Nikola Karev - Biography

Biography

Karev completed his early education in Kruševo and in 1893 moved to Sofia in independent Bulgaria, where he became a member of the Bulgarian Workers' Social Democratic Party. Later he went back to Ottoman Macedonia and graduated from the Bulgarian Exarchate's gymnasium in Bitola. After that he worked as Bulgarian teacher in the region of Kruševo. In this period he joined IMRO and became a leader of a regional armed band (cheta). During the Ilinden Uprising of August 1903, when Kruševo was captured by the rebels, Nikola Karev authored the Kruševo Manifesto, which outlined the aims of the Uprising, and became the head of its provisional government. The republic lasted only ten days, from 3 August to 13 August, when after intense fighting it was destroyed by Ottoman government forces. After the uprising Karev went back to Bulgaria and became political active in the Bulgarian Workers' Social Democratic Party. In 1905 he was killed during an attempt to enter Ottoman Macedonia with a group of IMRO fighters.