Macedonian a Second Language in Bulgaria

[Risto the Great]

I have been reading Horace Lunt's book on Macedonian Grammar recently. I was quite surprised to read about the fact that Macedonian was a recognised second language in Bulgaria from 1944 until 1948 and has since been forbidden (p.15).

Do we have any more information about how the language was forbidden?

[Rogi]

Read up on Georgi Dimitrov, who was Bulgarian Premier at the time. He is admired by many in the Republic of Macedonia because of what he did for the Macedonians in Pirin.
There is a high school in Skopje named after the Bulgarian leader.

It wasn't just the language that was recognised at the time, but also the recognition of the Macedonian ethnic identity as well as a census in which Macedonians were included.

At that time, under the auspices of the Comintern (Communist International), there were agreements in place where Pirin Macedonia would join with was was then the Socialist Republic of Macedonia - and the formation of a Balkan Federation.

It all came undone when Georgi Dimitrov died in 1949 and Todor Zhivkov became leader of the People's Republic of Bulgaria, undoing all of the work Georgi Dimitrov had done with his stance on Macedonia.

[malenka]

Not recognized or forbidden?
This fellow, the linguist, surley ought to know the difference.

[Risto the Great]

Not recognized or forbidden?
This fellow, the linguist, surley ought to know the difference.

Not really, he could just tell the difference between the languages. Can anybody tell the difference between "not recognised and forbidden in Greece nowadays? There might have been a time, but political spin has made it unclear now.

[Risto the Great]

Thanks Rogi,
I will look up Dimitrov.
And then finally look up a relative of mine who was a politician in Bulgaria 50 years ago.

[Risto the Great]

In relation to the book, one of the identifying features was the stress on the antepenult (3rd to last syllable). I disagree. And Belomorska Makedonsi have never done this consistently.

And while we are at it, the only unique Macedonian word I can think of is "Spolaj Ti".

[osiris]

In relation to the book, one of the identifying features was the stress on the antepenult (3rd to last syllable). I disagree.

did anyone in macedonia speak like that before koneski and his band decided that is the macedonian way. i had met people from all parts of macedonia and had never heard anyone speak like that till i went to skopje in 75.

it still sounds artificial, and unattractive to me.

i cringe when the say makedonia using that accent.

[malenka]

If by the book one of the identifying features is the accent on 3rd from the back syllable, then that writes out the whole of east Macedonia too, where we put it on 2nd to last. Have always done and still do.

So, if Belomorci, Malesevci and Kocanci didn't speak the way he is suggesting then where did this man got his research from? I'll take that book back and ask for my money back

[Soldier of Macedon]

Just in relation to the accents on the syllables, I encourage you all to read some of the Shapkarev literary works from late 19th century Macedonia, where there is a mark or comma above letters where the emphasis is placed.

On many of these songs, for a number of those recorded from Bitola for example, you will clearly notice that the accent is the same as it is today.

[Big Bad Sven]

I think you guys will find this article interesting. Its from the 70’s and it shows that even back then the bulgars where going to extreme measures to “bulgarize” the Macedonians in Pirin.


YUGOSLAV-BULGARIAN MERRY-GO-ROUND OVER MACEDONIA
CONTINUES

By Slobodan Stankovic

Summary: This paper reviews a recent flurry of sharply
critical Yugoslav press articles dealing with alleged
persecution of the Macedonian national minority in
Bulgaria, with a recent speech by Todor Zhivkov�s
daughter, Lyudmilla, and with a new book on Bulgarian
ethnography.

x x x

It would seem that since the beginning of this year, the
Yugoslav-Bulgarian merry-go-round over Macedonia has once again
accelerated. Yugoslav information media have intensified their
accusations against "official" Sofia for an alleged "assimilation
policy" toward the Macedonian national minority in Bulgaria, and
for claiming that the people living in the Socialist Republic of
Macedonia were not Macedonians but Bulgarians. These renewed
polemics are particularly striking in view of the evidence of
intensified contacts between the two countries at both the party
and state levels in recent months [see Item 3, Bulgarian Situation
Report/40, Radio Free Europe Research, 20 December 19747]

Alleged Persecution of Macedonians in Bulgaria

Generally speaking, these Yugoslav accusations are simply a
repetition of earlier ones. Perhaps the one really new element
is details of alleged persecutions of the Macedonian national
minority in Bulgaria. According to a Belgrade weekly, They were
carried out because of the new census which is to be taken this

[Page 2]

year in Bulgaria. According to the paper, during the 1956 census,
when "about 180,000 persons declared they were Macedonians," a man
from Pirin Macedonia made the following statement: "Following an
order from the party, I declare I am a Bulgarian." The paper further
stated that Macedonians in Pirin Macedonia are now being forced to
settle in other parts of Bulgaria:

There are three administrative punishments included in
Bulgaria's Penal Code of 12 April 1968: 1. forcible
resettlement; 2. corrective labor; and 3. continued
deprivation of the right to live in a place of one�s
choice. Such penalties have been imposed on individuals
and whole families from Pirin Macedonia who have been
forcibly resettled in the northern parts of Bulgaria. [1]

The Belgrade weekly also claimed that "especially in the
period after 1965," such pressures and national assimilation "had
been resisted" by the Macedonians in Bulgaria. "Young Macedonians --
high school pupils and workers - have particularly resisted the
policy of assimilation," the Belgrade paper said, adding that
resistance had been promoted "through leaflets, slogans, letters
of protest -- because of which many people were tried and
condemned." On the night of 8 and 9 February 1970, "a great wave
of arrests" took place in Blagoevgrad.

In other areas, however, Yugoslav-Bulgarian relations have
improved, particularly in the economic field [see also Item 3,
Bulgarian Situation Report/40, RFER, 20 December 1974 on intensified
contacts late last year]; but the problem of the Macedonian
national minority in Bulgaria "has remained an open problem," the
paper claims. "The latest cold and unpleasant anti-Macedonian
wind began blowing at the end of 1973," although the extension of
"good neighborly relations" between Bulgaria and Yugoslavia continued
to be propagated publicly:

Administrative persecution, the prohibition of singing
Macedonian songs, confiscation of phonograph records, the
expulsion from schools of freedom-loving young people, the
transfer of Macedonians from good to poor jobs because of
their Macedonian feelings, were overcome by some even
stricter actions of the Bulgarian authorities. For

----------------------------------

(1) Nedeljne informativne novine (Belgrade), 5 January 1975.

[Page 3]

instance, at the end of 1973 in Petric and other places in
Pirin Macedonia, about 100 persons were arrested, interrogated
or warned. About 40 persons who belonged to an "illegal
organization" were interrogated in Sofia for several months.
Of them, 12 persons were brought to trial in Blagoevgrad
(between 2 and 5 June 1974) and sentenced to strict
imprisonment from four to eight years, while the remaining
persons were punished administratively. [2]

Iyudmilla Zhivkova and Prince Marko
A speech by Lyudmilla Zhivkova, first deputy chairman of the
Committee on Art and Culture and daughter of Bulgaria's party and
state chief, Todor Zhivkov, seemed to have provoked special
irritation in Belgrade and Skoplje [see Item 1 of Bulgarian Situation
Report/5, RFER, 13 February 1975, for details]. During her speech
in the capital of Pirin Macedonia -- Blagoevgrad -- Mme. Zhivkova
"openly denied the existence of the Macedonians in this area and
instead depicted them as Bulgarians." "Zhivkova had gone so far as
to claim that Spartacus and Prince Marko [the latter a historical
Serbian figure from the 14th century popularly known in Bulgaria as
"King Marko"] have been preserved in the hearts of every Bulgarian, '"
thus implying that they were of Bulgarian origin. [3]

Borba even published a short poem under the title "Prince
Marko and Lyudmilla Zhivkova" in which it ridiculed the latter�s
assertions and commented on them by saying that in Bulgaria,
"a Georgi Dimitrov is obviously more needed than a Prince Marko." [4]

A stronger reaction appeared in the Skoplje daily Nova Makedonij
which charged that not only Bulgarian historiographers, publicists
and the press but "individual Bulgarian leaders" as well, were
continuing "their campaign against Macedonia" and Macedonians:

They are doing this as if nothing had changed or is
changing, as if they had a God-given right to decide people�s
destiny and to cut up the map of the world. And while they

----------------------------------

(2) Ibid.

(3) Politika (Belgrade), 2 February 1975.

(4) Borba (Belgrade), 4 February 1975.

[Page 4]

play with history--their own and others�-- as with toy
balloons, they accuse other people, of. waging an
anti-Bulgarian campaign; while they appropriate foreign
[territories] as their own, they accuse, other peopled of
insisting on [their rightful ownership of]certain territories.
LyudmiLla Zhivkova revealed that it is Pirin Macedonia (rather
than, for instance, the Plovdiv or varna districts). where
Bulgarian national consciousness is the strongest, because
of which she, as a cultural worker, is particularly happy.
Professor Hristo Vakarleski has been applauded because he
successfully plagiarized "historical facts" from the books
of the worst protagonists of the Greater Bulgarian ideas. . . .[5]

A Sofia report in Borba has commented on what Professor
Vakarelski�s "sin" was: He recently published a book called
Ethnography of Bulgaria in which he said that not only such towns as Bitol
Ohrid, Struga, Titov Veles, Stip and Strumica in Yugoslav Macedonia
but towns such as Viden and Seres in Greek Macedonia, "were, until
the Balkan Wars [1912/1913], Bulgarian towns, populated by
Bulgarians," and also that "Prince Marko was proclaimed �a
Bulgarian administrator in Prilep,' while Czar Samuel was a
celebrated hero of Bulgarian history.�" [6] In addition, Borba
claims that many figures from Macedonian history have simply
been proclaimed Bulgarians.

The anti-Bulgarian attacks in Belgrade and Skoplje have been
echoed by the Slovenian daily Delo of Ljubljana and Vjesnik of
Zagreb., They also referred to LyudmiLla Zhivkova�s. speech (and the
fact that it had been published in Rabotnichesko Delo) as proof
"that the Bulgarian leaders have definitely decided to pursue an
anti-Macedonian and anti-Yugoslav policy which, in the future,
will be waged at the public and official level." [7] This type
of anti-Yugoslav and anti-Macedonian campaign is part "of
Bulgaria's official policy," thus making it the only country
"that denies the existence of a Yugoslav national minority." [8]

----------------------------------

(5) Nova Makedonija (Skoplje), 7 February 1975.

(6) Borba, 10 February 1975.

(7) Delo (Ljubljana), 10 February 1975.

(8) Vjesnik (Zagreb), 13 February 1975.

[Page 5]

As in similar periods in the past, it is difficult to identify
the mainsprings of the current flurry of Yugoslav polemics with
Bulgaria over Macedonia. But in any event they could be seen as
a counterpart of (and perhaps balance to) the recent
anti-Austrian campaign concerning the Slovenian minority in that
country. And, finally, though this cannot be established with
any certainty, one is tempted to relate to the current discussion
the separate, "warm and friendly" talks which CPSU CC Secretary
Katushev had with the Bulgarian and Yugoslav ambassadors in
Moscow on February 4.

[Big Bad Sven]

Read up on Georgi Dimitrov, who was Bulgarian Premier at the time. He is admired by many in the Republic of Macedonia because of what he did for the Macedonians in Pirin.
There is a high school in Skopje named after the Bulgarian leader.

It wasn't just the language that was recognised at the time, but also the recognition of the Macedonian ethnic identity as well as a census in which Macedonians were included.

At that time, under the auspices of the Comintern (Communist International), there were agreements in place where Pirin Macedonia would join with was was then the Socialist Republic of Macedonia - and the formation of a Balkan Federation.

It all came undone when Georgi Dimitrov died in 1949 and Todor Zhivkov became leader of the People's Republic of Bulgaria, undoing all of the work Georgi Dimitrov had done with his stance on Macedonia.

Yes I believe that is true.

If my memory was correct the plan was for Bulgaria and Albania to join the Yugoslav federation, but the “cost” for those countries was that Pirin Macedonia and the Macedonian land in Albania was to go to the Socialist republic of Macedonia.

What a real shame that during Tito’s Yugoslavia so many attempts where made to get Pirin, Aegean and Albanian Macedonia yet all attempts failed. Sadly I think those where our best and last chances of getting the rest of Macedonia. Im no Tito lover and no that he did a lot of bad things to Macedonia and the Macedonians, but you need to give him credit on that.

[Rogi]

Had nothing to do with Tito and his cronies.

[TrueMacedonian]

This is a nice topic. Thanks for bringing it back to page 1. I feel that the Macedonians in Bulgaria are overshadowed by the Macedonians plight in Aegean Macedonia. It's nice to see topics like this.

[Risto the Great]

Had nothing to do with Tito and his cronies.

Well, to be fair, he was creating an economic powerhouse in the Balkans. If Yugoslavia was not considered a "better bet" both strategically and economically, I am sure there would not even had been any thought given to such a notion.