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4. The Archive and the Account Book: Inscriptions of Terror
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98 | loyal unto death chapter four The Archive and the Account Book: Inscriptions of Terror Whether simply borrowed from neighboring anti-Ottoman movements, inherited from revolutionary precedents, or developed organically along with other institutions typical of secret societies, the mro oath expressed powerful sentiments and constituted a community. The scale and texture of that community evolved over time. In its first few years, the oath was administered to select, trusted individuals across the Macedonian countryside, especially teachers, shopkeepers, and urban professionals, who would then take on the responsibility of expanding the membership into their local circles of trust and acquaintance. It thus became a symbol of egalitarian solidarity, spreading in capillary fashion, cutting across existing divisions of wealth, generation, and gender. It was only as the 1903 uprising approached that the mro began to expand its recruitment of new members exponentially through mass swearings -in to mobilize a critical mass of fighters to take the field. In both phases, though, oathing alone could achieve nothing. What many of the stories of the Ilinden Dossier make clear is that oathing was almost invariably followed by the allocation of tasks and duties to the new swearer that made membership meaningful through practical action. The biographies in the dossier thus provide concrete answers to questions that methodological nationalism and pidgin social science tend to ignore. Although accounts focusing on the spread of nationalism may speak of the battle to win “hearts and minds,” they more seldom address how exactly ideologies, national or otherwise, are communicated and enacted. This chapter explores how individuals brought together virtually in the symbolic moment of communitas represented by “oathing-in” proceeded to create relationships with others and demonstrate their commitment to the cause.1 The Archive in the Archive: Writing Remembered Until the Vinica Affair of September 1897, the mro had passed largely unrecognized by the Ottoman authorities. Given its short career before that, the the archive and the account book | 99 careful manner in which recruiting proceeded initially, and that the maintenanceofarmed četaswasonlyinstitutionalizedin1896,membershipwasprobably less than two thousand at that point, concentrated in towns and cities where local committees were especially active.2 Already, though, the organization had begun to plan for its expansion. Within a relatively short time from its foundation by six young men who knew one another, the mro put in place tactics, techniques, and procedures to protect the identity of its senior members . An early device was the use of pseudonyms, which was made standard in 1896 (Perry 1988: 67); Goce Delčev took the heroic Greek name Ahil, Damjan Gruev took Marko (perhaps after the South Slavic fok hero Krale Marko), while one of the Ilinden pensioners, Lazar Hristov Svetiev, reports that he had the code name “Adam” and that only vojvodas and those who administered oaths to new recruits knew his real identity (Record 31-S-15). The Vinica Affair was launched by the Ottoman discovery of a weapons cache—an unambiguous, easily legible sign of plans to use or threaten violence , even if the authorities did not yet know of what kind and against whom. Later, though—both before and after the Ilinden Uprising of 1903—the biographies of the pension seekers point to other kinds of compromising traffic that state scrutiny uncovered, including the existence of organization archives. Dame Hristov Alžikočovski, of Prilep, records that he and a close associate, Rampo Peškov, were arrested after a četa headed by Metodi Pačev was slaughtered in the village of Kadino; the četa archive was captured and the code was broken (Record 2-A-72).3 He also narrates a later incident when another archive was captured by Ottoman authorities in the village of Toplica, Prilep region, and the entire leadership became outlaws. Sekula V. Jankuloski, of Golemo Ilino, reports the Turkish authorities discovering his involvement in the mro when they killed a četa’s secretary and thus captured the četa archive in Slepče in 1904. Jankuloski was subsequently arrested (Record 14-J-32). A variety of other pensioner biographies also attest to the importance attached to archives of this kind and their own responsibility for them. Several relate stories of being tasked with hiding or relocating archives when there was danger they would be captured. Božin Stefanov Ilievski of Bitola, for example, reports as one of his revolutionary activities keeping a četa archive in his house during 1905. He was serving as a member of the Turkish gendarmerie at the time, a dangerous double game...