References - Part 02

References:

1. a b c d A profile of Gruevski, The Economist, Aug 12th 2011 2. iBi Center. "NATO PA – PLENARY – Nikola Gruevski". Nato-pa.int. Retrieved 14 August 2010. 3. "уким". Ukim.edu.mk. 17 December 2008. Retrieved 14 August 2010. 4. "President Of The Government Of The Republic Of Macedonia | Влада На Република Македонија". Vlada.mk. Retrieved 14 August 2010. 5. Vest 6. daily.mk 7. "Gruevski is half Greek" Kanal 5 Television, 22 November 2010 8. a b "Dnevnik". Dnevnik. 22 February 1999. Retrieved 14 August 2010. 9. Brancoff, D.M. La Macédoine et sa Population Chrétienne. Avec deux cartes ethnographiques, Paris, 1905, pp. 176-177. 10. Ivo Banac, "The Macedoine" in "The National Question in Yugoslavia. Origins, History, Politics", pp. 307-328, Cornell University Press, 1984, retrieved on September 8, 2007. 11. Greek Institution "Pandektis" 12. "Nicholas Grouios, Gruevski's Greek grandfather, on Zougla.gr 13. "The ultimate ruler of Skopje", New Files, on Skai TV 14. Who's your daddy? (accessed 24 December 2010) 15. Deputy Prime Minister > Biography (accessed 24 December 2010) 16. Parties and Elections in Europe – Macedonia 17. "PM claims win in Macedonian poll" BBC NEws, Link accessed 01/06/08

18. Macedonia, Kazakhstan: Triumphal Arches to Celebrate 20 Years of Independence, Global Voices Online 19. "PM Gruevski: Yes, Skopje 2014 was my Idea". MINA. 7 January 2012. Retrieved 30 July 2012.

Guli - Pitu Guli (1865-1903)

Pitu Guli was born in 1865 in the town Krushevo. It is unknown how much education he received but as a youngster he was clever and demonstrated an independent and rebellious nature. Guli’s family was very poor so he had to start work at an early age. When he was seventeen he left for Sofia, Bulgaria on pechalba (migrant work).

Well aware of the socio-economic and political situation, three years later Guli returned to Macedonia and started his own band of outlaws, rebels and freedom fighters and joined the revolutionary movement. In 1886, a year after his return from Bulgaria, Pitu was tried in Solun (charges unknown) and sentenced to eight years imprisonment, seven of which he spent in the prison Trapezund in Asia Minor.

In 1894 he again returned to Krushevo, married and joined the Secret Macedonian Ordin Revolutionary Organization (TMORO).

In 1902 Guli went to Bulgaria and a little later, while returning home, he ran into Toma Davidov’s band, which at the time was crossing over into Macedonia. Unfortunately at the border he was wounded and had to return to Bulgaria for medical treatment.

As a Cheta Chief, Guli was fully committed to the Macedonian revolutionary cause and on March 1903 he again crossed the Bulgarian-Macedonian border and headed for Krushevo.

From April to August 1903 he diligently trained and prepared his troops for the August 2nd Ilinden Uprising.

Being a Vlah himself, Guli was a contributing factor in gaining the support of the Vlah population in the Krushevo district.

During the uprising Guli commanded a large and respectable rebel force that fought heroically and held its ground at Mechkin Kamen, near Krushevo, until it was annihilated by a much larger Turkish force.

It was not long after the rebellion started that a newly mobilized Turkish force arrived in Macedonia. At that time the IMRO General Staff urged the rebels to retreat, mostly to avoid endangering the civilian population.

By mid-August Krushevo was surrounded by a large Turkish force but Guli refused to abandon his position and decided to make a last stand at Mechkin Kamen. The battle lasted about a day and Krushevo fell to enemy hands.

Guli and his men gave their lives for Macedonia. Their heroism has been enshrined in Macedonian poetry and songs.

References: Pages 22-23, Macedonian Magazine, # 272, December 1975. Pages 20-21, Macedonian Magazine, # 505, May 1995.

Hadzhi-Dimov - Dimo Hadzhi-Dimov (1875-1924)

Dimo Ivanchev Hadzhi-Dimov was born on October 2nd, 1875 in the village Gorno Brodi, in Seres Region. Dimo’s father, Hadzhi-Dimko, was a well-known national revivalist who was jailed many times, by the Turkish authorities, for his activities. To continue his activities and avoid going to jail he left Macedonia and took his family to the city Dupnitsa (Stanke Dimitrov) in Bulgaria.

In 1894 Dimo successfully completed his education and graduated, with honours, from the Pedagogical School in Kiustendil. After that he studied for another two years at the University of Sofia. He spent the next ten years as an associate lecturer of the University of Sofia and worked in various institutions including Dupnitsa. He was part of the lecturers association and actively participated in the progressive teachers’ movement.

Dimo was an active and distinguished member of the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization (IMRO) (United). He was instrumental in developing the organization’s charter and directives.

During the Rila congress, in October 1905, he was appointed editor in charge of the organization’s journal “Revolutsioneren List” (The Revolutionary Page). He was also chosen as the best theoretician of IMRO (United).

After the 1908 Young Turk Uprising, Dimo joined Sandanski in Solun. He emerged as one of Sandanski’s strongest and most influential supporters. Dimo was in Solun when the city fell into Greek hands.

After the Balkan Wars he left for Bulgaria and became leader of the Macedonian Progressive Immigrant Movement in Bulgaria.

Dimo was instrumental in organizing a group of Macedonian revolutionaries who intervened on behalf of the Macedonian people at the 1919 Treaty of Versailles Peace Conference and proposed the formation of a free and independent Macedonia within a Balkan Federation.

Dimo Hadzhi-Dimov was murdered in Sofia by the Vrhovists-Mihailovists on September 13th, 1924.

Reference: Pages 22-23, Macedonian Magazine, #439, November 1989.

Jusifovski - Kuzman Jusifovski (Pitu) (1915-1944)

Kuzman Jusifovski was born in Prilep on June 23rd, 1915. He became a member of the Yugoslav Communist Party in 1938 and joined the Peoples’ Revolutionary Struggle in 1941.

After finishing his schooling in the Bitola Gymnasium in 1935 he went to Belgrade to study law. In Belgrade he became a student leader and a founder of the organization “Vardar”. In 1939 Kuzman left for his hometown Prilep to do some work for the party and a little later he participated in the provincial conference of the

Communist Party of Yugoslavia for Macedonia. Two years later he became a member of the regional committee of the Communist Party of Yugoslavia for Macedonia.

Immediately after the WW II occupation, Kuzman, as a member of the party leadership in Macedonia, worked in southern Prilep in the Italian occupied zone and established the Party’s regional committee for that region. In May 1943, as member of the Regional Committee of the Communist Party of Yugoslavia for Macedonia, he also led the regional committee of Tetovo.

In early 1943 Kuzman became a member of the general headquarters of the Peoples’ Liberation Army and of the Partisan movement in Macedonia. During the same year he took part in organizing a meeting between the Macedonian political and military leadership and representatives of Albania, for the purpose of initiating the liberation struggle in Albania. He did the same in Greece with the Greek Partisans.

On February 25th, 1944, after leaving a meeting which he attended with representatives from the central committee of Bulgarian workers party, he was followed by the police and was killed at the railway tracks in Kozle, Skopje.

Reference: Page 13, Macedonian Almanac, 1984.

Karev - Nikola Karev (1877-1905)

Nikola Janakiev Karev was born in Krushevo in 1877. Karev completed his elementary education in his hometown but his family was very poor and could not afford to send him for higher education. Karev had to take a job at a very young age to support his impoverished family.

After completing elementary school, Karev went to work as a carpenter’s apprentice. Then at age sixteen he left home and went to Bulgaria on pechalba (migrant work). It did not take him too long to realize that Turkish taxation was not the only exploitation and injustice perpetrated against the Macedonian people. The Bulgarian bourgeoisie was taking advantage of them as well. The Bulgarian

economy was fueled by cheap Macedonian labourers who not only worked for practically nothing, but who were also willing to do the most labour intensive and dangerous jobs.

Karev’s first job in Bulgaria was as a bricklayer’s assistant. Afterwards he worked as a carpenter in Vasil Glavinov’s carpentry shop in Sofia. Vasil Glavinov was the founder of the Macedonian Socialist Group in Sofia, which Karev joined.

In his spare time, besides reading socialist literature, Karev attended evening lectures at the workers’ university and promoted socialist ideals to the Macedonian immigrants.

While working in Bulgaria, Karev became partially paralyzed and had to return to Krushevo, to a better climate for treatment. During his therapy Karev could not do any physical labour so he went to Bitola and completed a four-year gymnasium course. He then returned to Krushevo and, together with his close associate Vele Markov, formed a socialist group through which he promoted socialist ideals and propaganda.

Karev’s high visibility brought him closer to IMRO and, after joining, he became a member of the Bitola Revolutionary District. After that he was sent to teach in the village Gorno Divjatsi in Krushevo Region for the 1901/1902 school year.

Besides teaching and spreading socialist propaganda among the peasants, Karev also began to promote ideas about liberating Macedonia.

Karev was good at what he did and his leadership, socialist ideals and sympathetic voice for the common man made him very popular among the people in Krushevo Region.

In time Karev, together with his associate Vele Markov, formed the Krushevo District Revolutionary Organization. Karev was appointed a member of its leadership committee and was given a job in Krushevo.

Like Delchev, Karev believed Macedonia could not count on foreign assistance without severe consequences and was always leery and skeptical when free assistance was offered. He adamantly opposed foreign interference and believed in the idea of self liberation by revolutionary means. Even though he did not agree with the outcome, at the Smilevo Congress, to start an early uprising, he did abide with the majority decision and immediately began preparations.

On August 2nd, 1903 Karev and his rebels attacked and took the town of Krushevo. The next day they proclaimed it the “Krushevo Republic”, the first republic ever in the Balkans, and established a revolutionary government. Karev was elected President. The Republic lasted ten days, from August 3rd to 13th, before it was overrun and destroyed by the Turkish army.

While the Krushevo Republic lasted, a sixty member (twenty from each nationality) Republican Council was elected from the three nationalities that lived there. The Council then appointed an executive body called the Provisional Government, with six members (two from each nationality) whose duty it was to enforce law and order and to manage proper delivery of supplies, finances and medical care.

Karev drafted the famous "Krushevo Manifesto" which, among other things, outlined the aims of the Uprising and called on the people to join forces with the provisional government in the struggle against tyranny and enslavement to attain freedom and independence.

Turkish authorities, surprised by the uprising, took extraordinary military measures to quash the newly formed Republic. They dispatched 176,000 soldiers, 3,700 mounted troops and 444 cannons to Macedonia. The entire Krushevo region was surrounded and fierce battles broke out near Sliva and Mechkin Kamen. After a heroic stand, the numerically superior Turkish force broke through the Macedonian defenses, destroyed the Krusevo Republic and cruelly dealt with the rebels and civilian population.

It was estimated that over 200 communities were exterminated, more than 12,000 houses were burned to the ground, more than 70,000 people were left homeless, 8,816 people were killed and about 30,000 people fled their homes to avoid Turkish reprisals. After the failed Ilinden Uprising Karev left for Serbia and spent a couple months in Belgrade. In November 1903 he went back to Sofia and again joined forces with Glevinov and other Macedonian socialists.

In 1905 Karev became a member of the Macedonia-Odrin socialist group and in April of the same year, together with his associate Petar Atsev and his Cheta of twenty-five, returned to Macedonia. Unfortunately on his way through the village Rajchani, Kozheni Region, on April 27th, 1905 he was discovered by Turkish sentries and surrounded by a large Turkish force. Eighteen rebels died that day, including Karev.

When battle broke out Karev’s forces took cover. Karev himself and seven of his fighters took refuge in a bunker. They fought until all their ammunition was used up, except for one bomb, which they used on themselves to avoid capture. Surrender was not an option.

References: Pages 104-106, Macedonian Almanac, 1976. Pages 126-128, Macedonian Almanac, 1984. Pages 24-25, Macedonian Magazine, # 436, August 1989.

Karposh - Arambasha Karposh

The Karposh uprising was sparked as a consequence of the worsening economic, social and political situation in Macedonia. The Macedonian people, encouraged by the Austro-Turkish War and led by the legendary outlaw Arambasha Karposh, revolted in the middle of October 1689 in northeastern Macedonia, between Kustendil and Skopje. The uprising quickly spread to Kratovo, Kriva Palanka, Kumanovo, Kachanik and other towns. Later, together with the Austrian army, the rebels fought and liberated Skopje and Shtip.

A change in the military and political situation in the Balkans had a crucial effect on the rebellion as the Austrian army was forced to

withdraw. Powerful Turkish forces, reinforced by Tartar detachments from the Crimea, attacked the rebels. After fierce battles the Turks took Kriva Palanka, the rebel stronghold, and then attacked Kumanovo and its newly-constructed fortress. Karposh was captured, taken to Skopje and cruelly put to death on the Stone Bridge across the Vardar.

There are two versions of how Karposh died. One says he was impaled by Tartar lances. Karposh was brought before Selim Giray, the Tartar commanding officer, who at the time was standing on the Stone Bridge over the Vardar River. Selim used him for target practice and impaled him with his lances. He then had his body hurled into the Vardar River.

The second version says Karposh was crucified on a cross. Karposh died early in December of 1689 and with him died the Karposh uprising.

Kazandzhiev - Nikola Kazandzhiev (1880-?)

Nikola Georgiev Kazandzhiev was born in 1880 in the town Radovish, in Radovish Region. He completed elementary school in his native Radovish and then studied for three more years in Skopje. After finishing teacher’s school in 1898, he was sent to teach at the village Dabile in Struma Region, where he met Stojan Georgiev, a well known Macedonian Revolutionary and teacher. Through Georgiev, Kazandzhiev became familiar with IMRO and became a loyal and trusted member.

Together with Georgiev, Kazandzhiev began to work widening the revolutionary net over the Radovish and Strumitsa Regions. In 1899, in Dabile, he met Gotse Delchev and became good friends. From 1900 to 1902 Kazandzhiev became a member and leader of the Radovish revolutionary district.

During the 1902 affair when the majority of the IMRO revolutionary leadership was imprisoned, Kazandzhiev, together with Delchev, took on the extra burden of defending Macedonia against Yankov and his Vrhovist Bulgarophils. In spite of warnings not to enter Macedonia, Yankov did, thus provoking an attack from

Kazandzhiev and Mazneikov who drove him right back into Bulgaria. Smarting from his defeat, Yankov hired Spiro Shafkulov from Prilep to assassinate Kazandzhiev, but he was unsuccessful. Yankov then hired a more reliable assassin, the well-known Vrhovist Dimitar Arnaudov from Dojran, but he too failed. Yankov then changed his tactics and betrayed Kazandzhiev to the Turks. As a result Kazandzhiev was sentenced to 101 years in prison but he escaped in good time to join Kosta Mazneikov and Hristo Chernopeev for the 1903, Ilinden Uprising.

After the uprising, Kazandzhiev remained in Macedonia and joined the food drives to feed homeless refugees. He also helped Macedonian immigrants settle in Bulgaria.

In 1905, financially broke, Kazandzhiev wanted to return to teaching but the Vrhovist Bishop Gerasim would not approve his request. Even though the Sultan himself, in 1904, had amnestied all the Ilinden revolutionaries who were teachers, Gerasim would not allow Kazandzhiev to become a teacher again.

Wanted by the police, Kazandzhiev could not return to his hometown Radovish so he left for America.

After a month’s travel he landed in Buenos-Aries, Argentina on February 6th, 1906.

Unfortunately, even in Argentina Kazandzhiev could not find happiness and joined the local revolutionary movement. He remained with the Argentine Revolutionary Movement from 1906 to 1948 as a member of the metal workers’ syndicate. He was also a member of the Socialist Party of Argentina and organizer of the Macedonian immigrants. For his activities, the Argentine Government imprisoned him from 1943 to 1945 in the Neukien prison camp.

In 1948, together with forty of his associates, Kazandzhiev returned to Macedonia where he was received as a hero with a hero’s welcome.

After forty-two years of living abroad, Kazandzhiev finally settled in Skopje.

Reference: Pages 44-45, Macedonian Magazine, # 519, July 1996.

Kiril (-869) and Metodi (-885)

It was during the reign of the Pravoslav emperor Michael III (842-867) that Solun had definitely established itself as the religious and philosophical center of the empire. This was the time when Kiril (Cyril) and Metodi (Methodius) set off on a series of missions to spread the doctrines of Christianity to various places in eastern Europe and Asia. (Solun up to this point had not been invaded by the Slavs, but the Solunians spoke Slavic).

I just want to mention here that, by the eighth century AD, the Macedonian eparchy was controlled by a Macedonian Archbishopric with its center located in Solun and bishoprics existed in eighteen towns including Lerin, Kostur, Voden and Serres.

The brothers Kiril and Metodi were Macedonians, natives of Solun, who were acclaimed as the apostles of the southern Slavs and the fathers of Slav literary culture. Kiril, the younger of the two, was given the name Constantine when he was baptized. It was much later that he received the name Kiril.

Kiril was very fortunate to have studied in Tsari Grad at a young age and received his education from Leo the Grammarian and Photius, a prominent educator at the imperial university. Kiril was an extraordinary student and earned himself the nickname "the Philosopher". After he finished his education he was ordained deacon and later became professor of philosophy at the imperial school in Tsari Grad, where he took over the chair from Photius. Soon afterwards, he retired to the quiet solitude of a monastery. From there, in 861 AD, he was summoned by the emperor, Michael III, and sent on a mission to Christianize the Khazars of southern Russia who lived between the Dnieper and Volga Rivers.

The older brother Metodi was a well-liked, intelligent man who started his career in his father’s footsteps. At first he served in the

military in Solun. Later, at age twenty, he became governor of one of the Slav colonies in the Opsikion province in Asia. Then he became a monk and, like his brother, took part in a mission to Christianize the Khazars.

Kiril and Metodi were two of seven siblings. Their father Lev was a prominent Macedonian who served as assistant to the Solun military commander of the Pravoslav army.

The careers of the Solun brothers took a turn for the better in 862 AD when, Rostislav, the prince of Moravia sent his ambassador to Tsari Grad seeking missionaries capable of teaching his people to read and write in their own language. Rostislav, fearful of his powerful German neighbours, sought the opportunity to strengthen his alliance with the Pravoslavs to counter-balance the German missionary influence in his kingdom. Rostislav preferred the ecclesiastical politics of Photius, now patriarch of Tsari Grad, over those of his western counterpart.

When word came that Emperor Michael was looking for capable missionaries, Photius decided that Kiril and Metodi were the most suitable candidates for the job. The Solun brothers, being Slav speakers themselves, knew the Solunian dialect of the Slav language well and accepted the task.

The old-Macedonian dialect was quite well understood by all the Slav tribes. Unfortunately, teaching the illiterate to read and write was easier said than done. Even though the Slavs had a written form of language described as “lines and incisions”, it was not an easy language to learn.

Kiril was familiar with the Glagolic script but that was also too complex a language for illiterate people to grasp quickly. According to Tsarnorizets Hrabar, an advocate of Macedonian literacy, Kiril and Metodi first tried to use the Koine and then Latin alphabets, but proper pronunciation could not be achieved. Slav speech was far too complex to record with just Koine or Latin letters. Kiril was an intelligent man and solved the problem by constructing a new alphabet based on old Macedonian traditions. The pattern and some letters he based on the Koine alphabet but he enriched it by adding

new letters. He borrowed some from the Glagolic script and some he fashioned from ancient Macedonian symbols that had traditional Macedonian meaning. “Peter Hill argues that Old Church Slavonic was more than merely a written dialect. It is naïve, he says, to imagine that this construction of a written language was possible without established tradition. Therefore it can safely be assumed that there was at least some tradition on which Cyril and Methodius could build. Presumably their familiarity with this tradition derived from the fact that they were Slavic themselves.” (Page 198, John Shea, Macedonia and Greece The Struggle to Define a New Balkan Nation, Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Co., 1997)

When it was completed Kiril’s alphabet consisted of 38 letters, each accurately and exactly representing a unique sound in Slav speech. The phonetic nature of Kiril’s language made spelling words very simple. One only needed to learn the alphabet to have the ability to read and write. The same is true to this day.

I just want to mention that there are some references claiming that Kiril was the inventor of the Glagolic script, but they are incorrect. Kiril was familiar with the Glagolic script and had composed Glagolic texts but we now know from recent discoveries of ancient inscriptions that the Glagolic alphabet existed before Kiril’s time.

In 862 AD Kiril and Metodi, along with a number of followers, arrived in Moravia in Rostislav’s court. They immediately set out to work and to their surprise Kiril’s vernacular was not only well understood but also became popular with the Moravians. The Pravoslav missionaries continued their work for a while, with much success, but were soon handicapped by the lack of Pravoslav bishops to ordain their priests. Also, their popularity with the Moravians displeased the German missionaries who saw them as competition and harshly objected to their presence.

German hostilities reached their peak when the German Emperor Louis forced Rostislav to take an oath of loyalty to him. The German prelate, the bishop of Passau, who had the power to ordain Pravoslav priests refused to do so out of contempt. Unable to continue their work the missionaries were forced to return to Tsari Grad. On their way back the Macedonian brothers took a detour

through Venice where they learned that the Pope had excommunicated Photius, the Pravoslav Patriarch in Tsari Grad. Pravoslav missionaries and their liturgical use of the Macedonian language were vehemently criticized.

In 858 AD Emperor Michael III, on his own authority, deposed Patriarch Ignatius and replaced him with the more progressive Photius. The Pope, however, did not agree with Michael’s decision and proclaimed his deeds invalid. At the same time the Pope denounced both Photius and the emperor.

When Pope Nicholas I found out that the Pravoslav missionaries were in Venice he summoned them to Rome. By the time they arrived, however, Nicholas had died and the political situation had changed for the better. In a turn of events Nicholas’s successor, Adrian II, warmly welcomed the strangers, especially when he found out that they were bringing him an important gift. Kiril it seems had recovered some relics of Pope St. Clement when he was in the Crimea visiting the Khazars and offered them to Adrian as gifts.

When they arrived, Adrian conducted an investigation and found no misconduct on the part of the Pravoslavs. In his judgment he permitted Kiril and Metodi to receive Episcopal consecration and allowed their newly converted priests to be ordained. He also approved Slavonic to be used in liturgy.

Sadly, Kiril died on February 14, 869 AD in Rome and never made it back home. After Kiril’s death Metodi pleaded with Pope Adrian to allow him to take his brother’s body to Solun for burial but Adrian would not permit it. It was the wish of Kiril and Metodi’s mother that if either son should die, the other would bring the body back for a decent burial in the family monastery. Unfortunately Adrian would not allow it claiming that it would not be fitting for the Pope to permit the body of so distinguished a Christian to be taken away. He declared that a man so famous should be buried in a famous place. Kiril was buried with great pomp in the church of San Clemente on the Coelian, where the relics of St. Clement had been enshrined.

After Kiril died Metodi took over the cause and leadership of the mission from his brother. Having been consecrated, he obtained a letter of recommendation from the Pope and the Holy See and quickly returned to his duties. At the request of Kozzel, prince of Pannonia, who at the time wanted to revive the ancient archdiocese of Sirmium (now Mitrovitsa), Metodi was made metropolitan (Archbishop). He was given a large area of responsibility with boundaries that extended to the borders of Bulgaria. Unfortunately as the political situation in Moravia was shifting Metodi’s title and his papal approval did not mean much to the western missionaries, especially the Germans who began a smear campaign against him. To make matters worse Rostislav's nephew, Svatopluk, allied himself with Carloman of Bavaria and had his uncle driven out. After that it did not take long before Metodi was in trouble again.

In 870 AD Metodi was summoned before a synod of German bishops. They found him guilty of misconduct, no doubt on trumped-up charges, and locked him up in a leaking jail cell. It took two years of pleading before Pope John VIII could get him out. Unfortunately, to avoid further controversies Pope John withdrew his permission to use Slavonic, a barbarous language as he called it, for any purpose other than preaching. At the same time he reminded the Germans that Pannonia was never German and since age immemorial it belonged to the Holy See.

After his release, Metodi continued his work in Moravia but there too he got into trouble. Metodi did not approve of Svatopluk’s wicked lifestyle and made his displeasure public. In retaliation, Svatopluk reported Metodi to the Holy See. He accused him of conducting divine worship in Slavonic and of heresy, charging that he omitted the words "and the Son" from the creed. At that time these words where not yet introduced everywhere in the west.

In 878 AD, as a result of Svatopluk’s accusations, Pope John VIII summoned Metodi to Rome and conducted an inquiry. Metodi, a serious man and a dedicated Christian, was able to convince the Pope both of his devotion to his religion and of the necessity to use Slavonic liturgy. Even though Pope John was in agreement with Metodi on most matters, he had certain reservations about the use of the Slavonic language. It seems that some of the western

missionaries perceived the Slavonic language as a threat to their own mission and did everything in their power to condemn it. They alleged that, being created by mere men, the Slavonic language was not from God and that God had created the three principal languages, Hebrew, Koine and Latin. Metodi however fought back with equally persuasive arguments, counter-claiming that God did not create the Hebrew, Koine or Latin languages. God created the Syrian language which Adam and the people after him spoke until the flood. Then during the building of the Tower of Babel, God distributed the various languages among the people and created the written form of the languages. His arguments may have bought Metodi some time but he was still in trouble with the German missionaries.

Seeing that he could not easily get rid of him, Svatopluk used his influence as king and persuaded the Pope to appoint Wiching, a known adversary, to work with Metodi. The German (or French) priest Wiching was brought in to assist Metodi as one of his bishops. Wiching was an implacable opponent of Metodi who worked against him tirelessly. This unscrupulous prelate continued to persecute Metodi, even to the extent of forging pontifical documents.

After Metodi’s death, Wiching obtained the archiepiscopal see, banished Metodi’s followers, and undid as much as he could of Metodi’s work in Moravia.

When Wiching was appointed as his assistant, Metodi must have realized that he was fighting a losing battle. In the last four years of his life he took a break from missionary work and translated most of the Bible from Koine to Slavonic. Metodi died in 885 AD, probably from exhaustion. His funeral service was carried out in Koine, Slavonic and Latin. Metodi was very popular with the people and many came to his funeral to pay their last respects.

I just want to add here that Saints Kiril and Metodi were always celebrated in the lands of their missions and after 1880 they were also celebrated throughout the entire western world.

Kliashev - Pando Kliashev (1882-1907)

Pando Kliashev was born in the village Smrdesh, Kostur Region on September 29, 1882. His father was a bricklayer from Smrdesh and his mother was from the village Breznitsa.

Kliashev received his elementary education in his native village Smrdesh then went to Kostur to complete grades one to three of middle school, after which he went to Solun where he completed grades four to six in the Solun gymnasium. He then enrolled in the Bitola gymnasium and completed grade seven, the final year of his education. After finishing his schooling, in 1900, Kliashev returned to his native Smrdesh and became a schoolteacher.

At the end of 1901, he joined the Kostur District Macedonian Revolutionary Organization. He was already initiated in the IMRO, while studying in Solun, on December 1898 and was a member of the Bitola District Revolutionary Organization.

During the winter of 1901-1902, while Turkish weapons searches were in a lull, Kliashev, Chakalarov and associates distributed what few firearms they had purchased and formed two new bands. Mitre Vlaot in Kostur led one band, under the general direction of Moskov and Chakalarov, and Petrov in the Zagoricheni District led the other band, under the general direction of Kliashev and Moskov. Kliashev together with his associates and their Chetas spent considerable time defending the Kostur and Lerin Region villages from Patriarchist plunderers like Kote Hristov from Rula, the Turkish army and the Bashi-buzuks.

In 1903 before the Ilinden Uprising, Kliashev, Chakalarov and their Chetas, on several occasions, attacked the Turkish army while it was raiding villages on weapons searches. Between June 5th and 7th, an army of 1,500 Turks attacked the villages Statitsa, Posdivishcha, Kolomnati, Trnovotsa and Denoven. Kliashev, Chakalarov, Karsakov and Antonov retaliated by attacking the Turks in the mountains of Dmbeni and Smrdesh. During this uneven battle the Cheti killed 220 Turkish soldiers and lost 14 of their own fighters, among them were Chakalarov’s brother, Antonov and Popovski, their bomb maker.

During the Ilinden Uprising, Kliashev and Chakalarov attacked the Turks in the village Visheni, giving them a devastating blow. They also liberated Klisura and Neveska and attacked the city of Kostur but without success.

After the uprising, Kliashev and his associates continued to fight and protect the civilian population in the Kostur and Lerin Regions from Turkish reprisals. On September 11, 1903, during a visit to the village Aposkep, Kliashev and Chakalarov’s Chetas were surrounded by a Turkish force of two-hundred soldiers. The insurgents fought back and by using bombs, broke through the encirclement. They killed eighty Turks in the process and escaped unharmed. The entire Cheta and its leaders escaped and no one was killed.

Pando Kliashev died on July 31st, 1907 on the mountains of the village Drenoveni, Kostur Region, during a battle with the Turkish army.

References: Pages 48-49, Angel Dinev, Ilindenskata Epopea II. Douglas Daikin, The Greek Struggle in Macedonia 1897-1913.

Kliment ()and Naum ()

The most famous of the Pravoslav disciples were Kliment (Clement), Naum, Angelarius Sava and Gorazd. Even though Gorazd was groomed to take over from Metodi, the first to rise to the occasion was Kliment, also known as Kliment of Ohrid.

Kliment was one of the brightest of Kiril and Metodi’s students and played a pivotal role in their careers. After his banishment from Moravia and Pannonia however, Kliment returned to Ohrid to his place of birth (although some claim he was born in Solun). Kliment spent the next seven years, from 886 to 893 AD, in Ohrid doing God’s work and teaching the Slavonic language. During his stay in Ohrid he was instrumental in founding the Ohrid Literary School and developing the first university in the Balkans and perhaps in all of Europe. It has been said that three thousand five hundred clergy and teachers were educated in the University of Ohrid. But that was

not all, Kliment was also responsible for writing poetry and translating other works from Koine to Slavonic.

In 839 AD Kliment was joined by one of his life long friends, Naum. Kliment and Naum were responsible for refining Kiril’s alphabet as well as re-writing many of Kiril’s works from Glagolic to Slavonic (Cyrillic). Kiril, it seems, had written many works in the Glagolic script in anticipation of using them in his teaching but after finding out that Glagolic was too difficult for lay people to grasp, he opted for the simpler Slavonic which he himself created.

During Leo VI’s rule the peace treaty between the Pravoslavs and Bulgars was once again breached. When the Bulgar ruler, Simeon came to power in 893 AD he resumed aggression in Macedonia. His armies continued to penetrate further west and south and came to within twenty-two kilometers of Solun. A new peace treaty was signed in 896 AD and Leo VI agreed to pay Simeon an annual subsidy of an undisclosed amount to cease his aggression.

After coming to power in 893 AD, Simeon invited Kliment to Preslav with an offer to make him his son’s royal counselor and assistant. The offer did not materialize due to some demands Simeon had made that seemed unreasonable to Kliment. Simeon had some reservations about making the Slavic language official and requested that Kliment modify it. Kliment of course refused, wanting the work of Kiril and Metodi to stay as it was. Simeon himself was educated in Koine at Tsari Grad and had developed ambitions to take over the Pravoslav Empire and become Emperor of a Pravoslav-Bulgar Empire.

When the original offer did not work out, Kliment was given a new appointment in the Velika bishopric in a backward province. This was somewhat of a demotion for Kliment but at the same time it allowed him more time to work on his own projects. He continued to translate chants, psalms, festal fragments from the Bible, moralities and so on.

Towards the end of their careers, both Kliment and Naum built churches on opposite sides of Lake Ohrid. Closest to the city, Kliment dedicated a shrine to the holy healer Panteleimon. A little

later, near the springs of the Crn Drim River, Naum built a monument in honour of Gabriel and Michael, the archangels.

Both Kliment and Naum were buried in the tombs they had built for themselves. Naum was buried in 910 AD and Kliment six years later in 916 AD.

Naum, like Kliment, was also an important contributor to the development of the Macedonian language and culture. It is believed that Naum was born in Macedonia in 835 AD and had been Kliment’s inseparable companion since his earliest youth. As mentioned earlier, Naum was a student of Kiril and Metodi and was active among the Slavs in Moravia and Pannonia. Naum, also known as Naum of Ohrid, was inseparable from his teachers and fellow pupils and suffered the same humiliation and injustice they did. Their most difficult and fateful moments came after Metodi’s death when, under the influence of German churchmen, the Franks attacked the Macedonian missionaries and tortured them. In the words of Kliment of Ohrid’s biographer: "Soldiers, stern men because they were Germans and by nature fierce, their fierceness being increased by their orders, took the priests, led them out of the town, pulled off their clothes and began to drag them along naked. Thus by one act they did them two wrongs: dishonored them and tortured them in the icy fog, which had descended on the Danube banks. Besides this, they put their swords against their heads, ready to cut them, and their spears against their breasts, ready to make them bleed, so they would not die a sudden death..."

"Subjected to cruel torture, some of the pupils succumbed, while the others, among them particularly Gorazd, Clement, Naum, Sava and Angelarius, were declared excommunicate by Bishop Vihing. Their books were seized and burnt. The younger pupils (about 200) were sold as slaves, while these five were driven out of the country."

On their way home to Macedonia, at the request of Boris the Bulgarian prince, Kliment, Naum and Angelarius (who died shortly afterwards) took a detour through Pliska, Bulgaria. After a short visit they felt it was time to return home and continued their work translating books from Koine to Slavonic. Prince Boris insisted that they remain in Pliska but when he couldn’t convince Kliment he

insisted that Naum must stay. Having no choice, Naum spent the next seven years, from 885 to 893 AD, in Pliska before returning home to join Kliment.

The establishment of feudal social structures in Macedonia opened the way for mass exploitation not only of the feudal principalities but also of the free peasants who still lived in rural communities. The situation worsened around the middle of the tenth century when the profitable Bulgar wars of conquest came to an end. Having no other substantial sources of income to support the Bulgar military, administrative, court and church systems, the Bulgars turned to feudal exploitation. After everyone took their cut, the Macedonian peasant was left with nothing. Pushed beyond the brink of starvation, the Macedonian peasants revolted in what later became known as the Bogomil movement. Even though it was religious in nature, the Bogomil movement was predominantly a class struggle between the poor Macedonian peasant and his rich foreign rulers. The Bogomil movement was initiated in Macedonia by a Macedonian priest named Bogomil.

Under feudal ownership the peasants were fully dependent upon their feudal lords. Some historians argue that Kliment of Ohrid’s visit to the Bulgar capital and his resignation as bishop a few months before his death was in response to the violence and devastation the Bulgars inflicted on the territory of the Bishopric of Velika.

The swift spread of the Bogomil movement prompted Petar, the Bulgar king, to take measures for its suppression but he did not succeed. Bogomilism was strongest in the territory defined by the triangle of the Vardar River, Ohrid and Mt. Shar. His intervention, however, did cause the Bogomils much suffering. But even the cruelest of methods did not stop the insurrection, which in time spread and became a general people’s movement. Petar’s death and the Russian campaigns drastically reduced Bulgar control over Macedonia allowing the Bogomil movement to flourish, at least for a while.

Krale - Marko Krale (1335-1395)

Comparatively speaking, Marko Krale was a minor figure in Macedonia’s history. His legends however, in some parts of Macedonia, rival those of Alexander the Great.

Marko was born in 1335 and became a vassal king in 1371. Marko inherited his kingdom from his father Volkashin who had sworn loyalty to the Ottoman Sultan. As part of the treaty with the Turks, Marko had to recognize Turkish authority and pay tribute to the Turkish Sultan.

With its capital in Prilep, Marko inherited a state that lay between the Vardar River and Albania stretching from the Shar Mountain range down to Kostur, excluding the cities of Skopje and Ohrid. After becoming king, Marko minted his own coins and placed the inscription: "King Marko faithful to Lord Jesus Christ".

Marko Krale was killed on May 17, 1395 in Craiova Romania, during a battle against the Vlach military leader Mircho. Marko was obliged to fight for the Turks as part of his treaty agreement with Sultan Bayazit. Marko Krale, it appears, left no heir. After his death his state reverted to the Turks.

Even though Marko Krale had been a Turkish vassal and fought on the side of Bayazit's army, he was a devout Christian and just before he died he begged God for forgiveness and prayed out loud, asking God to help the Christians. And thus a legend was born. Marko Krale, the fearless legend, has been enshrined in the Towers of Prilep where he was born and by his frescoes and paintings in various churches and monasteries.

There are some who say that Marko Krale got his strength from drinking the milk of a Samovila (Nymph). When Marko was a young boy his father wanted him to learn to be humble so he sent him to herd sheep with the local shepherds. The shepherds, however, were jealous of Marko and tended to isolate and abuse him. One day when they sent him to fetch water from the lake, Marko heard the faint cries of a baby deep in the reeds. His keen sense of hearing led him to the baby whom he rescued from the water. He fed it milk and placed it in a secure, safe place away from the water. He then returned to fetch his water. As he was bent filling his jugs he

was confronted by the Samovila who was franticly looking for her baby. When Marko took her to her baby and explained how he saved it from drowning and fed it milk, the Samovila was so grateful she granted Marko a wish. Marko’s wish was to become strong, wise and humble so that he could defend the innocent from wickedness and oppression. His wish was noble and so it was granted. The Samovila gave him some of her milk and, after drinking it, Marko received his super strength.