Marko Lerinski

Voivode

Marko Lerinski
Marko Lerinski c. 1902
Native name
Марко Лерински
Birth nameGeorgi Ivanov Gyurov
Георги Иванов Гюров
Nickname(s)Heroic Georgi
Георги Геройски
Born20 June 1862
Kotel, Adrianople Vilayet, Ottoman Empire (now Bulgaria)
Died13 June 1902
Patele, Monastir Vilayet, Ottoman Empire (now Agios Panteleimonas, Greece)
Buried
AllegianceBulgaria Principality of Bulgaria
IMRO
Service / branch Bulgarian Army
Years of service1883-1902
Battles / wars

Marko Lerinski (Bulgarian: Марко Лерински; 20 June 1862 – 13 June 1902) was the nickname of Georgi Ivanov Gyurov (Георги Иванов Гюров), also known as Georgi Geroyski, a Bulgarian military expert and revolutionary. A prominent member of the Internal Macedonian–Adrianople Revolutionary Organization (IMARO), Lerinski was the first person to propose a common anti-Ottoman uprising in Macedonia and Thrace.

Gyurov was born in Kotel in Ottoman Rumelia (Northern Thrace), today a town in central eastern Bulgaria. In 1883, he joined the Principality of Bulgaria's armed forces. He took part in the Serbo-Bulgarian War of 1885. For his bravery, he was awarded a medal and promoted; his comrades even nicknamed him Geroyski (Геройски), "heroic". In 1895, he left the Bulgarian Army to join the Supreme Macedonian–Adrianople Committee and take part in its 1895 organized anti-Ottoman action, which involved the burning of Dospat. After the action's failure, he returned to the army as a non-commissioned officer.

In 1900, he got in contact with Macedonian Bulgarian revolutionaries Gotse Delchev and Gyorche Petrov, who recruited him in IMARO. They dispatched him as a regional leader (voivode) for the Lerin region (today Florina, Greece), where his nickname comes from. Other IMARO voivodes from the Principality of Bulgaria, such as Hristo Chernopeev, were also recruited at the time. Thanks to Lerinski's military training and his organizational abilities, his armed detachment became what was essentially a school for voivodes and members for the entire IMARO.[1] According to fellow IMARO member and writer Hristo Silyanov, Marko Lerinski turned Lerin into "... a region of model in every respect. Enthustiastic activists, strict organization, a disciplined and, in the full sense of the words, propagandist and organizational detachment. That was all the work of Marko from Kotel."[2]

Marko Lerinski was the first person to suggest a common uprising in both Macedonia and the Adrianople Vilayet,[3] an idea that would be put into practice with the Ilinden–Preobrazhenie Uprising of 1903. However, he did not live to witness the uprising. After his detachment's location was reported to the Ottoman authorities, Lerinski died in a battle with Ottoman forces near Patele (Agios Panteleimonas, Florina) on 13 June 1902 and was buried in Sorovich.

References

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  1. ^ Силянов, Христо (1993). Освободителните борби на Македония ("Macedonia's struggles for liberation") (in Bulgarian). Vol. I. София. p. 133.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  2. ^ Силянов, Христо (1993). Освободителните борби на Македония ("Macedonia's struggles for liberation") (in Bulgarian). Vol. I. София. p. 99.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  3. ^ Лозанчев, Атанас (2005-07-28). "Защо бях за въстание ("Why I was supportive of an uprising")" (in Bulgarian). ВМРО-БНД. Archived from the original on October 28, 2007. Retrieved 2009-02-02.
  • Енциклопедия "България" (in Bulgarian). Vol. том 4. София: Издателство на Българската академия на науките. 1984.