The Macedonian Cause: a Critical History of the Macedonian Revolutionary Organization, 1893-1903.

The Macedonian Revolutionary Organization (MRO) was founded in Salonika in 1893. The leadership was composed of teachers, students, and priests, nearly all of whom were at least nominal members of the Bulgarian Exarchist Church. MRO's aim was to bring reform and autonomy to the Ottoman provinces of Macedonia ( and Adrianople). At first MRO was a small, cl and estine organization. Efforts by members were made to exp and the movement by recruiting among the peasantry; however, peasants, who were concerned with survival, tried to avoid involvement. Following the Vinica Affair in 1897, the Ottoman authorities began to pursue MRO. The organization then adopted terrorism. Armed b and s of MRO activists formed and engaged local Muslims and Turkish troops. This brought Ottoman retribution upon the sedentary population, the peasantry. It, in turn, looked to MRO for protection. MRO's chief rival for control of the Macedonian liberation struggle was the Supreme Macedonian Committee based in Sofia, Bulgaria. In 1901 the latter group fell into the h and s of Bulgarian army officers. It infiltrated sympathizers into the MRO hierarchy and in the end was able to precipitate a premature revolt in Macedonia (the Ilinden Revolt, August, 1903) whose defeat caused the fragmentation of MRO and its take over by the Supreme Committee. MRO, throughout the period 1893-1903, remained an organization dominated by teachers, priests, and students. It suffered from a shortage of weapons and other needed material. Its members did not, in general, possess military backgrounds and thus the movement was led by novices in the art of war. Communication among local, district, and regional committees was poor and the central leadership was not in direct control of the grass roots efforts. Local committees and armed b and s operated semi-autonomously and there was little organization-wide coordination of activities. In fact, the grass roots committees were generally unaware of the actions and involvements of the leadership in Salonika. Despite its difficulties, MRO serves as a prototypical, rural revolutionary movement, and as such, much can be learned from its activities regarding recruitment efforts, organizational behavior, and terrorism as practiced by revolutionaries in pre-industrial, agrarian societies.