Part II - Part 08

2. The situation in the People’s Republic of Macedonia has completely changed. In no way can Skopje now be regarded as a centre of national unification for the Slavo-Macedonian people.

3. We also need to take into account the ethnic changes which were properly evaluated during the Party’s Sixth Congress when the slogan ‘national equality’ was coined. For all of the above reasons we need to embrace the slogan ‘national equality’ and let the Slavo-Macedonian people know that we have made this change. The Politburo must also consider what to do with NOF and KOEM and with their members and ‘traitors of the Party’ and ‘Tito’s agents.” (Ibid, p. 69-70.)

According to Fotev, Bardzhotas also said: “What is now needed is to clarify the cases of Tito’s agents Mitrevski, Fotev, Rakovski and the others and put an end to their destructive activities. These traitors should be excluded from our Party. The Politburo will implement whatever decision is made during the Party Conference…” But, according to Fotev, that decision had already been made and implemented long before the ‘party conference’ took place. (Ibid, p. 70.)

Macedonian revolutionaries in Albanian and Soviet prisons and concentration camps

The 10 arrested NOF leaders were kept in prison in Albania from October 7 to October 13, 1949, mostly in the Central prison in Tirana. On December 14, 1949 they were taken to the port of Durres, loaded on the Soviet freighter ship the “Michurin” and transported to the port of Odessa. From Odessa the Soviet police took them to Moscow. From there members of the State Security Ministry took them to the “Liubljanka” prison. (M. Fotev, development through NOF, p. 69.) There they spent more than two years, from January 1950 to mid-April 1952, being continuously

interrogated in the Greek language. According to Fotev: “The interrogations in Moscow were conducted by a group of Soviet officers and interrogators from the USSR Ministry of State Security that included Major Pandeleev, Lieutenant Colonel Viktor Petrovich Firsov, Lieutenant Nikitin, Major Atanasov and Lieutenant Andrei Pogrebniak... Sometimes other state security officers took their place, among who was Colonel Rubliov, State Security Chief of the Second Department responsible for matters related to overseas. The interrogations were conducted in the Greek language through Soviet officers from Greek origin that included Captain Ioanidis, Captain Hristos Dzhumiadis and Lieutenant Aristotelis Papounidis. (Ibid, p. 72.) The interrogations were conducted to demonstrate their connection with the People’s Republic of Macedonia in order to blame Yugoslavia. Included among those indicted from the CPM were Kolishevski, Cvetko Uzunovski-Abas, Nikola Minchev and Dimitar Aleksovski. (M. Fotev, development through NOF, p. 72.)

On April 19, 1952 the Macedonian NOF leaders were sentenced to long prison terms ranging from 8 to 25 years to be served in hard labour concentration camps. Paskal Mitrevski was sentenced to 25 years, Mincho Fotev was sentenced to 10 years, Lambro Cholakov, Risto Kolencev and Tashko Hadzhiianev were each sentenced to 8 years in prison. They were sent to serve their sentences in the concentration camps in Vorkuta, Komi, in the north part of the USSR, “where the temperature dips 56 degrees below zero”, to work in the coal mines. Pavle Rakovski was sentenced to 10 years. Evdokia Baleva-Vera, Urania Iupukova and Lazo Poplazarov were each sentenced to 8 years in prison. All of them were sent to the concentration camps in Siberia. (Ibid.)

Other senior NOF figures detained in Albania included Todor Kovachev-Victor member of the NOF Central Council and member of the NOMS Main Board Presidency, Nikola Panov member of the NOF Central Council and NOF District Secretary for Kostur Region, and Tpaiko Supelov member of the NOF District for Kostur Region. These people were taken to Poland, via a Polish ship, and from there were sent to a camp in Czechoslovakia. There they found other Macedonian prisoners including Kosta Roidev. Without being tried, they were then taken to the city Vintava and put to work at a brick manufacturing plant. (Ibid, p. 73.)

There were Macedonian NOF leaders arrested and imprisoned in other Eastern European countries. Arrested and imprisoned in Poland were German Damovski-Stariot member of the NOF Central Council and President of the NOF District Committee, Kosta Kirkov member of the NOF District Committee for Lerin Region, and Tane Naumov NOF District Secretary for Lerin Region. Arrested and interned in the People’s Republic of Romania were Done Sikavitsa NOF Central Council Executive Committee candidate and representative of the Provisional Democratic Government of Greece, Foti Ilkovski, NOF Central Council candidate, and Risto Poptpaianov and Vasiliki Karandza-Kula, NOF activists from the village Smrdesh, Kostur Region, Aleko Dukovski from the village Besfina and other NOF activists. (M. Fotev, developments through NOF, p. 73.)

Monitoring and interrogating Macedonians who were members of the CPG continued in the Eastern European countries. All those who were members and activists of NOF and who did not take part in the negative campaign against Yugoslavia and the People’s Republic of Macedonia, were expelled from the Party, labeled “nationalists and Tito’s agents” and persecuted. (Ibid, p, 75.) According to testimony given by Mincho Fotev: “Great Greek chauvinism had definitely manifested in the CPG Greek leadership…” (Ibid, p. 76.)

NOF in the PLM and its opposition

According to Mincho Fotev, “Enemies of all stripes” actively fought against NOF and the PLM of the Macedonian people in Greek occupied Macedonia:

1. Those Macedonians associated with the Greek Monarcho-Fascist regime not only performed espionage activities but also actively participated in the actions of the Greek police terrorizing the Macedonian population in an attempt to destroy NOF and the PLM. According to Fotev: “A number of degenerate Macedonians and class enemies, closely related or associated with the Greek Monarcho-Fascist regime, spied on and persecuted Macedonian patriots, communists and NOF supporters and personally

participated in terrorist acts organized by the Greek police against the Macedonian population. (Ibid, p. 77.)

2. Members of Ivan Mihailov’s VMRO propagated slogans such as “united and independent Macedonia” under English and American patronage in an attempt to mislead the Macedonian people. In addition to that, they also carried out espionage operations against NOF and the PLM. (M. Fotev, developments through NOF, p. 77.)

3. Macedonians who were CPG cadres actually made attempts to break the national unity of the Macedonian people in Greek occupied Macedonia by abiding by the Informburo resolution calling for the liquidation of Macedonian national organizations such as NOF, NOMS and AFZH. According to Fotev: “Some Macedonians who were CPG staff and workers, and who had no Macedonian national consciousness or Macedonian patriotism, dangerously undermined the moral, political and national unity of the Macedonian people by performing special anti-NOF tasks for the CPG. They vilified NOF calling it a ‘nationalist’ and ‘autonomist’ organization allegedly threatening the PLM in Greece. By abiding by the Informburo Resolution they became bearers and executors of the CPG and Informburo anti-Yugoslavian policies. They were the initiators of the damnation and dissolution of NOF, NOMS and AFZH…” (Ibid, p. 77-78.)

4. The so-called “Macedonian separatists” were against a common Greek-Macedonian struggle. They were against the Greek anti-Monarcho-Fascist communist movement which would have solved the Macedonian National Question in Greek occupied Macedonia. According to Fotev: “The Macedonian separatists damaged NOF and the PLM. They placed a moral wedge in the political unity of the Macedonian people and soured the Greek fraternity of the progressive forces. They saw the resolution of the Macedonian National Question outside of the victory of the popular revolution in Greece…” (Ibid, p. 78.)

Dissolution of NOF, NOMS and AFZH

Nikos Zahariadis and the CPG Greek leadership continued their intensive anti-NOF and anti-Macedonian campaign to discredit the

Macedonian people, even outside of Greece in the Eastern European countries. The Macedonian organizations which organized and led the Macedonian people from Greek occupied Macedonia in the armed struggle against the Greek Monarcho-Fascist regime, and which made great sacrifices under Zahariadis’s leadership for Zahariadis’s cause and Party, were vilified to no end. Even after doing all that, NOF was still blamed for implementing “Yugoslav policies” to break up the unity of the Greek people and to damage the Democratic Army of Greece. Even after all the sacrifices it made, NOF was found as the only culprit for causing DAG’s disastrous defeat. Imagine that!

According to Fotev: “NOF was one of the most decisive factors for creating and strengthening DAG. Thanks to NOF about 20,000 Macedonian fighters joined DAG and fought in Greek occupied Macedonia, Thrace, Epirus, Thessaly, Rumelia and even in the Peloponnesus and remained consistent to the end of the Greek Civil War. More than 6,000 Macedonians were killed as fighters of DAG and members of NOF, of whom 3,000 died outside of Greek occupied Macedonia. No fewer Macedonians fighters were disabled in the Greek Civil War, victims in the truest sense of the word…” (Ibid, p. 76.)

NOF’s role was highly appreciated by Zahariadis during the armed struggle and was highly praised during his welcoming speech in the First Lerin Region Conference. According to Fotev: “Zahariadis told the truth about NOF, praised it and acknowledged it when it suited him… Then he attacked it when it suited him…” (Ibid, p. 77.)

By vilifying NOF, Zahariadis wanted to achieve several goals; show and prove his loyalty to Stalin and his position of being an important factor in the ideological war against Tito’s leadership in Yugoslavia, to provide an alibi for his new position towards the Macedonian National Question and, last but not least, to excuse himself from the Greek Civil War tragedy he created.

The Macedonian people were imprinted with the idea that NOF was created by Yugoslavia and was part of DAG’s “most dangerous enemies”, much more dangerous than the Greek Monarcho-Fascist regime. According to Fotev: “The CPG leadership sought to

convince the Macedonian fighters and communists that NOF’s role during the Greek Civil War was negative and harmful, and that NOF was Tito’s creation”. (Ibid.) And by using this excuse the CPG leadership sought formal ways to dissolve NOF, NOMS and AFZH, whose activities were terminated after DAG’s defeat. According to Fotev: “After DAG’s defeat, NOF existed only as an object in the CPG campaign against Yugoslavia and against the Macedonian Question.” A decision to dissolve NOF, NOMS and AFZH was adopted by the CPG leadership in January 1952. (M. Fotev, development through NOF, P. 75.)

The “Ilinden” organization

Macedonian members of the CPG, the likes of Pando Vaina, Stavro Kochev, Tasho Gushevski-Maki and others, “blindly attached” themselves to Nikos Zahariadis and were used by him to create the anti-Macedonian Organization “Ilinden”. (Ibid.) On behalf of the CPG Central Committee, while in Poland, Zahariadis petitioned the Polish Worker’s Party and received approval to hold a founding Congress for “Ilinden”. The Congress was held on April 2 and 3, 1952 in the village Kroscienko, which was attended by about 500 Macedonians. The organization was formed in order “to mobilize the Macedonian emigrants in Eastern European countries” to conduct anti-Yugoslavian propaganda on behalf of the Informburo. (M. Fotev, development through NOF, p. 75.)