IV. STATE OF AFFAIRS OF THE MACEDONIAN PARTY ORGANIZATION DURING 1940-1941 - Part 01

IV. STATE OF AFFAIRS OF THE MACEDONIAN PARTY ORGANIZATION DURING 1940-1941

1. Statements made by NOF participants and scientific workers Following are statements made by certain participants as well as certain scientific workers regarding the state of affairs of the Macedonian Party Organization in the period 1940-1941:

"After the creation of a large number of SKOJ (Union of Communist Youth of Yugoslavia) organizations in the beginning of May, a SKOJ Provincial Committee was also formed. One or more illegal SKOJ organizations were formed in almost all major enterprises, factories, workshops, institutions, secondary schools and in neighbourhoods. In Skopje in June 1940, a SKOJ Provincial counsel was held in Tsvetan Dimov's house, which was attended by various representatives including some from outside of Skopje. In the fall of 1940, a City Conference was held in Stara-Nova Banja, which lasted all night. This conference was attended by about 40 SKOJ members.

During 1940, according to available information, 17 economic events took place in Skopje, of which 12 were strikes and 5 tariff actions. Other smaller events also took place. Some lasted a long time. The one in Papateodosi lasted 50 days. The one in the

"Balkan" section lasted 20 days and the one in the "Vardar" factory lasted 14 days.

The advanced women's movement continued to grow and further strengthen its ideological structure. The action the Communist Party initiated to create a women's supply cooperative in the summer of 1940 produced positive results with 150 women joining and being led by a Communist active. These women, through various forms of activities, worked for their inclusion in social life and for their rights.

In 1940, the Communist Party in Skopje expanded its activities and began to work intensively in the countryside. The "Selska samopomosh" (Village self-help) subsidiary organization was created and installed in the villages Singjelikja, Petrovets, Bunardzhik, Katlanovo and others.

At this time, the faculty advanced student movement as well as the entire Macedonian student movement in general aligned themselves in the Yugoslav plain.

Outings for August 2, 1940, on the occasion of the Ilinden Uprising, were organized in several places including Shishevo, Matka, Nerezi and Saraj.

Among the more significant actions carried out were the January 1941 demonstrations at the time when Prime Minister Dragisha Tsvetkovich and the Minister of Education Anton Koroshets were visiting Skopje. During their visit to a gathering in the Faculty of Philosophy they were met by demonstrating students and monopoly workers, who expressed dissatisfaction with their government's policies.

For the first time in 1940, Communist Party and SKOJ members began a mass campaign of writing slogans on the walls of houses in various parts of the city. A large number, sometimes over a thousand copies, of leaflets and proclamations were distributed. In 1940, leaflets were also distributed among the mobilized soldiers, protesting about the government not providing enough for their families. The soldiers in 21 regiments refused to eat their food, spilled their cauldrons and demanded to be sent home or be sent to war. Twenty four soldiers were punished for their deeds.

According to the activities the Communist Party carried out, especially within the labour movement, it shows that the revolutionary movement wasn't disjointed, random, or isolated, and that all this wasn't the action of individual persons or small groups but of a broad layered people's movement, with broad support, managed by one centre, that is, by the Communist Party, which acted in accordance with the established systematic plan. The Communist Party connection to the working class was so strong and wide that arrests and acts of terror couldn't stop it from growing.

The few arrests that the police made weren't as widespread as before but rather localized. This was due to the precautions taken by the Communists when dealing with the police and their ability to work secretly.

The scale of economic actions carried out by the URS unions and worker participation in the communist-led demonstrations in 1940, showed that attempts made by the Tsvetkovich-Machek government regime through YUGORAS, as regime unions, to dull the fury of URS in Yugoslavia were futile. The trade unions fell directly into the hands of the Communist Party through commissions and illegal trade union boards.

1. The labour and revolutionary movement in Skopje, as well as the labour movement in Macedonia, which took place within Yugoslavia in 1940 and 1941, was intense and broad in carrying out its activities. It was a time when all foreign influences were completely removed from the labour movement that fell under Communist Party influence, when the organizations and the communists were freed from the outdated narrow organizational forms in how they acted and did their work, when the circle of illegal-political activities was broken.

2. In addition, the Communist Party provincial leaderships, SKOJ, and the Red Aid in Skopje worked under illegal technical conditions. In other words, they worked from a place where they led and set the tone for labour and for the national revolutionary movement in Macedonia.

3. With its program and activities, which were aimed at the interests of the broad strata and the national interests of the people, the Communist Party grew into a unique party with authority and influence among the masses, which enabled it to be placed at the head of the working class struggle and the people in Macedonia.

4. A significant role was played by the legal, illegal and revolutionary press (in the Macedonian language) and through Marxist literature, to influence the people and strengthen their organizational, ideological and political unity." ' 47 147 Dr. Velimir Brezovski, "Skopje in NOV 1941", Skopje 1973, pp. 15-25.

"The basic food in Macedonia was more expensive than anywhere else. While in Belgrade the price of food went up by 10-15%, in Ljubljana by 16%, in Zagreb and Sarajevo by 25%, its percentage in Macedonia went up to 25-40% (1940). During this time, the cost of living went up the fastest, especially for food and clothing, with some items rising in price by 100-300%. The cost of bread had risen by 50%. At the same time, while nominal earnings recorded an increase of 12%, real earnings showed a decline.

The ruling on minimum wages, according to which workers' wages were supposed to be increased from 22.5 to 32 dinars, didn't even remotely improve the bad situation. Worse than that was the fact that no one implemented that ruling in the Vardar part of Macedonia. The majority of workers received wages of less than 32 dinars, so that, compared to 1939, their wages were reduced by 40%.

The wages of the workers working at the "Fakir" canned goods factory were as low as 8 dinars.

The Skopje communist struggle to take over the trade unions was hard and long-lasting. In 1940, however, it gained greater dimensions and was determined to achieve its set goal. Gradually the trade union leadership was taken over and reoriented towards an anti-fascist and revolutionary direction.

The communists in Skopje also achieved great success by winning over and involving the Turkish and Albanian workers in the class struggle. The Party played a leadership role in a large number of agrarian organizations where they worked and in the cultural and sports societies of which they were members.

The Skopje workers' struggle in 1940 Activities carried out by the Skopje workers include the action taken by the monopoly workers, the carpet industry workers' strike, the "Vardar" factory workers' strike, the action taken by the transportation workers, the ceramic factory workers' strike, the "Fakir" canning factory workers' strike, the "Papateodosi" factory workers' strike, the action taken by the woodworkers, the Anton Ruchigaj workers' strike, the action taken by the barbers and hairdressers, the action taken by the mill workers, the shoemakers' strike, the action taken by the sewing workers, the action taken by the metal workers, etc.

All these major actions and revolutionary activities carried out by the Skopje workers, as well as the entire working class in Macedonia in 1940 and 1941, were a sure sign of the successful Party connection with the broad working layers and of its empowerment to challenge and lead the masses in the struggle for their economic, political and national rights and freedoms.

Despite the perpetrated political terror, the working class reacted with a series of protests, rallies, demonstrations and strikes, in response to the ban of the class unions, which took place all over the country. The CPY Central Committee and the CPM Provincial Committee issued proclamations inviting people to join the battlefront. 148

"Unfortunately the Tsvetkovich-Machek government team was just a continuation of the previous monarcho-fascist regimes, this time with an even more emphasized fascist component, both in the external and internal struggle. The pressure on the University intensified, its autonomy was threatened often, and the student-leaders who organized and ran the protests and strikes were dealt with fiercely. After they organized the May 28, 1940 strike to defend the autonomy of the University, the faculty council decided to expel three students from the Skopje Faculty of Philosophy without the right to take exams or to enroll in the next two semesters.

The resistance to fascist aggression was initiated on March 27, 1941, which was welcomed by the students at the Faculty of Philosophy in Skopje. The first mass protests carried out by the workers, high school and other students turned into mass demonstrations, the likes of which Skopje hadn't seen in a long time (it was estimated that 15,000 people participated).

The three student speakers who were protesting were thrown out because they were calling on the people to resist. They were

148 Dr. Orde Ivanovski, ibid., pp. 30-43.

Filimena Mihajlova, Anton Kolendich and Blagoj Korubin. It can be said that those demonstrations were the baptism in fire for the many determined fighters who later joined the National Liberation Struggle. Blagoj Korubin spoke in the Macedonian language." 149

"In the last school year before the war started - about which we are talking here - the Faculty of Philosophy Party organization cell in Skopje was joined by 15 or 16 people, of whom eight were Montenegrins, three or four were Serbians and three or four were Macedonians. They were all students from this faculty: thirteen men and three women. Apart from them, there were also three or four other students at the faculty who were party members of other cells and party organizations." 150 "In fulfilling the tasks that was set before them after the June 22, 1941 consultations regarding the preparations for the armed struggle against the occupier in their country and as their international duty, the communists in Skopje during July and August 1941, developed wide actions to collect weapons and other military and medical materials. In July and August 1941, communists from the Skopje ranks organized sabotage groups and regularly carried out military training. Some of these groups focused on specific tasks such as gathering intelligence, with which they became very successful.

Much attention during this time was also given to manufacturing various sabotage devices that were made in special camouflaged workshops." The first sabotage action was carried out at the beginning of August 1941, at the chromium mine in Radusha from where large amounts of explosive material were taken. Two more such actions were carried out at the same mine before the end of August 1941. All this time, during the execution of the two last actions, the saboteur group lived and operated out of a military camp located in a grove near the Vardar River, on the opposite side of the village Zlokukjane. The military camp was organized and well looked after. Leading it were military elders - a commander and a political commissar.

149 Dr. Desanka Miljovska, ibid., pp. 50-52. 150 Blagoja Korubin; ibid., p. 57.

In addition to the military preparations to create partisan detachments, political preparations were also carried out. This included holding meetings, conferences and gatherings during which information was exchanged to expose the occupier and to create anti-occupation sentiments among the masses, especially in the villages. Special attention was given to actions aimed at tightening the attitude towards the occupier and gradually preparing the masses for fighting. The most significant actions that came out during that period were the Ilinden demonstrations, which emphasized the uniqueness of the Macedonian people who rejected the intentions of the occupier and collaborationists to present the history of the Macedonian people as Bulgarian. At the same time, many proclamations and leaflets were more frequently distributed against the occupier.

On August 2, 1941, Party organized, mass demonstrations were carried out against the Bulgarian occupier in Skopje, Bitola and Prilep." 151

"It is a fact that the revolutionary national liberation struggle in Macedonia, especially in Skopje, went through various phases of winning and losing battles as well as declines and defeats from 1941 to the day of the final victory, some publicists - even politicians -however, drew wrong conclusions, providing unscientific and untrue

- even insulting - assessments of the strength and action on the part of the Party organization in Macedonia, especially in 1941. In this respect, editors of the "CPY Historical Archive" went the furthest in the preface of volume VII, published in 1951, in which they consistently wrote: "...the party organization in Macedonia... small, weak, disorganized and disoriented by Metodija Shatorov (was) at the tail of the masses in 1941..." However, the historical truth is different.

During the occupation a Communist Party did exist and functioned well in Skopje with the following composition: 160 active Party members, 100 candidates waiting to become Party members, 400 active SKOJ members, a Local Party Committee, SKOJ, the CPY Provincial Committee for Macedonia (currently the CPM Provincial

151 Slavka Vidanova, ibid., pp. 125-154. (Unfortunately the proclamation the Provincial Committee issued for this purpose wasn't mentioned - m.z.)

Committee m.z.), etc. Apart from these there were also about 2,000 sympathizers, men and women, engaged in various organizational formations in Skopje.

During the large demonstrations that took place in March, the Party not only exhibited its slogans, which expressed the people's wishes and interests, but at the same time, for the first time since its declaration in 1921, it publicly manifested itself as a Communist Party.

In fact, there was no political party, organization or group in Skopje or in all of Macedonia during the occupation except for the Communist Party.

How did the CPM behave in those fateful days, what slogans did it use, what actions did it lead - in short what political line did it follow?

It should be immediately emphasized that most articles that dealt with this issue at that period of time show that much attention was paid and elaborate details were recorded from various quotes from individual leaflets, directives and even from Provincial Committee "districts". However there was nothing written in these leaflets, directives and even manuscripts addressed to anyone that paint a bad picture of Sharlo or the Provincial Committee to imply that they were capitulators or had a Great Bulgarian attitude. All those innuendoes spread about Sharlo and the Provincial Committee came from somewhere else. Unfortunately this is what has been referenced in the selected 1941 "historical documents" in Skopje and Macedonia as Macedonian history.

It seems that certain indisputable facts about the Macedonian involvement in the first organized armed uprising have been bypassed, forgotten, or just kept hidden. These are facts that speak about the resistance in Macedonia, its preparations, its undertakings and its numerous armed actions.

Yet some people (Kolendich) have implied that precisely these facts, these numerous heroic actions which are indisputable proof - proof of practice over expressions - that the leaflets, "letters", "directives", etc., that Sharlo and the people around him have issued, had no influence on the life and work of the Communist Party, no influence on the communists, no influence on the SKOJ sympathizers and no influence on the wider masses of people in Skopje and in Macedonia.

According to Kolendich "Sharlo had no idea that preparations were made at the beginning of the large and massive March demonstrations. He had no idea why exactly they were taking place from March 25 to 27 because he wasn't in Skopje, like other members of the Provincial Committee, so the demonstrations were led by us - the faculty party leadership and the Skopje Local Committee. This entire operation was based on an agreement with comrade Lola Ribar - a member of the Central Committee from Belgrade." 152

"As we now know, the news of the Triple Pact signing, which meant the Nazi-fascist forces had capitulated, was announced by radio in the early morning on March 25. I went to work that morning and met Metodi Shatorov-Sharlo, then CPY Provincial Committee Secretary for Macedonia, near the Stone Bridge, who for some time had an insight into the work of the editorial office of the newspaper "Nasha Rech", a Provincial Committee legal organ. When the news first came out, the first to demonstrate were students who ran throughout the city. The first ones to come out were from the ranks of the Serbian Club and from the Chetnik organization, which gave them a nationalistic character. But soon afterwards, with the participation of the people from SKOJ, the situation changed. I expressed my opinion to Sharlo that in those very important events the communists should take an active part and carry basic anti-fascist slogans for the democratization of the country and its defense as it was written in the CPY Central Committee proclamations. To that Sharlo said: 'That's their business!' That was the end of our short conversation and everyone went their separate ways." 153 152 Dr. Anton Kolendich, ibid., pp. 141-150.

153 Dejan Alexich, ibid., p. 102. (Here Dejan Alexic claims that Metodija Shatorov was in Skopje. Anton Kolendich, on the other hand, claims that Metodija Shatorov wasn't in Skopje from March 25-27. m.z.).

"Kolendich: I received a directive from Blazho Orlandich, who was my contact (the faculty leadership's liaison) with the Provincial Committee, that a call for a large number of volunteers should be organized. In addition to telling the faculty, I also passed on that directive to five party workers' cells, in which I was an instructor.

Based on the Local Committee directive conveyed to me by Tsvetan Dimov-Chairchanets, we all started to organize and popularize the collection of weapons. We passed on that directive not only to communists, but also to sympathizers. Later we used the same 'announcement' the German authorities used earlier that all weapons must be surrendered, and through our connections we went after people: mostly reserve officers, officers, etc., from whom we took weapon, because they were afraid to keep them. As I recall we collected twenty revolvers and ammunition in this way. I also heard from friends that they collected machine guns, rifles, even a cannon hidden on Alija Avdovich's property. Alija Avdovich was a communist who was later killed in the village Singjelich.

I have never heard of a directive that arms must be surrendered, nor have I heard of any comrades surrendering their arms to the enemy.

Then the party equipment was added. A number of typewriters, several radios, a gestetner (a type of duplicating machine named after its inventor), large quantities of paper and other materials were transferred.

Even from the first day of the occupation, the SKOJ groups started writing slogans on the walls, slogans against Hitler and Nazism, slogans for the USSR and later slogans against the Bulgarian occupiers.

On its own initiative a SKOJ group, in the spirit of the general Party line decided that it was necessary to fight and move to a direct armed struggle against the occupier, carried out a major action: it set fire to a German Junkers 52 type transport plane forcing it to land in a field. There was a lot of talk about that in the first few months in praise of the young heroes.

The Red Aid organization, later called the People's Aid, soon became massive. Under direct Party leadership this organization became very active and undertook a series of well-organized measures. We should mention that among them were actions of solidarity towards the Serbian families who were expelled from Macedonia, helping Polish prisoners and especially helping the Jews, etc.

It should be especially emphasized that there were also brave people who took well-thought-out action to break into the Hanrievo military warehouses where they seized the former Yugoslav army's stored weapons. Despite the German guards, a group of young communists retrieved much needed weapons, bombs, ammunition, etc.

On the initiative of communist and sympathizer mechanics and machinists, a workshop was created to make bombs, repair weapons, etc. This workshop functioned all throughout 1941.

The Local Committee created several armed strike groups which undertook a number of actions. These strike groups began by carrying out military exercises to prepare for action, which included learning to handle weapons, acquiring basic military knowledge, etc.

The strike groups then carried out several successful actions, such as breaking into the "Alatini" dynamite warehouses, causing major sabotage at the Lodge where the locomotive was destroyed, creating a traffic jam and panic among the Bulgarians and Germans;

attempted assassinations of policemen and agents, liquidating confidants, etc.

After that - despite the intensified open terror perpetrated by the occupier - Party activities grew significantly... connecting with the villages, creating the first Party groups, taking up arms en masse, demonstrating, distributing leaflets on the occasion of the Ilinden celebration, students going on strike in the gymnasium for men, women protesting and demonstrating, etc.

Kolendich: When talking about Skopje in NOV in 1941, historical fact should be sharply underlined that on one side was the Provincial Committee with its opportunistic, Great Bulgarian, capitulatory Sharlo-vist attitudes or compromise-conciliatory views and policy towards those attitudes and practice, and on the other side was the membership, the Local Committee and active party organizations, the heroic SKOJ, numerous sympathizers and the lively masses who worked, fought and took all possible actions for the development, expansion and success of the peoples' armed uprising.

All I can say about the Provincial Committee's functions is what I have found out: 1) Complete inactivity in all sectors, 2) Many organizations are dissatisfied with the actions of the Provincial Committee, 3) The Provincial Committee is not aware of the state and strength of its organization (for example the case with the Skopje demonstrations)." (See Dr. Anton Kolendich, ibid., pp. 141-150.) (Kolendich took these accusations against the Provincial Committee from Dragan Pavlovich. m.z.)

"The many political and military actions that took place such as protests, boycotting various occupier measures and actions (high school students refusing to participate in the pompous celebrations organized by the occupiers); writing slogans, displaying red flags on May Day on the divisional building in the city centre;

demonstrating; burning down the JU-52 German transport plane;

collection weapons and other diversionary actions, meant not only that people were beginning to prepare for an armed uprising but they also were engaging in various types of resistance against the occupier.

During the months of June, July and August, until the Provincial Military Headquarters was established, the Provincial Military Commission held three meetings during which members were assigned tasks by sector: for forming and operating subversive groups and partisan detachments and for organizing intelligence activities and work inside the Bulgarian army. Decisions were also made on how to create subversive groups and partisan detachments.

During the month of June 1941, a special group was put together to collect weapons and ammunition for the city.

In early August the combative mood and pressure from the membership led the Provincial Committee and the Provincial Military Commission to create subversive groups. The most significant actions the saboteur groups undertook were the break-ins into the 'Radusha' mine warehouses where they expropriated large caches of explosive materials to supply their organizations. On three occasions they managed to take explosives, capsules and fuses weighing more than 800 kg. They boldly broke into various military warehouses and, in a relatively short time, acquired about 20 pistols, several rifles, a "Brno" brand machine gun, a dozen bombs and certain amounts of ammunition.

The Skopje partisan detachment was formed in the second half of August 1941, from the saboteur group troikas. (The detachment was formed on August 22, 1941)." 154 "Significant action was taken in the resistance against the Bulgarian occupier during the Ilinden demonstrations when the Local Committee implemented the Provincial Committee's directive to plan and organizing massive demonstrations that would include Communist Party and SKOJ members, prepare slogans, etc. 155 "We should mention that under the Party organization's leadership in Skopje, 17 strikes were organized and carried out in 1940 alone, in which almost the entire working class participated.

This means that the Party organization in Skopje was experiencing rapid development up to the time when the occupation took place.

At that time the Party was already a well-organized political force with 160 Communist Party members, about 100 candidate members and about 400 SKOJ members.

In his memoirs, under the title 'Actions of the Military Commission under the Provincial Committee in 1941', Branislav Shikich wrote:

'The Provincial Committee's Military Commission was supposed to be created at the end of June 1941. I assume the Provincial Committee made a decision to create it immediately after June 22.

Two or three days later Sharlo made an appointment for me to attend a meeting at the Jewish cemetery. Present were Sharlo, Kotse Metalets and Gjuro Lekovich-Gorski, (refers to Ljuobomir Lekovich

- b.m.). Sharlo informed us that a military commission was being

154 Aleksandar Spasovski, ibid., pp. 160-162.

155 Dr. Mile Todorovski, ibid., p. 179.

formed in this Provincial Committee's composition." (Branislav Shikich: Actions of the Military Commission under the Provincial Committee in 1941.)

The military commission functioned in this composition until September 1941. It was an organ of the Provincial Committee and its activities were carried out all throughout Macedonia. However, it is interesting to note that it also served as a military headquarters for Skopje, since a separate local headquarters didn't exist until September 1941.

The first sabotage action in Skopje was carried out on June 5, 1941.

In doing so, a JU-52 German transport plane was set on fire right next to the military airfield. The same group also destroyed a German military truck in the middle of a city street.

The following items were acquired through various sabotage actions: a dozen rifles, two machine guns, a chest of ammunition, 30 hand grenades, 6 revolvers, over 1,000 kilograms of dynamite, a large amount of detonators, fuses and other material. According to statements made by NOB individual participants and organizers the dynamite and most of the military equipment was sent to Prilep, Titov Veles, Bitola, Shtip, Kumanovo, Kavadartsi and Negotino.

Here is what Vera Atseva had to say about the transfer of dynamite and other military equipment from Skopje to Prilep: "Couriers were sent to Skopje several times to deliver the dynamite after the first Local Military Headquarters meeting took place in the last days of June." On August 22, the saboteur groups assembled in the field opposite the village Zlokukjani and from there went up Vodno Mountain and camped in the forest above the village Gorno Nerezi. On August 23, Perisha Savelich and Ljubomir Lekovich-Gorski, Military Commission representatives, visited the saboteur camp and delivered the Provincial Committee's directive to create the first partisan detachment, which was to include all members of the previously created subversive groups.

This is what Tsvetsko Uzunovski wrote in his article entitled "Appendix to the Truth" published in "Politika": "There were mass demonstrations on August 2, 1941, organized by the Party against the Bulgarian occupier in Skopje, Bitola and Prilep." Here is what Boro Trajkovski said about the first Skopje partisan detachment action: "On August 26 and 27, 1941,... we carried out a successful action at the Radusha mine. We seized about 370 kilograms of explosives and a certain amount of capsules, fuses, etc." The Provincial Committee's technical equipment was located at street 335 no. 17 in a small ground floor house in Skopje. Boro Petrushevski-Papuchar worked there printing agitation and propaganda materials illegally. However, in the beginning of September 1941, the Bulgarian occupiers discovered his shop and the army and police blockaded the house on the night of September 8-9. Boro hastily packed up his equipment and, without hesitation, opened fire on them with his revolver which he always carried with him. After he broke through the blockade, during the same night, Boro went up Vodno Mountain, in the area where the Skopje partisan detachment was located and joined it.

On June 22, 1941, the local party met and decided to widen its activities, which were of great importance for furthering NORD in Skopje. After the meeting ended its was announced that in addition to carrying out protests, demonstrations, strikes and similar types of resistance, it was time to prepare for an open armed struggle against the occupier and against the domestic traitors. Immediately after the meeting ended the local party organizations took immediate measures to begin implementing the armed struggle. This included collecting weapons and other military equipment, carrying out training on how to handle weapons and carrying out sabotage actions.

During July and the first half of August, five armed subversive groups were created and began to operate in the city and it surrounding areas... At the same time secret warehouses were created to store weapons and open workshops to produce various mines, bombs and other munitions that could be used for sabotage purposes." 156

"In Skopje, as the economic-political and cultural centre of Macedonia, the working class struggle and that of the progressive forces began to intensify. A significant number of revolutionary protests and movements in the ranks of the working class began in the summer of 1940 and continued until April 6, 1941. The majority of these economic and political actions were organized and led by the Communist Party.

Almost all larger factories and workshops in Skopje were caught up in this revolutionary wave of strikes and other political actions. This strike wave was particularly significant in 1940. There was no branch, no category of worker that wasn't affected by the demonstrations and actions: textile workers from the "Vardar" factory, seamstresses, barbers, hairdressers and carpenters... all were involved in the movement. Especially noticeable and long-lasting were the strikes led by the metal workers from the "Papateodosi" factory and the "Ruchigaj" metal workshop, which lasted over 50 days.

These strikes and actions, in themselves, spoke of the Party' successful connection with the broad working masses and of its ability not only to mobilize these masses, but also to lead them decisively in the struggle to win economic-political and national rights and freedoms.

Under the leadership of the party organizations in Skopje, mass protests and demonstrations were organized for March 26, 1941, against the signing of the Triple Pact. All the demonstrators in the streets of Skopje shouted slogans: "Down with the traitorous government", "Down with the triple pact", "Better in the grave than being a slave", "We want an alliance with the Soviet Union" and so on. About 12 to 15 thousand young people, students, workers and citizens took part in these demonstrations. These were the most massive demonstrations exhibited in Skopje in the entire pre-war period.

156 Mitre Nepadovski, ibid., pp. 192-205.

The demonstrations continued the next day (March 27, 1941). This time with stones and sticks, the protesters attacked the policemen who were trying to disperse them. They smashed the windows of the Italian and German consulates with stones. In numerous clashes with the police, a large number of police officers and protesters were injured, and more than 10 protesters were arrested and imprisoned.

By the first days of May (1941), the walls in the Skopje streets of were filled with slogans against the occupying power and against their police measures.

At the end of June, the "Tselokupna B'lgaria" newspaper workers, who were organized by the Printing House party units, went on strike. The reason for that wasn't only because they were paid very low wages but, above all, because of the hatred and disgust they felt towards everything that was printed in that newspaper." 157 "Implementing the tasks noted at the CPY Fifth State Conference in connection with the massive and more active inclusion of women in the advanced movement, a special Women's Committee was established in the CPY Provincial Committee for Macedonia in April-May 1941.

The SKOJ group was given tasks in all the grades starting from grade V and up, to form educational groups. Educational groups were soon formed in grades V, VI, VII and VIII so that in 1940 there were about twenty educational groups in the Women's Gymnasium.

Towards the end of 1940, more than 150 women, mostly housewives and some workers and students, became members of the cooperative." 158

"In 1939 and 1940, on the eve of the historic and revolutionary year 1941, the Turkish and Albanian peoples acquired their first SKOJ

157 Dimche Hadzhi-Mitrevski, ibid., pp. 207-213. 158 Marija Jovanovich, ibid., pp. 233-236.

and CPY organizations, and on September 1, 1940, for the first time in their history, they formed a party candidate unit." 159 "In the beginning of August (1941), Robert Gajdich visited Vidovski and suggested that his workshop be used for making and repairing weapons." 160 "When the party organization in Skopje first appeared, the police noted that slogans had been written on the walls of some houses -such as the slogan in support of the USSR which was written on May 21, 1941. During the same month, the police noted that the working class initiated actions to organize strikes in the form of requests for the increase in wages. On June 17, a meeting was held to prepare for a strike by the tobacco workers which the police discovered and arrested the meeting attendants.

After this action, the Bulgarian police noted that the communist propaganda was intensified among all branches of workers.

Communist leaflets were distributed, meetings were held in private houses and group excursions were organized, during which prominent communists advised the workers on the situation in the Soviet Union, against supporting the Bulgarian government, etc., and called on them to fight for increases in wages and reduction in working hours.

In August, the police discovered a meeting being held at the St.

Pantelei monastery, which was attended by about 30 workers.

Another meeting was held in "Matka" in which about 40 workers were present. These meetings were held in order to discuss how to organize the young people to participate in strikes, sabotage, etc.

Immediately after the USSR was attacked by the Germans, a leaflet was published and distributed throughout the city. The leaflet glorified the Soviet Union. After that another leaflet was written and distributed, which included parts of "Stalin's speech" pointing out the fascist enslavers' danger.

At the end of July 1941, a leaflet was distributed in Skopje, in which the Communist Party invited the Macedonians, Turks, Albanians

159 Prof Mustava Karahasan, ibid., p. 240. 160 Dragoljiib Bogojevich, ibid., p. 272.

and Vlachs, as well as the rest of the population, to come out en masse to celebrate the Ilinden Uprising and demonstrate against the new enslavers of Macedonia.

According to police data, members of the Skopje Regional Headquarters robbed quantities of explosives from the "Radusha" mine. During the first attack they seized 4 backpacks of explosives and one backpack of capsules. During the second attack the group seized 8 backpacks of dynamite and 1 backpack with capsules.

Weapons and munitions store discoveries included the discovery of one warehouse where 2 machine guns, 9 Serbian rifles, 75 packs of dynamite, 3 dry batteries, 4 magazines with machine gun ammunition, 8 pistols, 9 boxes of capsules, and other military materials were seized.

A second warehouse was discovered containing several machines and a large amount of explosive material, capsules and other items which were seized.

A third warehouse was discovered in which were found explosive materials, capsules, a spool of wick for exploding dynamite, 1 Serbian carbine, conspiratorial materials and other items.

A fourth storage place was discovered in a vineyard in the valley near Kozle were 4 clocks, several machines, about 7 kg of dynamite and other materials were found and seized.

In addition to the above-mentioned warehouses, the police in Skopje also discovered Serafim Vidov's workshop in which a radio-transmitting station with a radius of 30 km was set up to teach Morse code." 161

"And now, if I may, I want to say that I am sorry that my friend Vera Atseva is not here... essentially there is no difference in our points of view... Yesterday Vera spoke against the wording in my presentation - that Sharlo wasn't up to the given situation. The problem here is terminology. It's different when a politician speaks

161 Boro Mitrovski, ibid., pp. 326-332.

in a political dialogue. He can use appropriate terminology. And it's another thing when a scientist presents his scientific achievements.

A scientist can't say - Sharlo is Bulgarian, like my friend Vera said yesterday. I'm sure she doesn't believe that. Because if a scientist says Sharlo is Bulgarian he or she will have to prove it. And we all know that Sharlo was born in Macedonia (Prilep) and that he grew up there. On top of that he declared himself Macedonian. We can only confirm that the Communist Party of Bulgaria was conceptually closer to Sharlo..." 162 "Now let's move on to why it is clear that Sharlo consciously went about this business. First, comrades, if one carefully reads Metodija Shatorov-Sharlo's letter, written after the Provincial Committee was dissolved and after he was removed from his position as CPY Central Committee Secretary for Macedonia in 1941, and if the letter is viewed with a political eye, one will surmise that deep in his soul he was Bulgarian. One will surmise that Shatorov spoke of Macedonia, but he spoke in the subtext of Bulgarian Macedonia and Bulgarian Macedonians. One will surmise that even though he didn't say the word Bulgarian, it was in his soul. All his actions through the summer of 1941, as secretary of the Provincial Committee, were subordinated to Macedonia being an integral part of Bulgaria. I knew him personally, I have worked with him, I was a member of the Provincial Committee, and so I know what I am talking about..." 163 "In June 1940, Comrade Bajo told us that we should form a SKOJ Provincial Committee. Bajo, Bekjo Bashnich and I joined the Provincial Committee. During the first meeting it was just the three of us. Bajo was the secretary. He spoke about the goals and tasks that stood before our SKOJ Provincial Committee, and that we should also create SKOJ local committees in other cities in Macedonia as well as maintain a constant relationship with them. In October, we held the First Local SKOJ Conference which was attended by 20-30 people.

In the beginning of 1941, we established SKOJ groups in secondary schools, as well as among the workers and in the various

162 Mihailo Apostoiski, ibid., p. 377. 163 Vera Atseva, ibid., p. 379.

neighborhoods. Included among the high school groups were the First Boys' Gymnasium - five groups with 40 students; The Second Men's high school - four groups with 23 students; The Women's high school - 10 groups with 70 students; The Great Medresa (Muslim high school) - three groups with 14 students; The Isa-Bey's Medresa - one group with 5 students, The Secondary Technical School - one group with 7 students; The teacher's school

- two groups with 7 students; The Trade Academy - two groups with 8 students; The youth (trade) school - two groups with 9 students. In total - 30 SKOJ groups with 183 students.

There was a SKOJ group of 50 students inside the Faculty of Philosophy and another SKOJ group of six students outside the Faculty.

If we again recalculate, by the month of April 1941, we had 48 SKOJ groups with 269 people." 164 "I also know that on March 26th, around noon, a decision had already been made, at least by our organization - I only know that for the Faculty: to go out in the evening and demonstrate. Based on the decision made by our organization we began to prepare for the evening. Whose merit was this? Did it belong to the local committee? Did it belong to the connections between the local committee and the faculty Party organization? Or did it belong to the Provincial Committee? The only people that know for sure, of course, are the comrades who were then in those governing bodies and, if something needs to be said about the merit of that organization... On the evening of the 26th, the demonstrations started at the Korzo. Organized by the Party, SKOJ groups came from everywhere.

The demonstration wasn't so consistent: there were official demonstrations, and there were evening ones organized by the Communist Party and the working class. I don't think the ideological positions and the political positions were consistent either - nor were the emotional characteristics of certain forces in those demonstrations." 165

164 Ilija Jakimovski, ibid., pp. 394-397. 165 Blagoja Korubin, ibid., pp. 401-402.

"After the Local Party held its consultation in Kozie on June 22, 1941, during which a decision was made to start an armed struggle against the occupier, the Provincial Committee formed a Military Commission on June 28 at the Jewish cemetery. The Commission consisted of Metodija Shatorov-Sharlo, Branislav Shikich-Bruno, Kotse Stoj anovski-Metalets and Ljubomir Lekovich-Gorski. At the same time, it also served as the Local Military Headquarters for Skopje.

On July 3, 1941, the Military Commission moved towards creating sabotage groups in the city as the first armed form of struggle against the occupier. The sequence for creating such subversive groups, however, wasn't determined but, as we now know, from July 3 to August 22 there were 5 such groups successfully operating in the city and surrounding areas.