From Recognition to Repudiation by Vangja Chashule

FROM RECOGNITION TO REPUDIATION

KULTURA-SKOPJE

FROM RECOGNITION TO REPUDIATION

Selecllon and redacllon VANGJA CASULE

FROM RECOGNITION TO REPUDIATION (BULGARIAN ATTITUDES ON THE MACEDONIAN QUESTION} -

ARTICLES. SPEECHES. DOCUMENTS -

KUL TURA 1972 SKOPJE

YUGOSLAV-BULGARIAN relations are in a constant state of flux. This is primarily due to the fact that they are two neighbouring countries, closely linked in the past by their common struggle against a mutual enemy, by the co-operation of their progressive forces and by common interests in a number of important matters. Moreover, Bulgarian-Yugoslav relations are a fundamental element in general Balkan political relations and as such they have a considerable effect on their development and are, in consequence, an important factor for peace in the Balkans. Finally Yugoslav-Bulgarian relations are a part of general European and world politics, so-they have their influence on this politics and are themselves under the influence of the same to the highest degree.

In the recent history of these relations, in particular since the successful rei>olution of the Yugoslav peoples and nationalities onthe one hand and of the Fatherland Front on the other, ,.here has been a series of phasP.s moving through a spectrum from the closest friendship and co-operation to a crisis in m iitual relations.

Bulgarian-Yugoslav relations have been critical for the last few years and regrettably this state of affairs still obtains.

The real, direct cause of this crisis was the changes in Bulgarian policy and practice in connection with Y ugoslav-Bulgarian relations. These changes, temporarily intensified by additional factors (e. g. the Cominform), came to be an especially powerful hindrance to overcoming t his critical state o.f -relations and returning to a course of f1iendship, co-operation and good-neighbourliness at the time when in connection with Yugoslav-Bulgarian relations a stage was reached in Bulgarian policy which resulted in the open rejection of the Dimitrov line and when in place of his principles an anti-Yugoslav Hne was adopted as the official directive both in the denial of the important place occupied by the Yugoslav peoples and nationalities in the struggle for liberation and in the revolu5

tion within the framework of the general struggle against Fascism as in the programme to revive the pretensions of San Stefano among which are the refusal to acknowledge the existence of the Macedonian nation, its language, literature, culture and independence as well as the denial of the rights of the Macedonians in Pirin Macedonia. These changes in Bulgarian policy have been accompanied by a complete revision of the policies and views of the Bulgarian Communist Party, of the Fatherland Front, of the Bulgarian socialist state of the time of Georgi Dimitrov with which and, in particular, by a recent publication of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences in connection with the Macedonian question as well as othe1¡ articles in the People's Republic of Bulgaria, open territorial pretensions against the integrity of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia have been justified.

With this change in Bulgarian policy on questions in the field of Yugoslav -Bulgarian relations and in accordance with its new anti-Yugoslav line a number of attempts have been made to ignore or avoid documents which the Bulgarian Communist Party itself, the Fatherland Front and the very Bulgarian government and state made public and supported during the afore-mentioned recent period of the history of the People's Republic of Bulgaria - the Dimitrov Period. On the Bulgarian side special attention is manifested in ensuring that the dust of forgetfullness should lie as thick as possible on the documents of that period and on the period itself. This is, evidently, with the hope that the' dust of antique time' will help to confirm the new orientation without their being driven to any disagreeably direct disavowal of the Dimitrov period itself and of the documents of the Bulgarian Communist Party, the Fatherland Front, the Bulgarian government and state at that period and even of Georgi Dimitrov himself.

In contrast to the above-mentioned Bulgarian orientation, we Yugoslavs, on our side, consistently maintain our policy not only of preserving continual goodneighbourliness, mutual respect, co-operation and non-interference in internal affairs but also of considering the Tito-Dimitrov stage of BulgarianYugoslav relations as the most creative and fertile period in the whole history of those relations. That stage was and is in the fullest harmony with the lasting interests of the People's Republic of Bulgaria and of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and of their struggle for independence.

The need for this book arose from no merely polemical desire but rather from the need that the position of the Bulgarian Communist Party, of its Central Committee, of the Fatherland Front, of the government of the People's Republic of

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Bulgaria and its foreign policy should not be allowed to sink into oblivion but rather be submitted to the m-0dern reader for his own consideration so that he can decide for himself about their positions and principles and, finally, draw his own conclusions based on personal conviction and not on outside rumour. The documents themselves are the best evidence and they require no biased interpretation.

In this book are published documents, articles, speeches, declarations and resolutions from 1944, or more exactly from September 9th, 1944 right up to t he end of 1968. The firs ~ intention was to publish the documents through which polemics were waged on the part of the Bulgarian Communist Party itself, the Fatherland Front and the government of the People's Republic of Bulgaria which would have meant publishing the documents, articles and memoranda of the oposition (3'1-W,.M,e - The Flag, Cao6ooeu uapoo - A Free People and others) in Bulgaria. For the time being this idea has been relinquished and the function of this book has been confined to the publication of documents of the Bulgarian Communist Party, the Fatherland Front and the government of the People's Republic of Bulgaria togethe1¡ with articles, speeches and pronouncements by the most distinguished Bulgarian leaders- At the same time, this book contains no documents, articles or records of the period of negation other than the brochure published by the Bulgarian Ac~demy of Sciences ,,Information on the Macedonian Question" since this sums up all the negative positions and is a publication of the highest Bulgarian scientific institute, a publication which, in the later ctevelopment of events received official backing.

The title of this book ' From Recognition to Repudiation ' emerged from the material in the documents published in it.

For the sake of greater clarity the¡ material is divided into three periods.

T he first period includes the years from 1944 to 1948, that is from the victory of the Fatherland Front on September 9th, 1944 till the publication of the Resolution of the Cominform.

The second period run.~ from 1948 to 1953 that is from the publication of the Resolution of the Cominform to the death of Josif V isarionovic Stalin and The third period is from 1953 to 1958.

The period of repudiation which began as a new line in Bulgarian-Yugoslav relations in 1958 and which, unfortunately, is still in progress as we have already remarked, is represented by the brochure of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences only.

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So that the reader may be able to orientate himself the more easily in the historical context of these documents we attache a review of the historical facts of the afore-mentioned periods.

I.

ON THE NINTH OF SEPTEMBER 1944 a clean fresh page was turned in the history of the Bulgarian people: the hated fascist dictatorship was overthrown and the Fatherland Front1 came to powerThe situation in which the Fatherland Front of Bulgaria found itself was difficult and complex both internally and externally.

In the first place the formation of the Fatherland Front government did not mean the complete destruction of the old bourgeois governmental apparatus- Many of its institutions remained without any significant changes being made in them.

At the formation of the Fatherland Front government the Communists were in the minority. Many of the chief positions were in the hands of men who were later to show themselves opposed to the aims of the Fatherland Front government.

In the field of international policy the Front's difficulties stemmed from the fact that right up until the ninth of September 1944 Bulgaria was a satellite of fascist Germany and so burdened with the role of Hitler's policeman in the Balkans while its territory was a bridgehead and a base for Hitler's army to attack from in their struggle with the USSR so that the Soviet Union was obliged to declare war on Bulgaria on September 5th 1944 and on the eighth of S eptember in the same year the Red Army entered Bulgarian territory.

1 The Bulgarian Workers Party (The Communists) took the m1liative in the formation of the Fatherland Front - the organisation which was to coordinate all the anti-fascist forces in the country.

The alliance with the so-called left-wing democratic bourgeois parties went very slowly and with great difficulty but Fatherland Front committees were formed in some places. 98 Fatherland Front committees were formed before the end of 1942 and in 1943 the number rose to 140. It was not until September 1943 that after many and great difficulties as well as long discussions the National Council of the Fatherland Front was set up including representativf's of five partif's: The Bulgarian Workers Party ,Communists), The Bulgarian National Agricultural Union, Zveno, the Social- democ1-atic and the Radical party. ~OPJISH T off'lea: MacoaRo- nomtTH'!ecKaTa ,11el'raoCT Ha 0<%> H Rel'OBOTO riacTHe a B'bOP'b)KeHaTa 6op6a 1943-1944. ,,Hx:TopH'leclUI rrper.ni?,11" ~ 4, Coqm11, 1962, pp 3-31).

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Because of this, despite the creation of the Fatherland Front government, Bulgaria was not a sovereign state- It was under the control of a special Allied Control Commission composed of representatives of the Soviet Union, Ckeat Britain and the United States.

Realising that the only way out of this difficult position was first and foremost to obtain help from their neighbours, the Bulgarian government sent a delegation to Commrade Tito who at that time had come from Vis to Krajova in Rumania.

The delegation asked him if, as Commander in Chief of the Yugoslav Army of Liberation and President of the National Committee for the Popular Liberation of Yugoslavia, he would permit the Bulgarian army to take part in t he final operations against the German Occupier on Yugoslav territoryConcerning the discussion with the Bulgarian delegation which included Dobri T erpesev and Petar Todorov, Commrade Tito has said: ,, They said that they acknowledged to their shame, that their people had been misled and that the participation of their army in those operations would be of great value to them.

I agreed with this and so Bulgarian units took part in the struggle together with our own. " 1 The assistance of Yugoslavia and the help of the USSR w as of inestimable value to the FatherLand Front government.! This was fully confirmed by the events conne1 From a speech by President Tito at the meeting in Lescovac held on 20th October 1968 ,,Nova Makedonija", 21st October, 1968.

The agreement between Tito and Terpesev was signed on 5th October 1944 at Krajova, Rumania. The text of the agreement contains the following: .,Agreement has been reached on the following points: I. Military co-operation in the struggle against the common enemy - the German conquerors.

II. T hat all questions arising from the mutual relations and friendly co-operation between Bulgaria and Yugoslavia should be solved in a spirit of brotherhood and in the common interests of the peoples of Yugoslav;a and the Bulgarian nation.

The Fatherland Front government's delegates expressed their readiness to do all that they could to compensate for the wrongs done lo the peoples of Yugoslavia by the reactionary :fascist elements in the Bulgarian government and declared that they would engage themselves fully in the normalisation of r elations between the Bulgarian people and the peoples of Yugoslavia in full fraternal solidarity" (Cited from the speech of President Tito at Lescovac, ,,Nova Makedonija", 21st October, 1968.

2 To see the reaction of the Central Committee of the Bulgarian Worker's Party (Communists) to the signing of the agreement between Tito and Terpre~ev vide: Letter of the Central Committee of the Bulgarian Workers Party (The Communists) to Commrade Tito, Hi-

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cted with the signing of the armistice 1 and the peace treaty when the Bulgarian side w as able to introduce as one of its supporting arguments its share in t he shattering of the fascist forces in the final operationsThe tasks which the first Fatherland Front government had to deal with at home were neither less difficult or complex: to consolidate the new government, to carry through the reo1¡ganisation of the f ormer fascist army to take steps to liquidate the fascist and pro-fascist elements which had been responsible for th e involvement of Bulgaria on the side of fascist Germany as well as for the war crimes which had been committed during the occupation of Macedonia and parts of Serbia and Greece.! storical Archives of the Yugoslav Communist P a rty, Vol VII, Belgrade, 1951, p 367, Document N! 131, on page 37 of the book.

1 The Armistice treaty between the Allied P owers and B ulga ria was si~ed in Moscow on 28th October, 1944. According to this treaty.

Bulgaria promised, in addition lo other matters. to place all its armed forces under the common leadership of the Allied Soviet Command on the one condition that they should not be used on the territory of the allies without the prior consent of the allied power concerned.

2 The follo:wing were condemned to death: Prince Cvril, Bol!dan Filov and General Mihov (the regents). the ministers Dohri Bo?.ilov. Ivan Bagr janov, Petar G::ibrovski. Vac:il Mitan ov, Todor Daskalov. Slavkn Jocov, Konstantin P a rtov, Nikola Zahariev, Hristo Petrov. D;mitar Sismanov, Daco H ristov. Rusi Rusev, Ivan Stavinski and Boris Kocev; and also 68 members of the assembly among them Aleksandar Cankov, Todor K ozuharov, Nikola Logofetov , H risto Statev and others.

70 war criminals wer e shot at Varna and another 25 at Ruse, in Sofia l 47 officers who had been in the army of occupation in Serbia and 183 district commisioners (in Xanthe and Skopje), commandt'rs of militarv units and a large number of criminals who had killed and plundered in Macedonia. the Mediterranean region and in Serbia. (see: Countries and Prohlems - BuJgaria //Zemlie i p roblemi Bugarska//, ,,Sedma Sila'', Novinsko izdavacko preduzece Udruzenja novinara N. R. Srbije, V, August 1957, B elgrade, ppl3-14; O6a1,onrrenHI-iR a.KT npoT11B 6Jramwre pereHTJ,f, uapcKlfl"B C'bBe-!'HKllK H Mliffl,!CTJ)K. ,,Pa6oTHH'ieCKO .11eno", 11 december 1944; B"bJirapcTOl'l"B ::>KaH;,am,1K Ha Xl'TJieoa B"b OKVIlJ,fpaHJ1ri; 3eMl1 npeAb HapO,lll-D!R C"b,!1."b, ,,Pa60THJ,f'ieCKO neno", ~o December 1944.)

Asen Bogdanov. Police Commandant of the Skooje Rel!ion was h anded over to the government of the P eoples Republic of Macedonia and condemned for his c rimes in Skopje i n 1949.

General I van Marinov, Commandant of the XV Infantry Divis ion of the Bulgarian Occupation Force in Bitola from 1941 to 1944 escaped merited punishm ent as a war criminal because of the services which he had rer,dered the Fatherland Front when it took power on the night of the 8th. 9th of September when he was Minister of War. At the conclusion of the war he was sent as ambassador to Paris but when Commrade Georgi Dimitrov returned to Bulgaria h e was recalled and pensioned off. Now he is ,vriting the memoirs of his .,liberation" mission in Macedonia. (see: XepojOT HBaH MapID!OB, ,,Hoaa MaKeAO-

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The Fatherland Front Government, had, on the other hand, inherited an extremely difficult financial situation. Un der pressure from the popular masses measures were taken for bringing the w ar profiteers to justice but it still lacked sufficient power to tackle the ownership of the means of production. Until the end of 1947 private ownership of the means of produc ..ion continued in the industrial field and large-scale capital remained completely untouched. Two thirds of the total number of industrial workers worked in private capitalist's businesses, fac tories or mines. It was not until 23rd December 1947 that the Grand National Assembly passed a law for the nationalisation of private industrial companies and mines and then on 27th December in the same year passed a law instituting a state monopoly of t he banks- 1 Definitely the hardest task of all during this period was the strengthening of the Fatherland Front government and the struggle with the opposition. This task was made so much the more difficult by the heterogenous nature of t he Father land Front government itself, composed as it was of Communists, Zveno supporters, small-holde'rS, radicals and social-democrats, among whom the Communists were in a minority, Meanwhile the president of the Fatherland Front Government was the representative of the party which in numbers came fourth in the country and had become president owing to his services in the take over of government on 9th September 1944.

Using its as yet untouched economic power and actively supported from abroad the Bulgarian bourgeoisie began to make energetic efforts to recover control. The first oposition to the Fatherland Front government came from the right wing of the Bulgarian National Agrarian Union (BZNS) headed by Georgi M. Dimitrov - Gemeto, and then Nikola Petkov as the head of the newly formed BZNS and the right wing social democrats of Krstju Pastuhov, K osta Lulcev etc.

In line with the other hindrances which the opposition placed in the path of the Fatherland Front government such as a request that the elections which had been arranged for the National Assembly for 25th August 1945 be put off, then a boycott of the elections in November of the same year, attempts to discredit the results of the election and finally the intervention of the Allied Control Commission on behalf of tt11ja", 21 February 1969; ~HOTO AOCHc 11a reHepaJI Map11Hoa, ,,H o aa M aKeAOHMja", 22 F ebruary 1969).

1 B. r eopM1ea, ,ll;eliH0CTa Ha O61J..i11.11 npocpec11oaaJieH C'bl03 3:l 3a1.1.1~rra Ha HenocpeACTBem-rTe 11HTepec11 Ha pa60TmNel::KaTa Knaca 11 CJ1y:>1<11TCJll1Te 1944-1947. MCT0pWieCKII nperneA 1''"'1 1, 1965, pp 3-28

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the opposition and its demand that it should have two representatives in the newly-formed government of the Fatherland Front despite the boycott off the election by the opposition, the opposition attempted continually to discredit the Fatherland Front government as not protecting the national interests for which purpose it made full use of the Macedonian question.

As is well-known, the Macedonian Question was present in one form or another in Bulgarian policy whether internal or external as one might say, from the very foundation of the modern state of Bulgaria or, to be more accurate from 1878 onwards. This was chiefly due to the pretensions to Macedonia of the Bulgarian bourgeoisie and those forces which were behind it in the international field and which had made a series of attempts to conquer it. In this sense the Bulgarian bourgeosie was serving not only its own but foreign interests also when in its plans of conquest in connection with Macedonia it created the myth of the so-called Bulgarian national interest in Macedonia.

Thus, in recent Bulgarian history, the Bulgarian state's concern with the Macedonian question has never ceased to be, in es">ence, a concern for the conquest and occupation of Macedonia, to which end the theory of the Bulgarian character of Macedonia has been excogitated and promulgated just as on their part the Serbian and Greek bourgeois supporters of annexation aspirations for Macedonia either early or late conceived the thesis of Macedonia's respective Serbian or Greekcharacter.

The Macedonian Question after 1913 when the single territory of Macedonia was, by force majeur, divided at the peace treaty between Bulgaria, Serbia and Greece exists in Balkan politics also as the problem of the rights of the Macedonians in Pirin, Vardar and Aegean Macedonia, that is of the Macedonians annexed by Bulgaria, Serbia and Greece respectively. In this context the Macedonian Question continued to exist in Bulgarian policy after 1918 that is after the Treaty of Versailles.

The rising of the Macedonian people in 1941, the heroic war of national liberation and the foundation of the Republic of Macedonia as a federal unit in the Democratic Federal Republic of Yugoslavia vitally altered the substance of the Macedonian Question. It was in this form that the Macedonian Question was placed before the Bulgarian Workers Party (The Communists) during the war and before the government of the Fatherland Front and the Bulgarian State immediately after the victory of Fatharland Front on 9th September 1944.

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The Government of the Bulgarian Fatherland Front led by the Bulgarian Workers Party (T he Communists) adopted the following position both with regard to internal and fore ign policy during the period from 1944 to 1948, that is the first four years after the Liberation: T he triumph of the peoples and nationalties of Yugoslavia in their revolution and the foundation of Democratic Federal Yugoslavia as a community of equal peoples and nationalities and as a socialist country was a key factor for peace and cooperation in the Balkans.

In this new community of peoples and nationalities of Yugoslavia the new Bulgarian Fatherland Front had gained a sincere and friendly supporter whose aid was attested not only during the course of the anti-fascist struggle but especially by the consent which had been given to the request of the Bulgarian delegation at Krajova by Commrade Tito for the participation of Bulgarian units in the final operations against the remnants of Hitler's forces on Yugoslav territory.

The support which the Yugoslav delegation gave Bulgaria at the Paris Peace Conference and the later rejection of all reparations and other actions on the part of the Yugoslav gover-nment were all in support of the new Fatherland Front gover-nment in its efforts for victory and stabilization. N aturally, this was not the only support but Yugoslavia's aid was particularly appreciated.

Close co-operation and friendship with Democratic Federal Yugoslavia was one of the strongest components of Bulgaria's external policy. The Fatherland Front government and the Bulgarian Workers Party (Communists) regarded this close friendship and cooperation as in the lasting national interest of the Fatherland Front Bulgaria - an involvement likely to help and strengthen the struggle of the Bulgarian people and the forces of progress for independence.

In the context of this close co-operation and friendship the Bulgarian Communist Party began to define its position with regard to the Macedonian Question in general and the question of the rights of the Macedonians in Pirin Macedonia in particular with special reference to the historical fact of the existence of the Peoples Republic of Macedonia as a free, socialist republic of the Macedonian people and nationalities of Macedonia. Naturally, the position of the Bulgarian Workers Party (Communists) and of the Fatherland Front government resulted from the lasting national interests of the Bulgarian people as well as from the lasting interests of the Bulgarian working class and was based on the brightest traditions of

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the progressive forces in Bulgarian society, first and foremost of the Bulgarian Communist movement, in connection with this question.

In brief the position of the Bulgarian Workers Party (The Communists) and of the Fatherland Front Government on the question of Bulgarian-Yugoslav co-operation and on the Macedonian Question as an important stage in that co-operation wa:; as follows: The foundation of the Peoples Republic of Macedonia within the framework of the new Democratic Federal Yugoslavia was the realisation of the centuries-old ideal of the Maced('Tl,ian people. Aithough created on tke basis of only one part of the national territory of Macedonia this first state of the Macedonian people represented the basis for the union of the other parts. The Bulgarian Workers Party (Communists), the Bulgarian government and the people of the Fatherland Front Bulgaria gave their full support to the Peoples Republic of Macedonia and bound themselves to the final realisation of the national ideal of the Macedonian people. Consequently the Bulgarian Workers Party (Communists) and the government of the Bulgarian Fatherland Front started from the historical fact that the people of Pirin Macedonia sought to be incorporated in recognition of the heroic four-year struggle against Fascism and for national freedom and self-determination as well as in recognition of their revolutionary armed contribution in the ranks of the Bulgarian Workers Party (The Communists) and the Bulgarian anti-fascist movement.

The Bulgarian Workers Party (The Communists) and the Bulgarian Fatherland Front government regarded their position and practice with regard to the Macedonian Question as a creative contribution in the struggle towards the realisation of Lenin's principles and practice on national questions. At the same time they adopted the position that the struggle for the realisation of L enin's principles in the case of the People's Republic of Macedonia and in the sphere of Bulgarian-Yugoslav co-operation was a magnificent active weapon in the hands of the Bulgarian W orkers Party (The Communists) and the Bulgarian Fatherland Front government as well as in those of ihe Bulgarian people themselves against both the bourgeois plot of the opposition and ihe forces of reaction. This point of the policy and practice of the Bulgarian Workers Party (The Communists) and the Bulgarian Fatherland Front government they considered as a main point in their heroic struggle for Bulgaria's national independence.

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The documents which we are publishing in this book contain in a most precise and clear form t he positions both of the Bulgarian Workers Party <The Communists) and of the Bulgarian Fatherland Front government as well as of the Bulgarian people themselves on the above question and that is why we will remind ourselves of only the following two points: With the victories gained in the conflict with the bourgeois conspiracy and the opposition, with the strengthening of the Fatherland Front government and, in particular, with the coming of Georgi Dimitrov as head of the Bulgarian party, government and state, the positions of the Bulgarian Workers Party (The Communists) and of the government began to come into effective operation both as policy as state practice and as legislative fact.

A sign of this evolution in the positio>n of the Bulgarian Workers Party (The Communists) and of the Fatherland Front government of Bulgaria towards state and legislative practice was what passed during the next three years. Numerous state and party delegations were exchanged w hile there was a series of dialogues, consultations and joint activities both in international politics and in bilateral co-operation. In the field of Bulgarian-Y ugoslav relations this period culminated in the meeting between Tito and Dimitrov at Bled and in the Treaty of Bled which fallowed it.

In Pirin Macedonia, following a resolution of the Bulgarian government, a census of the population was carried through and this took almost the form of a plebiscit during w hich the Macedonians of the Pirin gave, as an enormous majority, massive proof of their sens~ of their Macedonian Ttatwna: consciousn~s and desire for self-determination as Macedonians; teaching in the mother tongue -the Macedonian literature language - began in all schools throughout Pirin Ma..:edonia, in Corna Dzumaja (Blagoevgrad) the Macedonian National Theatre began performing in Macedonian and a directive was given on working out a legal project for the territorial autonomy of Pirin Macedonia. As far as t his is concerned an historic contribution to the question was made by the Tenth Plenum of the Bulgarian Workers Party (Communists).

This, the most fertile and creative period in t he whole history of Bulgarian-Yugoslav relations and within that main framework of the whole history of relations between the Bu lgarian and Macedonian peoples was brought to a sudden close by the passing of the R esolution of the Cominform in June 1948.

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II. THE RESOLUTION of the Cominform, as is well-known, brought about a change in the relations between the socialist countries on the one hand and the FPR Yugoslavia on the other. Stalin and the Cominform demanded from the FPR Yugoslav ia a complete and unconditional capitulation, which, naturally, neither the leaders of the Yugoslav Communist Party nor the government of the FPR Yugoslavia or even the peoples and nationalities of Yugoslavia themselves could accept.

The initial failure of Stalin and the Cominform to create a rift in the Yugoslav Communist Party or between the peoples and nationalities of Yugoslavia and so overthrow the political and national leaders of the country obliged Stalin and the Cominform to extend the sphere of conflict into the field of inter-state relations, Thus pressure was brought to bear on the governments of those states w hich were peoples democracies to take an active part in the worsening of interstate relations with the FPR Yugoslavia. Inter-state treaties were revoked, an economic blockade of Yugoslavia was begun and, in the realm of propaganda, there was a massive escalation in anti-Yugoslav campaign without limits of either word or expression whether in speaking of Yugoslavia itself of its political and national leadership or the Yugoslav Communist Party as a whole.

This whole process had as its aim to compel FPR Yugoslavia to capitulate, to give up the struggle and principles of its revolution and its national independence as a community of equal p eoples and nationalities.

In the relations between the countries of peoples democracies and SPR Yugoslavia a period of prolonged and serious crisis now began.

The Resolution of the Cominform and the crisis to which it led in the relations between the peoples democracies countries on the one hand and FPR Yugoslavia on the other did not pass over Bulgarian-Yugoslav relations. It is true that alone among the statesmen of t he countries of peoples democracies Georgi Dimitrov, made an announcement immediately after the publication of the Resolution of the Cominform of which the Bulgarian Workers Party (The Communists) was a signatory, that the government of t he PR Bulgaria considered that the publication of the Resolution of the Cominform need have no influence on inter-state relations between the PR Bulgaria and the FPR Yugoslavia and that it would supp-

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ort the continuation of the existing state of those relations but his assertion did not survive Stalin's pressure for very long. Factually, it was not very long after the Resolution of the Cominform that Geor gi Dimitrov disappeared from th e historical scene.

The general characteristics of the Cominform's campaign and acts of diversion against FPR Yugoslavia and the Yugoslav Communist Party was characteristic of the attitudes and actions of the Bulgarian Workers Party (The Communists) and of the Bulgarian state in its relations with FPR Yugoslavia. The fact that PR Bulgaria was, in some way, the spearhead of t he Cominform and Stalin in their attacks on the FPR Yugoslavia and the Yugoslav Communist Party w as clear from the particular virulence of the cam-paign and the actions of the PR Bulgaria against the FPR Yugoslavia and the Yugoslav Communist Party.

However, in this field also a special course of development was apparent as characteristic even of the earliest stages of the campaign; this was the demand that FPR Yugoslavia and the Yugoslav Communist Part y should return to the Cominform family of peoples democracies and of communist parties and movements and t his demand, towards the end of the campaign changed into direct accusations that FPR Yugoslavia was fascist and that the Y ugoslav Communist Party and its leadership was also fascist which meant that there could be no further co-operation with them.

The crisis in bilateral relations also extended to t he macedonian question.

The documents which we publish from this period are detailed evidence of the position of the Bulgarian Workers Party (The Communists) and of the gov ernment of the PR B ulgaria concerning this question and of how their position developed.

Let us merely recall the following: The Bulgarian Workers Party (The Communists) and the government of the PR Bulgaria, as well as all the otheT institutions of Bulgarian society, never once during the whole of this period ever denied the existence of the Macedonian nation, language, culture and individuaLity. Quite the contrary, there was a time when the Bu lgarian WorkeTs Party (The Communists) and propaganda in t he PR Bulgaria was even actively engaged against the PR Macedonia accusing its political leadership of the nSerbianisation" of the Macedonian literary language. As a counteraction to this ,,SeTbianisation" theTe were even published books in the Macedonian tongue which were to serve, among other aims, as arguments aqainst 2

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the ,,Serbiansation" of the Language and of the PR Macedonia.

Yet the most essential change in the position of the Bulgarian Workers Party (The Communists) and of the Bulgarian state and its propaganda machine came over the question of the union of the two parts of the Macedonian people with the Macedonian republic. Namely, while previously, as we have already said, the Bulgarian Worker's Party (The Communists) and the Bulgarian Fatherland Front government had engaged itself actively in securing the legal rights of the Macedonians in Pirin Macedonia including their right to be incorporated, in a new constellation starting from a new conception of the strategic interests of the Cominform in the Balkans, the Bulgarian Worker's Party (The Communists) and the government of the Bulgarian Fathertand Fr.mt took up the f oUowing position: The FPR Yugostavia was a fascist country and the PR Macedonia as a basic unit of it shared the fate of the other peoples and nationalities of Yugostavia. The 1¡ight of the Macedonian people to union was a sacred right and since their reunion under the Republic of Macedonia no longer came under consideration becau se of the fascist nature of FPR Y ugoslavia, Pirin Macedonia was the one free part of the national territory of the Macedonian nation and therefore the reunion should be carried through only on its territory as the Macedonian Piedmont. However, this n ew concept of Macedonian unity was the result of a strategic concept of the destruction of FPR Yugoslavia as the primary task and the induction of the PR Macedonia in the Cominform and popular democratic camp as the second .It is needless to say that the backing of such a strategic scheme required an insistence on the existence of the Macedonian nation, its language, literature, culture and independence; it even required a kind of orthodox11 in its very insistence.

Yet, during this same period, especiaUy with the sharpening of inter-state relations, there came a change in the actual practice of the Bulgarian Worker's Party (The Communists) and of the Bulgarian government in Pirin Macedonia.

These changes can be seen w hen we compare, for example, the Resolv,tion of the Tenth Plenum of the Bulgarian Wo1¡kers Party (the Communists) with the Resolution of the Sixteenth Plenum of the Bulga,-ian Communist Party.

With m in01¡ variations this was the main political orientation of Bulgarian policy in the period from 1958 to 1953 that is from the publication of the Resolution of the Cominform tiU the death of Josif Visarionovic Stalin.

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III.

THE TWENTIETH CONGRESS of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and the condemnation of Stalinism came as the climax of the p rocess which had begun with S talin's death. Stalinism was condemned at both the Twentieth and the T wenty-second party congresses whether as a practice in internal affairs in the USSR itself or as policy and practice in the international field, especially in the relations between socialist states and the international working-class and communist movement.

The condemnation of Stalinism and of the Cominform as its instrument in the relations between socialist countries and communist parties the dissolution of the Cominform itself and many other measures which were taken during this period led, first of all, to an improvement in the relations between the USSR and the FPR Yugoslavia and then to an improvement in the relations between FPR Yugoslavia and other socialst countries. It is true that this improvement did not develop equally with all countries and at all stages during the p eriod in question but it became its main characteristic.

The Belgrade and the Moscow declarations signed by the government of the USSR on the one hand and that of the SFR Y ugoslavia on the other acquired a special significance in this policy of reverting from the methods of Stalinism and the Cominform as interfering in the internal affairs of indi vidual countries and communist parties to a policy of approved principles of co-operation on a basis of mutual respect, inliependence and non-interference in internal affairs.

It has been demonstrated that the principles on which these two (historic) documents were based are of lasting importance.

T he improvement in the relations between the USSR and the SFR Y ugoslavia on the basis of the two resolutions led to an improvement in the relations between PR Bulgaria and SFR Yugoslavia. Naturally, the process was neither rapid nor even. There were occasional recisions and interruptions, especially during the years when the S FR Yugoslavia and the L eague of Communist of Yugoslav ia were accused of Revisionism.

The primary feature of this period was a cessation of the Cominform campaign and the attacks on SFR Yugoslavia and the Yugoslav League of Communist in the Bulgarian newspapers. There appeared a kind of hesitation in writing for or about Y ugoslavia.

2â&#x20AC;˘

1!)

The feature of the period which concerns the Macedonian Question is again a cessation of all writing about it or about PR Macedonia with the exception, that is, of ,,Pirinsko Delo'' which became more active in this respect. In the pages of this publication a series of articles on the history of the Macedonian revolutionary m ovement were published as well as articles in commemoration of famous national Macedonian revolutionaries. The existence of the Macedonian nation, language and literature and culture were not denied nor were the so far received views of the Dimitrov period rejected, they were simply avoided or skirted round.

The most important event of this period was, however, the second census of the population taken in the Pirin Macedonia. The cencus was carried out by the organs of the PR Bulgaria and the results were acknowledged by the government of the PR Bulgaria as the official results for the national composition of Pirin Macedonia and as such they were published in the book ,.IIpe6poHBa.He Ha Ha<:eJieirn:eTO B Hapo.IJiHa Perry6JIKK.a B'bJITapKH, Ra 1. XII. 1956 - o6nzy1 pe::3yJITaTJ1, IClfl1l'a 2, K3AaHJ1e Ha I.J;eHTJ)a.JTHOTO CTa'I'HCTK'iecKO ynpaBJie.HJ1.e IIPJ'1 M11IDfCTepclGU'I C'bBeT 1960".

The results of the afore-mentioned census, like those of the first, have all the features of a plebiscit.

Here is what the results showed: Pirin Macedonia had a total of 281,015 inhabitants. Of this total 178,862 persons declared that they were Macedonians by nationality or, expressed in percentages 63,70/o. 93,671 persons declared that they were Bulgarians or 33.30/o.

Presented by regions the results appear thtLS: Region Blagoevgrad Goce Del~ev Petri~ Sandansk:i Bazlog

Total 58.256 64,590 48,384 61,877 47,608

Macedonians 30,561 29.568 40.008 55.373 23.358

-

52.4% 45.8% 82.7% 89.4% 49.1 %

Bulgars 26,403 31,941 7,334 4,649 2-4,250

-

45.2% 49.5 % 15.2% 7.3% 50.9%

The results of the census of 1956 which was conducted by the Bulgarian state, once more showed the true attitude of the Pirin Macedonians.

Events in the PR Bulga1-ia and in Bulgarian - Yugoslav relations and over the Macedonian Question followed chiefly this current right up until 1958 but in the meantime there were extensive changes in the Bulgarian Communist Party and in the government of the PR Bulgaria.

20

One of the outstanding pronouncements of the new party and state leadership of the Bulgarian Communist Party and of the government of the PR Bulgaria was that the PR Bulgaria and the Bulgarian Communist Party intended to return to the principles of the Dimitrov period in Bulgaria's recent history both in general and in the question of BulgarianYugoslav relations and the Macedonian Question in particular.

Naturally this declaration of obligation on the part of the PR Bulgaria leaders caused a resounding echo in international circles.

IV.

THE DEVELOPMENT towards new critical conditions in Bulgarian-Yugo slav relations and in particular the development towards the denial of the existence of the Macedonian nation, its language, literature, culture and individuality and, connected with it, the denial of the rights of the Pirin Macedonians first appeared in 1958.

AÂľer the longish silence which characterised the third period and aÂľer the census of the population of Pirin Macedonia which once more demonstrated the unconquerable Macedonian national consciousness and self-determination of the Pirin Macedonians both to the Bulgarian and international public, appeared the first symptoms of the move towards denial.

At first, these signs were indeed rare and appeared only on the fringes of Bulgarian public life in the form of articles in which the individuality of the Macedonian people was de nied and there was a return to the former bourgeois position on the Macedonian Question; that is to the position that the Macedonian population, its language, history and culture were all of a Bulgarian character.

Temporary breaks in Bulgarian- Yugoslav relations, naturally, intensified this anti-Yugoslav and anti-Macedonian activity.

Individual articles and suchlike symptoms, were, in the course of time, moved from second-grade magazines and publications, from publications designed for emigrants in foreign countries and from literary works and publications in the organs of public opinion and of the social institutions of the PR Bulgaria. The so-called history front was particularly engaged in these activities, that is through history institutes and their publications. In the context of this involvement a start was made not only with reviving and intensi-

21

fying the campaign aimed at denying Macedonia's national entity but also at taking over, so to speak, the whole Macedonian national liberation struggle together with its first leaders while the Macedonian revival was adopted as something entirely Bulgarian.

Individual articles and publications have been replaced by a campaign and in recent years by an escalating anti-Yugoslav and anti-Macedonian propaganda programme. The escalation has led to a resurrection of the shadow of San Stefano dragged from the past like a fixed preoccupation by which means the note of territorial aspiration to parts of the territory of SFR Yugoslavia and particularly of SR Serbia and SR Macedonia has become first audible and subsequently been taken up officially.

The quantity of material published during the course of this propaganda escalation has increased enormously and during the last few years has become, so to say, the main preocupation of all Bulgarian journalism in this field. It has led to an intensive, carefully directed and separate publishing activity with many books published the authors of some of w hich were publicly condemned in the Dimitrov period for their profascist bourgeois policies.

The characteristics of this period are: The revision of the principles and practice of Dimitrov in the field of Bulgarian-Yugoslav relations, in that of the Macedonian Question and of the rights of the Pirin Macedonians in particular. Again, in the last few years there has been a move towards an open declaration of the real purpose of the revision in the direction of territorial pretensions and anti-Yugoslav activities as the main aim both of the revision and of the campaign itself.

All the same, this new period has not changed the facts which are easily visible and calc-ulable both in the field of international politics and to an international public: The denial of the existence of the Macedonian national entity, its language, literature and culture together with the denial of the rights of the Pirin Macedonians has very rapidly developed into a resurrection of the pretensions of San Stefano in their entirety.

A s the highest scientific institute in the PR Bulgaria, the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences has taken a special part in this development.

The brochure which Bulgarian Academy of Sciences publiched under the title ,,Historical and Political Information Concerning the Macedonian Question" November 1968 and

22

which was Later adopted as the official guide on the matter first by the Bulgarian Communist Party and then by the Bulgarian government itself was studied throughout the PR Bulgaria and distributed widely abroad .

The Bulgarian Academy of Sciences brochure synthesises all the attitudes expressed with greater or less sharpness and agressiveness right up to the time that it was published during the course of the campaign and the escalation of the same. Supported as it is by the authority of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences and with official backing too, this brochure is a kind of documented programme for the PR Bulgaria in these matters.

The first plan for this book was to include in it all the documents of the so-called period of negation. However such a book would have been too extensive and so, since as we have already said the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences brochure synthesises all the attitudes adopted during the course of the campaign we have decided, for the present only to publish that text. W e believe that in comparing its contents with those given in other parts of this book's documents, the reader will come to a conclusion as to the essence of the matter fo-r himself.

Finally let us reaffirm t hat the purpose of this book is not polemical. T he qualifications which the reader and student of Bulgarian-Yugoslav relations will find in it, whether ex-pressing recognition or so-called negation of the existence of the Macedonian national entity and the rights of the Pirin Macedonians are all expressed by the highest Bulgarian party and national leaders themselves in their publications and o-rgans of public opinion.

Our task has been merely to enable the reade-r and the student to acquaint himself with them more closely and more deeply.

He himself will draw his own conclusions.

Vangja CASUL E

23

1944-1948

EVERYTHING FOR THE FRONT! GEORGI DIMITROV'S LETTER TO THE CENTRAL COMMITTEE OF THE BULGARIAN WORKERS PARTY (THE COMMUNISTS) .,Rabotnicesko deLo", 2. X . 1944

Dear Commrades, Together with you, with all patriotic Bulgarians and with our heroic Youth, I feel deep joy and pride that our longsuffering, combative nation has at last, through its popular anti-Fascist rising and with the brotherly support of the victorious Red Army, succeeded in casting off the shameful Germano--Fascist yoke and alligning itself with the camp of the Allied Nations headed by the USSR, England and America.

The victory of the Fatherland Front is of the greatest significance for History. The Ninth of September has begun a new era in the history of our people.- The determined break with Hitler's Germany, the removal from power of those cursed Germano-Fascist pawns - the traitorous destroyers of Bulgaria, the establishment of the Fatherland Front government and the restoration of the extinguished rights and freedoms of the people, the participation of the reconstructed Bulgarian Army on the side of the great democratic powers in the war of liberation from the packs of German robbers all of these lay a healthy foundation for the construction on a new, free, independent and powerful Bulgaria.

However, this is only a foundation just as the victory of the Fatherland Front is only a beginning. Our first task is to strengthen that victory. The next is to build firmly and wisely on that foundation. There are enormous difficulties on the path ahead, difficulties which need to be dealt with firmly and rapidly.

25

Hitler's hordes have been broken but they are still to be destroyed. The Fascist beast has been mortally wounded but it has not been exterminated.

After the harm which the state of Bulgaria, at the instigation of the pro-German ruling clique and the GreaterBulgaria chauvinists, has done to our neighbours, to the liberator, Russia, and to the work of liberation of the Allies we must be quite certain that the future of our country will depend first and foremost on the real contribution which we, now, as a people and a nation, make towards the common war effort for the early downfall of Fascist Germany since the soonest possible conclusion of the war and the establishment of a new, firm and lasting peace . . . . . . It can no longer be a secret to anyone among us that one of the fundamental causes of all the national misfortunes and catastrophes which our nation has suffered during recent decades has been Greater Bulgaria Chauvinism, the Greater Bulgaria ideology, and a policy of hegemony in the Balkan and domination of neighbouring peoples. It was on this ground that year after year Fascism committed so many acts of violence in our country. It was on this ground that Germany's pawns, in the time of King Ferdinand and King Boris, betrayed Bulgaria to the Germans and transformed our country into a weapon of German militarism to be used against our liberators and our western and southern neighbours. It was in the name of ,,Greater Bulgaria" that the Greater Bulgaria chauvinists - traitors to the people and puppets of the Germans - led our people to the brink of catastrophe for the third time and very nearly brought about its destruction. Without the merciless extirpation of Greater Bulgaria Chauvinism - that cancerous growth on the body of our nation - there is no possibility of constructing a newborn Bulgara. It is essential to accompany the liquidation of those suffering from this mortal disease with a programme of extensive ideological purification both among the people and the intelligensia so that no remnant of the Greater Bulgaria ideology or of adventuristic policies shall remain. It is essential that this Augean stables of a dark, shameful and base Fascist inheritance should be cleansed with an iron broom so that the social and political air beneath the Bulgarian sky may be fresh. One of the great tasks of our party lies in this directionI have no doubt that the Labour Party, the party of the Bulgarian Communists, forged in the lengthy struggle against Fascism, foreign agents and nations enemy all of which has

26

drawn valuable lessons from past, far and near, and which is aware of its responsibility at this present fateful moment, will, despite all difficulties, find within itself enough strength, with the support of the body of the nation, to pay its debt to the people and our Fatherland worthily, introducing a policy sane, realistic and advantageous to the whole nation which will lead our people from the edge of the precipice towards which the traitorous Germano-fascist clique was driving it onto the wide open road to Freedom, Progress, Creative Effort and Prosperity.

Accept, worthy cornmrades, my ardent greetings.

Moscow, 28th Sept. 1944

Yours, G. DIMITROV

Note. Georgi Dimitrov arrived in Bulgaria on 6th November, 1945 after 22 years in exile.

A LETTER FROM THE CENTRAL COMMITTEE OF THE BULGARIAN WORKERS PARTY (THE COMMUNISTS) TO COMMRADE TITO Historicai archives of the Yugosiav Communist Party, voi VII, Macedonia, the War of Nationai Liberation and the National Revolution 1941-1944, p. 367, document ~ 131.

The Central Committee of the Bulgarian Workers Party (The Comm'Unists) N~ 61 2 November, 1944 Sofia Sofia, 2 November, 1944 To Marshal Tito and the Central Committee of the Yugoslav Communist P arty Dear Commrade Tito, We take this opportunity of sending through you and so to the Central Committee of the fraternal Communist Party of Yugoslavia and to the heroic peoples of Yugoslavia our heartfelt congratulations on the occassion of the magnificent liberation of the Yugoslav capital which crowns an innumerable series of hard-won battles and heroic acts by the peoples of Yugoslavia during a three-year long war against Hitler's ] ackals in the Balkans.

27

The service of the Yugoslav National Liberation Army, organised and led by you, has been enormous both in the liberation of your suffering country and in delivering a heavy blow to Hitler's hordes in the Balkans even to driving them out. The Yugoslav peoples with our brave neighbour the Serbian nation first and foremost raised the banner of determined resistance in their national liberation struggle against Hitler's Germany and thus showed the way to Liberty to all the enslaved and exploited nations. It was by your shining example that our people, plundered and given up to Hitler by our fascist rulers, were taught and inspired to undertake an armed guerilla war against Hitler's followers and their Bulgarian supporters. We owe you an eternal gratitude for the moral and the fraternal help that our first partisan units were given by you.

Now, when our people, thanks to the aid of the unconquerable Red Army and your heroic Army of National Liberation; to the armed rising of the workers and peasants, the partizan forces and the patriotic part of the army, have thrown off the shameful fascist yoke and aligned shoulder to shoulder with the Soviet, Yugoslav and other peoples in a general struggle for the final destruction of the fascist beast and its utter expulsion from the Balkans - there opens before our peoples and our fraternal parties a wide avenue to sincere fraternal co-operation and close union between the fraternal South Slav peoples suppor ted by the Russian nation - liberator. We hail the first important step in that direction; the agreement on common action against the German occupiers signed by you, Commrade Tito, and our Commrade Terpesev. Our people are conscious of their great guilt before the Yugoslav, and especially the Serbian and Macedonian, peoples in allowing their fascist leaders to turn Bulgaria into a battlefield for Hitler's hordes and the Bulgarian army into Hitler's watchdog in the Balkans so causing a series of crimes and tyrannies to a people fighting for their liberty.

Our people, which has felt in its own person all the horror of the same crimes and tyrannies which the Bulgarian rulers, Hitler's lickspittles, did to the freedom fighters, is prepared to do all it can even to the spilling of the blood of its most faithful sons in the common struggle against Hitlerism so as to wipe out, as far as is possible, the more rapidly and completely the chameful memory of the recent past and so clear the way for permanent, uninterrupted friendship and strong fraternal union between all the Yugoslav peoples.

More especially in connection with the foundation of the free Macedonian state within the framework of Federal Yu-

28

goslavia - the first determined step towards the realisation of the Macedonians ideal of a free, undivided Macedonia we would have you know that our Party and our people greet the new Macedonian state most heartily. We shall work for its popularisation among all the Bulgarian people and especially among the people in the Bulgarian part of Macedonia.

We shall assist in the work of arousing the Macedonian na tional consciousness among the inhabitants, making use of the heroic past and present of the Macedonian people in their struggle for freedom, calling the schools and organisations etc by the names of Macedonian warriors, by the publication of a Macedonian newspaper and so on. To this same end we arc retitling Gorno Dzumaja party organisation ,Macedonian' with the rights of a regional committee under the control of the Central Committee of our party, setting it the task of introducing work which is communist in substance and nationalist (Macedonian) in form .All our activities will be conducted under the slogan of wide-spread agitation for the creation of the closest union between the new Federal Yugoslavia and Fatherland Front Bulgaria which will, besides, open the way for the most painless realisation of the Macedonian ideal of a free, united Macedonia within the framework of the new Yugoslavia. We are firmly convinced that the near future with the co-operation of our two fraternal parties will bring about this union which will open a bright perspective for all the South-Slav peoples and prepare the ground for brotherly cooperation with the other Balkan peoples.

Wishing to estc:blish lasting close contact between the central committees of our two parties, we send you Dr. Crvulanov to set up radio contact and in the near future we shall be sending our permanent representative to the Central Committee of the Yugoslav Communist Party.

With all good wishes for the imminent victorious conclusion of the magnificently conducted liberation of the whole of Yugoslavia from beneath the bloody heel of the Hitler's Jackboot and for the closest co-oper ation between our two parties, we send you our greetings as brothersarms: DOWN WITH FASCISM - FREEDOM FOR THE PEOPLE! On behalf of the Central Committee of the Bulgarian Workers Party (The Communists) Secretary, (Spiridonov) T. Kostovâ&#x20AC;˘ â&#x20AC;˘ The original of this letter written in Bulgarian is in the Archives of the Central Committee of the Yugoslav Communist Party.

29

A LETTER FROM SVETOZAR VUKMANOVIC AND LAZAR KOLISEVSKI TO THE CENTRAL COMMITTEE OF THE BULGARIAN WORKERS PARTY (THE COMMUNIST) (SEPTEMBER 1944) The H istoricat Archives of the Yugostav Communist P arty Vot. V II Macedonia, the War of National L iberation and the N ational Revolution 1941-1944 Belgrade, 1951 p. 359, document no. 124.

At their meeting with you, Commrades Tempo and Lazo came to an agreement with you on the following points: 1. The Macedonian people in the Bulgarian part of Macedonia have the right to self-determination even to the extent of secession or voluntary u nion with other peoples.

2. On the basis of this their fundamental democratic right the Macedonian people have the right voluntarily to form their own nationa l military units which will, for the present, be in the framework of the Bulgarian popular army, and as such they will, fight shoulder to shoulder with the Macedonian units of the Yougoslav National Liberation Army against Hitler's Germany.

3. Similarly, on the basis of this their democratic right the Macedonian people have the right to form their own separate national liberation committees in all the towns and villages throughout the Bulgarian sector of Macedonia. The regional National Liberation Committee of the Gorna Dzumaja region will organise the work of th ese committees and co-ordinate their work. Such a national liberation movement in the Gorna Dzumaja region will for the present be within the framework of the Fatherland Front- It will have, however, the right, while supporting the Fatherland Front, to carry the struggle for union with the heartland among the masses.

4. Finally on the basis of this their fundamen tal democratic right the Macedonian people have complete freedom to propagandise for the union of the Macedonian people, that is for the intergration of the Bulgarian sector of Macedonia in the heartland. It is understood that the call for union need not be given as a call to action, that is we do not at present iaise the question of immediate union. _ We request that you ex amine the above points on which we agreed with care. We are deeply convinced that there will be no misunderstandings whatever with our representative if you sincerely and actually take up the implementation of our common resolutions.

We on our side condemn the proposal of our representatives that the Macedonian units which are formed in the

30

Bulgarian sector of Macedonia should be placed under our command as premature and inconsistent with our line.

There is also the question of the 14th regiment which our people want to incorporate in lhe mak e-up of the Macedonian Division because it is composed entirely of Macedonians who volunteered directly for the Macedonian Division. In principle, our people here are in the right but they have to consider that this regiment is in the line and that its separation from the front would actually mean a break in the war against the Germans.•

THE RESOLUTION ON THE REPORT OF COMMRADE VLADIMIR POP-TOMOV ,,THE MACEDONIAN QUESTION AT THE PRESENT MOMENT" DELIVERED AT THE FIBST REGIONAL CONFERENCE OF THE BULGARIAN WORKERS PARTY (THE COMMUNISTS) IN THE TOWN OF GORNA D2UMAJA ON 5th AND 6th SEPTEMBER, 1944 .,Rabotnites1'o deto", 23. X I. 1944.

After taking into consideration that: the anti-national adventurist politics of Bulgarian chauvinist cliques headed by the German agents in Bulgaria - the court camarilla, have led the Bulgarian people into two national catastrophes and brought them face to face with a third and still greater catastrophe and instead of freeing the Macedonian people have led to the cutting up and enslavement of Macedonia; and that only by means of the triumphant struggle of the progressive and democratic forces in the Balkans could the pre-conditions for the correct solution of the Macedonian Question be established for the self-determination, that is, of the Macedonian people: something which has been fully confirmed by the creation of the Macedonian state as a equal member of the new federal and democratic Yugoslavia stron-• gly supported by the National Liberation Movement of the Yugoslav peoples headed by Marshal Tito in their struggle against the German Occupation; and that for the first time democratic conditions have been created in the new Fatherland Front Bulgaria for Mace• The original o.f this document in manuscript and written in Serbian is in the archives of the Central Committee of the Macedonian Communist Party.

31

donians to feel that they are working as truly free citizens without feeling double pressure from Greater Bulgarian chauvinism and Fascism on the one hand or of traitorous Macedonian chauvinism and fascism on the other and without any hinderance at all in their progressive Macedonian activities aimed at the self-determination of the Macedonian people: and that the foundation of the Macedonian state within Federal Yugoslavia would have been unthinkable without the victory of the great democratic powers over the Hitlerite conquerors and, most of all without the victories of the glorious Red Army, the liberator of the nations.

The conference resolves that: 1. The Party organisations and the population of the Macedonian region (The Gorna Dzu.maja Region) will support the efforts of the Bulgarian people and the courageous Bulgarian People's Army with all its might as they fight shoulder to shoulder with the victorious Red Army and the glorious army of Marshal Tito in driving Hitler's brigands out of Macedonia and the Balkans and in hastening the final victory over German imperialism.

2. Only the victory of the democratic and progressive powers in the Balkans and the fraternal union of the South Slavs - of the Bulgarian and Yugoslav peoples, leaning on their elder Slav brother - the great Russian People; and sincere co-operation with the other Balkan nations and all freedom-loving and democratic peoples can ensure the Macedonians the realisation of their national ideals based on the right of self-determination.

3. In their propaganda and agitation the Party organisations in the Macedonian region will, combined with their other tasks, undertake the task of popularising the free Macedonian state in the new Yugoslavia, and will watchfully support the national consciousness of the Macedonian population and explain the historical necessity for close integration of the South Slavs by means of which the Macedonians will achieve national unity.

4. The party organisation in the Macedonian region will put all their efforts so that the Macedonian population should stand more firm and more united behind the today Fatherland Front government in its fight against the fascism and the Greater-Bulgarian chauvinism, and for their uprooting as well as for the building of a free, democratic and mighty Bulgaria, as a supposition for the freedom and the welfare of the Macedonian population and for the national unification of the Macedonian people.

32

THE REPORT OF LJUPCO ARSOV AND VERA ACEVA TO THE CENTRAL COMMITTEE OF THE COMMUNIST PARTY OF MACEDONIA (8 NOVEMBER, 1944) Historical archives of the Yugoslav Communist Pa,,,t11, vol VII, Belgrade, 1951, document 132, pp. 369-370.

Dear Commrades, We wrote to you a few days ago. We now report on the course of affairs in Gorna Dzumaja and the opposition which we have met with from the Command of the Fourth Bulgarian Army and from General Kopcev in particular.

As we informed you, Ljupco attended the Bulgarian Communist Party's conference on Gorna Dzumaja. At the formal part of the proceedings he greeted the conference and in a brief outline expressed the line our party has adopted, especially on the question of the union of all parts of Macedonia.

At the working part of the conference he was merely an onlooker and took no part whatever even when Commrade Pop Tomov reported on the Macedonian Question and presented the present line of the Bulgarian Communist Party which, in practice, is the absolute opposite to our own since it maintains the view that the question of the union of Bulgarian Macedonia with our Macedonia should not be brought up at present. Pop Tomov said: a) The Macedonian question can only be settled when the progressive forces throughout the Balkans are stronger. b) Conditions for the union of Macedonia have been created in Bulgaria and Yugoslavia but not in Greece. In Greece the situation is somewhat different. In the part of Macedonia under Greece the national picture has been altered by the massive emigration while the very shape of Greece remains uncertain. EAM (Greek National Liberation Front) has still not come into full existence and its position is far different from that in Yugoslavia and Bulgaria. c) Finally the main factor is the international situation and there, he thinks, there will be the greatest problems (Greece and England).

Pop Tomov draws the following conclusions from the above: a) Conditions for the solution of the Macedonian Question exist in Yugoslavia and in Bulgaria but not in Greece. It is therefore necessary to give all the aid we can to Greek National Liberation Front - EAM so that it may be victorious

a

33

there and so, to create conditions equal to those in Yugoslavia and Bulgaria. b) The Macedonian Question is not an isolated problem but is dependent upon developments in the international field.

What is more in the existing conditions created for the solution of this problem in Yugoslavia and Bulgaria there are still difficulties and these are: 1. The Macedonian people in Fatherland Front Bulgaria feel free and experience no national persecution. This means that the question of union is not raised by the inhabitants themselves and this should be taken into consideration. The problem is not vital to the Macedonian population of Gorna Djumaja Region.

2. The Bulgarian people is still not ready for it .

3. A lot of people ask themselves why should the Gorna Djumaja region be united with Macedonia within Yugoslavia why can't it be the other way round and why don't they return the Czaribrod and Bosilegrad regions while they are asking for Macedonia?

4. The international situation is not clear yet and there is no cause for hurry. We still don't know whose influence will be paramount in Yugoslavia. Might it not be that of England?

Tito mi.ght be forced to tack since there are a variety of political currents and the king there. Russian influence in Bulgaria was firm. In such a situation was there not more sense in the Gorna Djumaja region remaining with us or even saying to the Macedonians in Yugoslavia that they should come within the framework of the Fatherland Front Bulgaria.

5. The Union of Macedonia under Bulgaria is closely connected with the question of achieving a close union with the new Yugoslavia and this could only be when Tito was finally victorious. ,,. . . And we cannot, practically, pose a solution of the Macedonian Question. We are not raising this question now and we shall follow the course of events. Such, you see, is the view of the Central Committee of our Bulgarian Communist Party". What is more, Georgi Dimitrov advised them: ,,There is no need to rush the union of the Petric region with Macedonia under Yugoslavia; we must wait for p eace and then see what we have to do - but for the present we shall agitate for the selfdetermination of the Macedonian people and for closer approaches to Tito's Yugoslavia".

Pop Tomov, himself, even thinks that the Gorna Djumaja region could receive autonomy within Fatherland Front Bulgaria but that there is no need for it; there is no national persecution, so why do we seek it. We might ask for a certain measure of cultural autonomy: to have the history of Mace34

donians struggles taught in the schools to awaken the national consciousness and so prepare the people that at the given moment the question can be solved at once.

At the end he mentioned some practical tasks: a) To propagate the idea of self-determination and union of the Macedonian nation, to popularise the Macedonian i.tate and people, connecting all this with an approach to Tito's Yugoslavia. b) To do everything practical to make the Macedonian state better known, to have mutual exchange visits. To do everything to bring us together and to let us get to know each other. c) To publish a newspaper in the region which would also include writings on the question. d) The party should request that the region be termed Macedonian. e) That a Macedonian element should be introduced into every party agitation.

THE OFFICIAL ACCUSATION AGAINST THE FORMER REGENTS, ROYAL COUNSELLORS AND MINISTERS ,,Rabotnitesko delo" 11. XII. 1944

... After the capitulation of the Yugoslav and the Greek armies, Macedonia and Thrace were occupied by the Bulgarian Army on Hitler's orders. This made it possible for Germany to withdraw the greater part of its forces and to transfer them to the Eastern Front. It was then that K ing B oris, who had played the role of Hitler's humblest vassal and wat-â&#x20AC;˘ chdog in the Balkans was crowned as ,, The King Uniter".

This was nothing more than a bare-faced lie which was carefully backed up. Apparently gaining Macedonia and Thrace, Bulgaria herself lost her national independence and was in fact transformed into a colony of Hitler's Germany. The Germans themselves didn't hide the fact that they considered Macedonia and Thrace as German regions temporarily to be administered by Bulgaria and as such they marked them in their maps. On this occasion, the Bulgarian authorities in the ,,newly-liberated territories" introduced the same impudent terror as in Bulgaria herself. The most corrupt administrator:; and the most severe military commanders were sent there and they terrorised and plundered and massacred the local popu3â&#x20AC;˘

35

lation setting fire to the viUages. Gradually an intense hatred was bred in these regions not only for the Hitlerite forces of occupation but also for their Bulgarian collaborators. The best proof of which was the powerful rebel movement which blazed through these regions ...

FRATERNAL GREETINGS TO THE FREE MACEDONIA.¡¡ STATE Leading Article, ,.Rabotnitesko delo", 27. XII. 1944

Tomorrow, on the twenty-eighth of this month the second extra-ordinary session of the Anti-fascist Assembly for the National Liberation of Macedonia (ASNOM) will meet in Skopje, the capital of the new, free Macedonian state. At this assembly will be presented information on the internal and international position of the new Macedonian federal state which is an equal member of Tito's federal Yugoslavia. At this session the decisions of the interim praesidium will be submitted for approval and a new praesidium of the Macedonian National Assembly will be chosen and from that the new government of Macedonia. In this way, in the eyes of the entire world, the new Macedonian state will stand firmly on its own feet and take its first rapid steps towards the establishment of its new democratic state-political structure.

This internal strengthening of the Macedonian state will give even further force to the creative impulse of the Macedonian people who are now undertaking with unequalled enthusiasm and unremitting energy the reconstruction of all that the German barbarians destroyed to create the conditions necessary for their economic and cultural advance.

In November of last year the Anti-fascist Council for the National Liberation of Yugoslavia was held at Jajce. At this meeting on the suggestion of Marshal Tito a resolution was passed which constituted Yugoslavia as a democratic federal state composed of six federal states Serbia, Croatia, Slovenia, Montenegro, Macedonia and Bosnia and Hercegovina.

On the basis of the above resolution the first Antifascist Assembly for the National Liberation of Macedonia was held on 2nd August this year in Macedonia at the Monastery of St. Prochorius of Pcinja and will remain an historic occasion since it was there that the foundations of the new Macedonian federal state were laid.

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..

As with federal democratic Yugoslavia, the free Macedonian state which is an equal member of the same has been founded not as a result of some kind of international diplomatic compromise but as the ripe fruit of more than three years of a magnificently heroic war of liberation against the hated German invaders on the part of the hardpressed and self-sacrificing Yugoslav peoples, of whom the Macedonian nation is one. As is well-known, the foremost place in this hard but renowned struggle was that of the legendary military commander and outstanding politician Marshal Tito. Sad to say, there is a shameful page marked 'Bulgaria' in the history of the epic struggle of the Yugoslav peoples which will be spoken of before future generations as black treason and betrayal by the fascist clique, the German agents in our country who, contrary to the will of the Bulgarian people, waged a fratricidal war against the Yugoslav fighters for freedom and independence and on behalf of the German forces of occupation. Today the leaders of this dishonest clique of Greater-Bulgaria chauvinistic quislings is being tried by the Bulgarian people for their treasonous crimes. The participation of the new, reformed, popular army o_f .Fatherland Front Bulgaria in the expulsion of the German occupiers from Serbia and Macedonia is a proof that the Bulgarian nation has made a determined break with the disgraceful past and taken a serious step to repent of its treason and cleanse the shameful spot on her name. There are a number of facts which speak clearly of the new atmosph ere which has come into being between the two fraternal peoples and of the agreeable change which has occurred in the relations of the two brotherly countries.

In the heat of battling for the creation of democratic federal Yugoslavia and Fatherland Front Bulgaria whether against the common enemy of the S'lav peoples - the German imperialists or against their internal agents and traitors to the national interest there melted away, once and for all the rust of expansionist chauvinism which had been artificiall:r spread decade by decade, layer by layer, by the rulers of the two countries and their reactionary fascist cliques to hinde1¡ good-neighbourly relations and the natural feeling of fellowship between th e two south Slav brothers.

Fatherland Front Bulgaria and Tito's Yugoslavia have broken with the shameful past once and for all. There can never be quarrels and feuds betwee n them again. Never again can there be revalry for lordship or predominance. For the future only the closest fraternal relations will exist between

37

them which will be the keystone of peace in the Balkans and of friendly co-operation between all the Balkan peoples.

During the last few decades Macedonia has only been the object of the expansionist ideas of the Bulgarian dynasty and the Greater-Bulgaria chauvinistic clique. Now that the Bulgarian people has freed itseli from the pressure of these traitors and the quislings it is inspired only by brotherly feelings for the long-suffering Macedonian people. The Bulgarian people rejoice, together with the people of Macedonia and all the other Yugoslav peoples at the great achievements attained by their Macedonian brothers who for the first time in their history have been recognised as a sovereign nation with the right to have their own free state as an equal member within the framework of Tito's federal Yugoslavia.

Credit for this historic event undoubtedly belongs to the Yugoslav National Liberation movement, led by Marshal Tito.

The ideal for which the heroic, sell-sacrificing patriots of the Macedonian nation fought through decades has been realised!

Unlike the Greater-Bulgarian chauvinists and the foreign agents, the Bulgarian nation in the past followed with the greatest sympathy the struggle of the Macedonian people for liberty and union on the basis of the principle of self-deter mination and gave them their support. And today, in the struggle against the greatest of all enemies of any freedom Hitlerism these principles of national self-determination have r eceived formal affirmation in the all international documents of the great democratic powers. On this basis today the aspirations of the Macedonian p eople for self-determination receive great sympathy from all freedom-loving peoples among whom the Bulgarian nation is one.

Today the Bulgarian people with sincere joy and the warmest sympathy follow the creation of the free Macedonia!1 state within the framework of Tito's Yugoslavia.

On the eve of the Anti-fascist Macedonian Peoples Assembly in Skopje which symbolises the sovereign rights of the Macedonians, their free democratic state, too, the Bulgarian people send their greetings to Macedonia and to all of Tito's Yugoslavia.

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THE NEW MACEDONIAN STATE FROM YESTERDAY'S SPEECH BY THE MJN1STER FOR PRORAGANDA DIMO KAZASOV ,,Ra.botnitesko delo", 29. XII. 1944

... The government of the Fatherland Front welcomes the new Macedonian state with deep joy, being convinced that it will be an active and faithful collaborator with the new Yugoslavia. Those who have witnessed the destruction caused b y Balkan enmities, the decay which the old authorities with their egoistic and factional struggles caused in the state life of the Balkan peoples, the bitter civil conflicts caused by the attempts to crush national forces and supress national aspirations, the blood-letting and fratricide which took expensive reprisals from their own ranks; the present builders of the new Macedonian state, forwarned by their past experience and inspired by the ideals of their long heroic struggle will know, of that we feel sure, how to guide it (the Macedonian state V. C.) n ot only along the path to extensive internal expansion but also of external security, strengthened by a complete and sincere understanding between all the Balkan peoples. The Macedonians are a strong forceful nation with a sense of reality and a rare power of construction and we are convinced t hat they will give their Macedonian state a form which will not only make it worthy as a member of the new Yugoslavia but an energetic mover in its general development ...

DOBRI TERPESEV ON THE UNION OF PIRIN MACEDONIA WITH THE PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF MACEDONIA ,,Nova. Makedoni;a.", 31. XII. 1944

Dobri Terpesev, minister of the first Fatherland Front government of Bulgaria and member of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the Bulgarian Workers Party (The Communists) in his speech of greeting at the Second Session of the Anti-fascist Assembly for the National Liberation of Macedonia in December 1944 said, among other things, the following:

39

,,The difference between the old and Fatherland Front Bulgaria also lies in this; that Fatherland Front Bulgaria considers that that part of Macedonia which at present lies within the boundaries of Bulgaria should be united with Macedonia in Yugoslavia".

HITLER'S BULGARIAN WATCHDOGS IN THE OCCUPIED COUNTRIES BEFORE THE POPULAR COURT LEADING ARTICLE

,,R.abotnicesko delo" 30. III. 1945

When it was decided on 9th September that those who were guilty should be judged by he people's court for their part in the crimes of Bulgaria in the Second World War, it was planned to bring to trial those who had committed crimes in Greek Thrace, Macedonia and Serbia. A group of people's prosecutors were given the task of tracking the criminals down and bringing to justice all who had either commanded or taken direct part in killings, burnings and terrorism in these occupied territories as well as those who had used their authority in an inhuman fashion to plunder the local inhabitants and enrich them.selves or who had hunted down the fighters of the National Liberation movements there. In this investigation various complaints from Greece, Macedonia and Serbia were used.

A major part of the crimes of this group are already being examined before a jury of the people's Court in Sofia.

There are 183 persons accused among whom are first the regional governors (in Xanthe, Skopje and elsewhere) the commanders of military units and a large number of police offenders. Here are the blood-smeared protagonists of the incidents at Drama in 1941 and those guilty of the execution of partizans and inocent townspeople, of terrorism and plunder in various areas of the Belomore (Xanthe, Djumurdjina, Sarsaban , Kavala, Seres, Demir Hisar and other places) as well as in Macedonia (Bitola, Prilep, Stip, Gevgelija, Resen) and in Serbia.

This trial once more affirms that the Bulgarian people has nothing at all in common with the disgusting crimes of the fascist rulers.

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. . . The Fatherland Front government shows the true anti-fascist democratic aspect of the Bulgarian people . ... By actions such as the trial of the criminals from the days of the Bulgarian occupation of Thrace, Macedonia and Serbia, Fatherland Front Bulgaria once again manifests its objective: sincere and friendly relations with its n eighbours and all other democratic countries.

SLAV BROTHERHOOD .,Rabotnicesk.o delo" 17. VII. 1945)

The newspaper transmits an article by the diplomatic editor of ,,Moscow Bolshevik" dated 16. VTI. 1945 which says: . .. The ideological victory of brotherhood and friendship between the nations is also one of the characteristics of life in Bulgaria and Yugoslavia. The combination of the federal states of Serbia, Croatia, Slovenia, Macedonia, Bosnia and Hercegovina and Montenegro in the framework of Yugoslavia ensures for each of these nations the possibility of developing their national culture and constructing their own life accor-â&#x20AC;˘ ding to the economic, social and various other particularities of each of the regions. At the same time the misunderstandings between the Yugoslav and Bulgarian peoples over Macedonia have been eliminated. The foundation of the Yugoslav federal state and the entry of federal Macedonia into that state has met with the fullest approval from, the Bulgarian people. ,,The New Bulgaria has started -0n the road to brotherhood with the New Yugoslavia" - declared the government of Fatherland Front Bulgaria in greeting the foundation of autonomous Macedonia and its union with Yugoslavia ...

LEAVE THE MACEDONIANS TO SETTLE THEIR OWN DESTINY ,,Rabotnicesko delo" 3. XI . 1945

Recently the old sinners - the followers of Girginov, Pastuhov and other speculators in Macedonian affairs have begun once more to be ,,concerned" about the freedom of the Macedonians. By rising of the forces of reaction and fascism 41

among us, there are attempts again to revive the GreaterBulgaria chauvinism and adventurism which have done so much harm to the Bulgarian people.

The destruction of the fascist band of German quislings, the pro-Boris and pro-Filovs, on the ninth of September delivered the death stroke to Greater-Bulgaria chauvinism. Those who introduced German imperialism into our country are now hiding their traitorous adventurist policy of hegemony in the Balkans under the cover of achieving the ,,national ideals" of the Bulgarian people for ,, the union of the Bulgar tribe''.

This strange policy of the adventurist Germ)l.n agents in our country is so far from the highest interests of the Bulgarian people that not only did it not lead to ,,the union of the Bulgar tribe" but it very nearly led to a terrible national catastrophe in which Bulgaria was all but destroyed.

As is well-known, Macedonia has always been the focus of these adventurist machinations. The bitter lessons of history should, however, have shown clearly enough by now that the Macedonian Question will never be settled by imperialist wars. This is fully demonstrated by the utter failure of all attempts made in that direction, not only those of the Greater Bulgarian clique but also of those of the Greater Serbia and Greater Greek cliques, too.

The reactionary ruling cliques in the Balkans have shown themselves magnificently incapable of solving the Macedonian Question. On the contrary they have distorted it, embittered it and complicated it ever more. They have made it the dangerous powder keg of the Balkans, The great task of liberating the Macedonian people and of ensuring the historical development of the Balkans is the responsibility of the progressive forces in the Balkans and in practice, it is only the progressive social forces in the area which can settl e the problem difficult as it is- Moreover, this cannot be done by empty phrases: Another fact which has already been proved in practice. Look at what has happened in Vardar Macedonia. Ther e, the Macedonian Question h as been solved in the most satisfactory way possible under present conditions. The Macedonians, in the framework of democtatic federal Yugoslavia have become independent in a free state with their own Macedonian government and parliament.

The Macedonians in Vardar Macedonia with a youthful enthusiasm rare in history have today begun to build their own state and to develop their own culture and so strengthen their national consciousness as the independent Macedonian nation.

In Vardar Macedonia they have realised the principle of the giants of the Macedonian struggle for freedom, t he principle 42

of Goce Delcev, Dame Gruev, Pere Tosev, Djorce Petrov, Sandanski, Hadji Dimov and the rest ,,Macedonia for the Macedonians".

We can fully understand the ,,tragedy" of the GreaterBulgaria chauvinists and reactionaries who rise and fall with ,, Greater Bulgaria " . Who, in fact, are their Lordships, the Girginovs, Pastuhovs and, if you like, the Nikola Petkovs angry with now? Instead of sprinkling their heads with ashes because it was their very policy, catastrophically against the national interest as it was, that brought unmeasurable harm to the Macedonian nation and at the same time ver y nearly dug Bulgaria's grave, they now take up the pose of prosecutors. Who, pray, do you think they are accusing? They are accusing, first of all, the Macedonians in Vardar Macedonia for having founded their own state and creating themselves into a separate Macedonian nation and because they call themselves Macedonians and what is more feel themselves Macedonians to the extent of reading and writing in the Macedonian language and so on.

Where did the Macedonians get their .,Macedonian nationality" from, their Macedonian language the writers in Girginov's .,Zname" <Flag) ask spitefully and then they deduce 99 sources to prove the ,,historical facts" contradictory. All their ,,proofs" naturally, mean nothing whatever when compared to the great historic reality which we see in Macedonia today.

The Greater-Bulgaria fascists and reactionaries never so m'uch as think that they have also made their ,,contribution" to the speedier, deeper forging of the Macedonian national consciousness. In this connection their criminal policy of division and conquest for Macedonia has played an important part. The Macedonian population recall with horror and hatred the policing role which the Bulgarian reactionaries and fascists played during the German occupation of MacedoniaEqually great ,,contributions" to the formation of the Macedonian national consciousness and a limitless urge for freedom were made by the violen t assimilatory policies to which the Macedonian population in Vardar Macedonia was subjected by the Greater-Serbia reactionary clique for some 20 years.

The Macedonian people's fight for freedom was the anvil on which t he Macedonian nation was forged and from which the Macedonian state was formed. The decisive event in thai struggle was the integration of the Macedonian people's fight for freedom with the great struggle of the Balkan peoples under the guidance of the progressive forces against the German Occupation, against Fascism and its Balkan lackeys.

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It is an unquestionable fact that the Macedonian people obtained their freedom with the aid of the heroic Yugoslav Liberation Movement headed by the great leader of the Yugoslav peoples, Marshal Tito. What, actually, could be more natural than that the free Macedonian state should find a place in the framework of federal democratic Yugoslavia?

The Freedom of Macedonia was born in the fight against Fascism. The Macedonian state is founded on the ruins of Greater-Bulgaria and Greater-Serbia chauvinistic hegemonism.

The Macedonian nation won its right to self-determination as a result of the triumph of democracy in Yugoslavia. These are the historical facts.

The task of Balkan democracy is to carry the work of liberating and uniting the Macedonian people through to the end. Without doubt that task will be carried out successfully.

Vl. P. (Vladimir Poptomov)

THE ACT OF SEPTEMBER THE NINTH IS AN HISTORIC ACT: GEORGI DIMITROV ADDRESS TO THE NATIONAL ASSEMBLY ON 25th DECEMBER

1945 GeoTgi D imitTov : Speaches, RepOTts, ATticals, voi III (1942-1947), Publication of the Bulgarian WoTkeTs PaTty (The Communists), Sofia, 1947, pp. 148-168; ,,Rabotnicesko d elo" 26. XII. 1943

Opening the debate in the Bulgarian National Assembly, Georgi Dimitrov, in answer to the address from the chair, spoke about Macedonia. We give a part of the speech on foreign policy which includes Fatherland Front Bulgaria's position on Macedonia: Ladies and Gentlemen, Representatives of the People, Until now, Bulgaria has not had its own logical, national, foreign policy. Right through the recent political history of our country with the exception of some few interval , the general line of Bulgarian foreign policy has been submissive to German imperialism which has systematically aimed at the achievement of its policy ,,Drang nach Osten: This _was a line involving enmity between Bulgaria and her. neigh'bours a line of Bulgarian opposition to her liberator - mighty Russia; it was the implementation of the machievellian policy

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of the Prussian barons and junkers ,,Divide and Rule". To achieve this aim they exploited Greater-Bulgaria, GreaterSerbia, Greater - Greece chauvinism as well as other hegemonistic currents in the Balkans. The attempt of the great Bulgarian statesman Alexander Stamboliski (The Buro of the National Assembly, all the ministers and the representatives stood up and clapped extensively) to change this line in our foreign policy, ended, as is well-known, in the overthrow of his government and the criminal assassination of Stamboliski himself.

Nor was the government of Mr. Kirnon Georgiev more successful in its attempts in 1934 as it was shorty aftewards overthrown by King Boris and his camerilla.

If only this foreign policy hostile to Bulgaria, the policy of Greater-Bulgarian chauvinism had not set us against our mighty liberator. Who can deny that whenever Bulgaria has been distanced from mighty Russia she has experienced nothing but misfortunes and defeats? Who can deny that even now, in the last world war, despite all the provocations of the fascist r ulers, no other than the Russian people - the Soviet Union - helped us - Bulgaria - in every possible way to reject the disgraceful and unnatural alliance with Hitler's Germany? Was it not the glorious Red Army which helped so much in the historical victory of the national rising on the 9th September when the German army was shattered in Rumania? The speech from the chair rightly underlined that" the government of the Soviet Union was the first among the signatories of the armistice to enter into diplomatic relations with Bulgaria and in the most difficult moments for our economy it was also the first to make an agreement about the exchange of goods with Bulgaria which just at the right time made an enormous difference by supporting the Bulgarian economy and easing the burden of the people".

The Fatherland Front has put an end to this external anti-national foreign policy. It has rejected with determination. the criminal policy of Greater-Bul~aria chauvinism which is the main cause of the catastrophe with which we have been faced.

The foreign policy of the Fatherland Front is a truly Bulgarian national policy. This is concerned with the true national interests of Bulgaria. It has gained from the bitter experience of the past when the Macedonian Question was used by foreign imperialists and their Balkans agents from the ruling cliques to set Bulgars against Serbs and Serbs against Bulgars. The Fatherland Front considers that we must do all that is necessary to stop Macedonia from being the 45

apple of discord in the Balkans and once for all make it a bond of union between the Bulgars and the Serbs, between the new Bulgaria and the new Yugoslavia (clapping). Neither the division of Macedonia nor a war of conquest but rather respect for the wishes of the Macedonians, the main body of whom have received their national liberty and recognition within the framework of the Yugoslav Federal Peoples' Republic. The relations betv;een Fatherland Front Bulgaria and the Yugoslav Federal P eoples' Republic - between two neighbouring Slav countries - are so fraternal that they have within themselves all power to settle the questions which concern their national interests without the interference of any outsiders (clapping). The foreign policy of the Fatherland Front is fundamentally different from the fascist foreign policy before 9th September, 1944. It is a policy of perpetual friendship with the mighty Russian people, with the Soviet Union and a policy of unchangeable brotherly collaboration with the peoples of Yugoslavia and with the other Slav nations (clapping).

INCORRIGIBLE TRAITORS ,,Otel!estv en front", 11 ..V. 1946

Discussions on the signature of a peace treaty with Bulgaria are now under way. The Big Four conference is examining the question of frontiers and reparations. So far the resolutions passed give no cause for worry or pessimism.

However, the incorrigible traitors to the Bulgarian nation under the mask of legal opposition spread trouble and confusion in the minds of Bulgarian citizens. Having reached a climax in their blind hate of the progressive forces of the Bulgarian people, united in the Fatherland Front, these traitors continue to injure the interests of Bulgaria merely for the wretched interests of their own coterie and of international reaction whose shameless supporters they are.

The newspaper ,,Zname" (Flag) on the tenth of this month yelped about the assertion that the Bulgarian people is united in the foreign policy which the Fatherland Front Government has and will follow. The organ of black reaction in Bulgaria has again tried to throw the responsibility for the non-fulfillment of the terms of the Moscow Conference with reference to Bulgaria onto the Fatherland Front government. It also 46

concludes, malevolently that ,,the false patriots" will be truly happy when in the preparation of the peace terms by the four ministers in Paris, Bulgaria will debate and justify her cause before them through ,,two statesment one a lawyer and the other a journalist who are known to nobody and a minister plenipotentiary from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. So far have we sunk!"

In yesterday morning's papers a prominent place was given to the Reuter report of the statements made by the President of the National Assembly Mr. Vasil Kolarov in Paris.

It is quite evident from them that the Bulgarian parliamentary delegation which was present at an inter-parliamentary conference in Copenhagen stayed over in Paris in connection with this very question of the Bulgarian peace treaty. Thus if it is a matter of official explanation and evidence about the firmness of Bulgaria's case, there is now in Paris a completely competent and fully authorised delegation which can give its explanations and protect Bulgaria's attitude authoritively.

However, Musanov and Gicev still consider themselves the only divinely chosen ones who should represent the Bulgarian people a habit of thought acquired in the past which was delightful for them but black enough for the Bulgarian nation.

How do they dare to write that there is agreement on foreign affairs, the royalist democrats howl from their foaming mouths. Then they bring out once again the old quarrels and misunderstandings with Yugoslavia: Macedonia and the Western regions of which no mention was made in the government memorandum to the Four Big Powers. The Macedonians are Bulgars, writes ,,Zname" (Flag) and Macedonia should be incorporated within the borders of Bulgaria .,,We believe", ,, Zname" continues, that it would be wisest to allow the Macedonians voluntarily and without coersion to settle their future by themselves" but there immediately the ,,democratic'¡ proposition: ,,We have opposed and we oppose the artificial national creation of a new Macedonian state by some separate Macedonian race with its separate Macedonian language for which a special Macedonian grammar has been created"- Where is your logic your democratic lordships? If, as you say, you agree with leaving the Macedonians to settle their own future why do you declare yourselves against the Macedonian nation's decision to be incorporated as a federal unit in Federal Yugoslavia? This decision was made by the finest sons of Macedonia - by those who throughout the period of the German Occupation waged an unending struggle against the foreign invaders. They waged that war shoulder to shoulder with the glorious partizans of Marshal Tito and with the fearless parti-

47

zans of Bulgaria while at that same time you were entering into profitable trading agreements with the Germans and in conjunction with them not only plundered the parts of Macedonia conquered by the Bulgarian troops but also the Bulgarian people. Vain are all your efforts to resuscitate the dark past with its hostilities and wars between Bulgaria and Yugoslavia. Greater-Bulgaria and Greater-Serbia chauvinism have gone never to return and if there are any outstanding questions to be settled between Bulgaria and Yugoslavia they will be settled by those two brotherly Slav countries by common consent and with full consideration for the feelings and needs of their respective peoples as has already been shown.

There is complete agreement among the Bulgarian people on questions of foreign policy. Only the black Bulgarian reactionaries deny their consent. There is nothing strange in it.

Our people long ago renounced and defeated the men like Musanov and Girginov- They long ago turned their backs on them. In these critical days for our people, the incorrigible national traitors, have once again cut themselves off sharply from the people and taken up a position in opposition to them. Our people will remember this well as they well remeII\ber your ,,deserts" in the past and for all of this you will receive the ,,deserved" punishment.

WHAT IS THE AIM OF THESE FALSE DEFENDERS OF BULGARIA'S CAUSE? ,,Ote~estven front", 12. V. 1946

A while ago the Pastuhov ,,socialists" published in their paper a memorandum which they pretensiously entitled .,an historic document in defence of Bulgaria's rights". They were so far uncertain of what they had done that they hurried to inscribe their own indulgence the very next day ,,their presentation of the facts of the national question were greeted with undisguised enthusiasm and full agreement by all sectors of the Bulgarian people" . There could be little doubt even then as to who ,,all sectors" referred to, since it has long been known that the Kosta Lulcevs of this world suffer from a peculiar distortion of sight and see things as through one of those rippled mirrors which reflect one and the same face many

48

times. Is not this the reason why they call themselves ,, the entire Bulgarian nation!"

Now, lo and behold, ,,all sectors" have spoken out. After a well-considered pause another ,,historical document" has been published in the newspaper ,,Svoboden narod" (Free People) - Nikola Petkovs exposition of the ,,great national question" before the Paris Conference. Can there be such things as small national questions. But, understandably, everything that Nikola Petkov touches must be great - he doesn't concern himself with small matters. In publishing this statement, the followers of Kosta Lulcev hasten to declare that it is one ,,proof" more of the unity of the Bulgarian nation over our national problems". All this studied trickery in which the Pastuhovs and Nikola Petkovs divide the roles between them would merely raise a smile if were not that there is a danger that some irreparable damage may be done to the Bulgarian cause which the Bulgarian opposition is attempting to compromise in any way it can even while using the pretext of defending it.

What is this new presentation of the opposition signed now by Nikola Petkov! At first one receives the impression that they are silent about the circumstances of which Kosta Lulcev made such ado even to the extent of openly defending the policy of Boris Filov. This silence is one sure proof that the just disapproval which this posthumous defence of the fascist regime provoked in Bulgarian society made the followers of Lulco-Petkov lose their appetite for the same rich diet. Naturally, Nikola Petkov has nothing to say about the Bulga ria which today presents itself to the world with clean hands seeking a fair peace. The Opposition, which, when it comes to being paid, likes to call itself the Fatherland Front Opposition has nothing to say about Fatherland Front Bulgaria, under whose leadership the people of this country waged their heroic struggle against the German agressors and their German collaborators. The partizan movement, the tens of thousands of victims, the part played by the Bulgarian people in the war - these are not ,,great national questions". They are not important because it might be possible to help Bulgaria's cause by reference to them. Nikola Petkov and the followers of Kosta Lulcev try another tack in the direction in which Bulgaria's cause might be compromised.

Concerned as he is for the security af the peace, Nikola Petkov discovers that it may be ensured by the establishment of a ,,real" Balkan agreement and union. This again can only be attained by a ,,just" settlement of the Macedonian Question and the return of Thrace and the Western Regions to Bul4

49

garia. The raising of the question of the Western Regions as on the same level with that of Western Thrace and the raising of the Macedonian Question at all goes to show with what determined malevolence and cold calculation the Bulgarian opposition party pursues its old aims. Nikola P etkov refuses to accept that the Macedonian Question is settled and asserts that the matter never will be settled until the Macedonians are given autononzy and the right to decide on their own fate.

Hiding in the shadow of Stamboliski, Nikola Petkov reminds us of Stamboliski's position on the matter. But, he is purposely silent as to what Stamboliski's actual policy was at the time after the First World War in the then circumstances of the Macedonian Question - the policy for which Stamboliski gave his life. Now Nikola Petkov talks of Balkan union without so much as mentioning the fraternal union of South-Slavs - the very foundation of Stamboliski's policy.

There is no right-thinking man in Bulgaria today who does not feel that the Macedonian Question has received a final solution in accordance with the will of the Macedonian people itself.

Macedonia rejoices in full autonomy within the frontiers of the Federal Peoples Republic of Yugoslavia at this present time. She has ceased to be the apple of discord in the Balkans. The Macedonian Question has ceased to be a Bulgarian Question just as it has ceased to be a Serbian Question. It is a question for the Macedonian people who without thE> need of any low suggestions from the Bulgarian opposition has found its own way forward. What is more, since Nikola Petkov acknowledges that there is a Macedonian nation why and by what right does he assume the responsibility of caring for it? The whole matter is quite clear. The real purpose of it all is quite different. Some excuse must be found to poison the atmosphere in the Balkans and so paralyse the friendship between Yugoslavia and Bulgaria. The Opposition can see well enough that Fatherland Front Bulgaria has secured sincere and hearty friendships here in the Balkan peninsular and among them the friendship of the new Yugoslavia and that of the peoples of Yugoslavia is the first. This fraternal near-â&#x20AC;˘ ness of the Yugoslav and Bulgarian peoples, a nearness which has levelled the trenches dug between them by fascists and monarchists, grows in strength day by day and opens an era of ever closer and indestructible South Slav brotherhood between our two neighbouring, fraternal nations. Therefore, thi;:; gang of Nikola Petkov's and Kosta Lulcev's aim at destroying this agreement which is one of the strong points of the Fatherland Front's foreign policy. They have now raised the cry

50

of Balkan union - as if the agreement between Yugoslavia and Bulgaria were not the foundation stone of just such a union of the Balkan peoples. They are trying to resurrect the shade of the Macedonian Question which will serve them for the same end as it did Ferdinand and Boris.

At the very moment when the Fatherland Front Government is doing all it can to win the sympathies of all freedomloving and democratic countries in order to defend th e Bulgarian position, at the very moment when Bulgaria relies on the brotherly assistance of the Slav peoples and especially on that of the mighty Soviet Union and our brother Yugoslavia, the remnants of the reactionaries are poking about in the ashes of the past to blow upon the cinders and m,ake new hatreds flame up. This is what they call defending Bulgarian interests. The Bulgarian nation and all the democratic peoples know, however, what cause and whose interests the Nikola Petkovs and Kosta Lulcevs are defending. Certainly not those of the Bulgarian people.

BULGARIA AND THE PEACE TREATY OUR ATTITUDE TO THE MACEDONIAN QUESTION

(A Speech on Bulgaria's Foreign Policy delivered at Plovdiv by Mr. Georgi K uillev, the Minister for Foreign Affairs) ,.Otetestven front" 14. V . 1946

In a speech devoted to Bulgarian Foreign policy which he delivered in Plovdiv, the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Georgi Kulisev said, among other things, the following with reference to Bulgaria's position on the Macedonian Question: ,,If there should remain any outstanding questions with other countries or if such should come into existence in the future, we are determined to find the solution to such problems by direct friendly agreement. Such, for example, is the case with Yugoslavia, primarily, and it is more than natural when we take into consideration the new spirit which animates our relations with this near and to us, fraternal country. Here I cannot fail to express my deep bitterness at some illconsidered and provocative articles in our opposition's newspapers which seem as if they had understood nothing of the n ew era but rather follow the line of complete denial 4â&#x20AC;˘

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of all reality. This could well be applied to the two memoranda which have been published in the names of the two opposition groups.

Our nation is, today, unanimous as to the basic questions in our foreign policy. This unanimity doesn't please some people who like to represent it as ,,self-deception" going on in their writings to open old wounds, enflame old hatreds und spread new doubts. Inspite of all, the similar malicious attempts, however, the Bulgarian nation is determined in its unanimous will to prevent any return to the shallowness of the past.

These same circles, with an obvious end in view, also write about Macedonia. Our attitudes; the attitude of the Fatherland Front on the Macedonian Question, is well-known and ha.<: been so since 9th September 1944. We consider that this is a question for the Macedonian people themselves and that its solution can only be found in accordance with the wishes and interests of the Macedonian population. That is why we welcomed with delight the establishment of the Macedonian fedeml state within the framework of Tito's federal democratic Yugoslavia. We are persuaded that is not by the old route, but only by way of South Slav agreement, brotherhood, equality and mutual respect that we shall ever arrive at the lasting, successful settlement of Balkan problems"-

WHERE CHAUVINISM GROWS ,,Rabotnicesko deto" 1. VI. 1946

The well-known Greater-Bulgaria man S. Cilingirov recently wrote two chauvinistic articles (,,Zname" - Flag, nos.

142,149) which cannot be passed over in silence. He writes of the wily cunning of Serbia in the past and describes how Bulgaria has been cheated. Yet in neither article is there a single word about Bulgaria's policy of annexation such as, for example, the words of the presidential minister Dr. Radoslavov uttered on the 1 January 1916 on the occasion of our troops reaching the Adriatic: ,,Where a Bulgarian foot has trod shall be Bulgaria". Nor is there one word of Bulgarian chauvinism or fascism or of the policy of infringement adopted by dishonest rulers and nationalists. God forbid. No such thing has ever existed in Bulgaria.

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In his second article ,,Truths and Untruths" the author writes: ,,I have never been either a chauvinist or a believer in Greater Bulgaria. Su.ch people are not born in Bulgaria.

They spring up in other places". Here the ,,truth" appears as an unmistakable ,,untruth" and rather more as an unequalled lie, a provocation.

In 1938, S. Cilingirov wrote a book with the thunderous title ,,What has the Bulgarian given to other nations". For this book, which was published in an edition of 40,000 copies, S. Cilingirov was called the ,,second Paisij " by the GreaterBulgaria chauvinists. Such books were highly valued at that time on the fascist market.

Naturally, S. Cilingarov's work was ,,scientifically" composed at least as ,,scientifically" as Hitlers's own works on the ,,German master race" and on the intuition and the Sixth Sence of the Fhurer" etc. The author ,,objectively" demonstrates how many great m en, commonly considered foreigners, had Bulgarian blood in their vein s etc. Orpheus (a legendary figure who is supposed to have lived in the Rhodope Mountains a thousands of years ago when there was not so much as even a thought of the Bulgars in the Balkan peninsular) was ,,Bulgarian". In the veins of Napoleon Bonaparte ran a stream of Bulgarian blood. ,,We could say that Bulgarian blood flowed in the veins of half the great men of Rome" and so on and so on. The author collected every doubtful suggestion or proposition on the part of foreign experts as to the Bulgarian origin of certain historical personages and puffed them up in order to ,,prove" the greatness of the Bulgarian nation. This is, in effect, a manifestation of expansionist chauvinism just such as S. Cilingarov ascribes to others with such pleasure and denies in the case of himself and of the Bulgarian chauvinists.

S. Cilingirov knows only too well to what extent the blood of the modern peoples is intermingled and that millions of Englishmen, Spaniards, Germans, Dutchmen, Italians and Balkan people have created the population of America and that in Europe itself there is no pure rase and that it is the commonest of things for som e famous European figure to have the blood of some other nation in his veins. He knew it then and he knows it now and still S. Cilingirov, writes this in order to stir up the Greater Bulgaria spirit in the m idst of our nation that is what the colonialist policy of the Hitlerite quislings sought among the rulers of Bulgaria in the past and that is what the policies of the Greater-Bulgaria chauvinists and trouble-makers N. Musanov and Girginov seek, today.

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In 1938 a book was published by Dr- N. Sejtanov-a grammar-school teacher of history : ,,The Greater-Bulgaria World View". Here is what we find in that book on page 7: ,,No one must be allowed to forget that the meridian of our Balkan passes through Egypt and Russia and the parallel connect.; our country on the one side with Babylon and India and O!l the other with Rome and Paris. Our geographical and historical destiny is three continental and so our geographical designation is Euro-afro-Asian." The author omits the fact that our meridian and our parallel also pass through the oceans, should he not have included them also as fitting for our great name.

He proceeds (pp. 8, 9, 10) ,,The soil of our Bulgarian nation is much greater than the territory which our present state occupies. That territory includes all those areas inhabited and settled by our people in the distant past and where BalkanoBulgarian history occured, ... The blue sea symboli<:es our titanism. The Balkans follow the heave nly progress of the sun.

It comes from, the Hymalayas. Sofia was created to dominate the Balkans by geography and history. We can tell the world that we are a classic people of ancient importance to all men.

The Bulgarian race ideology is Greater-Bulgarian, gigantic".

The author unceremoniously claims as Bulgarian heroes, Orpheus, Priam, Hector, Alexander the Great, Constantine the Great and so on. It would seem, Mr. S. Ciligrinov, that all this is Greater-Bulgaria chauvinism and how - to insanity.

After Sejtanov's book there came another - ,,Greater-Bulgarian Youth" all in the same spirit.

Is there any need to mention the luxurious Greater-Bulgarian blossoms in the books of D. L. Vladikin, D. Krapcev, M. Popov, General N. Zekov and other select heroes of the Greater - Bulgaria cause, who during the time of the fascist r egime ,,scientifically" discussed the greatness of the Bulgarian people and its historic mission in the Balkans?

It is clear. Greater-Bulgarians and chauvinists were being born on Bulgarian soil as much as fifty years ago. Even at the time of the Balkan War Penco Slavejkov was writing: ,,and Bulgarian chauvinism is no sweet-smelling flower" yet today, after so many criminal wars and national catastrophes, after the barbarism of the fascists with which GreaterBulgarian chauvinism was in full accord we can describe that chauvinism as ,,a terrible cancerous growth in the living organism of our nation" (G. Dimitrov). All progressive Fatherland Front supporters, all true patriots should undertake ener54

getically the final excision and heal once and for all our state and national institutions of this insidious temptation inherited from our dark past - from militant monarchism and its criminal cliques.

Dr. K. Dramaliev

THE FIRST CONGRESS OF THE MACEDONIAN PEOPLE'S FRONT ,,Nova Makedoni;a". 3. VIII. 1946

The Secretary of the National Committee of the Bulgarian Fatherland Front, Georgi Trajkov, brought greetings from the p eople of Bulgaria. In the course of this speech he emphasised the Bulgarian people's wish to live in perpetual association with the Yugoslav peoples. ,,Macedonian brothers and sisters, on the occasion of the First Congress of your P eople's Front and in celebratiO!l of your great national holiday - !linden, I have been sent by m y commrades of the Natonal Committee of the Bulgarian Fatherland Front (Long May it Live!) to bring you fraternal greetings (applause)- Greeting you in the name of the entire Bulgarian people, I have to tell you that we were conscious of h eartfelt delight at the brilliant way in which the national problem has been solved in the Yugoslav Republic giving full liberty to the P eople's Republic of Macedonia in the framework of Tito's Yugoslavia (applause) . We r ejoice that in this way, Macedonia instead of being an apple of discord has been transformed, today, into a true bond betwee"l. the Balkan Slavs (cries of That's so). Not you alone but w~ also are grateful to the great leader of the Yugoslav peoples, Marshal Tito, (Long may he Live) for the successful way in which he has settled the national question. Today Macedonia is not only no longer a hinderance to the allignment with Yugoslavia but will also help us to form a permanent alliance between Bulgaria and Yugoslavia all the sooner (cries of That's so and 'Brotherhood and Unity')".

Krstju Stojcev, national representative, spoke in the name of our brothers in Pirin Macedonia. ,,In the name of the Macedonia of Jane Sandanski, in the name of the people of Pirin Macedonia, I give greetings to the First Congi,ess of the People's Front of the free Republic of Macedonia. ~~

We feel an undescribable joy at being guests at this first historic congress which is opening on the anniversary of the glorious Macedonian Republic, the anniversary of the famous Ilinden Rising. The first wish we send to you is that the Macedonian nation may soon be united under the People's Republic of Macedonia" (enthusiastic applause).

The immediate present task of the Macedonian people in all three parts of Macedonia is to fight, together with the peoples of You~oslavia, to secure the final crushing of reaction and fascism. The Macedonian people in Pirin Macedonia designs to p erform that task worthily".

The congress was greeted in the name of the !linden organisation in Bulgaria by Toma Krcev who spoke of the struggles of the !linden heroes in the rising.

Kosta Lambrev, a member of the Macedonian National Committee in Bulgaria, greeted the congress in the name of the Macedonian emigrants. Among other things in his speech he said: ,,We the Macedonian emigrants in Bulgaria live in the conviction that the liberation of Macedonia was the work of the Macedonians inside Macedonia and that that liberation was possibly solely because the Macedonian nation took the right historical path, the path of Goce Delcev. Macedonian people followed the line of democratic development for the peoples of Yugoslavia in alliance vith all Yugoslav peoples. Macedonian people spilt its blood in the struggle against the common enemy, the fascist German conquerors. It is thanks to such struggles that the Macedonian nation has gained its freedom. The Macedonian emigrants in Bulgaria respect the right won by the Macedonian people to be free, happy and united with the brotherly nations of Yugoslavia (applause).

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THE RESOLUTION OF THE TENTH PLENARY SESSION

OF THE CENTRAL COMMITTEE OF THE BULGARIAN WORKERS PARTY (THE COMMUNISTS) ON THE MACEDONIAN QUESTION From the Archives of the Central Committee of the Macedonian Communist Party

The Tenth Plenary Session of the Central Committee of the Bulgarian Worker's P arty (The Communists) was held on 9th August, 1946. It was at this plenary session that resolutions on the Macedonian question were passed which , in their complete form, state the following: First. The Bulgarian Workers Party (The Communists) consider that the fundamental part of the Macedonian people have organised themselves both as a nation and as a people within the framework of the Federal P eople's Republic of Yugoslavia as the Republic of Macedonia. The union of the other sections of the Macedonian people remains to be carried through on the basis of the Macedonian P eople's Republic within the framework of the Federal People's Republic of Yugoslavia.

Two. The Bulgarian Worker's Party (The Communists) undertakes to prepare the necessary pre- conditions for the union because, although the incorporation of the Pirin area is primarily the work of the Macedonians, it is also the general task of the Fatherland Front of Bulgaria and of the Federal Peoples' Republic of Yugoslavia.

Third. The Bulgarian Worker's Party (The Communists) consider that it is essential that during the pe1iod prior to t he incorporation of the Pirin area in the People's Republic of Macedonia there should be a systematic effort to bring the Macedonian population of that area culturally nearer to the P eople"s Republic of Macedonia by popularising in their community the work and achievements of the P eople's Rupublic of Macedonia, the Macedonian language and its literature, knowledge of the Macedonian people's history as it is taught in schools in Macedonia, as well as an easing of conditions along the borders between Macedonia (Yugoslavia) and the Pirin area for the wider mutual co-operation of the Macedonian population both in the one and in the other country while generally undertaking a whole ser ies of further measures in the direction of cultural auto57

nomy which should contribute to the growth of a national consciousness among the Macedonian population and facilitate their incorporation in the fundamental body of the Macedonian people within the People's Republic of Macedonian.

Having taken part in the struggle of the Fatherland Front against the forces of reaction to establish a democratic regime in Bulgaria, the Macedonians of the Pirin area should have their own Macedonian candidates for elections to the Grand National Assembly and in that Grand National Assembly they should have their own parliamentary group.

The newspaper 'Pirinsko delo' should take on a predominatly Macedonian character.

It is equally essential that the closest possible co-operation should be established between the Pirin Macedonians and the Macedonian emigrants throughout Bulgaria in active support of the People's Republic of Macedonia.

Four. The Bulgarian Worker's Party (The Communists) consider that the incorporation of the Pirin area in the People's Republic of Macedonia should be carried through on the basis of a joint agreement between Bulgaria and Yugoslavia, which should determine the precise frontiers of the incorporated Pirin area taking into consideration the wishes and interests of the Macedonian people themselves and also the right of the inhabitants of the Pirin area to opt for Bulgarian citizenship should they wish to take advantage of that privilege.

Into this same agreement should be written a settlement concerning the return to Bulgaria of those of her western territories which are at present within Yugoslavia.

Five. The Bulgarian Workers Party (The Communists) consider that it is in the interests of the Macedonian people as well as in those of Bulgaria and Yugoslavia that when there is a union of the Pirin area with the People's Republic of Macedonia it schould be carried out in such a way that th ere should be no customs or any other border between Macedonia and Bulgaria just as there is now no such border between the People's Republic of Macedonia and the other units of the Federal People's Republic of Yugoslavia. The incorporation of the Pirin area in the People's Republic of Macedonia should not only not complicate economic and cultural r elations between the incorporated area and Bulgaria but, on the contrary, still further strengthen such relations between Macedonia (Yugoslavia) and Bulgaria.

Six. The Bulgarian Workers Party (The Communist) obliges all the members of the Party and principally those from the Pirin area to fulfill most completely, by practically implementing, the Party's directive on the Macedonian question

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while actively recommending that the Macedonian emigrants in Bulgaria should participate extensively in the strengthening of the brotherly republic of Macedonia as well as in t he preparations for the incorporation of t he Pirin area's Macedonian population on the basis of an agreement between Fatherland Front Bulgaria and the Federal P eople's Republic of Yugoslavia.

THE OPPOSITION - THE ENEMY OF THE MACEDONIAN PEOPLE AND OF BROTHERLY FRIENDSHIP WITH THE REPUBLIC OF YUGOSLAVIA LEADING ARTICLE ,,Otecestven front", 25. X. 1946

Pastuhov's ,,Sv. Narod" (St. People) has sent out a call to the ,,Macedonians in the Pirin Region and the Macedonian emigrants to vote against the Fatherland Front because it calls them to work for the reunion of Macedonians in the People's Republic of Macedonia within the framework of Federal Yugoslavia".

The call asks Macedonians to vote for the Opposition which is for ,,an Independent Macedonia" .

This unbearably provocative call contains unheard of insults for the war-like, brotherly Macedonian people who are denied all national consciousness and accused of having become ,,the victim of a new nationality and another state" and such like.

Pastuhov's traitorous paper has more than once attempted to resurrect Greater-Bulgaria chauvinism and h egemonism by provocatively exhibiting the ,,Macedonian Question". K. P astuhov himself has written a series of articles which spring from a spirit of wild, ferocious chauvinism, while it was Pastuhov's clique which laid the well-known anti-Bulgarian memorandum before the Paris Peace Conference. The whole of the activities of Pastuhov and Lulcev and their followers is inspired by one desire-to undermine and destroy the association achieved so happily for the two fraternal nations by the hard common struggle of the war.

By raising Greater-Bulgaria chauvinism and the hypocritical cry of an ,,Independent Macedonia", our opposition seeks to return to the days of Ivan Mihailov's bandits with

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whom the present opposition leaders were the despicable collaborators and who inspired them. Thus would they once again make Macedonia an apple of discord in new fratricidal wars.

Our opposition can never rest while between Fatherland Front Bulgaria and the Yugoslavia of the National Liberation Front there is such fine unanimity and Macedonia is no longer an apple of discord but a bond of ever closer fraternal alliance between these two brotherly countries.

The call of ,,Sv. Narod" (St .People) is a low provocation against the brotherly Yugoslav republic which undertook the defence of Bulgaria's cause so firmly at the Paris Conference.

This is a despicable act against the highest interests of Bulgaria. This appeal can only help the monarchofascist exploiters in Greece who are killing out the Macedonian inhabitants in Gr eek Macedonia and doing all they can to cause enmity between fraternal South Slavs peoples over Macedonia so that they can divide and denationalise it.

The Fatherland Front calls upon the Macedonians of the Pirin and all Macedonian emigrants to support them with their votes in the coming elections because it has done away with the adventurous fratricidal policies of Greater-Bulgaria chauvinism and with the terrorists and bandits of Vanco Mihailov and has done all that it could to help in the Macedonian people's struggle towards their national union.

DECLARATION OF THE NATIONAL COMMITTEE OF THE MACEDONIAN EMIGRANTS .,Rabotni<!esko delo", 2. X . 1946

In Number 213 of the reactionary newspaper ,,Svoboden Narod" (Free People) of 24th October this year in a leading position and in screeching colours is printed an unheard of provocation to the Macedonian nation and the Macedonian emigrants. Anonymously, as always, under the mask of ,, citizens of the Pirin and emigrants from Macedonia", this pasquinade supports quite shamelessly and irresponsibly the Greater-Bulgaria chauvinist ideas of the court and Mihailov's bandits.

In this provocative appeal the existence of the Macedonian People's Republic within the new Tito's Yugoslavia which is the ideal of all Macedonians is most ferociously denied as

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well as the Macedonian national individuality which was born ,,in the test tube of the party-political alchemists in the communist party"; it is affirmed that the Macedonians a re ,,the promised victims of a new nationality and another state", that it has offended our national consciousness, that it is required of us ,,that we should cut ourselves off from the body of the nation" and that our national rights have been snatched from us together with the obligation to think of our own future as a people; so in this dishonourable fashion the bright memories of Goce, Dame, Sandanski and the others are blackened.

Who are these citizens of Pirin and emigrants from Macedonia?

Who gave them permission to speak in the name of the war-like people of Pirin Macedonia?

How do they dare to speak in the name of the numerous, ever - progressive Macedonian em:igrant community?

They may conceal their names but we know them only too well. They are the same provocators who sent abroad the unsuccessful memorandum which requested an ,,independent,, Macedonia under 1he protection of the international imperialists. They are the followers of Mihailov, defeated by the popular government of the ]fatherland Front - the same men who licked the feet of Ferdinand and Boris who shot down the true Macedonian patriots in the streets of Sofia. These were the commandants at the time of the September rising who slaughtered those Bulgarians who were apposed to Cankov, the same who killed Jane Sandanski, Gjorce Petrov, Dimo Hadji Dimov, Simeon Kavrakirov, Hristo Trajkov and many thousands m:ore of the worthiest fighters for Macedonia's freedom. These are they who, during the years of German occupation, took part in the hunting down of the Macedonian partizans in their holy war and through their companies of gendarmes plundered the enslaved Macedonian nation.

Be silent, you curs, be silent you enemies of the Macedonian people, be silent you agents of Churchill, Damaskinos and Yal\;in!

We know well enough of your fury at the Fatherland Front, at the glorious communist party of Dimitrov ,at Tito's Federal Yugoslavia and at that pride of all the Macedonians the People's Republic of Macedonia.

Macedonia's nationality was not born in a test tube but in the fifty year struggle of that heroic people against the Greater-Bulgaria chauvinists, the Greater- Serbia assimilators and against all the plunderers of our country. The People's 61

Republic of Macedonia in the framework of the Federal People's Republic of Yugoslavia was not created by party alchemy but by the glorious epic struggle of our people together with all the Yugoslav peoples against t he German occupiers, t he Bulgarian monarcho-fascists and Mihailov's bandits. No one has violeted our national consciousness- No one has robbed us of our rights and responsibilities, axcept for the bloodsmeared courtiers who are trying to resurrect their old ideas.

We are proud of the achievement of the People's Republic of Macedonia within Tito's Yugoslavia - the Piedmont for the reunion of all Macedonians in one single state.

Who is this 'other" state to which we have been dedicated as victims? Isn't it Tito's democratic Yugoslavia in which all Yugoslav p eoples h ave received their national freedom? Isn 't it Tito's Yugoslavia in which our nation has received for the first time t he right to build its own Macedonian national state? Isn 't it the state from which Greater-Bulgarian chauvinism h as been entirely eradicated and where a brotherly hand is extended to all Slavs including the Bulgarian nation?

What, you hypocrites, do you mean by your words ,,peace and under standing w ith our neighbours" when you malignly fan the old chauvinist hatred between the Bulgars and their n ear neighbours and brothers, the Serbs? What do your lying socialist lordships mean by your words ,, we have broken from the trunk of oor n ation" . Is this not the old chauvinist thesis that Macedonia is Bulgarian soil; that Macedonia is the cradle of Bulgarianism? Is this not the Greater-Bulgarian thesis of King Boris?

And who, you poor anonymous clouts, do you call upon us Macedonians to vote for in voting for your ,,united opposi tion"? Is it for that opposition which is t he most ardent agent and organ of black reaction; which sows hatred between Fatherland Front Bulgaria and Tito's Yugoslavia; which wishes to cut us off from the Slav family headed by our mighty brother and protector, the Soviet Union? Is it for that opposition which provided an occasion for foreign intervention in the internal life of the free Republic of Bulgaria and which trembles with rage because our Macedonian sta te exists and stands firm as a bond between the South Slavs; and which cries ,,Death to Stalin and Dimitrov", ,,Down with the Communists and the Fatherland Front" which hunted down and slaughter ed the J ews in its fascist past? Is it for that opposition which has surrendered to m.onarch-facist Greece portions of the living body of Bulgaria and which has carried on conspiracies, sabotage and murder in conjunction with the

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followers of Czar Krum, I van Mihailov, Gemeto, Cankov and all the black fascist forces throughout the country?

It is in vain that you rack your throats, you traitors( You will never turn the wheel of history backward. The Macedonian people h as secured its state for ever where it will speak in the rich Macedonian literary language, where with unbounded enthusiasm a national Macedonian culture and statehood is !:>eing created and which is becoming a firm bond between the fraternal South Slav nations.

The Fatherland Front recognises our first Macedonian state and guarantees us all national, civil and human rights.

The Fatherland Front sincerely wishes to work for the realisation of our deepest wish - the union of the whole of Macedonia. Fatherland Front Bulgaria and Tito's democratic Yugoslavia are the surest guarantee for the realisation of this ideal.

The Macedonians of the war-like P irin and the Macedonian emigrants can recognise your traitorous features only too well and so on 27th October they will spit on you and your masters and give t heir vote with all their hearts to the glorious brave Fatherland Front of Dimitrov. It is only thus that we can fulfill our holy duty to our beloved homeland The People's Republic of Macedonia, to the brotherly Bulgarian nation and to the Slav union.

Macedonian brothers and sisters, give not one vote to the national traitors in the anti-Macedonian and anti - Slav oposition!

In the name of Goce and Jane, in the name of the People's Republic of Macedonia and of the South Slav brotherhood, in the name of our ideal - the union of Macedonia all and every one of you vote for Georgi Dimitrov's F atherland Front, the National Saviour!

Sofia, 25 October, 1946 The National Committee of the Macedonian Emigrant Community: President: Hr. Kalajdjiev Secretary: G. Abadjiev The Macedonian National Institute: Secretary: Mihail Smatrakalev The Urban Committee of the Macedonian Brotherhood -

Sofia:

President: K. Karadjov Secretary: Hr. Mihailov

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The Central Commission of Macedonian Youth: President: Kiril Nikolov Secretary: R adoj Spasov Sofia Macedonian Youth Organisation: President: I. Uzunov Secretary: I. K itanov Macedoruan Women's Society: President: Al. X. Dimova Secretary: Ek. Toยงkova Macedonian Student's Society: President: Georgi Cikliev Secretary: Ivan Nikolov The Ilinden Organisation: President: Stefan Avramov The Macedonian Literary Circle: Secretary: Andon Velik ov

AN IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT FOR LOCAL GOVERNMENT OFFICIALS, HEADMEN AND COUNTERS IN REGION N2 3-628 .,Pirinsko delo", 29. XII. 1946

In the order for the organisation and completion of the first operations in connection with the census under point 1-1, para 38 it speaks of the preparation of the population for the census.

Drawing your attention to the enormous economic and cultural significance of this census as a great step for our new P eople's Republic which involves the dignity and prestige of our popular government, I call upon you to explain as fully as may be to the population that it is in their own interests to give th e most correct answers to the census. All the details, and especially those sought in connection with the family identity document ,,A", must be entered on the appropriate graph with accuracy and care.

Since the population in Gorna Djumaja region is primarily of Macedonian or igin, it should be explained to t hat population th at they are absolutely free to state their nationa-

64

lity and origin openly and without any coercion just as they feel in their own hearts and minds as faithful children of their fatherland.

It is to be understood that you will draw the attention of the census takers to the fact that they have no right in any case whatever to hinder the inhabitants from stating their nationality as Macedonians.

Gorna Djumaja

Regional Director Boris Volev

24. XII. 1946

A PROCLAMATION OF THE REGIONAL COMMITTEE OF THE FATHERLAND FRONT IN CONNECTION WITH THE CENSUS OF THE POPULATION ,,PiTinsko deto", December, 1946

A PROCLAMATION OF THE REGIONAL COMMITTEE OF THE FATHERLAND FRONT TO THE INHABITANTS OF THE GORNA DJUMAJA REGION, 30, December, 1946

On 25th of December, the general census of the population of Fatherland Front Bulgaria began. This is the first time that at a census held in Bulgaria together with the other nationalities it has been allowed for the Macedonians to enter themselves as Macedonians. The recognition of the right of the Macedonian people to their national life is a great victory for the just national policy of the Fatherland Front and its popular government. The Macedonians of the Gorna Djumaja region (The Pirin) have been given full rights and freedoms io express their wishes freely and without compulsion in this census and to register their nationality according to their ideas and feelings.

The regional committee of the Fatherland Front, considering the consistently just national policy of the Fatherland Front, thinks that the census of the population in our region should rightly speaking be Macedonian, because this best answers to our Macedonian origin, and our struggles for liberty and union for Macedonia, as well as for the subsequent solution of the Macedonian Question in the interests of the 5

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Macedonian people, in the interests of peace in the Balkans and frate rnal co-operation between P. R. Bulgaria and FPR Yugoslavia.

Let it be known that the registration of the population as Macedonian in no way means opposition to Bulgaria as the members of the Opposition and the followers of Mihailov deceive our people into thinking. The free expression of the national will is essential to the correct introduction of the Fatherland Front's democratic policy which treats all the nationalities in the country as equals.

On behalf President: Secretary: Members:

of the Regional Committee ~rgi Madolev Filip Bu~inski Eftim Georgiev Spas Tantilov Mihail Dimitrov Slavejko Angelov Georgi Stamatov Boris Cavdarov Vera Antonova Cvetan Karapov Veselin Cocev Dimitar Dimitrov and I van Lazarov

RESULTS OF THE CENS'US OF THE POPULATION IN PIRIN MACEDONIA IN 1946 According to unofficial data, the results of the census of the population in Pirin Macedonia in Decembe r 1946 appear as follows: P etric Sveti Vrac Nevrokop Razlog Gorna Djumaja 66

85-90 % Macedonians 80-850/o " 60-650/o 55-600/o 45-500/o

"

V'LKO CERVENKOV AT THE REGIONAL CONFERENCE OF THE BULGARIAN WORKERS PARTY (THE COMMUNISTS) HELD AT GORNA DJUMAJA ON 16 AND 17 FEBRUARY, 1947 Jla3ap KoAuweacx:-u, Acne!CTU 'K4 Jta,cedoxcxoTo npauum,e (Aspects of the Macedonian Question) .,Kuttura", Sk.opje, 1962, p. 469

,

At the Regional Conference of the Bulgarian Workers P arty (The Communists) held at Gorna Djumaja on 16th and 17th February, 1947 V'lko Cervenkov, speaking on the Macedonian Question, said: The question of the practical unification of the Pirin region with People's Republic of Macedonia can be settled only by a joint agreement between Yugoslavia and Bulgaria. Then only will Macedonia really be a bond of union between the South Slavs and present no difficulties to economic links with Bulgaria. The unification of the Pirin region with P eople's Republic of Macedonia cannot be carried through without this condition; w ithout this joint agreement between Yugoslavia and Bulgaria. Any other approach to this question is premature and if it doesn't take all the circumstances into consideration will lead to the collapse of the economy of the region.

Yet, it is still necessary to work on the creation of conditions for that union.

I haven't been in your region, but I must state my impressions openly and they are that little has been done here to prepare such conditions. What does working on the preparation of such conditions mean? It means the wide popularisation of P eople's Republic of Macedonia, t he study of the history of the Macedonian revolutionary movement, the strengthening of the cultural ties between People's Republic of Macedonia and the Pirin r egion, the taking of measures to teach the Macedonian language in your schools, that is, to ensure what is called the cultural autonomy of the Pirin region's inhabitants. P erhaps it is not possible to introduce all these things at once but it is n ecessary to work in this direction and so to create conditions for this union. It is necessary to e>..rplain all this in detail to the Macedonian people so that they are not frightened but, on the contrary, strengthened in their national feelings which need have no points of conflict with the people of Fatherland Front Bulgaria.

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RADIO MOSCOW ON THE MACEDONIAN QUESTION ,,Rabotnil!esko delo" 29. I V. 1947

Moscow, 28th April

(Radio)

As is well-known, the American representative on the Commission of the Security Council, Etheridge, has proposed a commission to discuss the slanderous Greek accusations that Yugoslavia and Bulgaria have been preparing to cut Aegean Macedonia off from Greece. Lavriscev, the Soviet representative on the Commission categorically opposed the discussion of this question, announcing that, as it was proposed by Etheridge, the question had a territorial character and so was not within the competence of the Commission.

Lavriscev emphasised that if the Macedonian Question could be submitted for examination by the Commission it should be exclusively in connection with the persecution of the Macedonian population by the Greek government.

The Macedonian Slavs in Greece had fought actively together with the people of Greece against the fascist occupation believing that after the Liberation they would receive the same rights as the other citizens of the country. The monarcho-fascist ruling clique in Greece, however, not only gave the Macedonians no equality but even stripped them of their elementary rights, The Macedonians are forbidden to speak in their mother tongue. Throughout the whole of Aegean Macedonia there is not even one Macedonian national school.

Hundreds of Macedonian villages have been burned to the ground by monarcho-fascist bands and the property of the inhabitants stolen. According to incomplete data, about 30.000 Macedonians have been thrown into prison or put in concentration camps. To save themselves from plundering and terrorism, tens of thousands of Macedonian families have been compelled to l eave their native land and seek shelter beyond the frontiers of Greece. With the aim of concealing these crimes and distracting the attention of the democratic public from them, this fabricated version of the story was prepared in Athens to the effect that Yugoslavia and Bulgaria enflamed a civil war in Aegean Macedonia in order to cut it off from Greece.

Over a long course of years the imperialistic stat!lS have utilised Macedonia in order to enflame enmity between the Balkan peoples.

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After the overthrow of Fascism and the establishment of democratic regimes in all t he Balkan states with the exception of Greece, the Macedonian nation gained full m eans for its free and equal existence. A Macedonian republic has been founded in Yugoslavia which is equal to the other five republics which make up the structure of the Yugoslav federation. The Macedonians are developing their national culture, art and literature successfully. In Macedonia a unique Slav literacy has been created. The Macedonian language has become the state language in which newspapars and ma gazines are published and which is used for teaching in the schools. Macedonian highschools a nd a Macedonian university have been opened. The entire people of Yugoslavia are helping th e Macedonians to renew their ruined economy.

So also, by such a democratic method as respect for the rights of the peoples has th1:: national question been solved in Bulgaria, Rumania and Albania. This m akes it possible to strengthen the friendship between them. Only the policy of the Greek monarchists, carefully supported from outside, revives former imperialist methods for enflaming national enmities.

A THEATRE FOR PIRIN MACEDONIA ,,Rabotniesko del.o", 2. X. 1947

A regional Macedonian popular theatre has been started in Gorna Djumaja to serve the w hole of Pirin Macedonia .

The manager of the theatre is to be Jordan P etrov, the actor, and the artistic director will be Ilija Milcin formerly the dramatist of Skopje National Theatre.

At present the theatre is preparing the drama ,,P ecalbari" by Anton G. Panov. The season will open in the m5.ddle of month.

Russian and Bulgarian authors are included in the rep ertoire.

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AN AGREEMENT TO FACILITATE BORDER CROSSINGS BETWEEN THE FEDERAL PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF YUGOSLAVIA AND THE PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF BULGARIA BY THE CITIZENS OF THE TWO STATES AND ON THE CITIZENSHIP In order to bring into effect the Treaty between the Government of Bulgaria and the Government of the Federal People's Republic of Yugoslavia which had been signed at Bled on 1. VIII. 1947, a joint Yugoslav Bulgarian commission was set up which prepared and signed an agreement which it submitted to the Government of the Federal People's Republic of Yugoslavia for ratification. This was an Agreemen. to Facilitate Border Crossings between the Federal P eople"s Republic of Yugoslavia and the P eople's Republic of Bulgaria by the Citizens of the two states and on Citizenship. This agreement came into effect on 21st November, 1947 when it was ratified.

The terms of the agreement arc as follows: l. Facilitating Border Crossings.

For Citizens of the signatory states special passports, valid for two months maximum period, will be instituted.

During this period they will be able to travel between the- one and the other country more than once. Those organs authorised to issue the special passport will also be empowered to extend it for periods of two m'Onths at a time. This may be done by the representatives of either state on behalf of their own citizens in the case of illness etc.

For official persons, persons studying, and all such similar cases the special passport may be valid for more than two months but only to the maximum of a year.

The special passport may serve for a spouse and for children who are below age.

No visas will be necessary w hen travelling with the special passport. Any journey can be made on a general passport. With the clause 'Valid for Bulgaria' that is 'Valid for FPR Yugoslavia' which will be entered by the responsible organ, this passport will allow its possessor to stay for two months in either country. Possessors of this passport will not be able to travel to a third country.

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II. Facilitating Border Crossings for the Frontier population.

Persons who are permanently domiciled in the border zone to a depth of 15 kilometres from the frontier may cross the same with a permit. The validity of this permit shall be five days and it will be valid for one journey only . Under age children and marriage partners may cross the border with the same permit. Adult children must have separate permit. With such permit the border may only be crossed at special crossing points and travel is restricted to the place which is mentioned and the limits of the border zone on the opposite Jide.

A collective permit will be issued for inhabitants of the border zone in the case of participation in sports or athletics meetings, national holidays and so on. These permissions will be held by the border guards for controlling the return of all the persons. These permits will be valid for three days.

On the occasion of major joint celebrations (assemblies, commemorations, meetings etc.) , which are held on the border line or near ii, people may be allowed to cross the border with their identity cards only and without any permit Such crossings can be m ade by agreement with the organs of border guard with prior approval. The maximum period allowed for anyone to stay at the site of any such celebration shall be three days. Crossings may be effected from sunrise to sunset.

In cases of serious illness, if medical assistance can be obtained more easily from the other side, crossing of the frontier can be carried out with a permit issued by the Department of the Interior. The validity of the permit should be consonant with the p eriod necessary for treatment. Permits will not be issued to civil servants or military personnel.

Nationals of either country who have material interests or family connections in the Caribrod or Bosilegrad regions may cross the border ¡w ith a declaration form.

These declaration forms shall have a maximum validity of three months and may be used twice a month at the following frontier posts: a) Caribrod Dragoman b) Strezimirovci-Trn c) Trkljanov - Bosilegrad

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III. Citizenship.

Yugoslav citizens who live in the P. R. Bulgaria and vice versa and who wish to receive the citizenship of the country in which they find themselves may receive such citizenship after petitioning for the same provided that they have been resident in the country for a full two year period.

Yugoslav citizens married to Bulgarian female nationals who live in the P. R. Bulgaria and vice versa may receive the citizenship of the country in which they reside if they make an application to receive its citizenship and if from their conduct it can be assumed that they will be loyal citizens of the country whose citizenship they are applying for.

At Bled on 1. VIII. 1947 the same commission composed, signed and submitted to the government of the Federal People's Republic of Yugoslavia for ratification an Agreemem on the exploitation of dualownership holdings on the border between the Federal P eople's Republic of Yugoslavia and the People's R epublic of Bulgaria.

This agreement came into effect on 21. IX. 1947 when it was ratified.

This agreement settled the way in which dualownership holdings should be dealt with along the whole lenght of the Yugoslav-Bulgarian frontier.

According to the agreement dual ownership holdings were those which were situated within a ten kilometre deep zone at the border and whose owners were permanently domiciled within the zone on the other side of the respective border and owned the land at the time that the agreement was signed.

Common village holdings were also reckoned as dual ownership holdings in so far as they were on the other side of the border.

The appropriate sections of the Ministry of the Interior will make lists of the dual owners, for each individual place, where they have the right to take advantage of the relaxations in this agreement.

The dual owners will be issued with a dual ownership permit which will be valid for two years. This permit may be extended for a further period of one year by common consent. In addition to the dual owner, there shall be recorded in the permit the members of his household and his hired helpers needed to cultivate the dual ownership holding. Border crossings will be effected between sunrise and sunset at 72

specially border points which will be entered in the dual ownership permits. Dual ownership permits will also be issued to persons exploiting common village holdings (forests and meadows) .

Shepherds will also be issued with dual ownership permits with the follow1ng note on the first page: 'Valid for the shepherd of the village flocks and for his crossing into the village's dual ownership holdings'.

The agreement allows for the dual owner's crossing and taking across the border for the purpose of cultivating the land. It also takes into consideration preventative measures against the spread of contagious diseases.

The concessions granted by this agreement do not limit either party to the said agreement in taking the m easures necessary for their security and for peace.

Note: The Agreement to Facilitate Border Crossings between the Federal People's Republic of Yugoslavia and the People's Republic of Bulgaria was unilaterally declared void by Bulgarian government on 3rd October, 1949.

In its note of 29th June, 1950 the Bulgarian Ministry of the I n terior unilaterally relinquished the agreement on the exploitation of dual ownership holdings. (V. C.).

DR K. DRAMALIEV, THE THEORY AND P RACTICE OF GREATER-BULGARIA CHAUVINISM A publication of the Bulgarian Workers Party (The Communists) Sofia, 1947

The pamphlet of Dr. K. Dramaliev, then Minister of Education in the Fatherland Front government, is divided under four heads: 1. Chauvinism as a product of historical development, 2. Greater-Bulgaria Chauvinism until the Fascist regime, 3. Greater-Bulgaria Chauvinism under the Fascist regime and 4. the Fatherland Front era.

Starting from the proposition that ,,nationalism and its final form chauvinism as organised mass social moods for the psychological preparation for wars are the inevitable, conscious product of the agressive policies of contemporary states (p. 1-), and having devoted his first heading mainly to German chauvinism and all the consequences which it has brought on humanity, Dr. K. Dram.aliev examines the roots of Greater-

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Bulgaria chauvinism and the fatal results for t he Bulgarian nation itself of that Bulgarian bourgeois ideology in the period from the Liberation of Bulgaria from Turkish Occupation in 1878 to the Balkan and First World War and in particular to the period between the two world wars and to the fascist regime in Bulgaria. A large section of the t hird heading ,,Greater-Bulgaria chauvinism under the Fascist Regime" has already been published in his article ,,Where Chauvinism Grows", ,,Rabotnicesko delo", 1. V. 1946 (vid. p. 52). Here we shall cite the fourth h eading of the pamphlet ,,The Fatherland Front Era" which runs as follows: ,,The Ninth of September brought the end of the era of pro-German orientation, of the agressive policy of GreaterBulgarian chauvinism, and began an era of friendly relations with all the democratic peoples, of sincere friendship with the peoples of brotherly Yugoslavia, of perpetual alliance with the Soviet Union, of an era of true democracy and sane patriotism. On 9th of September the bloody reactionary ideologJ was defeated by the progressive, creative ideology of the Fatherland Front. An end has been put to militaristic theories and practice and a start made with a differ ent, peace-loving, productive theory and practice.

What was the theory behind Bulgarian and every agressive policy? ,, We need living space, someone else's territory, otherwise we shall perish. We must prepare the nation for war, we must convince it that war is inescapable, and just, and that we shall be the unquestioned victors". To this follow the chauvinistic proofs: our nation is the best, the bravest, marked out by destiny for its great historic mission of mastery over other nations. Our cause is the one just one. The ,,Enemy" - that is other nations - is evil, incompetent. uncultured, dishonest and cowardly . Any form of agreement with it is out of the question. We must beat them and even destroy them.

This is how all agressive govern.men ts prepare their people. First they create the mood and the conditions for war.

From this underground diplomacy and psychological preparation follows the brutal practice of war and its consequences: the heedless exploitation of the people for the use of the war and the personal aggrandisment of the upper classes, collosc> l numbers of human victims, unbelievable atrocities, national collapse, reparations, starvation and shortages. Our nation has experienced this sequence three times in thirty years.

A new theory and practice: this is the programmâ&#x201A;Ź of the Fatherland Front, and its usage. Against this programme, against the popular government itself remnants of the reaction

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which remained undestroyed after 9th September have risen in full force. They dare not attack the programme of th~ Fatherland Front quite openly because it is a truly popular programme. They cannot reject the policy which has saved the state directly because the Bulgarian people are united behind it. Yet they still attack, ,,from round the corner" by striking the Greater-Bulgaria note ,in the attempt to make old enmities and conflicts resound t hroughout the Balkans.

In their articles and even in lectures, these incorrigible reactionaries and Greater-Bulgarians take up the old song in a new tone: ,,The Macedonian Question has not been settled.

There is no Macedonian nation. We only want our own. We are not chauvinists, it's t he Serbs who are the chauvinists¡' say the followers of Pastuhov, Cilingirov, S. Stojanov and the black and green flag, the ,,socialist" CBo60AeH HapoA (Free people). And all this at just the time when the Macedonian p eople feel free for the first time and happy in building up their economic and cultural life as an equal national m ember in the framework of Federal Yugoslavia. They have shown their loyalty to Tito's new Yugoslavia by giving the highest number of votes to the People's Front after Montenegro. In vain the Bulgarian and oth er Balkan chauvinists wonder t hat Macedonia has regained consciousness as an independent nation. F or decades, the progressive Macedonian movement has worked in that direction seeing the sole possibility for t he true liberation of Macedonia in its indivisibility.

Our Greater-Bulgarian historians and public figures have studied and announced all possible ,,arguments" and statements by various foreigners which appear as support for t he thesis that Macedonia is Bulgarian in character. Naturally, Serbian and Greek ,,experts" have done the same. All these ,,experts", however, carefully avoid making other facts available to the public although they are well-known to th em because they were of such a nature as to shake t he greater state thesis on which the Balkan government's policies of acquisition were based . Here are some of those facts.

The Macedonian renaissance of 1831 began not as a Bulgarian but as a Macedonian event. The first Macedonian bishop declared openly : ,,I am a Macedonian" . In the first Macedonian schools the children learnt in Macedonian. The Miladinov brothers and R. Zinzifov wrote in Macedonian although they wer e labouring for the creation of a Bulgarian national consciousness.

This last is to be explained by the fact that they were trained in Russia. Czarist Russia rejected the idea of an autono-

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mous Macedonia. For obvious reasons - at least up to the Liberation - all Russian governments were for a powerful San Stefano Bulgaria.

Towards the middle of the 19th century the Macedonian renaissance took on a Bulgarian form. Gradually Bulgarian teachers were introduced into the schools. A great role in the penetration of Bulgarian influence was played by P. Beron's book, the Simple Reader. Until the middle of the nineteenth century the Macedonians were called individually Brsjaci, Mijaci, Strumjani or simply ,,Christians" (hristijani"). But, about 1870 the great teacher Jordan Hadjikonstantinov- Djinot, taking Paisij as his obvious example, cries ,,Why are you ashamed to call yourself a Macedonian?" About 1880 a group of Macedonians was founded, in St. Petersburg separate from the Bulgarians, who held lectures and wrote pamphlets about Macedonia in the Macedonian tongue. One of these pamphlets whose author was a certain Misirkov had to be bought up and destroyed by our War Ministry. It is being printed in Macedonia today. In it the author writes: ,,From henceforth this will be the Macedonian literary language- The Bulgarian schools have saved us from becoming Greekified but they have hindered the development of the Macedonian consciousness. The Greeks and the Serbs have done the same. We are Macedonians. Just as we are not Serbs or Greeks so we are not Bulgarians but Macedonians only" .

In 1891 the magazine ,,Loza" (The Vine) began to appear in Sofia. Under the management of G. D. Balascev and Petar P op Arsov it wrote about the Macedonian language and r aised question of Macedonian culture and about autonomy for Macedonia. After the appearance of three numbers it was banned by the Bulgarian government. Similar attempts were made on it by the Serbian government in Belgrade. The group round ,,Loza" (The Vine) were called the ,,separatists" by our ,,patriots".

In the light of these and many ot her facts from the near and more distant past history of Macedonia and the Macedonians' struggles ,,Bulgarian", ,,Serbian" and ,,Greek" theses about Macedonia appear rather less ,,scientifically argumenta ted". The historical, ethnic and linguistic truths are far from such ,,theses" , suggested by national egoism. Let us not raise the question of Samuil's Macedonia here. Still it is a fact that during the first half of the 19th century the Macedonian Slav population was deprived of any definite national awareness. Yet still, i ts first activists wrote in Macedonian and

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struggled to awake the Macedonian national consciousness. It was during that time that foreign propaganda began, of which the Bulgarian had the greatest success. This propaganda became stronger after the liberation of Bulgaria in special. A rivalry for domination of the Balkans burst out encouraged by the interested imperialist powers. The war of 1885 and the pronouncements of the Serbian king, Milan, cited above (p. 15 of Dr. K. DramaliE:v's pamphlet - ,,It at once became clear to me that if no one stopped Bulgaria she would in a short time pounce upon Old Serbia and Macedonia and that would be the end of Serbia and her national mission") and of Bulgarian statesrmm only a few years after the Liberation (p.

15 ,,The first Bulgarian prince followed an Austrian policy.

Even in his time Macedonia was regarded as a near object oi conquest. Bulgarian statesmen took part in Macedonian committees. Companies of troops were sent in as early as 1883-84Karavelov dreamed of conquering Macedonia") mark out the sanguinary path of the Balkan nations in recent decades. Progressive Macedonian activists soon detected the real, agressive aims of the Balkan dynasties and governments and raised the cry of an independent Macedonian state. Goce Delcev spoke of the ,,autonomy of Macedonia herself for herself'', and not as a stage in the union ¡with Bulgaria. For him ,, the liberation of Macedonia depends upon an armed people's rising". It is true that he was bolstered up by certain illusions about help from the western countries, but after the Ilinden Rising such illusions soon evapourated from the minds of all progressive Macedonian activists. They all re-orientated themselves along the lines of autonomy with Turkey which was democratising itself. Sandanski supported the Young Turk Movement. Greater - Bulgaria court circles forced on the guerilla movement and terrorist methods and so blocked all possibility of a peaceful settlement of the Macedonian Question.

The way was prepared for the ,,solution" so ardently sought by the Balkan dynasties and governments - war and the division of Macedonia. Thus it was that the Balkan governments themselves by their brutal agressive policy which treated Macedonia as their booty and disposed of its people as a foreign enslaved nation, assisted in what they had temporarily hindered with their propaganda and lawlessness - the process of the formation of the Macedonian people as an independent nation.

The Macedonian people have lived through a great deal during the last fifty years in order to secure recognition as an independent nation and at last achieve their true liberty.

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The Turkish Occupation, the Ilinden Rising, the fratricidal wars - inspired by the foreign intervention, the division of Macedonia and the new slavery under their ,,liberators", being an object of conquest during the European and the World Wars, the Bulgarian and German occupation, the fascist violence and robbery, the National Liberation movement, the common struggle with Tito's revolutionary forces, the securing of true political, economic and cultural frepdom within the framework of the new Federal Yugoslavii:c ..L all these have been events which have formed an emotion and consciousness of a unique destiny of national union confirming the ancient oelief that Macedonia could be free only within the frame of a Balkan agreement which is now in the process of creation.

There are still many obstacles in the course of such an agreement. The greatest of these is Greece, ruled as it is by a chauvinistic reactionary clique. There can be no doubt, however, that in the near future the Greek people will be wise enough to throw off the tyranous yoke of the reactionaries and create a truly democratic state such as already exists in the other Balkan countries.

For now the immediate practical task is the settlement of all outstanding questions between Federal Yugoslavia and Fatherland Front Bulgaria. It is a matter of a short time.

The grand decisive fact for the destiny of the Balkan peoples has been the foundation of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and Fatherland Front Bulgaria. These two events have led to a solution of the national questions in the Balkans and primarily of the Macedonian question. All else, including the full union of the Macedonian people inside Yugoslavia is the task of the Macedonians themselves and of a brotherly agreement between two Slav states and, prospectively with the future free democratic Greek r epublic.

In the case of the national problems of the Balkans th..; historical fact is confirmed that national disagreements are insoluble between states with reactionary governm ents. In the case of truly democratic states national questions can be settled and gradually disappear.

The fact is established that national consciousness is determined not only by the ethnic, territorial and linguistic situation, but also by historical and economic development.

Where is the English , German, Dutch or Italian national consciousness among the older inhabitants of America? Do not the Germans, French and Italians feel themselves to be one people in Switzerland? Is the common national consciousness not developing stage by stage among the Czechoslovaks? Do

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not the Greater Russians, the White Russians, the Ukranians and a hundred other nations live in complete accord in the Soviet Union, feeling themselves equal citizens of the mighty socialist republic? What is there to upset the Bulgarians, and Serbs in the Macedonians establishing t hemselves as a separate nation? Absolutely nothing. On the contrary, it is only in this new situation that the two Balkan states have :it last been provided with the opportunity to live in peace and concord.

The emancipation of the Macedonian people only disturbs those who have already passed from the historical arena and who are trying to revive once more Greater-Bulgaria chauvinism, who are intruging to thwart any sincere friendship with brotherly Yugoslavia and force Bulgarian foreign policy once more to follow a reactionary pa th in the hope of recovering their lost power. This, of course, will never be. The Bulgarian people are on the watch. After the experience of the recent world war, all the nations are vigilant knowing only too well what a third world war could mean.

Chauvinism appeared as a product of the socio-political conditions of the beginning of the 19th century. Towards the end of that century it became a powerful means of psychological preparation for the European War. Chauvinism reached its culmination in the fascist states, principally in Germany. Fascism was defeated on the field of battle and at the same time its ideololy including the most important element in it - national-expansionist chauvinims, crashed.

But large scale capitalism, the basis and organisor of international reaction, and its imperialistic policy remains.

This means that the struggle between th e forces of progress and those of reaction has not ended. The greatest vigilance and activity are needed to ensure the final triumph of demdcracy.

The battle with the reactionary ideologies, principally national- expansionist chauvinism, continues. Eeach nation must settle with the remnants of this chauvinism. This is what is happening in all the truly democratic countries today.

The Fatherland Front government is waging an energetic war to extirpate Greater-Bulgarian chauvinism, the cause of so m uch misfortune for our people . .,Without t he merciless destruction of Greater-Bulgarian chauvinism that cancerous growth in the body of our country - the building of a new, reborn Bulgaria is impossible" wrote Georgi Dimitrov, the founder of the Fatherland Front. Our progressive teachers, writers and public workers must inten-

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~

sify their explanatory ideological work to drive out the last traces of the terrible chauvinist poison.

With the common efforts by progressive people in all lands under the pressure of the rapidly maturing, politically conscious, national masses, militaristic imperialism and barbaric chauvinism will soon be thrown into the pool of forgetfulness to make way for true democracy, sound patriotism and creative peaceful co-existence between the nations."

JONO MITEV: THE FORMATION OF THE BULGARIAN NATION ,,Istoriceski pregled" IV, Sofia, 1948, Bk. Ill, pp. 291-316

Jono Mitev, in a very extensive article under the above title reviews the formation of the Bulgarian nation starting from the principles of Marxist-Leninsm and in particular from Stalin's definition of what a nation is, when it comes into existence and what are its distinguishing characteristics.

In doing so Jono Mitev makes a strict differentation, both temporal and territorial, between the formation of the Buigarian and the Macedonian nations in which he gives a critical evaluation of the unscientific approach of some Bulgarian historians. Thus on pages 293-94 he writes: ,,It is impossible to overlook the unscientific approach of some Bulgarian historians and sociologists who emphasise the fact that the emergence of a series of new peoples as nations is the production of ,,bacterial microfauna which results in contempt for their own cultural level and creates political chaos in the world. (X. r~ea, ,,Haizy.coHaJIHaTa J1Ae.R B 6'bJirapcKaTa J-1CTop110rrnc", ,,Powma", III, (1940) Bk. 2, p. 149).

According to bourgeois historians and sociologists small nations such as the Macedonians, Slovenes and Austrians etc. do not exist. They are simply parts of big nations - the Bulgarians ,the Serbs, the Germans and so on. The Bulgarian historian's theories suit expansionist chauvinism and fascism to a tee".

When examining the formation of modern Bulgarian, Jono Mitev says: Modern Bulgarian language began to take shape in the 16th-17th century. This can be seen clearly from the religious anthologists but the Bulgarian writers including Paisij and Sofronij Vracanski did not accept the new Bul-

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garian language in its entirety. Their books are written half in old Bulgarian and half in modern Bulgarian. Therefore their speech is equally compreh ensible to Bulgars, Serbs and Macedonians. Petar Beron was the first Bulgarian author to write in the popular spoken Bulgarian tongue. When we move on to the poetry of Petko Racov Slavejkov and others in the middle of the 19th century we see the now fully formed new Bulgarian language which at the same time defines the boundaries of the Bulgarian nation, that is, between the Danube and the Aegean see and in the west along the line Pirin-Deve Bair-Pirot-Timok. If one goes further one immediately notices Macedonian and Serbian speech forms. Obviously there are some insignificant dialectical differences which do not change this general picture.

Yet the Greater-Bulgaria chauvinists assert that the Macedonian language is only one dialect variation of Bulgarian.

They also say that the boundary of the Bulgarian nation extends as far as Kostur (X. I'a.HAeB : ,,Ha.qHoHaJIHaTa MAeR B 6'bJirapCKaTa HCTOpHOTIMC", p. 153)".

In order to demonstrate the extreme absurdity of the Bulgarian bourgeois historians and sociologists, Jono Mitev states that by a comparison of the old anthologies of folk poetry - Macedonian and Bulgarian it can be affirmed that ,,during the course of many centuries two separate languages have been formed, Bulgarian and Macedonian" (p. 302) h e then gives the example of two folk songs - the one from Macedonia and the other from Bulgaria, which were published in ,,Zbornikot za narodni umotvorenija" (An Anthology of Folklore), Bk IV, 1891. ,,A similar comparison can be made between, for example, the poetry of Petko Slavejkov and Konstantin Miladinov", Jono Mitev writes, in order to see how different the Bulgarian and Macedonian common speech was- Obviously, there was no sharp linguistic boundary between the Bulgars and the Macedonians just as there isn't, really, between the Serbs and the Macedonians". In the Gorna Djurnaja, Bosilegrad and Pirot regions the two dialects merge into ecah other.

So it was towards the middle of the 19th century that the Bulgarian tongue was formed as generally for the Bulgarian nation in the abovementioned territory. Territory is the fundamental element in the formation of the nation.

That is why the Jews, who live in various lands, are not a nation.

But the territory of a nation is circumscribed by its economic and political life. If we trace the economic territor y of the Bulgars and the Macedonians, we shall see that Ma6

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cedonia was to some extent formed as an economic region with centres in Skopje, Bitola and Thessalonica. On the otherhand it is easy to see the difference between the development of capitalism in Bulgaria and in Macedonia. While we have in Bulgaria a powerful growth of manufacturing and trade in the first half of the 19th century, Macedonia was, till then, markedly backward in such matters. There were none of those wealthy merchants from Gabrovo, Svilengrad.

Karlovo and Koprivnica who transported their goods not only throughout the country but to other lands even as far as Alexandria, Moscow and Vienna. Macedonia was a stage behind Bulgaria in economic affairs.

The territory of a nation is also defined by the polilical life of the people who live there. Thus the Bulgaris and the Macedonians fought together for religious liberty, but when it came to a question of political liberty a powerful revolio â&#x20AC;˘ nary movement developed in Bulgaria while in Macedoni,1 the same or a similar revolutionary movement did not grow up. Is it merely chance, for example, that the Internal Revolutionary Organisation of Levski didn't spread to Macedonia? The ultimate limit of Levski's revolutionary organisation in the southwest was Gorna Djurnaja where his assistant Tanju Stojanov worked. The question was r aised as to whether Dimitar Obsti should go over into Macedonia and start a revolutionary organisation ther e similar to the Bulgarian organisation but nothing came of it.

There is no point in denying the common struggle which the Bulgars and the Macedonians waged against the Gree'( Phanariotes and the Turkish conquerors. But despite the many common characteristics there is an evident difference between the Bulgars and the Macedonians. Thus the territory of the Buglarian people during the period in which the Bulgarian nation was formed was still clearly difened by the Internal Revolutionary Organisation. This was the district between the Aegean Sea and the Danube with the whole of Dobrudja, East and West Trace as far as Pirin, Osogovo, Pirot and River Timok. As far as North Dobrudja is concerned, this was inhabited by a compact Bulgarian population which after the liberation and in recent years particularly (1940) was transferred and replaced by the Rumanian inhabitants of South Dobrudja under the Kraj ova Agreement,, {pp. 301303).

After having mentioned the development of the Bulgarian National Revolutionary Movement and the Russo-Turkish War of Liberation as a result of which the Bulgarian people were freed from the Turks, Jono Mitev states that

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,,large areas in Thrace inhabited by Bulgars continued to be under Turkish occupation. Macedonia also was left to groan beneath the Turkish yoke"- He then puts the question When was the Macedonian nation formed and gives the following answer: ,,As is well-known the Greater-Bulgaria chauvinists claim that there is no Macedonian nation and that the Macedonians and the Bulgars make up one and the same nation. It is pointless to argue the matter with them since history has settled the quarrel yet we may still ask the Greater-Bulgaria chauvinists the following question: ,,Is the Macedonian nation an historical fact, today?''

Certainly it is! We know, however, that both before and after the liberation of Bulgaria the Macedonian activists felt and acted like Bulgarians in order to get their freedom.

Goce Delcev, Damjan Gruev, Jane Sandanski and other leaders of the Macedonian National Revolutionary Movement felt themselves to be Bulgarians. They fought for the autonomy of Macedonia and against t he Greater-Bulgaria monarchist clique although they felt themselves Bulgarians. On the other hand, the Macedonians today feel themselves to be Macedonians. This shows clearly enough that the question of the formation of the Macedonian nation is a very complicated one which must first of all be explained by t he sciences of historical materialism and sociology. We shall m erely draw attention to the following circumstances: Macedonia was a stage behind Bulgaria in her economic development in the 19th century. Second, after the Liberation of Bulgaria the frontiers hindered any general economic life between Bulgars and Macedonians. Third, the traitorous activity of the monarchist clique and the Greater-Bulgarian chauvinists as well as peculiar political conditions throughout the Balkans became the cause of the Macedonians gradually developing a feeling for independence. The struggle of the Macedonian national r evolutionaries for autonomy was a spontaneous urge on the part of the Macedonian people to found its own state and lead its own independent national life. Four, the Macedonian nation formed itself extremely slowly because of a series of allied circumstances. The decisive events in this process of formation of the Macedonian nation were the Balkan,Inter-Allied and First World war s when the people of Macedonia were stretched on the cross erected by the expansionist chauvinists and the imperialists.

But, be that as it may, the historical fact is that we have, today, the Macedonian nation which has its own state, its 5â&#x20AC;˘

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own government and lives its own cultural life. The union of the Macedonians outside Macedonia is a question of time.

The formation of the Bulgarian na tion as early as the middle of the 19th century and of the Macedonian nation later is a fact which cannot be overlooked. From this i t appears that not only have we two different nations - Bulgaria and Macedonia - but that their formation occured at different times.

The very thing that the expansionist-chauvinist Bulgarian bourgeoisie was unwilling to recognise for anything in the world is an historical reality: there is a separate Macedonian nation with its own national characteristics and its own future".

In the continuation of his article, Jono Mitev truces a critical look at the views of some Bulgarian historians on the national question and concluding that it is on the basis of their mistaken aprehensions that Bulgarian youth is being educated (in learning from their books) he finishes his article: ,,This goes to show what a serious task lies before Bulgarian historians of the old school - they must themselves review all that they have written and obliterate all their idealistic and reactionary views if they wish to work seriously in the scientific field. This, naturally, cannot arise merely from the supression of what they once wrote in support of the reactionary and unscientific theories used by the uppermiddle class fascist clique here, but they must themselves criticise and deny their own writings. To re-orientate themselves ideologically they must study and acquire historical materialism so that they can adopt a materialist view of history. This is, naturally, not an easy task but they must reform themselves positively or drown in the slime of idealism and subjectivism."

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THE INHABITANTS OF THE PIRIN REGION RECEIVE THE FATHERLAND FRONT PROGRAMME WITH ENTHUSIASM BIG CONFERENCE OF MACEDONIAN DELEGATES IN GORNA DJUMAJA

,,Otece.stven front, 22. I. 1948

On 15th of this month an impressive confer ence of the Macedonian delegates from the Gorna Dju.maja region was held to choose the delegates to the coming second historic congress of the F ath erland Front. In their telegram to Georgi Dimitrov, the president of PR Bulgaria, the participants said:

,,Dear Georgi Dimitrov, The Macedonian population of the Gorna Djumaja region has chosen you as the first delegate to the Second Fatherland Front Congress through its 350 delegates at the Fatherland Front regional conference. We send you ardent greetings and express our recognition of the great care with which you and your government have viewed our economic, cultural and national rise from the backwardness imposed on us by the Greater-Bulgaria reactionary group and the traitorous assassins of the Mihailov band here in the Pirin area of Macedonia. Since we are firmly convinced that this care will continue and grow stronger, we place our conviction before you, Commrade Dimitrov, that, just as till now, so in the future, with even greater efforts, wrestling wit h every difficulty, we shall work for the effective application of the life-giving programme of the Fatherland Front, for the building of Socialism, and we shall be a watchful guard on the southern border of the P eople's Republic of Bulgaria, knowing that the liberty of the Pirin region is involved with the liberty and independence of P. R. Bulgaria, that the freedom and independence of Dimitrov's Bulgaria and of Tito's Yugoslavia are the guarantee for the free development of the Macedonian people.

Long live our beloved leader and guide, Georgi Dimitrov"!

The delegates also sent a telegram to the President of the P. R. Macedonia, Lazar Kolisevski, in which they said, in the name of the Macedonian population of the Pirin, that they would do everything they could towards making the two parts of Macedonia into a firm support of peace,

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freedom and independence for FPR. Yugoslavia and PR. BuLgaria who were supporting and guaranteeing the free de velopment of the Macedonian nation.

Greeting the P resident of the Greek democratic government, General Markos, the participants at the conference expressed their enthusiasm at the unheard of heroism of the Greek and Macedoian patriots in their common strugglt~ against the Anglo-american imperialist and the Greek monarcho-fascists and expressed their unquestioning determination to allow the Anglo-american agents and the Greek reactionaries to get no hold in the Pirin area. They also promised that they would do all in their power to help the refugees - the victims of the monarcho-fascist regime in Greece.

In their telegram. to the National Committee of the Fatherland Front, the conference declared that the inhabitants of the Pirin area had received t he new Fatherland Front programme and the constitution for its formation into one national socio-political organisation with enthusiasm.

CIRCULAR ON THE TEACHING OF MACEDONIAN IN PIRIN MACEDONIA Regional School Inspection M 365 7. II. 1948

Gorna Djumaja To all regional school inspectors, secondary school headmasters, headmasters and administrators in the Gorna Djumaja region.

To make it easier for the pupils to learn the Macedonian literary language and to create the closest possible links with the P. R. Macedonia so that they can get to know about life there, it will be necessary to take the following measures through the teachers under to your charge. l. To develop a wide net of pen-friends in P. R. Macedonia in the following way: primary, class by class; the ,,Septemvrijce" organisation with the ,,Pioneers" organisation; individual exchanges of letters between pupils.

The content of the letters is to be controlled by the teachers themselves and the letters are to be sent through the post. Among other things the pupils in P. R. Macedonia may

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be asked for in letters are: pictures of national heroes, views of towns and villages, pictures of re-construction in P. R. Macedonia, photographs of the l eaders etc. These pictures can be made up into a school album. The letters may also contain requests for various plants to be sent and these could be given their appropriate place in the school herbarium. Plants can be sent from here, too.

2. ,,Pionerski vesnik" (Pioner's News) and ,,Mlad Borec" (Young Warrior) should be popularised among the pupils through various campaigns among the pupils to subscribe to the above-mentioned papers (this carrwaign must be got under way before 25th of February this year. Inform us how many in each school receive ,,Pioner" and ,,Mlad Borec" separately and how many more we need to send you. The subscriptions are to be taken up in the form of a competition between the classes). The price of these papers is 5 levs a copy. In your answer give information about w hat you have done with regard to taking more copies of these papers.

3. Pictures of Tito and Lazar Kolisevski must be hung up beside those of Stalin and Georgi Dimitrov in the clas:;rooms with the Yugoslav and Macedonian crests, pictures of national heroes and slogans which will arouse the creative and national spirit and which will give the children the urge to learn.

4. To make wall news-sheets ever y fifteen days in each class. The publishing of wall news-sheets will be a practical way to make use of the children's activity in learning the Macedonian literary language so all the wall sheets mu~t necessarily be put out in Macedonian. Wall news-sheets can also be published on the occasion of special holidays (11 October - The Day of the Macedonian National Rising, 9 September -The day of the Bulgarian National Rising, 29 November - The Day of the Declaration of the FPR Yugoslavia), about national heroes etc. The wall news-sheets may also write about schools and the life of the school child in PR Macedonia and certain questions can be answered as, for example, who was the national hero K arpos etc. You can also organise an exhibition of wall news-sheets between the classes (for conten t and technical arrangement) with the best ones placed in an obvious position in the town or village. The wall sheets should be placed in a prominent place in the school where they can be read b y all the pupils.

5. Drama groups should be got up with the help of Macedonian teachers to give shows in Macedonian. For this purpose the school library should be provided with dramatic pie-

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ces from, the nearest readingroom. Where there is no drama group one should be formed as far as local conditions allow.

6. Choirs should learn songs in Macedonian. If the school has not got such songs then the music teacher must learn them from the Macedonian teachers. They should ask them to sing them some song and tunes and they can then prepare them with the choir. When the choir is to sing in public the best child should be chosen to conduct.

7. Within the choral groups folk dance groups should be formed where they don't already exist. These will do Macedonian dances. The physical training teachers must deal with this. They must contact teachers from the PR Macedonia who will show them these dances.

8. The folk-lore groups, the choirs and the drama groups must go together and organise joint displays and also go round the villages together.

9. Where there is .a microphone in the school, the teachers from PR Macedonia should be made use of to give obligatory lectures in Macedonian.

10. In the programmes of literary and musical group shows which are given in public the pupils should include Macedonian and Yugoslav items together with Bulgarian ones.

11. In every school where there is a radio, r egular listening to radio Skopje (Medium Wave 241.9) must be organised especially for the pioneer hours.

12. To organise literary circles for the study of Macedonian history and language.

13. School libraries will provide themselves with books in Macedonian.

14. In every class where there is a library, there must be a supply of books in Macedonian (where they have not been formed they must be established, using money - supplements from school-parties.

15. Courses to learn Macedonian to be formed for the teachers.

For the fulfilling of the above mentioned, the local directors should submit a report through the district to the region school inspection every 5th of the month.

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1948-1953

THE RESOLUTION OF THE XVI PLENARY SESSION OF THE CENTRAL COMMITTEE OF THE BULGARIAN WORKERS PARTY (THE COMMUNISTS) ,,Rabotnicesko delo", 15. VII. 1948

On the 12th and 13th July inst. the sixteenth plenary session of the Central Committee of the Bulgarian Workers Party (The Communists) was held under the presidency of Georgi Dimitrov. All the member s and candidates for membership of the Central Committee of the Bulgarian Workers P arty (The Communists) and the members of the Central Control Commission were present at the Plenum.

The Plenum of the Central Committee heard a report by Georgi Dimitrov on the conclusions to be reached by the Bulgarian Workers Party (The Communists) in connection with the criticism on the part of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and the Cominform of the nationalistic, anti-Marxist and anti-Soviet position taken up by the present Yugoslav leadership.

In the report which Georgi Dimitrov made and in the discussion which followed it the work of the party and of its leaders was laid open to serious reconsideration and outspoken bolshevik criticism and self-criticism in the light of the lessons of the crisis in the Yugoslav Communis t Party and the Cominform's resolutionThe Plenum unanimously passed a r esolution in connection with Dr. Georgi Dimitrov's report which is published separately.

The Plenum h eard a r eport on current problems in connection with which it unanimously passed the accompanying r esolution.

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RESOLUTION OF THE XVI PLENARY SESSION OF THE CENTRAL COMMITTEE OF THE BULGARIAN WO RKERS PARTY (THE COMMUNISTS) CONCERNING THE SITUATION IN THE PIRIN REGION

In view of the fact :

â&#x20AC;˘

that, at the Bled Conference an agreement was r eached between Commrade Georgi Dimitrov and Tito on the understanding that the integration of the Pirin Region with The P eople's Republic of Macedonia and the return of the Western regions to the P eople's Republic of Bulgaria would take place only within the framework of a general federation of the Southern Slavs and that up to then the Pirin Region (and the Western Region respectively) should remain in their entirety under the control of the r espective states, giving the populations cultural autonomy; and that this agreement has been systematically undermined by the Yugoslav leaders and by the leaders of the P eople's Republic of Macedonia in particular; t hat, the Yugoslav leaders, adopting a narrow, nationalistic position, have actually aimed only at the integration of th e Pirin Region a nd, by putting off the foundation of a F eder ation of the Southern Slavs under various excuses, have thus shown their insincere position with regard to the federation; that, owing to this policy adopted by the Yugoslav leader s and the leaders of the Macedonian Communist P arty, a practically insupportable position of a state within a state has been created while various unofficial emissaries of the P eople's Republic of Macedonia are allowed to behave without control throughout the Pirin Region and to whip up hostility to t he Bulgarian people, the Bulgarian state and the Bulgarian Workers Party (The Communists) and our uncritical attitude towards that policy has prevented us from stopping this agitation in time; that, this hostility and the narrow nationalism of the Macedonians has found powerful expression in the entirel.,¡ unjustified banning of our newspapers and publications in the P eople's Republic of Macedonia despite the m any and varied protests on our part, as well as in hostile and slanderous propaganda against our party and the Bulgarian people. This has been done by Kolisevski and t he other leaders of the Macedonian Communist Party with the open or tacit approval of the Central Committee of the Yugoslav Communist Party;

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that, the implementing by Kolisevski and the other Skopje leaders of a policy of supression of any expression whatsoever of Bulgarian national consciousness among the population of the People's Republic of Macedonia and the denial of the rights of a national minority to the Bulgarian element in the People's Republic of Macedonia is a criminal rejection of the Leninist-Stalinist position with regard to national questions and the right of the population to chose their national allegiance without interference; that, this unjust policy on the part of the leade rs of the People's Republic of Macedonia only supplies grist to the mill of imperialists and their agents, the supporters of Ivan Mihailov, who aim at the foundation of an 'autonomous' Macedonia under the control of the American mperialists.

THE PLENUM RESOLVES THAT:

1. H will resolutely condemn the anti-Marxist and shortsighted nationalist policies of the Yugoslav leadership and of the Macedonian Communist Party which enflame hatred for the Bulgarian people and supply grist to the mill of the imperialists.

2. It is necessary in view of the newly created position in the Federal People's Republic of Yugoslavia to underline t hat the federation of the Southern Slavs and the eventual integration of the Pirin Region in the People's Republic of Macedonia are only possible for a Yugoslavia which remains faithul to the united socialist democratic international front.

3. For the future it will permit no undermining of the sovreignty of the Bulgarian government in the Pirin Region : and it will stop all kinds of uncontrolled crossings of th~ frontier from the People's Republic of Macedonia into the Pirin Region and vice-versa; it will put an end to hostile agitation by various emissaries (teachers, book sellers etc.) anci do away with the practice of compulsory learning of the official Macedonian language on the part of government officers and the compulsory purchase of Macedonian papers by the population throughout the Pirin R egion.

4. It will continue with undiminished energy its policy of cultural autonomy for the Macedonian population of the Pirin Region by the teaching in schools of the history of the Macedonian Liberation Movement, and the popularisation of its activists; it will see to the formation of Macedonian amateur artists' collectives and so on, it will introduce the voluntary study of the Macedonian literary language by local Macedonian teachers and call schools and other social and cultu-

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ral institutions, organisations and societies by the names of well-known progressive Macedonian revolutionaries and so on.

5. It will continue to take systematic care for the improvement of the material and medical condition of the population of the Pirin Region, 6. It will leave the population of the Pirin Region to choose its nationality freely.

7. It will intensify its struggle against the Mihailov gang and the greater Bulgaria chauvinists and against the agents of Anglo-American imperialism who would attempt to exploit the present situation for the resuscitation of their arch-reactionary, proimperialist plans concerning the Macedonian question . ..

A DISSERTATION ON THE MACEDONIAN !LINDEN RISING FROM THE NATIONAL COUNC1L OF THE ONLY SOCIOPOLITICAL ORGANISATION THE FATHERLAND FRONT .,Ra.botnitesko delo", 31. VII. 1948

1. On 2nd August (20th July 0. S.) forty-five years ago the great Macedonian rising flamed up. Known as the Ilinden Rising, the rising was a renowned incident in the revolutionary struggles of the Macedonian people arising from their irresistible instinct for freedom and independence.

The llinden Rising was the culmination of the r evolutionary efforts of the Macedonian nation who, in a massive armed campaign, tried to throw off the hated yoke of the Turkish sultans and pashas and to gain freedom and autonomy.

2. The Macedonian nation groaned under a double oppression : the denial of all political rights accompanied by the consequences of the rotten Turkish administration, the plundering and atrocities of the Turkish irregulars and bandits while at the same time they dragged on under the heavy yoke of the feudal rule of the Turkish pashas and beys who ruled over the largest and best part of Macedonia.

This double slavery created just that national and sociopolitical basis from which sprang mass dissatisfaction and discomfort among the Macedonian population and which in turn led to the creation of the heroic revolutionary Macedonian national liberation movement.

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3. Ten years before the !linden Rising, in 1893, the organisational basis of the revolutionary Macedonian liberation movement had been laid in Thessalonika. It was then that the illegal Internal Macedonian-Edirne Revolutionary Organisation and its central committee were formed. In the consttitution of the revolutionary organisation was written the aim for which the organisation and the Macedonian nation would fight with gun in hand - the autonomy of Macedonia.

The great Macedonian revolutionary democrats were the heads of the revolutionary organisation: Goce Delcev, Dame Gruev, Pere Tosev, Gjorce Petrov, and a little later th e great leader of the Macedonian villagers - Jane SandanskiOver a period of ten years, the Macedonian revolutionary organisation succeeded in establishing a close net of illegal organisations in the villages and towns and in forming ten guerrila companies which came into constant armed conflict with the Sultan's troops.

The Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organisation thanks to its organisational campactness and iron discipline, to its great activity and daring in fighting the tyrranical Sultan's government and protecting the interests of the people, secured an outstanding degree of authority among the Macedonian inhabitants making itself a real state within a state.

Goce Delcev and Jane Sandanski's organisation was called the ,,Internal" organisation to distinguish it from the ,,Vrhovists Organisation" organised from Sofia and not inside Macedonia. The difference of principle between these two organisations lay in this: while the internal organisation conducted a revolutionary struggle for liberation which arose from the interests of the enslaved Macedonian population and set itself the political task of securing autonomy i. e. independence for Macedonia, the then Vrhovists organisation had as its object the sending of companies into Macedonia in order to hinder and destroy the revolutionary activities of the Internal Organisation and to extend the agressive policy of the Greater-Bulgaria bourgeoisie and the monarchy which was in favour of the union of Macedonia with Bulgaria.

Thus the Macedonian Internal Revolutionary Organisation was compelled to waste a lot of its energy and forces in waging war on two fronts: against Turkish tyranny and against the agents of the agressive policy of the dynasts and the bourgeois cliques in Sofia, Belgrade and Athens.

4. While the Bulgarian bourgeoisie and the monarchists looked on Macedonia as an object of conquest and regarded the Macedonian revolutionary movement as undermining their 93

imperialist interests the pupular masses of the time and the progressive m ovement in Bulgaria viewed the Macedonian liberation movement with the greatest sympathy and oUered it much and varied assistance. The Bulgarian people gave a brotherly welcome to all Macedonians driven out by the tyrannous regime at home. There is no body of emigrants as big as the Macedonian in our country anywhere in the world.

All the great Macedonian leaders, starting from Goce Delcev and Dame Gruev and finishing with Jane Sandanski and dozens and dozens of others formed their progressive revolutionary views by growing up and being trained in the traditions of the Bulgarian revolutionary liberation movement and were the inseparable associates of progressive socialist circles in Bulgaria. The Macedonian revolutionary learders and activists were in the political and moral sense the products of the progress ive socialist tendencies in Bulgaria .The Bulgarian people and the progressive forces uselessly sacrificed their material means in order to give all the moral support to the Macedonian revolutionary movement that they could.

It would be difficult for anyone to imagine the epic stru ggle of the Macedonian people without the moral and m aterial support of the working classes in Bulgaria where the Macedonian revolutionaries had made their second base and from which they drew moral and physical arms and means for th eir revolutionary struggle in Macedonia.

We may declare boldly that the Macedonian liberation movement from the autonomist Goce Delcev to the federalist Jane Sandanski was, historically, inseparably connected with the progressive socialist movement in Bulgaria.

5. The Ilinden Rising burst out without much pre-organisation. The important Macedonian Internal Organisation leaders considered that it was premature because it had not been prepared for organisationally, technically or politically. When once the rising was inevitable all the Macedonian activists, great and small, were in the front ranks with the people. In various degrees the rising spread throughout Macedonia and later in the Odrin region (18-19th August) in the so-called Preobrazenie (The Transfiguration) Rising.

The rising reached especially wide in the Bitola vilayet where the Republic of Krusevo was formed in the town of that name under the leadership of the magnificent revolutionary and strict socialist Nikola Karev. In these regions the rising included whole towns and villages. The whole people rose, men, women and children regardless of nationality. There were cases where certain sectors of the Turkish population

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joined in the rising. The Macedonian r evolutionaries remained faithful to the legacy of Goce Delcev which declared: ,.I do not hate the Osmanli as a nation, I fight against Osmanli tyranny as a system of government" - and so they called upon the Turkish population to help in the rebels' just war as they were fighting for the commonwealth of all the people of Macedonia regardless of religion or nationality.

The great days of heroic action in the Ilinden Rising will remain there inscribed in the history of the Macedonian people.

The rebels fought 239 battles and inflicted heavy casualties on the Sultan's units. The corrupt empire of the sultans and the pashas was shaken to its foundations. Hundreds and thousands of Macedonian men gave their heroic lives in that epic struggle against tyranny and for the freedom of their homeland.

Yet still the forces of the rebels were small. The enemy crushed the rising with great force and unaccustomed fierceness. 4,694 m en, women and children were killed, brutally slaughtered or burnt alive. Over 200 villages were burnt, more than 70,000 people left homeless and about 30,000 refugees sough t shelter in Bulgaria.

6. After 1913 when Macedonia was divided into three parts, the Macedonian people's struggle had to take on a new form.

Its task was to co-ordinate the efforts of the Macedonians in the three parts of the Macedonian territory with those of the peoples of the various countries to secure the victory of democracy because it was only with the victory of true popular democracy that Macedonia's free development could be ensured. In Vardar Macedonia the Maccjonian people fought an heroic war together with the Yugoslav peoples and defeated fascism and so secured their free state - PR Macedonia within the framework of FPR Yugoslavia.

In Pirin Macedonia, the Macedonian people fought a hard war together with the Bulgarian people against the Bulgarian and Macedonian fascists, against the followers of Cankov, Boris, Filov and against their Macedonian tools the new vrhovist under Ivan Mihailov who killed Macedonians and Bulgars indifferently. At the cost of many victims the people of Pirin Macedonia and the Bulgarian people under t he leadership of the Bulgarian Workers Party (The Communists) and the Fatherland F ront gained their liberty on the 9th of September.

Today, the Macedonian population of Aegean Macedonia is fighting with the Greek people for a free and democratic Greece.

7. The revolutionary democratic legacy left to us by the Ilinden rising and the first apostles of Macedonian liberty -

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Goce Delcev and Jane Sandanski, is when translated into the realm of contemporary politics this: collaboration between the Bulgarian and Yugoslav peoples for the creating of a South Slav community, the strengthening of the front of democracy and Socialism headed by the Soviet Union.

Regrettably, the Skopje leadership and that in Belgrade is unfaithful to these revolutionary proposals. They have broken with the revolutionary and democratic traditions of the Ilinden Rising and the great Macedonian leaders, Goce Delcev and Jane Sandanski.

Finding themselves under the influence of the leadership of the Yugoslav Communist Party which has betrayed democracy and socialism and which remains in a hostile anti- Soviet position, the Macedonian leaders in Skopje have taken their a narrowly nationalistic policy and begun a dishonest anti-Bulgarian campaign with which they wish to dig a ravine between the Macedonian and Bulgarian people and so prevent the realisation of the brotherhood and unity of the South Slavs.

Sabotaging by all possible means the realisation of a South Slav federation they are directing all their efforts to getting their hands on the Pirin region without paying a though to the wishes and interests of the inhabitants of the region.

Having started along the path of betraying South Slav brotherhood and being unfaithful to the democratic socialist front, the Yugoslav and the Skopje leaders wish to isolate the Macedonian people from the great Slav family, from the other democratic nations and from our great liberator and protector - the Soviet Union and so make it easy for the Anglo-american imperialists to plunder.

8. The Macedonian nation, having thrown off with determination the narrow nationalism of the present Belgrade and Skopje leadership and judging sternly their betrayal of the work of democracy and socialism, will follow the revolutionary vow of the great !linden Rising firmly and worthily, the call of the great apostles of the Macedonian revolution Goce Delcev and Jane Sandanski and a whole pleiad of other Macedonian activists in the mutual struggle of the Macedonian, Bulgarian and other South Slav peoples and indeed of all the democratic nations for the final victory of the anti-imperialist front, the front for democracy and socialism. The Macedonian people will stand firm and decided in the ranks of the democratic socialist front headed by the Soviet Union and that great leader of the Soviet peoples and all progressive humanity - Stalin.

Long live the glorious !linden Rising!

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Long live brotherhood and unity between the South Slav peoples!

Long live the People's Republic of Bulgaria and their popular leader and guide Georgi Dimitrov! Long live the victorious front for democracy and socialism headed by the mighty Soviet Union.

THE LEGACY OF THE GREAT MACEDONIAN ILINDEN RISING ,.Rabotnicesko deto", 1. VIII. 1948

Today, the Macedonian nation celebrates the forty-fifth anniversary of the greatest epic in all the Macedonian national liberation movement - the Ilinden Rising of 1903 which, even today after the experiences of several sanguinary wars, remains as the brightest and strongest manifestation of the irresistible impetus of the Macedonian's heroic struggle for freedom and independence. The Macedonian nation's h eroism and self-sacrifice in revolt is perfectly evidenced by the fact that during the course of the rising there were 240 encounters in which 26,500 rebels, armed with a variety of semi-effective weapons including ancient muzzle-loaders and flintlocks fought for several weeks against the 350 thousand men of the Turkish army who were supplied with the most modern arms of that time.

The unequal struggle of the Macedonians in revolt is made strikingly more rn,agnificent as an historical fact for the Balkan states and the great powers had come out against the r evolt in Macedonia since they could not come to an agreement about the division of the Ottoman empire and were jealously guarding it from every shock. King F erdinand's government and the Greater-Bulgaria bourgeois clique which had inspired ,,risings" and disorder in Macedonia in the past in order to achieve their agressive ends, shut the southern borders of Bulgaria and declared themselves against giving aid to the struggling rebels. Not only before and during the Ilinden Rising but after as well right up until the historic day of September 9th 1944 the Greater-Bulgaria royalist governments adopted in Macedonia a policy of supression of the people's aim for freedom and self-government and combined with it openly expressed intentions to incorporate Macedonia into Bulgaria.

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The same, if not more, could be said about the negative and hostile attitudes of the bourgeois monarchist governments in Belgrade and Athens towards the Ilinden Rising.

Truth requires, however, that we underline the fact that the working people of Bulgaria in towns and villages were never solidly behind the agressive policy of their rulers. On the contrary, the brotherly Bulgarian people, in the form of its most progressive and conscious layers, in the persons of the working class and its forceful avantgard - the Socialist Democratic Workers Party and later the party of the Bulgarian communists - always fought honourably and forcefully against the agressive policy of Macedonian ,,adventures" by the Greater Bulgarian nationalists. Everyone knows of the many great sacrifices which the Bulgarian people made in their long struggle against the bloody agents of Greater-Bulgarian policies of conquest people like Todor Aleksandrov and Ivan Mihailov.

Hundreds of thousands of communists, land-workers and nonparty men became victims of the ,,Macedonian" vandalism of the Greater-Bulgaria clique round Ferdinand and Boris.

Fighting against the Greater-Bulgaria policy of the royalist governments, the Bulgarian people, represented by their progressive elements, also actively aided the just war of the Macedonian people for its liberation from the Turkish Joke. The aid given by the brotherly Bulgarian nation was varied and extensive.

Back in the time of the struggle against the Greek phanariotes the Bulgarian and Macedonian peoples went hand in hand and in the days of Botev and Levski the fire words and deeds of daring of the Bulgarian revolutionaries like apostles crossed Rila and kindled the fire of battle deep among the Macedonian people. Later, with the foudation of the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organisation in 1893, Bulgaria became a primary source of assistance to the revolutionary struggle in Macedonia.

The Bulgarian people gave from their midst a whole range of r evolutionaries who devoted their lives to the struggle for the freedom of the Macedonian people. The most widely known names are those of Krstju Asenov, Todor Panica, A. Bujnov, Cernopeev, Kantardjiev, Javorov and many others, who, from their you th, took part in the revolutionary outbursts in Macedonia and with few exceptions died from the bullets of the conquerors of Macedonia or their agents.

The Bulgarian working class and the especially the Communist Party sen t some of its best fighters into the ranks of the Macedonian revoluhonary struggle - Nikola Ka;:ev, Dimo 98

Hadji Dimov, Simeon Kavrakirov, H. Trajkov and many others and these, too, gave their lives for the freedom of Macedonia.

It was of the greatest significance for the Macedonian revolutionary movement, no doubt, that its most famous leaders Goce Delcev, Dame Gruev, Jane Sandanski and many others, both known and unknown, got and formed the progressive ideas which they later preached throughout Macedonia in just t hat same milieu of progressive Bulgarian society, in the socialist circles in S'ofia.

It is a widely-known fact that the Bulgarian Workers Party (The Communists) as the most forward r evolutionar y brigade of Bulgarian working people has protected and is protecting the right of the Macedonian people to freedom and self-government worthily and wit hout hesitation. It is not once only since 9th September 1944 that the Party has expressed its readiness in accordance with the wish of the Macedonian population for the Pirin r egion to be united with the People's Republic of Macedonia in a South-Slav federation which would also include the People's Republic of Bulgaria. The Pa rty's position is the position of the inhabitants of the Pirin region themselves and of the entire Bulgarian people who, in this, once more demonstrate their brotherly feelings for the Macedonian nation.

Unfortunately, the categorical position of the leadership of the Communist Party of Yugoslavia is not so clear. It is known, for example, that after the first imperialist war, for years together the leadership of the Yugoslav Communist Party accepted the view of Sima Markovic that there neither was nor could be any Macedonian national question, but that there was an internal administrative problem over South Serbia which would have to be settled constitutionally. Even after Sima Markovic, the leaders of the Yugoslav Communist P arty, eaten away by p erpetual factional warfare took no one definite view of the Macedonian people's struggle for freedom and self-determination. It was only just during the last war that the Yugoslav party leaders took up a clearer position and with the creation of the People's Republic of Macedonia within the People's Republic of Yugoslavia it received the recognition of the entire Macedonian p eople.

All the Macedonians believe that the day has come for the r ealisation of the ideals inherited from Goce Delcev, Jane Sandanski, Dimo H. Dimov and the thousands of heroes of the Ilinden epic; for the achievem ent of Macedonia's freedom and South Slav brotherhood and unity.

7â&#x20AC;˘

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In these last few months, however, it has become clear that the Yugoslav leaders have transformed the P eople's Republic of Macedonia into a fine screen behind which to introduce their anti-Marxist nationalist plans. In the past, neither old Pasic, nor P era Zivkovic nor any of those who came after them dared to reach out openly after the Pirin and Aegean portions of Macedonia. Now the Yugoslav leaders placing all the emphasis on the People's Republic of Macedonia have suddenly and without any formalities tried to swallow these two parts of Macedonia without paying any attention to the will of the people or to the general interests of Yugoslav and Balkan democracy and the war it is waging for the victory of socialism over imperialism.

This anti-Leninist, bourgeois-nationalist policy of the Yugoslav leaders and their Skopje agents is a blow to the aims of the Bulgarian, Macedonian, Serbian and other south Slav peoples at establishing an historical fully mature greater South Slav community.

In paying our respects to the famous heroes of the Magnificent !linden epic, we at the same time pay our respects to the thousands of Bulgaria's sons who fell in the fight against Greater-Bulgaria nationalism and its policy of annexation, for the freedom of the Macedonian people. Together with all the survivors of Ilinden, the entire Macedonian people expresses its recognition of and thanks to the brotherly Bulgarian people for its selfless help to the Macedonian liberation movement.

In recent days various falsifiers of history have appeared who, have been entranced by the dark reputation of Zika Lazic and have begun with great enthusiasm to dig a pit between the Bulgarian and Macedonian peoples. Kolisevski and company, pulled along by the Belgrade leadership are trying to cut the Macedonian people off at any price from the great S'lav family and from the other democratic nations headed by our great liberator and protector the Soviet Union and present them as a sacrifice to the Anglo-american imperialists.

Vain effort! The Macedonian people will not allow itselff to be drawn away from and set up against the forces oi democracy, against the democratic Bulgarian people and the brotherly peoples of the great Soviet Union. No! The friendship of the two brother nations - Bulgarian and Macedonian is cemented by the streams of blood which both have shed in the fight against the Greater-Bulgaria reactionaries to secure the freedom of Macedonia. The Macedonian and the Bulgarian peoples together with the other democratic south Slav nations

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are bound by an unbreakable bond in the fight for socialism following the example given us by the mighty Russian people and the other nations of the Soviet Union.

Let us fulfill the great vow of Ilinden: through South Slav Unity to the victory of Democracy and Socialism in the Balkans!

Dino G. Kosev

FORTY-FIVE YEARS SINCE THE !LINDEN RISING THE MACEDONIAN PEOPLE WILL GUARD THEIR REVOLUTIONARY HERITAGE AND NEVER BECOME FOLLOWERS OF NARROW NATIONALISM. THE BULGARIAN WORKERS PARTY ON THE MACEDONIAN QUESTION Extracts from the report of Commrade Vladimir Poptomov delivered at the Republika Theatre, Sofia .,Rabotnicesko delo", 3. VIII. 1948

The Macedonian people was subject to insupportable political persecution conducted by a Turkish administration which was rotten and corrupt to the very core and which was governed by neither laws, rights or morals. This terrible persecution was made even worse by the unequalled slaughters and robberies of the all-powerful irregulars and other outlaw bands who were often set on and protected by the government itself.

The medieval feudal land system of the Ottoman empire weighed upon the Macedonian population like an insupportable burden. The major portion of the land was in the hands of the big landowners - the ciflikcii (estate owners) - the pashas and the beys on whose lands the Macedonian peasants laboured.

In addition to all this, Turkey had, in fact, been transformed into a semi-colonial area by the great European capitalist states. Through the so-called ,.capitulations" the great powers enjoyed special privileges to import goods and capital into Turkey and this not only hindered the development of the local economy but sucked it dry. The construction of railways and harbours made it easier for European goods to enter and be distributed on the Turkish market which was the death blow to the Macedonian craftsman and guild production in Macedonian towns.

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In 1893 the organisational and political foundations of the Internal Macedonian - Edirne Revolutionary Organisation were laid in Thessalonika. This was an event of the greatest importance for the Macedonian people's war of liberation. In place of regular risings, and the revolutionary acts of individual men of courage, the dissatisfaction of the Macedonians was now canalised and directed according to a plan provided by one organisation with one central leadership. Besides this, the Macedonian war of liberation was given a clear political objective - this was autonomy for Macedonia or as Goce Delcev was to put it even more clearly later: ,.Political autonomy for Macedonia with extensive rights for all poor men of all nations, religions and tongues".

The ¡ great r evolutionary Goce Delcev imported a r adically socialist element into the concept of autonomy.

The Internal Organisation was headed by the most progressive and talented of Macedonia's sons. Men who form ed themselves into revolutionaries and leaders of great merit. There was Goce Delcev a mighty son of the Macedonian people, the heart and soul of the Internal Organisation.

There were the talented organisers Dame Gruev, Pere Tosev, Jane S'andanski and others. There was that ever active opponent of all foreign agents and influences, the theoretician of the Macedonian movement, Gjorce Petrov . And there were many more. All of them were activists with definite progressive views. The majority of them considered themselves socialists .They were all nurtured and brought up in Bulgarian democratic and socialist circles.

Within a period of ten years till the Ilinden Rising, the Internal Organisation managed to build up in the towns and almost all of the villages in Macedonia a close network of revolutionary groups with their own local, divisional and regional leaders. The entire male population capable of bearing arms was to belong to revolutionary groups and organisations in one form or other. Dozens of companies were formed which went from village to village and from town to town and acted as propagandists for and organisers of the revolution.

The Internal Organisation had full authority over the people. It examined every kind of disagreement and passed judgement. It took care for living conditions. It undertook education. It became a state within the state in the true meaning of the phrase. It was the greatest support and true protector of the legally deprived Macedonian masses.

The policy of the ruling bourgeois-monarchist cliques in the Balkans with regard to Macedonia was one of conquest.

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It was to help their policy of annexation that they tried to set up their own Macedonian agents and through them damage and divide the Macedonian liberation movement.

In this way the Vrhovists Organisation was created, led by various generals personally appointed by King Ferdinand, it had the function of serving Ferdinand's policy of counquest and later that of Boris and the Greater-Bulgaria bourgeois circles round them. The Vrhovists committees in Sofia sent companies into Macedonia to hinder the revolutionary activities of the Internal Organisation, causing, death, doubt and destruction and inciting burnings, assassinations and ,,risings" always accompanied, needless to say, by the slaughter of the peaceful population by the Turkish government authorities. The Internal Organisation was forced to wage a sanguinary struggle with these foreign agents.

The Internal Organisation had also to fight a determined war against the agents and companies sent into Macedonia

by Belgrade and Athens whose dynasties and ruling groups also aimed at securing a certain sphere of influence to justify their pretensions to rob Macedonia, As far as the great imperialist powers were concerned, they regarded the Macedonian Question as the great diplomatic trump-card with which they could at any time bring pressure to bear on the Sublime Porte and so obtain concessions and privileges for their capital investments in Turkey. They also used as a lure for the Balkan dynasties and governments, promising Macedonia first to one and then to another of the Balkan powers and by keeping this devilish game going they incited and spread discord, kept the Balkans disunited and, so, under their own iifluence and subjection.

These were the circumstances, international and Balkan, in which the Ilinden Rising broke out. Some of the great Macedonian leaders such as Goce Delcev, Gjorce Petrov, J ane Sandanski and others considered that the external and internal conditions were not suitable and therefore made great efforts to put off the rising. What is more, the rising was not sufficiently prepared from the aspects of arms, organisation and technology. However, the rising went forward and then all the leaders, great and small stuck to their posts.

The rising covered all six district of the Vilayet of Bitola. The longest and strongest resistance was made by the the rebels in Kostur area. However, revolutionary activity grew throughout Macedonia. Assassinations and encounters bPtween the companies and the Turkish armed forces occurrPd with greater frequency. The biggest most massive force for rebellion was found in West and South-West Macedonia. The 103

Macedonian Rising was followed shortly afterwards (18-19to August) by an armed rising in Edirne, which is known as the Preobrazenie (Transfiguration) Rising.

The unique revolutionary enthusiasm which took hold of towns and willages, young and old, once the rebellion broke out was nowhere nearly matched by the rebels material, military or technical strength. There were not enough arms and the armed fighters who took part in the rising were never more than between 20 and 30 thousand. As far as bullets and other munitions were concerned matters were even worse.

THE WHOLE OF WEST AND SOUTH-WEST MACEDONIA FLA.MED UP IN THE ILINDEN RISING

The Macedonian people rose at the call of the High Command and threw intself as one man into the struggle for liberty with unheard of patriotic enthusiasm. The enemy did not expect the blow and was taken by suprise.

Here is one episode from the war in historic Krusevo. ,,Already on the 22nd the forest command under Nikola Karev the teacher - a strict socialist and one of the brightest lights of the Krusevo rising, a truly noble man - had descended into the town. Sixty of the most prominent citizens, representing the three elements, the Bulgars, the Vlachs and the Greekomans when called to a meeting, chose a six man commission with two of each nationality. To it was entrusted the control of the comandeered town. ,,The Temporary Government" led by Vangel Dinu divided the administration into six sectors ... The governors met regularly in the big Greek school. In the Bulgarian primary school a hospital was opened under the directorship of a Vlach, Dr. Batal. The saddle and shoe makers worked at speed to manufacture shoes, bandoliers and belts. In the forge various leaden and tin goods given by the inhabitants were melted down while in the arsenal which was in a private house the newlymoulded bullets were finished off, guns repaired etc. The two steam mills worked day and night grinding the corn which had been brought in by mountain tracks for the essential task of feeding the inhabitants and the rebels; poor families were supplied with flour, free ...

Yet, despite unquestioned heroism and courage, selfsacrifice and effort the renowned struggle of the !linden rebels ended in defeat. Their slight forces, despite superhuman effort, were spent in the unequal struggle. Essentially 104

they were merely a fistful of brave men against hundreds of thousands of well-armed units of the sultan's army.

The following figures speak of the extent of the revolutionary struggle and the military engagements during the rising: Throughout the Bitola vilayet there were 150 encounters in which 746 rebels were killed. The largest number of incidents occurred in July (20th-31st) 72, in August there were 56, in September 18 and in October, 4.

In the Edirne vilayet there were 36 encounters between the 6th of August ant the 28th October in which 4f rebels died.

In the Thessalonika vilayet from 16th June to 28th October there were 38 incidents in which 109 rebels were killed.

In Skopje vilayet from the 1st of August to the 1st November there were 15 encounters in which 93 rebels were killed.

During the course of the whole rising from 20th July to the 10th October fourteen incidents of dyna.m;i.ting occurred on the territory of European Turkey and in the whole year l 903 there were 21.

Thus, throughout the whole Ilinden period there were a total of 239 encounters in which 994 rebels died in the territory of Macedonia and Edirne.

The heroic Ilinden Rising seriously damaged the prestige of the sultan, his empire and his armed forces, who were forced to fight for weeks and months against a handful of brave rebels. It was because of this that the sultan and the pashas decided to take vengeance in a most brutal fashion en the peaceful population, on the old, women and children.

Here are the figure: 201 villages were burned, 12,440 houses were set on fire and 4.694 people were killed or massacred. Hundreds and thousands of women were raped and so on. 30,000 people were forced to seek asylum in Bulgaria.

All these barbarities were committed before the eyes o( so-called civilized Europe. The imperialist group, who were fundamentally opposed to 1.he rising washed their hands like Pilate, quilting their consciences by allowing the odd hypocritical protest to 1.he Sublime Porte.

After the violent crushing of the insurrection, the Macedonian people didn't become desperate. The battle went on.

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In 1912, the Balkan states in their war with Turkey instead of helping the Macedonian people in their liberatio,1 and the realisation of their traditional ideal of autonomy divided Macedonia into three parts. Inside Serbia and Greece, Macedonians were subjected to a fierce denationalisation programme while in Bulgaria the Macedonian Vrhovists became the paid servants of the dynasty and the government, introducing their retaliatory policy for Macedonia and strengthening the forces of reaction within the country.

In these hard times the sole faithful friends of the Macedonian people were the working masses in the Balkan states and their socio-democratic parties. The revolutionary socialists in the Balkans stood firm against the rape of Macedonia and the dismemberment of the country by the Balkan dynasts and their bourgeois governments. Their slogan was: a democratic federation of the Balkans with Macedonia as an equal member.

It must be recognised as an undoubted historical fact that the Bulgarian Socio-democratic Workers Party (the narrow socialists) was the worthiest and most tireless fighter against all assimilative designs on Macedonia.

No one ever struck so daringly, so sharply and so mercilessly or opposed with such determination the aspirations of Greater-Bulgarian nationalism as the strict socialists did in their honest pro-people policy. The communist party sacrificed many victims in the First World War and afterwards.

Year by year the pavements of Sofia and not Sofia only, were steeped in the blood of Bulgarian communists shot down by the bullets of King Boris's Macedonian hirelings; the Cankovs, L japcevs, Girginovs and the rest.

Thus dishonestly slaughtered was the great Macedonian revolutionary communist, the close companion in arms of Goce Delcev and Jane Sandanski, Dimo Hadji Dimov. The same criminous hand struck down Kosta Petrov and the representatives Petko Napetov, Haralambi Stojanov and Hristo Trajkov; kidnapped and killed Simeon Kavrakirov, killed Hristo Hrolev, Dimitar Surlev and dozens and dozens more.

The Pirin region is besprinkled with the graves, known and unknown, of communists brutally killed by the mercenary bands of Ivan Mihailov.

These victims were rendered by the Bulgarian communist party in its struggle against the adventurist, agressive policy of Bulgarian monarcho--fascist nationalism to protect the Macedonian people and their right to self-determination.

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The Bulgarian Communist Party has never given u p its position: MACEDONIA POR THE MACEDONIANS

Nor has it given up one iota of the principle of the righ t to self-determination, the right of the Macedonians themselves to decide their own future of their own a ccord.

After the great October Revolution it become quite clear to the Macedonian liberation movement that its most faithful allies were the working class; the mass of the working people and their communist parties. That is why during the new period of development after the First World War we find the Macedonian Liberation Movement closely bound up with the communist movements in the Balkans.

In the course of the last war, the liberation struggle of the Macedonian people against the occupation forces was integrated with the general war of liberation from Hitlerism and Fascism organised by the communist parties. And still today, the Macedonian people, as we see in the case of Greece, is fighting together with all democratic Greek people in an heroic war of liberation against the Greek monarchofascists and their master s, the Anglo-american imperialisl..5.

As the result of the common h eroic struggle of the Yugoslav and Macedonian peoples under the leadership of the Yugoslav communist party the first Macedonian state was founded - The People's Republic of Macedonia within the framework of FPR Yugoslavia.

In the common struggle of the Bulgarian working people, th e Macedonian inhabitants of the Pirin and the Macedonian "migrants in Bulgaria, led by the Bulgarian Workers Party (The Communists) and the Fatherland Front, the fascist government was overthrown and the People's Republic of Bulgaria established. In th e P eople's Republic of Bulgaria the Macedonians have all rights and freedoms as equal citizens.

A few days ago on the dais of the Communist P arty Congress in Belgrade, Kolisevski and Vlahov, disappointed that they couldn't get the Pirin region united to Vardar Macedonia, raised the cry that the Pirin region should be given political autonomy such as Kosovo and Metohija and Vojvodina have.

We ask ourselves why Belgrade and Skopje are so concerned about the autonomy of the Pirin region. The answer is plain - they hope that through such autonomy they will more swiftly and secretly incorporate the area into the Macedonian state.

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The misfortune of Kolisevski and Vlahov, however, lies in this that the Macedonian population of the Pirin region know where this quiet game is leading and do not wish for such autonomy. It feels closely and inseparably allied to the Bulgarian people by its centuries old heroic struggle against Greek spiritual domination and Turkish political oppression.

There has been no single delegation, no single request, from the Macedonian population of the Pirin region either for union with Vardar Macedonia or for any kind of autonomy. Naturally, there need be no doubt that if the population of the Pirin Region seeks autonomy, it will be given them. This is clear to all those who truly understand the attitude of the Bulgarian Workers Party (The Communists) and the Fatherland Front to the Macedonian Question and to the Macedonian population in the Pirin region in particular.

Does this mean that the population of the Pirin region does not and never will wish to unite with their brothers in the other parts of Macedonia? No! But still, that population doesn't wish to unite with the Macedonia of Kolisevski and Vlahov who wish to raise a Chinese wall between Macedonia and Bulgaria, between the Macedonian and Bulgarian peoples. The population does not wish to unite with a Macedonia where all that is Bulgarian is outlawed where they are waging a systematic campaign to denigrate the popular democracy of Bulgaria, the Bulgarian working people and their great, heroic party - their leader - the BWP(Cl It does not wish to unite with a Macedonia which allows no Bulgarian book or newspaper there.

The present Macedonian Leadership, carrying out the orders of their leaders in Belgrade want to transform Vardar Macedonia into a country dominated by narrow nationalism and chauvinism, where Goce Delcev and Jane Sandanski, if t h ey were alive today, would be denounced together witli all the leaders of the llinden Rising as Greater-Bulgarian chauvinists for nothing other than that they they knew how to speak and write in no other language that the Bulgarian.

THE MACEDONIAN POPULATION OF THE PIRIN REGION DOES NOT WISH TO SEPARATE FROM ITS BULGARIAN BROTHERS, FROM THE BULGARIAN PEOPLE to which it is tied by

traditional historic ties, that Bulgarian people who, as Gjorce P etrov said in his book ,,The Work of Macedonian Liberation on Bulgarian Soil" had given a regular inexhaustible stream of sincere fighters for Mace-

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donia and so much money that if it had simply been gathered together and saved might have served to buy Macedonia from the sultan.

After September 9th, 1944, the Yugoslav general, Tempo, travelled specially through the Pirin Region with his picture (?!) and spread his slogan among the population: ,,Make haste to unite with the Macedonian state because in Yugoslavia, one of the victors, you will not have to pay any reparations whereas if you remain in Bulgaria you will be loaded with the heaviest reparations and never raise your heads again." The Macedonian people in t he Pirin Region gave a worthy answer- The simple peasants of the region said: ,, We have seen good and bad days together with the Bulgarians, together with them we made the mistake of allowing King Boris to draw us onto the German side with the fascists.

We do not now wish to be separated from the Bulgarians.

We will share with them in all our difficulties in brotherly fashion."

The Macedonians of the Pirin region want to unite with their brothers in the other parts of Macedonia but on the condition that no barrier is erected between them and the Bulgarian people. This is possible with the realisation of A SOUTH SLAV FEDERATION!

Neither the followers of Tito nor those of Kolisevski or Vlahov are interested in the great historical necessity for the creation of a south Slav federation, for the liberation of all the South Slavs in one united family of brothers. No, they are only interested in seizing the Pirin area and annexing i.t to Yugoslavia.

The present Skopje leadership wishes to create an unbridgeable gap between the Macedonian and Bulgarian people with their present anti-Bulgarian policy.

What is more, under the influence of the Yugoslav leaders who have betrayed Marxist-leninism and socialism, the Macedonian leaders in Skopje want to cut the Macedonian people off from, and set them in opposition to, our great liberator and protector the Soviet Union, that Soviet Union without which, without whose uniquely courageous and powerful mighty Red Army, there would today be no Macedonian state, no Yugoslav Federation or even any People's Republic of Bulgaria.

Will the Macedonian people permit such black betrayal of Slavism, of democracy, of the mighty Soviet Union? No! 109

The people who were capable of producing the great epic of !linden, the people who produced such great figures as Goce Delcev and Jane Sandanski - that people will not commit such treason. It stands for the revolution and will continue firmly and unhesitantly to do so protecting the revolutionary position.

As we, today, celebrate the great Macedonian epic of the !linden Rising we are compelled to send the following call to the Macedonians of Vardar Macedonia and to all Macedonians everywhere¡. ,,Commrades, hold high the flag of the Ilinden Rising!

Keep it clean and unsullied as it was left to us by those who fell in the fight: the great Goce Delcev and Jane Sandanski."

After Poptomov's report the assembly sent h earty greetings telegrams to General Markos and Georgi Dimitrov.

Finally a literary and musical programme was given in which artists from the national t heatre and the artistic collective ,,Makedonska pesen" of Gorna Djumaja took part.

GEORGI DIMITROV ON THE SOUTH SLAV FEDERATION AND THE MACEDONIAN QUESTION A POLITICAL REPORT OF THE CENTRAL COMMITTEE OF THE BWP(C) AT THE FIFTH CONGRESS OF THE PARTY, 19th DECEMBER, 1948 ,,Rabotnicesk.o delo", 20. XII . 1948

,,In the existing domestic and international situation the vital interests of the Bulgarian and Yugoslav peoples imperatively dictate t hat we should move towards the closest possible alliance between our two countries and that should in the near future lead to their economic and national-political union in the formation of a federation of the South Slavs.

Such a federation, supported b y the friendship of the Soviet Union and collaborating with the other republics of the people's democracies would be in a position to guard the freedom of our people successfully and ensure their correct developmen t along the road to socialism. In the framework of such a federation we might find the correct solution to the still unsolved problems of the union of the Macedonians of the Pirin r egion with the People's Republic of Macedonia and of the return to Bulgaria of the purely Bulgarian western di-

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stricts which were siezed by King Alexander after the First World War: all problems which we have inherited from the old bourgeois monarchist regimes.

Our Party followed this line in bold enthusiasm, relying upon the word of the Yugoslav communists to whom we were linked by a long period of joint labour and friendship.

Our Party still keeps to this line today. Yet the nationalistic leaders of Yugoslavia have deserted the right path. When this had already been examined and decided on by the parties in the two countries and when a series of measures in connection with the immediate formation of the federation had been begun, the Central Committee of the Yugoslav Communist Party announced to our Party in March this year that it viewed the question differently and that there was no need to hasten the federation forward and so cancelled all further talks. At the same time, the Yugoslav leadership brought forward their plan to transform the Pirin Region into an autonomous district with a view to its union with Yugoslavia regardless of the existing agreement to form a federation ... ... The Bled Agreement meant that our Party, to facilitate the process of alliance and the future union of the Macedonian regions in the two countries, agreed to introduce the Macedonian language as a compulsory subject in all the schools in the Pirin region and allowed Macedonian teachers from Skopje to come as instructors as well as Macedonian booksellers to disseminate Macedonian books. This is a proof that our Party was sympathetically inclinded towards the union of the Macedonian people ...

Our Party has and does stand for the position that Ma.. cedonia is for the Macedonians. True to the traditions of the Macedoiian revolutionaries, together with all honourable Macedonian patriots, we are unhesitating in our conviction that the Macedonian people will realise its national unity and secure a future for itself as a free and equal nation only in the bounds of a federation of the South Slavs."

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THE MACEDONIAN AMATEUR THEATRE IN SOFIA ,,Otecestv en front", 31 . III. 1949

A new acquisition to the cultural life of our young People's Republic has recently been recognised - The Macedonian Amateur Theatre in Sofia. This acquisition underlines once again how the development of culture in Fatherland Front Bulgaria is closely connected with the popular masses. Together with the wide net of Bulgarian theatres, the theatres of the Jewish and Romany minorities and para.le! with the Macedonian theatre in Gorna Dju.rnaja, the foundation of the Macedonian Amateur Theatre in the capital is a witness to the desire to satisfy the varied cultural needs of the differents nationalities in our common fatherland in creating a healthy culture.

The Macedonian amateur theatre in Sofia is the fruit of the growth of national consciousness among the Macedonian emigrants in Bulgaria which the Temporary Central Committee of the Macedonian Societies considers it its first task to awaken; and of the personal initiative of the democratic, patriotic youth of Macedonia. The theatre's aim will be to perform plays of an essentially Macedonian character in the beautiful Macedonian tongue; to encourage the Macedonian emigrants to enter into the general movement of the whole Macedonian people and so make their contribution to the creation of Macedonian culture and the raising of an appropriate level of healthy patriotism - a patriotism which will still be based on a healthy feeling of internationalism which does not divide nations but rather unites them in the name of democracy, progress and socialism. The theatre will also, no doubt, play an important role in the solidarity of the Macedonian emigrants with the Fatherland Front and the mobilisation for socialist construction.

The theatre will certainly contribute to the deepening of the brotherly friendship between the Bulgarian and Macedonian peoples as well as to the spiritual and cultural unity of the Macedonians themselves, dispersed as they are through various states because of imperialistic policies.

The Macedonian Amateur Theatre is the answer to the complaints of those who seek authority to speak in the name of the Macedonian people without knowing them and who allowing themselves to trade with their ideals. The populai:government in Bulgaria, from the very time it was formed , placed this authority in the hands of the Macedonians themselves and they act only from the force of their patriotic 112

feeling and national consciousness which are in harmony with our popular democracy and Macedonian patriotism.

The formation of the Macedonian theatre in Sofia has been well supported by the National Council of the Fatherland Front and principally by its chief secretary Commrade V. Poptomov, of the Committee for Science, Culture and Art and by the minister, Commrade V'lko Cervenkov, by the management of the National Theatre and by its manager Commrade Karaslavov, by Commrade Vladova, Commrade Leonidov and others.

The theatre had its premiere for the citizens of the capital with the Macedonian play ,,Pecalbari" at the Balkan Theatre on the 19th of this month and we can already say that it raises hopes of a successful and correct development.

We have no doubt that the Macedonians in Sofia will look upon the new theatre as their own offspring and greet it with sympathy, giving it their support and through 1t sharing the desire of the Macedonian people to compete with the other Balkan nations in the field of culture. Nor do we doubt that the democratic Bulgarian public will welcome its foundation as their own victory over Greater-Bulgarism and will do all they can to strenghten it. The massive attendance at the first performance is a certain proof of that. o The artists had m ade a great effort and showed ambitions and consciousness. Although they are self- trained beginners they gave a satisfactory show and received acclaim from the Sofia public.

The play itself is a true piece of Macedonian history - the mass exodus from their homes and families and the search for work abroad to survive and pay the debts they owed to the money-lenders. The theme of the play is th~ rejection of this system and the direction of people's attention to the exploitation of internal resources once the exploitation of the local bourgeoisie has been prevented.

N. Hristov

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THE HERO OF ONE EPOCH IN THE MACEDONIAN LIBERATION MOVEMENT ,.Rabotnitesko delo, 14. VI. 1949

Speaking on the Macedonian Question in his report to the V Congress of the Bulgarian Communist Party, Georgi Dimitrov said: ,,Before the Second World War there was a very progressive Macedonian movement in Bulgaria dedicated to the cause of the Macedonian people's right to self- determination as an independent nation. This movement received energetic support from our party."

This was the blackest epoch in Macedonian's cause when the bourgeoisie of all the Balkan states tried by fire and sword to cut the Macedonian people off from their past and its ideals and melt it down in their nationalistic cauldro:1The progressive Macedonian movement developed under the leadership of The Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organisation (United) whose programme was: the unity oi all Macedonian patriots, union with the organisations of all, persecuted by Fascism, the overthrow of bourgeois-fascist governments, the triumph of Labour, popular democratic government, a free Macedonia and a brotherly family of Balkan peoples.

The main inspiration, the organiser and leader of this struggle in Bulgaria was Simeon Kavrakirov from Thessalonika. He took up the burden of the fight as soon as he was released from Plovdiv prison in 1926 where he had been for two years. At that time anyone who dared attempt to strip the mask of autonomy from the face of Greater-Bulgarian policy as it was being spread by Mihailovism, the cover of the Bulgarian monarcho-fascist clique, was being slaughtered in the streets.

He succeeded in establishing the essential leading organs and extending their netwoork to all areas where there was :i sizeable Macedonian emigrant population. He even succeeded in penetrating the Pirin Region which the fascists considered inaccessible to any progressive thought or activity. He wisely connected his organisation with the large-scale organisations and through them in the name of their immediate interests, which were fundamentally opposed to fascism and the Greater Bulgaria policy, he imposed himself on fraternal organisations, congresses and mass organisations in the Pirin region such as co- operatives, trade-union organisations etc.

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The high point of his activity was the fraternal congress of 1932 where it was openly sensible that the Greater-Bulgaria fascist policy was standing on a volcano.

Simeon Kavrak:irov achieved these successes by keeping in close vital contact with the BCP while waging a bitter fight against the left-wing deviationists in it, who wished to make a second version of the Party out of the progressive Macedonian movement.

He fought just as hard against cosmopolitanism in certain working class circles where they underestimated the importance of the national question, regarding it as merely bourgeois.

The struggle of the Macedonians in Bulgaria headed by Simeon Kavrakirov had a general significance for the Macedonian movement. In those difficult days it kept the flag flying high, drew a response from Macedonia and served as a support in the struggle to prevent them to overwhelm and denaturalise the Macedonian people. It raised Macedonian consciousness and feeling to a high level and gave a great impetus to the development of the Macedonian nation and state.

Simo was one on the greatest of the victims of fascism in Bulgaria. Captured alive, he was for two years tortured, driven from village to village barefoot and half clad, from cottage to cottage in the Rila and PiriQ _regions, kept in isolation and finally killed before the full destruction of Mihailovism when it was on its last legs, when he was on the threshold of freedom from fascist occupation. He was killed on June 14, 1943 in the most beautiful part of Macedonia, Semkovo. Razlog ... ... The Macedonian people in Bulgaria will express their respect for their h eroic son and praise his deeds for ever.

This will be on the fifteenth of this month at seven o'clook at the Macedonian Club in Sofia.

NIKOLA VAPCAROV ,,Rabotnicesk.o delo", 23. V II. 1949

Among the rest, the artlcle on Nikola Vapcarov says: ,,Vapcarov was a Macedonian by origin and Macedonia inspired him, he wrote poetry about h er as his homeland but in his poetry as in his conversation there was no trace of nationalism. Like every communist-that is, true patriot and

aâ&#x20AC;˘

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internationalist - he had the right approach to the Macedonian Question. He knew that the only just solution lay in the true democratisation of the Balkans, and thus fighting for a socialist Bulgaria he knew that he was fighting for a socialist Macedonia ... " Hristo Radevski

BORIS VAPCAROV'S SPEECH AT THE THIRD CONFERENCE OF THE BULGARIAN COMMUNIST PARTY ,,Rabotnicesko delo", 11. VI. 1950

On the 9th and 10th of June, 1950 the Third Conference of the Bulgarian Communist Party was held in Sofia. Among others who spoke at the conference was Dr. Boris Vapcarov, secretary of the r egional committee of the BCP for the Blagoevgrad region. Here is what was written about B. Vapcarov's speech in the 11th June number of the paper ,,Rabotnicesko delo".

Dr. Boris Vapcarov, secretary of the Regional Committee in Blagoegvrad described conditions in the region which is immediately adjacent to two borders. The population of the Pirin region was the only Macedonian group who lived freely and took part in the construction of socialism in the People's Republic of Bulgaria. The inhabitants hated the pro-Tito and Trajce Kostov group bitterly and were especially grateful to the Communist Party of the Soviet Union for helping to unmask the followers of Tito. The Party's watchfulness had improved but it was still not at the necessary level. The population, particularly the women and children, had given the party valuable aid in capturing bandits, terrorists and diversionists, sent over the border by the followers of Tito and the monarcho-fascists."

In its number of 18th June, the same paper gave the full text of Boris Vapcarov's speech which ran: ,,Our Party has discussed the question of improving organisational operations on many occasions and a string o( measures has been taken but such exclusive attention as that given to questions of organisation at this conference has never been seen before. This is why the conference has been awaited with such interest on the part of the party members and workers.

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The fundamental tasks which are before the party organisation in the Blagoevgrad district are controlled by i ts position as a border district with Tito's fascist Yugoslavia and monarcho-fascist Greece and by the Macedonian character of its population. The population of the Pirin Region is the one free Macedonian population able to work for its national improvement and, togeth er with the Bulgarian people, for the construction of its socialist future (applause).

V'lko Cervenkov: True, true.

Boris Vapcarov: The Macedonian population of the Pirin

Region is confident about its future; that it will never fall as plunder into the hands of the imperialists and their filthy tools - the followers of Tito, Kolisevski and the Greek m onarcho-fascists, because they live inside the frontiers of the People's Republic of Bulgaria and find themselves under the protection of the mighty Soviet Union (applause). The population of the Pirin Region bitterly hate the followers of Tito, Kolisevski and Trajce Kostov who have tried to isolate them from the camp of the peace-loving nations and drop them in the imperialist slime. The population owe a special debt of gratitude to t he great Bolshevik Party and their genius of a leader, Josif Visarionovic Stalin who discovered their hellish plan in good time and so saved the Macedonian and Bulgarian population from a catastrophe (applause).

After the mistakes of the former district committee for the Macedonian Question, mistakes which were taken advantage of by the Titos and Kolisevskis some of our leaders, unwilling to repeat these mistakes, have given up working for the spread of national consciousness among the Macedonians of the Pirin Region. They wish to adopt the line: He who makes nothing, never makes a mistake. They are unaware of the great mistake they are making by their very inactivity. They are simply contributing grist to the mill 0ÂŁ the Titos-Kolisevskis and the Mihailovs who all assert that the BCP doesn't allow the population of th e Pirin to call itself Macedonian and fight for its national unity.

The followers of Tito and Kolisevski are doing all they can to destroy the harmony between the Macedonian and Bulgarian peoples. They are trying to destroy their centuries old alliance. For this purpose they use the press and the radio and rely on the remnants of Mihailov's bands. They spit lies and curses at the Bulgarian Communist Party and especially criticise its position on the Mace-â&#x20AC;˘ donian Question.

117

The BCP has always adopted a positive view of the Macedonian's fight for freedom. It was under the influence of the Party that the most ardent apostles of the Macedonian liberation movement were educated and appeared on the political scene; men such as Goce Delcev, Nikola Karev, Dimo H. Dimov, Nikola Parapunov and many others.

Today the most important duty \.Ve have is to raise high the flag of the Macedonian liberation movement, the flag of Goce, Jane, Dimo; and not let it fall into the sullied hands of Tito or Mihailov who would hide their imperialist intentions behind it.

The Macedonian population not only of the Pirin Region but of the other parts of Macedonia also, know very well that there is no freedom for them outside the block of the peaceloving democratic peoples h eaded by the mighty Soviet Union.

They know that the sun of their union will rise only from there.

The party organisation of the Blagoevgrad district will have to undertake extensive political and organisational work, especially in such matters.

We, the Macedonians of the Pirin Region, the only free region, with the widest possibilities for activity are faced with the task of helping the Macedonians enslaved by the followers of Tito, Kolisevski and the Greek monarcho-fascists to obtain their freedom.

We give too little time to work with our young people while the Mihailovs and Titos have a serious and fatal effect on the young. The Central Committee of Dimitrov's Union of Popular Youth must approve help to the young in our district, they must send people there to study local conditions and make note on the spot of the measures necessary for political work among our y oung people.

Our second serious duty is to keep awake. With us the question of watchfulness and the protection of our national frontiers was, until recently little considered. Only a limited number of party members paid attention to this. It was mentioned at party meetings but in a very general form and individual party members were not allocated duties in this connection.

Following the directives issued to us by the Central Committee, special plenums of the District Committee were held as well as of the area committees. Meetings were held in all primary organisations, youth organisations and mass organisations, too. A number of people were allocated specific tasks.

The problem has been tackled over a wide area. The results 118

of our work are already visible. The Party organisation in the village of Libjahovo, Nevrokop area was out armed and standing on the border to defend the territorial integrity oi our state only six minutes after the alarm was given (applause).

The Pariy organisation in the village of Lovca, did its duty worthily driving back to the Greek territory the enemies who had entered our territory with heavy fire (applause) .

There have been many cases where small children, ,,Septemvrijcinja" and non-party citizens have given valuable aid to the border police and the militia in capturing bandits (applause).

This work must be continued with ever greater effort.

We must make our frontier a rock over which no enemy, come he from where he may, will be able to climb. Collaboration between the party organisation, the popular militia and the border guards is the high honour of every party member. ¡ To improve the work I propose: 1. The Central Committee should organise an opportunity for us to learn from the .experience of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.

2. The Central Committee should ensure regular help for the district and local committees through the visits of inspectors and members of the Central Committee.

3. The Central Committee should organise regular councils with divisions in the district committees to exchange their experience.

4. To start a determined fight against the continual discussion of certain questions.

5. The Party press should introduce more articles on the life of the party organisations for the exchange of experience.

6. In village organisations with more than 300 members there should be The Village Committee with a paid secretary. In communes composed of more than five villages there should also be a paid secretary.

7. In the regional directories for the forests politically responsible people should be appointed to be in charge of political work among the forestry workers.

8. No urban committee in district towns with less than 10,000. Instead party organisations directed immediately from the regional committee.

11:}

9. Villages with less than 100 party members and having a branch of the cooperative farm to have no general village committee.

10. All district and area committees to review regularly the m aterial coming in from lower party organisations to evaluate this and calculate the positive and negative sides of the work (applause).

THE PREOBRAZENIE RISING OF THE THRACIAN BULGARS IN 1903 .,Rabotnicesko de!o", 19. VIII. 1950

Year after year the Thracian Bulgars fought for their freedom and unity - one participant in the Preobrazenie (Transfiguration) Rising writes in an article under the above title but, G. P. Ajanov adds, the Preobrazenie Rising of 1903 was the brightest mass revolutionary event among the workers of Thrace.

The fight for their liberation from the political and economic slavery of the half-feudal Turkish state was fought together with our Macedonian brothers under the flag of the Macedonian and Edirne Internal Revolutionary Organisation.

Yet, although autonomy, as Goce Delcev understood it, was attractive as a form for the governing of a free Macedonia, the idea of autonomy was not at all popular among the Thracians. Due to a series of historical, economic and geographical causes the Thracian Bulgars looked for their freedom through union with the general Bulgarian homeland.

Revolutionary ideas reached Edirne (Thrace) some seven to eight years before the actual rising. The idea was spread by legal and illegal activists from Macedonia and Bulgaria such as Lazar Madjarov, Petko Napetov, Petar Vaenov, Mihail Gerdjikov, Evtim Dabev, Georgi Kondolov and others.

Goce D elcev visited the area in 1900.

In a short time Thrace was covered with a close network of revolutionary organisations.

When the Ilinden Rising burst out on the 2nd August, 1903 the Thracians joined the general struggle of the enslaved masses. On the night of the 18th-19th of August the Preobrazenie Rising began. The signal for the rising was given by the fearless leader from Stoilov village, Diko Djelepov, 120

who threw a number of bombs at the locally based Turkish milltary unit.

The bursting of the bombs echoed throughout Strandja as the call to the unequal struggle between slave and tyrant.

The rising, which was centered round Strandja was welcomed with delight by all the inhabitants of Thrace. All the regional companies, helped by the local ,,death bands" and other armed villagers had their own individual duties.

In a short time, from 19th August to the middle of September, th e whole area covered by the rising was more or less cleared of the enemy and the S'trandja Republic was proclaimed similar to the Krusevo Republic in Macedonia.

The Turkish rulers could not r est in the thought that not only in Macedonia but in Edirne, at the very gates of Istambul, there was a dissatisfied nation who with their weapons in their hands had started a war for freedom and national independence. Once the confusion and fear of the a uthorities passed, an army of 40,000 m en was sent from Istambul to put down the rising and punish the Bulgarian rebels ... " The rest of the article deals with the numbers of the victims and the reasons for the failure of the P reobrazenie Rising.

DISCUSSION AT THE NATIONAL ASSEMBLY ON THE COMBINED STATE BUDGET FOR 1952 THE SPEECH OF THE PEOPLE'S REPRESENTATIVE, BORIS V APCAROV ,,Rabotnicesko delo" 22. XII. 1951

The people's representative from Pirin Macedonia, Boris Vapcarov, took part in the debate on the state budget for 1952 when it was held in the Bulgarian National Assembly.

Speaking of the successes of socialist construction in the PR Bulgaria and of the increase in military expenditure in Yugoslavia, and mentioning the Yugoslav pasquinade (memorandum) to the United Nations concerning the condition of the Yugoslav minorities in Bulgaria, Hungary and Ru.mania, Vapcarov said: ,,Besides what was written in the pasquinade and the exposition of Kardelj, there was som e mention made of a Y'llgoslav minority in Bulgaria which was, so it seems, sub121

ject tc terr0~--.;.sation :.::d abuse. It is harJiy possible to imagine a more bare-faced lie. Even the most agressive of the former Yugoslav kings never dared to assert that there was a Yugoslav minority in Bulgaria. Today the followers of Tito speak of it. This is a part of their preparation for agression. Evidently, since the followers of Tito have not succeeded in snatching the Pirin through that traitor Trajfo Kostov with whom they had bargained for it, they are now preparing the soil once more. The followers of Tito have taken up the pose of protectors of the Macedonian population and spill crocodile tears over their situation. These filthy spies are the mortal enemies of the Macedonian people, not their protectors. They stuck a knife in the back of the popular democratic struggle of the Greek and Macedonian people by the surrender of Kajmakcalan. They have killed or thrown into prison the finest sons of Macedonia in the Vardar Macedonia. Today they extend their blood-smeared claws towards the Pirin Region.

In the name of the Macedonian population of the Macedonian area, I protest strongly against the disgusting lies -and slander contained in Tito's pasquinade to the United Nations. The Macedonian population of the Pirin Region is only free. They live free and happy on the territory of the P eople's Republic of Bulgaria. Hand in hand with the Bulgarian people with whom, for centuries, they have shared good and evil, they will, under the leadership of the Bulgarian Communist Party build their socialist future. The workers of the Pirin region know very well that there can be no freedom for the Macedonians outside the camp of peace and democracy headed b.v our liberator - the mighty Soviet Union ... "

TUSE VLAHOV: VRHOVISM AND ITS ROLE DURING THE WARS .,Istoritesko deto", Year VII, Sofia, 1951, Bks. 4 and 5 pp. 361-379

,,It is not our intention in this article to examine the roots of the chauvinist - conquest policy of the Bulgarian bourgeoisie. Our task is to show the part played by Vrhovism, especially in the application of that policy, during the wars.

In the last years of the 19th century the young Bulgarian bourgeoisie began to reveal a tendency towards expansion. The upper reaches of the Bulgarian bourgeoisie needed new territory to expand the range of their econimic activities

122

and to lay new areas open for exploitation if they were to confirm themselves rapidly and easily as the ruling clase in the country.

For a whole set of reasons the Bulgarian bourgeoisie and the court directed their aspirations for conquest mainly towards Macedonia. Relying upon the racial and historical ties between the Bulgars and the Macedonians, who themselves thought they were Bulgars, the chauvinistic Bulgarian bourgeoisie looked on Macedonia as their legal plunder. Meanwhile the sufferings of the Macedonians, who were still unâ&#x20AC;˘ der the Turkish Occupation, roused genuine sympathy in the heart of the Bulgarian people. These very natural sympathies for the suffering Macedonians were exploited in an utterly unforgivable manner by the Greater-Bulgaria chauvinist clique in order to develop its patriotic chauvinist ideology among the people.

Monarcho-bourgeois circles mobilised the press, the university staff, the writers and intellectuals to prove to the world that Macedonia was Bulgarian soil and that it should belong to Bulgaria. They spread the b elief among the Bulgarian people that the Macedonians longed for reunion with their ,,common mother". In this acquisitive policy the Bulgarian bourgeoisie and the court made successful use of some emigrant circles. Among the Macedonian emigrants, come voluntarily to Bulgaria to earn their living, there were quite a few rich people. Driven on by their class interests, they very soon joined the higher ranks of the Bulgarian bourgeoisie.

Many Macedonians took high posts in the army and the government aparatus. These Macedonians - ministers, diplomats, professors, military figures, traders, industrialists and so on, did all they could to strengthen the official chuavinist-conquest policy of Bulgaria. Due to their services in this line, they were the spoilt children of the Coburg bourgeois-chauvnist clique. The favouritism shown to some Macedonians went so far as to provoke silent resentment among a number of Bulgarians. Many citizens, unacquainted with the delicate machinations of the royal court were left with the impression that the Macedonians ruled Bulgaria. However, as Dimo H. Dimov rightly noted in his pamphlet .,Nazad kon avtonomijata" (Back to Autonomy), The Macedonians did not rule in Bulgaria but Bulgaria in the person of its official agents had succeeded by kindness and various gifts in transforming the Macedonian emigrants into blind tools of its policy and had through them paralysed the real liberation movement in Macedonia which there was no reason enough to

123

suppose might be hitched to the big-state waggon of Bulgarian imperialism ".

Ferdinand and the Bulgarian bourgeoisie needed to have better, more solid justification for their pretensions to Macedonia. It was not enough to prove the Bulgarian origin of the people and historic right to Macedonia. It was necessary that the Macedonians themselves should show a desire for liberation and what was more liberation with the help of Bulgaria. It was here in fact that Vrhovism came to their aid.

If we are justified in saying that the incorporation of Macedonia in Bulgaria was the hub of all Bulgarian governments policies from the establishment of the kingdom till the expulsion of the Coburg dynasty,1 we are no less justified in saying that Vrhovism was the main instrument through which, in various incidents and forms, that policy was introduced. In recent Macedonian and Bulgarian history, Vrhovism has been inseparably linked with Bulgaria's chauvinistic conquest policy. It was the highest ideological product of Creater-Bulgarianism and the finest screen for its agressive policy.

Vrhovism took its name from the Vrhoven (Supreme) Macedonian Committee, but not only the people of the Vrhoven committee were Vrhovists. Vrhovism continued to survive after the formal disbanding of the Vrhoven Committee.

Vrhovism became a general name which began to signify the activities of all those who, in the service of the Coburgs and of the Bulgarian bourgeoisie, took advantage of the enslaved state of Macedonia to justify or support Bulgaria's policy of plunder and annexation.

By the 90s of the last century the Macedonians in Macedonia had already started a war of liberation. This struggle led by Goce Delcev, had, however, nothing at all in common with the aims of official Bulgaria. With the internal and international situation created after the Berlin Congress, it be came clear to the Macedonian population that Macedonia could only gain its freedom as an independent unit- Therefore the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organisation (IMRO) which had been set up had set itself the task of fighting uncompromisingly for Âťautonom y" .

An independent r evolutionary movement springing up in Macedonia disturbed the dishonest calculations of Ferdinand and the bourgeois clique round him. For fear that Macedonia would slip from their hands, the Greater-Bulgaria chauvinists, 1 ,ll;11H0 K.bocea, Bop6aTa Ha MaKe,q0HCKKR Hapo,q 3a 0CB0OOJK,qeHHe, Cocp11R, 1950, p. 32.

124

headed by Ferdinand, hastened to paralyse the independent Macedonian liberation cause and through its conscious or unconscious tools among the Macedonian emigrants to turn the Macedonian question into a Bulgarian one.

At the suggestion of court and government circles the Vrhoven Committee was formed headed by Trajko Kitancev, an honourable public man but a naive politician, who, it seems, did not at first grasp the dark intentions of Ferdinand and his government. This Vrhoven Committee, which marks the beginning of Vrhovism, was to serve as an instrument to bring pressure to bear on Turkey, to popularise the chauvinistic assirnilatory policy and, primarily, to carry on a war fo:r; the destruction of IMRO. 1 As if at a given signal, Macedonian emigrant societies began to spring up and the Bulgarian press began to interest itself actively in the ,,sufferings of our enslaved brother over the Rila" .At the same time brotherhoods were founded in all the garrisons who took a formal oath to fight, gun in hand, for the liberation of Macedonia. All this bustle of activity was directed by the Vrhoven Committee and took advantage of the marked inclination of the court and the government. ,,The cabinet of Constantin Stoilov and the court showed more than a mere inclination towards Kitancev's intitiative", writes H. Siljanov. 2 The true creators of the committee, hid their Vrhovists objectives so cunningly that even the members of IMRO considered that they could use the committee as an auxiliary organisation. It soon became clear, however, especially when the command of the committee fell into the hands of experienced courtiers like the generals Nikolaev and Concev, that the Vrhoven Committee was an agent of court policy and wished to take full charge of the Macedonian movement and use it for the purposes of Greater-Bulgarianism and the crown.

Despite the fact that all far-seeing people, could clearly distinguish the secret aims which controlled the Vrhovist current, Vrhovism never revealed its secret purposes. Vrhovism more or less openly played the role of agent provocateur in connection with the Macedonian liberation movement and yet still continued to shelter under the slogan ,,An autonomous Macedonia". This deceptive slogan, they hoped, would not only deceive the outside world but also blind public opi1 2

,IJ:lfflo Kboces, id. pp. 33-41.

X. CHJIRHOB, Ocso6oAwreJIHHTe 6op61-1 Ha MaxeAOHJ1JI, Vol. 1,

Sofia, 1933, p. 55.

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nion in Bulgaria and Macedonia as to the true aims of the Vrhovists and their masters.

But the empty slogans of the Vrhovists were unable to deceive the activists in the Internal Organisation. They looked behind the alluring tales of the Vrhovists and saw their reactionary chauvinist nature, their traitorous acts. Even H. Siljanov, the exponent of Vrhovist aims, acknowledged that ,,the thesis of the Vrhovists was such that it was difficult to defend it before the thinking part of the population", because ,,its inner significance was not to be revealed".1 Ferdinand and the Bulgarian government were determined to use Vrhovism to do away with the main hindrance to their policy of conquest - IMRO. In fulfillment of this plan as early as 1895 the Vrhoven Committee formed several squads of bandits (outlaws) officered by Bulgarians. These bands carried out senseless bloody attacks on the town of Melnik and the muslim village of Dospat.

The aim of the Vrhovists and their masters in such provocative acts was two-fold: on the one hand by provoking the Turkish authorities and population, they indirectly destroyed the work of IMRO, on the other by provoking heavy Turkish reprisals on the local Macedonian population they found themselves a suitable excuse for journalistic attacks which awakened the hatred of the Macedonian emigrants and the Bulgarian public for everything Turkish. In this way Ferdinand of Coburg and the Bulgarian bourgeoisie prepared the people morally for future war.

The Vrhoven Committee, directed one after another by the general Nikolaev, and Concev, Boris Sarafov and Stojan Mihailovski, openly attacked the internal Organisation. Vrhovist squads, composed of bandits, declasse elements and officers constantly infiltrated Macedonia, politically perverting the inhabitants and dishonestly attacking the people of the Internal Organisation.

By these occasional provocative rising in Macedonia, the Vrhovists wanted to open the way for Bulgaria to interfere politically and militarily. Their activities provided a pretext for the Greater-Serbia group and the Panhellenism who were competing over Macedonia with the Greater-Bulgaria chauvinists by sending their own, Serbian and Greek ,,Vrhovist" bands into the country.

1

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X.

ClwRBOB,

op. cit., p. 156.

The rising in Gorna Djumaja area (1902) was instigated directly by orders from Sofia. 1 The Vrhovists had, no doubt, their fingers in the Thessalonika Affair. Vrhovist machinations and provocations were, finally, not a little responsible for the premature commencement of the !linden Rising. By means of such provocations the Bulgarian bourgeois-monarchist government wished to destroy IMRO completely, take the task of liberation out of its hands, and so open the way for their policy of conquest.

Once the attempt to destroy IMRO had failed the court and the Bulgarian bourgeois governments did all they could to take it over from within. Unfortunately, there were people in Internal Organisation circles who aided this course. Vrhovist tendencies began to appear in the Internal Organisation itself and to cause internal disintegration.

People with half-formed Greater-Bulgarian attitudes, ent ered the Internal Organisation. H. Matov never for a moment gave up Greater-Bulgarianism while even Dame Gruev, who had a leading role in the Internal Organisation, did not hold sufficiently closely to the principles of independent struggle.

Men such as I. Garvanov, the Exarchate's man, and Boris Sarafov, who despite the fact that he had left the Vrhovist Committee, still held Vrhovist views, found their way onto the leadership of the Internal Organisation. In a word there were a number of unhealthy elements in the organisation; men who had accepted the battle cry of an independent Macedonia but who had, at the same time, nothing against the union of Macedonia with its ,,common mother" . Vrhovist attitudes spread chiefly through the rich and influential Macedonian emigrant community already associated with Bulgarian bourgeois-chauvinst circles.

Through such doubtful elements in the ranks of the Internal Organisation among whom there was no lack of Vrhovist agents provocatuers the bourgeois-chauvinist clique in Bulgaria hoped to take over the Internal Organisation from within once frontal attack had failed. After the Ilinden Rising, right wing was formed within the organisation which adopted, silently, let it be understood, the chauvinistic attitudes and aims of Vrhovism. The leaders of the Right: H. Matov, Ivan Garvanov, Boris Sarafov, Todor Akeksandrov, Aleksandar Protogerov and others regarded the struggle for autonomy as a preliminary camouflage step which would lead to their final t X. CHJIHHOB, op. cit. p. 180. Three d ays before the outbreak of the rising Stojan Mihailovski called upon the Bulgarian citizens to support the ,.rebels over the Rila".

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aim: the integration of Macedonia and Bulgaria. Having adop-

ted the Vrhovist thesis, the new Internal Vrhovists began to put forward the view that the organisation should lean on Bulgaria and draw the essential material means from her. In this way they skillfully undermined the independence of the Internal Organisation and attempted to hitch it to the waggon of Greater-Bulgaria chauvinism. Accustomed to supplies from the Bulgarian government, the Internal Vrhovists were obliged, sonner or later, to finish as faithful agents of the Coburgs.

This new internal Vrhovism was better for Ferdinand and the Bulgarian bourgeois governments. They were better able to introduce their annexationist ideas through it since there was no need to reveal them to the outside world. Through the internal Vrhovists they tried to do away with the Macedonia!l left led by Jane Sandanski and Dimo H. Dimov, which was the only hindrance to the triumph of Greater-Bulgarianism in IMRO. The court camerilla didn't hesitate to organise a plot to kill the left-wing leaders. This is how at the suggestion of the court the first fights broke out inside IMRO. The Young Turk Revolution of 1908 was greeted by official Bulgaria with undisguised enmity. The Bulgarian chauvinists headed by the court and the government underwent a nervous crisis at the thought that the new regime might give a possibility of legal socio-political struggle. The court and the government had lost their trump card in the game of ,,freeing their enslaved brother" and had, generally speaking, lost the basis for their agressive policy towards Macedonia. Not peace but sanguinary conflict was what Ferdinand and the Bulgarian bourgeoisie needed. After the establishment of the constitution in Turkey, the internal Vrhovist wing, on orders from Sofia, set up a party of ,,constitutional clubs" in opposition to the left, who had started their popular federal party on an extremely democratic foundation. Through this party the Vrhovists pushed the court's policy and made war on the Macedonian left. Vrhovist agents twice tried to assassinate Jane Sandanski.

This was not all. At a command from Sofia, the Vrhovist Macedonians started up their illegal bands once more. Taking advantage of the population's dissatisfaction with the panOttoman policy of the chauvinistic Young Turks, the Vrhovists carried out a series of provocative attack aimed at causing new troubles in Macedonia.

At the same time, the bourgeois-monarchist governments of Bulgaria prepared to realise their plan of annexation in fear and trembling. Bulgaria already had sufficient material resources to undertake open agression. From the moment he 128

was proclaimed ,,King of all the Bulgars", Ferdinand forcefully directed the course of events towards a war which should m ak e him master in the Balkans. All that was necessar y to finish the psychological preparation of the people for war through creating in them agressive chauvinistic inclinations for a show down.

This task he delegated to the propagators of Greater-Bulgaria chauvinism and the Macedonian Vrhovists. New provocations were organised among which were the especially obnoxious ,,donkey assassinations". The Vrhovist ,,heroes" would place an infernal machine in a donkey's load and then take the animal to the market of a given town while the actual ,,assassins" made themselves scarce. The victims of these attacks were innocent people - Turks and Macedonians. After each such attack the Turks went wild and threw themselves on the first Macedonians who fell into their hands.

Such massacres on the Macedonian population were welcome to the Greater-Bulgaria chauvinists. They blew them up beyond belief, filling the pages of their newspapers with descriptions of Turkish beastialities and blaming the Turks for everything possible. The citizens of Bulgaria, ignorant of artificially worked up machinations, took it all for gospel and with emotions of blazing hate stood ready to throw themselves into the whirl of war preparations.

Thus, the Macedonian Vrhovists collaborated with all their strength in the pr eparation and cause of the war as the court and the Bulgarian bourgeoisie ordered them ... "

9

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1953-1958

MEETING TO CLEAR UP THE MACEDONIAN QUESTION ,.Pirinslw detou, 9. IV. 1953

On the initiative of the Regional Council of the Trades Unions on the 30th March this year in the hall of the State Trading Company of the town of Goce Delcev was a big town meeting at which the secr etary of the Regional Committee of the BCP, Dr. Krstju Trickov gave his report on the theme ,,The Macedonian Question as a national question and the prospects for its solution".

The meeting was attended by the members of the Trade union organisations in the state trading company, and the state Industries organisation, ,,Goce Delcev", the postal service, teachers and many citizens. The report was heard with great attention and interest by those present since it reviewed with great skill questions concerned with the creation of the Macedonian nation and the Macedonian people's struggles for freedom. Commrade Trickov underlined the fact that the Macedonian question would find its correct solution only through the extension and strengthening of Bulgarian-Soviet friendship when they fought boldly against the followers of Tito and Kolisevski and the Greek monarcho-fascists trying to unmusk their nationalist and assimilatory policies and, if they worked for the construction of socialism in Bulgaria.

Those who attended the lecture were extremely pleased with it and with the answers given to the questions raised.

I. Kraotev

9â&#x20AC;˘

131

JANE SANDANS'KI - THE APOSTLE OF MACEDONIAS FREEDOM (ON THE OCCASION OF THE 38th ANNIVERSARY OF THE ASSASSINATION)

.,Pirinsko delo", 23. IV. 1953

It is just thirty eight years since the criminal assassination of the distinguished Macedonian revolutionary, Jane Sandanski.

On 22nd April, 1915, in the dense forests of Pirin, Jane Sandanski, a faithful son of the Macedonian people, was shot by assassins despatched by Ferdinand and his agent Todor Aleksandrov. The purpose of the assassination was to decapitate the Macedonian Revolutionary Movement and to frighten the Macedonian activists who, together with the brotherly Bulgarian people were waging a campaign against the participation of Bulgaria in the First World War. It is with pride and deep gratitude that the Macedonian people, and especially the population of the free Pirin Region, commemorate the annviersary of the shameful murder of the deathless apostle of our freedom - Jane Sandanski. From the heroic struggle for the liberation and union of the Macedonian people a whole pleiad of heroes emerged but Jane Sandanski - The Old One - as the people affectionately called him, was one of the most famous and at the same time one of the most popular of all the Macedonian revolutionaries.

After the death of Goce Delcev and the defeat of the renowned Ilinden Rising, Jane Sandanski, Dimo Hadji Dimov and others remained to head the struggle of the Macedonian people against the Turkish Occupation. These were the continuers of Delcev's Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organisation. The Seres group - the 'Sandanskites' composed a distinct sound ideological movement within the Macedonian liberation movement as a whole and with time a whole series of activists from other districts of Macedonia joined it - from Thessalonika.

Kukus, Voden, Veles etc. Jane Sandanski and the Seres group were formed in the process of the struggle and under the influence of socialist ideas which the Macedonian socialists brought and sowed among the Macedonian revolutionaries as well as under that of the prolonged struggle against the Vrhovists. Sandanski himself was completely under the influence of the distinguished narrow socialist Dimo Hadji Dimov who, as Sandanski's biographer Ivan Harizanov writes, was like Sandanski's spiritual mentor, he submitted to Sandanski while

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caring for him like a brother. Jane, on his side encouraged Dimo H. Dimov". Dimo H. Dimov was the most outstanding ideologist in Sandanski's group.

The Sandanskiites brought a new element into the ideology of the Macedonian Liberation Movement - the rallying cry of a democratic Balkan Federation within the framework of which the Macedonian question should be solved . The line taken by the Sandanskiites coincided with that of the Balkan socialist parties of the time and with that of our party. They considered that by means of a Balkan Federation the peoples of the area would be better able to defend their freedom and independence in face of the colonial aspirations of the imperialist powers. ,.Similary, the federation would facilitate the solution of all the unsolved Balkan national questions including that of Macedonia", wrote Georgi Dimitrov .,,Within the framework of a democratic Balkan federation Macedonia, dismembered into three parts should be united in one fully independent Macedonian state."

All this gave a particularly progressive anti-imperialist character to Jane Sandanski and his organisation. Sandanski's greatness lies first and foremost in his limitless faith in the strenght of the people and then in his continuation of Goce Delcev's struggle both against the Turkish feudal opression and the national slavery, and against the efforts of the bourgeois-monarchical cliques in Athens, Belgrade and Sofia to turn Macedonia into one of their colonies.

Sandanski was the brightest expression of the Macedonian people's longing for a decisive encounter with Turkish feudalism and its supporters and with the traitors and betrayers of the Macedonian revolutionary effort. He was for carrying the democratic revolution through to the ¡ end, for re-uniting the Macedonian people and for the establishment of a Macedonian state.

Sandanski fought for the real freedom of the people for the liberation of the Macedonian villagers from every form of exploitation. He was in favour of a fratern al union of the Macedonian and Bulgarian peoples. Tirelessly, he went day and night from village to village with his squad to found and ex tend the organisation of Macedonian revolutionaries.

After the Balkan War and the dismemberment of Macedonia, Sandanski was opposed to the ambitions of the imperialist Balkan governments and the policy of the German agent, Ferdinand, towards Macedonia. Jane Sandanski died early but his ideal of a free, united Macedonia has lived on in the hearts of all true Macedonians.

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Sandanski's great work of liberation was later continued by the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organisation (United), by the Macedonian Communists and by the Balkan communist parties. Sandanski's ideals have already been realised in our free Pirin Region where there are neither exploiters nor rich and national opression has ceased. Yet more, under the guidance of the Bulgarian Communist Party the P irin Region has gone far beyond what Sandanski fought for. We are already building Socialism. We are a whole era in advance of such countries as Yugoslavia, Greece and Turkey.

After the Second World War, t here was, with the fraternal and unsparing aid of the USSR, the possibility to realise the ideal of Sandanski completely by the union of the Macedonian people had there not been such black traitors as the Titoists and the Kolesevskiites who betrayed the interests of the Macedonian people in an underhand way.

The treasonous betrayal of the Tito clique hindered the fundamental and entire settlement of the Macedonian question and the formation of a national unit for t he Macedonian people. This fact, however, does not mean that Goce Delcev and Jane Sandanski's ideal of one, free Macedonian nation will never be realised. The cause for which Jane Sandanski fought and died is, today, in worthy hands. It has been taken up by those communist parties in the Balkans which are faithful to Lenin and Stalin. With the overthrow and final defeat of the Titoists and the Kolesevskiites and the victory of Democracy and Socialism in the Balkans the conditions necessary for a final settlement of the Macedonian question will be esta blished.

No other than Georgi Dimitrov has set before us the bright prospect of a solution to the Macedonian question. ,,We", said Georgi Dimitrov, ,,are of the undoubting conviction t hat the Macedonian people will achieve national unity and ensure their own future as a free and equal nation."

Our main task now is to work for the building of socialism here in our precious fatherland which is also Dimitrov's and in our unique, free Pirin Region, to strengthen Socialist Bulgaria-the pillar of peace, democracy and socialism in the Balkans, to continue the struggle to eliminate the agents of Tito and Kolisevski, to h elp the efforts of the Yugoslav and Greek peoples, and in that number our b.Fothers in the Vardar and Aegean regions of Macedonia, to overthrow Tito and the Greek monarchical fascists, to intensify our revolutionary awareness and to protect the fronti er s of The People's Republic of Bulgaria.

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T oday, when we commemorate the anniversary of J ane Sandanski's death his work and vowes should be the inspiration of all true patriots. The example of Sandansk.i directs us to be, like him, faithful, loyal to our people, brave, bold and unspared in our struggle against the enemies of the people.

Krstju Tril'.:kov

THE WORK OF GOCE DELCEV WILL TRI UMPH (ON THE OCCASION OF THE FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY OF THE DEATH OF THE PROTO-APOSTLE OF THE MACEDONIAN NATIONAL LIBERATION MOVEMENT)

.,Pirinsko delo", 30. IV. 1953

Fifty years have passed since the Fourth of May, 1903 when the famed leader of the Macedonian revolutionary movement, Goce Delcev, betrayed by the m alicious enemy of Macedonian liberty, fell in an unequal struggle with Turkish soldiers at the village of Banica, Seres vicinity. Indeed , on that day, as Goce's commrade Dimo Hadji Dimov wrote, a whole nation was impoverished. The loss of Goce Delcev had exceptionally serious consequences for the subsequent development of the Macedonian liberation movement because after the sudden murder of the generally recognised, authoritative and intelligent leader of the Internal Macedonian - Edirne Organisation other influences, foreign to the Macedonian people. began to pe netrate and these led the national liberation movement onto sanguinary, d estructive paths.

The Macedonian revolutionary liberation movement had its historical roots in the decisions of the infamous Berlin Treaty which was reactionary in conception, content and consequences, hindering the liberation of Macedonia and blocking historically inevitable economic revolution in Macedonia.

The Russo-Turkish War, independent of the wishes and intentions of the Imperial Russian Government, played the part of a bourgeois-democratic revolution in the development of Bulgaria, causing extensive changes in the economic and socio-political life of the country. Dimitar Blagoev has said that th e liberation of Bulgaria from Turkish rule brought about ,,a great social transformation". Serfdom was eliminated as a result of the war of liberation and the foundation of the 135

Bulgarian state. The former serfs and landless peasants obtained land for themselves and freed themselves from dependence on the beys as well as from exploitation. The considerable remains of the guild barriers in crafts and trade wer e abolished and this in turn speeded up free capitalist competition which was an important factor in the capitalistic development of the country. This meant the creation of conditions for the growth of a large-scale capitalist class, modern industry and a working class; a real proletariat. The rotten Turkish absolutist state was replaced by the Bulgarian national state.

Macedonia, which was left under Turkish control, continued after the Berlin Conference to groan under the decaying but still surviving economic and governmental system of the sultan and the beys. There serfdom survived together with the dependence and exploitation of the landless and the deprived peasants by the beys - the gr eat estate owners; the guild system also persisted for a certain time in the towns only to be destroyed later by European capitalist competition which dried up the crafts themselves as the guilds fell into disuse: the hated despotism of the sultan's absolutism remained, however, causing the deprivation of all legal rights to the citizens as well as preserving the controls which hindered the historically inevitable capitalistic expansion and social progress.

The conclusion to be drawn is clear: the Berlin Treaty temporarily stopped the development of the bourgeois-democrat ic revolution in Macedonia at precisely the point at which it found itself at the time of the Russo-Turkish War of 1877-78.

Development and finalisation of that revolution in Macedonia had to wait till later as one of the first-grade tasks in the economic and social development of the Macedonian people. This task was left to be solved by the Macedonian National Revolutionary Movement.

The Macedonian National Revolution ar y Movement, under the leadership of the Internal Macedonia-Edirne Revolutionary Organisation was in social character a basically peasant movement - in this it resembled the Bulgarian national r evolutionary movement till the Russo-Turkish war of 1877-78.

The far greater portion (over 850/o) of the Macedonian population lived in villages. The larger, more productive portion of the land was in the hands of the great estate owners who were mainly Turks. The peasants worked as day labour ers or as share croppers on the beys' lands and received the crumbs from the master's table as their reward, they lived in poverty and under the slavery of the beys's limitless selfwill. The yoke of serfdom was the greatest evil they had to 136

bear and the wieghtiest barrier to economic and social development in Macedonia. Serf-master relations kept the Macedonians in a state of many-sided backwardness from which there was no outlet.

The poor peasants who constituted the most exploited and oppressed class in Macedonia desired to do away with the serf relationship, free themselves from the exploitation of the estate owners and secure their own piece of land. They did not wish to be day labourers ,share-croppers or hired help on the beys' lands and to labour without rest for the unproductive bey.

They wanted to have their land and to work for themselves and their families. To achieve this it was essential first to turn out the bey and sieze his land. But the bey was - the Turkish state, the Turkish authorities, the Turkish occupation itself.

Thus the fight against serfdom and the estate-owners was a war against the Turkish state for freedom from Turkish rule and the foundation of their own state. The class contradictions in the Macedonian village of that tim,e manifested themselves externally as a struggle against the Turkish state a struggle which took on a national form. ,,The overlords (the so-called spaii), wrote Lenin in 1912, are Turks and Muslims while the peasants are Slavs and Christians. The class conflict is shar-pened because it is both religious and national."

The Macedonian population suffered from the tax burden, official corruption, abuse of the organs of government and bands of brigands. Before the eyes of the peasants the following picture of the reality of their day presented itself: the collector of the insupportable taxes was a Turk; the petty official who lived from perpetual bribes dragged from the population, was a Turk, the mayor, notary and policeman who persecuted and terrorised the villagers in every way they could were all Turks; the bands of brigands who plundered and killed in the villages were mainly Turks or Muslim Albanians. Therefore the fight against the tax burden, official corruption, the abuse of the organs of government and banditry was linked with the fight against the tax-collector, the clerk, the mayor and the policeman, that was, against those in authority, against the Turkish state.

This same phenomenon of the intermingling of the social contradictions and dissatisfaction with the system of absolutist government can be seen in the other levels of the Macedonian population. For example, the guilds which were declining and becoming proletarianised considered that their misfortunes were due to the competition of European goods, the heavy taxes, corruption, the difficult living conditions and so on and they connected all of these with the Turkish system of govern-

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ment. The intelligensia was dissatisfied because it had no entry into the government and could not prosper. This was due to the fact that all clerical positions were occupied by Turks, who dominated the state.

Thus the class conflicts and dissatisfaction with the absolutist system in Turkey was viewed through the focus of national contradictions in the minds of an extensive variety of social levels in Macedonia but especially in those of the peasant-serfs and so the class war, and chiefly the war of the poor peasants against t he estate-owners took on a nationa] character: the struggle was directed against the absolutist Turkish state in order that they might found their own national state in its place.

Goce Delcev, formed and developed his world view under the positive influence of the revolutionary ideas of the Russian democrats- Cernisevski, Doproljubov and others as well as those of the socialist movement in Bulgaria and so in the nineties of the last century he was the strongest supporter of this characteristic, historically created feature of the Macedonian national revolutionary movement - the peasant, antiserfdom , and antiabsolutist quality which marked the Macedonian people's fight for freedom. From the little which he wrote and which has survived and from what has been written about him by Goce's companions it appears that this famous Macedonian leader forcefully and purposely directed the struggle in just this direction - making it a war against the Ottoman absolutist state system as the introducer and supporter of serfdom, economic backwardness and cultural blindness.

Goce said ,,I do not hate the Ottomans as a people, I fight against Ottoman tyranny as a ruling system." This laconic: thought lies at the base of Goce's ideology - at the basis of the ideology of t he Macedonian national r evolutionary m ovement. It expresses t he perfectly correct position that the evil of the Macedonian people and of the Macedonian peasantry in chief was hidden in ,,the Ottoman system of government" which in fact coincided with a feudal system, economic backwardness and political tyranny. The overthrow of this ,,domination" meant the elimination of serfdom and the division of the land among the peasants, economic progress along the path of historically necessary capitalist development and democratic freedom in all fields of social life.

Understanding, thus, the essence of the Macedonian national revolutionary movement, Goce D elcev was logical in proposing ways and means for the liberation struggle of the Macedonian people. H e was the most uncompromising and logical opponent of the Vrhovists aims of Ferdinand's court and of

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the governments in Sofia whose aim was the conquest of Macedonia. He was the most convincing and firmest exposer of the illusions, spread by some, about waiting for Macedonia to be liberated as a result of external intervention - by the intervention of the great European states or the neighbouring Balkan governments - ,,Try", Goce wrote in a letter to Karanov, ,,to eradicate that weakness {expecting help from outside note by P. D.) of the most deceived coward and in its place let there spring ~p the invincible force of self-confidence and determination and then, believe me, each man will fight to the end with great fierceness." In another place he writes: ,,The Liberation of Macedonia depends on an internal risingAnyone who thinks otherwise deceives himself and others".

Goce Delcev had considerable political acumen and hi:; view of the world was in advance of his time. His eye pierced far into the future and he saw there new relations between nations. ,,I understand the world", he said, ,,as one field for cultural competition between the nations." Obviously this one field could not be established by capitalist competition which only made a field for wars and the extermination of nations.

What was needed was the destruction of capitalist system,s and the creation of a socialist society. What was needed was the great October socialist revolution and the creation of the Soviet state, the creation of the popular democracies, of the socialist camp for peace and democracy which really meant the elimination of artificial contradictions between the nations and the creation of a fruitful field for a cultural competition between the peoples such as Goce Delcev dreamed of. Such ideas reveal the immortal Goce as a revolutionary democrat who was already orientated in the direction of revolutionary socialism.

The legendary leader of the Macedonian national revolutionary movement perished in the very dawn of the revolutionary struggle at the high point of revolutionary organisation when preparation for the !linden Rising was being intensified.

The subsequent development of the revolutionary struggle and the !linden Rising itself took place without Goce.

The !linden Rising failed. It was the failure of the entire Macedonian national revolutionary movement of the time. The failure of the Macedonian national revolution was the reason why the solution of the Macedonian Question was sought along other lines - the war of the Balkan states against Turkey.

What were the roots of this change in the development of Macedonian action and of the events in the Balkans?

After the !linden Rising and especially after the Young Turk revolt of 1908 the situation in Macedonia and throughout 139

the Turkish Empire became tenser. Capitalistic development within the country, stimulated even by capital coming in from abroad, was not able to straighten itself within the narrow shell of centuries out-of-date social framework of Turkish rule.

The contradictions between the old exhausted system of unenlightened despotism with a deceptive colouring of parliamentary goverment (after 1908) and the irresistible pressure of economic growth in the form of ,,free capitalism" became sharper and sharper.

Historical development demanded the rapid and final liquidation of this contradiction by the solution of the painful problems of agrarian relations, national liberation, the democratisation of land ownership etc. This could be achieved either through a revolution of the popular masses or through a war.

The revolutionary forces after the Ilinden Rising were far too weak and divided and so were in no state to attempt such an enormous historical task. Therefore revolution did not succeed.

The main reason for this, as Lenin said, was the weakness, lack of cohesion and the illiteracy of the mass of the peasants in all the Balkan countries as well as the shortage of workers who really understood the state of affairs and wanted a Balkan Federal (United) Republic. For exactly this reason ,,the economically and politically essential union became a union of Balkan monarchies" and so the Macedonian ques tion ,,was settled by war and not by revolution" .

The war of the allied Balkan states against Turkey did in fact administer a destructive blow to the absolutist serf system of the Turkish Empire. The Allied Armies destroyed the Turkish military powers and abolished Turkish rule in the European regions of Turkey. This l ed to the abolition of the Turkish absolutist system, the expulsion of the great Turkish estate owners and the liberation of the Macedonian peasants from the semi-feudal chains of the pasha and the beys.

So V. I. Lenin was able to write that: ,,the victory of the Serbs and the Bulgars (in the Balkan War, note of P. D.) meant the downfall of feudalism in Macedonia, the establishment of a greater or lesser free peasant class of land owners and the certain total development of the Balkan countries so far held back by absolutism and serfdom. ,,This means that as far as Macedonia and the other European areas of Turkey were concerned the war of 1912-13 had a progressive character.

Regardless of the obviously annexationist intentions of the Balkan monarchist cliques who organised and ran the war, independent of the imperialist aims of the great powers, the Balkan War by destroying and clearing away the feudal abso140

lutist system in Macedonia performed the function of the bourgeois revolution.

Yet this ,,bourgeois revolution" was partial and incomplete. We know that the Russo-Turkish War of 1877-78 was a similar bourgeois revolution for Bulgaria but it solved one of the main question of a bourgeois revolution - the creation of the Bulgarian national state. The Balkan War did not create a Macedonian state on the contrary it split Macedonia into three parts and subjected it to the national and political persecution of the bourgeois monarchist cliques.

Having eliminated the feudal absolutist rule of the Turkish sultans and beys, the Balkan War opened the way for the establishment of the capitalist - petty landowner exploitation, of the monarcho-fascist regime in Macedonia and also for the senseless national persecution by the overlords in Serbia (later Yugoslavia), Greece and Bulgaria, that is, the bourgeois monarchist cliques. In place of the estate-owner, the Macedonian village was now dominated by the insatiable largescale peasant proprietor, the greatly speculator and the brutal colonist. Instead of the primitive Turkish policeman, the Macedonian villages and towns were hunting grounds for the more refinded and much sharper police. In place of the relative patience of the Turkish authorities with the national feelings of the Macedonians, the new governments recognised only Serbs (in Vardar Macedonia), Greeks (in Aegean Macedonia) and Bulgars (in Pirin Macedonia) . Lenin's words had come true. As he had prophesied at the beginning of the 1912 war: ,,. . . If the tyranny of the rich and the Balkan monarchies remains then in one form or another national persecution will also remain."

In this way the ,,bourgeois revolution" of the wars stopped midway and changed into a bourgeois counter-revolution and developed subsequently into a monarcho- fascist dictatorship.

In such circumstances the Macedonian Question remained unsolved, the Macedonians still groaned beneath the yoke, now heavier than the Turkish, of the new masters of Macedonia. Consequently the Macedonia's fight for their freedom had to continue and it did continued under new conditions after the First World War. What were those new conditions?

The First World War brought about decisive changes in Europe and the rest of the world. The victory of the Great October Socialist Revolution in Russia did away with the reactionary czarist policy and created the Soviet Union as a powerful democratic factor in international politics, giving real, unselfish support to enslaved nations and classes who 141

were struggling for freedom In the Balkans as well as in other European countries a wide-scale labour movement spread and developed and this under the guidance of the Communist parties in each country became an important factor in the socio-political life of them all. This meant that elements which had been lacking in the days of Goce Delcev now began to appear on the political scene - natural allies of the Macedonian national revolutionary movement in t he persons of the wor kers and other democratic and anti-fiscist movements and a suitable leader of the workers fight for freedom - the Communis t Party. Finally there was the enormous political and moral support for the liberation war of the working classes and enslaved nations which was constituted by t he mighty Soviet Union.

The problem now was, how to direct the Macedonian's struggle correctly under the new conditions how was the Macedonian national liberation movement to find its natural place in the ranks of the united front of the working class and the persecuted nations who were led by the Communist Party.

This task was successfully performed under the leadership of the continuer of Goce Delcev's work our own memorable Vladimir Poptomov the commemoration of whose death we mark today with deep sorrow and ardent thankfulness.

Vladimir Poptomov, nourished on the revolutionary spirit of the Macedonian liberation movement and formed as an important social activist in the ranks of the Bulgarian communist party, rightly understood the need for a rapid and decisive reorientation of the Macedonian national movement, leaving behind outmoded practices like brigandage and terrorism, and going over to a massive struggle on a general front with the working class and the oppressed peoples of the Balkans and the guidance of the Communist Party and relying for moral and political support on the brotherly Soviet Union.

The realisation of the utterly essential and historically necessary re-orientation of the Macedonian's fight is connected with the name and activities of IMRO (United) which, headed by Vladimir Poptomow and with t he most active aid and guidance from our dear guide and teacher Georgi Dimitrov, took up and raised higher than ever the revolutionary flag of Goce Delcev. Starting from the idea of a united front of the work er's and other progressive parties, t he organisation adopted the position of the role of leader for the working class and its avantgard - the Communist Party, in the liberation movement of the persecuted classes and peoples. ,,The Social movement of the working-class and peasant masses in the Bal-

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kans", it says in the resolution of the First Conference which was prepared by Vladimir Poptomov, "constitutes the most powerful revolutionary movement here. These movements have as the object of their revolutionary struggle the overthrow and destruction of all policies of domination, reaction, tyranny; in effect the removal of economic oppression from the popular masses ... In this way the social revolutionary movement is waging war on a wide socialist basis which includes also the area in which national oppression occurs.

As the leader and the first rank of the social revolutionary movement today appear the revolutionary parties and organisations of the working masses and of these the first place is occupied by the Communist parties."

Taking up this position IMRO (United) boldly aligned itself in the general Balkan revolutionary movement, directed from the Balkan revolutionary centre, headed by the immortal Georgi Dimitrov.

I MRO <United) did the same as Goce Delcev had done.

It categorically rejected all illusive hopes of getting the Macedonian Question settled by the great imperialist powers who themselves held in enslavement hundreds of millions of colonial and semi-colonial nations and whose Balkan policies had originally led to the division of Macedonia.

IMRO (United) pointed to only one great power on which the Macedonians could rely in their struggle for freedom and union. "Only the Soviet Union, the state of the Russian workers and villagers", says the resolution of the general conference, "has shown itself as the opponent of oppressive exploitatory imperialism and has given complete national freedom to dozens of peoples who were persecuted under the czarist regime and has radically dealt with the national problem within its own frontiers. In these free nations, in the workers and peasants of the Soviet Union, the oppressed peoples of the entire world see their true friends and protectors ... That is why, today, the Macedonian people, see in the Soviet Uruon the one and only state which is their true friend and protector and on whose support they can count in their fight for freedom."

This central plank in the IMRO (United) platform placed the Macedonian liberation movement in the ranks of the common struggle oppressed peoples and exploited classes throughout the world were waging for nation.al or social liberation under the leadership of the working class and its revolutionary avantgard - the Communist Party.

In this way the I MRO (United) headed by Vladimir Poptomov, perpetuating the revolutionary traditions of the IMRO

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of Goce Delcev, guided the Macedonian nation along the one true path to freedom from foreign influence, from, economic and national persecution.

The famous traditions of Goce Delcev's IMRO and the appropriate choice of policy in the given situation made by IMRO (United) headed by Vladimir Poptomov became fully evident during the Second World War when the Macedonians joined in the armed struggle against the Hitlerites and their Balkan agents and together with the people of Yugoslavia, Bulgaria and Greece contributed to the destruction of the occupiers, to the elimination of .the monarcho-fascist regimes and the opening up of the way to a new life.

It is well-known that after the Second Vorld War the union of Macedonia into one state unit could not be achieved owing to the occupation of Greece by Anglo-American forces and to the treachery of Tito's clique.

After the Second World War the position changed to the extent that Pirin Macedonia has remained .inside the frontiers of people's democracy Bulgaria and as a result all the remnants of exploitation and national oppression have been done away with. In people's democracy Bulgaria which, under the leadership of the Bulgarian Communist P arty, is for the front of peace, democracy and socialism headed by the Soviet Union, the Macedonian population of the Pirin Region and the Macedonian emigrants have received their economic and national liberation and are rejoicing today under the care of the popular government and our beloved leader Commrade V'lko Cervenkov in all rights and freedoms. Today they are freely developing their national culture and together with the Bulgarian people successfully building socialism in the Pirin Region as well as throughout the People's Republic.

When the present conditions in the Balkans came about the majority of the Macedonian people found themselves oppressed by Tito's fascist bands in Vardar Macedonia and by the monarcho-fascist clique in Aegean Macedonia. Both Yugoslavia and Greece are fascist regimes, vassals of the AngloAmerican imperialists and therefore both countries are in the warmongers camp. The masters of Greece today are the American imperialists who continually enslave the country economically, politically and militarily and also enslave the Macedonian people. At the command of their masters, Tito's followers have concluded an agressive anti-democratic pact with

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the successors and inheritors of the Turkish sultans and estate-owners - the centuries - old persecutors and enemies of the Chr.istian population of the Balkans and the supressors of the Macedonian's Ilinden Rising.

As a result of all this the Macedonians and the other peoples in Yugoslavia and Greece are subject to a heavy dual oppression - the oppression of the American imperialists and the oppresson of the fascist tyranny of Tito's and the monarcho-fascist's lickspittles. This is why there lies before the Macedonians in these countries, the historical task of undertaking a determined war against the imperialist oppression of the American magnates to secure national independence and at the same time, a war against the bloody regime of Tito and of the monarcho-fascists for freedom and democracy. Thus the national liberation struggle of the Macedonian people has today an anti-imperialist and anti-fascist character which makes it at the same time popular democratic.

Tito's clique, carried away by an irresistible nationalist fury, have no faith in the Macedonian popular masses, whose sympathy for the Soviet Union and the PR Bulgaria, toward the forces of democracy and socialism are well-known and that is why all the positions of command in Vardar Macedonia (in the army, police, administration, economics, education) have been placed in the hands of Tito's faitful henchmen sent in from outside. The traitorous Kolisevski gang serve only to camouflage the national oppression to which the Macedonians are at present subject and which in no way differs from the oppression of King Alexander and the infamous Zika Lazic. Today, as under royalist Yugoslavia, the best, most politically conscious, sons and daughters of the Macedonian people are tortured and killed or sent by the hundreds and thousands to a slow death in the concentration camps.

Now while King Alexander and Zika Lazic openly persecuted everything Macedonian, Tito's gang are dishonestly speculating in the glorious traditions of the Macedonian nation.

They juggle with the names of Goce Delcev and Jane Sandanski, with the memories of the courageous heroes of Iliden and the thousands of sacrifices made through the long years of struggl e for liberty. Tito's lot wish to exploit the struggles of the Ilindeners in order to supress the present fight of the Macedonians - they wish to de-nationalise them and assimilate them. The lowness of Tito's gang is beneath all reckoning: in the name of Goce Delcev and Ilinden they wish to destory Goce Delcev's heritage, the cause of Ilinden and so to destroy the Macedonian nation.

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The Macedonians in Aegean Macedonia are also subject to the most cruel national oppression and de-nationalisation, to a stage by stage fascist liquidation and to exile. After the heroic battles at Vico and Kajmakcalan, the Aegean Macedonians have been outlawed by the monarcho-fascist in Athens. The senseless butchers in Athens refuse to recognise the existence of Macedonians and persecute and torture the Macedonian population worse than ever the Turkish irregulars did.

In such a situation it is clear that in Yugoslavia and Greece there are fascist regimes and these countries are in the camp of the American imperialists and while this continues to be so there can be no question of a democratic solution of the Macedonian problem at present. This could only come about after the destruction of imper.ialist occupation and fascist tyranny and the subsequent triumph of democracy in Yugoslavia and Greece. Then t he necessary precondi tions for the free self-determination of the Macedonian people will come into play followed by their national and state union and the triumph of Goce Delcev's promise .

â&#x20AC;˘ Today we have a good prospects for a successful development of the work of Macedonian liberation and for the r ealisation of the deepest, most natural desires of the Macedonians for a free, democratic life. This is because present circumstances are far more favourable for the development of the Macedonian's struggle. Now the peace camp unites a third of the world, the power and political authority of the Soviet Union is growing day by day and the peoples of the colonial and dependent countries are rising against the imperialist exploiters and warmongers. In this situation the democratic means of settling the Macedonian question must lead to and through the liberation of Macedonia and her incorporation in the democratic camp.

The democratic way to solve the Macedonian problem coincides with the way to the general development and strengthening of the popular democratic front headed by the Soviet Union .This means that the struggle of the Macedonian people completely coincides and fits in with the struggle of the popular masses in Bulgaria, Yugoslavia and Greece: in Bulgaria in the ranks of the Fatherland Front under the leadership of the Bulgarian Communist Party to fulfill the nation's economic plans and construct socialism in the country; in Yugoslavia in the ranks of the persecuted

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Yugoslav peoples under the leadership of a reconstituted Yugoslav Communist Party to do away with the aggressive regime of the traitors and the imperialistic agents of Tito's clique, to establish a popular democratic government and to restore Yugoslavia to the family of popular democracies led by the Soviet Union, and in Greece in the ranks of the popular democratic movement under the guidance of the Greek Communist Party to liquidate the tools of monarcho-fascism and the Anglo-American imperialists and to establish democratic freedoms and the equality of the popular masses in the country.

The democratic way to liberate the Macedonian people from their enslavement to the Tito-fascists and the monarchofascists is interwoven with the general struggle of the peoples against reaction and varmongering and for a lasting peace, popular democracy and socialism.

The abolition of war and the creation of a lasting peace will be a blow to the fascist supporter of Tito and the Greek crown. The tyrants iin Belgrade and Athens can only be kept in power .against the will of the popular masses with the support of the Anglo-American imperialists in connection with the aggressive war which they are preparing for. When the warmongers are stopped by the peace-loving nations, the preparations for an aggressive war will be stopped also and the nations will live ,in peace; then the Anglo-American imperialists will no longer give their backing to Tito's fascist clique and the Athenian monarcho-fascist. And without support of the imperialists abroad Tito's clique and the monarcho-fascist camarilla will be swept aside by their own people.

The abolition of the Tito regime iin Yugoslavia and the monarcho-fascist regime in Greece will remove the most criminal of all the persecutors of the Macedonian people and open the way to the best lastiing solution of the Macedonian Question - by means of Macedonian national and state unification and friendship with the neighbouring Balkan peoples.

Following this democratic path - the path of a struggle for peace against the warmongers, fighting side by side with the Yugoslav and Greek peoples to bring down the Tito rigime in Yugoslavia and the monarcho-fascist regime in Greece, relyng on the mighty camp of peace and democracy headed by the great Soviet Union, the Macedonian people will carry out the wishes of the immortal leader of the Macedonian national liberation revolutionary movement, Goce Delcev and see the triumph of the great work of the heroes of !linden.

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THE WORKERS OF THE PIRIN REGION COMMEMORATE THE FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY OF THE DEATH OF GOCE DELCEV FORMAL ASSEMBLY IN BLAGOEVGRAD ,,Pirinsko delo", 7. V. 1953

Dear Homeland: Every foot of earth on your bosom is drenched with the blood of your faithful children, sacrificed for the freedom of the people. Heroic mother who has born thousands of heroes known and unknown fearless outlaw heroes who fought against Turkish tyranny, legendary partizans, true patriots even till death, fighters against the Balkan monarcho-fascist hangmen!

One of your dearest son fell struck in the bosom by those age-long enslavers of the people, the Turkish Feudalists. Who has not heard of the protoapostle of the Macedonian national liberation movement - Goce Delcev: Fifty years have passed since his death yet his name, pure and sacred, shines as brightly as when he was alive and his fame has not faded.

May 4th. In the reading room the workers of Blagoevgrad are assembling to take part in the official ceremony to mark the fiftieth anniversary of Goce Delcev's death. The curtains slowly open. The stage is decorated with busts of Stalin, Dimitrov and Cervenkov. Above them there is a huge potrait of Goce Delcev. From the ribbons which trim it blaze the words ,,The Work of Goce Delcev will Triumph". The ,,Macedonian Song" choir is on stage. The national anthems of Bulgaria and the Soviet Union sound through the hall. All the guests are standing to attention, moved by the anthems.

The commemorative assembly is opened by the President of the Urban Committee of the Fatherland Front, Dimitrina Stankova. Place on the platform are taken by the President of the Regional People's Council of the Representatives of the Workers Dr. Petar Bozikov, the President of the District Committee of the Fatherland Front, Tego Kojundjiev, the President of GNSDT, Milan Zasev, the secretaries of the City Committee of the Bulgarian Communist P arty, Angel Tasinski and Rade Angelov, the old Sandanskiite, Andon Kosev and others.

The speech on the heroic life and revolutionary activity of Goce Delcev was made by Commrade Krstju Trickov, secretary of the District Committee of the BCP. He described the conditions in which the famous Macedonian revolutionary was born, grew up, fought and died ..

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Fifty years have passed since the death of the immortal apostle of Macedonian liberty, Goce Delcev, said Commrade Trickov. The recognised leader of the Macedonian Revolutionary Organisation did not even live to see the famous !linden Rising of the Macedonian nation. On the 2nd May, 1903 ;-eturning from Thessalonika where he had been to meet Dame Gruev, Goce arrived at the village of Banica, Seres vicinity and stayed there. On 4th of May, early in the morning, a frightened old woman rushed into the house where Goce and his commrades were and told them the disturbing news that the band had been betrayed. The Turks had surrounded Banica and were searching it house by house. Goce at once gave orders to leave the village. He did this to save the village from being burned. He was not the man to let a whole Macedonian village be burned for the sake of twenty men. His orders were obeyed. They had not even got ou t of the village when the first shots fired by the Turkish soldiers were heard.

Goce Delcev at once returned their fire but a bullet pierced his chest and he fell to the ground. Several other nembers of the squad and their leader Gustanov perished with him.

Those left alive got into a shed and carried on the fight from their for the rest of the day and then in the evening retreated through the Turkish cordon.

The loss of Goce caused h eavy misfortunes for the further development of the Macedonian liberation movement since after the untimely slaughter of the generally recognised authoriative and intelligent leader of the Macedonian-Edirne Organisation, influences gradually asserted themselves which were foreign to the Macedonian people and which forced the national liberation movement into sanguinary and catastrophic courses.

The speech gave emphasis to the difficult economic circumstances of the Macedonian population left under Turkish slavery after the Russo-Turkish war of 1877-78 at the evil instigation of the imperialistic governments of England and Germany. The Macedonian peasants oppressed by the unbearable weight of taxation and clerical corrupt;on and maltreated by the government authorities as well as by brigands was obl' ged to find some way to solve their national question.

In such conditions after the Berlin Treaty, the speaker continued, when Macedonia alone was left to groan beneath the Turkish yoke, the ques tion of Macedonia in the Balkans arose and the Macedonian revolutionary movement headed

by Goce Delcev was born.

Goce Delcev formed and developed his world view under the active influence of the revolutionary ideas of the Russian

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democrats Cernisevski, Dobroljubov and others and of that of the socialist movement in Bulgaria in the 90s of the last century. Born .in the alert town of Kukus, Goce showed his war-like nature while he was still small. After h e had finished the first stage of his education and his father had tried unsuccessfully to make him a tradesman, he started at Thessalonika gymnasium but there, too, he was faithful to his nature and was frequently the head of plots and demonstrations. He realised, however, that an educated intelligence was needed for the fight and he set himself to learn well, to read and to educate himself. He learnt no only from books but from the life around him. He was forced thus to think seriously about the state of his people. Important for the training Goce reseived in this field were the underground literaly circles in the high school where they read book wilth revolutionary contents forbidden by the Turkish authorities in the main books by Russian revolutionaries and Bulgarian r evolutionary poets and journalists such as Botev, Karavelov, Rakovski , Zahari Stojanov etc. Revolutionary literature by Bulgarian socia1ists led at that time by Dimitar Blagoev was read with special interest.

As soon as he had finished the sixth class at the Thessalonika high school, Goce went to Kukus, kissed hands to his weeping father and mother, said farewell to h is five sisters and his three younger brothers and set out for Bulgaria to enter himself at the militar y academy. He did this in the full consciousness that it was necessary to be well-prepar ed for the struggle against the Turkish conquerors. Goce was at the military academy for three years. Here also h e read socialist books in secret and thirstily swallowed socialist ideas. His mind was obviously developing new ideas and thoughts. ,,For weeks, months and years", writes Javorov, ,,the ardent dreamer became more deeply diissatisfied and disappointed. He detected, although merely by sensing them, the great contradictions in the ,,free" life of contemporary ,,free societies" and was unable to reconcile them with his extremely indefinite longings for freedom brought from his own enslaved country. " Goce soon became a socialist - he dedicated him.self, as J avorov says, to socialist ideas. This, however, meant the end of his military career. Because of his socialist activities, Goce and some others of his companions were expelled from the military academy two or three months before bein g gazetted. All the expelled cadets, even those from Goce's circle, regreted for their expulsion. ,,Only Goce", K. Kondov a member of Goce's cir cle writes in his memoirs, ,,was rejoiced .in heart and soul that this gave him an oppor-

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tunity to go to his enslaved Macedonia where a great revolutionary task awaited him." After his return to Macedonia Goce became a teacher in Stip. Ther e he contacted Dame Gruev, Tuse Dellivanov and others. He threw himself into revolutionary activity completely. By day he taught the children and by night he educated and organised the adults.

While at Stip, Goce gave the revolutionary organisation the form and figure which was to b ecome the example for the committees and groups formed throughout Macedonia. Goce Delcev took the helm .in the Macedonian people's struggle and became the recognised head of the Macedonian revolutionary organisation, a true apostle of Macedonia .

Coce's position of not hating the Ottomans as a people but rather their system of government distinguishes him as a r evolutionary democrat w ho was clearly orientated towards r evolutionary socialism.

Goce's enchanting influence over the Macedonian people was magical. Goce is known among t he peopl e first and foremost as a popular patron and pr otector from Turkish and other conquerors. This is why t here is no other Macedonian r evolutionary of whom so much has been sung as Goce D elcev.

After the death of Goce Delcev and the defeat of the Ilinden Rising, Macedonia's situation became even worse. The slavery and the terrorism became worse until they were unb earable. The only way out of the situation was a revolution among the m ass of the people or a war against Turkey. Yet after the Balkan War of 1912- 1913 the Macedonian question still r emained unsolved and the Macedonian peopl e wer e divided and pressed by new conquerors. The Macedonian people's struggle had to continue and it did continue in different conditions after the First World War when there was a large scale working class movement led by the communist party and when the mighty Soviet Union had come into existence, both factors lacking in the days of Goce Delcev.

Under the leadership of our never-to-be-forgotten Vladimir Poptomov, who correctly saw the need for a rapid and effective r e-orientation of the Macedonian national revolutionary movement, a common front of the working class and the oppressed peoples of the Balkan countries was formed, IMRO (United) under the leadership of Poptomov, with the active aid and direction of the leader of the Bulgarian people, Georgi Dimitrov who gave the Macedonians the.irr direction under new conditions.

After the S econd World War the union of Macedonia in one state entity could not be achieved. It was prevented

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by the occupation of Greece by Anglo-american troops and the faithlessness and treason of Tito's band. At least after the Second World War the position was changed to the extent that the Pirin Region remained within the frontiers of the popular democracy of Bulgaria and th.is meant the end of all the remains of exploitation and national persecution.

Within the frontiers of PR Bulgaria the Macedonian population of the Pirin Region gained its national and economic freedom and today rejoices in all rights and freedoms. Today we are developing our national culture freely together with the fraternal Bulgarian people and we are both constructing socialism in the Pirin Region and the whole of Bulgaria.

Later in his speech Commrade Trickov emphasised the fact that in existing political conditions the larger part of the Macedonian people found itself under the persecution of the Tito---Kolisevski band in Vardar Macedonia and of the monarcho-fascist clique in Aegean Macedonia. He made mention of the policy of denationalisation of the Tito fascists, aided by the dishonourable Kolisevski clique who were being used to cover up national persecution while the name and heritage of the inmmortal Goce Delcev was being bandied about and he also referred to the physical expulsion to which the Macedonian population in the Aegean region were being subjected by the ill-famed Greek monarcho-fascists.

In such a situation, it was clear that while Yugoslavia and Greece had fascist regimes and the countries were incorporated in the American-English imperialist camp, there could be no question of a democratic solution for the Macedonian problem being even so much as spoken of. This would only be possible after the destruction of imperialist slavery and fascist tyranny, after the triumph of democratic forces in Yugoslavia and Greece. Then the necessary preconditions for the free self-determination of the Macedonian people would be C!"eated, then it might have its national and state union, then might the promise of Goce triumph.

From us ,the workers of the Pirin Region, they sought that we should unite ever more closely round the BCP and Commarade V'lko Cervenkov in order to r aise ever higher the banner of friendship with the peoples of the mighty Soviet Union, to be faithful for ever to the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. We had also to strengthen the People's Republic of Bulgaria - the support of peace and socialism in the Balkans - by fulfilling all the tasks set us by the Party and the Government. We had also to sharpen our watchfulness in the struggle against our enemies external and internal of the type of those traitors who follow Tito

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and Kolisevski, the Greek and the Turkish reactionaries. That is how we should remain faithful to t he heritage of Goce Delcev.

The speech of Commrade Trickov was accompanied by wild applause. The Secretary of the Central Committee of the BCP, Rade Angelov, read a telegram of greetings to the Central Committee of the BCP which was accepted with approving handclaps by those present. In th e telegram the workers of Blagoevgrad expressed their unity and solidarity with the Central Committee of the BCP headed by Commrade V'lko Cervenkov and their hatred and contempt for the persecution of the Macedonian population in the Var dar and Aegean regions by Tito and Kolisevski's band and the monarcho-fascists.

Finally there was a musico-literary programme devoted to Goce Delcev.

JANE SANDANSKI - A BOLD FIGHTER FOR THE FREEDOM OF THE MACEDONIAN PEOPLE MATERIAL FOR SPEECHES ,.Pirinsko d elo", 14. IV. 1955

I. On 23rd April, this year forty years passed since the assassination of the great Macedonian revolutionary J ane Sandanski. This commemoration recalls for the population of t he Pirin Region the loss of one of their unforgettable and dearly loved sons, it reminds t.o the epic fight of the same population against many- centuries oppressors - the Ottoman Turks and against the annexation policy of King Ferdinand.

The figure of Jane Sandanski. decorates a major page in the heroic struggles of the Macedonian people.

The epoch in which Jane S'andanski was born and worked was marked by a heavy, even unbearable persecution of the socially deprived Macedonian nation in the Turkish state.

Until the 20th century an exploitatory feudal system continued in operation in Turkey . Due to this a large part of the Macedonian peasantry were seriously exploited . The owners of the soil of Macedonia were various beys on whose estates

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the population laboured as a cross between serfs and villeins.

Thus, for example, in the Bitola district where there were 123 village, 70 were in the hands of beys and were worked by serfs. In the Melnik (now Sandanski) district, where Jane Sandanski was active, 17 of the 55 villages belonged to the beys. In the fertile fields of Macedonia at that time there were 180,000 agricultural units of which fifteen thousand were large and ten thousand medium sized. Seventy per cent of the agricultural labourers did not possess land of their own but worked on that of others - the estates of the beys. It was only in certain mountain villages where the cultivated land vas relatively scarce the villagers were formally considered to own their own land.

The weight of taxation was also intolerable and this was felt mainly by the workers. In feudal Turkey's empire the medieval tax called the ,,tenth" (tithe) still existed. According to this system 11.6 % of the population's product - wheat, fruit, grapes and all else - was given to the state. The collection of this tax was accompanied by unheard of bribery and corruption. The tax-farmers were us ually the worst of the Turks or Christians completely sold to the Turkish government. Corruption and banditry were something quite common in the Turkish state which worsened the position of the labouring population.

In the second half of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century Turkey began to fall more and more under the influence of the great European imperialist powers. Foreign capital and manufactured goods had begun to find their way into the country and this struck a blow at Macedonian craft work. The work of the village population was also exploited.

The population of both town and country was plundered and impoverished. This meant an opportunity for the spread of usury. It was common thing to pay between 30 and 60 per cent interest.

This terrible misery obliged more than 100,000 Macedonians yearly to leave their homeland and go to find temporary work on 'pecalbar' (earning) to find food for themselves and their families abroad - in Bulgaria, America and elsewhere.

Parallel with this economic persecution in Macedonia there was insupportable national persecution and political terrorism. Beatings, ill-treatment, arrests, murders, rape were common events. The Macedonian population was deprived of the right to participate in the government of the country or to undertake any administrative duties. The Turkish go154

vernment not only failed to care for but positively hindered their cultural development and any improvement in the standard of living.

II. It was in such an atmosphere of slavery that in 1893 the foundations of the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organisation, the organisation which later began to conduct the liberation struggle of the Macedonian people were laid. The proto-apostle of the Macedonian liberation was Goce Delcev.

Having learned from the experience of the Bulgarian revolu1.iona1ies Levski, Botev and Rakovski, t he Macedonian activists adopted the .idea of a general rising and started circulating the villages and towns in order to prepare the people for a mass armed rising. With this definite development the Macedonian fight for liberation advanced to an considerable higher stage. ,,In place of sudden risings, in place of revolutionary outbreaks on the part of individual, bold men, the dissatisfaction of the Macedonian people was canalised in one direction and the stream was thus guided consciously and directed according to a plan by an organisation headed by a central leadership. said Vladimir Poptomov. A clear political objective had been set for the Macedonian liberation struggles - the Macedonian people were fighting for the freedom and independence of their homeland, for the foundation of their own Macedonian state, for ,,extensive rights for all poor men of whatever nation, religion or tongue", as the task was defined by Goce Delcev.

It is essential to remark that the majority of the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organisation IMHO leaders were activists with progressive ideas and some of them such as Goce Delcev, Dimo Hadji Dimov, Nikola Karev etc. had a clearly defined socialist outlook. They were under the direct ideological influence of the Bulgarian Labour Social Democratic Party (the narrow socialists).

Thanks to wise leadership, IMRO succeeded .in combining in its committees the urban and rural Macedonian population.

It educated them politically and morally, armed t h em and prepared them for a revolutionary attempt as great as Ilinden rising and the subsequent battles; in these national liberation struggles of the Macedonian population of the Pirin against the Turkish Slavery, the most important place was taken by Jane Sandanski

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III. Jane Sandanski was born on 18th May, 1872 at the village of Vlahi, near Svetivrac (now in t he Sandansk1 district). The village is situated high on the slopes of the beautiful, heroic Mount Pirin. There he passed his first years.

The grandfathers and father of Jane Sandanski had a revolutionary spirit and a thirst for freedom- Because he had taken part in the famous Kresnensko Rising, his father had been forced to emigrate with his entire family. First h 1l went to Gorna Djurnaja (now Blagoevgrad) and t hen to Dupnica (now Stanke Dimitrov) where they settled to live.

Sandanski's parents were poor people and his childhood was passed amid the misfortunes which a wandering life entails. Owing to their lack of means, despite his wishes and abilities, he only finished two forms of primary school. At first he was apprenticed to a shoemaker and then he became a clerk in the law office of his uncle Spas Harizanov.

His natural intelligence and his curiosity drove Sandanski on to read books and educate himself. The books which had the strongest .influence on him were Zahari Stojanov's ,,Memoirs" (Zapisi") Ivan Vazov's ,,Under the Yoke" (,,Po:i lgoto") and some by r evolutionary Russian writers - the democrats Cernisevski, Pisarev and others. He always sought the more enlightened local citizens, especially the teachers among whom was Dimo Hadji Dimov.

Together with the more advanced and progressive young people, Jane Sandanski formed a patriotic society called ,,Mladost" which had as its purpose the self-education of the young and opposition to the bourgeois partizanship which was developing at the tjme.

While still a youth, the idea crystallised in his brain that he should fight for the freedom of his homeland. He was hardly twenty years old when be entered the big squad of Captain Stoju from the village of Skrizevo and left for Macedonia. However, this squad did not fulfil its aim.

In 1897 he again entered a band which entered Macedonia without any organised plan. Jane Sandanski's real introduction to revolutionary action came in 1898 when he met Goce Delcev who had a great influence on him. ,,I realised", Sandanski says ,,that Delcev was a real man, he truly knew the organisation and what it needed".

In the same year Sandanski became acquainted with that other pillar of the Macedonian liberation movement, Gjorcc P etrov. Now he was well orientated about the basic problems of the movement.

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In April, 1901 Sandanski formed his squad of eight men and went to organise the Gorna Djumaja and Razlog districts as a IMRO activist. From that moment till the end of his life, for a period of fifteen years, he worked devotedly for the political and revolutionary organising and improvement of the population of the Pirin region and for its preparation for the fight to free the counry from the Turkish occupation and against the war-mongers and the policy of annexation followed by the Balkan bourgeois governments for creating a new life. His task was to set up a committee in each inhabited place, to excite the revolutionary spirit of the inhabitants and to assist them to arm in readiness for the general popular rising against the despotic Turkish government. In all this Sandansk:i emerged as a talented organiser.

Goce Delcev observing Sandanski's talents as an organiser and revolutionary entrusted him with the Melnik district.

Sandanski became the district commander and was so successful in organising and enlisting the population that in a short time he became an example of revolutionary action.

Jane Sandanski's organisational talent is apparent from his attitude to the premature declaration of the llinden Rising by the Vrhovists. Like Goce Delcev, he felt that the Macedonian people were not yet ready for a rising. After the llinden Rising, Sandanski was entrusted with the r evolutionary liberation movement throughout the Seres revolutionary region, which had its centre in the Pirin.

Under his leadership and care a strong revolutionary network was constructed in the Seres revolutionary region in which the Macedonian population took an active part. There was no other revolutionary organisation in the area with a bigger membership or greater authority than the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organisation (IMRO) headed by Jane Sandanski. The organisation led an active institutional life - it organised district and regional conferences and congresses, it had a well armed force of illegaly armed bands and a secret militia composed of the local population.

Sandanski was able to attract to himself such distinguished and devoted revolutionaries as Dimo Hadji Dimov, Aleksandar Bujnov, Stoju Hadjiev, Todor Panica, Krstju Asenov, Sava Mihajlov, Cudomir Kantardjiev, Georgi SkTizevski and so on.

A large number of these had progressive and socialist ideas.

With the introduction of socialist ideas into the Macedonian national liberation movem ent this gained a strongly progressive character in the Seres district. Jane Sandanski's group the so-called 'Ser cani' or 'Sandanisti' took on a special shape

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and form. Jane Sandanski became the generally recognised and worthy leader of this group which succeeded a short tim e after the crushing of the Ilinden Rising in r eestablishing the revolutionary network in the Pirin region while the organisation also by its r evolutionary activities became the protec tor of the enslaved population and a menace to the Turkish authorities. It spread political education widely and enligh t ened the Macedonian population in prop.er way. As a result large-scale revolutionary actions wl!te undertaken there were daily engagements with the Turkish army. The Turkish beys were obliged to sell their estates and to recognise the r.ights of t he inhabitants. P eople refused to pay th e tithes and the Turkish courts and other governmental institutions were sabotaged. The Sercani group maintained t heir opposition to the Vrhovists firmly, took part in the bourgeoisd emocr atic r evolution in Turkey in 1908, in the Balkan War of 1912 and so on.

I V. Jane Sandanski made his name immortal in the Macedonian liberation struggle by his l egendary revolutionary deeds. The first act w hich spr ead Sandanski's fame throughout the Pirin region as well as into far countries was the kidnapping of the American missionary Miss S tone which ocurred at a place called ,,Potprenata sk ala" in the neighbourh ood ot the village of Gradevo, Blagoevgrad vicinity, on August 16t h, 1902. H e k ept Miss Stone under guard for a whole six months during all of which time h e had to guard t he captives from the Tur kish forces and t he Vrhovist bands as well as provide the d ay t o day essentials for the women them selves. The Organisation gained 14,500 Turkish liras from this revolutionary action and bought 3,000 guns with the money. It also had an important political and propagandist effect since through it th e world came to know the character and the aim s of the I nternal Macedonian Revolutionary Organisation.

On March 1st, 1903 Jane Sandanski's b rigade fought a fierce battle at the village of Gorni Orman (now L adarevo), Sandanski district, where the Turkish forces suffered 150 killed and 60 wounded while Sandanski's band h ad only one killed and five slightly wounded.

During the !linden Rising J ane Sandanski's band fought on Mt. Pirin above the eponymous village at the place called ,,Ajduckata poljana", engaging many thousands of Turkish troops. In the bat tle 80 Turks were killed at the cost of one member of the band.

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In 1905 near the village of Sugarevo, Sandanski district, Jane's band held out for three days against the Turkish soldiers. At last the soldiers were worn out and their commandant shouted ,.Heh, you enemies of the Sultan, we are tired of chasing you but you are not tired. The way is clear, make your get away . . ." Similar heroic battles were fought at Marulevo, Blagoevgrad district, Dolni Orman and Vranja, Sandanski district, and so on.

Jane Sandanski's services to the Macedonian national liberation movem ent were so great because he kept his integrity and independence in face of the intrigues of the neighbouring Balkan bourgeois governments of which the most active was that of King Ferdinand and his servants - the Vrhovists. While the whole programme and ideology of IMRO was based on the principle of preparing the people of Macedonia for an internal general rising in Macedonia which should be supported only by the progressive political and social forces of the Balkans, the other path was one of wars, armed interference from outside, the division and plundering of Macedonia. Jane Sandanski was not merely opposed to the Vrhovists ideologically but also with arm in a hand. In 1905 a large combined Vrhovits brigade enter ed the Melnik district in order to destroy the work done there by IMRO. Sandanski ambushed this brigade and fought them till they were compelled to surrender. He disarmed them and forced them to r eturn to Bulgaria. It was such battles with the Vrhovists that brought upon him the mortal hatred of King Ferdinand .

V.

Jane S andanski showed a constant concern for the development and success of teaching and the general cultural improvement of the Macedonian population of the Pirin region.

The Organisation, under his direction, took part in teaching everywhere by taking the initiative in the erection of new schools. In this respect particularly good results wer e obtained .in the Melnik and Razlog districts. Care was taken to organise a good teaching personel, to open reading-rooms and start libraries. In many settlements on his personal advice these questions of education were correctly settled. Jane Sandanski worked for the general cultural improvement of the population. In ,a circular to the committees of the Organisation dated 1905 he gave orders about domestic hygiene, superfluous jewelry, the interfer ence of the elders in the marriages of young folk and so on.

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In return for his great and continuing concern for the people - his opposition to national persecution, economic expl oitation and his support for educational advances, they have treasured a measureless love and respect for him. It was from their feeling of gratitude that the peo~le called him ,,The Old One", meaning father, a man who had shown paternal concern and r evolutionary fervour.

It was characteristic of Jane that he was a revolutionarv with advanced democratic ideas. He was no narrow-minded patriot. Sandanski did not fight against peoples but against the despotic Turkish feudal system of government as Goce Delcev expressed it. The group of ,,Sercani" of whom Jane Sandanski was the chief fought worthily for the settlement of the Macedonian national question by democratic means.

The Sercani fought for the removal of the weight of national slavery from off the Macedonians, for the overthrow of Turkish despotism and the liquidation of t he semi-feudal land sistem, for the ,,provision of the landless serfs with land taken from the estate owners" as Sandanski taught.

In order to achieve this object he called not only upon the Christian Macedonian population but also upon his Turkish fellow-citizens of whom he said: ,,In your own Turkish kingdom you are no less slaves than your fellow-citizens" .

F or Sandanski ,,the nations are brothers and should live like brothers ,,and only" along this road can we progress to freedom."

Thanks to such progressive ideas, Jane Sandanski comes near to the activists of the BCP and all progressive Bulgarian society. The Bulgarian Communist Party, again, has always h ad the correct attitude to the Macedonian people's liberation struggle and has given it its sincere, unselfish support. It has recognised and respected the right of the Macedonian people to fight for their freedom. As long ago as 1885 Dimitar Blagoev wrote : ,,As far as Macedonia is concerned, it will be best to leave its population to decide voluntarily what language, faith and nationality they want." Such a correct attitude on the part of the BCP is apparent at any time later as a series of declarations shows. At the Fifth Congress of the P arty the immortal gu;ide and teacher of the Bulgarian people, Georgi Dimitrov, said: ,,Our party has always been firmly opposed to militaristic bourgeois nationalism and has fought energetically against the plans of the Balkan monarchies and the bourgeois-capitalist cliques to conquer and divide Macedonia."

The Sercani group was also linked to the democratic elements within the Turkish state itself the Young Turk Mo-

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vement, for example. As a result of their joint efforts the democratic forces in Turkey brought about a political landslide in July 1908 - the Huriyet< Although this event did not end in victory because the Young Turks themselves hesitated, Sandanski made use of the Huriyet for extensive political activity. He founded in Turkey the Federal Party which aimed at education t11e workers in a sJÂĽrit of hatred for despotism, for the complete r emoval of the monarchy and the building up of brotherhood and unity between the Balkan peoples. In a federal structure for the Balkans and the brotherly association of the Balkan peoples he saw an assurance for the peaceful development of the Balkans and the avoidance of the imperialistic aims of the capitalist countries.

Under the slogan ,,Union among the Balkan P eoples against their age-long enemy Sultan absolutism" Sandanski called upon the population in his revolutionary region to take part in the Balkan War of 1912. In Melnik he enlisted 800 men in three days. The bands in this division disorganised the rear of the Turkish forces and fought their way as far as the Marmora. Yet again the royal governments misused the enthusiasm of the Balkan peoples. As a result of the annexationist policies of the dynasties instead of finding itself free, Macedonia was divided once again.

â&#x20AC;˘ After the Balkan War Jane Sandanski entered the ranks of Bulgarian democratic society and fought against the reactionary policy of King Ferdinand which was leading our country towards a national catastrophe. ¡ While defending the policy of peace and friendship boldly and fighting openly against German imperialism, Jane Sandanski was assassinated by the agents of King Ferdinand - Vrhovists - on 23rd April, 1915.

Jane Sandanski fell in the fight for the liberation of the Macedonian people. His ideals and wishes have been realised today in the Pirin Region of Macedonia. Under the careful guidance of the Bulgarian Communist Party a new joyful socialist life is being constructed today in the Pirin region. In this new life Macedonian populaton will be eternally grateful to its legendary rebel. It already names its settlements, cooperatives and schools after him. The Macedonian population of the Pirin Region pronounces the name of Jane Sandanski with ardent thankfulness and keeps that name and his heritage ever green.

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THE INFLUENCE OF THE IDEAS OF LENINISM ON THE MACEDONIAN NATIONAL LIBERATION MOVEMENT ,,Pirinsko delo", 21. IV. 1955

From the very first days of its coming into existence under the leadership of t he great Lenin, the youthful soviet state introduced an policy of peace and fellowship among the nations while the struggle to maintain world peace was its primary task.

Under the leadership of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, the soviet state, is still guided today unhesitatingly by Lenin's advice on peace and understanding between nations. The Soviet Union h as won over millions of people all over the globe and h as established irtself in their eyes as their sincerest friend and protector. Under the inspired guidance of t he great Lenin the multi-nation Soviet state was created over a sixth part of the world - the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. S'oviet rule provided the final solution of the n ational problem, solving it in the interests of all those nations which had groaned under the czarist yoke and that of the Russian and local bourgeoisie. In place of the old inter-nation hatreds a friendly family of soviet peoples has been formed. These have received unlimited rights to develop t heir economies in the worker's interests and to develop their own national culture - their language, science and art. The once backward regions of Russia are now socialist republics which are flourishing and in which lirve happy, new-born nations. They owe their right to live and develop their economy and culture to t h e soviet government, the Communist Party, the genius of Lenin and that great continuer of his work, Stalin.

The ideals of the great October Socialist Revolution, the ideas of Lenin, have played a determining role in the correct orientation and development of the Macedonian Liberation Movement ever since it lost its first leaders - Goce Delcev and Jane Sandanski. In the Soviet Union, the Macedonian people saw a model of a state where national persecution is unknown. In the r evolutionary teaching of Lenin the conscious part of the working class and the intelli.gensia of the Macedonian people saw the single, saving teaching able to show them the correct road for the Macedonian National Liberation Movement to take. This road meant unity and union with the working class of all Balkan nations a common front of nationally and socially enslaved peoples.

Such a movement could only be led by the Communist Party.

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Thus it was that at t he head of the Macedonian Liberation Movement were those faithful sons of the Macedonian people, the activists of the Bulgarian Communist Party Dimo Hadji Dimov, Vladimir Poptomov, Simeon Kavrakirov, Metodi Satorov and others.

The party of the narrow socialist, under the leadership of Dimitar Blagoev, always sympathised with and helped t he Macedonian people in their struggle for liberty. In this party's ranks and under its influence the leaders of the Macedonian people's national liberation struggle were formed, Goce Delcev, Jane Sandanski, Nikola Karev and many others. Once the narrow socialist party had adopted the Leninist position and transformed into a communist party, under the leadership of Georgi Dimitrov, it gave the Macedonian people their correct orientation, showing it the way in its strugi le with the common enemy - the imperialist bourgeoisie and Fascism and inspiring it with a deep faith in the liberating role of the Soviet Union.

When Hitler's Germany attacked the Soviet Union and the Bulgarian Communist Party raised the banner of armed anti-fascist resistance, the communist of the Pirin Region were some of the first in the country to follow the path of the partizans in their fight against Hitler's forces of occupation and Bulgarian fascism.

On September 9th, 1944 the Pirin Region of Macedonia obtained complete freedom. The present Macedonian population of Bulgaria enjoys full rights and freedoms, takes an active part in socialist construction and joyfully creates its own culture, national in form but socialist in content.

The name of Lenin is the banner under which progressive humanity is conjoined ~n the struggle against those who are once again seeking to cause a world war. Their hellish plans, are, however, broken on the granite resistance of the mighty peace camp headed by the Soviet Union.

The ideas of Lenin are the ideas of hundreds of millions of people throughout the world. They are invincible as is the immortal name of their creator Vladimir Ilic Lenin.

Lenin's work for peace and brotherly union between the nations is worthy and will prevail.

G. J. Madolev

11â&#x20AC;˘

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THE PARTY AND THE MACEDONIAN QUESTION ,,Pirinsko delo", 8. V. 1955

The formation of the ideological basis of Goce Delcev's Internal Macedonian - Edirne Revolutionary Organisation occured to a considerable extent under the influence of progressive Bulgarian thought and especially that of the Bulgarian Workers Social Democratic P arty, led by Dimitar Blagoev.

As early as 1885 Dimitar Blagoev had written a series of articles in the paper ,,Voice of Macedonia" (MaKep;oHCKJ1 mac) in which the slogan ,,Macedonia for the Macedonians" was first raised as well as the idea of an independent Macedonia within the framework of a Balkan federation. ,,The Balkan federation", Dimitar Blagoev wrote at the time, ,,which should have the liberation of Macedonia as its aim and the extension to all the peoples of the Balkans extensive freedoms for self-government; this is where the salvation of the Balkan peoples lies. As for Macedonia, it will be best to leave it to its citizens voluntarily to decide the language, religion and nationality which they want." The ,,Voice of Macedonia" and later the earliest of the Bulgarian socialist newspapers supported the Macedonian's plans for liberation.

In its number of May 12th, 1895 the paper ,,Socialist" included a strongly polemical piece under the title ,,Who does Macedonia belong to?" wherein it firmly adopted the position that ,,Macedonia belongs to the Macedonians". Later with the expansion of the revolutionary movement in Macedonia, the organs of the socialist press, particularly the paper ,,The Wor kers Paper" (Pa6oTHJ,fqeCKH BecHJ11K) and the magazine ,,The New Era" (HoBo BpeMe) more and more frequently published material in the support of the Macedonian people's struggle for liberation and against the attempts of various Bulgarian governments to exploit the Macedonian Question for the benefit of their coterie's agressive aims.

The Second Congress of the Bulgarian Labour and Social Democratic Party which was held in Sofia at the end of June 1895 adopted a resolution which stated: ,,The delegates to the Second National Socialist Confer ence express their ardent sympathy with the Macedonian liberation movement and express the idea that our publications should concern themselves with the study of the Macedonian Question in more detail." (,,Co1.zy1aJIJ1CT" N!! 80, 7. VIII. 1895).

The Tenth Congress of the Socialist Labour Party dealt specially with the Macedonian question. Gavr.il Georgiev,

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who reported on this subject, emphasised that it was always necessary to make the distinction between the so-called Macedonian movement in Bulgaria and the struggle for liberation which was going on within Macedonia itself. This w:is due to the fact that the fight had its objective in the liberation of Macedonia and the creation of more bearable conditions of life while the Macedonian movement in Bulgaria was dictated mainly by the selfish material interest of the grand and petit Bulgarian bourgeoisie. The greed for conquest of the grand bourgeosie was evident in it together wit h the desire of the petit bourgeois to strengthen the position of the small-holder. Due to all this the Macedonian movement in Bulgaria was frequently exploited for reactionary purposes. This meant that the attitude of the social democrats towards it would be far different from their attitude to the liberation struggle in Macedonia itself. Towards the struggle of the working masses in Macedonian the social democrats were most sympathetic and helpful, trying through their criticism and enlightenment to influence it in the sence of making it as effective as possible.

The congres-s adopted a resolution on the Macedonian Question which stated: ,,The Tenth Congress of the Bulgarian Workers and Social Democratic P arty expresses its bitterness at all the bestialities committed by the Turkish authorities in Macedonia and also expresses its sympathy for the true Macedonian revolutionaries and at the same time recommends all party commrades whenever they have an opportunity to enlighten people as to the true nature of so-called Macedonian movement which is being used not for the liberation of Macedonia but for the destruction of our freedoms and the hindrance of development in our country. ,,Workers Action") (Pa6zyrm,rqecxo )];eJIO") 31st July, 1903.

Towards the mid nineties of the last century a group of Macedonian revolutionary social democrats - Vasil Glavinov, Veljo Markov, Dimitar Mirascev, Andon Sulev, Aleksandar Razdolov and others founded a Macedonian social democratic organisation in Sofia which took definite shape in 1896 under the title of the Macedonian Revolutionary Social Democratic Union. This society was a part of the Bulgarian Workers Social Democratic Party of Dimitar Blagoev and acted in co-operation with the party leadership. The most important Macedonian r evolutionaries were members of this party: Goce Delcev, Nikola Karev, Nikola Rusinski, Veljo Markov, Dimo Hadji Dimov etc.

The Macedonian Revolutionary Social Democratic Union was founded, as its paper ,,Revolution" (Peso.1ry1~1,ui:) said, 165

with the object of introducing ,,new elements" into the Macedonian revolutionary movement, to spread the ideas of revolutionary socialism among the Macedonian population and to direct the Macedonian liberation movement along the right road.

These ,,new elements" were inscribed on the ,,Revolution" as its motto: ,,The Liberation od Macedonia is the task of the Macedonians", ,,Any Revolution which has not as its fundamental purpose the Improvement of the People's Lot is a Crime in that it substitutes the one for the other" and so on.

The Bulgarian Labour and Social Democratic Party aimed to work through the Macedonian revolutionary socialist union at spreading the study of socialism in Macedonia and to influence the national revolutionary movement of the Macedonian people itself and so direct it along the true revolutionary path without letting it stray off it into dangerous side ways.

In this way the influence and activity of the Macedonian Revolutionary Social Democratic Union and, through it, of the Bulgarian Labour and Social Democratic Party on the Macedonian liberation movement became most apparent in th e early years of the activity of the Internal Macedonian Edirne Revolutionary Organisation.

The principle of an internal armed rising as the means to liberate Macedonia completely suits with what is said in the prefaratory article on the programme in the first number of ,,Revolu!ion", 28th June, 1895. ,,Our first word, our first appeal", the programme states, ,,will be 'To ARMS, to ARMS' ... In the third number of July 12th, 1895 ,,Revolution" writes: ,,We address our burning greeting to all those who desire the liberation of Macedonia no longer look on calmly but unfurl the blood red flag of revolution ... A struggle of life and death, a struggle for freedom or slavery - this will herald the sanguinary Macedonian revolution."

Goce Delcev's passionate protest against educating the people to expect liberation from without is to be found in a letter to Karanov and we find it again in the programme of ,,Revolution": ,,We consider enemies of the ideal of liberation all those false politicians who bow before the kings of the earth be they Russian, Austrian or any other ruler. Those who bow before any k ind of tyrant and seek help from them cannot be true fighters for the freedom of Macedonia."

The constitution of the Internal Macedonian-Edirne Revolutionary Organisation which was composed by Goce Delcev and Gjorce Petrov adopts the position, as has been em-

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phasised elsewhere, that the organisation aimed at ,,uniting in one all the dissatisfied elements in Macedonia and the Edirne region without difference of nationality" (Art. 1) and that, ,,every Macedonian or Edirne citizen", could be a member of the organisation, ,,provided that he was not compromised by anything dishonourable or disgraceful in society and promised that h e would hold himself responsible for being useful to the revolutionary and liberating task" (Art. 4).

This characteristic feature of the Macedonian national movement - aiming t.o include all the persecuted nationalities in Macedonia - was most widely presented and propagated by the Macedonian revolutionary social democrats.

The activity of founding an independent working class movement in Macedonia which was carried out by the Macedonian Revolutionary Social Democratic Union and the activities of the Macedonian socialists in organising worker's social democratic groups in Macedonian towns is a significant positive element not only in the history of the revolutionary socialist movement in Macedonia but also in the history of the Macedonian national liberation movement.

Therefore we are justified in emphasising that the progressive ideological basis of Goce Delcev¡s Internal Macedonian-Edirne Revolutionary Organisation, was, as we stated above, to a considerable extent the product of the beneficial influence of the Macedonian Revolutionary Social Democratic Union and through it of the Bulgarian Labour Social Democratic Party of Dirnitar Blagoev.

This influence on revolutionary socialist ideas continued to be felt and to appear later in all the vicissitudes of the Macedonian Liberation movement, giving it a definitely progressive character and protecting it from harmful diversions such as nationalism and chauvinism.

RECOLLECTIONS OF SIMEON KAVRAKIROV .,Pirinsko deto", 12. VI. 1955

I first became acquainted with Simeon Kavrakirov through Ivan Diviziev of the village of Ele~nica, Razlog vicinity, in the summer of 1930. At that time I was a teacher at the village of Rakitovo, Pazardjik district and kept up contact with many friends in the Razlog area who kept me informed about what was going on there - about the activities of Ivan Mihailov's organisation.

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Having started for Sofia, I knew as good as nothing about why I was meeting Kavrakirov, for indeed I didn't even know him. I only knew that Kavrakirov had recommended that I start for Sofia and that he wanted to see me.

The meeting and my acquaintance with Kavrakirov ocurred at his flat (I don't remember the name of the street).

He greeted me very heartily as if we were old friends and commrades. He made an extremely powerful impression on me and from that very first encounter we felt close to each other.

Kavrakirov was a tall strong man with a well-formed body. Although so massive, he was quick and moved through th e streets at a rapid pace. I had to run to keep up with him. An agreeable smile played over his face attractive and tranquilising. He was a kind, happy man with a big heart.

On this first occasion of our meeting, Kavrakirov asked me about a variety . of things and openly avoided engaging me in the real matter of our meeting. In the same way I, too, restrained myself from asking him about it, considering that that was his job. We parted after the first meeting having arr anged to meet again the next day. It was obvious to me why Kavrakirov had not wanted to speak at our first meeting.

He wished to get to know me and to judge whether I could be of use to the organisation.

Our meeting the next day was also at his flat. This time h e greeted me as an old friend and we at once began a conversation which imperceptibly moved towards a political topic - the activities of Ivan Mihailov's organisation in the Pirin Region. K avrakirov asked me what our com'mrades thought about the matter and what was the mood of the people. I answered briefly that the people hated the organisation bitterly but couldn't deal with it as it was supported by the state and all the authorities in the country. As far as the Macedonian question was concerned there was no need for us to consider it as the people looked for the improvement of their condition not through national but social liberation.

When I had finished speaking Kavr akirov stretched out his hand and laid in on my shoulder and began to persuade me that my understanding the Macedonian question was quite mistaken and could only be of service to the enemies of the Macedonian people. It was not enough, h e said, to hate and curse the organisation of Ivan Mihailov; we had also to fight against it and that in organised fashion. We had to oppose that quasi-Macedonian organisation by another

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organisation which would rest on the support ot the people alone. S'uch an organisation was already in existence and was active throughout almost all Macedonia. This Macedonian organisation was The Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organisation - IMRO (United) which combined all the forces of the Macedonian people in the struggle against all forms of slavery - national or social. What in the Macedonian question was a national question could not be dismissed and we had to have the correct position with regard to it.

It was in this way that I was drawn into the ranks of IMRO (United). At this meeting Kavrakirov gave me the job of setting up the organisation of IMRO (United) in the Cepinskoto korito which was adjacent to Razlog. Cepinsko (now Velingradsko) was, owing to local peculiarities, well-suited to illegal movement over to Razlog and thence throughout the whole of Macedonia. During the period of the Turk)sh occupation the Cepinskoto Korito had as a border area been the sanctuary of many outlawed sons of Macedonia. We succeeded in setting up an illegal group of IMRO (United) which had about 15- 20 members fr.om Razlog, Seres and Drama¡ di.: stricts. ¡ Our task was not merely to expose I van Mihailov's band as a fascist organisation but also to spread the ideas of IMRO (United) as . a Macedonian organisation which gave expression to the ideals and hones of the Macedonian oeople and fought for their national and social liberation. In a very short time we succeeded ;n extending our influence among a large part of the Macedonian population living in the villages of the Cepinskoto Korito. Our results were good, especially among the youne- people. They welcomed with delight and readily accepted the proven ideals of IMRO (United) for freedom, justice and brotherhood among the nations. We explained to the older Macedonians that our organisation was the same as that led by Goce Delcev and Jane Sandanski and that it was fighting to achieve their ideals.

I was in regular correspondence and personal contact with Simeon Kavrakirov. We received the underground paoer ,,Macedonian Action" (MaKe,z:r;oHCKO ,z:r;eno) and distributed it secretely and it was read thirstily by everyone it reached. This newsparer played a most important part in the correct explanation of the Macedonian Question and the wavs and means which might lead to the liberation of the Macedonian people.

On my part I regularly contributed articles which were printed in ,,Macedonian Action".

I was given the job of transferring to Razlog and establishing regular contact with commrades there in line with

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IMRO (United). I visited practically every village in the region of Razlog, Bansko, Banja, Dobriniste, Godlevo, Dolno Dragliste, Belica and Jakoruda and everywhere linked up with our good commrades who were carrying out their tasks in very difficult conditions.

Illegal activity began to grow much more dangerous and likely to be discovered. It became necessary to write wiith invisible ink and in code. Over the invisible in..1< we wrote letters fo pencil on the most everyday topics. It was tedious but quite safe and in that way we were able to write about everything that went on in the Pirin Region.

In the next summer - 1931, we called an underground conference in the Cepinskoto Korito with representatives from Razlog and Nevr okop district. As far as I remember the Nevrokop district (now Goce Delcev) delegates couldn't come.

From the Razlog district came Koce Lalev from Bansko, Jakim Djokov from Belica, Hristo Toskov from Dolno Dragliste and some other commrades whose names I didn't know. From Sofia t here were Simeon Kavrakirov, Diroitar Surlev and Anton Jugov. The conference was held in our house at the village of Rakitovo. The main problems discussed at the confer ence were: the state of the organisation and our future activities. The question of winning a mass response to our activity am ong the Macedonian population was particularly seriousl y discussed as well as joint activities with other sociopolitical organisations which adopted our position with r egard to the national question. That conference cleared up many m atters which a large number of us had been uncertain about previously.

Later it became necessary to travel in the Razlog and Nevrokop regions to establish stronger ties and strengthen existing ones organisation-wise. One day Simeon Kavrakirov arrived from Sofia in Cepino. He was completely unrecognisable - the perfectly equipped tourist - in plusfours, rucksack, walking stick and a tourist's hat with a feather in it.

And it was as a 'tourist' that he went on an 'excursion ' right throughout the Pirin Region.

Asen Popov

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THE SPEECH OF COMMRADE BORIS V APCAROV SECRETARY OF THE REGIONAL COMMITTEE OF THE BULGARIAN COMMUNIST PARTY MADE ON 2nd AUGUST AT THE UNVEILING OF THE MONUMENT TO GOCE DELCEV

,,Pirinsko delo", 7. VIII. 1955

Today we are celebrating the 52nd anniversary of the brightest, most heroic moment in the history of the Macedonian people - the great !linden epic.

On this day fifty-two years ago the Macedonian nation, subject as it was to the heaviest economic and political slavery, after long preparation gave way to its irresistible desire for freedom and a more bearable human life.

From town and village, mansion and cottage, mountain and meadow, the disenfranchised slave raised his head and lifted high the flag of freedom from\ the exploiters - the beys and land-owners, and the whole tyranny of the decaying Turkish state.

On that great St. Elijah's Day, the Macedonian Nation declared to their tyrants that thev would no longer bear the yoke of slavery and their heroic deeds and freely shed blood proved to the world that they merited their freedom. ,,Fellow countrymen and beloved neighbours" - says the Proclamation of the Krusevo region - ,,we, who have always been your neghbours and acquaintance from lovely Krusevo and its charming villages regardless of religion and nationality can no longer endure tyranny and today have raised our heads and decided to fight in arms against those who are our and your enemies to obtain our freedom. You know well enough that we are not bad men and can understand that we have placed our heads under the axe either to live like m en or to die like heroes."

In the call to arms issued by the high comamnd of the Bitola revolutionary region in Smilevo it says: ,, At last the long-awaited day of reckoning with our enemies has come ...

Enough of suffering, enough of shame!

Death is a thousand times better than the life of a slave .. .

Down with Turkey. Down with the tyrants. Long live the people.

Long live Liberty ... !"

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The people that prefers death to the yoke of slavery is worthy of libetty. Our people showed that this was indeed so on that unforgettable !linden fifty-two years ago. That is why still today our nation celebrates the day of the !linden Rising as a national holiday.

On that same day we are unveiling the monument to the greatest son of Macedonia, Goce Delcev, because Goce's name and work is closely l;nked with the struggle of the Macedonians for national liberation. Just as !linden .is the brightest expression of our people's love of freedom and their heroism. so Goce is the noblest and most talented organiser, the most courageous and active fighter, the most popular and beloved leader and guide of the Macedonian people; the most shining colossus of the whole Macedonian national liberation movement.

The affection in which the people held this their faithful son h as found its warmest expression in many folk songs. There is no other warrior of whom the people have sung so many songs. The measureless love of the people was due not only to Goce's devotion and courage but also to his fine character and clear spirit.

His biographer, friend and commrade-in-arms, the poet Javorov has said: ,,From far and near crowds of people came to him seeking hope, truth, all. He opened his h eart to the people showing them his hopes and fears, his joys and his disappointments and his most intimate feelings as a true revolutionary should and not like an ordinary rebel. Yet everyone understood him, everyone was entranced by him, everyone stood at their posts in unquestioning trust in his work ...

A mild spirit attracted all who approached him, his fiery discourse enfolded all who heard him, his unquestionable faith spread to all who began to work with him."

Under the influence of the progressive Russian thought of the time and that of the Bulgarian Labour and Social Democratic Party, Goce found the way to true freedom - socialism and he becam:e a convinced socialist for which he was later expelled from the Military Academy just before he was to be gazetted.

Goce Delcev gave a precise formation to the aims of the Macedonian liberation struggle~ ¡.,Political autonomy for Macedonia with the widest rights for the poor of all nations, creeds and tongues".

He clearly recognised the imperialistic intentions of the Balkan and European bourgeois states with regard to Macedonia and fought determinedly against them- He was a true 172

internationalist, opposed to any kind of chauvinism whatever.

He only understood the world as a field for cultural competition between the nations- That is why the character of the struggle he waged was utterly democratic. He believed in and relied on the strenght of t he people before everything, that is why he considered that liberation could come by means of a well organised popular general uprising. ,,I do not want", Goce said, ,,a rising with people who will give in at the first failur e. I want a r evol ution with citizens able to endure all the hardships of a long struggle, such as, because of the embittered political circumstances, ours will be, if not we shall m erely be leading animals to the slaughter."

It was for precisely this reason that he was against the r esolution by the Vrhovists taken in his absence to raise a rebellion in 1903.

He calculated the political situation clearly . He saw for certain that the people was not yet ready and that the arms in the organisation's m agazines were insufficient.

The r ebellion was crushed with unheard of fury. The Turkish troops and policemen burned and massacred without plan all that came before their bloodshot eyes. Those who succeeded in saving themselves left their burnt out homes and emigrated mainly to Bulgaria where they wer e met with a brotherly welcome and sympathy from the Bulgarian people. Despite its being drowned in blood, the rising played a positive role. It showed the world the Macedonian people's irresistible urge towards freedom. The imperialist wars which followed showed the Macedonians definitely who were their friends and who their enemies.

The gr eat October Revolution showed all people th e road to liberation .The freedom gained by the peoples in multinational Russia, the firm union of those peoples, showed how, in practice, the proletarian revolution solved even the most complex national problems.

The ideas of the October Revolution were near to the Macedonian p eople's because for many years they had been educated in the spirit of democracy and socialism by many of their faithful sons, men like Goce Delcev, Dimo Hadji Dimov, Nikola Karev, Ivan Iliev, Metodi Aleksiev, Vladimir Poptomov and others.

More than once the Balkan bourgeoisies tried to use the Macedonian national liberation movem ent for their dishonest ends. It is well-known th at Ivan Mihailov's band under the disguise of being the followers of the Ilindeners, not only served the exploitatory aims of the Coburghs, but was also

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used to stifle the struggle of the working class and destroy progressive ideas in the Pirin region and throughout Bulgaria.

The band committed unheard of crimes against both the Bulgarian and Macedonian population but it was not representative of the Macedonian people and even less so of the Macedonian liberation movement.

The Macedonian nation was faithful to the heritage of the Ilindeners, the heritage of Goce and Jane.

When they sought support among the Balkan peoples, among the working classes of the Balkan countries, they found most among the brotherly Bulgarian people, among its working-class and in its Communist party.

The Bulgarian Communist Party had always had the struggle of the Macedonian people close to its heart. It gave it real help. It conducted a determined fight against GreaterBulga.nian chauvinism. It always stood by the position Macedonia for the Macedonians. It always upheld their right to self-determination. Our inmortal teacher and guide Georgi Dimitrov made this abundantly clear at the Fifth Congress of the BCP. IMRO (United) was formed under the direction of the Communist Party and headed by that memorable Macedonian working-class activist Vladimir Poptomov who gathered together the loose ends of the Macedonian liberation movement and bound them into a firm bundle. Faitful to their Ilinden heritage, led by the BCP, the people of the Pirin Region actively participated in the struggle against Fascism. Here the popular antifascist movement had a mass character. With deserved pride we note that the first partizan brigade to engage in open fight with fascism was from the Pirin Region and was led by Nikola Parapunov. On September 9th the victory over fascism secured with the firm assistance of the Soviet Army, our liberator, brought freedom to the Macedonian population of the Pirin Region, too. Today the ideas of the Ilindeners inspire the workers of the Pirin to build t heir free, socialist life.

Dear fellow citizens.

We are celebrating the fifty-second anniversary of the famed !linden Rising at a time when the force of the peaceloving policy of the Soviet Union is beginning to be felt.

Following that peace-loving po4cy, the peoples of the entire world are ever taking the struggle for peace into their firmer hands and defending it more boldly.

We already rejoice in a sensible relaxation of international tension .A serious step in that direction was the meeting

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of the leaders of the four big powers at Geneva. A great contribution to t he work of peace has been ma de in the normalisation of relationships between the Soviet Union and the popular democracies and Yugoslavia. Now by means of peaceful discussion and common recognition of common faults in the past, the Belgrade Meeting will not only normalise relations between the USSR and Yugoslavia but will also trace the path towards the establishment of friendly relations in th e interests of the work of peace.

Our people hail the results of the Belgrade Conference with all their hearts. As Yugoslavia's nearest n eighbour we are anxious to see established between us normal goodneighbourly relations. We ar e alr eady feeling the effects of the normalisation of relations. Closer association between our two peoples will be of help in the work of peace.

Commrades, On this day of the fifty-second anniversary of the !linden Rising when we are unveling a monument to Goce Delcev, we know that the largest and best monument to the Ilindeners will be the construction of Socialism. That is why the workers of t he Pirin Region, led by the BCP, are doing all they can to fulfill the five year plan.

The main task at the moment is to produce more fine quality tobacco which will contribute most to t he construction of Socialism.

In concluding my sp eech I will repeat the words of commrade Vladimir Poptomov, spoken on th e occasion of the forty-fifth anniversary of the ! linden Rising: ,,Brothers, hold high the flag of Ilinden. Keep the banner pure and unsullied as it was left to us by t hose w ho fell in the fight, those great m en of Macedonia, Goce Delcev and Jane Sandanski. Be t rue to the revolution, to democracy and socialism , a nd to the Slavs led by the Mighty Soviet Union."

May t he work of the immortal Goce never be forgotten!

Long live the work of peace initiated by the mighty USSR! Long live the Bulgarian Communist Party which is leading us to happiness and security!

(The speech is printed with abr eviations of ,,Pirinsko delo")

note by the editors

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40 YEARS SINCE THE BIRTH OF ANTON POPOV ,,Pirinsko del.o", 20. X. 1955

'

To the north of the narrow valley of the Strumesnica, on the very ridge of Mount Ograzden is the village of Igum enec. One of the villages quarter s, an independent village called Gega, is the birthplace of Anton Popov. The village of Gega consists of several dozen houses, sprinkled along the bare hillsides. The little yards of the houses are green with plum trees, walnut and mulberry. The birthplace of Popov is to the north of t he village, a typical Macedonian house of two floors, with big oak double gates and with its tiles set on thin beams and laths. In this house, on 20th October, 1915, Anton P opov was born.

Anton Popov's family were all militants. His grandfather, Konstantin Popstojanov, was killed in ambush by the bloodthirsty Turks because he was an opposer of the Turkish feudal system. His father's mother's brother, Mitre Stojanov finished his earthly course in a similar ambush. The most important m,oment in the life of the young Donco was when his father was hung by Vrhovists assassins on 22nd October, 1923. Anton's father had been a bitter enemy of the Vrhovists who were at all times the tools of the crown and the reactionary governments of Bulgaria. He had fought with all his strength against the robberies and terrorism of such antiMacedonian bandits and protected the people from them in every way he could. Nikola Popov's quiet, obedient son remembered the dark picture of the hanging for his whole life: there the dusty road to Petric, the bare walnut tree already leafless in the autumn wind, the terrible lifeless weight of his dear father hanging ... Anton Popov received his primary schooling ih his native village. Then he studied at Petric and later transferred to Samokov where he was expelled for being a member of a pupil's anti-fascist group and finally he was at Nevrokop <now Goce Delcev) where he finished his secondary schooling in 1933.

In that same year Anton Popov became a teacher at his native village of Gega. The following year saw him teaching at the village of Skrt and then he returned again to bis native village. Despite the difficult circumstances and their lack of rights, Anton Popov tried, as a teacher, to do all that he could to create better conditions for his pupils and to t rain them as worthwhile citizens, proud and upright, attached to their Macedonian homeland, brave and independent but res pect;ng all the people of the country. With youthful enthu-

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siasm he got going and organised a boarding house and mess for the poor pupils with shelter for more than a hundred children. At the same time Anton followed his father in protecting the interests of his villagers against the authorities and the local Vrhovist leaders.

But Anton could not limit his gifts to the stifling bounds of the quasiautonomists nor, again, use his full talents. He longed to go to Sofia where he thought he would find the right milieu for him, ,,. . . people with souls, understanding ... " as he wrote at the time. He felt even more so because his wish to publish a progressive Macedonian newspaper in Petric had been strongly opposed by the governm ent.

In the autumn of 1937, Anton succeeded in getting a clerical post in the Sofia town administration. It was not at first apparent that a fury like a volcano burnt in the breast of this shame-faced, maidenly youth. His fine, fair face, full, upright figure and piercing intellect were obscured by his humble, almost gauche behaviour towards people. Yet when he joined the ranks of the progres¡sive Macedonian organisations and flung himself with all his untamable fire into the social struggle all could see that a man who would fight against the hated enemy with every last ounce of his strength had taken the field with them.

At the beginning of November, 1938 a Macedonian Literary Circle, in whose formation Anton had taken an active part, was started. Anton worked tirelessly in this circle for three years. He often gave 'lectures on poems and stories, organised literary readings, excursions, parties, met Soviet footballers or mixed with the emigrant community on any fit occasion. In addition he visited famous writers and won them over to the war against war, he took part in the Macedonian party group's work, wrote reports, poems, articles and spent all his free time, day and night in reading Marxist works and studying Macedonian historical literature.

In this Macedonian literary circle, Anton Popov formed himself as a pat riotic Macedonian internationalist, a faithful son of his enslaved people and at the same tim e a fiery warrior eager for the happiness of all men. Anton Popov loved Macedonia and its people with a pure, sweet, love, ineffable in .its range and depth: a love ever ready for sacrifice or self-surrender. It is no mere chance that he wrote as with his own blood in his last letter: ,,I die proud of my father's name. I di~ proud in my people's name for whose good I have laboured till the last moment and for whose brighter future I die" . In his exciting travelogue ,,Travel Notes and Observations" he wrote: ,, ... There is my home12

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land ... There is my rebellious Pirin, written across my heart in song, story and legend since my first childhood days, still raising its snow-blue shoulders into the high air its eyes fixed on space marking with stem glance the borders of m y fatherland - Sar, the Aegean, the Rhodope and Rila" . Then again in his last letter Anton Popov writes: ,,I die for a new world, a world which will blaze with such light and beauty that my sacrifice for it is nothing. " In his poems Anton Popov expresses tender love for his country and his pedple: he declares his faith in the nearing freedom and union of Macedonia and his hatred for the enemies of the people. In his reports he reveals the suiferings and misfortunes of the workers, painting a shocking picture of the exploitation of the tobacco growers, their women and children. The content of his reports is evident from their verv titles. Here are some of them: ,,The Sufferings of our Southerners", ,,How the Tobaco Producers Work and Perish", ,,Dump, bitterest of Words", ,,He destroys the dreams of childhood" , ,,The Clouds are gathering over Pirin".

Towards the end of his life Anton Popov wrote an interesting poem called ,,Listen, Front" in which his forceful dynamic imagery expresses his hatred for the German occupation and for all persecutors and exploiters while he also shows his deep love for the workers, the Soviet people and the mighty Red Army. The poem is passionately optimistic in its author's unquenchable faith in the coming victory over the bloody fascists and all exploiters and persecutors.

When the German hordes flung themselves at the Soviet Union and placed their foot on that soil sacred to all proletarians, Anton almost wept from fury. It was as if they had trampled on his own body. So in the autumn, together with his inseparable cornmrade Nikola Vapcarov, he joined in t he party work at the military centre of the BCP. Donfo undertook the hardest task in that dangerous situation. It was now that he was to do his most dangerous jobs and begin a life as an underground man with all the attendant risks. He transferred members of Central Committee from house to house, buying and cooking food for them, carrying weapons and money supplies late at night and skilfully hiding their traces from the watchful eyes of the police. He even involved his mother and sister in this dangerous work.

But the enemy was not asleep. It was in ambush, spreading its nets to trap its mortal enemies. An agent provocatour was introduced into the conspiracy. Only a few months passed before all was discovered. Vapcarov was caught on 4th March, Anton Popov had some means of hiding but he-

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did nothing to get away. He believed th.at the work should go forward, especially after such a failure. But the police were also on his track and he was caught on 24th April.

A military court pronounced sentence on July 22nd.

Anton I vanov, Atanas Romanov, Nikola Vapcarov, Anton Popov, Petar Bogdanov and Georgi Mincev were sentenced to death. There was a frozen silence in court and t hen groans and cries broke from their relations.

Before the stuttering rifles, rapid rattle, another gr eat, beautiful song was heard welling from the throats of t h e unbroken, fearless communists: ,,He who falls in the fight for freedom never dies ... " In their ranks, bright faced, looking to the future, representing th e free, united Macedonian people and the brighter future of all hwnanity Anton Popov sang with powerful tones.

MihaiL Smatrak.alev

IN 1956 178,862 PERSONS IN PIRIN MACEDONIA DECLARED THEMSELVES MACEDONIANS

,,Ilpe6po51,aaue ua uace.n.euueTo a Hapooua peny6Au?Ca B'bJL?,apwt ua 1. X II. 1956 061.L4u pe3yJLTaTu", BK 2, pp . 106 and 110, M3cJa1tue ua I{eurpa.n.uOTo craTuCTU"iec,co ynpaBAe1tue npu MunucrepC1CURT C'bBeT, Cocfru.R, 1960

In t he census of the population conducted in the PR Bulgaria in December 1956, Pirin Macedonia had 281.015 inhabitants. Of this nwnber, 93,671 or 33.30/o declared themselves Bulgars.

178.862 persons declared themselves as of Macedonian nationality. This expressed as a percentage is 63.70/o.

Shown by districts, these results appear as follows :

Blagoevgrad Goce Delcev P etric Sandanski Razlo~g~ --

58,256 64,590 48,384 61,877 47,608

26,403-45.20/o 31,941-49.50/o 7,334-1 5.20/o 4,649- 7.30/o 24,250-50.90/o

30,561-52.4°/u 29,568-45 .80/o 40,00~ 82.70/o 55,373- 89.40/o 23,358-49.10/o

According to the published census, Macedonians live in the Varna region - 423, in the Plovdiv region - 1,955, in the Pleven region - 326 and in the Sofia r egion - 4,046.

12*

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GOCE DELCEV

V

LEADING ARTICLE ,,Pirinsko deto", 3. V. 1958

Fifty-five years ago, on May 5th, 1903, Goce Delcev, a great son of Macedonia, died in a fight with a Turkish posse¡ at the village of Banica, in the Serres district. Each year on that day the grateful Macedonian people quietly bow their heads before the greatness of his shining memory.

The greatness of Goce Delcev lies in the fact that in the contemporary historical situation he was best able to grasp the national, political and economic aims of the Macedonian people. He felt them deep within himself, showed the way to their achievement and threw himself boldly into the struggle.

It was Goce Delcev who raised on high the slogan ,,Macedonia for the Macedonians", opposing it to the maleficent aims of the court and bourgeois cliques in the Balkans each one of which, whether openly or in secret, was activated by other motives and aimed at getting the reins of the Macedonian liberation movement into its own hands in order to tame it for some purpose of either conquest or division of Macedonia itself.

Chauvinism and narrow nationalism were foreign to Goce and it m ay be due to this that he was the first to realise the necessity for all the nationalities who inhabited Macedonia to come together in the Internal Revolutionary Organisation. They were all oppressed by the sultan's government and the feudal beys and so interested in the success of the liberation war.

Goce Delcev was firmly convinced that the Macedonian people would not be able to secure its liberty alone, without the aid of other peoples and the forces of progress. In t his respect he looked upon the BLSDP (the narrow socialists) as, together with the fraternal Bulgarian people, the movement's most sincere friend .

Goce Delcev understood quite well that Vrhovism and the policy of the Bulgarian bourgeois governments was foreign to t he Bulgarian people.

The Macedonian have a close and inviolable link in the past of their history and culture with the Bulgarian people.

He received a fraternal welcome in progressive Bulgarian circles and from among them he chose military and intellectual forces for the Macedonian liberation movement. It was 180

from the progressive Bulgarian milieu that such great Macedonian revolutionaries as Hristo Cernopeev, Krstju Asenov, Petar Jurukov, Paraskev Cvetkov, Marko Lerinski, Aleksandar Iliev, Luka Ivanov, Todor Panica, Aleksandar Bujnov, Cudomir Kantardjiev etc. emerged, all of whom sacrificed themselves for the freedom of Macedonia. It was from the Bulgarian Communist Party led by the father of Bulgarian socialism, Dimitar Blagoev ,that Goce Delcev's closest companion, the theoretician of Macedonian progressive thought, Dimo Hadji Dimov, emerged together with such great Macedonian revolutionaries as Nikola Karev, President of the Republic of Kru;evo, the commanders Veljo Markov and Nikola Rusenski and many other socialists who developed fully the anti-imperialist line of Goce's ideology. Progressive Bulgarian circles also produced numerous public figures, writers and poets such as Anton Strasimirov, Peju Javorov, Pavel Deliradev etc. who by word and pen supported the Macedonian movement headed by Goce Delcev.

Goce was firmly convinced that freedom for Macedonia would never come from atacks by armed bands or any armed provocation, nor through the interference of the Balkan bourgeoisies or even through intervention by the imperialist wolves. H e believed in the strength of the people, the popular masses. That is why he sought to make the people conscious of its strength seeking to confirm its belief that it, alone, was to obtain its freedom. Goce knew that the struggle would be bloody, fierce and lengthy but he saw no solution other than through a nation-wide armed rising. It is in this in particular that the democratic anti-imperialists line which Goce brought into the Macedonian national-liberation movement is evident.

With such views Goce Delcev took the road to a Macedonian revolution in the name of which he won over the hearts of the enslaved Macedonian population.

Both as a man and as a revolutionary, Goce Delcev was distinguished for his spiritual qualities. He had a striking appearance, lively eyes and a fiery glance. One of the more impressive qualities of Goce Delcev was his manner of speaking which filled the souls of the enslaved people and inspired them to heroic deeds in the fight. For this reason the Macedonian people looked upon him as their guide, son and friend. For this it was that townsfolk and peasants, young and old made their way to him ,,seeking- suport, justice, all".

So, together with Djorce Petrov, Dame Gruev, Pere Tosev, Dimo H adji Dimov and the other colossi of the Macedonian revolution, Goce Delcev was able within a short period of time to carry out the ideo-political preparation of

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the enslaved Macedonian population, to incorporate and organise it within the ranks of the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organisation and to conduct an heroic struggle against the sultan's government. So extensive was this preparation that only a few years after Goce's mission in Macedonia began, the Macedonian people rose in the !linden Rising and performed deeds of miraculous daring.

Today when the shadow of a war more destructive than anything Man has seen so far hovers over our world and when the forces of destruction are being countered by all the peace-loving peoples of the world while the mighty Soviet Union has given the watch-word for an economic and cultural competition between the peoples, if Goce Delcev were alive he woul'd have devoted himself with all his revolutionary fervour to opposing the warmongers. He would say once more ,,I look upon the world as only a field for cultural competition between peoples!"

That is why, today, Goce Delcev is, for Macedonians. wherever they live, the flag in the fight against imperialist<; - the instigators of a new war. That is why Goce Delcev is our standard in our fight for the triumph of democracy, peace and socialism. For every Macedonian patriot today the work of Goce Delcev is closely linked with the policy of the socilistic progressive forces for peace, democracy and socialism. Under the paternal care of the Bulgarian Communist Party a great economic and cultural leaps forward ocurred in our region after September 9th, 1944. Many factories and power stations have been built, irrigation systems have been laid, local and co-operative industry has expanded, our internal resources have been discovered and agriculture has taken a new path. Our cultural profit has not been small either. The State Popular theatre N. Vapcarov is wellknown among the workers and the State Ensemble for Macedonian song and dance is the pride of the region.

The Macedonian inhabitants and all the workers of the Pirin region will express their affection for the legasy and work of Delcev by working with all their strenght to establish popular rule in our People's Republic of Bulgaria, fighting for the creation of moral and political unity under the flag of the Fatherland Front and the leadership of the Bulgarian Communist Party, fighting for the flourishing of our socialist homeland Bulgaria.

Long live the shining ideas and example of the protoapostle of Macedonian liberty Goce Delcev!

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1968

HISTORICAL AND POLITICAL INFORMATION ON THE MACEDONIAN QUESTION The Hist9ry Institute of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences (BAS) November, 1968

The People's Republic of Bulgar;ia follows a policy of strengthening and deepening contacts and co-operation with the Socialist F ederal Republic of Yugoslavia.

In recent years, especially since the meetings and discussions between the First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Bulgarian Communist Party and President of the Ministerial Council of the People's Republic of Bulgaria, Todor 2ivkov and the President of the Communist League of Yugoslavia and President of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, Josip Broz Tito in Belgrade in January, 1963 and in Sofia in September, 1965, relations between our two countries have improved markedly. This has been greeted wifa pleasure by our people. Political contact has widened, economic co-operation has developed and cultural and scientific exchanges have been more increased.

Purposing to improve relations between Bulgaria and Yugoslavia and yet further to extend their co-operation, during these meetings of the most r esponsible leaders of the two countries the so called Macedonian Question, on which there exist serious differences in the positions of the two parties and the two states, was passed in review.

In t he interests of socialist activity a mutual agreement was reached between the leaders of the Bulgarian Communist Party and the Communist League of Yugoslavia that the maximum of patience and understanding should be shown on the Macedonian question and that the differences over this question should not be a hindrance to t he development of good-neighbourly relations . It was agreed that these diffe183

rences should not be turned into the subject of political polemics but that they should be examined by experts in order to demonstrate the objective historical truth.

The Bulgarian Communist Party has kept to the recognised agreement without exception. On the Yugoslav side, however, t he agr eement has been continually undermined.

Especially has this been so in the Skopje press during the last year while in the central Yugoslav press also a wildly antiBulgarian campaign has developed and everything Bulgarian has been abused. The ,,scientific" experts in Skopje have without ceremony assimilated a large part of the historical and cultural past of the Bulgarian people.

The Skopje leaders maintain the thesis that the Macedonian Question is a Yugoslav Question and that it can only be solved in the framework of Yugoslavia regardless of the fact that the three parts of Macedonia are to be found in three different Balkan states and that today two thirds of the population of Vardar Macedonia are of Bulgarian origin.

Having adopted such an anti-Bulgarian nationalist position , chauvinistic circles in Yugoslavia develop the unacceptable thesis that, believe it or not, a separate Macedonian state and nationality existed as long ago as the Middle Ages, that a distinct Macedonian nation began to form back at the beginning of the last century, that the Slav population of the whole of Macedonia always constit uted an ethnic community distinct from the Bulgars and was oppressed and assimilated

by Bulgars. They therefore wish to give the inhabitants of the Blagoevgrad district ,,freedom", ,,rights", ,,cultural autonomy" as being some distinct, non-Bulgar, Macedonian population etc. Yet further, the Yugoslav press either makes allusions or directly accuses us of not having any democracy, stating that we are ,,conservatives" , ,,usurpers", ,,de-nationalisers", ,,enslavers" of the Macedonians, that is, .of the Yugoslav minority and so on and so forth .

In reality, however, de-nationalisation, misrepresentation, reprisals and other acts of tyranny occurred and are occurring not in PR Bulgaria but in the SR Macedonia and in SFR Yugoslavia. After t he end of the last war hundreds of communists and other progressive workers in Vardar Macedonia were accused of co-operation with the Bulgarian ,,occupiers" and were killed without court and sentence. Their one 'crime' was that th ey considered themselves Bulgars. Among the numerous killed or fiercely persecuted were such distinguished old revolutionaries and cultural activists in Vardar Macedonia as Pavel Satev - the one surviving participant in

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the Thessalonika Affair of 1903, Panko Brasnarov - who had been in charge of IMRO Internal Macedonian Revolutiorary Organisation (United) in Vardar Macedonia, Metodi Cento, the first president of the SR Macedonia, the distinguished poet and revolutionary Venko Markovski, the oldest and most important communist activist in Vardar Macedonia, Bane Andreev and others.

Official Yugoslav history tries to disguise the policy of de-nationalisation of the Bulgarian population in Macedonia, misrepresenting and falsifying its historical past. Without any scientific basis whatever it is affirm ed t hat Clement of Ohrid did not belong to Bulgarian but to some other separate Macedonian nation, that this Macedonian nation gave the south and east Slavs thei r Literacy, t hat Samuil's kingdom was not a Bulgarian state but the first state of the Macedonian Slavs, that is of some distinct Macedonian nationality and so on.

Bulgarian nationality is denied in the cases of famous political and cultural figur es, titans of the struggle for national freedom and t he independence of our people, whose lives and activities are an inseperable part of our history and endurance. Moreover, despite the historical facts they make efforts to prove that the Miladinov brothers, Grigor Prlicev, Rajko Zinzifov, Damjan Gruev, Goce Delcev, Jane S'andanski and even Hristo Smirnenski, Nikola Vapcarov and others were not Bulgars but representatives of some other special Macedonian nationality. The truth is also misrepresented in the case of t he Internal Macedonian-Edirne Revolutionary Organisation when they insist that t he establishment of the Socialist Republic of Macedonia within the framework of the SFR Yugoslavia meant the realisation of its ideals. In the attempts to form a new Macedonian nation by force ever more actively Serbian and other foreign words are imported into the artificial Macedonian 'literary' language ¡with t he purpose of distancing it from the popular Bulgarian dialects of Macedonia and from the Bulgarian literary language. Nor is this all. At the Sixth International Slavists Congress in Prague in August, 1963 the representatives from Skopj e openly declared that t he ,,Macedonian" population in the Blagoevgrad district was not nationally liberated after the Second World War .

In such a situation it has been decreed that the scientific and political facts about the Macedonian Question should be given to our people.

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â&#x20AC;˘ Conscientious analysis of the historical facts shows that Macedonia was never an ethnic or sovereign national independent community. Macedonia is a geographical region such as are Thrace, Maesia, the Dobrudja and others. The name Macedonia is a geographical concept, which has changed considerably in the course of time. For example, in the Middle Ages it was called Bulgaria, present-day North Bulgaria was called Transdanubia and the lands which are now East and West Thrace as far as the River Mesta were called Macedonia.

In ancient times, the territory of Macedonia was incorporated in the Graeco-Illyrian slave state of Philip and Alexander of Macedon. From t he second century B . C. to t he fourth century A. D . the Balkan Peninsular and Macedonia with it was ruled by the Roman Empire. From the end of the fourth to the beginning of the sixth century Maesia (Danubian Bulgaria), Thrace and Macedonia were provinces of the Eeastem Roman Empire, called Byzantium. At the end of the sixth and beginning of the seventh century t he eastern and western groups of the Slavs w ho had for several decades of sixth century been laking over large areas of Byzantium finally settled their tribes in the Balkans. The eastern group (known in his tory as the Bulgars) occupied the present territories of Rumania and the eastern part oh the Balkan Peninsular - Maesia (with the Dobrudja), Morav.ia (with Tirook), Thrace (with the Rhodope, Macedonia, modem Albania, E pirus and some adjacent regions of present-day Greece while the other S'erbo-Croat group took the western part. The Slavs became the largest, most compact population of the Balkans and thus in the seventh century Macedonia, which was situated in the centr e of the Slav lands of the Balkans was know:i by the name of Sclavinia.

In the second half of the VII century Maesia was finally settled by the proto-Bulgars of Khan Asparuh while another group of proto-Bulgars of Cuber (Cuber was the brother of Asparuh) settled in Macedonia - in the Bitola Thessalonika region. The requirements of their struggle against the powerful Byzantine Empire obliged the l eaders of the Slav nation which was in the process of formation (the tribal confederacy of the Salonic tribes in Maesia) and the Asparuh proto-Bulgarian to form a union which turned into a Slavo-Bulgar state. This state became a centre of attraction for the eastern group of Slav tribes. Within its borders for the gr eater period of its existence till its falling under the

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Ottoman rule there were three basic regions Maesia, Thrace and Macedonia.

Parallel with the foundation and development of t he B ulgarian state the process of Slovenisation started. This involved the proto-Bulgars and the remnants of the Thracians and .finished in the IX and the early X century with the formation of the new Bulgarian nationality, Slavonic in character but Bulgarian in name. Later in the XI and XII centuries other tribal groups mingled and merged with this nation, as for example, the Pechenegs, Uzes, Cumans and others.

As far as the attempt of some Skopje historians to prove that som e Macedonian state existed in the days of King Samuil is concerned, that and the idea that he was the king of such a state is completely contradictor y to historical truth.

Samuil's state founded in 969 AD continued the Bulgarian governmental tradition and appeared as an organised resistance by the Bulgarian people to t h e policy of conquest adopted by Byzantium.

The historical service performed by Samuil lies in his de.fence by continual heroic effort of t he Bulgarian state, the Bulgarian people and culture, for nearly half a century. When the Byzantine emperor, John Zimisces, conquered Preslav in 872 and overran the eastern parts of the Bulgarian state, Samuil succeeded in t ransferring the centre to the south-western Bulgarian lands (first to Sofia and then to Meglen, Prespa and Ohrid), and had himself recognised as Bulgarian ruler. In 976 AD Samuil made an incursion into North-eastern Bulgaria, liberated it from Byzantine control and set up a complete Bulgarian state. According to Byzantine sources, Samuil r eceived Romanus son of Petar who had fled from Byzantium. For his services in the war against Byzantium, and in protection of the Bulgarian state, Samuil was first chosen by the boyars as ruler (archon) of Bulgaria and then after the death of Romanus he received the royal title. In self defence together with the Bulgarian population of Maesia and Dobrudja who were inside his state, Samuil fought the Byzantines, but he never fought the Bulgars.

Moreover, it is well-known that the Byzantine emperor after Samuil's army was defeated was called 'Slayer of the Bulgars' and not 'Slayer of t he Macedonians' . That Samuil's state was a prolongation of the Bulgarian state t radition can be seen from the fact that the Bulgarian patriarch changed his seat together with the seat of government, namely to Sofia.

It is necessary to emphasise that in all the hitorical r ecords Samuil's state is unquestionably thought of as a Bulgarian

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state. Especially valuable to establish the national character of Samuil's state in this connection is the certain record left

by Samuil's successor the last king of the First Bulgarian Kingdom Ivan Vladislav (1015-1018). This w.as found in Bitola in 1958 and is an epigraphic monument (gravestone) with an Old Bulgarian inscription. In this extremely important document for our history, Ivan Vladislav categorically states that he was the son of Aron (Aaron) the brother of Samuil and ,,King of the Bulgars", t hat he was ,,Bulgarian by birth" and that his subjects were Bulgars.

It is worth noting that th e distinguished specialist in medieval Serbian history, Stojan Novakovic at the beginning of his historical work characterised Samuil's state as Bulgarian, noting that ,,the capital of the Bulgarian state was Ohrid". ,,The foundation of the Bulgarian capital in Ohrid and the new strenght which the Bulgarian kingdom gained through the brilliant achievements of Samuil, Novakovic writes, extended the Bulgarian state towards the shore of the Adriatic more definitely t han at any other time." This same Novakovic later falsified historical facts about Samuil's kingdom and became t he originator of the so-called ,,Macedonism" i. e. of the thesis that the Slavs in Macedonia were something separate from t he Bulgarians.

There are cases in the history of Bulgaria when under certain historical con ditions the Bulgarian lands were divided into regions, kingdoms, princedoms etc. w ith their own governments parallel with the central government. In this way because of the weakening of the central government and the consequent str engthening of separatism on the the part of the boyar s at the time of the Turkish incursions there were founded on the basis of the medieval Bulgarian state in addition to the Kingdom of Trnovo of Ivan Sisman, the Bulgarian Kingdom of Vidin of I van Sracimir and the Bulgarian Princedom of Dobrotica. History, however, does not draw any conclusion from this to t he effect that there existed a Vidin nationality of a Dobrudjian eit her because such did not actually exist. There is even less basis for speaking about a separate ,,Macedonian" nationality in the time of Samuil because then the Bulgarian state was united, not in a state of feudal disintegration.

Once the Bulgarian state had finally succumbed to Byzantium, the Bulgarians of all regions including those from Macedonia made a series of attempts to liberate themselves.

Here also the historical sources are unanimous about the Bulgarian character of t he risililgs. The first rasing of the Bulgars was h eaded by P etar Deljan (Samuil's nephew) in 188

1040-41 and the second, headed by Georgi Vojteh came in 1072. This was centred on Macedonia. The Byzantine annals of John Scylizes, which date from the second half of the eleventh century, emphasis the fact that ,,The Bulgars raised a rebellion", that their leader was a Bulgar and that he roused ,,the Bulgarian tribe to rebel". Concerning the second rising, the annals record that it was organised by the Bulgarian nobles from Skopje and that their leader, Georgi Vojteh was of noble birth, being a khan. This word khan must be taken to mean some proto-Bulgarian official ar;istocratic title. The Serbian King Uros II Milutin succeeded in conquering Northern Macedonia in 1282 and therefore added ,,King of Bulgaria" to his titles. He had not even conquered Bulgarian lands. In the 14th century the Serbian king, Dusan, conquered the larger portion of Macedonia and for this reason he, too, began to call himself ,,Emperor of th e Bulgars."

The Bulgarian state finally fell under Ottoman rule in 1396 and this lasted for 480 years. The development of Bulgarian nationality was delayed for a long period but it was not stopped. During the whole period of Turkish rule there occurred a constant series of battles and armed risings by the people in all parts of the former Bulgarian state. In a speech in honour of the whole guerilla movement Cornmrade Todor Zivkov has said: The difficult task of the outlaws, tho.se sons of Bulgaria who through five long centuries of slavery refused to allow the word Bulgar to become synonymous with slave, presents itself to our view and rouses powerful excitement.

In t hese conditions of conflict with the Ottoman conquerors and later of resistance to the pressure ex erted by the Greek clergy, the Bulgarian nationl consciousness continued to develop.

When, while a mixed monetary system began to develop within the Turkish Empire in the 18th and 19th centuries, capitalism was born and a bourgeoisie formed and developed, conditions were created for the growth and expansion of the Bulgarian nation on the foundation of the Bulgarian 'nationality'. This occurred iUl all parts of the Bulgarian lands including Macedonia. As in Danubian Bulgaria and Thrace so also in Macedonia, the national liberation struggle in all its stages - for new liberties in education and ecclesiastical affairs, for national liberation as such - developed as a struggle of the Bulgarian people.

Moreover, during this period a series of distinguished campaigners for a Bulgarian renaissance were born and lived in Macedonia, working against Greek cultural influence, to 189

preserve the Bulgarian national consciousness and fighting both against the Ottoman occupation and the Greek patriarchate. In Macedonia were b orn : Paisij Hilendarski, our first r evivalist, Jordan Djinot, t he Miladinov Brothers, Neofit Rilski, Rajko Zinzifov, K uzman Sapkarev, Grigor P rlicev, Georgi Dinkov (the teacher of Dimitar Blagoev) and so on.

Yet all these m en, like the activists of the Bulgarian national liberation movement in other parts of the Bulgarian lands in cluding Georgi Rakovski, Vasil Levski, Ljuben Karavelov, H risto Botev and others, rejoiced unanimously in the idea of seeing their homeland - Bulgaria - liberated from Turkish persecution. They fought in the name of one nation - the Bulgarian nation.

Two full centuries ago, Paisij born in that lively Bulgarian place Bansko, Macedonia, raised his passionate cry : ,,Oh foolish and monstrous, why do you feel ashamed to be called Bulgar! " and his Slavo-Bulgarian history copied time after time circled the whole land - Maesia, Thrace and Macedonia - arousing the national consciousness of the Bulgars.

In an article in t he Bulgarian newspaper in Istambul, J ordan Hadji Konstantinov (Djinot) the li.terateur and ed ucationalist born at Veles, wrote: ,,If some educated person were to ask m e: Are you Bulgarian? I should reply " : I am a Bulgar. For it is dishonouring my Slavo-Bulgarism to do wh at is evil and dishonest. A true Bulgar doesn't lie, envy, waste time, flatter or deceive, he doesn't change his faith for a roast chicken . . . Indeed there is nothing more noble t han a Bulgar. The Bulgar works hard, ploughs, sows, t rades, fights, keeps his word, is hospitable. . . The Bulgar loves everything good. It is a disgrace for the Bulgar to deny his birth and tongue .. . " Of all the bright names of ardent patriots born in the towns and villages of Macedonia the names of the Miladinov Brothers, Dimitar and Konstatin, shine the most dazzlingly.

They fought ardently to protect their people and for the Bulgarian r evival and t hey perished as martyrs for the cause in an Istambul prison. The two brothers struggled with all their power to achieve t he ideal of the revival - an independent Bulgarian church, Bulgarian schools with teaching in the Bulgarian moth er-tongue and for the awakening of the national consciousness among the popular masses of our people.

In 1861 they published their anthology ,,Bulgarian Folk Songs".

These poems ar e the best examples of Bulgarian folk poetry.

In the invitation to subscribers to the anthology which was published in the sam e year Konstantin Miladinov wrote: ,,Six years ago we began collecting songs from all parts of Western 190

Bulgaria that is from Macedonia, e. g .from Ohrid, Struga, Prilep, Veles, Kostur, Kukus, Strumica and other places as well as from Eastern Bulgaria."

An extremely .interesting letter from Dimitar Miladinov to Aleksandar Egzarh, the editor of Istambul News (,,Carigradski vesnik") in 1852 reveals the strong patriotic feeling of the Miladinov Brothers. The letter speaks of the danger of the spread of Greek Ctougue) in Macedonia and points out the necessity of the children's starting to learn in school in their mother (Bulgari~n) tongue. In this letter he wrote: ,,Perhaps six eighths of Macedonia inhabited by monoglot Bulgarians learn Greek and are called Greek by the Greek . .. " At the time of his imprisonment, Dimitar Miladinov said: ,,I am going to certain death, but the Bulgarian people for whom I have fought and for whom I shall die will not die with me. It will remain after me and one day it will rise all glorious."

Only a few days after he had learnt of the deaths of the Miladinov Brothers, Ljuben Karavelov wrote: ,,A hundred thousand years shall pass and their names will still shine forth in Bulgarian song and story at every meeting." Meanwhile the folk poet Ivan Vazov enthusiastically sang their deeds:

The unfortunate brothers suffering, near death, Gave to the air their mortal breath, Their hearts now quite chined by the cold of the grave, Sent their farewen to the world up above, Whispering softly with their sinking powers: Forever we love you ,,Bulgaria of ours".

Another figure of our national-liberation movement, Grigor Prlicev of Ohrid, the author of the poems ,,Armatolos" (,,Cep.ii;apoT") and ,,Scanderbeg", writes: ,, ... We Bulgars have been so insulted and despised by all other peoples that it is time we woke up .... It is time to show ourselves men among men. The Bulgarian love of work is rarely found among people elsewhere; that enables us ... " Rajko 2inzifov, the distinguished revivalist from Veles, demonstrated that Bulgars inhabited Northern Bulgaria, Thrace and Macedonia. In his literary productions he gives expression to his deep Bulgarian national feeling. In his article ,,About the translation of ,,The tale of the Igorev Regiment" 2inzifov considered it essential to emphasise that ,,We call Bulgarian that language which is spoken throughout Macedonia, Thrace and Bulgaria in which speech there are 191

very few differences, .. . there are no Macedonians, or Thracians as separate peoples, there are only Slavo-Bulgars who live in the above-mentioned areas, whose names may be justified by geography but not by nationality; in short there is but one entire Bulgarian people and one language, Bulgarian, which, like every other language, has its dialects. " In his verses ,,The Minstrel at the Gathering", Rajko Zinzifov says:

Macedonias wonderous lands Shall never fall'neath Grecian bands!

Woods and forests, mountain regions Of the land the very stones, Birds and fish in Varda: River, Dead or alive, shall arise And send this answer hurled At Europe and the world ,, We are natives of Bulgaria.

Bulgars live throughout the area".

It is essential to mention yet another important sourer~ which shows that during the period of the renaissance and the liberation movement in Macedonia a Bulgarian national conciousness was forming both in opposition to the Turkish Occupation, and to the Hellenisation, of the Bulgarian population. This document is associated with the name of the Serbian historian Stefan Verkovic.

In 1850 the Serbian government sent Stefan Verkovic to Macedonia with a definite scientific and political mission.

At first he was very active, distributing Serbian readers and books and agitating on behalf of Serbia. Howerer, on encountering the compact Bulgarian mass in Macedonia, he rapidly realised that he was on the wrong tack and that there was no place in Macedonia for either Serbian or Greek propaganda and so he started working for Bulgarian interests, adv~g the people to open their own schools and to teach in Bulgarian. Thus Verkovic became one of the enthusiastic supporters of the Bulgarian revival. He published several books among which is an anthology entitled ,,Folk songs of the Macedonian Bulgars" - 1860 which was published in .

Belgrade by the Serbian royal printers. Verkovic categorically underlined the Bulgarian character of the poems composed by a people who could proudly declare of themselves ,,I am a Bulgar and I call language Bulgarian." In 1868 his book ,,Description of the Nature of the Bulgarian Population in Macedonia" was published in Moscow.

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In opposition to Verkov.ic and some other distinguished Serbian experts and intellectuals, certain Belgrade chauvinists began an anti-Bulgarian campaign in Macedonia. In the 70's some of the brightest minds in Bulgaria opposed their campaign to get a hold in the area. More than once Hristo Botev himself wrote against Serbian nationalistic propaganda ,,in purely Bulgarian villages and towns ;in Macedonia and in some north-western parts of Bulgaria", and more especially among ,,The Bulgars in Macedonia". He writes ironically in the paper 'The Drum' (,,TanaH") of 1875 an article called ,,Serbian Charity in Bulgaria"; ,, ... Have you not seen what charitable goodness Serbia has shown in Nis, Vranje, Skopje, Prizren, Pristina, Kumanovo, Veles and the surrounding districts? Have you not seen those bright suns Milos and his followers and how they intrigue against our teachers and drive them from Macedonia?"

The base of the war of liberation and the w;ide-spread organisation of the Bulgarian national revolutionary movement included Maesia, Thrace and Macedonia which is another strong proof that during the final decades before the liberation of Bulgaria from Ottoman occupation there was no separate Macedonian nationality, nor a distinct Macedonian nation but one united Bulgarian nationality was in process of formation.

While still a student .in Athens in 1842, Georgi Rakovski founded the so-called ,,Macedonian Society" with the object of organising a rebellion against the Ottoman occupation of the Bulgarian lands contemporaneously with the preparations for a Greek rising on .island of Crete and in Thessaly. Later, in 1885, one of his close collaborators, Pavel Gramadov, tried to organise a rising in Macedonia.

In his multiform and progressive revolutionary activity, and in the struggle for the liberation of the Bulgarian people, Rakovski kept in close contact with activists of the Bulgarian national-liberation movement in Macedonia: Konstantin Miladinov, Rajko 2inziiov, Kiriak and Georgi Drzilovic of Thessalonika, Georgi Ikonomov of Veles, Gogo Papajani of Voden, Nako Stanisev and Hr.i.sto Pavlov of Kukus, Konstantin Pasov of Strumica, Kuzman Sapkarev of Ohrid and others.

Among the plans for a rising which Rakovski made in 1858 was included armed action in Macedonia. Many Bulgarains from Macedonia joined the Bulgarian Legion which he founded among them Iljo Markov (Dedo Iljo) of Berovo, Malesevo district who had a company of his own. The commander of the company was Hristo N. Makedonski from the village of Gorni Vodorak, Kukus area. Rakovski's revolutionary acti13

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vity found a ready response i n all the Bulgarian Lands including Macedonia ,,We are endlessly grateful now we r ealise what a fire you carry within you for our people and OUI' mother tongue", the teacher Joakim Malenkov wrote from Ohrid to Ra.kovski on 3rd April, 1861, ,. . .. we have written your name in the parish register so that it may be remembered to all eternity." Fifteen Bulgarian's names from various parts of Macedonia are known in the company of Hadji Dimitar and Stefan Karadjata w hile there were twelve similar men in Hristo Botev's company. There were also some in the company of Filip Totju. Secret revolutionary committees sprang up in a whole series of Macedonian towns and villages.

There was a revolutionary group h eaded by Ivan Pauncev and consisting of fourteen persons in Ohrid. Spiro Djerov, a famous m ember of Hadji Dimitar's and Stefan Karadjata's company founded a revolutionary group in Bitola and in the villages of the adjacent region as well as in those further off; Resen, Ohrid and Lerin. Similar groups existed in Krusevo, Stip, Kukus, Prilep, Gorna Djumaja (Blagoevgrad )and elsewhere.

The Bulgarians in Macedonia took an active part in the struggle to establish an independent Bulgarian church. Once the exarchate was established , however, it was only the Eparchate of Veles which was attached to the newly established Bulgarian church. Yet in accordance with the tenth section of the firman which established the Exarchate a plebiscite was held in a number of eparchates wher e the large m ajor.ity of t he population voted for incorporation in the Exarchate.

On the formation of the Internal Revolutionary Organisation of Vasil Levski (BRCC) basic revolutionary committees were founded in a number of Macedonian settlements. Levski himself had meetings with the activ.ists in Belica (Razlog area) and Kriva P alanka. Levski's assistant, Dimitar Obrn, sought Levski's 'authorisation' to travel in Macedonia and organise the revolutionary struggle there. In some reports to the S erbian government by Stefan Verkovic dating from the period 1870-73, there are details of the organisational activities of the Committee of the BRCC in Razlog, Nevrokop (Goce Delcev), Seres, Voden, and other regions of Macedonia.

During the April Risirng the town of Gorna Djumaja was in the region allocated to the Rila revolut:onary committee.

Georgi Izmirliev, the organisor of the rising in the Trnovo district ,in 1876 was from the same town. The population of t he Razlog district were especially active in the Bulgarian revolutionary movement. Their area belonged to th e IV (Plov-

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div) revolutionary division which was under the command of Georgi Benkovskii and Panajot Volov. During the preparations for the April Ris:ng there were permanent revolutionary committees acting in Razlog (then Mehomija), Jakoruda, Belica, Gorno and Dolno Dragliste, Bansko, Bodlevo.

Banja and Nedobrsko.

The inhabitants of Razlog sent Georgi Colakov of Dolno Dragliste as their representative to the meeting at Oboriste in 1376 where it was decided to raise a rebellion. After the meeting the Benkovski representative, Kuzman P. Tomov (Sarlandjijata) brought the proclamation about raising the rebellion to the R-azlog district. In May of the same year the rebellion got under way at the village of Razlovci, Malesevo - in the region of the upper reaches of the Bregalnica. This was known as the Razlosko or Pijanecko Rising. The rising was worthy episode to act as the finale of the April Rising and its organisers Dimitar Popgeorgiev, Father Stojan Razlovski, Iljo Markov etc. were all famous activists from the Bulgarian national liberation movement.

In the Bulgarian home-guard in 1877-78 there were more than five hundreds Bulgars from various places in Macedonia.

After the supression of the Malesevo (Pirjanecko) Rising, Dimitar Popgeorgiev and other leaders of the revolt retreated towards Mt. Belasica and the majority of them continued their activities until the Turko-Russian War, creating diversions in the Turkish rear. 'Grandfather' Iljo Markov's campaign to establish a local government in the Malesevo and Pijane r egions is famous. After the risings of 1876 the diplomatic representatives of the great powers met in Istambul to review the critical Bulgarian Question. At the Istambul Conference which met in December of the same year representatives of Russia, Great Britain, Germany, France, AustroHungary and Italy were all present. Count Ignatiev proposed a plan for the establishment of Bulgarian autonomy as a state composed of all the Bulgarian lands - Maesia, Dobrudja, Thrace, Macedonia and the Bulgarian Pomoravje (the Region along the upper flow of Morava River). Nobody denied that Bulgars lived in the regions. The French delegate presented a collective document to give autonomy to Bulgaria but owing to certain political reasons this was to exclude Edirne and the Belomorje (The Aegern Sea Region). Independent regions were to be set up centred on Trnovo and on Sofia.

Salisbury, the British representative, marked out the boundaries of the Bulgarian ethnic community as those which included a great majority in a territory : on the north from the lower reaches of the Timok to the confluence of the Danube 13*

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(from Vid.in to Tulca), on the east from the Black Sea southwards on a line from Lozengrad through Bansko, Petric, Strumica to Kostur, on the west along a line from Ohrid tlrough Tetovo, Vranje, Leskovac to Nis, incorporationg the above-mentioned towns in Bulgaria.

As a result of the Russo-Turkish War Bulgaria was liberated from the Ottoman Occupation and her frontiers defined by the San Stefano P eace Treaty on the basis of the ethnic principles confirmed by the Istambul Conference. San Stefano Bulgaria also included Aegean Macedonia. This was not in the interests of the great Western European powers of that time Great Britain, Austro-Hungary and Germany. The western capitalist states did not agree to the creation of a big Bulgarian state. They were afraid that Bulgaria would fall under the influence of Russi.a and become her ally in strengthening Russian influence in the centre of the Balkans, near the Bosphorus and the Dardanelles.

Great Britain, Germany and Austro-Hungary took no part in the Russo-Turkish War but, because they were powerful, they rejected the San Stefano Treaty and dictated the terms of the famous Berlin Treeaty thus successfully introducing their policy of 'divide and rule'. Bulgaria was torn apart since the whole of Macedonia and Lozengra d were taken away from her and left under Turkey. The territory of Montenegro was also considerably reduced though it, too, had been established by the San Stefano treaty. Bosnia and Hercegovina were occupied by Austro-Hungary. Serbia and Rumania both of which had been extended by certain Bulgarian territor y obta.:ned yet more after the Berlin Treaty - part of Pomoravje and the Central Dobrudja. Dimitar Blagoev noted somewhat later in an article ,,National Union and the Working Class" published in the Labour Paper (,,Pa6oTIDrcreCKJ1 BecIDlK'') 1909, ,,By force of the Treaty of Berlin, the Bulgarian nation was divided into sectors of which the main two-the Princedom of Bulgaria and Eastern Rumelia, today Southern Bulgaria, were freed but divided from each other with entirely different constitutions and laws. Of its other sectors one remained under Turkey and the others were incorporated into Serbia and Rumania. This division of the country cr eated the problem of national reunion."

The terms dictated by the Berlin Treaty are some of the least justifiable and most reactionary of all international agreements. It was rejected by many experts and intellectuals in various European countries. The French historians Ernest Lavisse and Alfred Rambeau considered the Berlin Treaty to be ,,the dictate of egoism, an act of jealousy, of personal 196

contracts, an immoral and rascally act since instead of securing the peace it created many occasions for wars in the future" . The well-known Serbian radical socialist Vasa Pelagic wrote: ,,The whole of Bulgaria was united by the San Stefano Treaty. This one state was to include lands from the Danube to Thessalonika and from the Black Sea to Ohrid ... Such a Bulgarian state was disapproved of by their lordships the diplomats." Later the very instigators of the Berlin Treaty, such as the German stateman Bismarck and Lord Beaconsfield of Great Britain confessed that the territorial integrity of Bulgaria had been damaged at Berlin. The 1911 edition of the Encyclopeadia Britannica says of the treaty: ,,The Berlin Treaty by its arti.fical division of the Bulgarian race created the complex difficulty of the 'Macedonian Question'.

In 1948 Vasil Kolarov stated: ,,The San Stefano P eace Treaty created a mighty Slav state in the Balkans in place of European and Turkish provinces. If it had been fated that this state should emerge unscathed from the furious competitions and diplomatic activities of the great powers then the history of the Balkans would have been far different. But the San Stefano Treaty was fiercely attacked by the English and Austrian imperialists who overthrew it with the help of Bismarck's Germany. It was replaced by the Treaty of Berlin, the source of the endless evils which have fallen on the heads of the Balkan peoples from that time till this."

The treaty caused great dissatisfaction among the Bulgarian inhabitants of Macedonia .Before the Berlin Congress even sat rumours were started by the great powers in their own interests that Macedonia's population wished to remain under Turkish rule. In response to these intrigues on the part of the Turkish rulers and the Phanariotes (Greek clergy), the Bulgarian parish councils in Macedonia raised a cry of protest. They sent an appeal to the great powers on 20th May, 1878 which stated that: ,,The entire Bulgarian people rejoiced when it saw that its wishes were being reallsed and i ts needs met and all we Bulgars in Macedonia under the force of the San Stefano Treaty waited in great impatience our liberation from the rule of the Turkish barbarians who were still abusing us. Yet instead of that, most unfortunately, we see that the local authorities on the one hand and the Greek clergy on the other by various means have extracted the signatures of some of simple bretheren and misused them to convince the major guarantors that we ~re in some way Greeks and that we merely seek an improvement in the status

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quo and not inclusion in the newly-created Princedom of Bulgaria. Thus are we punished by the juggling with our signatures, as you might say with our national name and feeling, and we are deeply insulted especially at the thought that such a lying statement on the behalf of the Macedonian Bulgars may already have reached your excellencies."

P rotesting against this lie, they determined to send a commission to aver on the spot that their needs and wishes were in accordance with the wishes of their ,,Bulgarian bretheren living in Maesia and Thrace."

The Appeal of 20th May, 1878 was signed by ,.the Macedonian Bulgars - representatives of various parishes in Macedonia" and was enforced by the stamps and seals of Bulgarian parish and other organisation. The signatures and the seals on the Appeal represented we may say all parts of Macedonia : Veles, Strumica, Skopje, Bitola, Prilep, Negotino, Gevgelija, Kukus, Thessalonika, Vatasa, Tetovo, Kumanovo, Radovis, Voden, Petric, Nevrokop (Goce Delcev), Demir Hisar (Valoviste), Stip, Seres and Drama.

Thus in less than ten years, the Bulgarian people for the second time (the first was in ihe foundation of the Bulgarian Exarchate) defined their south-western ethnic borders and twice major international acts, such as the cutline of the Istambul Conference and the San Stefano Peace Treaty recognised the existence of a Bulgarian nationality on the territory of Macedonia and this is to ignore the opinions of famous experts (geographers, ethnographers, historians) travelwriters, journalists and so on as well as the ethnographic charts of Safarik, Aime Buet, Cooper, Lejeune, Mackenzie Arbie etc. Here we m ust also mention that at that time, as for some decades later, right up till the Second World War, all the neighbours of the Macedonian Bulgars, the Albanians, Greeks, Serbs, as well as the Vlahs, Jews and Romanies who lived in Macedonia called the Slav population Bulgars and their language Bulgarian.

One expres5:ion of the opposition to the decisions of the Berlin Cong ress in Macedonia was the Kresnen-Razlog rising of autumn 1878. As a sign of protest the population of the entire Melnik region from Razlog, and the Kresnen Defile to Demir Hisar (Valoviste) rose in arms .The complete documentation of the Kresnen-Razlog rising shows the Bulgarian character of that rising and of the population of Macedoniu.

Immediately after the Berlin Treaty and the separation of Macedonia from the Bulgarian state, the peasants df the Melnik region sent a letter to the governor of Petric in which they said: ,,We shall not lay down our arms until we are 198

united with the Princedom of Bulgaria, our homeland, our mother." There was especially bitter resentment in those regions which had been captured by the Russian Army and were now, by the terms of the treaty, to be returned to the Turks. The returning Turks carried out heavy reprisals against the population. This was the case with Gorna Djumaja area (Blagoevgrad). All the terrified Bulgarians fled to the Princedom of Bulgaria, the free port:on of their homeland, among them the parents of Georgi Dimitrov.

The Macedonian Bulgars and those of Eastern Thrace who remained under the rule of Sultan Abdul Hamid were subject to even more severe national and political persecution because the Turkish authorities considered them responsible for the misfortunes which the Turks had experienced during the war. Even the ,.new law for the villayets" was not applied though this had promised equality for all citizens regardless of faith and nationality, .i.nviobility of the person, freedom of conscience, educational organisation for each nationality, reform of the administrat:on, modernisation of the legal processes and so on. This law had been prepared in accordance with the resolutions of the Berlin Congress as a ,,consolation" for those still under occupation, ,,but", as is emphasised in the IMERO Memoir of 1904, ,,it was simply thrust deep into the bags of the Turkish archives whence it emerged only in the form of mouldy dust-" In the conditions thus created there were all the economic, political and ideological pre-conditions for the development of a new revolutionary movement in the unliberated Bulgarian territories of Macedonia and Thrace.

The economic condition of the population grew worse and worse. It was made yet more difficult by the political inequality and the plundering kept up by pr ofessional bandits and robbers. The people were righ t to see the evil as centred on the Sultan's government above all since this perpetuated the exploitationary governmental system with its robberies, inequality and assaults. For a large portion of the population, especially the peasantry, national persecution was at the same time a class oppression. The oppressed peasantry, reduced craftsmen and traders, and rootless intelligensia sought the solution to their problems in the casting off of Ottoman rule, that is in a fight for independence.

In these circumstances the idea of an organisation which would lead the fight for the liberation of Macedonia and Edirne was born. In 1893 such an organisation was founded on a democratic basis as an organisation primarily of the 199

Bulgarian inhabitants of Macedonia and Edirne. This is evident from its very name - The Bulgarian Macedonian Edirne Revolutionary Committee, changed three years later to The Secret Macedonian-Edirne Revolutionary Organisation and after 1903 to The Internal Macedonian-Edirne Revolutionary Organisation (IMERO) This organisation inherited the rich experience of the Bulgarian national liberation movement before the Russo-Turkish war and made use of the structure and programme of the Bulgarian Revolutionary Central Committee in Bucharest. It continued the work of the Bulgarian national democratic revolution under the different historical conditions then obtaining in the Balk.ans. At the head of the organisation were Damjan Gruev, Dr. Hristo Tatarcev, Ivan Hadjinikolov, Petar Poparsov, Goce Delcev, Gjorce Petrov, Jane Sandanski, Dimo Hadj i Dimov and others.

Foreign to all idea of chauvinism, IMERO was the organisation of the exploited peasants, the reduced guildsmen of the towns and the popular intelligensia. It united the ideas and feelings of the persecuted and the socially weak levels of society who were fighting for liberty, land and a better life .,,I do not hate the Ottomans as a people", sa,id Goce Delcev, ,,I am fighting against the Turkish state as a system of government." These words agree with those of Levski in the Direction (constitution) of the BRCC. We can not fail to note that the leaders of the Macedonian-Edirne revolutionary movement were men with clearly defined Bulgarian national consciousness and under the influence of progressive thought in the Princedom, especially that of the Bulgarian Social Democratic Party and Dimitar Blagoev .The most important of them, Goce Delcev, considered both himself and his companions Bulgarians. At the beginning of 1901 when the Sultan's government took to terrorism, Goce Delcev and Gjorce Petrov sent a circular to the principal organs of IMERO in which they said, besides other things, that, the Turkish authorities ,,intended to arrest all the more active, aware and courageous Bulgars of whom it had to be confessed that they might be in a position to arouse and lead the people," and to .incapacitate ,,all social activity

by Bulgarians."

Goce Delcev and Damjan Gruev were both teachers in Bulgarian schools in Macedonia. Delcev's time at the military academy in Sofia coincided with the moment when Dimitar Blagoev was laying the foundations of the Marxist r evolutionary party in Bulgaria. Goce Delcev was not a stranger to Blagoev's preaching of socialism. One of his contemporaries writes in his memoirs: ,,I looked for Goce Delcev at the mi200

litary academy in August, 1894. He told me about his difficulties. He had been caught reading socialist books, they had been through his boxes and found some others of the same tendency and after questioning the cadets he had been accused not only of being a socialist but of spreading socialist propaganda in the school." For this Goce Delcev was expelled from the school.

Returning to occupied Macedonia, Goce Delcev gave himself up entirely to revolutionary activity. ,,The state of enslavement in Macedonia clearly indicates what has to be done we have to do what all enslaved. people have done, what Levski d!d", Delcev declared.

In vain are all the attempts being made in Yugoslavia today to prove that Goce Delcev, the second Levski was not a Bulgar or to deny that he was a son of the Bulgarian people.

IMERO organised and led the Ilinden-Preobrazenie Rising of 1903 during which the Krusevo Republic headed by the Socialist-Marxist and member of Bulgarian Social Democratic Workers Party Nikola Karev was founded just as Levski and Botev had dreamed.

None other than its leading activists speak for the Bulgarian character of the Ilinden-Preobrazenie Rising. This is obvious from a ser;es of documents which have survived from that time. In one of these the Hi,gh Comm.and of the Rebellion headed by Damjan Gruev sent an appeal for help to the Bulgarian government in which he said: ,,Finding ourselves at the head of a popular movement, we appeal to you in the name of the slave - the Bulgar to extend help in the best possible manner." Both in this and other documents and in the press of IMERO the Bulgarian literary language was used. IMERO it was that waged . an heroic struggle for the ij.beration of Macedonia and Edirne from Ottoman Occupation.

After the Young Turk Revolution of 1908, the left ¡wing of IMERO headed by Jane Sandanski established the ,,National Federal Party - Bulgarian Section" with its centre in Thessalonika. This organisation, as is noted in its documents, was mainly interested in the needs of that portion of the Bulgarian population which constituted the largest and most important element in the party - landowners who had no legal rights or duties, the landless and small-holders, the craftsmen and traders".

The revolutionary movement in Macedonia and Eclirne developed during a period when the great imperialist states were preparing for a new division of the world. The ruling new bourgeois monarcho-fascist cliques in the Balkan states 201

were reinforcing their chauvinist policies and in these conditions the liberation movement set itself to preserve its .independence and not to allow dishonourable comprom.:ses with the Balkan ruling classes to sully its pure and sacred struggle.

Following Goce Delcev, the organisation had as its object the union of all the dissatisfied elements in Macedonia and t he Eclirne district regardless of nationality to obtain by means of revolution the complete political autonomy of the two regions. In this connection he underlined the fact that: ,,The Bulgarian in Macedonia carry the burden of the revolution almost alone. But they are needed to carry on our fight until we reach our final aim." Goce Delcev brought the national Liberation struggle of the Bulgarian population in Macedonia and Eclirne into line with the principles of internationalism.

At the time every attempt to includâ&#x201A;Ź both or either one of the two areas in Bulgaria led directly to the intervent,ion of the imperialist states and to war between the Balkan countries. And the first to suffer from such a result would be the Bulgadan population.

Hristo Tatarcev, the first president of the Central Committee of ! MERO, expressed himself as follows about the programme and tactics of the organisation: ,,We discussed the purpose of the organisation for a long time and later we dwelt for a time on the autonomy of Macedonia and the priority of the Bulgarian element. We could not accept the idea of ,,the immediate incorporation of Macedonia in Bulgaria", because we could see that here we should encoun ter great difficulties owing to the counter activity of the great powers and the aspirations of T urkey and of the other neighbouring small states. We considered ¡ that an autonomous Macedonia might later be united with Bulgaria more easily .. ."

The Macedonian and Thracian revolutionaries never fought to establish another national awareness and even less to establish one through the de-nationalisation of the Bulgarian population .These revolutionaries were n ever ill-disposed towards the Bulgars. They all felt that they were Bulgarians, had a definite Bulgarian consciousness and often emphasised that the Bulgarians, particularly in Macedonia, were the most compact popular mass. It was not by chance that Jane Sandanski declared at the opening congress of the National F ederal Party in Thessalonika when speaking of the protection of the Bulgarian population of the Exarchate: ,,If the demands of the Bulgars in Macedonia are not met, I shall defend the Exarchate by force of arms." The Macedonian revolutionaries raised the cry for autonomy: ,,Mace-

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donia for the Macedonians" but not because, there was any separate Macedonian national community but rather as a war cry for the liberation of the entire population from Ottoman occupation.

The founder of the Bulgarian Communist Party, Dimitar Blagoev, also felt himself to be a Bulgar. In his memoirs ,. Short Notes on My Life" he mentions: ,,I was born in the famous Macedonian village of Zacoricani, Kostur. That was a large, purely Bulgarian village ... A memorable event in our lives at that ime was the coming of the first Bulgarian teacher to the village . .. He collected us together and asked us if we wanted to learn the Bulgarian alphabet. Our delight and eagerness was endeless and he began teaching in the Bulgarian tongue secretly in school."

The parents of Georgi Dimitrov were similarly Macedon!an Bulgars. His father Dimitar Mihailov was born at Razlog and his mother Par~keva Doseva at Bansko. Georgi Dimitrov h.imself was proud of his Bulgarian ancestry. At the Leipsig Trial he said : ,, I protest against the attacks on the Bulgarian people. I have no cause to be ashamed that I am a Bulgar. I am proud of the fact that I am a son of the Bulgarian worki ng class."

It would only be right to add to what has so far been said- thedetails of the official Turkish -statistics for the Macedon,ia region according to national m ake up which h ave been confirmed by that great expert on Macedonia Vasil K'ncov. According to these details, Macedonia considered as a geographical entity has within her boundaries in 1900 : Bulgars Turks Greeks Albanians Vlahs-Cincar.i Jews Romanies All others

1,181,336 499,204 228,702 128,711 80,767 67,840 54,557 17,107

Total:

2,258,254

(among whom were 700 Serbs)

As can be seen from the details of the most reliable statistics, there is no reference at all to Macedonians in Macedonia. The body of the people arc called Bulgars and constitute 520/o of the population.

203

All the more reliable foreign statistics wh,ich take Macedonia as a geographical unit speak equally clearly and definitely on behalf of the Bulgarian population ot the area.

This is true of the Russian statistics collected by Prince Cerkaski in 1877. According to these, there were 550/o Bulgars in the above-mentioned Macedonian boundaries, SLefan Verkovic's statistics of 1889 give the percentage as nearly 680/o, according to the French statistics of Gaston Rutier in 1904 about 530/o were Bulgars, from German statistics collected by Richter von Mach in 1906 over 600/o. IMERO even in 1905 gives data for a greater percent of Bulgars - nearly 560/o.

Within the geographical boundaries of Macedonia, howe-, ver there were also included region with a mainly Greek population. If these are excluded and only the nearer boundaries of Macedonia which were part of San Stefano Bulgaria and the territory on which IMERO was founded, are taken, then, accordin~ to K'ncov's statistics the Bulgars were over 600/o and the Turks about 220/o. The other 180/o consisting of Albanians, Vlahs, Greeks, Jews, Romanies and the rest all taken together. There was a similar relationship between the Bulgarian and other populat'ons in Maesia and Thrace (Eastern Rumelia and Eclirne Thrace) during the period of the liberation of Bulgaria from Ottoman occupation in 1878.

In Turkish statistics there are details about Bulgarian schools, school teachers and churches. Primary and secondary schools in Macedonia in 1900 came to 1,132 with 63,774 pupils and 1,776 teachers. There were 9 middle schools with 1,700 pupils and 108 teachers. There were also 1.294 Bulgarian churches and chapels with 1,132 Bulgarian priests.

But what do we learn from the statistics of a later period?

Official Turkish statistics and the data of Professor Jordan Ivanov show that at the time of the Balkan Wars (1912-13) the Bulgarians in Macedonia constituted about half of the population despite the emigration to Bulgarian territory which had followed the Ilinden-Preobrazenie Rising of 1903.

When the Bulgarian, Serbian and Greek statistics of the population of Macedonia were examined by the well-known international Carnegie census after the Balkan Wars it said: ,,Only the Bulgarian statistics give consideration to the national consciousness of the population. The Serbian calculations are ordinarily based on dialectology and the commonly existing communities; the majority of them are theoretical and abstract. The Greek calculations are yet more artif' cial since they use the influences which Greek culture has had on the 204

urban population and the events and remains of classical antiquity for et hnic determination. " The French representative in Turkey during the time of the Ilinden-Preobrazenie Rising and till the Balkan Wars, Colonel Leon Lamouche, reports that in 1912 there were 1,141 Bulgarian schools with 1,884 teachers and 65,474 pupils exclusive of Bulgarian Catholic schools in Bitola, Kukus and Thessalonika and the Protestant schools. At the same date the clergy of the Exarchate was composed of seven bishops, seven archdeacons and 1,132 priests who served 1,272 churches and chapels.

During the Balkan War of 1912-13, some 10,000 Bulgars born in Macedonia and Edirne volunteered for service in the Macedonian-Edirne home-guard and the ranks of the Bulgarian army. Inside the two territories many companies headed by distinguished IMERO activists were in operation.

In the Inter-Allied War (1913) six sevenths of the territory of Macedonia which had a majority Bulgarian population were taken by Serbia or Greece. Instead of the Macedonian Question being solved it was complicated even further. The Bulgarians in Macedonia fell under a new national slavery.

This is obvious from the fact that during the First World War the Bulgarian soldiers were welcomed by the population as their true and longed-for deliverers while when they were compulsorily mobilised for the Serbian army, the Bulgars of Vardar Macedonia deserted en masse and went over to the Bulgarian army.

As is well-known, in the first three years alone of Serbian rule in Macedonia several thousands of Bulgars and Albanians were either cruelly slaughtered, hung, tortured or disappered without trace, had their homes burned or were subjected to other reprisals. The names of a number of those people were published in 1917 by the son of Grigor Prlicev the revivalist, Kiril Prlicev in his book ,,The Serbian Regime and the Revolutionary War in Ma~edonia (1912-1915)" The international Carnegie census during these years also emphasises many facts about the vicious cruelties, mass killings, terrorism and expulsions which happened to the Bulgars in Vardar and Aegean Macedonia at the hands of the royal Serbian and Greek governments. Here we must note that in the report of the Carnegie commission it openly and categorically speaks not of a separate Macedonian population but of the Bulgarian population in Macedonia - of Bulgars, that is.

After the First World War Vardar and Aegean Macedonia were once more incorporated into the Kingdom of Serbo205

Croatia and Slovenia (Yugoslavia) and Greece. The Serbian and Greek bourgeoisies, that is their governments, adopted a course of rough assimilation of their Bulgarian populations.

In those parts of Macedonia everything Bulgarian was banned.

The Serbian bourgeoisie wished to make the Bulgars Serbs. At school each day, the first lesson began w:th the words ,,I am a real Serb." The Third Party Conference of the Yugoslav Communist Party which was held in J anuary 1924 asserted that: ,, ... The Serbian bourgeoisie has introduced in Macedonia a cruel terorrist regime and has either destroyed or compelled to emigrate the conscious part of the Bulgarian, Turkish and Alban.ian inhabitants and in th eir place has imported settlers from other parts of Yugoslavia. It is persecuting all non-Serb nationalities, shutting their churches and schools, forbidding publications and banning their language. Every action which shows the dissatisfaction of the population, which has been brought to despair by the Serbian authorities, is answered by bloody reprisals."

The Bulgarian nationality of the majority of the population in Vardar Macedonia is underlined in the Great Soviet Enclyclopeadia of 1931 where in the article ,,Yugoslavia" it says: ,,The southern region of the land - Macedonia is inhabited by Bulgars ... Serbian bourgeois scientists either deny or are silent about the Bulgarian nationality of the population but the popular masses know well enough that they belong to the Bulgarian people."

The unscientific and deceptive thesis of the Greater Serbia chauvÂľusts about the nationality of the Bulgars in Macedonia was exposed by the report of the afore-mentioned Carnegie Commission. When criticising the Serbian ,,etnographic" maps of Macedonia prepared by Jovan Cviic it says: ,, ... The ethnographic concepts of Mr. Cv.i.i.c change with the growth of Serbia's political pretensions." Moreover it is historically established that these pretensions were one thing at the tiane Bulgaria was liberated and another, according to the map made by Cv~ic in 1907, a third (bigger) according to his 1913 map and even bigger according to his map of 1918.

When the Serbian bourgeoisie became convinced that it was not going to obtain any permanent results by its Serbianisation of the Bulgarian masses by force, it a dopted other methods for their de-nationalisation which it had tried out partially earlier. To justify this assimilatory policy a series of Serbian historians began saying that the population was neither Bulgarian nor Serbian but Macedonian.

Unfortunately, because it gave up the correct Marxist position on national questions, The Yugoslav Communist 206

Party took over the thesis of the bourgeois Serbian historians concerning the existence of a Macedonian nationality. The Fifth Conference of the YCP (October, 1940) accepted a document called ,,The Yugoslav Communist Party and the Macedonian National Question", in w hich it says : ,,It is beyond all doubt that the Macedonians are a separate Balkan nation (neither Greeks ,Serbs nor Bulgars), which even the great Serbian ethnographer and geographer Jovan Cviic admits." As is obvious, this is the very opposite position to the statement of the Third Party Conference of 1924.

After the Second World War, Aegean Macedonia remained to capitalist Greece while Vardar Macedonia was formed into a separate Macedonian republic within the framework of the Socialis t Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. Yet in it t he Bulgarian character of the population was not r ecognised either at this present moment or from the historical aspect.

Even the Bulgarian character of the language was denied.

If we examine the question of the language which is one of the facts in the formation of nationality and a nation, then we must say that in the past the spoken and ~iterary language of the population of Macedonia was not distinct from Bulgarian but was, in fact, a branch of it.

It is an unquestionable fact that the Bulgars have the oldest literature of all the Slav nations. The literary language of the Bulgars of the IX and X centuries is - the language of the brothers Kiril and Methodij and their pupils. The roles of two of th ese, Kliment and Nawn is wellknown. While Naum taught Slavo-Bulgarian to the population centred on Preslav, Kliment did the same for those who were centred on Ohrid. The so-called Ohrid School was founded based on the spoken Slavo-Bulgarian speech of Thessalonika and round about. Historical sources show that this was the literary language of the Bulgars of Maesia, T hrace and Macedonia. In the language of the Bulgars in North and South Bulgaria as in the Macedonian dialects today there are no case endings, the noun takes an article as do other parts of speech in a way that doesn 't happen in any other Slav language.

As a fundamental part of the popular Bulgarian tongue, the Macedonian dialects ar e most closely connected with t he speech of western Bulgarian terrJtory. The Macedonian dialects were not regarded as a distinct l anguage in the neighbouring regions nor by the Macedonians themselves either in the Middle Ages, under the Ottomans, or even later. They were looked upon as Bulgarian dialects, as the Bulgarian language. The differences which exist between the Macedonian and our other dialects are such as exist in the lan207

guage of all nations. They are dialectical differences in the same language.

Such are the historical facts. As can be seen from the information above, the Macedonian Question arose as a political question at a definite stage in the historical development' of the Balkans, namely after the signing of the unlucky Berlin Treaty in 1878 which separated Macedonia from Bulgaria.

The solution of this political problem has grown more and more complicated with the course of events in the Balkan Peninsular.

â&#x20AC;˘

The Macedonian-Edirne Revolutionary Movement, or, more accurately, the Bulgarian National-Liberation Revolutionary Movement in Macedonia and Edirne Thrace, always cultivated great affection for Bulgaria and got support from the Bulgarians. That is why at the time of the Kresnen-Razlog Rising and again in the Ilinden-Preobrazenie Rising, those who were left homeless and the outlawed revolutionaries went neither to Greece nor Serbia but to Bulgaria - to the free sector of their homeland. After the defeat of the second rising alone, 50,000 people took refuge in our country. From the liberation of Bulgaria to the mid-twenties of this century 250,000 Bulgars from Macedonia came as refugees or settlers.

From the very time that it came into existence, the BWSDP laid down its position with regard to the national question and it differed fundamentally from that of the Bulgarian bourgeoisie. Dimitar Blagoev and the narrow socialist's party which he led behaved most sympathetically towards the revolutionary movement .in Macedonia and Edirne.

They ass;sted in the area's fight for liberation from national and social oppression. The BWSDP emphasised that the struggle to free the inhabitants of Macedonia and Edirne should not be conducted with the purpose of uniting them with Bulgaria or any other Balkan state because this was to exacerbate the rivalry between them and lead not to liberation but to defeat, division and a new national enslavement.

The narrow socialist's party took a positive position also with regard to IMERO as an organisation of the persecuted working masses who were suffer.mg from feudal and national oppression. It fought worthily against Vrhovism which was the tool of the Coburgh dynasty. Many members and fellow fighters of the BWSDP such as Nikola Karev, Dimo Hadji Dimov, Krstju Asenov, Petko Napetov, Vasil Glavinov and 208

others, took active part in the fights which blazed up in Macedonia and Edirne.

The BWSDP not only co-operated with and aided IMERO, but also developed and strengthened socialist propaganda among the emigrants and workers in the Macedonian and Edirne districts. It was under this party's leadership that the Macedonia and Edirne Socialist Group was founded in 1903-04 and party and trades union organisations in Thessalonika, Bitola, Skopje, Veles, Xanthe and other places.

Generally speaking, the beginning of the socialist movement in Macedonia and Edirne and the whole course of i ts development till the end of the First World War was connected with the name of the narrow socialist's party and its leader Dimitar Blagoev.

K eeping in mind the mighty contradictions in the imperialist and bourgeois governments in the Balkans, BWSDP fought and worked for the allignment and union of the Balkan peoples in a Federal Republic. It considered that, in the then conditions, it was only through federation that a democratic solution of the national problem could be reached, a solution which would give real resistance to bourgeois nationalism and correctly and finally achieve the national union of the Balkan peoples. The Party carried on a tireless struggle against Greater Bulgaria, Greater Serbia and Greater Greece chauvinism and the transformation of Macedonia into an apple of discord to the Balkans states.

Following the path o:(_ Bolshevism, the BCP (narrow socialists) r aised the cry of a Balkan Socialist Federal Republic within which the Macedonian Question would be settled. At the same time it emphasised that it was a mainly B ulgarian population which lived in Macedonia and exposed the assimilatory policy of the Serbian and Greek bourgeoisies. However, it is necessary to note that working in very complex conditions, the BCP allowed certain incorrect and non-Leninist views on the national question, including the Macedonian question itself. Thus, for example, the BCP rightly fought against the chauvinism of the B ulgarian bourgeoisie but, i n contrast, spoke of the self-determination of the population of territories where there was a majority of Bulgarian inhabitants who found themselves under foreign rule. This idea was wrong, because it r eferred to the self-determination of those very people who by their numbers, history, ethnology and language were pure Bulgars. During the Leftist dissident period, BCP adopted mistaken poliijcal slogans - that of a Thracian nation, a Macedonian nation and a Dobrudjian nation. Such slogans had nothing to do with historical fact, 14

209

with reality or with the Marxist-Leninist teaching on national questions. These non - Leninist, indeed Nihilist, slogans about national matters were rejected by the majority of party members and the mass of the people.

It was not until after the V Congress of the Party in 1948 and principally after the April Plenum of the BCP in 1956 that the Party overcame the weaknesses in its position with regard to the Macedonian Question.

The Bulgarian Communist Party and the People's Republic of Bulgaria recognise the existence of the SR Macedonia as a constituent part of the SFR Yugoslavia and continues to fight for friendly relations with it. Yet, all the same, the BCP and our country cannot ignore the fact that in SR Macedonia a massive policy of de-nationalisation of the Bulgarian population is being carried through. Nationalism and greater-state chauvinism is enflamed in order to set the population of SR Macedonia against the Bulgarian people. As long ago as the V Congress of the BCP., Georgi Dimitrov declared: ,,Under the cloak of a fight against Greater-Bulgaria chauvinism, helped by the government apparatus and all the socio-political and cultural organisations there (in SR Macedonia) they have been, and are, conducting a campaign systematically directed at everything Bulgarian, against the Bulgarian people, against its culture ... and especially against our party."

Unfortunately the coarse misinterpretation of historical facts and the fulminations against the Bulgarian people and our Party still coutinue. It has arrived the stage where the Bulgarian people, whose uncompromising struggle against fascist dictatorship is well known, is identified in a whole body of writings which have found a welcome in SR Macedonia with the Bulgarian fascists and their crimes in Bulgaria.

We cannot help but express our anxiety and uneasiness at the acts of de-nationalisation and oppression of those who feel themselves to be Bulgars in SR Macedonia. The sector of the population which has a Bulgarian consciousness is denied liberty to express its nationality freely. Marxist-Leninism requires that people should be given the right, regardless of what country they live in, to express their national consciousness and to feel and write as they wish.

At the meetings held in 1963 between Commrade Todor Zivkov and Jo.sip Broz Tito as well as at the meetings and discussions between Todor Zivkov and Krste Crvenkovski, President of the Central Committee of the Communists League of Macedonia, in 1967 it was underlined more than once that such operations could do nothing to settle outstanding questions, and that the position adopted on the Macedonian

210

Question by th e Skopje leaders was a departure from the Marxist-Leninist interpretation of the national question as well as seriously damaging to good-neighbourly relations between PR Bulgaria and SFR Yugoslavia.

The population of the Blagoevgrad region, about whom such unwarranted pretensions are expressed in Yugoslavia, were liberated from Ottoman occupation in 1912. For thirty years and m ore they waged war against capitalism and fascism under the leadership of the BCP, for more than two decades they h ave been constructing Socialism in Bulgaria and feel in every respect an inseperable part of the Bulgarian nation just as much if they were a part of a living body. The mother tongue of the inhabitants of that area is also Bulgarian, just as their origin is Bulgarian, their past, their character, their customs their songs and their whole way of life.

Our Party has corrected the mistake which it allowed when the p opulation of that region was compelled to register as ,.Macedonian" in accordance with the resolution of the X Plenum of the Central Committee, adopted in 194G with t he intention of facilitating, it was hoped, the immediate foundation of a federation of the South Slavs. Later the population of the area was given complete freedom to declare its nationality in the most democratic way. On the occasion of the last census in 1965 only one half of one percent of the population in the Blagoevgrad region described itself as ,,Macedonian". At the sam e time not one Bulgarian in t he SR Macedonia was allowed the right to declare his Bulgarian nationality.

The population of the Blagoevgrad region has always been a part of the Bulgarian nationality and the Bulgar ian nation. All pretensions to some kind of cultural autonomy or the incorporation of the region in the Socialist Republic of Macedonia and respectively in SFR Yugoslavia are completely without foundation.

Guided by the true interests of the struggle for t he victory of Social!sm in the Balkans, the BCP and PR Bulgaria will continue in the future to seek a constructive solut;on to the Macedonian Question so that it may not prove a hindrance to the development of good-neighbourly and friendly r elations beti.veen the peoples of Bulgaria and Yugoslavia. The answer may yet be found in the correct application of Marxist-Leninist principles on the national question and by international relations between two socialist countries. Here it is fundamental that the Yugoslav side should cease falsifying historical facts, drop all its pretensions to the P irin and give 14â&#x20AC;˘

211

the right to that part of the population of SR Macedonia which has a Bulgarian consciousness, to free self-determination in manifesting its nationality.

The Bulgarian Communist P arty regards the Macedonian Question as a difficult inheritance from the past, remaining as a result of the intrigues of the imperialist powers. However, in the present historical situation, the basic problem of the r elations between PR Bulgaria and SFR Yugoslavia is not the Macedonian Question but the question of peaceful co-operation in the construction of Socialism. It is essential that we work hard and insist on the strengthening of the friendship between the peoples of our two countries, and for the union of all Balkan socialist states and closer alliance with the Soviet Union, because it is primarily on this that the achievement of new successes on the road to progress, peace, democracy and socialism depends. It is on this, too, that the defeat of the policies and plans of the international imperialists and of NATO in the Balkans, depends.

212

CONTENTS 5

Preface 1944-1948 Everything for the front - Georgi Dimitrov's letter to the Central Committee of the Bulgarian Workers P arty (The Communists) A Letter from the Central Committee of the Bulgarian Workers Party (The Communists) to Commrade Tito - - A Letter from Svetozar Vukmanovi(: and Lazar Kolisevski to the Central Committee of the Bulgarian Workers Party (The Communists), September 1944 - :_ The Resolution on the Report of Commrade Vladimir Pop- Tomov ,,The Macedonian Question at the Present Moment", delivered at the first regional conference of the Bulgarian Workers Party (The Communists) in the town of Gorna Djumaja on 5th and 6th September, 1944 The Report of Ljup~o Arsov and Vera Aceva to the Central Committee of the Communist P arty of Macedonia, (November 8, 1944) The Official Accusation against the former Regents, Royal Counsellors and Ministers - ¡ Fraternal Greetings to the Free Macedonian State The New Macedonian State - from yesterday's speech by the Minister for Propaganda Dimo Kazasov Dobri Terpesev on the Union of Pirin Macedonia with the People's Republic of Macedonia Hitler's Bulgarian Watchdogs in the Occupied Countries before the Popular Court Slav Brotherhood Vladimir Pop- Tomov - ,,Leave the Macedonians to Settle their own Destiny" Georgi Dimitrov: The Act of September the Ninth is an Historic Act, Address to the National Assembly on 25th December 1945 Incorrigible Traitors What is the Aim of these False Defenders of Bulgaria's Cause?

25 27

30

31

33 35 30 39 39 40 41 11 44 46 48

213

Bulgaria and the Peace Treaty, Our Attitude to the Macedonian Question - A Speech on Bulgaria's Foreign Policy delivered at Plovdiv by Mr. Georgi Kulisev, the Minister for For eign Affairs D-r K. Dramaliev: Where Chauvinism Grows The First Congress of the Macedonian People's Front - Speeches of Greeting by the Guests The Resolution of the Tenth Plenary Session of the Central Committee of the Bulgarian Workers Party (The Communists) on the Macedonian Question The Opposition - the Enemy of the Macedonian People and of Brotherly Friendship with the Republic of Yugoslavia Declaration of the National Committee of the Macedonian Emigrants An Important Announcement for Local Government Officials, Headmen and Counters in Rigion - Circular ~ 3628 A Proclamation of the Regional Committee of the Fatherland Front in Connection ¡with the Census of the Population Results of the Census of the Population in Pirin Macedonia, held in December 1946 V'lko Cervenkov at the R egional Conference of the Bulgarian Workers P arty (The Communists) held at Gorna Djumaja on 16 and 17 February, 1947 Radio Moscow on the Macedonian Question A theatre for Pirin Macedonia An Agreement to Facilitate Border Crossings between the Federal People's Republic of Yugoslavia and the People's Republic of Bulgaria by the Citizens of the Two States and on the Citizenship D-r K . Dramaliev: The Theory and P ractice of Greater- Bulgarian Chauvinism - A publication of the Bulgarian Workers Party (The Communists), Sofia_ 1947 Jono Mitev: The Formation of the Bulgarian Nation - ,,Istori<'.:eski pregled"; IV, Sofia, 1948 The Inhabitants of the Pirin Region Receive the Fatherland Front Programme with Enthusiasm - Big Conference of Macedonian Delegates in Gorna Djumaja Circular on the Teaching of Macedonian in Pirin Macedonia Regional School Inspection, J\'!! 365, February 7th, 1948

51 52 55 57 59 60 64

65 66 67 68 69

70 73 80 85 86

1948-1953 The Resolution of the XVI Plenary Session of the Central Committee of the Bulgarian Workers Party (The Communist) A Dissertation on the Macedonian !linden Rising - From the National Council of the only socio-political organisation the Fatherland Front Dino G. Kosev: The Legacy of the Great Macedonian !linden Rising Forty-five Years since the !linde n Rising: The Macedonian P eople will guard their revolutionary heritage and never become followers of narrow nationalism. The Bulgarian Workers Party on the Macedonian Question - Extracts :from the report of Commrade Vladimir Pop-Tornow delivered at the Republika Theatre in Sofia -

214

89 92 97

101

Georgi Dimitrov on the South Slav Federation and the Macedonian Question A P olitical Report of the Central Committee of the Bulgarian Workers P arty (The Communists) at the Fifth Congress of the Party. December 19th, 1948 N. Hristov: The Macedonian Amateur Theatre in Sofia The Hero of one Epoch in the Macedonian Liberation Movemen t Hristo Radevski: Nikola Vapcarov Boris Vapcarov's Speech at the Third Conference of the Bulgarian Communist Party G. P. Ajanov: The Preobrazenie Rising of the Thracian Bulgars in 1903 Discussion a t the National Assembly on the Combined State Budget for 1952 - the speech of the People's representative, Boris Vapcarov Tu~e Vlahov: Vrhovism and its Role during the Wars -

110 112 114 115 116 120

121 122

1953-1958 Meeting to Clear up the Macedonian Question Krstju Trickov: Jane Sandanski - The Apostle of Macedonia's Freedom (On the Occasion of the 38th Anniversary of his Assassination) The Work of Goce Delcev will Triumph (On the Occasion of the Fiftieth Anniversary of the Death of the Proto-Apostle of the Macedonian National Liberation Movement) The Workers of the Pirin Region Commemorate the Fiftieth Anniversary of the Death of Goce Delcev - Formal Assembly in Blagoevgrad Jane Sandanski - a bold fighter for the Freedom of the Macedonian People (Material for Speeches) G. J. Madolev: The Influence of the Ideas of Leninism on the Macedonian National Liberation Movement The Party and the Macedonian Question Asen Popov: Recollections of Simeon Kavrakirov The Speech of Commrade Boris Vapcarov, Secretary of the R egional Committee of the Bulgarian Communist Party, Made on August 2nd, 1955 at the unveiling of the Monument to Goce Delcev Mihail Smatrakalev: Forty Years since the Birth of Anton Popov In 1956, according to the general census, 187,862 persons in Pirin Macedonia de<:lared themselves Macedonians Goce Delcev -

131

132

135

148 153 162 164 167

171 176 179 180

1968 Historical and Political Information on the Macedonian Question, publication of the History Institute of the Bulgarian Academy of Science (BAS), November, 1968 -

183

215

PUBLISHlNG HOUSE . KULTURAV - SKOP.TE

FROM RECOGNITION TO REPUDIATION

Editor in Chief Dullan Crvenkovsk.l Editor Branko Pendovsk.l Translator James Leech Lay-out Hristo Hristovsk.l Printed by: Graflfk! zavod . Goce DelfeyV - Skopje (19ll)