In the hands of Stambuloff Prince Ferdinand was nothing but a puppet, and so he continued for some years, until he became acquainted with the language, customs, and mental qualities of his people. Then the two fell out. But to the end Stambuloff was the real ruler, and under his guidance Bulgaria made that progress, both in military organization and in education, which was the surprise of the world when the First Balkan War broke out. It now dawned on Russia that it was Bulgaria herself that was opposed to her intrigues and not the princes who happened to occupy her throne. And the leader of the Bulgarians was undoubtedly Stambuloff, a peasant himself and the son of a peasant. His downfall must be brought about.
From the very beginning of his reign Ferdinand had not been recognized by the Russian Government. As he began to feel himself more secure in his throne he began to work for this recognition, as well as for the favor of all the reigning monarchs of Europe. With this end in view he began intriguing, and as an intriguer, Ferdinand is the cleverest of all the Balkan monarchs. Thus it was that he finally dismissed Stambuloff from office on May 31, 1894, an act which he found all the easier because Stambuloff had made many enemies among his own people by his brusque, almost brutal, ways. But in spite of the wave of unpopularity that happened to be sweeping over him at the time, there could be no doubt that a man of Stambuloff's abilities would again rise to power. Only one thing could prevent that. And that one thing was brought to pass by his enemies. In the evening of July 15, 1895, as he was driving home from his club, three men sprang up on his carriage and literally hacked him to pieces. Thus ended the comparatively short career of the man who had most to do with defeating Russian intrigues in Bulgaria. His murderers, though identified, were never arrested or punished, and found safe refuge in Russia.
But for all that his enemies gained by his death, Stambuloff might as well have continued to live. One of the strongest political parties in Bulgaria is still named after him, and bases its appeal on his policies. And ever after every Bulgarian who knows the short history of his country has hated the Russian Government, though this sentiment does not include the Russian people. In fact, nowhere in all Europe have Russian political exiles found more secure refuge than in Bulgaria, where they are received with hearty welcome, and the abler ones of them offered Government employment. As an instance: the national university in Sofia was founded by a Russian scholar upon the invitation of the Bulgarian Government. Had this same Russian scholar dared to cross over the Russian frontier he would have been arrested immediately, and, if not hung, have been sent into exile to Siberia. Again and again Russia has demanded that certain notable refugees living in Bulgaria be delivered up to her, but always Bulgaria has refused. The Bulgars love the Russian people; they hate the Russian autocracy.
Meanwhile important events were developing down in Macedonia. The people throughout this region, with the exception of the few Greeks along the sea shores, had been bitterly disappointed by the Treaty of Berlin, which delivered them back into the hands of the Turks. It soon became obvious that even the reforms promised by the XXIII Article of that document were to remain meaningless; the Turkish Government did not even pretend to put them into effect.
During this period many young Macedonian peasant boys crossed the frontier over into free Bulgaria, where the excellent schools being established offered them opportunity to obtain an education that had never before been available to Bulgars. These young fellows returned to Macedonia unobtrusively and quietly by exerting their influence on the peasants. At first they merely instructed them in reading and writing; then they inaugurated evening gatherings where things of the outside world were discussed. Two of the most prominent of these young educators were Damyan Grueff and Gotze Deltcheff, now worshipped by the common peasants as the martyr heroes of their movement for freedom.
It was Grueff and Deltcheff who first gave these early efforts a definite turn. They began organizing the villagers into societies whose object was distinctly revolutionary. But during all their careers neither of these two men advocated union with Bulgaria. Later on, as will be shown, they became bitterly opposed to that idea, as did all of their followers and disciples. They wanted to create a program for their organization which should be acceptable to all the people of Macedonia; Greeks, Serbs, Vlachs and even Mohammedans, as well as Bulgars. So they preached the idea of "Macedonia for the Macedonians;" Macedonia to be either an entirely separate nation by itself, or an autonomous state, under Turkish suzerainty.
Their organization had a more immediate purpose, however. And that was to establish some sort of order in the midst of Turkish anarchy. The trouble with the Turkish rule was not that it ruled too much, but that it ruled too little. Brigands, both Mohammedan and Christian, ranged the mountain regions, preying on the poor peasants. Turkish troops made no special efforts to check them. Turkish courts were so corrupt that justice was a joke. Though there was a tendency on the part of the courts to favor their own people, all other things being equal, still that was not the chief grievance of the Macedonian peasants. The trouble was that the courts could always be bought and a case always went against the poor man, whether he was Christian or Mohammedan. And finally, in some sections of Macedonia, especially down around Monastir, toward the Greek frontier, the Greek Church was still enjoying the same authority over Bulgar communities that it had once enjoyed up in Bulgaria. To add to this trouble, the Greek patriarch was again attempting to push his propaganda all over the country, employing armed bands to terrorize the villagers into declaring themselves Greeks. This, of course, was a campaign carried on in conjunction with the Greek Government, which wished to Hellenize Macedonia against the day when Turkey should be driven out, so that it could lay claim to the country on the strength of "blood kindred."
Over and over again the Bulgar communities sent delegations to the Turkish padisha complaining of these evils, but no measures were ever taken to remedy them. The brigands continued unmolested, the courts remained corrupt and as for curtailing the power of the Greek Church, that was distinctly against the policy of the sultan. With the Bulgars in overwhelming majority, he considered it wise to confer his privileges on the fewer Greeks, thus to rouse a mutual hatred between the two peoples, so they should not join together and make common cause against him.
CHAPTER XVI
ATTEMPTS AT REFORM IN MACEDONIA
The first object of the organization which Grueff and Deltcheff set about forming was to remedy this evil. In each village they established a local committee, composed of the more intelligent villagers, whose function it should be to take the place of the Turkish courts. The members of these secret tribunals were elected democratically by the villagers themselves. Later on they elected local delegates to provincial committees, which acted as courts of higher appeal, to which a defendant on trial might appeal should he feel that local sentiment was prejudiced against him. Later on, when these committees spread all over the country, yearly congresses were held, the first of which drew up a constitution for what was nothing less than a secret provisional government for the underground republic of Macedonia. Such was the beginning and the first purposes of the famous Macedonian Committee, so called because authority was always vested in the hands of committees, rather than with individuals, so strong was the democratic sentiment of the people.
The next thing was to get rid of the brigands. To accomplish that the provincial committees organized and maintained armed bands, which patrolled the mountains of the territory assigned to them. Numbering all the way from ten men to fifty each, these bands protected the villages from the bandits and even hunted them down. And, naturally, when the terrorist bands of the Greek Church became active, they were confronted by the armed bands of the committee.
It is notable that when the existence of the Macedonian Committee and its small local armed forces first became known to the outside world, it was not the Turkish Government which showed most animosity. In fact, for a long time the Turks rather treated the committee much as they had treated the brigands; that is, let them alone, so long as they did not cross their path, and the committee did not set out to molest the Turks.
It was the Greek Church, and the Greek and