Struga (Струга) - a city in the southwestern part of the Republic of Macedonia and the administrative center of the municipality of the same name. The city of Struga lies in the plain of the Struga Field on both banks of the river Crn Drim and on the northern shore of Lake Ohrid. It has 16,559 inhabitants (2002) and is located 171 km southwest of the capital Skopje.
The ancient name of the city is Enhalon
which in ancient Greek means eel and at that time the city was a
small settlement. Later the settlement was named Struga.
The
name of Struga derives from a pure and characteristic Slavic word.
The people of Struga and Ohrid give two explanations for the origin
of this name.
According to the first folk interpretation, the
name Struga comes from the open geographical position of the city: a
place where the wind constantly blows.
The second is
completely different: Once upon a time, the Macedonian Slavs
(Brsjaci and Mijaci) in Struga were engaged in animal husbandry and
at a specific time they trimmed the numerous sheep on a shear
(shearing wool) near the outlet (mouth) of the Black Drim from Lake
Ohrid. However, this can be much more logically related to the
passage through a sheep milking fence, called a string.
Some
authors claim that the city is so named because the Black Drim runs
through the distance (a Turkish word for a place surrounded by reeds
and other material for eel and fish hunting in general).
Perhaps the closest to the truth is the explanation that Struga
means a river sleeve, a tributary (in this case the outflow of the
Black Drim) in a place with fishing equipment.
For the first
time under the Slavic name Struga, the city is mentioned in an 11th
century document. In another document from the 16th century
(Kaliman's letter) an imperial charter is given "the income from the
fish hunting ground of the city of Struga to be sent to the
Zografski Monastery".
Struga is an old settlement
that dates back to the Neolithic period. In antiquity, Struga was
very profitable because it was located on the road Via Egnatia,
which connected the Eastern and Western Roman Empires.
Archaeological finds and excavated monuments say that life here
dates back to prehistoric times. The first Neolithic settlement was
registered around 3,000 BC. The ancient name of the city is Enhalon
which means eel, and the current name Struga gets it later from the
Old Slavic word "straga" which means passage.
Pre-Slavic
period
Based on some archeological findings, it is assumed that
the ancient city of Enhalon, probably founded by members of the
Illyrian Desareti tribe, was located near the present-day river
Klimetica. Major archaeological finds include a relief tombstone
(from the 4th century) and a stained glass vase believed to have
been brought from Egypt, then a Roman millennium and several ancient
tombs with decorative objects and pottery, found at St. . Georgia.
The ancient historian Polybius gives information about the battles
between the ancient Macedonians and the Illyrians in the Ohrid
region and claims that King Philip II captured Enhalon in 334 BC. In
148 BC. the city fell to the Romans, who built the famous strategic
Via Egnatia to connect Rome, via Durres and Thessaloniki, with
Constantinople. That road also passed through ancient Enhalon.
At that time, the city of Enhalon exported agricultural and
livestock products to other parts of the Roman Empire, importing
items for practical use from gold, silver, metal in general, and
glass. Roman rule ended in the fourth century. Then the Ohrid area
was annexed to Epirus. Almost at the same time, the spread of
Christianity in the Struga region begins. It is believed that the
first Christian missionary in this area was Bishop Erasmus of
Antioch. At that time, several churches were built here.
Settlement of the Slavs
After the massive incursion of the
Southern Slavs, who flooded the Balkan Peninsula, on the former
Illyrian territory, near the shores of Lake Ohrid, the members of
the Slavic tribe Bereziti (Brsjaci) arrived. They came from the
east, through Bitola and Prespa. The Berezites, undoubtedly one of
the largest Macedonian Slavic tribes, settled in Struga, where they
mixed with the one-blooded Mijaci, who entered there from the north.
Probably then, at the end of the VI or the beginning of the VII
century, the Berezites founded today's Struga. Some authors
speculate that the Berezitas found desolate ruins of a much older
non-Slavic settlement at the site.
There is another possibility to consider this issue. Perhaps the
ancient city lived until the approach of the Berzites in the Ohrid
and Struga regions, when its Illyrian and other inhabitants,
overwhelmed with fear, left it and took refuge in the mountains. If
so, the Macedonian Slavs completely destroyed the city and built a
new settlement, similar to the settlements they made in the
All-Slavic ancestral homeland, somewhere behind the Carpathians. The
surroundings of the new city were very suitable for some localities
in the homeland. Specifically: around the mouth of the Black Drim
stretched a large swamp - which probably covered the entire
present-day Struga Field - full of diverse and rich flora (shrubs,
reeds, etc.), and wildlife. Due to that, the inhabitants of the
young settlement Struga had no reason to be afraid of food shortage.
The Berezitas were excellent hunters and fishermen, and the Black
Drim and Lake Ohrid gave them unlimited opportunities for abundant
fishing. This unusually important economic base, then the abundance
of water and other natural resources in the immediate vicinity,
enabled Struga to develop gradually and continuously, to certain
limits, conditioned by the proximity of Ohrid, a city with an
obviously more important and key strategic-geographical position. .
Slavic field and mountain villages sprouted around Struga. She
became their center in every way.
Shortly after the arrival
of the Bulgarian non-Slavic tribes on the Balkan Peninsula, their
khans sought to expand the borders of their state at the expense of
the other South Slavs and Byzantium. Khan Presian entered the
eastern part of Macedonia, probably in the Bregalnica area and north
and south of it. Prince Boris (853-888), who forced the Bulgarians
to convert, expelled the Byzantines from the territory of all
Western Macedonia and conquered Struga and its surroundings. He also
penetrated deep into Albania, where Slavs also lived.
At
first Byzantium did not want to recognize the new position in this
part of the Balkan Peninsula, but later, in 864, it signed an
agreement with the Bulgarian prince Boris I and recognized, de jure,
his rule in the newly conquered areas, meaning in Macedonia. Struga
remained under Bulgarian rule during the reign of the Bulgarian Tsar
Simeon the Great (893-927), who sought to oust Byzantium from the
Balkans in order to create a vast South Slavic empire (such ideas
were later shared by the Macedonian Tsar Samuel and the Serbian Tsar
Dusan). .
During, on and after Samuel
The position of the
Macedonian Slavs in Struga and the Struga region was on average good
during Samuel's reign, although he waged constant wars against the
Byzantines. Back then, in this area, the Bogomils were in the
majority, but they were not persecuted. A great deterioration
occurred after the establishment of the Byzantine government in
Macedonia. Struga was located within the borders of the Ohrid theme
and was exposed to cruel feudal exploitation. Byzantine officials
(both military and civilian), who came to the Black Drim from larger
and more developed city centers in the empire, aware of the duration
of their life there, sought to use their service to get rich faster
at the expense of the Macedonian Slavs. Moreover, they did not know
about mercy. They squeezed everything that could be squeezed, they
robbed everything that could be robbed. The state authorities for
collecting taxes stood out in that, as well as the Greek clergy,
which did everything to eliminate the Slavic worship in the
churches. The famous Ohrid Archbishop Theophylact (1084-1108), who
translated and presented as his extensive biography of Clement of
Ohrid (and then burned the Slavic original), in some of his letters
complained that the state authorities burdened his subjects -
fishermen and millers - with doubled taxes, without having a legal
right. This also applied to the Macedonian Slavs in the Struga
region, because they were also his "subjects".
Struga came
under Bulgarian rule again during the time of Kaloyan (1197-1207).
She was a slave to the Bulgarian state in the time of Ivan Assen
(1216-1240). It can be said that it revived freely, as in the time
of Samuel, after the creation of the independent state of the
Macedonian feudal ruler Strez.
Struga and the Struga region suffered greatly during the 11th
century, when the Normans, led by Robert Guiscard and his son
Boehmund, penetrated deep into Macedonia, after the Via Egnatia.
Before the arrival of the Norman conquerors, the Byzantine
authorities in the Ohrid theme gathered soldiers for their infantry.
Also, during the passage of the Normans, Struga was looted. Soldiers
from Northern Europe committed numerous crimes in the Struga region.
For some time the city was under the rule of the Epirians, whose
despot Teodor Angel Duka Komnin was crowned emperor by the
Archbishop of Ohrid Dimitar Homatian (1217-1234) (author of the
short biography of Clement of Ohrid).
In the 11th century,
Struga was visited by the Byzantine travel writer Ana Komnina, in
whose records Struga is called a city of a hundred bridges. In the
Middle Ages, thanks to the already existing Via Egnatia and Samuel's
newly built roads, Struga became a rich trade center. The travel
writer Bernard describes it as an important crossroads, and Evliya
Çelebi, who stayed here in the second half of the 17th century,
testifies to the great Struga fairs, two during the year, which were
attended by up to 50,000 visitors. The area where thousands of shops
and other facilities were built is still called Panagjurishte. In
the city, the XIX century passes in the sign of the revival and
liberation from the Greek spiritual influence. It was Struga,
through the brothers Dimitrija and Konstantin Miladinovi, that
became the harbinger and center of the Macedonian national revival.
Under the Serbian Empire
After the restoration of the
Byzantine Empire in 1261, the Byzantines ruled all of Macedonia for
about 20 years, without being disturbed by it on any part. But,
during the same century, the expansion and consolidation of the
Serbian government to the south, on the territory of Macedonia,
began. Serbian King Milutin was the first to occupy Macedonian
areas. Dusan Silni (1331-1355) included Struga within the borders of
his great empire, with Skopje as its capital. He appointed the
Sevastocrat Branko Mladenovi ((father of Vuk Brankovi)) as the
governor of Ohrid and Struga. But it is more likely that his son
Grgur Brankovic practically held power.
At that time Struga
was still a famous economic center, especially with the developed
fishing. In a charter of Tsar Dusan Silni, the city of Struga is
mentioned as a fishing hunting ground donated to the temple "Holy
Mother of God Periblepti" in Ohrid. The same document shows that
then Struga was divided into two city units: Vraninska Struga and
Mala Struga, probably called so along the river sleeves of the Black
Drim, at a distance.
Tsar Dusan enabled the famous Dubrovnik
merchants to move through his country. That position contributed to
the development of trade in the more important Macedonian cities.
The caravans of Dubrovnik merchants, loaded with precious and
various goods from Western European countries, stayed mainly in
Skopje, then the capital of the Serbian state, and a smaller part of
the merchants continued their journey to the southern part of
Macedonia. They often visited Prilep, Bitola and Ohrid. The
Dubrovnik traders, who would reach Ohrid, also traveled to Struga to
sell what they were carrying, but also to buy Struga livestock and
agricultural products.
Under Ottoman rule
Duшаan's
successor, King Uro., Was incapable of saving the kingdom from
splitting and weakening. Some Serbian feudal lords sought to become
as independent as possible and not to depend on the central
government. Then the ambitious King Volkashin (1365-1371)
intensified. He managed to strengthen his power in Prilep, Bitola,
Ohrid and Struga. After his death in the Battle of the Maritsa
River, in 1371, that territory was inherited by the legendary hero
of folk poetry of all South Slavs King Marko (1371-1395). Although a
Turkish vassal, King Marko took care to protect the Macedonian Slavs
from the increasingly frequent Turkish looting in this part of
Macedonia. Struga did not remain for a long time under the direct
rule of King Marko, because the great prefect Andrea Gropa (probably
of Albanian origin) established himself in the Ohrid region and in
the Struga region as an independent master. But even Gropa could not
do anything significant to protect the population in its area. At
that time, the Turks began to permanently conquer and conquer the
Macedonian cities. The famous military leader Timur Tash-bey
organized a campaign from Samokov through Ovche Pole to Southwest
Macedonia. His armies captured the cities of Stip, Veles, Prilep and
Bitola. In the chronicle of the Turkish author Ashik-Pasha Zade
"Tevarih-i-al-Osman" about the Turkish invasion is written:
"Then
they turned to the Albanian vilayet. They arrived in Manastir
(Bitola) with a very large army. That area was generous. The people
have obeyed. "
After the stabilization of the Turkish government in Macedonia,
an administrative-territorial division of the whole country was
made. In 1582, the following nahis entered the Ohrid Sandzak: Ohrid
(with Struga), Prespa and Debrca (from the Ohrid kaza) and Gorni
Debar, Zupa and Reka (from the Debar kaza).
At the end of
1670, the famous travel writer Evliya Çelebi also visited Struga,
which he wrote was one of the places from which the largest blood
tax was taken. According to his testimony, there was an old, wooden
bridge in Struga with about 12 arches and a length of about 50
meters, and on the bridge was built the palace of the agata guarded
by 45 armed gavazis. At that time, once a year, a large fair was
held in Struga, which lasted ten days, and which gathered about
40-50,000 people and about a thousand traders. The main trades in
the city were blacksmithing, saddlery, pottery, etc.
Greek
propaganda
At the beginning of the 17th century, the Greek
influence in Struga and the Struga region intensified. Greekism
entered then from the southern dioceses of the Ohrid Archbishopric.
Until then, the town near the Black Drim had preserved the Slavic
worship, and the inscriptions on the frescoes and icons were in the
Slavic language, in Cyrillic letters. Struga priests and monks
tirelessly and lovingly copied Slavic manuscripts. As a proof of
that, we can take the fact that in Struga was found the Slavic
translation of the service of Kliment Ohridski, in a transcript from
the Serbian editorial office from the XV century. Sympathetic to the
Slavic tradition in the churches and cell schools attached to the
temples, Struga showed unusually tenacious resistance against
Greekism and sought with all its might to prevent its entry into its
environment. But Greekism did not give up at all. From neighboring
Ohrid it began to spread to Struga, at the same time with a similar
detrimental influence coming from Albania, also threatened by the
new policy of the patriarchate in Constantinople.
In the 17th
century, Catholic propaganda came to life in the Ohrid and Struga
regions. She has acted in Macedonia before, mainly for political
reasons. From time to time she fell and did not feel at all. In 1651
the Pope appointed Andrej Bogdani as Catholic Archbishop
(Archbishop), but he did not even come to Macedonia, to Ohrid, for
fear of being killed by Orthodox Christians.
VMRO
The
internal Macedonian revolutionary organization in Struga and the
Struga region developed a much larger and more extensive activity
after the arrival of Hristo Uzunov and Nikola Rusinski in the Ohrid
and Struga region. The two capable revolutionaries, the centralists,
had very clear conceptions of how the further training of the
Macedonian people for armed struggle against the centuries-old
enslaver should take place. They introduced a variety of tactics
that had been used until then and ordered the revolutionary
detachments to move only at night, destroying the tracks behind
them. In addition, with a strict order, the detachments were obliged
to: conduct military training in inaccessible mountainous areas; to
avoid fights that would be imposed on them by the Turkish troops, in
order to preserve the life force of VMRO for the decisive battle. In
hot weather, the detachments spent the night outside the
settlements, and if they settled in a village, then the villagers
were obliged to set up their own guards.
Both town and
village committees accepted new members of the Revolutionary
Organization. The whole area was covered with the network of VMRO.
Each village, even the smallest, had its own village committee,
which consisted of: chief, secretary, treasurer, village duke and
2-3 members. The village committees, in addition, had their own
couriers and guards (guards) to secure the settlement from
unforeseen danger. Those who were not in the detachments, but had
weapons, were included in the people's militia, which acted only
when needed.
Macedonian peasants no longer went to Turkish
courts. Committees and dukes took over the judiciary. VMRO
committees also accelerated armaments; ordered savings at weddings
and other similar customs; forbade girls and women to wear jewelry;
ordered an increase in agricultural and livestock production so that
producers could have access to both the money and the food supplies
necessary for guerrilla warfare.
VMRO committees in Struga
and Ohrid entered the fight against all kinds of superstitions
(magic, fortune-telling, clairvoyance, etc.). The organization, with
the help of teachers and other more enlightened people, forced the
Macedonians to gradually get used to a more hygienic way of life,
and to seek medical help for illness, instead of going to quack
doctors, who got rich at the expense of the uneducated. VMRO banned
their activity and persecuted them.
VMRO in Struga develops a series of moral features among its
membership, and through it among all the people in the area. From
the ethical values that VMRO instilled and cultivated, the fight
against the hatred of all Turks in general and the observance of the
strictest sexual morality in the detachments and in the villages
took the top place. The perpetrators of the latter were sentenced to
death. Instructions were then given on how to counter the traitors
and exploiters of the toilers.
Positive results were visible
in everyday life. The detachments cleared the robbers. The
population breathed a sigh of relief at their terror. Although VMRO
also fought against the cruel feudal exploitation of the Macedonian
peasants, the Struga Committee carried out a different practice
regarding the landlords in Struga: the revolutionary detachments
protected the landowners from the arbitrariness of their masters,
but also the landlords' robberies. Because of that, the Chifliksaybi
- Albanians and Turks - supplied the detachments with food for free.
Ilinden 1903
Before and during the uprising
After
Rusinski's arrival in the Ohrid region, the Ohrid Revolutionary
District was divided, for easier functioning, into ten revolutionary
districts, with its main center in Ohrid and its headquarters in
Struga. According to that division, the following revolutionary
regions were created on the territory of Struga:
Ninth
revolutionary region: Struga, with the pseudonym Drimkol, and with a
center in the village of Vevcani and
Tenth revolutionary region:
Malesia, from the right bank of the river Crn Drim, with a center in
the village of Prisovjani.
He also performed in 1903. The
revolutionary activities in Struga do not subside. VMRO committees
use the winter months for more direct work with the membership and
the entire population. But the Turkish authorities are not sitting
still. The police send their agents everywhere, collect data and
submit it to the Struga wise man, so that he can take appropriate
action against VMRO. On January 19, 1903, the wise man from Struga
left his headquarters, at the head of a military detachment of about
40 soldiers, and visited the village of Radozda to find comites. The
soldiers conducted a detailed search of the houses, but found
nothing suspicious.
During the first months of 1903, a series
of important events took place that were appropriately reflected in
the Struga region. The famous Thessaloniki Congress of VMRO was
held, convened by internal supremacists and manifested traitors of
the Macedonian people. Then the Smilevo Congress was held, at which
the Ohrid delegates, who also represented the Struga region, spoke
out against the announcement of the uprising, due to their position
on the ground. However, the decision fell through. The Congress
appointed Hristo Uzunov as the leader of the revolutionary
detachments in the Ohrid and Struga regions. Immediately after
returning from the Smilevo Congress, he began to accelerate the
preparation of the region for active participation in the armed
uprising. The committees continued to buy weapons and set up illegal
warehouses and shelters in the mountains. On May 14, 1903, the Ohrid
and Struga leadership arrived at the district headquarters of the
General Staff of the insurgent forces, led by Dame Gruev. The
district recommends that the courier connections from Struga to the
General Staff be established "through the Resen or Demir Hisar
area".
From the same month, cartridges for the companies in
the house of Dudulovci in Struga are rapidly being filled. That
illegal foundry filled an average of 2,000 cartridges per day under
normal conditions. At the same time, the Struga Committee of VMRO
activated more experienced women's groups, six of which were
particularly active. They were led by the ten members: Dola
Bambalova, Fana Bendova, Mara Kitanova, Mara Mechkarova and Para
Spasova.
A few weeks before the Ilinden Uprising, the Struga
Committee of VMRO obliged the very active member Vasilka Jakimova
Matova to export, according to the given draft, the flag of the
Struga Revolutionary Region. Since there was no single directive
with a single draft for the making of the revolutionary flags, the
people of Struga made their battle flag in the following way: On one
(main - here left) side was embroidered a girl with a flag in her
hands - an allegory of Macedonia - "Freedom or death". To the right
of the girl was a small lion standing. The girl was treading on
objects marking the defeat of the Ottoman Empire. On the other
(right) side was a large lion, with a raised tail, stepping on the
Turkish flag with religious symbols: crescent and star.The
embroidery on both sides was on red silk.
The flag stood on a long wooden, smooth handle. It is interesting
that the fringes of red silk and gold silver did not hang from all
three free edges of the flag, but only from the side and below. The
top edge of the flag was free, and at the top of the handle was a
bouquet (as for a wedding).
The month of July 1903 was filled
with various accelerated activities of the city committees of VMRO
in Ohrid and Struga. The Struga Committee often encountered great
difficulties due to the ethnic structure of the population, as well
as due to the proximity of Albania. Although VMRO had a large number
of sympathizers, collaborators and members among the Albanians, the
Struga revolutionary leadership did not know how the Albanians from
their homeland would react if the reactionary circles succeeded in
convincing them that the struggle of the Macedonians was
anti-Muslim, as it neither was nor could be. be.
Another
unresolved issue was the conduct of the struggle after the uprising
was declared. Even after the Smilevo Congress, the Struga leadership
hesitated regarding the tactics and strategy of the fight, due to
the reasons already mentioned. There were very similar difficulties
in the Ohrid region. Nevertheless, preparations continued at an
accelerated pace. The Ohrid revolutionary region was divided into
five sub-regions, two of which in Struga: Struga and Debar Drimkol -
west of the river Crn Drim, with responsible dukes Luka Grupchev and
Marko Pavlov, and Malesia, on the east bank of the Black Drim, with
responsible duke Tase Hristo . "
After Ilinden 1903
After
the suppression of the Ilinden Uprising, the Struga Committee of
VMRO took a series of measures to help those villages that suffered
the most. The committee is implementing the idea of self-help of
the Macedonian people, which has proven to be faster and more
efficient than the funds provided by various propaganda. The church
of St. Georgia. The minutes of the board meeting, held on August 31,
1903, show that "in that year (while he was Metropolitan Teodosie
Golabov - bm) (the church) had a net income of 20,258 groschen…
which was used for the salaries of teachers, singers ( psalms),
servants and alms. "Alms means the means given to help poor families
by fallen revolutionaries.
In October 1903, another event
confirmed the revolutionary nature of women in the Struga region.
Martinica, from the village of Jablanica, a member of VMRO, shot a
foreign traitor and a Turkish spy. Turkish authorities captured her,
tied her up and transferred her to the central prison in Bitola.
Martinica did not calm down, but managed to escape from prison, with
the help of other prisoners. The event surprised the Bitola police,
which failed to track her down. Martinica lived illegally and
continued to work for the Revolutionary Organization.
The
Struga Committee of VMRO quickly renewed the revolutionary network
on the territory. New and younger people joined the rare leaderships
of the village committees. The women's groups of the Organization
were also expanded and increased with new members.
The
renewed Serbian propaganda in Struga continues to create obstacles
for the normal activity of VMRO. Although very weak, she does not
give up that area. Its agitators recruit supporters even among the
members of the Organization, which led to the preparation of the
assassination of Duke Stavre Gogov, who proved to be a great enemy
of the supremacists, and of all foreign propaganda. The mercenary
severely wounded the duke, but he still recovered after a few weeks
and continued to operate in the area. That was in 1906. The same
year, the Turkish authorities killed the very active VMRO
collaborator, the priest Petre from the village of Vevcani. That
murder caused great revolt among the population, and the committees
used it for intensified agitation among the Macedonians and among
the Muslim friends.
On April 11, 1907, Macedonian fighters
from several detachments gathered in Vevcani for counseling. The
arriving detachments were under the leadership of Dukes Stavre Gogov
and others. Turkish authorities discovered them. Turkish military
units arrived in the village, accompanied by bashibozuki from
Labunista, Oktisi and Podgorci. Duke Gogov died surrounded by a lone
stone tower.
After the Hurriyet, 1908, the Young Turk
government asked Macedonians from Struga to serve in the Turkish
army. Many have received invitations to report to a specific unit.
Then Baba Parushka, from Struga, transferred 190 Macedonians from
the town to the mountains by herself, where they joined the company
of Petar Chaulev (who took refuge occasionally in Albania).
Two years later, on May 5, 1910, the Macedonians in Struga held
an annual city assembly to discuss some cultural and educational
issues. The attendees elected a church-school board from the ranks
of the more active Struga residents. All elected were laymen. The
board, among other things, proposed to build a new school building
in Struga, because the old one was dilapidated. The citizens
accepted the initiative and started contributing voluntarily.
Balkan and World War I.
When the Balkan monarchies banded
together to declare war on Turkey to pursue their secret aspirations
to divide Macedonia and other Balkan areas still under the sultan's
rule - Struga - according to a map of the so-called "disputed zone"
- was included in the sphere of interests of the Kingdom of Serbia,
while Ohrid was included in the Bulgarian zone. Struga is occupied
by Serbian armies without a fight, as Turkish troops retreat to
Elbasan (Albania).
The First World War was also reflected in
the Struga region. Bulgarian and Serbian units clashed in the city
itself on November 26, 1915. After several days of fighting, Serbian
armies were forced to withdraw to Albania. Struga is occupied by
Bulgarian units.
After the end of the First World War, Struga
was again under Serbian rule. Life in the new Kingdom of Serbs,
Croats and Slovenes (SCS) was not much better than it was in Turkish
times, as the Macedonian people remained nationally oppressed and
disenfranchised.
World War Two
In 1941, Struga came under
Italian rule. She was released on November 8, 1944.