I recall a somewhat recent trend over the past year spreading across social media, where men would joke about how they thought of the Roman Empire on a daily basis. Sure, the Roman Empire was a “great empire”, and its no wonder as to why you’d think about it; it was the center of the ancient world! But it’s not quite… unknown. As a socialist, I can proudly say I have my own Roman Empire. For me, it’s the communes of Bulgaria, prominently the Strandzha Commune. Believe it or not, a group of prominent Bulgarian anarchists established socialist communes in the late 1800s and early 1900s.
Leftist ideas were already spread across the region of Thrace by that time period. In North Macedonia and Bulgaria, you will find that many national heroes are celebrated as true patriots fighting for freedom, which was true, but less people know that they were radical leftists for their time. Goce Delchev was a socialist sympathizer; Vasil Levski was a radical republican; and Hristo Botev, despite being a statist, was heavily influenced by the ideas of Proudhon and Bakunin. He even wrote an article titled “Ridiculous Weep” in defense of the Paris Commune.
Just five years later in 1876, the April Uprising sprung up throughout the Balkans and the first commune was established: Panagyurishte. According to Atanas Shopof, a man who was a first-hand witness of the Commune’s short existence, the revolutionary Georgi Benkovski and his Bulgarian guerillas captured the small village on April 20, 1876. It was nestled by hills and it remained the capital of the uprising until it was crushed. Groups of soldiers elected a committee tasked with preparing a plan for the uprising, where all property, goods, flour, wheat, and other possessions were to be communal! The monetary system would be abolished, and committees would establish nationwide communes, which were to be in constant contact with one another, like some type of anarchistic federation. Again, the Paris Commune happened just five years before, so the Bulgarians wanted to replicate that on a wider scale. They began to implement their plans to hold large cattle in a common space, provide equal rights to everyone regardless of ethnicity, and distribute goods that were necessary for survival. The Panagyurishte Commune was eventually crushed after a measly ten days by Ottoman imperial soldiers, along with the hopes of any Bulgarian federation being established during the April Uprising.
Thirty years later, my favorite Commune was established. Carrying the legacy of the Panagyurishte Commune, bands of the Internal Macedonian Adrianople Revolutionary Organization declared the Strandzha Commune on August 19, 1903. This commune, led by the anarchist Mikhail Gerdzhikov, had much more potential than the previous one. It was located near the Strandzha mountains, where many villages nested, bordering where the Bulgarian and Turkish border are now. At the time, Greeks and Bulgarians coexisted in the region, often fighting each other. Gerdzhikov and his troops successfully instigated mass uprisings and all public matters in these towns and villages were voted on. This wasn’t just one village; it was a large federation of socialist communities on the doorstep of Adrianople.
For 20 days, the “Leading Combat Body” (which is what they called the militia that protected the Communes) defended the Commune. It was called the Leading Combat Body because the anarchists didn’t want it to ‘reek of militarism’ or sound like an occupation force. Similar to the Makhnovshchina that emerged 15 years later, they viewed the role of their guerilla armies as supportive and temporary, to protect the councils that could be focused on public administration.
After a major victory, Gerdzhikov wrote:
“We somehow began setting up our own institutions… The population was rejoicing, in the villages people danced and held feasts. There was no more ‘This is mine and that is yours’ — in the hills and forests before and after the congress we had set up storehouses: the whole harvest was deposited there as flour and grain in common stores. The livestock also became common property… We issued an appeal to the ethnic Greek population in Greek, explaining that in taking over territory we weren’t fighting for the re-establishment of a Bulgarian empire, but only for human rights; we explained to them that as Greeks they too would benefit from this and it would be good if they would support us morally and materially…“
In the end, the Leading Combat Body was overpowered. An army of 40,000 soldiers came to crush them, leading to a massacre of dead soldiers. Such history shows us that our movement IS possible, it just takes courage and communal strength. Gerdzhikov escaped and continued his activism around Eastern and Central Europe. He died in 1947, originally supporting the Bulgarian Communist regime, but became disillusioned by it after it became authoritarian.
Sources:
theanarchistlibrary.org
libcom.org
Ivan Vazov: The Outcasts (1884)
prqkademokraciq.wordpress.com
Атанас Шопов: Десетдневно царуване. Из българското въстание в 1876 г. Дневници на един бунтовник (есен 1876)
theanarchistlibrary.org
M. Gerdzhikov, Memoirs…
The Rose Outlook 
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