The Internal Macedonian-Adrianople Revolutionary Organization and the Bulgarian Exarchate in Macedonia and Eastern Thrace (1904–1912)

Bulgarian Historical Review, 53 (2025), No. 1, pp. 67-91
DOI: https://doi.org/10.71069/BHR1.25.SS03

Slavi Slavov

Assoc. Prof. Slavi Slavov, PhD - Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, Institute for Historical Studies, 52, Shipchenski Prohod Blvd., build. 17, 1113 Sofia, Bulgaria. Web of Science Researcher: ID LXU-4457-2024; ORCID ID: https://orcid.org/0009-0007-8628-0259. E-mail: slavslavus@abv.bg

Abstract: The relations between the Internal Macedonian-Adrianople Revolutionary Organization (IMARO) and the Bulgarian Exarchate were complex and ambiguous throughout the period of their parallel existence. For nearly twenty years the two organizations, one legal and officially recognized by the Sultan’s authorities, the other conspiratorial and revolutionary in its nature, were in close contact with each other, overlapping in personnel to a certain extent and developing their activities mainly among the Bulgarian exarchate population. At the same time, the Exarchate and IMARO had serious and ever-lasting differences on the issue of the ways and means for the liberation of those Bulgarians who still remained under Ottoman rule, which was the exact reason for the periodic rise in tension between them. The contradictions were particularly noticeable in the period after the suppression of the Ilinden-Preobrazhenie Uprising of 1903. However, to one degree or another they continued to exist until the very eve of the Balkan War (1912).

The study is based mainly on official diplomatic documents of a secular nature and to a much lesser extent on Exarchate’s sources, and therefore does not claim to reflect fully the Exarchate’s view of its relations with the Revolutionary Organization.

Keywords: Internal Macedonian-Adrianople Revolutionary Organization, IMARO, Bulgarian Exarchate, Bulgarian liberation movement in Macedonia and Eastern Thrace, Macedonian Bulgarians

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