All this period, the IMRO continued to pursue its original agenda.
IMRO terrorists murdered staff and pupils in Yugoslav schools in
Vardar Macedonia. In between 1924-34, it killed 1,000 people.
Tourists of the period describe the Yugoslav-Bulgarian frontier as
the most fortified in Europe with "entanglements, block houses,
redoubts and searchlight posts". Throughout the twenties and the
thirties, the IMRO maintained a presence in Europe, publishing
propaganda incessantly and explaining its position eloquently
(though not very convincingly).
It was not very well liked by both Bulgarians and Macedonians who
got increasingly agitated and exhausted by the extortion of ever
increasing taxes and by the seemingly endless violence. But the IMRO
was now a force to reckon with: organized, disciplined, lethal. Its
influence grew by the day and more than one contemporary describes
it as a "state within a state". In Bulgaria it collaborated with
Todor Alexandrov in the overthrow and murder of the Prime Minister,
Alexandur Stamboliyski (June 1923) and in the appointment of a right
wing government headed by Alexandur Tsankov.
Stamboliyski tried to appease Yugoslavia and, in the process,
sacrifice inconvenient elements, such as the IMRO, as expediently as
he could.
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