Mihail Gerdzhikov
{{Short description|Bulgarian revolutionary and anarchist (1877–1947)}}
{{Use American English|date=May 2022}}
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| name = Mihail Gerdzhikov
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| birth_date = {{birth date|1877|1|26}}
| birth_place = Plovdiv, Ottoman Empire (modern Bulgaria)
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| death_date = {{death date and age|1947|3|18|1877|1|26}}
| death_place = Sofia, {{flag|People's Republic of Bulgaria}}
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| resting_place = Central Sofia Cemetery
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| nationality = Bulgarian
| other_names = Michel
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| citizenship = {{Flag|Ottoman Empire}} {{small|(1877–1878)}}
{{flag|Principality of Bulgaria}} {{small|(1878–1908)}}
{{flag|Kingdom of Bulgaria}} {{small|(1908–1946)}}
{{flag|People's Republic of Bulgaria}} {{small|(1946–1947)}}
| education = University of Geneva
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| years_active = 1895–1946
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| organization = {{flagicon image|Flag_of_the_IMRO.svg}} MSRC {{small|(1895–1899}}}
{{flagicon image|Flag_of_the_IMRO.svg}} IMRO {{small|(1899–1925)}}
{{flagicon image|Flag_of_the_IMRO.svg}} IMRO (U) {{small|(1925–1936}})
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| known_for = Preobrazhenie Uprising, Strandzha Commune
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| movement = Anarchism
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| spouse = Yanka Kanevcheva
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| father = Ivan Gerdzhikov
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Mihail Gerdzhikov ({{langx|bg|Михаил Герджиков}}; 1877–1947) was a Bulgarian revolutionary and anarchist.
Biography
File:Mihail Gerdzhikov by Georgi Danchov, 1881.jpg]]
File: Mihail Gerdzhikov cheta IMARO.jpg
File: Mihail, Stefan and Nikolay Gerdzhikov by Andrey Andreev, 1904.jpg, Plovdiv]]
File: Mihail Gerdzhikov cheta IMARO2.jpg
He was born in Plovdiv, then in the Ottoman Empire, in 1877. He studied at the French College in Plovdiv, where he received the nickname Michel. As a pupil in 1893 he started his revolutionary activities as the leader of a Macedonian Secret Revolutionary Committee (MSRC).{{cite book|title=Black Flame: The Revolutionary Class Politics of Anarchism and Syndicalism|first1=Lucien|last1=van der Walt|authorlink=Lucien van der Walt|first2=Michael|last2=Schmidt|publisher=AK Press|year=2009|isbn=978-1-904859-16-1|page=317}} As a student in Lausanne and Geneva he participated in the so-called Geneva Group. In 1899 he moved to Ottoman Macedonia and became a teacher at Bulgarian Men's High School in Bitola{{cite book | title = Dame Gruev. Life and business. Collection, Volume 2 | editor-last = Billiard | editor-first = Tsocho | year = 2007 | publisher = Aniko | location = Sofia | pages = 527–528 | url = http://www.sitebulgarizaedno.com/index.php?Option=com_content&view=article&id=611:2014-01-27-15-29-58&catid=29:2010-04-24-09-14-13&Itemid=61 | accessdate = January 15, 2016}} and joined Internal Macedonian Adrianople Revolutionary Organization, where Gerdzhikov approached Gotse Delchev. In 1900 he was a delegate to the Zlatitsa Society of the Seventh Congress of the Supreme Macedonian-Adrianople Committee (SMAC).Biljarski, Tsocho. Principality of Bulgaria and the Macedonian Question, p.1. Supreme Macedonian-Edirne Committee 1895 - 1905 (Congressional Minutes), Bulgarian Historical Library, 5, Ivray, Sofia, 2002, p. 169. In April 1901 he was a delegate of the Eighth Congress of SMAC.Bilyarski, Tsocho. Principality of Bulgaria and the Macedonian Question, p.1. Supreme Macedonian-Edirne Committee 1895 - 1905 (Congressional Minutes), Bulgarian History Library, 5, Ivray, Sofia, 2002, p. 259.
After the defeat of the Strandzha commune during the Preobrazhenie Uprising, he dealt with the accommodation of the rebels who withdrew from Ottoman Thrace to Bulgaria. He published articles in the Bulgarian and foreign press, appealing to the international community for intervention in the resolution of the Eastern question in the Balkans. Together with Varban Kilifarski he also published various newspapers of their own.Karchev, Peter. Through the Window of a Half-Century (1900 - 1950), East-West, Sofia, 2004, p. 203. {{ISBN|954321056X}} At the outbreak of the Balkan War in 1912, Gerdzhikov headed the Lozengrad guerrilla unit of the Macedonian-Adrianopolitan Volunteer Corps.Macedonian-Adrian Militia 1912 - 1913 Personnel, Main Archives Department, 2006, pp. 175, 892. He was mobilized into the Bulgarian Army and participated in World War I, serving in the Forty-third Infantry Regiment.
After the War, he was a member of the Provisional representation of the former United Internal Revolutionary Organization"National Liberation Struggle in Macedonia, 1919 - 1941", Collective, Knowledge IC, Sofia, 1998, p. .72 and later joined the IMRO (United). Gerdzhikov participated in the Constantinople Conference of the IMRO (United) in 1930 and was a member of the Central Committee as a member of the Foreign Office.Pandev, Konstantin. Foreword to: Gerdzhikov, Michael. Memories, Documents, Materials, Science and Art Publishing House, Sofia, 1984, p. 14. But after the conference he did not leave for Berlin, to participate in the Central Committee, but returned to Bulgaria in 1931.Pandev, Konstantin. Foreword to: Gerdzhikov, Michael. Memories, Documents, Materials, Science and Art Publishing House, Sofia, 1984, p. 15. He became a journalist and translator. On the eve and during the Second World War, 1939–1945, due to his advanced age, he was mainly engaged in journalism. He has collaborated on a number of periodicals. Although some of his associates were involved in the resistance movement, Gerdzhikov remained aloof, although he maintained ties with them. Following the September 9 coup, he signed in Sofia "Appeal to the Macedonians in Bulgaria".Цочо Билярски, Ива Бурилкова, БКП, Коминтернът и македонския въпрос (1917-1946), Том 2, Главно управление на архивите, София, 1999, ISBN 9549800040, стр. 1122.
Gerdzhikov died in 1947, disappointed with the new communist authorities.
Sources
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Category:Bulgarian military personnel of the Balkan Wars
Category:Bulgarian military personnel of World War I
Category:Bulgarian revolutionaries
Category:Burials at Central Sofia Cemetery
Category:Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization (United) members
Category:Members of the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization