Petar Mandzhukov

Petar Georgiev Mandzhukov (; ; July 20, 1878 – January 1, 1966) was a Bulgarian anarchist, revolutionary and forester from the region of Macedonia. He was also a member of the Macedonian Secret Revolutionary Committee, Internal Macedonian-Adrianople Revolutionary Organization and the Supreme Macedonian-Adrianople Committee. Mandzhukov spent most of his life in Bulgaria.

Biography

Early life and education He was born on July 20, 1878, in the village of Mirkovci in the Ottoman Empire (modern North Macedonia). His brother was the Colonel of the Bulgarian Army Spas Mandzhukov. At the age of three, Mandzhukov was sent to the Principality of Bulgaria to live with the Bulgarian metropolitan Nathanael Kuchevishki, in Lovech. Mandzhukov was Nathanael's nephew as the son of his sister. Under his protection and guidance, he received his primary and secondary education. During his secondary education in Plovdiv in 1895, Mandzhukov came across Russian populist and nihilist literature, as well as European anarchist literature. These leftist theoretical publications greatly influenced him in the initial formation of his anarchist worldview. Together with his friend Mihail Gerdzhikov, Mandzhukov tried to apply the perceived anarchist theoretical basis in practice, creating the first anarchist circle in Plovdiv in 1895.

Revolutionary activity After his release, in May 1899, Mandzhukov re-established contact with his friend in Sofia, Slavi Merdzhanov. He found out from Merdzhanov that an anarchist circle had also been formed in Salonika, mostly composed of people of Veles from the upper classes of the Bulgarian Men's High School of Thessaloniki. As early as June 1899, Mandzhukov became a member of Delchev's detachment, Towards the end of 1899, In September 1901, Mandzhukov, as the leader of a small detachment, attempted to free Merdzhanov from the prison in Edirne, by capturing the Orient Express. The attempt failed and Merdzhanov was hanged. In 1904, he began working on the initial organization of the service for flood support and afforestation in Kazanlak. The service was established by the French water inspector Felix Luis-Mari Vogeli in cooperation with the Austrian forester Paul Schäger. On Vogeli's recommendation, Mandzhukov was sent in 1907 as a Bulgarian scholarship holder to study forestry at the University of Nancy, France. In 1909, with the acquired degree in water and forest engineering, he returned to Bulgaria and continued to work as a forester. In 1911, after the departure of Vogeli from Bulgaria, he took his place and at the same time continued his activities in Kazanlak. Mandzhukov, together with Gerdzhikov, was among the founders of the Federation of Anarcho-Communists in Bulgaria in 1919. After the First World War, Mandzhukov continued to work on afforestation and organized the services in Karlovo, Plovdiv and Razlog, and in 1921 he founded the regional forest inspection in the city of Stara Zagora. In the brochure, he deconstructed the role of the state and especially the actions of "the church, the school, the courts, the barracks – in general, all state institutions" and all other state creations which control human life. He wrote that "anarchism aims to unite individuals in a community – group, communal, national and universal – not through violence and subjugation, not through relations between masters and slaves, but through voluntary, free agreement between free and equal in dignity."

He began writing his memoirs titled Harbingers of the Storm in 1946 and finished them in 1959. The work depicts the life and struggles of him and his friends during the period 1895-1903. His work titled Skopska Crna Gora – biographical notes was written during the 1950s. Mandzhukov sent these works to Zafirovski. He also sent the following works: Ada-Kale (Memoirs), The First World War – a historical essay and The Beginning of Afforestation and Protection from Torrents in Bulgaria. Through his anarchist interpretation, he emphasized the absurdity and destructiveness of the First World War (as well as any war in general) due to the loss of lives and material resources. Mandzhukov also pointed to the military institution of the state and the state itself as the main culprits. He was under the dominant influence of the works by the anarchists Mikhail Bakunin, Pierre-Joseph Proudhon and Peter Kropotkin.

Legacy His entire work is deposited in Plovdiv's archive. His manuscript "The Odyssey of the First" was published in 1974. His work Skopska Crna Gora – biographical notes was translated from Bulgarian into Macedonian by the Macedonian writer Sotir Gulevski, at the initiative of Zafirovski. Harbingers of the Storm was first published in 1993 by the writer Nikolay Haytov in Bulgaria. In 1997 and 1999, his memoirs Harbingers of the Storm were translated from Bulgarian into Macedonian by Vančo Meandžiski. In 2013 the Federation of Bulgarian Anarchists republished Mandzhukov's memoirs. Two collections were published by the State Archives of the Republic of North Macedonia: Petar Mandžukov (1878 ‒ 1966): Anarchist and Critic of a Contemporary (publications and letters) in 2019 and Petar Mandžukov (1878 ‒ 1966) and His Anarchist Worldview (short stories, publications and letters) in 2020. In the courtyard of the Museum of Afforestation in Shipka, a bust honoring him exists alongside the bust of his mentor Vogeli.