Hristo Uzunov


Hristo Dimitrov Uzunov was a Bulgarian teacher and revolutionary, head of the Ohrid branch of the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization and its ideological leader in the Ohrid region. Despite his Bulgarian self-identification, according to the post-WWII Macedonian historiography, he was an ethnic Macedonian.

Revolutionary life

Hristo Uzunov was born in 1878 in Ohrid, then in Ottoman Empire. Both his father and mother were active in the Bulgarian national movement. After the establishment of the Principality of Bulgaria his father settled in Sofia and worked here as a librarian in the National Library. It is believed that Uzunov became a member of the revolutionary movement in 1896, while he studied in Bulgarian Men's High School of Thessaloniki. Afterward he worked as Bulgarian Exarchate's teacher. On August 5, 1898, Dimitar Grdanov, a Serbian teacher in Ohrid, and pro-Serbian activist in Macedonia, was murdered by Metody Patchev, after which Patchev and his fellow conspirators Hristo Uzunov, Cyril Parlichev and Ivan Grupchev were arrested. Between January 1902 and March 1903 he was re-imprisoned in the Bitola jail. He actively took part in the Ilinden Uprising in 1903. After the Bulgarian Army officer Toma Davidov was killed by the Turks in March 1903, Uzunov took over the leadership of the revolutionary organization in Ohrid area. On July 23, 1903, in the village of Kuratica, near Ohrid, the flag of Uzunov's cheta was consecrated. The flag was handed over to Uzunov and with it the regional cheta was active during the Ilinden Uprising. Between 1904 and 1905 he focused at resisting the Serbian guerrilla campaigns in Macedonia and tried to resolve of the organization's internal problems.

Death

In 1905 Uzunov with his band entered Bitola and after that Kičevo in order to gain control of that region. On 23 April 1905, they entered the village of Tser in the region of Kičevo, together with the cheta of Kičevo voivode Vancho Sarbakov. On the night of April 24, they were surrounded by a great number of Ottoman forces and after using up their ammunition, facing surrender, they decided to commit suicide. Uzunov then wrote a short letter addressed to all "honourable revolutionaries" and after that he and his men killed themselves. His grave is located in Tser, where he died.