Ivan Zontschew

Ivan Zontschew as an officer in the Bulgarian army

Ivan Stefanow Zontschew ( Bulgarian Иван Стефанов Цончев ; born September 10, 1858 in Drjanowo , then Ottoman Empire , † December 16, 1910 in Sofia , Bulgaria ) was a Bulgarian military and freedom fighter, voivode and chairman of the Supreme Macedonia-Adrianople Committee (Bulgar. Върховен македоно-одрински комитет / Warchowen makedono-odrinski komitet), organizer and leader of the Gorna Jumaja uprising of 1902 and participant in the Ilinden-Preobraschenie uprising in 1903.

Life

Ivan Zontschew was born in Drjanowo in the Balkans in 1858. In the Russo-Turkish War from 1877 to 1878 , he went to war as a volunteer with the Bulgarian Volunteer Corps. After Bulgaria was liberated from Ottoman-Turkish rule in 1878, he graduated from the newly established military academy in Sofia in 1879 . He joined the Bulgarian army and did his service first in Lom and later in Orchanie (now Botevgrad ). In 1883 he went to Russia for further military training . After his return to Bulgaria he was promoted to captain in August 1885 and chief of the second company of the “7. Preslav Infantry Regiment ”. With him he took part in the Serbian-Bulgarian War in 1886 and in the decisive battle of Slivnitsa , in which he was injured. He later received the Medal of Bravery for his commitment.

In 1889 he became commander of the “7. Preslaw Infantry Regiment ”, 1890 commander of the“ 6. Tarnowo Infantry Regiment ”and in 1899 the second brigade of the“ 6. Bdin Division ". After Prince Alexander I was deposed by a putsch organized by Russia in 1886, Zontschew supported the counter-coup and the subsequent government of Stefan Stambolow . He also took part in the suppression of the pro-Russian protests that broke out in Bulgaria in early 1887 and were directed against the pro-Western government of Stambolov.

In early 1901, Zontschew was appointed major general. In the same year he ended his active military career and was transferred to the reserve .

As early as February 1901 he took part in a meeting of the Supreme Macedonia-Adrianople Committee (OMAK), at which it was decided to hold a general assembly in March. At the subsequent General Assembly, Zontschew was appointed First Deputy Chairman Stojan Michajlowski . However, the writer Michajlowski had no military training and experience to effectively organize and lead the armed struggle by the Komitaji and their Cheetas (mobile guerrilla units) against the Ottoman-Turkish and Greek forces in Macedonia. His deputy General Zontschew possessed these leadership qualities and quickly took over the leadership of the organization, although Michajlowski formally remained its chairman.

The OMAK competed in its actions and actions with the BMARK ( Bulgarian Macedonia-Adrianople Revolutionary Committee ), which often led to serious fights and shootings between its members in Bulgaria, especially in Sofia and Macedonia. Since General Zontschew had a high reputation and contacts with the royal family, some researchers rate the establishment of the OMAK and the assumption of leadership by the Zontschew district as an attempt by the Bulgarian state to address the various armed groups in Bulgaria, as refugees and Immigrants admitted to control living Macedonian Bulgarians .

Through his position in the OMAK, Ivan Zontschew was the main organizer and leader of an uprising that broke out in Macedonia, the region of Gorna Jumaya, in 1903 . During the uprising, General Zontschew crossed the Bulgarian-Ottoman border with an 80 strong man in Cheta and took part in all major fighting. He was seriously wounded in a battle near the village of Bistritsa . The leadership of his Cheta and the uprising took over Aleksandar Protogerow (also an officer in the Bulgarian army), while Zontschew was brought across the border to Sofia.

General Zontschew with one of his Cheetas

A year later, in 1903, Zontschew took part in the Ilinden Preobraschenie uprising (prepared and carried out by the BMARK) in Macedonia with a Cheta and took part in several combat operations with the Ottoman military . After the suppression of the uprising, Zontschew traveled to Western Europe to report on the brutal suppression of the uprising and to campaign for Macedonia's autonomy within the Ottoman Empire .

In the years after his return to Sofia, the clashes between the OMAK and the BMARK again led to armed conflicts. In 1905, however, he accepted the BMARK's offer to unite the two organizations. As a result, some of the members of the OMAK switched to the BMARK, but General Zontschew withdrew from active work due to health problems.

Major General Ivan Zontschew died on December 16, 1910 in Sofia.

literature

• Svetozar Eldarow: The General Ivan Zontschew. Biography of two lives (from the Bulgarian "Генерал Иван Цончев. Биография на два живота.") Sofia, Militärverlag, 2003, p. 164
• Svetozar Eldarow: The Supreme Macedonia-Adrianople Committee and the Macedonia-Adrianople Organization in Bulgaria (1895–1903) (from the Bulgarian "Върховният македоно-одрински комински комитианги комитиан и маракедотет и маракедор , 2003
• Mercia MacDermott: Freedom or Death. The Life of Gotsé Delchev , The Journeyman Press, London & West Nyack, 1978, pp. 243-254

Web links

Commons : Ivan Zontschew  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files