Chochov Jane (Stojan)
Stojan was known among the people of Lerin and Kostur as the beloved
and respected Jane Chochov from the village of Armensko.
Fair haired, tall with broad shoulders, modest and smiling, well dressed,
with a rifle in his strong hands; that is how he was remembered by those
who knew him from his time in ELAS.
Jane was one of the first partisans who got together -
"On that mountain Vicho
On the Prekopanska plateau"
so they could make the traditional Ilinden promise - to fight the tyrants.
It was not by chance that he was among the first to take the path of
armed struggle against the Nazi occupiers. That was the natural path
for someone who had had an earlier revolutionary life.
In his childhood years - when a person can get strong impressions fixed
in their mind - the earlier barbarianism of the Turkish tyrants against
the rebellious Armensko villagers in the famous Ilinden Uprising was
still fresh.
When the old men and women told of that time Stojan listened carefully,
following their stories word for word, his child-like heart beating
fast. From that time he was in a position to know the meaning of slavery,
struggle and freedom. Even then he was developing a fighter's spirit
and was growing stronger. Stojan at age 15 lived in the town of Lerin.
From that point his views broadened. The social and national persecution
under the bourgeois-chiflik government troubled him more. He sought
a path on which he could develop his youthful activism. This aim led
him to oppose the inequality he saw. So he joined the ranks of OKNE.
From its ranks, in brotherly unity with the Greek youths, he fought
for human ideals for the youth, regardless of ethnicity or language.
Later, at the time of the Metaxas dictatorship he, like thousands of
other Greek and Macedonian patriots, was followed.
He fought bravely in 1940-41 with weapons in his hands against the
Mussolini-fascist aggressors.
Without making a break in his struggle for the people, he joined the
ranks of ELAS in the month of April 1943. In ELAS because of his capabilities,
he was soon given very responsible tasks. In June he was promoted to
the position of member of a three-commander detachment, and a little
later company commissar.
* * *
In the winter of 1943-44 in Lerin and Kostur the hand picked "Vich
Battalion" was operational. It carried out military operations
against the Nazis and at the same time political propaganda work among
the people. Stojan was one of the most active partisans of "Vich
Battalion".
People from Koreshtani, Prespa and elsewhere recall how he spoke to
them, how he supported their good spirits, setting alight in their hearts
the flame of the revolution and helping the confused regain the correct
path.
With his manly body upright, with his feet slightly turned out and
a rifle between them, Stojan spoke with a strong, powerful voice and
he invited the people to rise up. He spoke about the Ilinden uprising
and had so much to tell using the stories from his childhood - he spoke
about unity and the goals of that struggle, about the defeat of that
epic story. The people listened carefully. Then he would move onto the
new uprising - against the Nazi occupiers and he would give them a task
- united with the brotherly Greek people, to fight against the enemy
until victory could be achieved. Only in that way could the Macedonian
people then achieve their own ethnic and social rights.
Stojan is also remembered from the play performed by the partisans
in the villages. Stojan played the main role in that play, the role
of the exploited villager "Grandpa Trajko". He is also remembered
for the successful military operations he took part in against the enemy.
* * *
Summer 1944. Thirty thousand soldiers shook the mountains Voion-Gramos.
They were carrying out a serious military operation with the aim of
surrounding and destroying the 9th division of ELAS. Stojan was in one
unit as a battalion commissar. He fought courageously. But the end came.
He was badly wounded in the legs and he could not move. He gave an order
to his comrades to leave him and to continue the battle. Stojan fixed
himself to a spot and shot at the Nazis while he still had the strength
and bullets. One bullet - the last - he kept for himself. He did not
do the favour to the enemy of letting them capture him alive.
G Nedelkov
From: For Sacred National Freedom: Portraits Of Fallen Freedom
Fighters
© 2009
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For Sacred National Freedom: Portraits Of Fallen Freedom Fighters