# Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization (United)

The Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization (United) (1925–1936) commonly known in English as IMRO (United), was the name of a revolutionary political organization active across the entire geographical region of Macedonia.

## History

IMRO (United) was founded in 1925 in Vienna after the failure of the May Manifesto by the left-wing of the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization (IMRO) and the former Macedonian Federative Organization activists. It was under the leadership of several revolutionaries from Macedonia such as Dimitar Vlahov, Pavel Shatev, Georgi Zankov, Rizo Rizov, Vladimir Poptomov, Metodi Shatorov and Hristo Yankov. Its main objective was to free Macedonia within its geographical and economical borders, and to create a new political entity which would become an equal member of the future Balkan Federative Republic. It was accepted as a partner in the Balkan Communist Federation and was sponsored directly by the Comintern, maintaining close links with the Bulgarian communist leader Georgi Dimitrov. He, as secret agent of GRU was responsible especially for the contacts with the IMRO (United).
In the publications and documents of IMRO (United) terms such as Macedonian people and Macedonian population surely replaced the traditional Macedonian Bulgarians references. As early as October 1925, the first public declaration of IMRO (United) emphasized the oppressed status of the Macedonian people in Yugoslavia, Greece and mainly in Bulgaria. However, some activists claimed the distinct national character of the Macedonians, but in their arguments the old supra-national doctrine came through, and they didn't referred to ethnic Macedonians as a separate element. In 1920s the IMRO (United) as a whole, defined the Slavs of Macedonia as Bulgarians. In July 1929 the branch of IMRO (United) in Pirin Macedonia classified the latter as a colony of Bulgaria, subdued to ruthless exploitation by the bourgeoisie state and the right-wing IMRO of Ivan Mihaylov. In the autumn of 1929 there was a split between the leftist activists, a group headed by Mihail Gerdzhikov, Pavel Shatev, Petar Pop Arsov and Filip Atanasov wanted IMRO (United) to work independently and not with the support of the Comintern. They also demanded the newspaper Makedonsko delo to cease publish. By the 1930s however, IMRO (United) endorsed Macedonian nationalism. In 1934 together with the Comintern they set up the Resolution of the Comintern publicly acknowledged the existence of the Macedonian nation and Macedonian language. The text of this historic document was prepared in the period between December 20, 1933, and January 7, 1934, by the Balkan Secretariat of the Comintern. It was accepted by the Political Secretariat in Moscow on January 11, 1934, and approved by the Executive Committee of the Comintern. It was published for the first time in the April issue of Makedonsko delo under the title "The Situation in Macedonia and the Tasks of IMRO (United)". After replying to those who, even within the progressive movement, denied the existence of a separate Macedonian nation, the Resolution, among other things, stated:
   "...The bourgeoisie of the ruling nations in the three imperialist states among which Macedonia is partitioned, tries to camouflage its national oppression, denying the national features of the Macedonian people and the existence of the Macedonian nation.".
By 1935, the IMRO (United) organisation in Greece was working closely with the Communist Party of Greece (KKE). Indeed, on 3 July 1935, the KKE newspaper, Rizospastis, reported a statement issued by the IMRO (United) organisation in Edesa (Voden) and signed by G. Slavos:
   "...We Macedonians also insist on not being called Bulgarians, for we are neither Bulgarians, nor Serbs, nor Greeks, but Macedonians. We invite all Macedonians to join the ranks of the IMRO (United), and all of us together will fight for a free Macedonia..."
In 1936, 19 IMRO (United) members were put on trial due to suspected illegal political activity. Most of them (9) listed their nationality as Macedonian, while 5 as Bulgarian, and the rest were tried in absentia. Until its dissolution in 1936 it sought to act as part of a Bulgarian Communist Party, Communist Party of Yugoslavia and the Communist Party of Greece and in fact attempted to play the part of a Communist-led Macedonian national or popular front. After the organization was dissolved, most of the members ended up joining the Bulgarian Communist Party. During its existence, the organization had little influence over the Macedonian population. However such activists who came from the IMRO (United) maintained their strong pro-Bulgarian bias, and according to Ivan Katardžiev they continued to see themselves as Bulgarians.