Todor Aleksandrov

[Liberator of Makedonija]

"The internal organisation [VMRO], faithful to its costly vow to work for the freedom of the whole of Macedonia, I [Aleksandrov] in the name of our tortured people ask you [Ferdinand] to cease with all means to the partition of Macedonia......Let your Majesty be assured that he can count on help for that purpose from the Macedonian Bulgarian until his last drop of blood "

- Memorandum from Todor Aleksandrov to Prince Ferdinand I of Bulgaria c. 1913

[Liberator of Makedonija]

A section of Zoran Todorovski's biography on Todor Aleksandrov touches on his [Aleksandrov's] reflection on the failures of the First World War, specifically acknowledging that the Macedonian community in Bulgaria had participated in the war for "autononmy" and not for "annexation". These reflections lead to the redirection of the Macedonian revolutionary movement and a readoption of the "Goce VMRO" ideals. Aleksandrov felt that most Macedonians preferred autonomy but saw union with Bulgaria as the most preferable plan b as Bulgars were the "lesser evil" to the Serbs and Greeks.

[Liberator of Makedonija]

I feel the connections between VMRO(A) under Aleksandrov and the Italian government have been grossly overlooked by Macedonian historiography

[Liberator of Makedonija]

In early 1920, Aleksandrov and Protogerov met with Cevat Abaz in Sofia to discuss collaboration between the Macedonian and Turkish revolutionary movements. The agreement reached was that the Turkish government would encourage the Turks of Vardar Macedonia to assist VMRO(A) and that the organisation would be allowed to establish a base in Istanbul in the event the organisation's members were persecuted in Sofia - the Turkish government would offer them aid

[Liberator of Makedonija]

Aleksandrov's support for a federative Yugoslavia goes as far back as 1920 when he issued a directive to VMRO(A) members in Vardar Macedonia to agitate for the idea and to form a legal organisation called the 'Macedonian Federative Union' to collaborate with other nationalities in Yugoslavia and promote the federal concept

[Liberator of Makedonija]

"The fight for the liberation of Macedonia will continue unless autonomous administration is achieved for the three parts of the province, currently seperated amongst Serbia, Greece and Bulgaria......A unified, independent or autonomous Macedonia could be placed under the protection of the League of Nations or one of the Great Powers, its members, or it could even enter a Yugoslav state as an equal member in a federation, if the Serbs accept a federalist arrangement for the new state"

- Letter addressed to Organisation members from Todor Aleksandrov (28/6/1920)

[Liberator of Makedonija]

For all the talk of Aleksandrov being some kind of right-wing figure in our history, the man endorsed the Communist Party of Yugoslavia during the 1920 election: the party was most successful in Vardar Macedonia that year

[Liberator of Makedonija]

"When the Macedonian organisation decides to take action, it is not initiated by its forces from Bulgaria, only from the other side, from all of Macedonia"

- Todor Aleksandrov interview in the Romanian newspaper 'Univerzul', speaking on the claims by Serbia that Macedonian komiti cross over from Bulgarian territory

[Liberator of Makedonija]

Todor Aleksandrov envisioned a federal Yugoslav republic consisting of the following autonomous states: Montenegro, Bosnia, Croatia, Slovenia, Banat, Serbia, Macedonia and Bulgaria. He also raised the possibility of transforming the Yugoslav federation into a Balkan one with the future inclusions of Albania, Greece and Romania. He claimed Macedonia as a land inhabited by Bulgarians, Greeks, Turks, Albanians and Vlachs.

- From a letter by Aleksandrov addressed to the Yugoslav consul in Geneva, Jovan Jovičević in September 1923

[Liberator of Makedonija]

A letter written by Aleksandrov and addressed to the revolutionary regions (25/9/1922) states that VMRO(A) in Pirin Macedonia is "independent and non-partisan" and will not "interfere in the internal affairs of the Bulgarian principality".

Many of such declarations were made during Aleksandrov's leadership of VMRO(A)