I want you to picture a map, not the digital
kind you have on your phone, but one of those
really old hand -drawn maps from the 19th century.
Oh, right, like the ones with the thick parchment
and the heavy ink lines. Exactly, thick parchment.
Imagine a group of men in suits and military
uniforms, and they're sitting in a really gilded,
fancy room in Berlin. They've got a ruler and
a red pen. A very dangerous combination. Yeah,
right. So they lay the ruler down, they draw
this perfectly straight line right through the
middle of a country, and they just say, there,
done. And just like that, you have millions of
people who... Who genuinely thought they were
free suddenly being told, actually, no, you're
back under the empire. It's wild to think about
because, OK, it's August 29, 1878. We are in
Veliko Tarnovo, which is this old medieval capital
of Bulgaria. Right. And it's hot. It's dusty.
And the air is just it's absolutely electric
with tension because that little red line on
the map, it just cut families completely in half.
Separated the north from the south just like
that. Exactly. And right in the middle of this
massive shock, there's a group of patriots who
decide they're absolutely not going to accept
it. They refuse. Right. So they form an organization
and they give it this deceptively boring name,
the Unity Committee, or in Bulgarian. I mean,
it really sounds like a homeowners association,
doesn't it? The Unity Committee. It really does.
But make no mistake, this was a revolutionary
cell. This was a literal conspiracy to undo the
work of the most powerful empires on Earth at
the time. Which is exactly why today we are doing
a deep dive into the Unity Committee of 1878.
We are going to unpack how poets, revolutionaries
and future prime ministers tried to rewrite history
while the ink on that treaty was. practically
still wet it's such an incredible story and to
do this we're looking through a really solid
stack of historical records some pretty deep
cuts regarding the modern history of bulgaria
encyclopedic entries yeah especially those focusing
on the macedonian question right Exactly. And
our mission today is to figure out the actual
mechanics of resistance. Like when the whole
world says you don't exist, how do you organize
to prove them wrong? Right. And for you listening,
you might be wondering, why should you care about
some committee in the Balkans from 150 years
ago? Fair question. But because this is the ultimate
underdog story. It's a classic case study of
what happens when massive geopolitical treaties
just completely... crash into the real lives
of people on the ground. It's about that exact
moment people stop waiting for a savior and decide
to just save themselves. Exactly. So to understand
the unity committee, though, we really have to
understand the trauma that created it in the
first place. We do. We have to talk about what
I like to call the tale of two treaties. Oh,
right. The whole good cop, bad cop situation
of 1878. So we start with the Treaty of San Stefano.
This is the good cop for the Bulgarians. Oh,
absolutely. So context here. It's March 1878.
The Russo -Turkish War ends. Russia wins. And
they basically dictate a treaty that creates
what is known as San Stefano, Bulgaria. And it
was massive. How massive are we talking? Huge.
It covered the Danube Plain, the Thracian Valley,
and almost the entirety of Macedonia. I mean,
it was literally the dream of national unification
realized on paper. So the champagne bottles were
popping. Oh, everywhere. People really thought
the 500 -year struggle against Ottoman rule was
finally over. 500 years. That's generations of
waiting. Exactly. They thought they were finally
free for about three months. Three months. Wow.
And then here comes the bad cop, the Congress
of Berlin. Right. So Britain and Austria -Hungary,
they look at this big map of San Stefano, Bulgaria,
and they absolutely panic. Because it's too big.
Because they see this giant Russian puppet state
nominating the Balkans. And strategically, they
just cannot let that stand. So they convene in
Berlin and they essentially perform surgery on
the map. I mean, surgery is a very polite way
to put it based on the sources. It sounds a lot
more like a like an amputation. It effectively
was an amputation. They took the country and
sliced it into three parts. Okay. Break that
down for us. So the north becomes the principality
of Bulgaria. That's mostly free, but they're
still paying tribute. All right. Then the middle
section becomes Eastern Rumelia. That's an autonomous
province, but it is still under the direct control
of the sultan. Right. And then the south, which
is Macedonia and Thrace. That is given straight
back to the Ottoman Empire. No autonomy, no special
privileges. just given back. And that right there,
that is the wretched condition that our source
materials keep talking about. Yes, exactly. I
really want to dig into that specific phrase
because the records from the Unity Committee
explicitly state their goal was, and I'm quoting
here, helping to improve the wretched condition
of Bulgarians remaining outside the bounds of
Danube, Bulgaria. That is just incredibly heavy.
It's heartbreaking when you think about the human
element. Imagine you're living in a village in
Macedonia. In March, You're told you are finally
free. The Ottoman troops pack up. They leave.
You celebrate in the streets. You think your
life has fundamentally changed. And then in July,
the news comes down the mountain. Sorry, the
great power has changed their minds. Yeah, the
Ottoman army is coming back. The psychological
whiplash there must have been completely insane.
I mean, you go from being a citizen of a new
free country back to being a subject of an empire
in the blink of an eye. And it wasn't just about
what flag was flying over the town hall. It was
about physical safety. Right, because the source
material really highlights the fear of reprisals,
doesn't it? Exactly. These populations had just
openly celebrated the empire's defeat. Now they
were exposed. They were vulnerable and legally
they were completely isolated from their brothers
up in the north. That deep sinking feeling of
being less behind. Yes. That feeling is the exact
fuel that powers the unity committee. OK. So
the Treaty of Berlin is signed in July 1878.
The shockwave hits everyone. But before we get
to Tarnovo and the committee itself, there's
actually a sort of prequel scene in Sophia, isn't
there? There is, and it's a really critical detail
from the records because it shows the evolution
of their strategy. Walk us through it. So, in
the summer of 1878, right as the really bad news
from Berlin is breaking, a group of leading Bulgarians
from Macedonia gather in Sofia. And who are these
people specifically? These are the refugees who
had fled the fighting, the intellectuals, the
community leaders, the people who had the most
to lose. And initially... They aren't actually
talking about guns or violence, are they? No,
not at all. They're talking about diplomacy.
They are drafting petitions. They're sitting
in rooms thinking, surely if we just clearly
explain to the great powers that this division
is a terrible mistake, they'll fix it. They really
wanted to secure a diplomatic revision of the
Berlin Treaty through the proper channels. I
feel like I know exactly how that went. About
as well as you'd expect when dealing with 19th
century empires. Yeah. The great powers had just
spent months in grueling negotiations to cut
this exact deal. They certainly weren't going
to tear it up because of a few grassroots petitions
from Sofia. And this right here is the aha moment
for them. The group in Sofia realizes pretty
quickly that diplomacy is a total dead end. It
really is. Desperation has a way of clarifying
things. Yeah. The sources actually note that
they concluded it was necessary to, again, quoting
here, organize a massive armed uprising, which
is a huge pivot. It's a massive escalation. You
don't just go from writing polite letters to
planning a full -blown insurrection unless something
fundamentally snaps. Well, they realized that
nobody was coming to save them. If the map was
going to change, they were going to have to change
it themselves on the ground with physical force.
And that specific idea, that spark? Travels from
Sofia over to Veliko Tarnovo. Exactly. But why
Tarnovo? I mean, why not just stay in Sofia and
plan it there? A couple of reasons. Tarnovo has
this immense symbolic weight. It's the ancient
medieval capital. Oh, right. But maybe more practically,
the Russian Provisional Administration was centered
there at the time. So it was this massive hub
of political and military activity. And crucially,
it's where three... Very specific, very dangerous
men happen to be at that exact moment. Yes. Let's
talk about this lineup, the founding fathers
of this committee. Our source stack lists Lubin
Karvalov, Stefan Stambalov, and Hristo Ivanov,
who is known as Galenya. These are not just random
guys off the street. Oh, not at all. This is
basically a revolutionary supergroup. Let's break
them down. Start with Lubin Karavelov. So Karavelov
is the older statesman of the revolution. He's
a writer, a journalist. He had spent decades
living in exile, constantly writing, trying to
wake up the Bulgarian national consciousness.
So he's really the soul of the operation. Exactly.
He provides the intellectual foundation. But
then you have Stambolov. And Stambolov is...
Well, he's a completely different breed. Stambalov
is pure energy. He is young. He's incredibly
ambitious. And frankly, he's ruthless. I mean,
later in history, he actually becomes known as
the Bulgarian Bismarck, right? He does. But at
this point in 1878, he is just this firebrand
revolutionary who believes in action above absolutely
everything else. If Karavelov is the soul, Stambalov
is the muscle and the brain combined. And then
the third guy, Christo Ivanov. Yeah. Known as
The Big. Yes, Galimia. The Big, he is your veteran
conspirator. What does that mean in practice?
It means he's the guy who actually knows how
to hide weapons. He knows how to move people
across borders in the dead of night. He knows
how to survive entirely underground. So you have
the writer, the politician, and the operator.
Right. Honestly. That sounds like the cast of
a heist movie. It really plays out like one.
So these three, they meet on August 29th, 1878.
They draft what they call the Constitutive Protocol,
and they actively choose that name. At Instavo,
unity. Which we joked earlier sounds super bureaucratic.
But let's really unpack the subtext there. Why
the word unity specifically? Because the Treaty
of Berlin preached division. The treaty literally
dictated you are now three separate entities.
So by calling themselves unity, they were committing
this profoundly linguistic act of rebellion.
They were telling the great powers, we reject
your borders. We are one. It's a direct, undeniable
challenge to the international order of the day.
It's saying, look. Your paper says we are divided,
but our daily reality says we are united. Precisely.
And if you look at the stated objective in their
founding document, unity of all Bulgarians and
their wellness today, it wasn't just abstract
philosophy. Right, because wellness today meant
something very specific. It meant immediate humanitarian
aid for the thousands of refugees pouring over
the new borders. But quietly, it also meant preparing
the ground for the fight. OK, so they have the
name, they have the leaders, they have the motivation.
But a committee sitting in a room in Tarnovo
doesn't actually change a map. How do they scale
this up? Because the sources talk about a whole
network. This is where Stambolov's absolute genius
for organization shines through. They realized
immediately they didn't want a single local club.
They wanted a franchise. A franchise. Yes. They
created this blueprint for Edenspo committees
and they sent emissaries out to every single
major town in North Bulgaria. So it's almost
like a revolutionary pyramid scheme. In a way,
yes. The pitch was basically start a committee
in your town. Recruit five trusted patriots and
start sending money and supplies back to the
center. That's incredibly effective. It was.
But then they did something even riskier. They
didn't just stay in the safe zone. They actively
expanded the network south into eastern Rumelia,
that semi -autonomous zone. And then, crucially,
they pushed operatives deep into Macedonia. Let's
talk about the physical logistics of that. We're
talking about crossing directly back into the
Ottoman Empire. This isn't an open, friendly
border. No, this is a highly militarized, hostile
border. We really have to visualize what this
took. They are smuggling heavy wooden crates
of rifles. They are smuggling black powder. Just
slipping past the guards. Exactly. And they are
sending volunteers, many of whom are battle -hardened
veterans from the recent war. They're dressing
them up as pezzers or traveling merchants and
having them slip through these treacherous mountain
passes into Macedonia just to set up local s***.
sleeper cells. It's essentially a shadow government
operating in plain sight. That is exactly what
it was. The unity committee became a state within
a state. Up in the north, they were throwing
banquets and raising money completely openly.
But down in the south, they were a clandestine
paramilitary organization. Bridging the exact
gap that the Berlin Treaty tried to create. Yes.
But the goal of all this fundraising and smuggling
wasn't just to have more committee meetings.
The ultimate goal was physical violence. Organized
strategic violence, yes. The source material
is very blunt about this fact. The formation
of the committee in Tarnovo led directly to the
organization of the Kresna -Raslog uprising.
Okay, let's connect those dots for the listener.
The committee forms in late August 1878. When
does the uprising actually trigger? October 1878.
Wait, October. That is incredibly fast. It is
remarkably fast. That's barely two months from
let's sit down and form a committee to let's
start a shooting war against an empire. It really
speaks to the sheer amount of pent up anger we
talked about earlier. The Odinstvo committee
provided the high level leadership, the strategy
and the physical supplies. But the local populations
provided the manpower. They were already primed
and ready to fight. So tell us about the uprising
itself. The Kresna -Raslog uprising. What was
the tactical plan? The plan was to ignite a fierce
rebellion right in the Struma Valley down in
Macedonia. And the hope was that it would be
so successful or at the very least so loud and
disruptive. that the great powers would be forced
to actually look at the map again. Right. They
wanted to prove to London and Vienna that the
Berlin Treaty was fundamentally unenforceable
on the ground. So it was essentially a violently
loud cry for international attention. Exactly,
a violent cry for attention. The Unity Committee
sent armed detachments of volunteers down from
the free areas of Bulgaria to physically join
up with the local insurgents. And they went to
work. They attacked Ottoman military garrisons.
And did they actually win any ground? For a brief
moment, yes. managed to liberate several villages
in the region. But the odds, I mean, just looking
at the geopolitical map, the Ottoman Empire is
still a giant professional military machine.
And this is a grassroots network armed with smuggled
rifles and righteous anger. The odds were terrible,
just objectively terrible. And frankly, the leaders
of the unity committee knew that going in. They
had to know. But they were operating on this
pure logic of liberty or death. They firmly believe
that even a failed uprising was better for the
national soul than just silently accepting the
division. It's interesting, too, because the
source material mentions the uprising covering
the timeline of 1878 to 1879. So this wasn't
just a quick weekend skirmish that got put down
immediately. No, they held out. It dragged on
through the winter, which, if you know anything
about the Balkan Mountains, is an absolute logistical
nightmare. Freezing cold, no supply lines. Exactly.
to funnel supplies down through the snow, but
eventually the sheer geopolitical reality just
crushed them. Russia refused to intervene. They
didn't want to start another war. Exactly. Britain
and Austria -Hungary didn't budge an inch. And
so the Ottoman army moved in and suppressed the
rebellion brutally. So on paper, if we're just
looking at the immediate results, they failed.
The borders didn't change at all. Macedonia remained
under Ottoman control. In the strict immediate
sense, yes, it was a military failure. The political
unity they wanted simply wasn't achieved. But
history isn't just about immediate wins and losses
on a ledger. I mean, we are sitting here talking
about this nearly 150 years later. So what was
the actual lasting legacy of the Unity Committee?
The legacy is the creation of the Macedonian
question itself. Expand on that. Well, before
this committee, before the Kresna -Raslog uprising,
there was a lot of chaotic anger and confusion.
But the unity committee crystallized the struggle.
They took that anger and gave it a structure.
They essentially established the exact organizational
model for the next 50 years of Balkan history.
They wrote the playbook. They absolutely did.
If you look at all the later... much more famous
revolutionary organizations in the balkans like
the vmro for example they are the direct spiritual
descendants of edinstbo using the exact same
methods exactly local secret committees underground
communication networks cross -border paramilitary
raids stambalov and karabalov proved beyond a
doubt that you could organize a nation even when
that nation is legally divided by international
borders. It also seems like it really cemented
the role of the free Bulgarian state as the permanent
base of operations. This whole idea that if you
were a Bulgarian trapped in Macedonia, your eyes
automatically turn north to Sofia or Tarnovo
for salvation. You hit the nail on the head.
It created a permanent, unbreakable link. It
made the fate of Macedonia a central, unavoidable
pillar of Bulgarian domestic politics. You couldn't
ignore it. No, you literally couldn't be a politician
in Bulgaria for the next entire century without
having a very clear stance on the national question.
And that intense national obsession, it all starts
right there in that dusty room in Tarnovo in
August 1878. It is just fascinating how three
men sitting in a room. can set a definitive trajectory
for a century of conflict. It really is. And
it brings us all the way back to that one word,
id inspo, unity. It's such a powerful and honestly
such a dangerous concept to empires. Right. When
you tell people they inherently belong together,
but the international law artificially keeps
them apart, you are just building a massive pressure
cooker. The Unity Committee was simply the safety
valve blowing off. I really want to zoom out
for a second here at the end. We started this
whole deep dive by picturing a map, the great
powers sitting in Berlin, drawing their neat
little lines, and the Unity Committee doing everything
in their power power to erase them. What do you
think this whole story tells us about the fundamental
nature of borders? I think it tells us that borders
are entirely artificial constructs. We have this
tendency today to treat them as permanent facts
of nature, you know, like they're rivers or mountain
ranges. Right, like they've always been there.
Exactly. But the Unity Committee reminds us that
borders are really just temporary agreements
between powerful people. And when those political
agreements completely ignore the actual reality
of the people living on the ground, their culture,
their family ties their deep sense of identity
those borders will always always be unstable
the match is not the territory perfectly said
the map in berlin said ottoman empire but the
people living in the territory said Bulgaria.
And the unity committee was the physical fighting
bridge between those two completely incompatible
realities. It really makes you think about other
places in the world, even right now today. Whenever
a line is drawn by a distant government that
arbitrarily cuts through a living community,
do we see a unity committee inevitably pop up?
Almost always. Maybe it has a completely different
name. Maybe they're speaking a different language.
But the underlying human mechanism is exactly
the same. It is a universal human reaction. As
long as political geography decides to ignore
human geography, you are going to have unity
committees. You will always have people smuggling
notes, holding secret meetings in basements,
and flat out refusing to accept the ink on the
paper. So for everyone listening, the next time
you look at a globe and you see all those neat,
tidy, colorful lines separating the countries,
I want you to remember the Lico Tarnovo. Remember
Stambalov, Karavalov, and Ivanov. And remember
that behind pretty much every stable border on
Earth, there is usually a very messy history
of people who fought desperately to move it.
And sometimes all that fighting starts with something
as simple and boring as a committee meeting.
A committee meeting with a very boring name and
a very, very revolutionary purpose. Well, that's
all the time we have for this deep dive into
the Unity Committee of 1878. thanks so much for
listening it was a real pleasure to be here keep
questioning the map we'll catch you on the next
one