Front Matter - Part 04

The news of Alexander’s death traveled like wildfire throughout the empire but hardly caused a stir in Asia. In the City States, on the other hand, it was welcome news causing an explosion of emotions that resulted in the dissolution of the Corinthian League. Athens was the first to rise and summon the City States to fight against Macedonia. A new League, headed by Athens, was formed and rose up against Macedonia in what was termed the “Lamian War”. The City States could not contain their hatred for Macedonia and unleashed their fury with all their might. Unfortunately, the entire City State might was not enough to overwhelm Antipater’s Macedonians. Victorious, Antipater stripped Athens of its position as a power at sea and restored Samos to the Samians. He then forced a change of constitution on the Athenians, stripping them of their democratic powers. Additionally, a Macedonian garrison was installed on Athenian soil to remind the Athenians of who was in control. Antipater made peace with the rest of the insurgent states individually and dissolved their newly formed League.

Unlike the City States, with the exception of a few minor disturbances, caused mostly by disgruntled City State citizens, Asia remained peaceful for a relatively long period. Unfortunately without Alexander’s persuasive politics, peace slowly gave way to conflict. Even though our ancient sources fail to reveal the real motive for the conflict, I suspect it was greed for wealth and the desire to rule.

Initially it was the more ambitious satraps in Asia who fought each other for a bigger piece of their empire. Later it involved Alexander’s generals who each ruled a piece of his empire but were not content with what they had and wanted more. The most powerful of these successors were Antigonus and his son Demetrius

who gradually acquired most of Asia. Against them were a coalition of Ptolemy of Egypt, Seleucus of Babylon, Lysimachus of Thrace and Cassander, son of Antipater, of Macedonia.

About six years after Alexander’s death, in 317 BC, a chain of events took place in Macedonia that would forever change its course in history. It began when Olympias murdered King Philip Arrhidaeus, which gave Cassander reason to vanquish her. Without Olympias’s protection Cassander murdered the unhappy Roxane and young Alexander. With Alexander’s family dead and no king to rule, the fate of the empire remained in the hands of his generals who were now fighting each other.

The stage was set for the Great Macedonian Empire to decline when the army failed to appoint a single strong leader. It was apparent from the start that Arrhidaeus, Philip II’s epileptic and dimwitted son and Alexander III’s unborn child were not chosen for their leadership skills but rather for their non-interference. Who then was truly going to rule the empire?

After fifty years of struggle and strife Alexander’s generals partitioned his empire into three pieces. In the end, the Antigonids took Macedonia and the City States, the Ptolemies took Egypt and the Seleucids took Asia. Many died senselessly before the conflicts reached equilibrium and the partitioned lands assumed a sense of normalcy (see Arrian). There was one positive result from all this. Even though the empire was partitioned and ruled by different dynasties, it was always ruled by Macedonians. For centuries Macedonians ruled the empire and traveled freely throughout their world, which stretched from the Adriatic to the Punjab and from Tadzhikistan to Libya. They maintained contact with each other and with their homeland as many traveled back and forth to seek employment and visit family and friends.

After Alexander’s death and the conclusion of the Lamian Wars, most of what we refer to today as City States lost the privileges granted to them by Philip II and Alexander III. For fifty or so years after Alexander’s death, they were ruled by Macedonians and were used as pawns in a power struggle for dominance. During the later years, however, some of the states organized themselves into

leagues but unfortunately they were never able to hold alliances for too long. This was partly due to the characteristic politics they played internally and mainly due to outside influence from the rich and powerful Macedonian rulers.

Arsov - Petar Pop Arsov (1868-1941)

Petar Pop Arsov was a teacher from the village Bogomila, Bogomila Region. In 1894 he wrote a leaflet “The Stambolovism in Macedonia and its Representatives”, severely criticizing the Bulgarian ecclesiastical and educational propaganda in Macedonia, exclaiming: “The Exarchate gives money but buys the wind because the nationality cannot be bought with money.”

In 1891 he founded the Macedonian student group in Sofia. In 1892-3 he became editor of the Macedonian journal “Vine”.

On October 23, 1893, in Solun, Petar Pop Arsov, along with Ivan Hadzhi Nikolov, Dame Gruev, Hristo Tatarchev, Anton Dimitrov and Hristo Batandzhiev, founded the Secret Macedonian Revolutionary Organization (TMORO), later renamed the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization (IMRO), with aims of bringing about the liberation of Macedonia within its geographic and historic borders.

In 1910 he was expelled from Macedonia and left for Russia. During the Balkan Wars, he became an active member of the St. Petersburg society. He died in 1941.

Reference: Page 273, Michael Radin, IMRO and the Macedonian Question.

Asprov - Petre Asprov (1923-1975)

Petre Asprov was born in 1923 in the village Oshchima, Lerin Region. Due to some problems in Oshchima, Asprov left home at a young age and went to Bitola where he enrolled in a four year teacher’s program at the gymnasium.

Just as he finished school, in 1944, Asprov joined the Aegean Macedonian brigade in Yugoslavia and took action against the Nazi sponsored Albanian bands, which at the time were roaming Gostivar, Tetovo and Kichevo Regions. He stayed with the Aegean brigade until it was disbanded in May 1945. After that he returned to Greek occupied Macedonia and became a leader in the youth organization Peoples’ Liberation Youth Alliance for Aegean Macedonia (NOMS).

Asprov remained active in the Lerin Region to the end of the Greek Civil War. After that he fled to Poland and became a teacher, teaching Macedonian to refugee children from Greek occupied Macedonia. Unfortunately the Greek authorities in Poland did not appreciate his work and accused him of being a “Titoist” and had him beaten, tortured and imprisoned.

After his release he returned to the Peoples’ Republic of Macedonia in Yugoslavia where he became active in the effort to find homes and jobs for Macedonian refugees from Greek occupied Macedonia. Petre Asprov died in 1975 in a car crash after falling asleep behind the steering wheel of his car.

Reference: Nikola Stefov

Atsev - Mirche Atsev (1915-1943)

Mirche Atsev was born on October 15, 1915 in the village Oreovets, Prilep Region. He became a member of the Communist Party of Yugoslavia in 1940 and joined the Peoples’ Liberation Struggle in 1941.

Atsev was one of the most renowned leaders of the Communist Party and of the Peoples’ Liberation Movement in Macedonia. His career as a revolutionary began in his school days when he joined the progressive youth movement in the Bitola Gymnasium. He continued his revolutionary activities while studying at Belgrade University and later in the Prilep Party Organization.

As a result of his persecution by the police, for his revolutionary work, he was forced to live underground from the time he became active in 1940.

During his involvement with the Peoples’ Liberation Struggle, Atsev was a member of the provincial committee of the Communist Party of Yugoslavia for Macedonia and a member of the central headquarters of the Peoples’ Liberation Army and of the Partisan movement in Macedonia. He was one of the main organizers to initiate the first Partisan movements in Bitola and Resen.

In early 1942 he became secretary of the provisional committee of the Communist Party of Yugoslavia for Macedonia. He was also a leader in the Prilep and Veles Region struggles.

In December 1942, Mirche Atsev and Strasho Pindzhur fought bravely but were unfortunately captured by Bulgarian agents. Mirche Atsev died in 1943, a brutal death when he was thrown out of a prison window.

Reference: Page 7, Macedonian Almanac, 1984.

Berovski - Dimitar Pop Georgiev Berovski (1840-1907)

Dimitar Pop Georgiev Berovski was born in Berovo in 1840. Dimitar received his initial education in his hometown Berovo and later continued it in Solun. When he was about eighteen years old, at the insistence of his family, he enrolled in the Odessa Seminary in Russia.

Dimitar came from a rich family of a long line of priests and was expected to follow in the Berovo family tradition. He was also one of the first Macedonian intellectuals to become educated in Russia. Dimitar spent four years, from 1858 to 1861, studying at the seminary in Odessa. Unfortunately he was not interested in learning and in 1861 he was expelled. Under these circumstances he did not dare go home and face his very strict father so he went to Belgrade instead and enrolled in the Belgrade Military Academy. In Belgrade he met up with many Macedonians, including Ilo Markov

Maleshevski, whose main preoccupation at the time was to find a means to liberate the Balkan people from the Ottoman yoke. In this cause, Dimitar found his calling and joined Ilo Maleshevski’s band in the July 5th, 1862 Serbian revolt against the Turks. Dimitar completed his course at the Belgrade Military Academy in 1863 but still lacked the courage to return home and face his father, so he enlisted in the Serbian army. Then in the fall of 1863 he finally did what he desperately yearned to do for years, he returned home and took on a job as a community teacher. He also became involved in church matters and taught in the Berovo church school. He became very popular with his community and was elected “representative of all church matters” which immediately brought him into conflict with the regional bishop. But instead of stepping down as Bishop Jepotej requested, Dimitar and twenty-two men organized a revolt, later termed the first “Maleshevski Revolt” also known as the second “Berovski Revolt”, against the bishop. The revolt was successful and, in 1874, Jepotej was driven out of Berovo and Maleshevo. Unfortunately Dimitar, through his actions, became an outlaw and was forced to flee and in 1875 he disappeared in Solun. In the Solun underground he met a number of people with different ideas and became convinced that school and church problems from the Patriarchists and Exarchists in Macedonia could be solved through organized unions.

When the 1875 rebellion in Herzegovina began to gain momentum, Dimitar gave up on the idea of unionizing and began arming for liberation by revolutionary means.

In December 1875 he began organizing a rebellion in Macedonia to avert some of the pressure away from Herzegovina.

Dimitar’s biggest obstacle in realizing his plan was the lack of funds. To raise the necessary funds Dimitar called on his seventy-five year old father-in-law, Reverend Stojan Razlovski. He asked the reverend to sell all his property in Berovo for him, including his church holdings, house, fields, etc., and bring the money to him in Solun so that he could purchase arms and ammunition. Reverend Stojan did what he was asked and also contributed some of his own assets. He sent his son Kostantin to deliver them.

After the arms were clandestinely purchased, they were secretly delivered to Razlog and other places in eastern Macedonia. While still in Solun, Dimitar ordered the fashioning of a flag which his Cheta would carry during the imminent Razlov Rebellion. The flag was a Red Lion on a yellow field with the words “Makedonija” at the top and “Stanete da ve Oslobodam” (Rise to be Freed) at the bottom.

When all plans were finalized, Dimitar and Kostantin arrived in Razlog with the final shipment of arms and munitions. Soon after their arrival they formed an advisory council consisting of thirty members. Later during a meeting, the council elected Dimitar Berovski as head and leader of the uprising and chose the village of Razlovo as the place to start the rebellion.

Another council meeting was held on May 7th, 1876 during which it was revealed that a number of Turkish tax collectors had entered the village Razlovo. This was the moment they were waiting for. Orders were given to immediately inform the village and start a demonstration first thing the next day.

The next day the rebels rushed the Turks, killing and wounding many, took their legal papers; tax papers, deeds, etc., and burned them in the village square.

As soon as they were done, the rebels, led by Dimitar Berovski, fled for Maleshevo where three hundred more armed rebels were expecting them. Unfortunately they never arrived at their destination. They were ambushed by a band of Bashibuzuks at the village Mitrashintsi and were forced into an uneven battle. Unable to break through, the rebels returned to Razvovtsi. Dimitar, who at the time had received a wound on the head, immediately called on Tsone Danchov and his rebel band from the village Laki, Kozheni region, for assistance. Tsone’s Cheta of forty, together with Dimitar’s Cheta of thirty, were able to demolish the Bashibuzuks and Dimitar and his band proceeded on their way to the village Smiljani to pick up more ammunition from one of his stashes. Dimitar’s wound to the head was unfortunately a lot more severe than he initially anticipated, which put him out of action for a while. By the time he was ready to fight again the uprising had been

squelched. Even though unsuccessful, the Razlog uprising had great significance for the Macedonian people in their struggle to liberate themselves.

Wounded, Dimitar lead his Cheta away from danger and spent the winter of 1876-1877 in the mountainous village of Sazhdanik in the Osogovo Mountain Range.

In 1878 Dimitar Berovski joined Cheta’s with Ilo Maleshevski from the village Dolni Tsrkvenets just in time to participate in yet another rebellion, the Kresna Uprising.

The Kresna uprising started on October 17th, 1878 in the village Kresna. Early in the morning Dimitar Berovski’s combined Cheta of four-hundred rebels attacked a Turkish stronghold, liberating more than thirty-five villages on both sides of the Struma River. As the uprising gained momentum, the rebels liberated the City of Bansko and the village Razlovtsi.

The initial success of the uprising swelled the ranks of rebel volunteers and led to the formation of a Macedonian cavalry. New buildings began to spring up in the free territories along with military and civil administrations, including a police force. Dimitar Berovski was elected mayor.

When it appeared that the uprising was going well and spreading, the Bulgarians became involved in hopes of turning it to their advantage and offered the rebels help. The Macedonian leaders, including Dimitar Berovski, knew very well where this was going and refused their help. They also uprooted their agents from the leadership and dismissed them. The Bulgarians did not take kindly to this and assassinated Stojan Karastoilov and imprisoned Dimitar Berovski.

The loss of leadership threw the uprising into chaos and on June 6th, 1897 the rebellion was over.

It is important to note that this rebellion ceased due to foreign (Bulgarian) intervention, not from Turkish involvement.

After his release from prison, Dimitar Berovski officially assumed a civilian life working the land and attending to civil matters of daily life. Secretly he was a clandestine agent of the Macedonian cause transporting arms and munitions from Bulgaria to Macedonia. He was a close friend and associate of Gotse Delchev and some say he even manufactured bombs and explosives for the Macedonian revolutionaries.

Dimitar Berovski was very disappointed and disillusioned after Delchev’s death and the failed 1903 Ilinden uprising. Dimitar Pop Georgiev Berovski died on December 19th, 1907.

References: Pages 178-188, Macedonian Almanac, 1991. Page 27, Macedonian Magazine, # 428, December 1988.

Bogoevski - Mite Bogoevski (1919-1945)

Mite Bogoevski was born in the village Bolno in Resen in 1919. He joined the Communist Party of Yugoslavia in 1939 and the Peoples’ Revolutionary Struggle in 1941. He was a secretary in the regional committee of the Communist Party in Resen.

In March 1942 he was jailed by the Bulgarian police but was not charged due to lack of evidence and was later released. After his release he resumed his education in the Belgrade Faculty of Commerce.

In September, 1942, after the formation of the Communist Party of Resen, his village Bolno was blockaded by the Bulgarian police in an attempt to capture him alive. A shootout ensued but was he was unable to break through the blockade. Mite Bogoevski along with his associate Stevo Naumov were forced to take their own lives to avoid being captured.

Reference: Page 9, Macedonian Almanac, 1984.

Chakalarov - Vasil Chakalarov (1874-1913)

Vasil Chakalarov was born in the village Smrdesh, Kostur Region in 1874. He went to elementary school in his hometown Smrdesh

where he learned to speak Greek and Bulgarian. Besides Macedonian, his mother tongue, and Greek and Bulgarian which he learned in School, Chakalarov also spoke fluent Albanian which came handy during his revolutionary days.

In 1893 Chakalarov was imprisoned for assaulting a Greek teacher but escaped to Bulgaria where he worked in a quarry and learned the trade of cobbler.

While in Bulgaria, Chakalarov was recruited by the Vrhovist Sarafov into IMRO.

In October 1900 Sarafov sent Chakalarov to Greece to investigate ways to purchase arms. Then in July 1901, when Chakalarov returned to western Macedonia from Bulgaria, he was dispatched to Greece to start purchasing arms. Several previous attempts had been made but without success. The Greeks refused to sell arms to the Macedonians. This time, however, Chakalarov, fluent in Greek and dressed as an Albanian purporting to be from Jannina, fooled the Maltiniotis brothers in Athens and they sold him arms.

In February 1902 he again went to Greece and purchased more arms, which he personally made sure were delivered to Smrdesh. During the winter of 1901-1902 Chakalarov, Kliashev and Moskov, assisted by Pop Trajkov, went to the villages, distributed whatever arms they had and organized two new Cheti.

Subsequently, Chakalarov was instrumental in organizing a number of village Cheti including the ones in Nestram and the Turkish held Chestnut Region southeast of Kostur.

At the end of June, early July 1902, Chakalarov with about two-hundred men went after the notorious Kote Hristov from Rula, Karangelis’s paid assassin. They attacked and managed to take the lower half of Rula but Kote with some thirty men held the upper half and managed to survive. Chakalarov, with the aid of Kliashev, went after Kote again at the end of August and yet again Kote managed to escape. During his second trip to Greece in 1902, Chakalarov had learned that Kote was in the employ of Karavangelis.

At the end of August 1902 a new menace arrived in western Macedonia, the Vrhovist Colonel Yankov. Upon his arrival with seventy men, at the village Zagoricheni, Yankov, as a representative of the “Exterior Movement”, summoned all the Cheta chiefs in the Kostur and Lerin Regions for a meeting. At that time Gruev had given orders to disarm Yankov, but Chakalarov and the other Chiefs decided to meet with him with a view of reaching a peaceful resolution. To be safe, they picked a place near the village Blatse and scheduled the meeting during daylight. The Turks, however, got wind of it so the bands had to flee. The meeting was re-scheduled for September 15th when they again met near Sisani. Yankov made it clear that he was in Macedonia to raise a rebellion. He said “all was ready. The date was fixed for September 20th, 1902 and the signal would be the ringing of the church bells. The Russian Generals of Skipka will come with Tsonev [Yankov’s superior] and the Bulgarian army and that Macedonia would be free within two weeks”. His appeal was made directly to the fighters and to the villagers. When the Cheta Chiefs refused to follow his plans, he publicly humiliated them by calling them cowards.

Chakalarov immediately sent dispatches warning the villages not to trust Yankov and went in pursuit. Chakalarov caught-up with Yankov just outside of Kolomnati as Yankov was about to address an assembly of fighters. Chakalarov however, cut his speech short by denouncing him in front them. No rebellion was raised on September 20th.

Since then Yankov tried to publicly discredit Chakalarov by inventing all sorts of misdeeds, but without success. He then resorted to assassination attempts, which were unsuccessful. During the August 2nd, 1903 Ilinden Uprising, the Kostur Cheti, under the command of Lazar Pop Trajkov and Vasil Chakalarov, staged successful raids liberating Klisura and Neveska. They then turned southward and, with the support of over three thousand villagers, attacked Kostur but were unable to take it.

Subsequent to the Ilinden Uprising, Chakalarov fought against Turkish and Bashi-Buzuk retaliations and arms searches trying to keep the villages and civilians safe.

Chakalarov was a cruel but brave and competent leader and a notable revolutionary. He once cut off a man’s tongue for informing on the Cheti to the Greeks. The man pleaded that Greece gave him what he needed, his explanation for why he did what he had to do. Upon cutting his tongue, Chakalarov told him Macedonia gave you this tongue because you needed it, but since you decided to use it against her I am now taking it back. You can go to Greece and ask them to give you a new tongue. Let them help you since you so much want to help them.

In 1912 Chakalarov and his Cheta joined the fight to help the League (Greece, Bulgaria and Serbia) get rid of the Turks. The League’s victories and intense propaganda were so convincing that even Chakalarov bought into them and welcomed the “liberators” with open arms.

Vasil Chakalarov died in 1913 near the villages Bel Kamen and Neveska, Lerin Region.

Reference: Dakin, Douglas M.A., Ph.D. The Greek Struggle in Macedonia 1897 – 1913. Salonika: Institute for Balkan Studies, 1966.

Chento - Metodija Andonov Chento (1902-1957)

Who was Metodija Andonov Chento? A brief overview of his life, a chapter taken from the book “Metodija Andonov Chento” by Fidanka Tanaskova, Nova Makedonija, 1990.

Let us start from the beginning:

Metodija Andonov Chento was born on August 17th, 1902 in Prilep. He was born to a poor family right when his mother, Zacharia from Prilep, and father, Andon from the village Lenishte, moved to Prilep and settled under Marko’s Fortress. A few months later Metodija, their first male child, was born. Three girls were born before him but because of poverty, disease and generally poor living conditions they did not survive.

The Andonov family had no land, no roof and no money to speak of so they had to work for low wages in the opium poppy and tobacco fields in Prilep, earning very little money; barely enough to live on. Metodija also suffered the same fate. From his young days as a child he experienced hunger and the struggle for survival. He became well acquainted with the feeling of being very poor, having no food to eat and living on the edge between life and death.

Metodija became a wage earner at a very young age and did whatever he could to contribute to the family’s income, mainly through apprenticeships and manual labour, exploiting all possible means of employment available to him at that time. But despite all the cruelty life threw at him, Metodija still had a strong desire to learn as much as possible and attended school as conditions would allow him. By the outbreak of World War I he was in grade four. Then with Serbia’s clamp-down on Macedonia after WW I, he was forced to continue his education in Serbian, a foreign language for the Prilep born youth. This was yet another blow to Metodija but that did not deter him, in fact it did quite the opposite. After some interruptions in his education he continued to learn and work in the gardens and shops, on the railroad and in road and tunnel construction.

By age fifteen he worked from very early in the morning until the late hours of night. The long hours and hard work, however, were too much for the malnourished youth to bear; yet he still persisted. As luck would have it, trouble followed him everywhere he went, like a curse. After his father experienced a long and hard illness, Metodija became the head of the Andonov household. At age seventeen he was forced to knock on the door of the dark halls of the Prilep Monopoly. But with a single look and a shake of their heads, the employers there rejected him outright. They did not want to employ a youth of skin and bones, who, with all his troubles, insisted that he was a grown up man with experience in hard labour. But somehow he did manage to squeeze through the Monopoly gates and got a job.

Times were difficult, life was uncertain, wages in the halls of the Prilep Monopoly and in the tobacco fields were very low; life was an everyday disappointment for young Metodija, whose struggle for

survival became his destiny. But he was optimistic and stoically patient, waiting for better times to come and making plans for a different and better future.

The opening of the vocational trade school in the city was a welcome turn in Metodija’s life as he registered in it with great enthusiasm and high expectations. Around 1921 the first gymnastics organization in Prilep was also founded, in which Metodija quickly became an active and valuable member. Because he was very good at giving instructions he was privileged to often lead the ranks of a Cheta (squad) in exercise.

One day while calling out the exercises, instead of calling out “napred cheto!” (squad forward!), he called out “napred chento!” (chento forward). His friends and members of the squad broke into laughter and because of that they began to call him “Chento”. In the beginning he resented being called “Chento” and was angry with the boys but when they took the nickname outside the gymnasium, to the streets and to the marketplace, the name stuck and became his permanent nickname. In time he forgave his friends.

Being good at what he was doing opened up new opportunities for Metodija at the gymnasium. Because he was an excellent student, his teacher recommended he receive a government grant and an opportunity to be sent to Belgrade or Zagreb to further his education. But how could he leave Prilep? Who would look after his family? His family at the time was in a difficult financial situation so he decided to stay in Prilep.

When the Monopoly closed down, Metodija again found himself out of work and had to turn to the local shops and taverns to seek employment. What was going to happen tomorrow? This was Metodija’s constant dilemma as he tried hard, working long days and nights, to eke out a living as an apprentice, assisting craftsmen in the Prilep shops. But in spite of trying to work hard, he could not endure the tempo of this difficult life, so he became a bit more ambitious and jumped ahead in life. In 1926 he was awarded his first personal certificate from the authorities to open his own store, which over the years and decades turned into a successful business.

In the fall of the same year he opened his first truly modest, grocery store but that was in the beginning before his business became one of the most prominent businesses in the Prilep market. His store was one of the most important places in Prilep for conversation and meeting people. Naturally this attracted many prominent, progressive and intelligent intellectuals who often got together for talks in Chento’s store, located just under King Marko’s castle. This was most certainly a very important place, because it was in the heart of a truly rich, interesting and unique city, where both memorable moments and unpleasant events were taking place.

Ever since Metodija’s trade school days he was interested in reading socialist literature, especially about workers rights. One time he was quoted as saying, “As athletes and as members of the mandolin orchestra it is not appropriate for us to want the king and to accept that we are South-Serbians. Unfortunately the government had different expectations and was looking for results that were the opposite. The more they thought we were not persuaded, the harder they tried to oppose our self recognition and revolt. We were not what others wanted us to be and we would not let them impose it on us. We accepted membership in the Sokolsko Organization so that we could get together more often and discuss ideas and come to agreements without fear of falling under the watchful eyes of the police which forbade gatherings, especially in the evenings…”

In Metodija’s interesting and eventful life it is worth mentioning his attempt at marriage to a young woman named Vasilka Pop Atanasoa after his engagement to her in 1929. Valilka was a priest’s niece from a religious family which had certain expectations of the groom to be. One of these expectations was that, as a member of the family, Metodija could not be involved in politics, especially in Marxists politics, because as far as the church was concerned they were plain wrong and bad for the church. In addition there was a certain very vocal priest named Grdanovikj who warned people during his sermons to avoid people like Metodija who associated with opponents of the king and country. But the most serious blow to Metodija came when he, after six years of trying to get married, was told that the Church would not give him its consent to have a wedding.

Being unhappy with Pop Grdanovikj’s hypocrisy and with some other personalities in the Church, who, according to him, preached equality but, in a kind of submissive way, did very little to help him marry his fiancée. His reply to them was very simple; a marriage can also take place without the help of the church. So he defiantly decided to have it his way. Metodija left for Novi Sad where he applied for permanent residence and in 1930 had a civil wedding. He married Vasilka Pop Atanasoa outside of the Church, which for many was unprecedented and full of never before seen “impudence”, a shock, not so much to her family, as it was to some others in the city.

Unfortunately the novice groom had no idea how many legal barriers, canonical hurdles and other obstacles he would have to face before he would be able to acquire a valid and legal marital status. This gloomy chapter of the start of his new life was ended in 1936, by the Cessation Court in Belgrade. By then the Andonov family had increased by two with the birth of their two sons and Metodija had built a solid reputation in the marketplace.

Metodija became friends with many progressive people in the city and his store was the place where students gathered and shared progressive ideas. About this, Metodija was quoted as saying, “I enjoyed the most, our discussions about the past and about a new and more successful future, our Macedonian future, which we must struggle for and achieve. I enjoyed our discussions about our great leaders from this region such as Gjorche Petrov, Pere Toshev and other prominent names from the Macedonian revolutionary past. Such discussions gave me will and satisfaction and made me feel wonderful and enthusiastic...”

Sometime before 1934, Prilep students brought back pamphlets from Belgrade with a message from the Communist Party calling on people to begin fighting against the government and work through the more reputable legal opposition parties. There was a drive to form a new Macedonian movement called the “Macedonian National Movement” or MANOPO, whose platform called for an autonomous Macedonia in a Federal Yugoslavia.

Young people started to become more active in politics and took the role of being the bearers of the new and progressive front. They became the orators of the Macedonian truth and the writers of the new pages of life in Prilep. They carried and dispersed leaflets which students brought from Belgrade bearing Dragoljub Jovanovich’s signature, who Metodija sincerely believed supported the struggle for an autonomous Macedonia, unlike Ljuba Davidovikj who did not even want to hear about Macedonia or the Macedonians. As punishment for his participation in carrying and distributing leaflets, Metodija was denounced and later imprisoned.

The warnings and threats from the authorities made it difficult for Metodija to continue to be active in politics in the city. So with help from his like minded friends and civil officials, in 1935, Metodija was nominated for candidacy in Vlatko Machek’s United Opposition which supported a Federal Yugoslavia. However, due to falsifications and unfair practices on the part of his opposition, he never made it as a candidate.

A year later, according to information provided by the district chief of police, Metodija was sentenced to imprisonment and was fined 4,000 dinars for allegedly organizing a political rally without a permit and without permission from the police. Metodija naturally appealed the charges but his appeals fell on deaf years. At the time no one helped him, not even the Governor in Skopje who did not denounce the charges, so in August Metodija had to pay the fine and serve his sentence.

Eventually however, the truth was revealed and the Government Court in Skopje reversed the Governor’s decision but that was of little comfort to Metodija because by then it was December 31st, 1938 and too late. There was little satisfaction when justice arrived two years too late after being endlessly dragged through the legal process.

On the positive side however, during the same year Metodija became more involved in politics and his reputation as a good businessman grew in the marketplace. However, his next big challenge was to be elected to the National Assembly where he would have to wage uncertain battles. But before he could do that he

had to gain support from the people of his own town, where he was born. Then as a candidate to the United Opposition, a party which he supported some time ago, he would have to run a strong race in the party challenge.

Metodija received much encouragement from the students with whom he had cooperated in the past, from the members of the Communist Party, whose names then and in the coming years would become even more known and respected, as activists and fighters in Macedonia and beyond, people like Kuzman Josifovski, Mirche Atsev, Borka Taleski, Joska Jordanoski, Ljuben Lape, Dimche Mire...

Next he entered the electoral race by signing up for candidacy in the Agrarian Party, a member of the United Opposition. There he fought a number of battles with Jotsa Jovanovikj, leader of the Serbian Agrarian Party. The fights were mostly about Jovanovikj’s attitude towards the national rights of the Macedonian people. It was a persistent and enormous struggle for Metodija right from the start but he managed to persuade many people to see things his way.

While this was going on, the people from Prilep did not stand by idly, wasting time, or expecting others to do things for them out the goodness of their hearts, they took matters into their own hands and made contact directly with Vlatko Machek, leader of the United Opposition who did support the national rights of the Macedonian people in a federally regulated Yugoslav State.

Under pressure, Jovanovikj and the Agrarian party finally backed down and accepted the task of representing the national rights of the Macedonian people as requested but placed some conditions of their own, including the right not to emphasize the national rights of the Macedonian people before the elections. Such matters were to be dealt with after the Party’s victory.

Over the course of the electoral race everyone worked hard drafting agreements, campaigning, organizing and traveling all over. Metodija too was doubly engaged. As a storekeeper he kept busy meeting people at his store and using his facilities as a meeting place for the members of the party. As an activist and supporter of the

party he also worked directly on the ground. It was by no accident that the slogan “Chento-Machek” was coined during the final stages of the electoral race.

On the day of the elections many people from everywhere arrived at the City Centre around Metodija’s store, too many to be accommodated inside or outside. Among the people present in the crowd were his friends from the Sokolsko and Belosidelsko Organizations, the mountain climbers, the Hajduk football players and others.

There were people marching through the centre of Prilep heading for the polling stations. They were carrying banners on long poles with slogans praising democracy, peoples’ rights and freedoms. But as they marched on the Bitolsko Road towards Gjordere, they found themselves blocked by police and military barricades. The march turned into demonstrations as the participants began to shout “democracy now” and “down with the government”. Unfortunately the demonstrators found themselves powerless before the bayonets of the charging gendarmes and had to disperse.

After that episode doubt began to creep into Metodija and his friends as they waited for the election results. But when the final count was taken there was much excitement as Metodija found that out of the 3,815 votes he had received 2,113, convincing him and his friends that there was a sure victory ahead. Unfortunately the JR3 party, which at this point had won a majority, used a legal rule to take 40 percent of the lost seats from the opposition. One of those seats belonged to Metodija. It was estimated that they did this because, most likely, the JR3 party was afraid of Metodija’s controversial politics and did not want an enemy such as him in the Parliamentary Assembly.

After facing the JR3’s dirty electoral games and after finding out that he was being unfairly set up by Machek and later by Gabrilovikj, it became very clear to Metodija that “no one was going to give the ‘Macedonian’ a hand”. About this Metodija later wrote: “It is important [for Macedonians] to lead and win their own battles for ‘rights and the truth’ without any help from outsiders, regardless of whether it is done by elections or by any other means. Because

for whatever support is given there is always a high price to pay. Also, the usefulness of such support will, most likely, amount to almost nothing”.

Almost every leader of the regime made promises and as a result made advances in the electoral races and generally received as many votes as possible. But when the elections were over the leaders disappeared and with them disappeared all the promises made that would have “benefited” the people.

That is why it was important for Metodija and his supporters to divorce themselves from the Machekovtsi, Gavrilovikji, Tsvetkovikji and some of the others. It became necessary to fight and strengthen the ranks and to avoid divisions in the well politicized Prilep masses of progressive and patriotic people.

As a store owner and a person belonging to the guilds, the people of Prilep elected Metodija to represent the Prilep retailers and caterers in the Industrial-Commercial Chamber in Skopje, where, during Assembly sessions Metodija posed many "awkward" questions and boldly and openly stood against the politics led by the Chamber, which were in favour of the industrialists and the state but worked against the traders who were burdened with fines and fees which they had to pay at the expense of their poor customers.

Metodija could not stand for but did not want to keep quiet about the constant trumpeting, whining and complaining about the King doing “so much” for the people of South Serbia (meaning the Macedonian’s) and that the Macedonian’s had done nothing in return for the state. “And how many of those complainers asked how these poor, tormented, overtaxed and beaten down people felt?” asked Metodija in response to the bitter insults hurled by people from the regime. Then one day when he could no longer stand any more insults, he stood up in the Chamber and, among other things, said:

“We have had enough of these allegations, of being accused that we are loafers and that the state has given us more than it has taken from us. I say this is not correct! I say that the state has taken a lot more from us and has given us nothing. If you feel that way, then

why not leave us alone and let us manage our Macedonia as a free people. If you know so much about how Macedonia is today then why not leave and come back in five to ten years and see what Macedonia will be like then…”

“Such impudence, how dare he stand up and speak like this…” was recorded in the Session minutes by the sober supporters of the regime who reported the incident directly to the President of the Council of Ministers via a stern confidential letter dated June 8th, 1940. In the letter they expressed worries that Macedonia might separate: “The idea of creating a free Macedonia has penetrated to such an extent that all it requires now is a spark, (especially) from the youth, for the situation to explode into flames…”

After that Metodija, a known autonomist and separatist from Prilep and a bitter rival of the regime, became a target of all sorts of accusations. However, unable to silence him, the regime pinned all sorts of things on him until they had him imprisoned...

At the Chamber of Commerce Plenum in Skopje, in front of 60 representatives from every corner of Vardarska Banovina, Metodija again voiced his concerns: “Why do we submit resolutions and petitions. Why talk when those responsible in Belgrade are proving to be incapable of leading the state and the economic policies towards us, in Yugoslavia… Let us have a free Macedonia…”

But no matter what he said or did, the current administration continued with business as usual, so Metodija wrote a letter to the Viceroy in Skopje asking him to suspend the current administration, which consisted of Serbs only, until the next election and in the meantime appoint a commissar. Of course all these open attempts at removing the administration aggravated his opponents, who, among his other provocative qualities, viewed this one as arrogant and harmful to Serbian governance. About this, in 1940 the regime protectors of the peace, on duty in Macedonia, wrote to the Minister complaining that “the people of Prilep feel strongly that there are no Serbs living in Prilep. Also there are activities of concern conducted in the southern parts of the country by communist and separatist forces.”

The regime estimated that 98 out of 100 people in Prilep were against the Serbs. This was proof that there was cause for alarm and that there was need for harsh and concrete measures to be taken. A special place on the chart of “biggest troublemakers” and dangerous offenders was reserved for Metodija, a man who openly defied authority and caused unrest in the more nationally conscious population. The regime did whatever it could to “safeguard” the youth from having their minds muddied and infected with national and patriotic feelings.