Battle of Mečkin Kamen

File:M KAMEN.jpg

The monument on the place of the battle of Mečkin Kamen build by the Bulgarian administration during the First World War and demolished by the Serbian authorities afterwards.

The Battle of Mečkin Kamen occurred on the hill of Mečkin Kamen ("Bear Stone"), a few kilometres from the town of Kruševo in present-day Macedonia, on 1–2 August 1903. It was part of the Ilinden-Preobraženie uprising led by the Internal Macedonian-Adrianople Revolutionary Organisation (IMARO or VMARO) against the Ottoman empire. The leading revolutionary commanders of the local Kruševo Republic were Nikola Karev and Pitu Guli. A monument exists today on Mečkin Kamen where Pitu Guli was killed. There is a Second World war memorial by Dimo Todorovski at the same site.

There is a legend behind the name of the hill. A long time ago in a small suburb besides the orchids lived a number of brothers. They occupied their time with agriculture and life stock. One day the brothers were returning from the hill when they were confronted by a big bear. The brave people of Kruševo were not frightened, instead they attacked the bear. The bear rolled a rock down the hill towards the brothers, but then they killed the bear with a couple of strikes from their axes. The rock which was rolled by the bear was known as Mečkin Kamen (Bear's Rock) by the people.

Sources

• MI-AN Publishing, Skopje 1998, Macedonia Yesterday And Today.