Bulgarian anti-guerrilla detachments in Vardar Macedonia during WWII

The Bulgarian anti-guerrilla detachments, also called counter-chetas were paramilitary units, created with the help of Bulgarian authorities to fight the Macedonian partisans in Vardar Macedonia during the Second World War.^[1]

Members of Bulgarian anti-guerrilla detachment in 1943.

Activity

The units assisted the Bulgarian authorities, police and the army. At that time, the authorities claimed the communist partisans were Serbian chetniks, and on this occasion the counter-squads were mobilized.^[2] They were usually led by veterans of the Mihailovist wing of the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization.^[3] Their formation was approved by the Minister of the Interior Petar Gabrovski at the suggestion of the Skopje police chief Stefan Simeonov, who was a former activist of the Internal Dobrujan Revolutionary Organisation.^[4] His chief advisor was the local activist Trajko Čundev [de]. The first detachment was created at the end of 1942 in Veles, and was headed by Pano Manev.^[5] These units were particularly active in punitive operations directed against Serbian colonists in the region and by their deportation.^[6] Counter-chetas were also active in fighting the Serbian Chetnik formations of Kosta Pećanac in the north.^[7] The existing partisan detachments were suppressed with the help of the counter-chetniks in early 1943.^[8] In the summer of 1944, over 200 counter-chetniks operated on the territory of Vardar Macedonia.^[9] After the withdrawal of Bulgarian authorities from the region in September 1944, and Ivan Mihailov's subsequent refusal to form a pro-German puppet state, most of the participants were killed in combat with the Macedonian partisans or were subsequently captured and convicted by the new communist authorities in Yugoslavia and Bulgaria.^[10]

See also

• Ohrana
• Bulgarian Action Committees

Notes

1. Малковски, Ѓорѓи. Профашистичките и колаборационистичките организации и групи вото Македонија 1941-1944 година, Скопје, 1995 г. стр. 29.
2. ...не напуштајќи ја дотогашната парола дека македонските партизани се српски четници, со цел да го разбие единството започна да формира контрачети од редовите на членовите на разбојничките Михајловистички чети од минатото...For more see: Гоце Делчев и македонското национално револуционерно движење (1973) Материјали од Симпозиумот одржан на 8, 9 и 10 ноември 1972 година во Штип. Македонска академија на науките и уметностите, Институт за национална историја, стр. 284.
3. Ѓорѓи. Малковски, "Организационата поставеност и дејствувањето на Контрачетниците во Велешко во Втората светска војна (1942-1944)", сп. "Историја", год. LIV, бр. 1, Скопје, 2019, стр. 55-74.
4. Любомир Златев, Алманах за историята на Русе. Том 1, Държавен архив - Русе, Обществен комитет „Баба Тонка“; 2006, стр.158.
5. Павловски, Јован. Судењата како последен пораз, Центар за информирање и издавачка дејност „Полог“, Тетово, 1977, стр. 201.
6. Dimitris Livanios (2008) The Macedonian Question Britain and the Southern Balkans 1939-1949, OUP Oxford, ISBN 9780191528729, p. 119.
7. Петър Петров (1994) Македония, история и политическа съдба · том 3, "Знание, ISBN 9789546211293, стр. 66.
8. The six partisan detachments, numbering 10 to 15 fighters each, which were active in the mountains of central Macedonia in 1942, were also defeated by the police, the gendarmerie forces, and the counterinsurgent units comprising former members of the Mihajlovist Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization by the winter of 1943. For more see: Dimitar Bechev, Historical Dictionary of the Republic of Macedonia, Historical Dictionaries of Europe, Scarecrow Press, 2009, ISBN 0810862956, p. 169
9. Cohen, P. J. Riesman, D. (1997). Serbia's Secret War: Propaganda and the Deceit of History. Texas A&M University Press. p. 100. ISBN 0-89096-760-1.
10. Павловски, Јован. Судењата како последен пораз, Центар за информирање и издавачка дејност „Полог“, Тетово, 1977, стр.376.