Mamin Kolyu
Encyclopedia
Bulgaria
Bulgaria , officially the Republic of Bulgaria , is a parliamentary democracy within a unitary constitutional republic in Southeast Europe. The country borders Romania to the north, Serbia and Macedonia to the west, Greece and Turkey to the south, as well as the Black Sea to the east...
n revolutionary of the Internal Macedonian-Adrianopolitan Revolutionary Organization (IMARO) who fought for the liberation of Macedonia
Macedonia (region)
Macedonia is a geographical and historical region of the Balkan peninsula in southeastern Europe. Its boundaries have changed considerably over time, but nowadays the region is considered to include parts of five Balkan countries: Greece, the Republic of Macedonia, Bulgaria, Albania, Serbia, as...
and Thrace
Thrace
Thrace is a historical and geographic area in southeast Europe. As a geographical concept, Thrace designates a region bounded by the Balkan Mountains on the north, Rhodope Mountains and the Aegean Sea on the south, and by the Black Sea and the Sea of Marmara on the east...
from Ottoman
Ottoman Empire
The Ottoman EmpireIt was usually referred to as the "Ottoman Empire", the "Turkish Empire", the "Ottoman Caliphate" or more commonly "Turkey" by its contemporaries...
rule.
Mamin Kolyu was born on 20 March 1880 in Haskovo
Haskovo
Haskovo , is a city, an administrative centre of the homonymous Haskovo Province in southern Bulgaria, not far from the borders with Greece and Turkey. As of February 2011, it has a population of 74,843 inhabitants....
(then part of Eastern Rumelia
Eastern Rumelia
Eastern Rumelia or Eastern Roumelia was an administratively autonomous province in the Ottoman Empire and Principality of Bulgaria from 1878 to 1908. It was under full Bulgarian control from 1885 on, when it willingly united with the tributary Principality of Bulgaria after a bloodless revolution...
) as revolutionary Tane Nikolov
Tane Nikolov
Tane Nikolov was a Bulgarian revolutionary and member of the revolutionary movement in Macedonia, Thrace and Pomoravlje...
's older brother's son. After finishing primary school, he enlisted in the 10tg Rhodopean
Rhodope Mountains
The Rhodopes are a mountain range in Southeastern Europe, with over 83% of its area in southern Bulgaria and the remainder in Greece. Its highest peak, Golyam Perelik , is the seventh highest Bulgarian mountain...
Infantry Regiment of the Bulgarian Army and served from January 1901 to November 1902. He joined the ranks of IMARO as a soldier and after his discharge went for Sofia
Sofia
Sofia is the capital and largest city of Bulgaria and the 12th largest city in the European Union with a population of 1.27 million people. It is located in western Bulgaria, at the foot of Mount Vitosha and approximately at the centre of the Balkan Peninsula.Prehistoric settlements were excavated...
to become a member of a detachment (cheta) and fight in Macedonia. In 1903, he entered Macedonia under the command of Ivan Naumov Alyabaka.
During the Ilinden–Preobrazhenie Uprising of 1903, he set the Ottoman gendarmerie
Gendarmerie
A gendarmerie or gendarmery is a military force charged with police duties among civilian populations. Members of such a force are typically called "gendarmes". The Shorter Oxford English Dictionary describes a gendarme as "a soldier who is employed on police duties" and a "gendarmery, -erie" as...
's barracks in Kruševo
Kruševo
Kruševo also spelled Krushevo, is a town in the Republic of Macedonia. It is the highest town in Macedonia, situated at an altitude of over 4,000 feet above sea level. The town of Kruševo is the seat of Kruševo Municipality.-History:...
on fire together with Kosta Hristov Popeto. As the uprising was crushed, he returned to Bulgaria. In 1904, he assaulted the Turkish consul
Consul
Consul was the highest elected office of the Roman Republic and an appointive office under the Empire. The title was also used in other city states and also revived in modern states, notably in the First French Republic...
's carriage in Sofia together with Alyabaka, injuring the consul's bodyguard
Bodyguard
A bodyguard is a type of security operative or government agent who protects a person—usually a famous, wealthy, or politically important figure—from assault, kidnapping, assassination, stalking, loss of confidential information, terrorist attack or other threats.Most important public figures such...
and forcing the Bulgarian government to sentence them. Six months later, they were quietly released without amnesty
Amnesty
Amnesty is a legislative or executive act by which a state restores those who may have been guilty of an offense against it to the positions of innocent people, without changing the laws defining the offense. It includes more than pardon, in as much as it obliterates all legal remembrance of the...
and told to stay out of the government's way. Upon his release he immediately headed to Macedonia and served as a revolutionary under Kosta Popeto, Ivan Naumov, Apostol Petkov
Apostol Petkov
Apostol Petkov or the Sun of Enije Vardar was a Bulgarian revolutionary and one of the leaders of the revolutionary movement in Aegean Macedonia...
and Ichko Gyupchev. During the unrest at the time he joined Hristo Chernopeev
Hristo Chernopeev
Hristo Chernopeev was a Bulgarian revolutionary and member of the revolutionary movement in Macedonia...
's band to dethrone and capture Sultan Abdul Hamid II
Abdul Hamid II
His Imperial Majesty, The Sultan Abdülhamid II, Emperor of the Ottomans, Caliph of the Faithful was the 34th sultan of the Ottoman Empire...
from Istanbul
Istanbul
Istanbul , historically known as Byzantium and Constantinople , is the largest city of Turkey. Istanbul metropolitan province had 13.26 million people living in it as of December, 2010, which is 18% of Turkey's population and the 3rd largest metropolitan area in Europe after London and...
and take him to Thessaloniki
Thessaloniki
Thessaloniki , historically also known as Thessalonica, Salonika or Salonica, is the second-largest city in Greece and the capital of the region of Central Macedonia as well as the capital of the Decentralized Administration of Macedonia and Thrace...
.
From 1912 on, Mamin Kolyu was an under-voivode and flag bearer in his uncle Tane Nikolov's band and took part in the Balkan Wars
Balkan Wars
The Balkan Wars were two conflicts that took place in the Balkans in south-eastern Europe in 1912 and 1913.By the early 20th century, Montenegro, Bulgaria, Greece and Serbia, the countries of the Balkan League, had achieved their independence from the Ottoman Empire, but large parts of their ethnic...
, becoming an independent voivode. In the winter of 1912 and the spring of 1913, he participated in the Bulgarian Exarchate
Bulgarian Exarchate
The Bulgarian Exarchate was the official name of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church before its autocephaly was recognized by the Ecumenical See in 1945 and the Bulgarian Patriarchate was restored in 1953....
's christianization
Christianization
The historical phenomenon of Christianization is the conversion of individuals to Christianity or the conversion of entire peoples at once...
mission in the Rhodopes. After the liberation of Western Thrace
Western Thrace
Western Thrace or simply Thrace is a geographic and historical region of Greece, located between the Nestos and Evros rivers in the northeast of the country. Together with the regions of Macedonia and Epirus, it is often referred to informally as northern Greece...
(which was ceded to Bulgaria per the Treaty of Bucharest), Mamin Kolyu married in a village near Gyumyurdzhina (today Komotini
Komotini
Komotini is a city in Thrace, northeastern Greece. It is the capital of the region of East Macedonia and Thrace and of the Rhodope regional unit. It is also the administrative center of the Rhodope-Evros super-prefecture. The city is home to the Democritus University of Thrace, founded in 1973...
, Greece
Greece
Greece , officially the Hellenic Republic , and historically Hellas or the Republic of Greece in English, is a country in southeastern Europe....
). From 1914 to 1919 he lived in Bulgarian Ksanti (today Xanthi
Xanthi
Xanthi ; is a city in Thrace, northeastern Greece. It is the capital of the Xanthi peripheral unit of the periphery of East Macedonia and Thrace.-History:...
, Greece) and Komotini and was a policeman for some time. In 1920–1924, when the region was already part of Greece, he collaborated with the Internal Thracian Revolutionary Organisation
Internal Thracian Revolutionary Organisation
The Internal Thracian Revolutionary Organisation , ITRO, was a Bulgarian revolutionary organisation active in Western Thrace and southern Bulgaria between 1920 and 1934.The reason for the establishment of ITRO was the deplorable situation of the Thracian Bulgarians in...
in Haskovo and Western Thrace.
In 1924, Mamin Kolyu withdrew from his revolutionary activities and worked as a miller in Asenovgrad
Asenovgrad
Asenovgrad is a town in central southern Bulgaria, part of Plovdiv Province.-History:Asenovgrad was founded by the Thracians as Stenímachos around 300–400 BC. In 72 BC the city was captured by the troops of the Roman Empire as part of the Roman expansion towards the Black Sea. After a long period...
with Tane Nikolov until 1945. From 1949 until his death on 30 July 1961, he lived in Haskovo. A vivid personality, Mamin Kolyu became a favourite of the population of Macedonia and Thrace
Thrace
Thrace is a historical and geographic area in southeast Europe. As a geographical concept, Thrace designates a region bounded by the Balkan Mountains on the north, Rhodope Mountains and the Aegean Sea on the south, and by the Black Sea and the Sea of Marmara on the east...
: folk songs about him have been sung from Gora
Gora (region)
Gora is a geographical region in southern Serbia and northeastern Albania, inhabited by Albanians and a Gorani minority. The name "Gora" is a Slavic word for "mountain" or "forest"....
in Kosovo
Kosovo
Kosovo is a region in southeastern Europe. Part of the Ottoman Empire for more than five centuries, later the Autonomous Province of Kosovo and Metohija within Serbia...
to the west (song from Gora) to Dobruja
Dobruja
Dobruja is a historical region shared by Bulgaria and Romania, located between the lower Danube river and the Black Sea, including the Danube Delta, Romanian coast and the northernmost part of the Bulgarian coast...
on the Black Sea
Black Sea
The Black Sea is bounded by Europe, Anatolia and the Caucasus and is ultimately connected to the Atlantic Ocean via the Mediterranean and the Aegean seas and various straits. The Bosphorus strait connects it to the Sea of Marmara, and the strait of the Dardanelles connects that sea to the Aegean...
to the east (song from Dobruja).