Vasil Chekalarov

Voivode Vasil Chekalarov
Vasil Chekalarov c. 1908
Native name	Васил Христов Чекаларов
Birth name	Vasil Hristov Chekalarov
Born	1874 Smrdesh, Monastir Vilayet, Ottoman Empire
Died	9 July 1913 Belkamen, Ottoman Empire
Allegiance	IMRO Kingdom of Bulgaria
Branch	Bulgarian Army
Unit	Macedonian-Adrianopolitan Volunteer Corps
Battles / wars	Ilinden Uprising Macedonian Struggle Balkan Wars First Balkan War Second Balkan War †
Spouse(s)	Olga Chekalarova
Signature

Vasil Chekalarov was born in 1874 in the village Smrdesh (modern Krystallopigi, Greece). His father was a migrant labourer like many men in the village. Chekalarov studied Greek at a local Patriarchist school. He also apparently learned Albanian, perhaps while in the village markets west of Smrdesh, closer to the town of Korçe.^[5] Apart from Greek and Albanian, Chekalarov also spoke Bulgarian and the local Slavic dialect.^[6] His father made him stop attending school after the fourth grade. Chekalarov worked as his father's apprentice, who was then a mason. Afterwards, his father sent him to study in the newly established Principality of Bulgaria. Chekalarov finished high school in Shumen in eastern Bulgaria, while working at local construction sites.^[5] Back in Macedonia, he was imprisoned on the charge of violating a Greek female teacher in 1893. He escaped and returned to Bulgaria where he worked in a quarry and learned to work as a cobbler.^[6] Chekalarov organised a fraternity among other workers from Kastoria in Bulgaria. While working in a factory in the area of Sofia, he befriended another migrant from Ottoman Macedonia, Bulgarian military officer Boris Sarafov. The two became close friends and Chekalarov expanded his network. Sarafov encouraged Chekalarov to join the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organisation (IMRO). Chekalarov, who did not have any military experience, was initiated into the Organisation.^[5]

He returned to his village in 1900 to begin his revolutionary activity. Chekalarov contributed to the growth and development of the IMRO in the fields of supply and organisation. Due to the war between Greece and the Ottoman Empire in 1897, the Greco-Ottoman border was heavily guarded on both sides. Chekalarov was the main procurer for IMRO in its southern districts. He was able to cross across the Ottoman-Greek border posing as an Albanian merchant. As he was fluent in both Greek and Albanian, he developed contacts in Athens connected to the international trade in weapons. Chekalarov transformed his native village into a hub of IMRO activity, trafficking rifles and using the village as a base to store explosive materials he imported from abroad.^[5] As a commander of the district of Kastoria, through his contact and field work with senior leaders (especially those who had received a military education in Bulgaria), he learned bomb-making and developed his own personal network of weapon smugglers and sponsors.^[7] Along with other band leaders from the neighbouring villages of Dambeni, Roulia and Gabresh, Chekalarov maintained a strict regime of discipline and extortion in the northern parts of Kastoria.^[5] Per historian Ryan Gingeras, he and other band leaders gained reputations as merciless killers with beheadings, house burnings, bombings, and shootings regularly conducted as tools to enforce local discipline, take revenge, or alter the political landscape of a region.^[7] His control over the region did not go unchallenged. Ottoman forces patrolled the region. The metropolitan Germanos Karavangelis, who was appointed to the Patriarchist bishopric of Kastoria in 1900, sent bands to counter the influence of Chekalarov's bands, to maintain the interests of Greece and the Patriarch. Ottoman authorities supported and protected Karavangelis, who was seen as useful for countervailance.^[5] In 1901, Chekalarov murdered an Ottoman informant in the village Konomladi, as well as a woman from the village, who betrayed Gotse Delchev's cheta by informing the Ottomans.^[8] In his diary on 29 December 1902, he wrote about a "Grecoman" priest who tried to convince Chekalarov and his comrades that they were Greeks, afterwards claiming that they were neither Greeks nor Bulgarians, but Macedonians, which Chekalarov perceived as being ignorant about history.^[9]^[10] In 1903, Ottoman patrols remained active around Smrdesh. Ottoman soldiers brought reservists and local volunteers, who often stole things and ransacked homes during their searches for revolutionaries and weapons. In response, Chakalarov organised several mass demonstrations to gain more support for IMRO and undermine the credibility of the Ottoman counter-insurgency.^[5]

Throughout March, Chekalarov remained in and around Smrdesh alongside Sarafov, who was then a regional commander, and who was making preparations for a secret congress of IMRO to be held in the village Smilevo. On 10 April, Chekalarov and Sarafov were surprised by Ottoman troops who suddenly appeared on the hills around Smrdesh. In panic, Chekalarov sent messengers to neighbouring villages to gain reinforcements. Several hundred peasant recruits from the villages Vampeli, Kosinec and Dambeni arrived, appearing behind the soldiers and started shooting at them. While the Ottomans remained pinned down by gunfire from revolutionaries in Smrdesh and from the peasant rebels behind them, Chekalarov and Sarafov fled to the mountains. Chekalarov returned to Smrdesh on 14 May. In Smilevo, the central committee of IMRO voted to begin preparations for a mass uprising later that summer. Chekalarov's main base was destroyed after the burning of his village due to a skirmish with Ottomans.^[5] On 31 May 1903, Chekalarov participated in a battle in Lokvata, fought on a mountain slope by villagers from Dambeni, chetas (armed groups) and prominent komitadjis who inflicted disproportionate casualties on a much larger Ottoman force. His brother Foti died in the battle.^[11]

Ahead of the Ilinden uprising, his men clashed repeatedly with Ottoman troops. Between June and July, Chekalarov executed around ten civilians from villages neighbouring Smrdesh for collaboration with the authorities.^[5] Chekalarov also clashed with former IMRO member Kottas and at the end of June, he attacked the village Roulia with his komitadjis and gained the lower part of the village, but Kottas held out in the upper part of the village with his men.^[6] During the uprising in August 1903, he commanded the insurgents in the region of Kastoria.^[12] On the first day of the uprising, Chekalarov murdered 26 Muslims at the village Zervaini. Chekalarov managed to occupy Neveska on 19 August.^[6] He was able to partially avenge the destruction of Smrdesh in late August, when he and several hundred insurgents attacked Bildishta, which was seen as a centre of Muslim and Albanian attacks on Smrdesh. IMRO insurgents also burned down several Albanian villages west of Smrdesh.^[5] At the end of October, Chekalarov, like many of the leaders, acknowledged the defeat of the uprising. Chekalarov, dressed as an Aromanian, along with around 20 people, crossed the Greek border at Velemisti. In Greece, he was arrested along with the rest and held for two weeks, but they were able to arrive in Sofia at the end of November.^[6]

After the uprising, he fought against the Greek Struggle for Macedonia.^[13] In March 1908, he attended the Kyustendil Congress of IMRO.^[14] As a commander of a Bulgarian guerrilla band, Chekalarov supported the Hellenic Army in the First Balkan War in 1912-1913.^[15]^[16] Later he fought on the side of the Bulgarian Army on the front in Eastern Thrace in the composition of the Macedonian-Adrianopolitan Volunteer Corps. He was killed by Greek troops during the Second Balkan War at Belkamen (modern Drosopigi, Florina, Greece) on 9 July 1913 and his head was publicly displayed in Florina.^[17]^[18]

Life

Legacy

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References

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