Damyan Gruev was born on January 19, 1871 in the village of Smilevo near Bitola. He remains in Bulgarian history with the name Dame. He studied at the Bulgarian Men’s High School in Thessaloniki, but young Dame was expelled because of a students’ riot. The Saint Sava Society sent him to Belgrade to study at the "Velika škola". There he expressed his dissatisfaction with Serbian propaganda spread on Bulgarian youth and was expelled because of that. In 1889 he started studying history in the newly-established higher school in Sofia, which later became the Sofia University. He became acquainted with the ideas of Vasil Levski and Hristo Botev. He read "Notes on the Bulgarian Uprisings" by Zahari Stoyanov and embraced the idea of the liberation of Macedonia through the creation of a revolutionary organization and network of committees.

In 1891 he left for Macedonia, where he was one of the organizers of the Bulgarian Macedonian-Adrianopolitan Revolutionary Committee, which later became the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization - IMRO. He was a Bulgarian teacher and inspector at Bulgarian schools in Thessaloniki and he undertook a number of tours to expand the organization's network. He was arrested by the Ottoman authorities and spent over 2 years in prison and exile.

Gruev was among the organizers of the Ilinden–Preobrazhenie Uprising in 1903. He was chairman of the Smilev Congress, which took place in his house, where the plan for the uprising was approved. After the defeat he remained in Macedonia to restore IMRO and to fight against the armed propaganda of Serbia and Greece. In 1904, after a betrayal, Dame was wounded and arrested by Serbian voivode Micko Krstić but IMRO managed to free him.

Dame Gruev died on December 23, 1906 in the Maleshevo Mountain on his way to Bulgaria. Passing through the village of Rusinovo, he was ambushed by Ottoman forces. He was wounded and fled with two fellow revolutionaries up in the mountain but was confronted by Ottoman forces again and died in the battle. Prof. Lyubomir Miletich wrote about his tragic death: "The whole of Bulgaria back then felt the blow inflicted and it became clear how much the humble Gruev was revered and valued as a true apostle of freedom…”

Compiled by: Ivo Ivanov

English: Alexander Markov