“ANNOUNCEMENT - Part 01

“ANNOUNCEMENT

At its meeting held on March 9, 1949, NOF Central Council discussed the course of preparations for the NOF II Congress and the additional measures needed to achieve a successful Congress. In addition, the Central Council also debated the distortion of truth and slanderous campaign the Monarcho-Fascists in Athens and their Anglo-American masters have waged against the NOF Congress.

Fearing the popular movement and activation of the Macedonian people, the enemies of the Macedonian people are endeavouring, by all means possible, to destroy their unity with the Greek people. They are making all efforts to destroy the brotherhood that can only bring victory. They are spreading rumours that the NOF II Congress is expected to declare the creation of a Macedonian state, that it will join Yugoslavia or Greece or Bulgaria, within the framework of a Balkan democratic federation.

Our enemies have always sought to find betrayal where they felt they can make most use of it. But the truth is different. The Second NOF Congress is a congress about the struggle, a congress about striving, about the activation of indestructible unity, a congress about organizing victory, which will come as a result of the great sacrifices made and freedom won for the people who will normalize

their own lives, state and social order as they wish, united with their brothers, in cooperation and solidarity and with the mutual assistance of all democratic nations...

NOF Central Council, March 9, 1949.”

The above text was also published in the DAG General Headquarters army newspaper “Pros ti niki” (to victory), on March 10, 1949. (80)

Unfortunately this was yet another of Zahariadis’s ruses! The idea of “the creation of an independent Macedonian state within a Balkan democratic federation” was soon abandoned. And as we all now know the NOF II Congress took place on March 25 and 26, 1949, and the only things that were discussed were those covered in the spirit of the CPG Central Committee V Plenum, which called for the self-determination of the Macedonian people. Not a word was mentioned about the creation of an independent Macedonian state.

It was well-known that the CPY Central Committee had intervened several times in these affairs. In one of its telegrams, dated March 5, 1949, sent to the CPG Central Committee, among other things, it said: “We consider it our duty to reiterate that your position on the question about the line of the NOF Congress in Aegean Macedonia is not correct and that it can only bring harm, not only to the liberation struggle of the Greek people, but also to the relations between the Balkan peoples and the communist parties. The fact that the Bulgarian press already wrote about this issue, taking the same position, shows that the position on the Macedonian Question is an integral part of today’s campaign against the new Yugoslavia. We consider this a paradoxical departure from your basic task, especially at a time when your Party is leading a difficult and decisive struggle. Its inclusion in this combination is a direct attack against the new Yugoslavia. The Monarcho-fascist press has already made use of your position and is looking for ways to break up the unity of the liberation movement in Greece.” (81)

The Greek communists not only ignored these telegrams but also the cooperation documents they had signed with the CPY Central Committee in relation to these matters. The Greek leaders who put

their signatures on these documents simply and completely ignored them. So the objective researcher who needs to know where the slogan for “creating an independent Macedonian state” originated, must look elsewhere.

Based on known events and documents of that time, let us try to clarify a few things. Personally, I believe Zahariadis’s main goal with the position he had taken during the CPG Central Committee V plenum regarding the self-determination of the Macedonian people in Lerin, Kostur, Voden, Gumenzhe, Seres, Drama, and other Regions, and with NOF’s Central Council II plenum line and proclamation of the new NOF program principles, i.e. calling for the unification of all of Macedonia into a single independent Macedonian state, etc, as well as sending the Macedonian children across the border, which was done in 1948, was to achieve exactly what he wanted to achieve and that was:

a) To succeed in performing a total mobilization of every single Macedonian into DAG, which would lead to the total dismemberment of all Macedonian families, to the demise of entire Macedonian villages, to the total cleansing of the Macedonian terrain from all “Macedonian patriots”, and

b) The successful break-up of the liberation movement unity in Greece, which would lead to decisively undermining DAG’s victory and the uprising. This was later proven and that was why Zahariadis was expelled from the Party and died “lonely and despised” in 1973.

Another thing that Zahariadis did with his position taken on the Macedonian National Question is that he gave the Bulgarian press reasons to campaign against the new Yugoslavia. The CPG, as we later found out, publicly came out in favour of the Informburo and against the new Yugoslavia with the resolution it adopted only eight months later. This was done during the CPG Central Committee VI Plenum held in October 1949.

Following the logic of events, which I personally experienced and understood the reason for dropping the “new slogan” only a week after it was adopted was because one week was enough to have it advertised! In other words, the intended goal was achieved! To have

allowed it to exist any longer, meaning to have allowed the recognition of the existence of a Macedonian people in the Greek state, the unification of Macedonia, and the creation of a Macedonian state, was not at all in the interest of Greece. The text which Zahariadis gave me and ordered me to publish in the NOF newspaper “Nepokoren”, whose number I don’t remember off hand, and the similar one published in the DAG newspaper “Pros ti niki” on March 8, 1949, judging by the style, was compiled by Zahariadis himself, but I cannot say that it was not requested or agreed to by the opponent (the Monarcho-fascists) in Athens...

My role in the NOF II Congress was to compile a report on the work done by the central agitation and propaganda department, the situation on the ideological front, the general tasks performed by NOF, as well as the tasks performed by each NOF member separately. (82) The political report should have been prepared by Vangel Koichev, then NOF president, but a request was made (ordered) to have Paskal Mitrevski write it. Mitrevski at that time was ex-secretary of NOF, and CPG instructor in NOF. Mitrevski was given the opportunity to capitalize on someone else’s labour without having done the work. Not everyone could swallow that. I worked together with Mitrevski, in the same room, and we each did our own work. I saw Mitrevski take a red pocketbook and some kind of abstract paper that Kolishevski had written and began to copy it quickly. With some necessary changes to topographical names and with some adjustments, Mitrevski managed to be ready within the set deadline. Not me. Zahariadis arrived, took the final political report, and left me working...

He gave it to Koichev to read. Poor Koichev! It was written in Macedonian and Koichev could hardly understand Macedonian… He began reading it but could not pronounce the words properly and he sounded like a foreigner… unusual and far from the folk speech and expressions he understood. His tongue seemed to roll in his mouth and the words that came out of it could hardly be recognized. Nobody understood anything. Page by page he passed through the pages with an obvious affliction and was drenched in sweat by the time he was done. It was a real drama! When he was done Zahariadis smiled, and as if Koichev was the real culprit, and said: “Mas nroppise oluz!” (He embarrassed as all!). Koichev was not a

bad person. He was a simple man, a coal miner, an old communist and a good revolutionary. Zahariadis used him and appointed him president in order to infiltrate NOF. As NOF president, appointed by Zahariadis at the NOF Central Council I plenum on August 8, 1948, Koichev had the opportunity to send his son, along with other young fighters, to study abroad and become an officer. But Koichev did not take advantage of that and kept his son at home. To that he said: “The revolution is underway and we have to fight, there will be plenty of time to learn after our victory!” Koichev blindly believed in the infallibility of the Party leadership and their “collective mind”. Zahariadis used this to work against NOF, that is, to work against the Macedonian national liberation movement. Here is a good example of how Zahariadis and his cohorts worked. After making many long attempts and trying various ways he failed to break up the marriage with my wife and longtime friend Urania Alilomova, i.e. to have her give up on me and act against me and Yugoslavia, Zahariadis decided to liquidate her physically together with our little daughter Mira. This took place in Poland. After Koichev was appointed, as the most suitable candidate for this job, according to Zahariadis, he and his men, shortly after midnight, knocked on Urania’s locked door. No one responded so they broke in. The room was empty! They quickly ran to the neighbouring door, woke the neighbours and searched everywhere. They then went to the ground floor and searched every room in the building. The found nothing! The young mother and girl were not in the building at all. People admitted seeing them entering their room the evening before but had no idea where they were now. Disappointed, Koichev left the building without performing his task...

Here is how Urania and our little girl disappeared:

A Greek couple somehow found out that Urania and Mira were going to be killed that night. Since they were not “obedient robots” like our Koichev, and were capable of “reason”, they decided to prevent this crime. After the building fell into silence, the Greek woman climbed to the upper floor and entered Urania’s room. She told Urania: “You have to go right now because you will be liquidated tonight!” “Where do I go?!” she asked. The woman told her to go with her. They all went quietly down to the ground floor where the Greek couple resided. “They will not be looking for you

here!” the woman told them. The husband remained calm and they all waited for several hours before the assassins arrived. When they broke Urania’s door, the Greek man, like many others, went out to see what was going on. When he found out that they were searching all the rooms, including those of the Greeks, he ran down and helped them go out a window. He let Urania with her little girl flee in the outdoors for the night... They were later sheltered by a family of Poles...

Once their search for Urania became public knowledge they stopped pursuing her. Because of this and because of the harshness Zahariadis, Koichev and their cohorts used against NOF cadres in general, the Macedonian people soon began to realize what was going on and protested. After disbanding NOF, the “Ilinden” organization was formed and staffed with a few “selected” people and slowly but surely began to turn into a national Macedonian organization, acting in the defense of the unprotected cadres, fighters and people in general. So “Ilinden” too was dissolved. Koichev, to some extent had also changed and it was decided to have him liquidated. Even though he was severely ill, they sent him to work in some kind of mine where he struggled for a long time but he could not die. He sent his wife to convince Urania and beg her to come and visit him before he died. He told her: “I want to confess to you and thank you for managing to escape that night. I have one less terrible crime to weigh on my soul... I was ordered to kill you and your little girl that night! I beg you, please, forgive me!”

“I know that you did not want to kill me. So be at peace, I am not angry with you!” replied Urania.

The man was relieved and died peacefully a little later. His story was sad like those of so many others like him...

After Koichev read the political report during the Congress they called me. They listened to me very carefully, especially Zahariadis. In the end, Zahariadis asked me to give him my notes “to study them” he said. He did not give them back to me...

Immediately after the Second NOF Congress, on March 27, 1949, KOEM was established. KOEM was an element that underlined the

uniqueness of the Macedonian people and appeared as the first step in the application of the right to self-determination for the Macedonian people. There is no doubt that KOEM was created at this time to influence the success of the “total mobilization” of the Macedonian population and the planned expulsion of the Macedonian villagers from the border zone.

Sometime during the first ten days of April 1949, Zahariadis asked me to go see him. He added my name to a delegation that consisted of Vera, Tane Naumov, Vangel Nichev and Todor Kotsopoulos. We were told to leave for Sofia to participate in the festivities in honour of Iane Sandanski. By doing this we were returning the favour to the Macedonian delegation from Bulgaria for participating in our NOF II Congress. Here I need to open a parenthesis. Hristo Kalaidziev was my personal guest. He wanted to talk alone, face to face. He made a great impression on me with all the things he was doing. He asked me: “Under what flag did you start the movement?” I said: “I started and I continue to fight as a Macedonian for the rights and freedoms of our Macedonian people. We are fighting together with the Greek people, because we have a common enemy and we are more successful by joining forces!” He kept silent for a moment and then said: “You can’t even imagine the favour you did me by telling me this!” I looked at him and thought: “My dear Macedonia! This dear old man, Hristo Kalaidziev, is the president of the Union of Macedonian Societies in Bulgaria, but does not even know that we exist here (in Greek occupied Macedonia) as Macedonians and wants to know if we started the struggle as Macedonians under a Macedonian flag…!” Here I close the parenthesis.

Our first rest on our way to Sofia was Skopje. There I met and had long discussions with Ilia Dimovski-Goche, Keramidziev and their assistants Aianovski and Slavianka. In early January 1949, each received a letter from NOF inviting them to return to take part in the NOF Central Council pre-Congress Plenum known as the NOF II Plenum. (83) They ignored the invitation and did not come to participate. Here is what was said about that in a letter sent from the CPY Central Committee to the CPG Central Committee:

“It is our understanding that the Aegean Macedonians are not allowed to take leadership positions in DAG, in the people’s government, or in mass organizations…

It is our understanding that the cadres from Aegean Macedonia who participated in the Federal Yugoslavia People’s liberation army are being discriminated against. DAG does not recognize the acts these people performed and ranks they achieved in the Yugoslav National Army. The CPG does not even accept CPY Party memberships…

This naturally, is enough of a reason for the Aegean Macedonians to be dissatisfied and points to the necessity that a more correct approach is needed to resolving the Macedonian National Question...

It follows from this that the actions you have taken are undoubtedly the reason for the dissatisfaction that has occurred with certain individuals or a group of people in Aegean Macedonia who are currently in the territory of Federal Yugoslavia…” (84)

The “dissatisfaction” with the Greek side, described above, was experienced by every single Macedonian person in the Macedonian national liberation movement, especially in NOF. But if we look at the number of people who “defected” as a result, it amounts to only four from the NOF leadership. Why were only the four of them in the People’s Republic of Macedonia, the same four who abandoned the battle on the ground and now refuse to return? It would appear that these four comrades had their own special reasons for this. Goche, for example, tried to get involved in the struggle several times but failed because the Greeks did not want him to join DAG. The Greeks did not like Mitrevski or NOF and he knew that, naturally that is why he refused to return. He did not want to come back and be indifferent and humiliated...

Keramidzhiev, on the other hand, had quite different reasons. He was convinced, and not without foundation, that he would be physically liquidated. It was August 8, 1949 and the NOF Central Council Plenum has just been completed. Mitrevski and Keramidzhiev were removed from the NOF leadership and were due to leave and join the army as ordered. Keramidzhiev was very

worried and kept asking: “What should I do?” He had no doubts that he would be “liquidated” in the army. There were three of us Keramidzhiev, Goche and myself. Goche used to joke: “If they kill you, you will become a Macedonian hero…!” Looking at him sitting there, in the meadow, surprisingly comfortable, with his hair all messy and his eyes and cheeks looking swollen, I gave him an idea. I said to him: “It appears to me you have the look of an epileptic. If you should fall down and have an epileptic attack, I am sure they will send you to Skopje for treatment. No army in the world would induct an epileptic. And, indeed, Keramidziev left for Skopje to cure the epilepsy I had created for him. Much later I found out that, in addition to the fear he had of being liquidated, Keramidzhiev had another serious reason for not joining the army where the risk of death was high. I found out that when he left he took all of NOF and AFZH’s money with him. Included in that money were also 800 gold coins. The fact that he “expropriated” that money explains everything... Vangel Aianovski-Oche, Slavianka, Mirka and Zora refused to return because they willingly fled to the People’s Republic of Macedonia. They did not want to return and take chances of not surviving...

And there are those who seek to present all this as “disagreements” with the “CPG’s Informburo policy” when clearly, from the letter sent by the CPY to the CPG, mentioned earlier, it was due to complaints lodged by “individuals or a group of persons”. These “persons” who obviously did not want to return, brought their complaints to the CPM competent factors who then, through the CPY, cancelled their return. About a month later, after returning from Sofia, these same “individuals” asked me not to return to the battlefield and to remain with them in the Republic of Macedonia. I did not accept. I could not do such a thing. I said: “I don’t want to be one of those people who left the struggle at the very moment when there were decisive battles taking place in Vicho and Gramos. I don’t want to be an example of someone who abandoned the fight...” They wrote a letter to the CPG Central Committee. Keramidzhiev wrote it and both he and Goche signed it. The letter was long. Keramidzhiev had to do this and I generally agreed with it. I took it to the addressee even though it caused me great inconvenience. I will talk about this letter later... We arrived in Bulgaria on time. We ran into difficulties. It turned out that our visit

and participation in the ceremonies in honour of Sandanski were not coordinated with the Bulgarian side. They were surprised when I explained to them why we had come. We stayed in the telegraph office for three days. I used our telegraph contacts to get in touch with Kostas Tsiaperas, the CPG representative in the Bulgarian Communist Party. I asked him to take our request to the competent authorities and let them know that if they don’t accept us as a delegation by tomorrow afternoon we are going back. They got back to us and told us that we could attend the festivities, but not as a Macedonian delegation, and without any speeches. We accepted. It would have been nice to have been represented as a Macedonian delegation from Greek occupied Macedonia but it would have been worse if we were not allowed to attend at all. At least this way we could observe the festivities and listen to the speeches. In the meantime Vera and I were appointed members of the Greek delegation and ordered by Zahariadis to immediately leave for Prague to attend the 1st World Peace Congress. We flew there and arrived around noon on April 23, 1949, during the third day of the Congress. Our delegation was headed by the renowned surgeon and university professor (Pergros) Kokalis. Members of the delegation included Zahariadis’s wife Kukuli, members of “Democratic Greece” acting as representatives of various Greek socio-political organizations and DAG female and male fighters. I was surprised to see Done Sikavitsa there among them, and disgusted when I found out that he was not allowed to take part in the ceremonies. Meaning, Macedonian blood that was spilled along with Greek blood was not appreciated or respected at all. As a Macedonian, I felt this was a personal insult. I told Kokalis and Kukuli openly: “What kind of friends are you when, before the entire world, you represent our common struggle only as a Greek struggle…!?” Kokalis was then elected part of the honorary presidency of the Congress and, after I spoke to him, expressed a willingness to accept me as a representative of the Macedonian fighters and people. I just want to say this openly and express my opinion… I was very upset with this whole situation. Clearly this Greek “patriot” (Kokalis) was well aware that the main hotspot of the revolution was in Macedonia and the Macedonian people were its main driving force. Those people fighting there were Macedonians yet, out here, they were not only “not mentioned”, but were not even allowed to represent themselves. The Macedonian people were expected to sacrifice themselves for

the revolution and yet here, before the World Congress, they counted as nothing. Why did I have to rise up, like the well-known Macedonian rebel they knew me to be, to have to ask to be represented? Was this not Kokalis’s responsibility and his obligation to make sure his partners, the Macedonian people, also be represented? Kokalis and Kukuli were senior Party officials but I hardly saw them as that. This is a fact that I did not try to hide especially from Viktor P. Firsov, an interrogator at a prison in Moscow. From his questions, I could see that they (the Greeks), in statements made against me, described me as an incurable “Macedonian nationalist…” something to be frowned upon.

The World Congress for Peace was simultaneously held in Paris and Prague. The French issued visas for only two or three people for each delegation. The one in Prague was incomparably more numerous. It was afternoon, April 27, 1949. There was an unexpected silence in the Czechoslovak Parliament. Fatigue was obviously the main culprit as well as the academically humble and monotonous voices of those who participated (German, American, and Japanese) which drove the delegates into a slumber. At that very moment it was announced that an extraordinary Macedonian would be coming up on stage, who had just arrived from the battlefield in Greece. Then I heard my name and surname mentioned. The entire Czech Parliament came alive. They all applauded. I thought: “They surely are applauding me as a descendant of Alexander the Great, at least most of them…” I whispered to Done Sikavitsa: “They wouldn’t let you perform but they are letting me go up. Watch what I am going to do!” I was very angry and personally offended; I went up on the stage. The applause became louder. With a tough and decisive tone of voice full of dignity I began to thunder:

Ladies and Gentlemen, Comrades!

“In the name of that part of the Macedonian people who, since the Balkan Wars, have lived together with the Greek people under the same oppressive exploitative regime - the regime of the bourgeois-Chiflik-Sybian oligarchy in Greece, I warmly salute the delegates of our socialist sun - the Great Soviet Union, the delegates of the heroic Chinese people, the delegates of Democratic Spain and all of you

here, as well as those in Paris, the partisans of peace, delegates of democratic and peace-loving nations in the world…!”

They began to clap again. Everyone got up. They gave me a standing ovation. I waited for the clapping to end. I continued: “It was difficult for the Greek people to live under the exploitative regime of the reactionary clique. But it was even harder for us Macedonians. We did not have any rights and today we still have no right to show our faces anywhere where the Monarcho-Fascists rule and absolutely not as Macedonians. Macedonian grandmothers, who speak no other language but Macedonian, cannot freely mourn their dead in the Macedonian language, not even in church or at a cemetery. We are forced to think, talk and learn in Greek only. They demand of us to give up who we are and to become Greeks. If we resist then they call us “Paleovulgari” (an insulting and pejorative word). They arrest us, abuse us, jail us and physically liquidate us through their military courts or without a trial. Tens of thousands of Macedonian men and women today rot in the prison camps in the dry and desolate Aegean islands. Hundreds of Macedonian men and women have been physically liquidated with and without a trial. But we, the still enslaved Macedonians, remain unrepentant. And today, under the flag of our glorious Communist Party - the CPG, led by our beloved comrade Nikos Zahariadis, organized and led by our organization NOF, we are all going into battle alongside our brothers the Greek people, fighting against Monarcho-fascism -servant of the Anglo-American imperialists. All of us, our entire families, are in the ranks of the Democratic Army of Greece. Brothers, sisters, wives, all Macedonian mothers of two or three children, heroically hold a rifle in hand and fight against the enemy…!”

They all got up again. Standing and applauding. I waited again. When they stopped, with a lowered tone and a suggestive voice, I said:

“The CPG Central Committee Resolution adopted during the IV Plenum, held last year, reads as follows: ‘The Plenum outlines the outstanding contribution of the Macedonian people in a joint effort for freedom. The participation of the Macedonian people in the national liberation struggle is universal and total!’ The CPG Central

Committee Resolution adopted during the V Plenum, held less than three months ago, reads as follows: ‘The Macedonian people in northern Greece have given their all to the struggle and are struggling with such heroism and such self-sacrifice that it has aroused our admiration. As a result of the success of the Revolution and the Democratic Army’s victory, there should be no doubt that the Macedonian people will get the opportunity to organize and develop their own national and social life, as they themselves desire it…’ Our enemies, sounding particularly rabid lately, are using the airwaves through radio Athens and London and their press to slander our struggle, to distort the truth in an attempt to break our unity sworn in blood with the Greek people. But we very well know that all of their upheaval around our struggle and around the Macedonian Question is nothing more than bitter nostalgia for the irreversible passage of time when these gentlemen held the Macedonian people’s fate in their hands, and their success in pitting the Balkan people one against another in order to enrich themselves, turning their innocent brotherly blood into gold, are over. But, we and our fraternal Greek people very well know that we can only see the light of day if we remain united… otherwise disaster will befall us… That is why we protect our unity like we protect our own eyes... We are also aware that with our struggle for freedom and peace in our country, despite Anglo-American plans to escalate the war, and contrary to those plans, we together with the Greek people have taken our place in the international front with the peace-loving nations which are fighting for liberty and peace in the world. We understand that we are soldiers of international democracy, soldiers of world peace. And it is precisely this knowledge that makes us even more determined in our struggle…” They again stood up and applauded. I paused. When the clapping subsided I continued: “We, together with the Greek people, deeply believe in victory. We deeply believe that we Macedonians too will see the light of day and will revive ourselves like all free nations. This is because we believe deeply that the forces of democracy in the world, headed by the great Soviet Union, are invincible... I would like to express, here before all of you, our enthusiasm and our gratitude to Comrade Gottwald’s brotherly country for giving us the opportunity to speak loudly at this tribune. Whatever needs to be done, however many we need to sacrifice, we, together with the heroic Greek people, will

win freedom and peace in our country…! Long leave freedom and peace all around the world…!”

As if by command they all got up and clapped. I slowly got off the podium and found my way back to my seat. All eyes were on me and I believe they were pleased and approved of what I said. When I got back to my seat where the Greek delegation was sitting, Kokalis, Kukulu, and the other Greek delegates, including Done Sikavitsa, congratulated me one after another under the intense noise of clapping. After the clapping subsided another speaker was called up to the podium. Kukulu said: “Megaloprepa ke enthatika antiprosopevtike o Macedonikos laos…!” (The Macedonian people presented themselves dynamically and magnificently to the Congress!). But, because my speech was an afterthought and not part of the program, it was not translated and not handed out to the delegates. A little later, two people from the Congressional Journal editorial staff arrived and, of course, they did not speak Macedonian. With my help explaining my terms and thoughts to a Bulgarian and to a Yugoslavian person, my speech was eventually translated to Czech. The next day I found my speech published in several languages in the congressional newspaper. The other speeches were marked by quotation marks. It was an honour and a recognition for me. Mine was the most interesting and most successful speech of the day...

I will agree with anyone who thinks that we should not have been so intensely involved in the Prague event. Believe me I don’t want to boast. But what happened at home was indecent and humiliating. I have no choice but to step up and defend the truth and myself. I am talking about what was said about me regarding this in the VI edition of “Aegean Macedonia in the National Liberation War”, No. 109, pages 224-225, in a document entitled “COMRAD PAVLE RAKOVSKI’S SPEECH”. This is what was written: “Pavle Rakovski, speaking at the Congress in Prague, among other things, said the following…” But what follows is not what I said in my speech and in itself, has no value. This, without a doubt, was a forgery that only an enemy would do. I am not exaggerating here, judge for yourselves: Those parts where the participation of the Macedonian people was emphasized (as per the CPG Central Committee IV Plenum Resolution), which I highlighted, were left

out. In my estimation someone saw this as a hostile act. The part where I said: “The Macedonian people in northern Greece have given their all to the struggle and are struggling with such heroism and such self-sacrifice that it has aroused our admiration. As a result of the success of the Revolution and the Democratic Army’s victory, there should be no doubt that the Macedonian people will get the opportunity to organize and develop their own national and social life, as they themselves desire it…” was also omitted. Instead of what I said, someone else attributed the following to me: “We deeply believe that the Macedonian people will also see the light of day and live freely and fraternally with the Greek people!” (p. 225.) With this I was accused of having made statements to the World Congress which are against the Macedonian people’s line of self-determination in Greek occupied Macedonia, which was proclaimed during the V Plenum only about three months ago. I was accused of demanding “minority rights to live freely and fraternally with the Greek people” instead of “organizing and developing our own national and social life, as we ourselves desire it…” This was nothing less than pure malice against me. They also claimed that the document on which the above information was written was typed up in the Greek language with the identifier AE: 51/a/49. Clearly this was not my document because I neither typed my speech nor did I write it any Greek document.

As it turns out, some Greek person got a hold of the World Congress materials, which of course were distributed worldwide, and decided to perform surgery on my speech. But what is of interest here is, “how did this forged document become part of the source materials in the Macedonian archives? As it turned out, according to Radio Mileva, at that time many such “forged” reports often turned up and later ended up as “source documents” in the archives. Anyway, the fact is that this “forged” document ended up in the VI edition of “Aegean Macedonia in the National Liberation War” and was used as an authentic document to portray the history of the Macedonian people! (85)

On April 30, 1949 I returned to Sofia while Vera remained in Prague with Kukulu. Kostas Siaperas and I decided to visit our wounded and sick at the Sofia hospitals. Many of the wounded Macedonians asked me to make sure that Macedonians were added to the auxiliary

staff, which at the time was all made up of Greeks. I insisted that Kosta clear up this problem as a psychological need for the sick.

As I did before Vera and I left for Prague, and now without her, I made sure I visited my friend Naum Peiov. I visited him at the Yugoslav Embassy in Bulgaria. One evening he kept me at his place and I slept at his house. That’s when I found out that the Security people followed me everywhere. I visited the Berkovitsa camp where I established a NOF organization. I wanted to go to Eastern Macedonia, but I was not allowed. On my return to Sofia a security agent escorted me everywhere I went, allegedly for my personal safety. Later he took me to a police station in Sofia because, he said, the police chief wanted to speak with me. He opened the door to the police building and let me in. I entered a bare room which had a wooden floor and a window with bars. There was a tattered chair on the floor, the kind that had a knitted seat. It was missing a leg. He literally clutched my hand, pulled my bag out of my grasp and locked the door behind us. “Yes, I am Yugoslavian, I visited our Embassy, but I did nothing against Bulgaria and its people. What does one have to do here to get locked up…?” I said. “We will see. Patience...” he replied. About ten to fifteen minutes later, I guess after my bag was checked out, the police chief entered the room. He began to interrogate me: “Who are you? What is your name? Why and how did you come to Bulgaria?” he asked. Before answering any of his questions I said to him: “There is a man named Kostas Siaperas, who is a representative of my Communist Party who sits at the Politburo of your Communist Party. We were schoolchildren and grew up together. He knows I was coming back from Berkovitsa and is waiting for me. Call him by phone and he will tell you who I am, what my name is and why and how I came to Bulgaria…!”

He looked at me strangely with a distrustful look. I did not flinch. He decided to make the phone call. As soon as he hung up he released me. Unfortunately Siaperas became suspicious… A long time ago I lived with his brother in Solun, but alone, without his Bulgarian wife. Recently I received a letter from Solun. He wrote: “I will try and bring my wife here... I have always been on the black list and harassed by the police in Bulgaria!” Just as a reminder: Siaperas was the author of the second part of the Macedonian primer

written with the “Serbian” alphabet. On top of that it would not be out of the question if Siaperas was also guilty of some other sins.

I was not allowed to leave Bulgaria until May 19, 1949. Then, the moment I arrived in Skopje I faced new problems. I found the CPG branch contact office closed. This is what I wrote about that at that time in my report: “I was prepared to leave, but our contacts could not send me back, because in the meantime the contact office had been ordered to stop all activities…” (86) I stayed in Skopje for eleven days. On the eleventh day I went to see Lazo Kolishevski, at my request. The next day I was driven by a military jeep from Skopje to the Greek-Yugoslav border. I finally returned to our liberated territory. In the same report as above, I wrote that during my eleven day stay in Skopje I met with Dimitar Aleksievski-Pekar and Nikola Minchev, under whose direct leadership NOF was founded and worked for about a year and a half. Pekar invited me to lunch and Minchev to dinner. This is what I wrote about that in my report: “They asked me about the war we were leading and they talked about the situation at home (Republic of Macedonia). They impressed me with their trust in themselves. If I had avoided them, I think it would not have been appropriate, because it would not have served anyone...” I delivered the letter from Goche and Keramidzhiev to my superiors Mihali Malio then secretary of KOEM and Paskal Mitrevski then president of NOF, who had a direct connection to Zahariadis and the CPG Central Committee. Mitrevski’s intriguing mind began to work. He persuaded Malio to open the letter and see if it was appropriate to give to the CPG Central Committee, to whom it was addressed. They held it for about two weeks. They handed it over to the CPG Central Committee open and said they had received it open from me. In a document compiled on June 20, 1949, and imposed as a party document which was then adopted by the KOEM leadership, Zahariadis wrote: “Comrades Paskal Mitrevski and Mihali Malio bear responsibility for handing the CPG Central Committee a letter with an unjustified 12 day delay. This should be characterized as a serious anti-party procedure because of the fact that comrade Rakovski helped to spread the contents of the letter widely, a letter he was not entitled to read himself...” (87)

And this is what happened to me as a result of that:

With regards to the KOEM resolution there was a quote in “Istoria” (2/81, pp. 297-293), which said: “Pavle Rakovski sharply reacted to Vangel Aianovski’s assessment that ‘one part of the old NOF cadres did not find the strength to resist and succumbed to the pressure, becoming obedient pawns of the CPG-DAG leadership, performing tasks that were often against the interests of the Macedonian people…’ Aianovski’s assessment is correct in describing that part of the NOF leadership. That part of the NOF leadership not only signed the so-called ‘KOEM resolution’, a criminal document, but also implemented it in practice by taking direct and indirect action in persecuting Macedonians, that is, those Macedonians who did not accept the Informburo anti-Yugoslav policy. How else can these leaders, who are personally responsible for executing innocent Macedonians being accused of alleged working in favour of the Yugoslav news service, be described?” Of course there is no mention here of “who” these leaders were. Are they talking about Gusiopoulos? It continues: “How can those NOF leaders with their own lips and libelous and false written information, take part in the informational campaign and machinations in order to blame Yugoslavia as an alleged culprit for the defeat of the Greek liberation movement? Therefore, it is not about ‘Aianovski’s unfounded tendency to tarnish and disqualify the NOF leadership’, but rather about objectively exposing historical facts that should serve as a lesson…!”

This, no doubt, was an attempt to give me a swift kick below the belt. Indirectly, as a member of the “old NOF cadres”, I was charged with performing criminal anti-Macedonian and anti-Yugoslav acts. Let us take a closer look: It is true that Vangel Aianovski wrote the following in his book “Aegean Storms”: “Sadly some of NOF’s old cadres did not find the strength to resist and succumbed to the pressure put on them by the CPG and DAG leaders and, as a result, they became their organs performing tasks that were often against the interests of the Macedonian people…!” (p. 339.) It was also said that because of Rakovski’s “sharp reaction”, “Istoria” had to react in this way. Its editors wrote the following:

“It is amazing indeed. He withdrew himself from the pressure and then threw mud on everyone else who remained in the struggle under the same pressure conditions…!”