EXTRACT FROM THE CALL OF RIGA OF FERE (758)

EXTRACT FROM THE CALL OF RIGA OF FERE (758)

1797

“The Macedonian rushes into battle with his sword at the trumpet’s sound, the breast of the tyrant shivers.”

F. Pouqueville, Storia della Rigenerazione della Grecia. Milano, 1854, Vol. II, p. 130

(758) The ideas of the French bourgeois revolution of 1789 were well received by the Balkan peoples. The greatest proponent of these ideas was Riga of Fere (also known as Riga of Velestino). He made an appeal in 1797 to the Balkan peoples, calling them to fight for the liberation from Osmanli (Ottoman) tyranny. The call also appeals to the Macedonians, emphasizing their ardour in the struggle.

(Page 180, The University of “Cyril and Methodius”, Documents on the Struggle of the Macedonian People for Independence and a Nation-State, Volume I).

A NOTE BY TEACHER GORGI MAKEDONSKI ABOUT HIS ORIGINS (798)

1846

May everybody know when the peasants of my native village Radibus, Krivorechka Palanka, hired me as a teacher in our village school as well as at Rankovce and Krivi Kamen, for 1800 groschen a year. I was born of my father, priest Dimitrija, and mother Varskija as the seventh of twelve children, five boys and seven girls. I learnt the Slav alphabet from my father Makedonski, who calls himself so because we are Macedonians, and not Greeks, and his father was called Josif, a priest, and his grandfather, Stoiman, a priest. I also took the surname Makedonski, and not that of my father or grandfather, so that it may be known that we are Slavs from Macedonia. On the day of the Great Holy Mother of God, 1846.

Giorgija Makedonski

Bogosluzhbena kniga “Opshti minej” – vo tsrkvata V S. Radibush, Krivopalanechko. Posledna nepaginirana stranitsa.

(798) Teacher G. Makedonlki, born in the village Radibus, Kriva Palanka Region, on the occasion of his becoming a teacher in his native village, left this note starting with the usual phrase for that time: “May everybody know…” (Znano budet…).

(Page 196, The University of “Cyril and Methodius”, Documents on the Struggle of the Macedonian People for Independence and a Nation-State, Volume I)

P. V. ALABIN ON THE PARTICIPATION OF MACEDONIAN VOLUNTEERS IN THE STRUGGLE FOR LIBERATION OF BULGARIA (922)

1877-1878

Another need also had to be satisfied, to which I could not stay indifferent. For example, when the companies of Bulgarian veteran, who had served with such dignity their now resurrecting fatherland in the numerous battles beyond Stara Planina, on Stara Planina and on Sipka, were disbanded to go home, since the companies were made up exclusively of volunteers, it became apparent that many of them had nothing to go back with to their native places. The Macedonians had the greatest need of help in money, for they are not able to return to their native homes, since their fatherland is still occupied by the Turks. Yet it is well-known that the Macedonians were the best people in the companies (and) filled even our old soldiers with enthusiasm by their courage and manliness in the battles. I distributed 894 Francs for food to such Macedonians, expecting the possibility of their return to their fatherland.

Osvobozhdenie Bugarii od Turetskogo iga. T. III p. 296.

(922) Petar Vladimirovich Alabin (1824-1896), Russian journalist and public figure. At the time of the Russo-Turkish war (1877-1878) he was a representative of the Russian Red Gross and of the Slav philanthropic committee to Bulgaria.

(Pages 266-267, The University of “Cyril and Methodius”, Documents on the Struggle of the Macedonian People for Independence and a Nation-State, Volume I)

RULES OF THE MACEDONIAN REBEL COMMITTEE (923)

1878

The Macedonian Rebel Committee codifies,

It is well-known to all of us that this ill-fated country of ours, Macedonia, owing to the egoistic aims of the Great Powers, was again left to Turkey after the Congress of Berlin. As a result of that, in certain regions of our fatherland many scenes full of blood, know to all of us, took place. Desiring to throw off the Turkish yoke from our fatherland, each one of us, as much as possible, rose up to sacrifice himself, since help was needed from each of us. We rebelled as advocates of freedom. With the blood we shed allover the Macedonian fields and forests, we serve freedom, as the Macedonian army of Alexander of Macedon did, with our slogan “Freedom or Death!” Yet, owing to the events and the liberation of a great number of villages by our rebels, and the crying need to introduce order in the areas where the rebels are in action, we have decided to proclaim certain rules of the Macedonian Rebel Committee, or rather a Constitution, to which we shall all conform and the rules of which we shall all observe till the liberation of the whole of our fatherland, Macedonia.

(923) These Rules of the Macedonian Rebel Committee were proclaimed at the time when the Macedonian (Kresna) Uprising was at its height. They represented a programme of the Macedonian national liberation movement, which at the period of the Eastern Crisis meant an important event in the struggle for liberation of the Macedonian people.

(Page 267, The University of “Cyril and Methodius”, Documents on the Struggle of the Macedonian People for Independence and a Nation-State, Volume I)