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THE DRAMA UPRISING IN 1941
(Summary)

by: Prof. Georgy Daskalov

During the years after the World War II against fascism, the powers involved in the antihitlerite coalition are supported by the massive antifascist movement of the people in the occupied and the satelite countries. In the giant duel between democracy and nazism the liberty-loving Creek people has a praiseworthy place. The aggressive policy of the Greek regimes and the improvident steps of Sofia in the beginning of the century"on the subject of solving the Bulgarian national problem are putting new trials in front of the two neighbouring countries. After the nazist aggression in Greece in April 1941 occupies Eastern Macedonia and Western Trakia (the Aegean region) these districts are integrated again with Bulgaria. Because of their violent depopulation of Bulgarian inhabitants and settling of Greek refugees, come from other countries, serious problems emerge for the Bulgarian government.

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The impending uncertainty about the fate of the local Greek population provokes its struggling spirit. This situation is used by the Greek Communist Party which, after the nazi aggression on the USSR, answers the directives of the Communist International for struggle in all places. The idea of struggle in the Aegean region is formed and affirmed in Thessaloniki, in the Bureau of GCP for Macedonia and Trakia. The aim of this idea is the developing of massive armed antifascist struggle not only in the region, but all over Greece. The most favourable conditions for its realization in the Aegean region exist in the Drama district —0iere is a strong social tension and the organizations of GCP are restored. During the preparation for the uprising the leaders of GCP in Drama and Thessaloniki make a contact with the nationalistic circles, connected with the Greek emigrant government. The idea of a rebellion gets "known to the Greek quisling powers, who cooperate for the military preparation of the uprising. For them it is not a road to freedom, but only a mean to make their patrons in Berlin to reexamine the status-quo of the Aegean region. But the direct inspirator and organizer of the Drama rebellion is the district communist organization. In the beginning of June 1941 in Drama is created an Executive Committee of GCP with a military leader in chief Yanis Dimitrios Crocos (Alecos). The committee begins an active organisational, propaganda and military-technological work. Important amounts of arms, food and money are provided. Armed groups, clandestine military groups and two mountain base camps are created.

The beginning of the Drama uprising is put on 28/29 September 1941 with the attack on the police station in the vilage of Doxat. The(rebels attack the municipal board, the'deputy-mayor city-hall, the police stations in the villages and establish their own power. They ruin the communications and in this way absolutely isolate the district centre. The Drama rebellion includes 14 out of 20 communities in the district i. e. 69 villages. In 13 of the communities the uprising ends successfully. It is defeated only in Drama. The ruling circles there take measures in time and neutralize the local rebel's actions. The rebel's groups coming to the town from the villages are stopped after hours of fighting in its surroundings. The uprising is successful in 2 of the 11 communities in the Zilyach district. After the unsuccessful struggle fbr Drama and the first counter-actions of the army and the police the rebels regroup and go to the base camps in Chaldag and Kushnitsa mountauns. After the first surprise the government in the Aegean region undertakes fast organising steps and begins energetic action in- order to crush the-rebellion. By 30 September the rebels are already pushed out of the field regions of the district. The fire of the uprising moves to the northern parts to the clistricts of Pravishte and Cavalla. The revolutionary spirit wakes up in the population living in the districts of Syar and Demirhissar too. About TO 000 men take different participation in the uprising. About 3000 men are participantsin the military groups and 1000 men out of these 3000 don't have any weapon.

The three military-police groups, formed by the government in the days from 1 to 6 October begin actions on a large scale to put under control the regions covered by the rebellion. With the cooperation of the artillery and the aviation the strong rebel groups in Chaldag and Kushnitsa mountauns are defeated. The pursuit of the last remnants of them is continued till 5 November 1941. As a result of the military operations and the repressive, measures undertaken by the government, the general number of the victims in the days of the uprising is about 3000 and the losses of the government are 211.

The endeavour of the regime in Sophia to protect the right of the Bulgarian people for unifying of its Fatherland collides with the common line of the three flows in the Greek society from the wartime period. The Promonarchist and quisling powers form a common line with those standing around GCP with the ambition to oppose the integration of the Aegean region with Bulgaria. Defensing the Bulgarian right of such an union the government in Sophia faces not only the reaction of the great powers of the antihitlerite coalition, but are left even without the cooperation of Berlin. There are certain difficulties, emerging on the side of the Bulgarian Communist Party, who in the conditions of submission of the Communist International to the military-political plans of the Soviet Union doesn't leave its nihilist positions on the Bulgarian national problem.

Notwithstanding the unsuccessful end of the ftrama uprising it has a praiseworthy place in the history of the arrfifascist movement. The antifascists in the Aegean region are the first ones in Europe after the people of Yugoslavia, who wage a massive, open and offensive war and create one of the brightest pages of the history of the peoples, living on the Balkan Peninsula.