Repression of Macedonians in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia

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  • Krivan
    Junior Member
    • Jul 2010
    • 46

    Repression of Macedonians in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia

    The monarchist authority was dominated by discriminatory Serbs. They ensured our repression under monarchist Yugoslavia. The reason to repress was to attempt the Serbianization of the region and ensure the region become a firm stronghold of Serbdom. This failed despite authoritarian laws and bannings of Macedonian political parties and meetings. The only explanation possible within logic is a strong national consciousness that existed within our people. Many say Macedonians are children of Tito but this isn't true and sensationalist since several Serbianization and Bulgarianization programmes failed multiple times.

    One primary reason our predecessors threw their support behind Tito's partisans is Tito promised to grant us a country, have our language and people recognized. He did keep his promise but his solution was ultimately unfavorable. The refounding of our nation could have achieved better results if Cento didn't face resistance from Communist authorities for desire of forming an independent Macedonian republic. Cento was subsequently arrested and thrown in prison soon after Tito learned of his plans. We were to be puppets of Tito for a political belief of his own, to be subjugated to a certain line of thought and ideological system at the cost of our people.

    If Tito allowed Cento to follow through his plan then better results might have been achieved and the true unification of Macedonian people and territories could have been achieved. Communist Yugoslavia was then again repressing our people for certain political order of utopia searched by Tito. This is why we shouldn't observe Communist Yugoslavia any differently than we observe Monarchist Yugoslavia. Both used severe repressive measures to ensure our loyalty, to ensure Macedonian territories remain part of Yugoslavia. The only difference Tito put an end to the Serbian project but started the Yugoslavian project to create a new Yugoslav national identity. Similar to German national identity except there was no organic development to form basis of identity Tito desired.

    Monarchist Yugoslavia committed multiple gross violations of our predecessors' human rights. Several of them are the denial of our identity, the forcible process of Serbianization equal to genocide, the repression of political parties and meetings, the denial of existence of Macedonian language, the starvation of Macedonians and exploitation of region by Serbian colonists to form a strong Serb-centric bourgeoisie, multiple more violations were comitted but these are basic and gives us some idea of very gross violations by monarchist Serb-Yugoslav authorities. It is perhaps the same if a situation emerged where Serbs denied the existence of a separate Croatian people and language since both peoples share a similar language.

    After the Paris Peace Conference, the 25,713 square kilometers and 728,286 inhabitants of Vardar Macedonia were incorporated within the borders of the Kingdom of the Serbs, Croats and Slovenes. For seven years from 1912 to 1918, Macedonia had been a battle ground for invasion and counter-invasion, raid and defense. The countryside was devastated, and the death toll from direct action or hunger and malnourishment high.

    Immediately after war's end, the peacetime Yugoslav government quickly instituted a renewed authoritarian regime in Macedonia of punishments, reprisals, court sentences and torture. Yugoslav regulations provided for 20 years imprisonment at hard labor for forming "anti-government organizations", and two years imprisonment for instigating strikes. Moreover, the Macedonian people of Vardar Macedonia were official non-existent and the use of the Macedonian language and the term "Macedonian" were forbidden. Radničke novine (Workers' Newspaper) in March 1920 wrote that "the prisoners, who were in the Prilep jail for 10 to 12 months for political reasons, stirred up mutiny. They requested to be taken to court and put on trial. A fight broke out with the guards and, as a result, all of the prisoners were put in chains."

    Greater Greek, Greater Bulgarian and Greater Serbian politics alike applied generally identical methods and means in their attempts to denationalize and assimilate the Macedonians. By the "Regulation for the Settlement of the 'New, Southern Regions'" dated September 24, 1920, Macedonian land was granted to colonists from other parts of Yugoslavia willing to settle in the region. This policy was aimed at breaking the cohesiveness of the Macedonian population within their own homeland. By the end of 1928, some data suggests that 6,377 families had been settled in the region on 63,939 hectares of land.

    Privredni glasnik (Economic Herald) on February, 1921 wrote that "Murders and robberies are committed everywhere. One of the essential operations, agrarian reform, has begun to be carried out in a strange manner. It progressed slowly in one direction then came to a standstill, followed by a turn off the path and a retrogression. A few contradictory regulations and numerous differing interpretations and ministerial announcements caused real chaos. The selfish actions of the agrarian chiefs, the deliyas [brave men] were natural, [those] who in fact became the real masters in regulating the concrete cases. We are witnessing how the true farmers are deprived of their land, given to various speculators who have had nothing to do with agriculture in their entire life."

    For that reason, it was not surprising that in the local administration elections held in the summer of 1920, a considerable segment of the population voted for leftist parties-especially for the Communists, who gained control of the local administrations in Veles, Kumanovo, Kavadarci and Skopje. In the November, 1920 elections for the Constituent Assembly, out of the total 105,000 votes 40,200 were secured by delegates from Macedonia, winning 15 mandates.

    As a result of that victory, the commander of the Third Army requested district chiefs-of-staff in Vardar Macedonia to take the following steps:

    to isolate certain villages
    to follow the field shepherds
    to determine points for crossing the Vardar River where people may be allowed to cross the river only between sunrise and sunset
    to displace the population of the villages of Gradec, Konsko, Petrovo and Sermenin
    to strengthen the garrisons in Kavadarci and Valandovo each with an additional infantry battalion and a machine-gun squad, two infantry battalions to be added in Strumica, etc
    the clerks-communists to be removed from the district, as they had been the first to spread communist ideas not knowing whom they had been serving to
    to increase rewards for information
    to strengthen police stations in the former frontiers of Serbia
    after garrisons are strengthened, to begin collecting taxes and giving orders to report for military service or military exercises, as communist agitation is directed against the army and taxes
    not a single person may go from one commune to another without an identity.
    The Obzana (edict) of December 29 and 30, 1920, outlawed the Communist Party and banned trade unions. Political life in Macedonia was impoverished, and the solid base of the national Macedonian movement was lost, as other political parties upheld Greater Serbian ideals regarding the Serbian character of Vardar Macedonia.

    Following the murder of Gjorche Petrov, the dissolution of the temporary government and the passing of the December 29 Obzana, Vrhovist armed bands, small bands and individual saboteurs were dispatched from Bulgaria to Vardar Macedonia on an increasingly frequent basis. Their aim was to pave the way for the creation of an autonomist movement in Vardar Macedonia, and for that purpose slogans were used to arouse the anger of the Macedonians against the Yugoslav government. However, lurking in the shadows was still the dream of annexing Vardar Macedonia to Bulgaria.

    The period from 1922 to 1930 was marked by 63 assassinations in Vardar Macedonia. To answer the Vrhovist challenge or any other resistance against them, state authorities undertook "the white terror," including mass arrests-for example, after the murder of General Kovachevich in Shtip more than 400 people were imprisoned-as well as trials, dismissals from work and torture. To revenge the killing of colonists at Kadrifakovo and of soldiers in the village of Garvan, all the adult males from the village were taken and shot, without trial. In order to maintain "law and order" in Vardar Macedonia, now renamed Vardarska Banovina (the Vardar Regional District), 35,000 soldiers, military policemen, frontier guards and paramilitary bands were deployed.

    In autumn 1927, the Greater Serbian regime unleashed a new, violent offensive aimed at achieving a Serbian solution of "the Macedonian Question" in Vardarksa Banovina, heralded by the institution of the Dictatorship of January 6. In a letter sent by the zhupans (heads of administrative districts) and the military police commanders in Vardar Macedonia to the Prime Minister and the Minister for Internal Affairs dated December 1927, a dozen measures were proposed under the pretext of combating infiltrators. But the ultimate aim was the denationalization of Vardar Macedonia and the creation of a police state.

    The situation in Vardar Macedonia became desperate. A report of the Ministry for Internal Affairs dated November 22, 1926 states "in the towns and, particularly in the villages, the people are underfed... in the villages food mainly consists of rye bread, onions, vinegar, salad and yogurt. Salt is very rarely used because, as the peasants say, it is very expensive. Meals are rarely cooked or fat and oil used as the people are generally fasting. I counted 260 fasting days in a year... Owing to malnutrition, [children and new-borns] are in bad condition. There are communes where the recruits look miserable and the percentage of capability is equal to zero..."

    In an appeal on February 1, 1928, a group of Macedonian citizens warned of the true situation: "Macedonia is suffering. What is going on here cannot be endured any more. A time has come when we here do not know whether when night falls we will live to see the dawn, or when it dawns whether we will live to see the night. People here are in a desperate situation. On one hand, Protogerov sends his bands to commit assassinations, the result of which is always that innocent Macedonians suffer. On the other hand, every such assassination attempt, regardless of whether it is its successful or not, is taken advantage of by the present regime to apply more violent terror, which can lead only to evil. Thus, the dispute over the possession of Macedonia is conducted over our backs, and it is only the Macedonians who suffer from such settlement of accounts, although they do no take part in it and condemn both sides."

    With the incorporation of Vardar Macedonia into the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, teachers and clergy who had not previously worked in Serbian schools and churches were regarded as undesirable. A considerable number of formerly exarchate schools were closed, and in the school year 1922/23 alone 130 schools were closed in the Vardar region. A formula of "dosed education" was applied, which would enable denationalization and "manufacture excellent Serbs". Through the schools and other institutions and organizations, the regime endeavored to strangle all Macedonian national consciousness and tradition, to root out the use of the mother tongue, and to distort history and ethnography. In carrying out enforced denationalization and assimilation, monstrous measures, terrible persecutions and mass terror were employed against the Macedonian people and against the Albanian and Turkish nationalities. Macedonians, Albanians and Turks lost their lives defending their human and national rights. By 1926, more than 1,600 people were executed without investigation or trial, while thousands of martyrs had been imprisoned.

    Parallel to the denationalization policy of the authorities, the Macedonian Question was chiefly addressed by the activities of the Communist Party of Yugoslavia (CPY). Ivan Katardzhiev stresses that "the policies of the Communist Party of Yugoslavia in respect to the Macedonian national question, despite a certain straying during the first years of the Kingdom of the Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, can not be treated separately from first, the complexity of the national question of the Yugoslav peoples within the framework of the new state; second, the relation of Macedonian representatives in the ranks of the Communist Party of Yugoslavia; and third, the viewpoint of the Vukovar Congress (1920) that 'the Communist Party of Yugoslavia will continue to uphold the idea of national unity and equality of all nations in the country'."

    On July 20, 1923, the Sarajevo newspaper Vecerwa posta (Evening Post) reported that "a new youth organization, 'Macedonian Group,' was formed in Southern Serbia". According to somewhat sketchy data, a number of democratic delegates from Macedonia took part in the formation of the group, led by Gligor Anastasov from Kavadarci, Trajko Arsov from Shtip and Dimitrie Chichevich from Prilep. The idea of forming a Macedonian party was aimed at "grouping the forces of people's delegates, in order that-as unified people's delegates-they might truly contribute to improving the unenviable position of Southern Serbia." In letters to the Parliamentary Club of the Democratic Party, Gligor Atanasov explained that this initiative was also prompted by the fact that "one cannot conceive of a lower level of decline and greater chaos and injustice... Macedonia is neglected in every respect..." In an interview with the Free Tribune, Atanasov states that "Macedonia, which most regularly fulfills its duties towards the state, is neglected in every respect. The question of public security, the agrarian question, road and railway traffic, the question of economic recovery, the emigrant question and many other questions of vital importance for the new province cannot come on the agenda of serious study and solution, for the simple reason that Macedonia does not have representatives in the parliament in a position-as a united whole with greater authority and less party passion-to point out the importance of these questions to the competent authorities."

    Many aspects of the formation of this party remain unclear, its political platform being one of them-particularly considering that Gligor Atanasov, after the disintegration of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, joined (if not previously a member) the Vancho Mihajlov group, which greeted the Bulgarian occupation of Macedonia in 1941 as "a historic act".

    The Macedonian Popular Movement (MANAPO) emerged in 1936, founded by a group of Macedonian students and communists who passed a political declaration-which, unfortunately, is now lost. But the main principles of this movement have been preserved: to fight for the "recognition of Macedonia as an individual historical unit and the Macedonians as a separate people", and for Macedonia "to be a separate unit within the framework of Yugoslavia which would be transformed into a federal state community."

    In his "Letter on Serbia" dated November 2, 1936, Josip Broz Tito stressed that "... The platform [of the People's Front] must clearly and unequivocally emphasize the resoluteness that the right of all peoples to self-determination will be respected, i.e. not only the right of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, but also of Macedonians and Montenegrins, as well as the right of the people in Voivodina, Bosnia and Herzegovina to decide for themselves whether they will retain their regional independence within the federal state."

    The recognition of the Macedonian nation by the Comintern determined the viewpoint of the CPY in respect to the struggle of the Macedonian for recognition. Although the Communist Party of Macedonia (CPM) was not created within the framework of the CPY, in the spring of 1939 the Central Committee of the CPY issued its position on the Macedonian national question: "it is beyond any doubt that the Macedonians are a seperate nation in the Balkans (they are neither Greeks, nor Bulgarians, nor Serbs)."

    In the meantime, the Macedonian language gained ground. In some newspapers with a leftist orientation, such as Zagreb's Our Newspaper and Skopje's Light, Our Reality and Our Word, literary works and articles in Macedonian were published. The Skopje theater performed a number of plays in either the literary Macedonian language or in dialects, including but not limited to productions of The Runaway and The Rich Man Theodos by Vasil Iljoski; Money is Murder, Antitsa and Millions of Martyrs by Risto Krle; and Migrant Workers by Anton Panov. The appearance of White Dawns by Kosta Solev Racin fulfilled "a historical necessity-at the time it was published, this collection of poems signified the culmination of the drive toward the definite establishment of the Macedonian language and toward gaining recognition of Macedonian national culture in general." White Dawns heralded "the awakening of a people, which, in its struggle for a better life, had matured to creating its national culture."

    Events in Macedonia were not completely ignored in the outside world. André Vaillant, a great French Slavicist, wrote in 1938 that "...The term 'Slavonic Macedonian' is unclear only for those who want it to be unclear. The Slavonic Macedonian represents reality to such an extent that in the 19th century there existed a Macedonian literary language, the language of a very small among of learned literature but of a rather abundant folk literature. It is not a question of documents and folklore as can be collected anywhere: the lyric Macedonian poem, highly esteemed in Serbia and Bulgaria, represents an authentic literary genre of real value. This literary language, based on dialects which naturally differ somewhat from each other, did not have sufficient time unify. But its centers were Skopje, Tetovo, Ohrid, Bitola (Manastir), Voden (Edessa), etc."

    In that same year the Polish Slavicist Mieczyslaw Malecki concurred with Vaillant, "...However, it should be added that, beside the Macedonian characteristics which mirror the developments of either the Bulgarian or Serbo-Croat languages, there are also entirely individual features which, in such form, do not appear in either of those languages [Bulgarian and Serbo-Croat]. For that reason, my reply to the question whether the Macedonian dialects are Serbian or Bulgarian would be that they are neither Serbian nor Bulgarian, but the majority of them represent an individual dialectal type (which could also be named a Macedonian language), tied by strong knots of kinship to the two languages. Macedonian is a transition between the Serbian and Bulgarian, and its attachment to only one of those languages is baseless from a linguistic point of view."

    Irrespective of the issue of recognition, the national consciousness of the Macedonian people was already strongly developed. The violent dialogue between a group of young intellectuals and the Serbian professor Nikola Vulich in 1940 when the latter publicly denied the existence of either Macedonia, a Macedonian people or a Macedonian language (as well as the reaction his denial caused) was clear evidence that it was political and international conditions which prevented the Macedonian people from obtaining recognition. The numerous leaflets, appeals and proclamations passed by the Regional Committee of the CPM and other left-orientated organizations and movements are an indication that there was no question-at least for the Macedonians-whether they felt themselves to be Bulgarians, Serbs, Greeks-or Macedonians.

    The Resolution of the Regional Committee of the CPY for Macedonia stresses: "only a free and independent Macedonia can guarantee the freedom of all suppressed and enslaved people in Macedonia." The Resolution of the Fifth Countrywide Conference of the Communist Party of Yugoslavia, held from October 19 to 23, 1940, calls the Macedonian struggle "...A struggle for equality and self-determination of the Macedonian people against the oppression of the Serbian bourgeoisie, at the same time revealing the true face of the Italian and Bulgarian imperialists and their agents, who, by way of demagogic promises, also wish to suppress the Macedonian people."

    At the beginning of October 1940, in his article "Balkan War Provocateurs", Tito wrote: "And today, while the destruction of the entire Versailles system is underway and the Bulgarian and Serbian reactionaries compete in a belligerent and pugnacious way whether Macedonia should be an ornament of the Bulgarian or the Yugoslav royal crowns, we must shout louder than ever to those instigators of war that Macedonia is neither Serbian nor Bulgarian. Macedonia, that suppressed country where the freedom-loving Macedonian people are exposed to the most cruel terrors, hungers, denationalizations and exploitations; have suffered under Serbian national hegemony for many years. That blood-soaked country is not here to serve as a decoration for someone's crown, nor to be a dowry of the Serbian or Bulgarian bourgeoisie, but to be free from national suppression. The Macedonian people are fighting for their national liberation and in that struggle they have made great human and material sacrifices so far. To this, as well as to any other suppressed people, no action whatsoever can crush their will for freedom, nor could it destroy their right to self-determination, the right to govern their fates by themselves. Neither the Bulgarian nor the Serbian bourgeoisie have any right to Macedonia."

    The Macedonian people already possessed a highly-developed sense of their individuality and right to independence and freedom when the fires of war flamed across the border, urged on by the attacks on Greece by Italy and on Yugoslavia by Nazi Germany.
  • George S.
    Senior Member
    • Aug 2009
    • 10116

    #2
    I'm not sure which yugoslav republic it was but they wanted to recall the old yugoslav monarchy back from where they are staying in england.Does anyone know which republic that was??wanting the monarchy back??
    "Ido not want an uprising of people that would leave me at the first failure, I want revolution with citizens able to bear all the temptations to a prolonged struggle, what, because of the fierce political conditions, will be our guide or cattle to the slaughterhouse"
    GOTSE DELCEV

    Comment

    • Liberator of Makedonija
      Senior Member
      • Apr 2014
      • 1597

      #3
      There's meant to be a really good book on the Macedonina political struggle during the first Yugoslavia. Does anyone know which I am talking about?
      Last edited by Liberator of Makedonija; 07-14-2019, 10:15 PM.
      I know of two tragic histories in the world- that of Ireland, and that of Macedonia. Both of them have been deprived and tormented.

      Comment

      • VMRO
        Senior Member
        • Sep 2008
        • 1462

        #4
        Originally posted by Liberator of Makedonija View Post
        There's meant to be a really good book on Macedonina political struggle during the first Yugoslavia. Does anyone know which I am talking about?
        There is a great book written by Nada Boskovska - Yugoslavia and Macedonia Before Tito Between Repression and Integration
        Verata vo Mislite, VMRO vo dushata, Makedonia vo Srceto.

        Vnatreshna Makedonska Revolucionerna Organizacija.

        Comment

        • Liberator of Makedonija
          Senior Member
          • Apr 2014
          • 1597

          #5
          Originally posted by VMRO View Post
          There is a great book written by Nada Boskovska - Yugoslavia and Macedonia Before Tito Between Repression and Integration
          Yes that's it! Thank you VMRO, any idea where I could find a copy?
          I know of two tragic histories in the world- that of Ireland, and that of Macedonia. Both of them have been deprived and tormented.

          Comment

          • VMRO
            Senior Member
            • Sep 2008
            • 1462

            #6
            Originally posted by Liberator of Makedonija View Post
            Yes that's it! Thank you VMRO, any idea where I could find a copy?
            Would have to buy it, probably too new for the libraries to have stocked it.

            It retails about $120+
            Verata vo Mislite, VMRO vo dushata, Makedonia vo Srceto.

            Vnatreshna Makedonska Revolucionerna Organizacija.

            Comment

            • Liberator of Makedonija
              Senior Member
              • Apr 2014
              • 1597

              #7
              Originally posted by VMRO View Post
              Would have to buy it, probably too new for the libraries to have stocked it.

              It retails about $120+
              Damn pricey. When was it published?
              I know of two tragic histories in the world- that of Ireland, and that of Macedonia. Both of them have been deprived and tormented.

              Comment

              • VMRO
                Senior Member
                • Sep 2008
                • 1462

                #8
                Originally posted by Liberator of Makedonija View Post
                Damn pricey. When was it published?
                2017/2018

                All these academic books are pricey now, Brill the publishing house sell some books for $300 a pop AUD.
                Verata vo Mislite, VMRO vo dushata, Makedonia vo Srceto.

                Vnatreshna Makedonska Revolucionerna Organizacija.

                Comment

                • Selanec
                  Junior Member
                  • Jun 2019
                  • 30

                  #9
                  Not sure if this is the best place to post it, so feel free to move it to a new thread or somewhere else if more appropriate.

                  After coming across an interesting article on an old Encyclopedia that I own, I wanted to see what they have to say for a number of Macedonian topics. I looked up Yugoslavia and I thought I share the pages here. Obviously not all of it is relevant to us, but see page 920 for example. I am fascinated in how they are talking about Macedonians and Macedonia, which is really refreshing when compared to what I read on Wikipedia (which I have made a post about).

                  Discover the magic of the internet at Imgur, a community powered entertainment destination. Lift your spirits with funny jokes, trending memes, entertaining gifs, inspiring stories, viral videos, and so much more from users.

                  Comment

                  • Carlin
                    Senior Member
                    • Dec 2011
                    • 3332

                    #10
                    Originally posted by VMRO View Post
                    Would have to buy it, probably too new for the libraries to have stocked it.

                    It retails about $120+
                    Liberator of Makedonija and VMRO, the book by Nada Boskovska - Yugoslavia and Macedonia Before Tito Between Repression and Integration is located here!


                    PDF:


                    Abstract: Held together by apparatchiks and, later, Tito's charisma, Yugoslavia never really incorporated separate Balkan nationalisms into the Pan-Slavic ideal. Macedonia-frequently ignored by Belgrade-had survived centuries of Turkish domination, Bulgarian invasion and Serbian assimilation before it became part of the Yugoslav project in the aftermath of the First World War. Drawing on an extensive analysis of archival material, private correspondence, and newspaper articles, Nada Boskovska provides an arresting account of the Macedonian experience of the interwar years, charting the growth of political consciousness and the often violent state-driven attempts to curb autonomy.

                    Some quotes from the book.

                    Pages 213-214:
                    One of the main concerns of the authorities was that the Macedonian
                    teachers spoke ‘in dialect’ with the children and could instil in them a false
                    national consciousness. The school supervisor in Bitola complained on
                    26 March 1927 to the director of a school that Jerina Markovicka, a teacher
                    of the third class born in Strumica, was frequently using ‘dialect’ as the
                    ‘written language’, just like her students. In addition the children openly
                    said: ‘We are Macedonians and speak the Macedonian language.’ The teacher
                    was suspected to have taught them this. She explained in her response on
                    27 June 1927 that the children had asked to her surprise: ‘Mrs. Teacher, we
                    can’t understand what you are saying, we would like you to speak
                    Macedonian with us.’

                    Page 216:
                    In 1929, the move made by the director of the citizens’ school in Kochani
                    against one of his teachers, who was ‘Macedonian and as such unfavourable for
                    the region there’ and stayed away from all national demonstrations, proved to
                    be a boomerang. The teacher was able to clear his name subsequently, but the
                    denouncer received a reprimand from the Education Minister because he had
                    described the teacher as a ‘Macedonian’ in official correspondence. The lapse
                    by the director demonstrates that unofficially among the Serbs it was usual to
                    use the term ‘Macedonian’.

                    Page 234:
                    In 1938 a good student refused to write anything on the essay topic ‘Why
                    I must love my Fatherland’. In the course of the ensuing investigation he
                    commented that for Yugoslavia he had no feelings and he could not describe
                    something he did not feel. On the orders of the Education Ministry, this
                    student was permanently banned from all the high schools in the country. The
                    Teachers’ Council, however, would not have classified his offence so severely.
                    The author of the report also had to confirm that the students only spoke
                    the ‘correct standard language’ in the presence of the teacher; ‘the rest of the
                    time in the school, on the street, and in their homes, they deliberately don’t
                    want to express themselves correctly and only speak the local dialect, which
                    has been ruined by Bulgarian propaganda’. The teacher had even heard one
                    student ask another on the street if he was not ashamed to speak Serbian.


                    Last edited by Carlin; 09-27-2019, 11:46 PM.

                    Comment

                    • Liberator of Makedonija
                      Senior Member
                      • Apr 2014
                      • 1597

                      #11
                      Legend Carlin, thanks!
                      I know of two tragic histories in the world- that of Ireland, and that of Macedonia. Both of them have been deprived and tormented.

                      Comment

                      • Carlin
                        Senior Member
                        • Dec 2011
                        • 3332

                        #12
                        No prob.

                        From the same book, pages 72 and 73.




                        Comment

                        • Carlin
                          Senior Member
                          • Dec 2011
                          • 3332

                          #13
                          Originally posted by Liberator of Makedonija View Post
                          Legend Carlin, thanks!
                          Have you had a chance to take a look?

                          Comment

                          • Liberator of Makedonija
                            Senior Member
                            • Apr 2014
                            • 1597

                            #14
                            Originally posted by Carlin15 View Post
                            Have you had a chance to take a look?
                            Funny, I was looking at this thread earlier today - what a coincidence. I downloaded the book but I prefer to read physically so still hoping to get a copy
                            I know of two tragic histories in the world- that of Ireland, and that of Macedonia. Both of them have been deprived and tormented.

                            Comment

                            • Soldier of Macedon
                              Senior Member
                              • Sep 2008
                              • 13675

                              #15
                              Here is part of the conclusion chapter of her book, which basically encapsulates the topic. It's actually quite a revealing look into Macedonian life under Serb-Yugoslav rule between the two world wars. Plenty of sources cited and well worth the read.
                              The Unsuccessful Serbianisation of Macedonia

                              What failed for the entire state, could, however, have been successful with regard to Macedonia, as on this level the preconditions were considerably more favourable. A comparatively large, strong and experienced Serbian state stood opposite the small and in every respect weak Macedonia, which was to be firmly attached through ‘nationalisation and assimilation’. This goal was to be achieved in two ways simultaneously. On the one hand Serbian rule was legitimated on pre-modern grounds by reaching back to the mediaeval period and claiming that Macedonia was part of the inheritance of Stefan Dušan, or even a country promised to the Serbs by God. On the other hand, the modern concept of the nation was employed, which was to be propagated by the equally modern means of the school. The use of symbols, people, and dates from Serbian history, as well as myths, combined both of these approaches. The ideologues believed they held a strong hand with these trumps. Nonetheless, they were not successful; only a small part of the population described themselves, usually out of opportunism, as ‘Serbs’ or ‘South Serbs’. But the attitude of the authorities also remained ambivalent. On the one hand the Macedonians were told that they were Serbs, on the other they noticed at every turn that they were not treated as being equal to the Serbs. Certain officials clearly let them know that in their eyes they were Bulgarians. For the authorities it was easiest to stamp all those that didn’t acknowledge being Serbs as bugaraši, as supporters of the Bulgarians. That these people might have a different consciousness, however, was not considered. This becomes clear in a report by an official of the Trade Ministry, who in March 1921 travelled through the district of Ohrid and who noted, among other things, that at first glance there were no bugaraši, but this impression was mistaken: ‘There are some, like the majority of the ordinary people, who reply, when you ask them who they are: “We are Macedonians”’.

                              Although already in the second half of the 1920s there were hardly any supporters of annexation by Bulgaria to be found, and politically active groups in opposition to the government propagated the phrase, ‘We are neither Serbs nor Bulgarians, but only Macedonians’, this was not taken seriously and did not lead to any basic change in the attitude of Belgrade towards Macedonia. The advantages of such an attitude are clear to see: according to this doctrine, everyone who advocated for the local language and culture, or supported autonomy was a ‘Bulgaroman’ and therefore also an enemy of the state, who had to be suppressed. In this way the problem could be externalised and simplified. The recognition of the Macedonians as the fourth Yugoslav ‘tribe’, on the other hand would have required a complete rethinking of Serbia’s national ideology and of the constitutional basis of the state. Such an idea was simply not permitted. The unforeseeable political consequences that might result also prompted external powers, such as the British, not even to consider recognising a Macedonian nationality:

                              Indeed, once the existence of a Macedonian nationality is even allowed to be presumed, there is a danger that the entire Peace Settlement will be jeopardized by the calling into question, not merely of the frontiers between Yugoslavia and Bulgaria, but also of those between Yugoslavia and Greece and between Yugoslavia and Albania.

                              The Foreign Office therefore recommended that the British government should ‘refuse to recognise a distinct Macedonian nationality requiring either independence, or absorption by Bulgaria, or else a degree of autonomy which Yugoslavia would not willingly concede’. The main reason for the failure to assimilate Vardar Macedonia was that Serbian policies were not aimed at integration, but right to the end bore the hallmarks of colonialism and remained exploitative. There was no emancipation and participation by the locals. The financial resources were administered centrally from Belgrade, Macedonia’s economy remained focused on the production of raw materials, which in any case were purchased by the state at rock-bottom prices it set itself. Political measures and repression strengthened the economic dependence: all attempts made by the Macedonian elite to organise themselves were suppressed, while the security apparatus kept the population in a state of fear. The locals were discriminated against with regard to appointments to state jobs, the issuing of loans, and in the agricultural reform in favour of recent arrivals. Subsequently, the two population groups remained segregated.
                              Serb and Greek historians remain deliberately ignorant of Macedonian individualism and consequently dismiss any sign of it during that period. Bulgar historians are well aware of it but pretend it doesn't exist because it negates their narrative. None of them have ever been willing to accept the Macedonian interpretation on Macedonia. Not even a little. We're meant to just accept the perspectives of these outsiders about our own people, our own homeland, even as they contradict each other. With regard to Serb historians in particular, they posses a certain pompous attitude in which they view Macedonians as ungrateful. According to them, we should instead be unequivocally thankful for Serbia's contribution to the fall of the Ottoman Empire. That the role of the Serb in Macedonia started as propagandist who fostered internecine and then went from liberator to occupier to coloniser to oppressor in quick succession, has absolutely no place in their indoctrinated memory. Despite the occasional lip service for the sake of diplomacy today, many Serb historians still deny the validity of the Macedonian identity. They never bothered to learn anything about the Macedonian experience and are so pretentious that they just can't see Macedonia outside of their demented prism, even when it is staring them in the face. The complicity of so-called "great powers" like Britain in suppressing Macedonian self-determination is also reprehensible, as if it wasn't enough that Macedonia had to deal with the hyenas in her own neighbourhood. Nearly everybody with interests in the Balkans was against Macedonia. Little has changed.
                              In the name of the blood and the sun, the dagger and the gun, Christ protect this soldier, a lion and a Macedonian.

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