The Ilinden Uprising

[Rogi]

Zlatnata Kinga "100 Godini VMRO" was a project organised, and funded, mainly by the Macedonians in Melbourne, and solely by the Macedonians in Australia. In particular, the VMRO-DPMNE committee's in every Australian state capital, a couple of churches, and a number of individuals.

It's content was written and contributed to, by Dr. Aleksandar Trajanovski, Dr. Mihajlo Minovski, Dr. Aleksandar Apostolov, Dr. Darinka Pacemska-Petreska, Mr. Zoran Todorovski, Dr. Galena Kuculovska and Ljupco Georgievski.

Though he's not mentioned in the book, another person who was crucial to the realisation of this book was Boris Zmejkovski.

It is a very interesting read. I intend to scan and/or type up the whole thing and have it up on Google Books (and then also available via Google Translation to English).

[Risto the Great]

Clearly everyone knew what significance the revival of the Ohrid Archbishopric would have had and the opposition it would have created against the Bulgarian church.

Thanks Indigen.

[indigen]

Exarchate opposed to Ilinden Uprising [Zlatna kniga - 100 godini VMRO]

“....the politics of the Exarchate [Bulgarian] in Macedonia in regards to the Ilinden Uprising was negative and detrimental for the Macedonian national liberation movement....” [ Dr. Aleksandar Trajanovski: Zlatna Kniga -100 Godini VMRO.]

“....Thus, the politics of the Exarchate in Macedonia around the time of the Ilinden Uprising had been negative and detrimental for the Macedonian national liberation movement. Committed to its long familiar methods of using the vehicle of education and religion for the gradual recast of Macedonians into Bulgarians, and with that to turn Macedonia into a Bulgarian country, as the best and surest means of incorporating of Macedonia within the borders of Great Bulgaria, the Exarch had been against any revolutionary activity of the Macedonians under his religious jurisdiction. The Exarch had been scared of a successful, as well as an unsuccessful uprising. The former he would dread and concludes: “...We need to bear in mind that in an autonomous Macedonia the survival of the Holy Bulgarian Exarchate would be called into question, even if it remains there as a religious institution. In any case the question will also arise about her name “Bulgarian Exarchate”, because as “Bulgarian” it can not be a base for the unification of the “Srbomans” and “Grkomans”, which is the basic aim of the “Internals” [VMRO (Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization)]. Thus, the Holy Bulgarian Exarchate will have to give up the holiest and to identify with another name, which will reflect the political government of autonomous Macedonia, in fact it will have to identify as “Macedonian”. We consider that this will not be the end of the transformation process.
Turkey herself, if she consents to an autonomous Macedonia, will insist that the religious question be solved along the same basis, in that way to end future encroachment of the neighbouring Balkan states, in the first place the Principality, as the most dangerous to her. In that situation, the road leads towards the renewal of the Ohrid Archbishopric, an idea [ideal] which since long ago has been circulating in the heads of some “separatists”, among whom there are bishops, such as the likes of former Skopje bishop the Reverend Theodosius...” 1

Excerpts from the "Golden Book - 100 Years VMRO", published by GLAS (VOICE) of VMRO-DPMNE, Skopje, 1993. Author of section is Dr. Aleksandar Trajanovski, page 25.

1. Letter of Exarch to [Bulgarian] Minister of Foreign Affairs in Sofia, 14 April 1903. [Document No. 2438].


“....Значи, политиката на Егзархијата во Македонија за време на Илинденското востание била негативна и штетна за македонското национално ослоботително движење. Доследни на своите познати методи за мирно и постепено преобразување на Македонците во Бугари, а со тоа и на Македонија во Бугарска земја, како најдобро и најсигурно средство за приклучувањето на Македонија во границите на Голема Бугарија, егзархот бил против секакво ревулуциерност на македонските егзархиски верници. Него го плашело едно успешно, но и неуспешно востание. Во врска со првото тој болно подвлекол: “....Треба да потсетиме и на тоа дека во една автономна Македонија опстанокот на Светата Бугарска егзархија би била доведена во прашанње, дури и да остани таму како верска институција. Секако ќе се наметне прашањето и за нејзиното име ‘Бугарска егзархија’, бидејќи како ‘бугарска’ не може да биде база за обединување на ‘србоманите’ и гркоманите, што е основна цел на ‘внатрешните’. Значи, Светата Бугарска егзархија ќе треба да се откаже од најсветото и да се именува со друго име, кое ќе соодветстува на политичката управа на автономна Македонија, односно ќе мора да се именува ‘македонска’. Сметаме дека и тоа не ќе биде крај во трансформираниот процес. Самата Турција, ако веќе се согласи со една автономна Македонија, ќе инсистира и црковното прашње да се реши на таа основа, како би го запрела понатамошното влијание на соседните балкански држави, во прв ред Кнежеството, како најопасно за неа. Во таков случај, патот води кон обнова на Охридскакта архиепископија, идеја што одамна се врти во главите на некои ‘сеператисти’, меѓу кои има и владици, од типот на поранешниот скопски Г. Теодосиј...” 1

Извадоци од книгата ‘Златна Книга -100 Години ВМРО’, Издавач е ГЛАС на ВМРО-ДПМНЕ, Скопје 1993. Страница 25, пишува Д-р Александар Трајановски.

1. Егзархот до министерот за надворешни работи во Софија, бр. 2438 од 14 април 1903 година.

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“...Во таков случај, патот води кон обнова на Охридскакта архиепископија, идеја што одамна се врти во главите на некои ‘сеператисти’, меѓу кои има и владици, од типот на поранешниот скопски Г. Теодосиј...”

Егзархот до министерот за надворешни работи во Софија од 14 април 1903 година.


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June 22, 1891, Skopje
Theodosius, Metropolitan of Skopje, to Archimandrite Dionysius in Sofia.

...our Holy Exarchate headed by His Holiness Exarch Joseph I does everything possible to persuade the wretched Macedonian people that it has good intentions, that it cares for their present and future and that it wants to draw them out of the darkness of national unawareness and create holy Bulgarians of them. But I would not have to persuade you too long, my dearest brother in Christ, that our Holy Exarchate, with its religious and educational activity here, in Macedonia, in fact carries out a most miserable task, it deprives a people of its name and replaces it with another, it deprives them of their mother tongue and replaces it with another, alien one, in order to allow its government and its Bulgarian masters to extend their commerce to foreign territories, too. And what else would you call this, my dear brother, other then a new slavery, even more terrible then the Turkish one? The Turks take the property and the lives of the people, but do not encroach upon their spirit. They destroy the body but respect the soul. And our Holy Exarchate kills the latter, the perpetual...

I have written this to you, so that you would not be amazed by my previous letter in which I stated my opinion that we clergyman, Macedonians in origin, should unite and urge our people to awaken, throw off foreign authority, throw off even the Patriarchate and the Exarchate, and spiritually unified under the wing of the Archbishopric of Ohrid, their only true Mother Church. Is it not high time to put an end to the national movements of a single people among which some recognize the Patriarchate, some the Exarchate and some even bow to Mohammed? Is it not high time to put an end to hatred between blood brothers? And how could this be achieved if not by the way of our national Church , by way of the Archbishopric of Ohrid? I shall be sincere, my dear brother in Christ, and shall openly declare to you: we, the Macedonians, to not suffer as much by the Turks, long live our Padishah, as by the Greeks, the Bulgarians and the Serbs, who have set upon us like vultures upon a carcass in this tortured land and want to split it up. (”And they parted Your garments, Jesus”)........Theodosius of Skopje

Centralen D’rzhaven istoricheski archiv (Sofia) 176, op.1. arh.ed. 595, l.5-42 - Razgledi, X/8 (1968), p.996-1000.

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A letter from P.R. Slaveykov to the Bulgarian Exarch: Your Grace, I arrived in Salonika on the evening of the 14th of last month (January 1874). ...........Mr. Kuzman Shapkarev from Ohrid, who is well known to us, has done a great deal to spread the idea of the restoration of the Archbishopric of Ohrid; he constantly travels between Kukish and Ohrid and v.v., but at whose expense, I do not know.

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A letter from P.R. Slaveykov to the Bulgarian Exarch: Your Grace, I arrived in Salonika on the evening of the 14th of last month (January 1874). I immediately went to meet all the important local people and some others from the other Macedonian towns. My aim was to gather information as son as possible on what was to be necessary for the success of the mission with which you had entrusted me. I first met Father Averkij Zografski, and the following day Father Petar Dimitrov as well, the local president of the community. I may inform you, Your Grace, that the wind from here, from Salonika, blows and scatters to all sides. These two clergyman, to my mind, are the leaders of the movement for the restoration of the Archbishopric of Ohrid, although one should not neglect Ohrid and to certain extent Bitola, Veles and Skopje either. The Uniate movement here is not without roots, as they think in Constantinopole, especially His Grace, Count Ignatiev. During the time I have been in Macedonia I have ascertained the same we had formerly known and written three years ago. Now, as then or twenty years ago, we are dealing with the Macedonian question. In talks with few Macedonian “patriots” I have understood that this movement, which had been only bare words till a few years ago, is now clear and precise thought - “The Macedonians are not Bulgarians” and they persistently strive, regardless of the price, to obtain a separate church of their own.

They also have the support in their separatism of some high clergyman in Constantinopole, especially His Grace Nathaniel Ohridski, Panariot Plovdivski, and Archimandrite Hariton Karpuzov. I have understood this month from reliable sources that there are letters which arrive every day from Constantinopole to the Salonika community, and are then sent to the other communities in the provinces. The letters are written in this spirit. One such letter, which the Salonika community sent to the community of Voden, calls upon the inhabitants of Voden to break off all their relations with the Exarchate until the Macedonian Church question is settled, because “now is the moment”. Mr. Kuzman Shapkarev from Ohrid, who is well known to us, has done a great deal to spread the idea of the restoration of the Archbishopric of Ohrid; he constantly travels between Kukish and Ohrid and v.v., but at whose expense, I do not know. Mr. Dimitar Makedonski, “the Macedonian textbook writer”, is no less active, receiving salary as a teacher from the Exarchate and from local Lazarists.

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This shows not only that Shapkarev was an important activist for the an Macedonian Autocephalous Church but it also shows who were Macedonians in the 19th C.

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[Daskalot]

Happy Ilinden

Enjoy!:rmacedonia

[Soldier of Macedon]

My thoughts also.

[El Bre]

Fantastic footage. Like RtG, I too am inherently more comfortable with this patois, although to me it sounds like a dialect that originates from points east of Lerin or Kostur.

[Soldier of Macedon]

It is a special and unique language, Macedonian is, and the folks in the video speak it beautifully.

[Rogi]

Bloody hell I love our language!

[Soldier of Macedon]

Check the last vid between 4.39 and 5.49.

Vrhovistite iska da doe Bugarija tuka, a pa centralistite gone mi e pa samo stojatolna Makedonija da bide, nikoi da ne se nabrka, nitu srbin, nitu bugarin, nitu grk…….A na mene napravija tia, vrhovistite bashtami zakla, stoka imame dignaa, rasipaa, se, oti sum ostaal sos Delchev....



There are defitenly some things that need altering, RtG, can you correct anything? Highlighted in red is some parts I am not sure of, nor even if the word is correct.

[Risto the Great]

Mate, I would say it all sounded like my own people were speaking the language. The sound quality was not good, but the choice of words and accents seemed very "comfortable" to me.

[Soldier of Macedon]

Don't bother, just watched the videos, I see what you mean when you compare it to the dialect of the old couple, although it is hard to make out some words due to the sound quality, how did you go with it? Where do you think they are from? There may be some Exarch influence in there with the word 'bashtami'.

I will post a sentence from the last clip.

[Soldier of Macedon]

RtG, can you name some of the obvious departures that you have noticed when using the language of the folks in the clip as a comparison?

[Risto the Great]

Awesome stuff.
I hate to say it ... but the modern Macedonian language has gone to the dogs.
This is the language of all Macedonians.

[TrueMacedonian]

Contemporary Witnesses: Macedonian revolutionaries and Ilinden Uprising 1903

YouTube - Contemporary Witnesses: Macedonian revolutionaries and Ilinden Uprising 1903 (1/3)
YouTube - Contemporary Witnesses: Macedonian revolutionaries and Ilinden Uprising 1903 (2/3)
YouTube - Contemporary Witnesses: Macedonian revolutionaries and Ilinden Uprising 1903 (3/3)

[Pelister]

Michael Radin, was all we had at one time, but he bought into the "we are 5th century Slavs" thing, and looking back over his stuff it now looks pretty basic.