On August 2nd, 1903, a small band of revolutionaries succeeded in freeing the Macedonian mountain town of Kruševo from the Ottoman Empire. Immediately, the Republic of Kruševo declared itself an independent state, with Nikola Karev as its president. But the dream of freedom was fleeting. After ten days, the Ottomans sent an overwhelming force into the hills and crushed the uprising.
The Republic of Kruševo didn’t last long, but because it’s considered a stepping stone on Macedonia’s long road to independence, it occupies an important place in the country’s historical identity. Nikola Karev’s government had lofty goals, remarkably progressive for the day and age. It called for a sixty-person congress equally representative of Kruševo’s various ethnicities, promoted brotherly relations with Muslims and even planned for the eventual formation of a Federation of Balkan States