From: lb@cs.man.ac.uk (Luben Boyanov)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.yugoslavia,soc.culture.bulgaria
Subject: Re: The Balkan Dance of Death [Macedonia]
Date: 15 Dec 92 14:03:29 GMT
Followup-To: soc.culture.yugoslavia
Organization: Dept Computer Science, University of Manchester, U.K.

In article <1992Dec11.142344.6153@hibbs.vcu.edu> dlatane@hibbs.vcu.edu (David E. Latane) writes:
>
>In reply to Yavor Parashkevov's critique of the "Balkan Dance of
>Death" article from the Sydney paper:
>
>These are reasonable and useful corrections, but the notion that
>almost all of the pre-1912 slavic population of Ottoman Macedonian
>considered themselves Bulgarians doesn't fit with the histories that
>I have been reading,

Well, that's a point which has nothing to do with what Yavor said.
It looks clear from what you question bellow, that the histories which you
have been reading have little to do with the well established facts. And
there are several undisputed facts on the ethnicy/nationality/language on the
'Slavs' populating Macedonia. Alas, people make little or no effort to find
out the facts (i.e. the truth).

> nor does the statement that the Macedonian
>nationality was created by the Serbs during the period between the
>world wars.

It's a bit more complicated, but in general that is the fact (this was the
time of the forcible de-Bulgarization of the population). The theory for
the Macedonization is a bit earlier - mainly by Serbian scholars (pursued
after the secret treaties b/w Austria and Serbia) but also by Bulgarians
for other reasons. But even so, those Bulgarians who went for the
"Macedonization" and who were driven by different ideas than the Serbians,
they (i.e. the Bulgarians supporting the 'Macedonization') have all agreed
about the Bulgarian spiritual and historical heritage of the "Macedonians"
(see K. Misirkov, for example). Other Bulgarians like Vlahov 'switched' to
the "Macedonisation" later - in the 20-ies, 30-ies (incl. Todor Alexandrov
for a while !!!) and they fell/fit with the Communist ideas and influence
on the subject. One can remind you here that even Vlahov (later ardent
anti-Bulgarian) was Bulgarian representative in the Ottoman parliament and
all documents from the start of the century, (concerning him and his ideas)
leave no doubt in his Bulgarian national consciousness from that time. It
is also well known that many Bulgarians switched to Greek nationality, as
well as there were the opposite examples (Serbian -> Bulgarians, Greek ->
Bulgarians). 

> I don't think people are so easily hoodwinked about who
>they are.

NO - they were not. So many were sent to prison/jail/camps. The fear and
falsified anti-Bulgarian history (i.e. that Bulgarians did so many 'bad'
things to the poor "Macedonians") together with the many years of such
fierce anti-Bulgarian propaganda + the Dimitrov's policy on the matter
(unique int the world) did the rest. Fortunately this is well documented as
well.

> Furthermore, how could they have hoodwinked the slavic
>people I met living in Kastoria and Edessa in Northern Greece, who
>don't consider themselves Bulgarians either?

Not surprise at all when the Bulgarian state itself rejected those people
as Bulgarians after 1944. But internal Greek reports on the matter speak
otherwise. There is no similar example in history. How can
one feel if "his" country says - "NO - you are not Bulgarians". It's
curious however, that there are still people regarding themselves as
Bulgarians there. My wife talked to a friend some time ago and her friend
describing her tour in Northern Greece said that she met many people who
considered themselves as Bulgarians. It's very interesting to learn the
full scale of that preserved nationality. Alas the present Bulgarian state
does absolutely nothing to find out who has been and is still proud of
being Bulgarian. 

As a matter of fact, the word describing Bulgarians from Macedonia was
'Macedonian' for more than 120 years and exist in any Bulgarian book from
that time. One can even find "confusion" there as people freely speak about
Bulgarians and Macedonians but later one can read how those people fought
for ... NATIONAL UNITY (see Simeon Radev - one of the most prominent
Macedonians and representative of the IMRO abroad). As I said -  when the
matter comes to nationality, there was no doubt what Macedonians regarded
themselves. I can give here even a more interesting example. In books from
the start of the century (see H. Brailsford, E. Durham), it is described
how the 'Macedonians' considered Alexander the Great as ... Bulgarian. Why?
He (i.e. Alexander) was 'Macedonian' - just like them, hence he was of
Bulgarian nationality - i.e. just like them.

>  Obviously there has
>been a great deal of historical smoke blown over this issue,

It still is but it's a mystery why historians, politicians and people can't
take the matter more seriously and to find out the myths and the facts.

> but it
>is undeniably true that for hundreds of years there have been slavic
>people in the Macedonia geographical area who have not considered
>themselves to be either Serbian or Bulgarian, although both countries
>have claimed them, conscripted them, etc.

That is also not true. This is a wide spread fallacy which doesn't fit to
the facts from history. It is ridiculous to place the Bulgarian and Serbian
'claims' next to each other as BEFORE 1870-1881, the Serbian scholars,
linguists, politicians agreed that Macedonia is populated with Bulgarians.
But who knows this? Even the majority of the Bulgarians don't know it (It's
unbelievable but it's true).

Furthermore, the local population itself has expressed many times (by
people like Paissii, Neophit Rilski, Grigor Purlichev, Bratia Miladinovi,
Raiko Zhinzifov, Yordan Dzhinot, Kouzman Shapkarev, Georgi Dinkov and
others) its Bulgarian and not any other nationality. It is a striking
example that the primer by Kouzman Shapkarev (published in 1878 in
Constantinople) was called "Bulgarian primer for the Macedonian Bulgarians"
and it was made by a 'Macedonian'. Inside on the matter of nationality and
language he states explicitly that those were Bulgarian.

Now - could anybody present the list of prominent Serbians from Macedonia,
so that I can buy the theory that there were a lot Serbians there as well.
Ditto for the Greek. Gregory managed to present only 2 Slav speaking Greeks
from that time and he confirmed that they are not so 'important'/'famous'.
Why don't you think/comment this fact?

However, the idea of nationality did not exist for the majority of the
uneducated population (but this was true all over the world for the 19th
century, wasn't it), it is true that due to the Serbian propaganda and
existence of some Serbian words and traditions in the region, some of the
peasants were confused on the matter. Serbians were also supported by the
Greeks who considered the Bulgarians as their main enemies. Absolutely no
need to say that there has been no reference at all on nationality like
Macedonians. 

But there was no such confusion in the description of the travelers/
researchers of the region for the time before 1870. Neither were there any
Serbian pretensions on that same issue. 

Those facts can be easily verified and only they give a complete picture
for those who still wonder what was and what wasn't. I didn't know how much
Bulgarian was Macedonia in the description of the travelers and people who
lived for a long time in the European part of Ottoman Turkey, but nowadays
I'm in absolute no doubt on the subject. Yes - it turned out that there
have been many books on the matter from before 1870. And there is no
'Macedonian problem' whatsoever. One has just to try to find them and read
them. Alas, this is not happening :-( 


Regards

Luben


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"Let us not allow splits and splintering to frighten us. It is, indeed, a
pity, but what can we do, since we are Bulgarians and all suffer from one
common disease"
				Gotse Delchev
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