Crnakov Ilija (Lazaridi)

Ilija Crnakov was born in the village of Patele, Lerin region in 1909. From a young age he began to work as a black smith in Surovichko. In 1932 he became a member of the CPG.

Ilija had a very good character; he was modest, clever and well regarded by the population in Surovichko.

From 1934-39 in the most difficult years of the Metaxas dictatorship Ilija's steel works was the cell of the regional committee of the CPG in the Surovichko area. From there he gave out copies of "Rizospastis" and the other party publications and from there it made its way to the surrounding villages. Various letters and notes passed through his workshop of the regional CPG committee from Lerin to the party organizations in the villages. Through his workshop also went the party instructors not just for Lerin and Surovichko but also for Kostur, Kajlarsko, Kozhansko and Grevena. All of this work was done by Ilija with careful attention to secrecy. Because of his revolutionary activity, at the time of the Metaxas regime he was arrested and put to brutal torture.

In the time of the German occupation Ilija, educated in the spirit of patriotism and the proletariat internationalism, led a fight against the German occupiers, against the chauvinistic propaganda of the Greater Bulgarian fascists and because of his actions, and the actions of his comrades, not a single soul from Patele or Surovichko took a rifle to fight for Kalchev. In 1943 he was forced to undertake his activities illegally and worked as a member of the regional committee of EAM in Surovichko. There he was exemplary against those seeking to divide the brotherhood and unity of the Greek and Macedonian population and to protect the correct line of the CPG for the equal national rights of the Macedonians.

After the Varkiza agreement Ilija worked as a party instructor, for EAM, at the start legally and after 1946, illegally in Surovichko.

He worked wherever the party put him - in the political organizations, in DAG, and in other services of the people's movement. In March 1948 in Klisura, Kostur region in the battle of the 18th brigade he was killed while fighting heroically.

G Dishkov

From: For Sacred National Freedom: Portraits Of Fallen Freedom Fighters

© 2009

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