From ‘The Modest One’ to ‘Lieutenant Brezov’: Ivan Mihaylov’s political fluctuations and ideological evolution (1919 – 1924)
From ‘The Modest One’ to ‘Lieutenant Brezov’: Ivan Mihaylov’s political fluctuations and ideological evolution (1919 – 1924)

Summary/Abstract: The article examines the early political evolution and fluctuations of prominent leader of the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization (IMRO) Ivan Mihaylov before his election as a member of its Central Committee in 1925. After Bulgaria’s defeat in the First World War, Mihaylov was one of many Macedonian Bulgarians with fluctuating political beliefs in a milieu of a second national catastrophe and virtually non-existent political centre. The article argues that the Alexandrov-Mihaylov continuity in the IMRO was not predetermined, but was gradually curated and defined by various conjunctural influences such as common regional-family ties, clientele affiliations, the dynamics inside the Macedono-Bulgarian movement and the political strife between the IMRO and external factors such as the Bulgarian Agrarian National Union (BANU), the Comintern, the Military Union, the governing factors in Sofia, Belgrade and Athens. Ultimately, the totality of the examined aspects produced the unique political and conspiratorial style of the last leader of the IMRO.

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