hung his rebel gear—including cloak, leather bag, gun, ammunition belt and dagger-ready to hand, should need arise.

Despite his depressed state of mind, Yané adapted himself, without obvious difficulty, to his new way of life. He read a great deal, went for walks, received guests and gave advice to the numerous peasants who sought it. He bought grapes, and later rented a vineyard in which he worked himself, and he made wine and rakiya in order to have something to offer to his visitors. He and his sister kept some fifty hens in the courtyard, and occasionally Yané would go hunting for hares. He was not, however, a keen hunter, for the boy who had kept doves in Dupnitsa had

4. I am indebted to Pimen, Bishop of Nevrokop, for the information that, while Yawe lived in the monastery, no monks were in residence, apart from a very short period when a monk named Meleti, travelling from the Zograf Monastery on Mount Athos to Dobrodol, near Lorn, broke his journey in Rozhen.

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grown into a man who took little pleasure in killing solely for sport. It is said that in his cheta days, he killed a huge bear with a knife, when the animal threatened his men at a moment when guns could not be used for fear of alerting the Turks. The bear-skin which he slept on may well have belonged to this animal.

In November 1913, Yané and Sofia were joined by a young man named Haralambi Udev, from Krushevo (Demir Hisar district), whom Yané had known since 1902, when Udev had been a sixteen-year-old schoolboy. Haralambi had run away from Krushevo—now under Greek rule—when he had received call-up papers to join the Greek Army, and he remained in the monastery as a general assistant to the modest household. He looked after the animals, including Mitsa’s latest foal, Pirincho, collected the post from Melnik every day, took more important letters by hand to comrades in nearby villages, and, armed with a revolver supplied by Yané, he would go round the monastery on a tour of inspection every evening before going to bed, to make sure that all was well. Haralambi Udev also did the cooking, which could involve the preparation of quite large quantities of food, since Yané frequently had visitors and liked to be hospitable. Apart from Yané’s closest comrades, such as Buynov, Panitsa, Chudomir, Skrizhovsky, Chernopeev and Dimo Hadzhidimov, people from Melnik and former chetnitsi would visit him with their families. Those who came from further away would usually send telegrams in advance, announcing their proposed arrival. After the guests had eaten, they would dance and sing, usually beginning with a song called ‘A horo winds beside the monastery’, or they would go out onto the meadows, sit down and reminisce about former battles. If Hadzhidimov was present, he would tell the other guests about the death of Gotsé Delchev in Serska Banitsa, which he personally witnessed. [5]

On Saturdays, Yané would ride down into Melnik to see his friends and to talk to the peasants who came for the market. He would go into the shops and urge the merchants not to cheat the people, or try to make big profits, but to sell cheaply. Then he would go into a tavern, shake hands with everyone and order drinks all round. His faithful mare, Mitsa, would patiently wait for him by the door of the shop or tavern, and, when he came out, he would always reward her with a titbit—a sweet, some sultanas, a fig, or some sugar. [6] Between the two of them—man and mount—there existed a very real bond of mutual affection and understanding. Yané had named her after Mitso Vransky, and, in her own way, she was as close and faithful a friend as Mitso had been. Indeed, Yané once told Mitso’s son, whom he encouraged to visit him frequently, that,

5. Much of the material about life in the Rozhen Monastery is taken from the memoirs of Haralambi Dimitrov Udev, Pirinsko Delo, 19.V.1955.

6. From the unpublished diary of Stoyan Kitanov, according to information given to him by Stoyan Ivanov, of Gradevo, in 1966. Ivanov was born in Demir Hisar, and was 84 when he related his memories.

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of all the people whom he had known, Mitso had been his closest and dearest comrade, while of all the animals which he had known, it was Mitsa whom he loved best. [7] By all accounts, Mitsa was an exceedingly beautiful creature, sleek, well-fed and always carefully tended.

Since there were no monks in the monastery, Yané would arrange for local priests to come and take services on high days and holidays, so that the old traditions which had played so great a role in preserving Bulgarian national feeling would be maintained. On September 8/21, the Feast of the Holy Mother of God, peasants from all the surrounding villages would gather at the monastery for a gala in honour of its patroness. After attending church, they would visit Yané in his guest room, where he would receive them, sitting cross-legged on a thick woollen rug by the hearth, and the younger people would kiss his hand, as was the custom, to show respect for an older man. At Easter, they came again, and all the women and children went up to his room—this time, before entering the church— and each gave him a red egg, so that the long seat beside the wall became covered with a red ‘cobble-stone pavement’ of Easter eggs. Yané, for his part, would give them all sweets. On such festive occasions, the peasants would dance the horo along the wooden verandahs, and Yané would join them and lead the dance.

The peasants’ love for the man who had done so much for their welfare and advancement was expressed not only in such visits, but in constant vigilance and concern for his safety. Once, a group of officers, including two colonels, accompanied by four soldiers, came on a friendly visit to Yané. While they were all sitting on one of the verandahs, Dimitŭr Arnaudov noticed that there were armed men on the cliffs. A little later, Yané’s sister appeared and made signs for Arnaudov to come to her room. There he found Ivan Rozhensky, one of Yané’s most trusty supporters from Rozhen village, who informed him that the monastery was surrounded on all sides by the militia from five villages, because the peasants thought that the officers had come to arrest Yané, who was still waiting for an amnesty. Arnaudov explained to him that the precautions were unnecessary, since the officers were all Yané’s friends, and would stay the night and depart in the morning. [8]

For all his tough exterior, Yané felt things deeply and keenly, especially those connected with the Cause. Years before, the Central Committee’s decision to proceed with the Ilinden Rising had left him so prostrate with horror and grief that for a time he had been unable to work. Eventually, however, the shock had worn off, and, in the same way, the trauma caused by the new national catastrophe was only temporary in its effect. Yané soon became himself again, and the will to struggle rose in his soul as irrepressible as a spring which neither frost nor rockfalls can entomb

7. Memoirs of Stoyan Mitsev Samarzhiev, TDIA, f. 1508, op. 2, a.e. 14.

8. Arnaudov, Opus cit., p. 27. The officers included General Azmanov (then Colonel) and Col. Tomov, who was then stationed on the frontier near Petrich.

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for ever. Everywhere in Pirin one is reminded that life and death, destruction and renewal, are part of the same eternal natural process. Withered trees with hollow trunks bear witness to the persistence of life by putting forth new shoots, and beside the blackened skeletons of forest giants, blasted by lightning, slender green saplings extend their tender limbs and reach for the sky.

To live means to struggle. . . To the end Yané remained true to his credo. As soon as he was rested and had taken stock of the situation, he recovered much of his natural optimism. According to Dimitŭr Arnaudov, Yané felt that the Bulgarian people had learned something from its bitter experiences and would not allow the Court to lead it astray again. Moreover, he regarded the existing state of affairs as temporary, since the division of Macedonia and the appetites of those whom he called ‘crowned wolves’ would almost certainly result in another war. [9] In order to become better informed about the political situation, he risked a visit to Sofia, from where, at the end of 1913, he wrote the following letter to ‘Gotsé’ and another person referred to as kumets (i.e. a person whose kum Yané was): ‘Forgive me for not writing to you till now. It’s not that I didn’t have the time, but, if you really want to know, my damned laziness won’t leave me. I set out allegedly for a short time, but it was extended considerably. This is due to my wanting to get a better feel of the political state of the country, on which, in turn, will depend how we define for ourselves our future public activity.’ [10]

Another reason for his prolonged sojourn in Sofia, hinted at in the letter, was his concern to see whether the National Assembly would finally pass the necessary legislation to grant the Serres leaders their long-promised pardon. Without such a pardon, they could not freely participate in the political life of the country. But once again they were disappointed, and, when a general election took place in February 1914, Yané was unable to offer himself as a candidate.

As an exercise in Democracy, the election was hardly an edifying spectacle. The National-Liberal Party of Radoslavov was determined to remain in office by fair means or foul, and, all over the country, from the Danube to Belasitsa, the proceedings were marred by violence and intimidation on the part of Government supporters, assisted by the police. [11] In the newly-liberated southern territories the situation was, if

9. Arnaudov, Opus cit., p. 28.

10. OIM Blagoevgrad, No. 242. Letter dated 21.XII.1913. The letter also mentions that he has had a telegram from Ali Nazim wishing him a Happy Christmas, and reveals an interest in automobiles. Yané writes of the possibility of setting up a company which would buy a car or two and carry the post. He recommends the local peasants to sow more tobacco for the spring, since the price is likely to rise. He also expresses concern for his sister, and wants to know whether new clothes have been sewn for her.

11. Throughout February, Rabotnichesky Vestnik carried almost daily reports under the headline Pre-election Terror. Similar reports appeared in other opposition papers,

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anything, worse than in the rest of the country, because the departure of the Turks had been followed by an influx of carpet-baggers and fortune-seekers, who enriched themselves at the expense of refugees and everybody else, and who practised nepotism, and Tammany-Hall-style politics. Newly appointed regional and district governors would bring with them a whole entourage of hangers-on, who would, in their turn, be appointed as mayors, policemen, tax-collectors, office messengers, etc., in preference to local men. In these territories there were as yet no established political traditions other than those of the Organization, and, in most places, the only effective contenders were Radoslavov’s National-Liberals and the opposition Democrats. Thus, the Serchani gave their support to the Democrats, while their adversaries and those who favoured the revived Organization of Todor Alexandrov supported the Government. Characteristically, Radoslavov’s list of candidates included that incorrigible rogue Doncho Voivoda and the basically honest, but politically immature Chernopeev, who were duly returned in Petrich and Strumitsa respectively. Radoslavov attempted to buy the political support of the monolithic Serchani by offering them tempting inducements in return for the mass votes of their followers. In a personal letter to Yané, he promised to introduce legislation for an amnesty as soon as the new National Assembly was convened, and he also indicated his readiness to give the Serchani all the parliamentary seats in the region, and to allow them to nominate all the administrative, excise, forestry and other civil servants. Much water, however, had flowed under the bridge since Yané had accepted the governorship of the Dupnitsa prison. This time he rejected Radoslavov’s blandishments and threw the whole of his weight behind the Democrat opposition.

The importance which Radoslavov attached to the election campaign in the newly-liberated territories was demonstrated by his tour of the area at the beginning of February 1914 (some three weeks before polling day, on February 23), when he visited Gorna Dzhumaya, Petrich and Strumitsa, and was given a civic welcome. A couple of weeks later, Krum Chaprashikov, who was standing as a Democrat in the Strumitsa Region, followed in his tracks, and, deeply shocked by what he saw, sent Radoslavov a lengthy telegram, informing him that more than a hundred mounted police had recently passed through Dupnitsa on their way to the Strumitsa Region, the present administration of which he described as ‘impossible’ and ‘piratical’. Chaprashikov went on to complain of widespread bribery, corruption, intimidation, thuggery and suspension of citizens’ electoral rights—all condoned, and often inspired, by the authorities: ‘Even the district police chiefs do not hesitate to admit that they are powerless against their own constables. As for your subordinate

such as Mir (organ of the conservative, Russophil Narodna Party) 25.II.1914, and Bŭlgaria (organ of the Progressive Liberal Party), 28.II. and 1.III.1914.

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organs, I will not even mention them, because it is there that the anarchy attains its peak. All this corruption is sown from above. . . Believe me, you will never set the Strumitsa Region to rights, because a fish starts to stink from its head.’ [12]

A picture of widespread corruption and incompetence on the part of mayors, tax-collectors, etc.—this time from a government source—also emerges from a report sent by Ivan Stefanov, Chief of Police in the Melnik District, to the Minister of the Interior, on March 5, 1914. The report also contains an urgent request for the recall of a senior mounted policeman recently seconded to the district from Sofia. Although he describes the man as a ‘zealous’ supporter of Radoslavov’s party, ‘with whom we have done a good deal of work’, Stefanov wishes to dispense with his services because ‘he gets drunk, runs up bills and does not pay, and takes other liberties’, with the net result that the party is being ‘discredited’ rather than strengthened by his presence. [13]

This embarrassing officer may well have been one of the ‘ten ‘experienced mounted policemen from Old Bulgaria’ whom Stefanov had asked for on February 13, together with ‘half a regiment’ of soldiers, for the purpose of dealing with alleged intimidation of voters on the part of Yané and his supporters, who were canvassing on behalf of the Democratic candidates. [14] Yané’s fearless, well-organized campaign in support of the Opposition was once again making him the target for much official accusation and abuse, and, by February 21, Stefanov was asking for a whole regiment, whose extended presence in the area he deemed necessary ‘for the achievement of our aim’, i.e. winning the elections and silencing Yané. Stefanov alleges that, a few days previously, Yané, accompanied by ‘fifteen armed chetnitsi’, had ‘blockaded’ the Radoslavist candidate and Stefanov’s secretary in the village of Hŭrsovo, and had then released them, after threatening to abduct them and take them into the mountains, if they persisted in their election campaign. Yané was also alleged to have told them that the heads of Radoslavov, the Tsar and the Ministers would roll, like those of Sarafov and Garvanov. [15] On polling day, February 23, 1914, in the presence of various policemen and local officials, Stefanov proceeded to draw up an indictment against Yané and Chudomir Kantardzhiev, accusing them of contravening the election law by intimidating voters, and complaining that they canvassed at night, which, he said, illustrated ‘their intentions and their inclination to crime’. [16]

The real reasons behind the ‘sinister’ night canvassing and Yané’s unceremonious treatment of the Radoslavists become clear when one reads other reports from government officials to their chiefs in Sofia. The police

12. TDIA, f. 313, op. 1, a.e. 1898, pp. 2-4. Telegram dated 19.II.1914.

13. Ibid., p. 12.     14. Ibid, p. 10.     15. Ibid, pp. 5-6.     16. Ibid., p. 14.

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chief in the Mehomiya District (Razlog), for example, openly boasts in a report to Radoslavov of how he and his colleagues have refused to allow the Democrats to hold public meetings in Mehomiya, Bansko and the surrounding villages, and how they interned one Democrat candidate in his native village after he had dared to show his face in Mehomiya. The police chief then has the affrontry to complain that canvassing by Democrats was ‘carried out on komitadzbi (Sandanist) lines’, ‘in a clandestine manner as though it were an uprising against the kingdom of Sultan Hamid’. [17]

The prize for hypocrisy and perversion of democracy must, however, surely go to Stefanov, who, in a report to the Minister of the Interior, explicitly describes how, at the poll in the village of Pirin, he ‘extracted’ Democrat ballot papers, leaving those of the Radoslavists, and how he arrested and replaced the chairman of the election bureau for ‘philosophizing’, i.e. protesting. At the same time, Stefanov forwarded to the Minister a note which he had received from Yané, after he had sent the latter a ‘visiting card’, informing him of alleged ‘complaints from the population’ and adjuring him to canvas ‘legally’! [18] Yané had replied:

‘Friend, we have received your letter. You have come with your whole staff to Pirin to conduct the elections. Bear in mind that we are closely observing everything done by you and your organs. You have already gone too far. Know that we shall hold you responsible for every one of your arbitrary acts, and we shall respond in kind. Do your worst, but rest assured that we are always able to give the guilty his deserts.

 

See you soon,

Sandansky.’ [19]

In the country as a whole, by dint of force and fraud, Radoslavov managed to obtain sufficient votes in order to stay in power. In the newly liberated areas, however, despite a measure of success in Strumitsa and Petrich, he received a severe rebuff. On the territory of the former Serres Region, his candidates collected so few votes that no amount of tampering with ballot papers could tip the balance in their favour. In the Razlog district, for example, where the police had prevented the Democrats from holding meetings, virtually the only votes cast for the Radoslavists were those of the Mohammedan population in such villages as Yakoruda and Babek. [20]

17. Ibid., pp. 16-17.     18. Ibid., p. 13.

19. Ibid., pp. 16-17. Letter dated 1.III.1914. According to Stefanov, the letter was written by Kantardzhiev and signed by Yané. In the village of Pirin, the original elections were declared nul and void, and new ones were held early in March.

20. See Vecherna Poshta, 26.II/8.III.1914, and Report of Mehomiya District Police Chief to Radoslavov (TDIA, f. 313, op. 1, a.e. 1898, p. 16). The writer of this report ruefully comments: ‘I have yet to see a more obstinate, wily, treacherous and un-

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Throughout the Pirin area, Democrat candidates, including veteran Serchani, such as Georgi Potskov and Dimitŭr Arnaudov, were elected with landslide majorities. No wonder Police Chief Stefanov, in a post-election report to the Ministry of the Interior, felt moved to make the following recommendation: ‘As for Sandansky, the area must, at all costs, be rid of him, because he is dangerous and will be a nuisance during the forthcoming elections for regional councillors. [21]

Yané’s friends among the newly elected deputies set about pushing a Bill to pardon the Serchani through the National Assembly, and when Potskov came home on leave early in May 1914, he was able to report that a Bill had already been prepared on the initiative of Alexander Dimitrov (Agrarian deputy for Pleven) and that seventy deputies, including Alexander Stamboliisky, had signed it. According to Paraskeva Potskova, none of Yané’s comrades were over-enthusiastic about the amnesty, because they feared that it would not change Ferdinand’s attitude, but merely lull Yané into a sense of false security, thereby facilitating the task of an assassin. It was Yané himself who now insisted on obtaining a formal pardon. As a voivoda he had no peer, but, at bottom, he was a citizen and a statesman rather than a komita. For thirteen years he had led the people of the Pirin area, teaching them not only how to fight, but also how to live, and he found it irksome being confined to a werewolf existence on the fringe of society with less real freedom than he had enjoyed under the Turks. He wanted to be able to visit Sofia openly, to lead a normal life, and to take part in politics and public affairs. On July 26, 1914, Alexander Dimitrov’s Bill was finally presented to the National Assembly, which accepted it without amendment, thus granting a full pardon to Yané, Buynov, Chudomir, Skrizhovsky and Panitsa for all offences committed prior to September 17, 1912, i.e. prior to the mobilization for the Balkan War.

The new situation in which Yané had to work was as tense and complicated as any which he had experienced. In the parts of Macedonia occupied by the Greeks and Serbs, the Bulgarian population was being subjected to a reign of terror far worse than anything that had occurred during the five centuries of Turkish rule. Even when the Turks had taken

grateful people, beating their breasts and saying "We are with Grandfather Russia".’ (Radoslavov was pro-German—M.M.) The total rejection of the governing National Liberals, even when they tried to bribe rather than terrorize the electorate, is illustrated by the following paragraph in the report: ‘In the village of Dobrinishté (near Bansko—M.M.), which was completely destroyed by fire two days before the election, we distributed 3000 okka of grain, I told them that the Government would make another 2000 leva available for food, but on the day of the election they gave us only 10 votes and 203 to the Democrats. This is a fact which should rouse everyone’s indignation. I am of the opinion that they should not be given any help whatsoever. This is black ingratitude to our people from Old Bulgaria who ruined themselves to give them freedom.’

21. TDIA, f. 313, op. 1, a.e. 1898, pp. 12-13.

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Bulgarian children to train as fanatical Muslim janissaires, they had taken only some and left the majority; even when they had forced whole communities to change their religion, they had never forbidden them to speak Bulgarian, or compelled them to speak Turkish. The special decree on ‘public security’ introduced into the territories recently acquired by Serbia made the Young Turk legislation against cheti appear positively liberal in comparison. [22] The very provisions and wording of the decree indicated that the authorities were not dealing with isolated ‘criminals’, but an entire population that was so recalcitrant and rebellious that—for all the official Serbian propaganda which claimed that Macedonia was inhabited by Serbs—it could not be given the same rights and freedoms under the Constitution as the rest of the population of the Serbian Kingdom. The rebelliousness of the Bulgarian population manifested itself in activity by cheti; in attempts to seek a Uniat with Rome rather than let Bulgarian churches be taken over by the Serbs; in an unsuccessful uprising in the areas of Debŭr, Struga and Ohrid during September 1913, and in the boycott of all official Serbian undertakings, such as the call-up of young men for military service. At the end of 1913 and the beginning of 1914, the Organization in Vardar and Aegean Macedonia rebuilt its network of the committees and cheti on a highly centralized basis, [23] and began to undertake more terrorist actions, and to clash with the occupying forces, as once they had clashed with the Turks.

Yané was opposed to the renewal of cheta warfare in the occupied areas. He considered that it only aggravated the situation and assisted the Serbs and Greeks to carry out their policy of denationalization by giving them an excuse to kill or drive out the most active leaders of the Bulgarian community. The Serchani advocated a more subtle and long-term approach, and recommended that ousted Bulgarian teachers return to their native villages in occupied territory to work as farmers or traders, so that they could secretly foster a revolutionary spirit among the population. [24]

Even in what little of Macedonia remained under Bulgarian administration, the situation was still far from satisfactory. Agrarian reform was delayed: the chifliks remained intact, and those beys who had fled either returned or sent representatives to act on their behalf. [25] The administration was still in the hands of Radoslavist go-getters from northern Bulgaria and their hangers-on. In Melnik, the new-comers were mostly from Troyan, while in Strumitsa, the Regional Governor, Grigor Nikolov, together with

22. See the Carnegie Report, pp. 160-162, for the details of the decree.

23. At this time the Central Committee consisted of Todor Alexandrov, Petŭr Chaulev and Hristo Chernopeev. There were no regional committees, only district, town and village ones. See Gotsev, Opus cit., p. 144.

24. See Arnaudov, Opus cit., p. 28. Yané’s opposition to cheti is also mentioned in Mir, 14.IV. 1915, and Kambana, 19.IV.1915.

25. As a deputy, Chernopeev was much engaged with this problem, and he was appointed to a Government commission which investigated the situation and produced a set of recommendations. See TPA, f. 228, op. 1, a.e. 23, pp. 8-11.

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most of the police force, came from the village of Lyutidol, near Vratsa. A number of letters written during the period 1914-1915 by Gerasim, Metropolitan Bishop of Strumitsa, to Chernopeev, and from the latter to Prime Minister Radoslavov, contain complaints about malpractices and downright tyranny on the part of Nikolov, his appointees and his handful of local cronies, who, according to the Bishop and Chernopeev, included Kotse Tsipushev from Radovish, who was both chairman of the Permanent Commission in Strumitsa and frontier representative of the resuscitated Organization of Todor Alexandrov, whose brother-in-law he was. [26]

The central problem which engaged the attention of Yané and the Serchani was, however, the question of the growing danger of Bulgaria’s involvement in yet another war, following the assassination in Sarajevo, by Bosnian nationalists, of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the Austrian throne—an incident which the Great Powers were not slow to seize upon as an excuse for advancing their rival ambitions for colonies and economic influence through armed conflict.

Soon after the outbreak of what was to become the First World War, the Serchani held a conference, on Yané’s initiative, in the monastery of the Holy Mother of God, in the foothills of Pirin, just outside Nevrokop. It was attended by some fifty people, both from the liberated districts of Nevrokop, Razlog, Gorna Dzhumaya, Melnik, Strumitsa and Petrich, and from the districts of Drama, Serres and Demir Hisar, which were now under Greek rule. The two main questions to be decided were, first, which party should have the support of the Serchani in a future election, and, second, Bulgaria’s role in the war between the Entente and the Central Powers.

After the conference had been formally opened, Radoslavov’s letter to Yané was read out for the delegates’ consideration. A few of those present were initially tempted by the glittering prospects, but the solid core of the Serres leadership were not prepared to sell their souls for cosy office jobs: they never had been and they never would. One by one they spoke against accepting Radoslavov’s poisoned apple. Several of Yané’s closest comrades declared that the proper place for the Serchani was beside the Narrow Socialists. Yané did not disagree with them in principle, but he linked the question of voting with that of Bulgaria’s position vis-à-vis the European War. Bulgaria was currently pursuing a policy of armed neutrality and was being wooed with loans and promises by both the Entente and the Central Powers. Yané took the view that it was impossible for Bulgaria to remain neutral indefinitely, as the Narrow Socialists advocated, since she was right in the path of the rival imperialist ambitions which lay behind the conflict. In his opinion, she would be forced, willy-nilly, to join one side or the other, and, indeed, all her political parties, with the exception of the Narrow Socialists, were in favour of her doing so. Yané felt that the

26. TPA, f. 228, op. 1, a.e. 23, pp. 12-22.

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Narrow Socialists had no hope of carrying the country with them in the time available, and that, if Bulgaria could not avoid entering the war, she should enter it on the side of Russia. Therefore, the immediate task was to bring down Radoslavov’s pro-German Government—which could best be done if the Serchani supported the Russophil opposition.

Having listened to Yané’s arguments, the conference voted to campaign against the Radoslavov Government, and to vote Democrat, without committing themselves to becoming party members. [27] The Conference ended, Bulgarian-style, with jollifications—songs, a horo on the meadow beside the monastery, and the consumption of considerable quantities of wine and rakiya specially brought from the village of Hŭrsovo, which was noted for its vineyards. [28]

Other people were also becoming alarmed by the prospect of Bulgaria entering the war on the side of Germany, among them Alexander Stamboliisky, leader of the Agrarian Union. Stamboliisky was thinking in terms of preparing a revolution which would take place as soon as mobilization had turned the Tsar’s army into the armed people. He hoped that such a step on Bulgaria’s part would be sufficient to earn her the goodwill of the Entente, without further participation in the war. The Union, however, had not got the forces necessary for the attack on Sofia which was essential if the plan was to succeed, and therefore Stamboliisky conceived the idea that Yané should be asked to organize a detachment of men and bring them secretly from Pirin and Rila to Vitosha (the mountain to the south of Sofia). The Agrarian leader confided his plans to Pavel Deliradev and requested that he approa