ABOUT THE AUTHOR

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Stoian Kochov was born in 1930 in the village Turie, Lerin Region. He was an active participant in DAG during Greek Civil War (1946-1949). He lived and was educated in the USSR from 1950 to 1957. He returned to the Republic of Macedonia in 1957.

Stoian graduated from Belgrade University and lives in Skopje.

Works by Stoian Kochov:

1. СРЕДБА раскази “Студентски збор” - Скопје, 1989; 2. ЕДНА МРТВА ВОЈСКА - поезија “Македонска книга” -Скпје,1992; 3. (САМО) ЖРТВУВАЊЕТО НА МАКЕДОНСКИОТ НАРОД ПОД ГРЦИЈА - критички огледи “Матица македонска” -Скопје, 1994; 4. МРТВОТО ЛИЦЕ НА ВОЈНАТА - ПОЕЗИЈА “Македонско сонце” - Скопје, 1996; 5. ЃОРЃИ ПЕЈКОВ - МАКЕДОНСКИ ВОИН НИЗ ИСТОРИЈАТА НА ДАГ (1945-1949) - Монографија – “Академик” - Скопје, 1996; 6. ТАЛКАЧИ - роман, “Матица македонска”, Скопје, 1997; 7. НОВА ГОДИНА ВО ЗЕМЈАНКИТЕ НА ГРАМОС - роман “Матица македонска”, Скопје, 1998; 8. КАЗНА БЕЗ ВИНА - роман “Матица македонска”, Скопје, 2001; 9. ВО ПРЕСРЕТ НА СУДБИНАТА - раскази “Огледало”, Скопје, 1998; 10. ИДЕОЛОШКИОТ АКТИВИЗАМ НАД МАКЕДОНЦИТЕ ПОД ГРЦИЈА -критички огледи, “Матица македонска”, Скопје, 2000; 11. ЕСЕИ И ЛИТЕРАТУРНИ ТОЛКУВАЊА - критички огледи, “Матица македонска”, Скопје, 2002; 12. КОБА И ГНЕВ - Раскази “Менора”, Скпје, 2010; 13. ГРОБАРОТ ОД ЛЕРИН - роман “Детска радост”, Скопје, 2001; 14. БАЛКАНСКА САГА - роман “Макавеј” - Скопје, 2004; 15. БИЛЕТ ВО ЕДЕН ПРАВЕЦ - Историски критички огледи “Матица македонска”, Скопје, 2004;

16. ГОЛЕМОТО ВРАЌАЊЕ НА ТАЛКАЧИТЕ - роман “Современост”, Скопје, 2006; 17. МАКЕДОНЦИТЕ НИЗ ПЕКОЛОТ НА ЦРВЕНОТО ГУБИЛИШТЕ - Историски критички огледи “Матица македонска”, Скопје, 2007; 18. ВОИНОТ И МАРГАРИТА - Роман “Матица македонска”, 2008; 19. ЈАМКА - роман “Матица македонска”, Скопје, 2009; 20. ВРАЌАЊЕТО НА ПОТОМЦИТЕ - роман “Менора”, Скопје, 2009; 21. ГЛАСОТ НА ТАЛКАЧИТЕ - Поезија, 2009; 22. ЕДНОВЕКОВНО МОЛЧЕЊЕ - роман, 2011; 23 ТАЛКАЧИ (НОВЕЛА ЗА ПУСТИНАТА КОЈА ВЛАДЕЕ СЕГА ВО РОДНИОТ ЕГЕЈ И ЗА ИЗГУБЕНИТЕ ИЛУЗИИ НА ТАЛКАЧИТЕ НИЗ ВИОРОТ НА СУДБИНАТАВО ГОДИНИТЕ НА Г.ВОЈНА (1945-1949)).

TESTIMONIALS

Who was this man who started out as a poor village boy and became a Macedonian revolutionary? Who were those people who destroyed their lives?

This is a story told by Urania, Pavle Rakovski’s wife:

“We escaped from Greece because we fought in the Greek Civil War and then we “rotted” in the prisons in Siberia and Kazakhstan accused of being “Titoists”. We then came home to Skopje to only be accused of being “Stalinists” and “nationalists”. This was done to us because some people, for personal interests, with help from UDBA, did not want us to be what we dreamed to be, Macedonians. This is the life story of Pavle Rakovski and his family. He was one of the Macedonian leaders in the Greek Civil War in Voden Region. He never got to see Macedonia become independent or to find out why he was falsely accused of being a “Russian spy”. Now his case is before the lustration commission which, through the publication of the names who contributed to this lie, Rakovski will hopefully posthumously be cleared of wrong doing.” said Urania.

Urania Rakovska is now an 85-year-old woman who lives in he own house in Chair, Skopje. She welcomed us into her home with a full file folder in her hand. Inside the folder was a huge pile of papers, official notes from UDBA, KOS and other services. There is no need for anyone to tell us everything about what there is in these pages to get the idea of what the system did to this unfortunate family in the past 50 years.

“This is what they did to us. They turned our entire lives into paper…” said Urania as she opened the file folder and then began to cry. She too experienced what Pavle experienced and so did their son and daughter. According to the information in the file, Urania too was “handled” in the same ideological manner as Pavle by the various services. And their son and daughter have always carried the label “children of Pavle and Urania”. There were no jobs available to them anywhere. The daughter left for Canada. Even their friends suffered because of this.

“This file even contains the names of people who came to our house. The various services have labeled these people ‘collaborators’ and have recommended to their officials and colleagues to have them investigated. One day we invited our neighbours to out home for coffee. These people were originally from Buf, a village near the village where Pavle comes from. There is no one from Pavle’s village that lives near by. And here are their names in the file… just because they came our home to visit…” said Urania.

Rakovski’s file is an example of the solid evidence available to us today of what was happening to thousands of citizens just because they had different opinions from those of the political establishment, especially about the idea of an autonomous Macedonia. Much of this was done for the support of the establishment and for personal gains. The Rakovski family has not given up in seeking justice for what was done to them; for their torment, for turning their lives upside down and for their “house arrest”. The moment the law was passed allowing access to the files of the former regime in 2001, Urania immediately contacted the Ministry of Interior and asked to see Pavle Rakovski’s file. The initial response was “no” because there was no such file. But Urania persisted.

“I could not accept their answer. It was wrong. We have been tormented for a long time, and surely there was a file. I could not accept that there was no record of our torment. It had to be that they did not want to gives us the file, because of some people… I submitted a new request, individually for Pavle Rakovski and individually for me. They agreed that there was a file for Pavle but not for me. Then we received a box full of papers…” said the old woman.

From a partisan in Voden to a Titoist in Alma-Ata

Pavle Rakovski was born in the village Kleshtina, near Lerin. He grew up in the city Lerin, where he finished Greek high school and wanted to become a teacher. After World War II started he joined the partisans and organized the Macedonian resistance movement in Voden Region. His partisan nickname was Goche. In 1944 he wanted to establish a Macedonian battalion, but his idea was soon discovered and he had to quickly flee to the Vardar (Republic of)

Macedonia. Rakovski returned to Greek occupied Macedonia during the Greek Civil War. When the Greek authorities found out that he was back, they ordered his execution. In 1949 he was arrested in Albania but somehow was transported on a prisoner ship to some unknown destination. He eventually ended up in solitary confinement in Moscow. He was in solitary confinement for 2.5 years. The Greek authorities informed Urania that he was dead, and deported her to Poland.

“For 2.5 years the Russian authorities were telling Pavle that his friends were saying that he was a ‘Titoist’ and because of that he was sentenced to prison in Siberia where he had to carry bags of stones. They held him there in the years 1955, 1956. After Stalin’s death his sentence was reduced and he was transferred to house arrest with limited movement in Alma-Ata, Kazakhstan. I was in Poland at the time but the moment I found out he was alive I went there to see him. I stayed with him until my visa expired. After that the Russians refused to let me leave. Both Pavle and I were not allowed to leave…” said Urania.

A few years later Pavle sent a letter to Khrushchev and informed him that he was not guilty of the crime he was charged, and so on March 1, 1960, he, Urania and their two children, receive visas to go to Skopje, Republic of Macedonia.

“We were delighted that at last, we would be going to Macedonia. It was our dream. But somehow the train stopped much earlier than we expected. Two non-uniformed officers boarded our train and took us with them. We were in Belgrade at the time. Pavle recognized the city and said to the officers ‘this is Belgrade; we are going to Skopje... we are going home’. But they kept us there for several days, incarcerated in a police station in Panchevo, together with our children. They constantly questioned us especially of what we thought of the Yugoslav regime and about ‘which’ Macedonia we were talking about. We wanted them to let us go so we could reach Skopje… that was our destination…” said Urania.

Suspected of being “Stalinists” the Rakovski’s, after their arrival in Skopje, were held for months in the “Bristol” hotel under restricted

movement. Later they were relocated in an apartment in Kisela Voda.

“And then began an even greater horror for us. People came to see us, friends of Pavle’s, from Greek occupied Macedonia and from the partisans who were now officials working for the regime. Pavle however, never gave up on his ideals that Macedonia needs a better and thus different system… That is why there was no hope for him being accepted or given a job… he constantly had problems. One time he was beaten up for his beliefs… by strangers. We reported the incident to the police, but no one wanted to not listen to us. Instead, they took us for questioning… We left Greece because the Greeks tormented us… We then rotted in prison in Siberia because someone labeled us ‘Titoists’. Now that we came back home to Skopje they labeled us ‘Stalinists and nationalists.” said Urania in tears.

According to its volume, Rakovski’s file, codenamed “Returnee”, was one of the most comprehensive of all records. It was divided into a few volumes with the last being “anarcho-liberalism”. The document had more than 3,000 pages and contained daily information from the moment Rakovski set foot on Macedonian soil until his death in 1988. The thousands of pages say that he was not just an “ordinary character” as hinted by some of his comrades from Greek occupied Macedonia, and afterwards by associates from the authorities and officials of the former system. If he was just an “ordinary character” then why did the services invest so much of their resources on him? Rakovski was a prominent leader, spoke his mind and had personal contact with Lazar Kolishevski. He knew too much. After that he and Kolishevski went their separate ways, especially on their ideological beliefs. Rakovski wanted an “independent Macedonia”, and Kolishevski, following Tito’s regime was not so keen towards “Macedonian national interests”. The names of the major contributors to the information in Rakovski’s file, given to Urania, were blacked out, some names appeared multiple times. By careful examination of the file’s contents, Urania and her children were able to identify dozens of informers. Among them were the 11 people, who together with Pavle, were dispatched from Greece via Albania to Siberia. Among them was also a former director of the publishing house, now dead, two former officials

from the judiciary system whose grandchildren are now part of the “struggle for human rights” as prominent members of civil society, and other recognizable names from public life.

“We found it hard to believe that some of our friends were spying on us. We found the names of our first neighbours in the file as well as the names of many close relatives. Almost all of them were our friends... lots and lots of them. Some of them we suspected the moment they entered our home because they were anxious to associate with us even though we rejected them…” said Urania.

After Urania received the file, she gave it to one of their close friends to publish it, along with several other pieces on Rakovski. He posthumously published four books, including Rakovski’s autobiography but nothing about his file. By exploiting the new Law on lustration, Urania appealed to the Commission for Verification to publish the names of the informers in Rakovski’s file, keeping in mind that some of them were prominent officials in the former regime.

“I wanted those names to be published. Those who made our lives miserable need to be exposed, not concealed by black ink…” said Urania.

Rakovski was unable to get a job all his life except the one time when he was briefly employed at a school in Kisela Voda in the 1970s, but it did not last long. After that he was never employed again because no one would give him a job. Occasionally he wrote and posted articles, mainly on the Greek Civil War and on the “Macedonian Question” concerning Greek occupied Macedonia. But even his articles were heavily censored and controlled.

A large part of his file contained numerous reports of his “associates” talking about his articles. The informers often provided their own opinions of whether the article was too “critical” of the system and whether it should be published or not. For example, a report given by an “associate” on October 29, 1983, about one of Rakovski’s articles, said: “While Rakovski’s text about the fighting in Aegean Macedonia has received a positive opinion from the editor, my recommendation would be to not publish it because

Rakovski wants to get his undeserved political pardon”. Rakovski’s article was a description of Yugoslav-Greek agreements inciting the Macedonian people to sacrifice themselves for the interests of the neighbouring countries.

The Rakovski family has sent some of these documents to the Lustration Commission. Surprisingly Urania’s documents were immediately received by the Commission, but what is even more surprising is the answer she received. In fact, two months ago, on July 5th she received a letter from the Commission stating that “the state authorities have notified the Commission that they do not have any data, papers or letters that pertain to Rakovski.”

“That upset us. We were very disappointed. Where are the original documents? How can we have a copy stamped by the Ministry of the Interior with official markings from Belgrade to Skopje obtained in 2001, and for the Ministry itself to have no such file? Where did the file go?” said the old woman.