The Strandzha Commune (), also known as the Strandzha Republic (), was a short-lived anarchist commune in East Thrace. It was proclaimed during the Preobrazhenie Uprising in 1903 by rebels of the Internal Macedonian Adrianople Revolutionary Organization (IMARO), in the Adrianople vilayet of the Ottoman Empire.
The independence of the Principality of Bulgaria and subsequent separation of Thrace and Macedonia from its territory had ignited a irredentist movement, organised around the IMARO. The organisation, which counted Bulgarian anarchists among its membership, planned for the liberation of Thrace and Macedonia from Ottoman rule and the establishment of a socialist order in the Balkans. In 1903, they began laying plans for an uprising against the Ottomans and the anarchist Mihail Gerdzhikov was selected to prepare an insurrection in Thrace.
In the mountains of Strandzha, IMARO insurgents began preparations for their uprising and the local Thracian peasantry began spontaneously establishing a libertarian communist system in the region. Once the uprising was initiated and insurgents captured much of the region, the Strandzha Commune was proclaimed, definitively establishing communism in the areas liberated from Ottoman control. The Commune would last about a month before its suppression by the Ottoman Empire, during which thousands were killed or became refugees.
Gerdzhikov and the IMARO attempted to elicit international support for the national liberation struggles in Macedonia and Thrace, but were ultimately unsuccessful. East Thrace remained under the control of the Ottoman Empire and is today still controlled by Turkey. The Strandzha Commune left a lasting legacy as the first distinctively modern attempt to establish libertarian communism, inspiring the consolidation of the Bulgarian anarchist movement and preceding the uprising of the Makhnovshchina in Ukraine.
Background East Thrace was first brought under the control of the Ottoman Empire in the 14th century, during which it crushed the Bulgarian Empire and subjugated it to Ottoman rule. The reaction against the occupation of Bulgaria culminated in the 19th century with the Bulgarian National Awakening, as Bulgarians increasingly rose up against Ottoman rule. Bulgarian anarchists of the period believed that the national liberation struggle could be the means through which to achieve libertarian communism. The anarchist Hristo Botev even participated in the failed April Uprising of 1876, losing his life in the process. In total, 60 Bulgarian anarchists lost their lives during the national liberation struggle.
Following the victory of the Russian Empire over the Ottoman Empire in the Russo-Turkish War of 1877–1878, the Treaty of San Stefano secured the establishment of the independent Principality of Bulgaria, although the revised Treaty of Berlin left it without many of its promised territories. The region of Adrianople, of which a third of the population was Bulgarian, remained under the control of the Ottomans and outside of the new Bulgarian state.
Bulgarian refugees subsequently fled Adrianople to Bulgaria, where in 1893 they ignited a movement for Bulgarian irredentism, organizing themselves into the Internal Macedonian-Adrianople Revolutionary Organization (IMARO). They established a network of chetas, revolutionary cells which were to prepare for a popular uprising against the Ottomans in the occupied territories. In 1898, the Bulgarian anarchists of the Macedonian Secret Revolutionary Committee (MTRK), including Mihail Gerdzhikov, joined the IMARO and began participating in its revolutionary activities. In January 1903, the leadership of the IMARO initiated their plans for a mass insurrection in Bitola and Adrianople, with an underground congress of the IMARO electing Gerdzhikov to lead the Adrianople revolutionary district.
History Preparations
In early 1903, throughout the mountains of Strandzha, people began preparing for the coming uprising. Led by the anarchist Mihail Gerdzhikov, revolutionaries started procuring weapons, manufacturing bombs and sabotaging Ottoman lines. Gerdzhikov also tended to the establishment of "death squads", which were to form the nucleus of the Thracian revolutionary army.
The villagers of Strandzha also spontaneously established libertarian communism. Thracian villages reorganized into communes, bringing land, livestock and agricultural produce under common ownership. While men formed local militias and began training for the coming uprising, women, children and the elderly worked cooperatively in the fields. Although the system wasn't welcomed by everyone, with some rich landowners protesting, it was established without coercion or significant resistance.
In the rebel strongholds of Malko Tarnovo, Lozengrad and Bunarhisar, the uprising grew into a mass movement, with people of all ages and genders helping to prepare the insurrection. Women harvested crops for the movement's food supply, stashed weapons for fighters and acted as liaisons for the militias, even designing and manufacturing flags for the uprising. On , Ottoman forces surrounded Pano Angelov's militia at Brashlyan and killed them in battle, leaving their bodies behind unburied. Rebels brought their bodies back to a revolutionary funeral at Malko Tarnovo, where villagers dedicated songs to the fallen fighters.
Uprising On , a congress at Petrova Niva declared that the uprising would begin on . But Gerdzhikov successfully requested its postponement to the following week, as the Adrianpolitan revolutionaries were not yet ready to carry out their own uprising, which was planned to hinder the transfer of the Ottoman Army to Macedonia. On , the Ilinden Uprising finally broke out in Macedonia, where the revolutionaries established the Kruševo Republic. The uprising caught Gerdzhikov in Bulgaria, where he had sent to recruit more militiamen from Varna. Gerdzhikov quickly returned to Ottoman Thrace and, on , rendezvoued with other members of the Adrianopolitan revolutionary leadership – Stamat Ikonomov, Lazar Madzharov and Hristo Silyanov – in the village of Golyamo Kokorafi. They agreed to initiate their uprising on the following week, with each commander having the autonomy to carry out decentralized and independent action against the Ottoman forces. Each tasked with targeting military outposts and infrastructure, Gerdzhikov chose to attack the Ottoman barracks at the port town of Vasiliko, while Ikonomov was dispatched to attack the garrison at Uzunköy and Madzharov to the garrison at Derinköy. Ikonomov had initially proposed that they begin by attacking Malko Tarnovo, but his plan was opposed by the others due to lack of information on the local garrison's numbers. It would later be discovered that the town's garrison was insignificant, and that the town could feasibly have been taken per Ikonomov's proposals.
The revolutionary army consisted of about 2,000 poorly equipped men, only 200 of whom were armed with quality Mannlicher rifles, while the rest had to make do with old rifles that had last been used half a century earlier in the Crimean War. The rebels were also vastly outnumbered by Ottoman forces, themselves equipped with modern Mauser rifles. The rebels also drew their base of support from the Bulgarian peasantry, many of whom were untrained. The revolutionaries also attempted to appeal to other ethnic groups, with the revolutionary command declaring that they were only fighting against the tyranny of the Ottomans, rather than for any ethnic nationalist motivations, and thus expressing solidarity with ordinary Turks that were also ruled by the empire.
Coordination of the beginning of the uprising was initially hindered by Konstantin Antonov, who was supposed to carry out acts of sabotage along with the anarchist demolitions expert , but continually failed to achieve his objectives. The revolutionary leadership demanded he abdicate command to Nunkov, but he didn't answer, and by the time that the uprising started, increased Ottoman security provisions left him unable to carry out any further actions. As the date of the uprising approached, events began to unfold that the rebels had not anticipated: on , revolutionaries in Risovo arrested and executed a tax collector, civil guards and a Greek spy; and on , rebels surrounded Madzhur and attacked a detachment of 30 soldiers that were evicting the local population, killing 20. This prompted Gerdzhikov, who had gathered with 120 militiamen in the area of Kladar, to declare the start of the uprising:
On , the Adrianopolitan revolutionaries ignited the Preobrazhenie Uprising. At 01:30, Gerdzhikov's militia marched on Vasiliko, where they surrounded the government offices and Turkish quarter, positioned themselves on the roads through town and cut its telegraph lines. Gerdzhkiov led a detachment of 40 rebels, only 15 of whom were trained militiamen, in attacking the Ottoman garrisons, which together contained 800 troops. Most of the soldiers and Turkish civilians fled the town by boat, but Hristo Silyanov managed to capture the town's highest-ranking officials, including the naval officer, postmaster general, head of the harbour and chief of police. Gerdzhikov explained their motivations for the attack and offered the officials to either be freed immediately or escorted to safety in Bulgaria, with the officials choosing the latter. Later that morning, the town's Greek population greeted Gerdzhikov with gifts and asked how they were to organise their new administration. He responded by advising that they self-organize however they saw fit, with the Greeks electing a provisional government, itself answerable to the revolutionary command. Gerdzhikov's militia then left the town and went on to other villages, being welcomed as a liberator by the village of Balgari.
That same night, local militias in cut the region's telegraph lines, drove the police out of the village and attacked the nearby army garrison. Ikonomov's militias also set out from and attacked the garrison at Vizitsa, preventing the local Ottoman forces from intervening against the uprising, even after the rebels withdrew back to Veliko. In , the militia led by attacked the Ottoman garrison, taking the barracks and shooting its commanding officer, before burning down two houses that Ottoman soldiers had barricaded themselves inside. In Gramatikovo, 120 rebels attacked the local Ottoman garrison and forced its 300 soldiers to flee, before heading on to attack Ottoman posts at Poturnak and Vizitsa, while the local militia destroyed Gramatikovo's telegraph posts and the bridge over the Veleka. In Stoilovo, 250 rebels attacked and destroyed the local Ottoman garrison, briefly being forced to withdraw after reinforcements arrived by Malko Tarnovo, before the Ottomans abandoned the village and the rebels captured it. In Zvezdets, the Ottoman barracks were set on fire and its soldiers fled, with reinforcements from Malko Tarnovo later being surrounded by the entrenched rebels, forcing them to flee back where they came. The rebels then captured Surmashik and Konak, burning down the barracks and border posts in the area. In Derekovo, Lazar Madzharov led 300 rebels, armed mostly with axes and clubs, in an attack on the local garrison, taking the town and cutting its telegraph lines. Part of his forces then prematurely attacked , forcing Madzharov to order them to withdraw. The following day, Ottoman reinforcements arrived from Lozengrad and the 1,000 rebels in the region decided to regroup at their camp, but as they were poorly armed, they were forced to withdraw from the region entirely. In , rebels led by launched an attack against the reinforced local garrison, during which Kondolov himself was gravely wounded. He requested his soldiers kill him and he was buried in the local cemetery, where the district's residents paid their respects to the fallen commander.