REPORT - Part 01

REPORT

“The four comrades from the main leadership were located in four different places. Comrade Dzhodzho was located in Kaimakchalan, Comrade Pavle Rakovski in Paiak, Comrade Keramidziev in Vicho and Comrade Mincho (Fotev) in Gramos in Epirus. I took statements

from all four who were characteristically in agreement with the points as they applied to each of their areas separately...”

Other that that, Mitrevski has also long and widely spoken about the above-mentioned basic points. In the fourth point, among other things, he wrote:

“4) After the last negotiations and cooperation that I had with Comrade Zahariadis and other CPG comrades, it was jointly determined as to how we would cooperate in our merging with the CPG. All points were well covered. Had these points been genuinely accepted by the CPG, the problem would have been solved, and we would have been back to work in our respective areas. But, sadly, lacking the courage to implement what was agreed upon on the baseline that we had covered together, the CPG comrades began to distort things... The points on which our work basically collapsed were:

a) The military question. There is no doubt that Comrade Zahariadis was in complete agreement with the preservation of the Macedonian groups as completely separate units, without any thought of merging them with the Greek units. Each area, however, would share a common Headquarters for both groups. Zahariadis clearly said to me that both Macedonian and Greek units would exist in the first phase so that we could establish a Macedonian army with its own headquarters. Now the CPG comrades, who hold Party positions in various areas, endeavour to dismantle the Macedonian groups, and they demand that the Macedonian partisans join the Greek units. In other words, there would be no Macedonian groups...”

In the fifth point, among other things, Mitrevski wrote:

“5) Another issue with which our people did not agree was the way the Party set up the NOB (National Liberation War) paramilitary cadres in the common CPG party leaderships and other political organizations... They expressed aspirations for changing the party and in general NOF’s managerial staff with their own people who care very little for NOF. They are striving, not for NOF’s empowerment, but for its weakening, so that tomorrow it may de facto disperse, as was the case with the old SNOF...” (47)

On November 21, 1946, at the extraordinary meeting of the Secretariat, i.e. of NOF’s Presidency, held in the village Turie, Lerin Region, Mitrevski together with Skotidas, CPG representative and DAG general, delivered the final agreement point by point as issued by a directive from above. This is what happened. This is the truth… Actually, from Mitrevski’s published reports, it is not difficult to figure out who was leading and managing the course and the difficulties in the Voden negotiations. However, the “Istoria” editorial board has taken it upon itself to publicly declare me an anti-party element that spread the “harshest” and “most dangerous misinformation” against the CPM (CPY), only because I pointed out the fact that the agreement was not the work of the NOF leadership, of which I was a member, but the work of both the CPM (CPY) and CPG leaderships. However, the most abnormal and unacceptable issue with them seemed to be something else. When I called the “Istoria” editorial office a year ago, offering them information with proof that would crystallize and establish the truth, they rejected my offer. I then wrote a letter, dated April 20, 1983, asking Dr. Risto Kiriazovski why I had been insulted personally. Even more than that... Why I was publicly accused of being an anti-party element that “spreads brutal attacks and slander against the CPM and CPY in general…” (“Istoria”, 2/81, p. 295.) Nothing came of it. However, as a matter of fact I did notice Kiriazovski starting to address more questions from our recent history. And with the publication of “Istoria”, put forward those questions on the agenda for other historians and for the general public to address. Of course, that was perfectly normal. The publication itself in its existence was contributing to clarifying historical issues and coming closer to the truth... In the accompanying text I sent Kiriazovski I wrote: “I take no pleasure and will not throw back personal insults and accusations against you because it would be disrespectful to the readers. I am only interested in dealing with the clarification of events and in establishing the truth with help from known source documents from that time. In doing so, I am firmly convinced that by defending the truth I am most effectively defending myself... Do not succumb to pressures and refuse the attached text. I know from personal experience that they will come and they will tell you something similar… Discontinue this discussion because these things are not good for public consumption. However, this is not the case with the

accompanying text. I work exclusively with already published documents from that time...”

They apologized but again refused my request...

Now let us go back… According to the agreement:

Mitrevski was co-opted member of the CPG Provincial Bureau for Macedonia-Thrace, and made an instructor of NOF.

Dzhodzho was co-opted member of DAG Headquarters for Central and Western Macedonia and a representative of NOF.

Mincho Fotev was co-opted member of the EPON Provincial Bureau, and a representative of NOMS.

Keramidziev, Rakovski and Vera were co-opted to lead the NOF secretariat.

The NOF Presidents at the district boards were to assume the functions of instructors in their districts, and others would be selected to take their place.

NOF was to be placed under the CPG leadership, which would be realized directly and through Mitrevski.

The NOF military units were to be placed under DAG command as separate Macedonian units...

This agreement, as it was well-known, was well played by the Greek side. The Macedonian military formations were withdrawn from Macedonia and sent deep into the Greek south, where they were destroyed... The NOF leadership itself was also destroyed through the NOF Congress and via the NOF Central Council 1st Plenum, when NOF’s current leadership was replaced with a “new anti-Macedonian leadership” consisting mainly of Greek Supremacists.

It is true that “Rakovski himself, as well as other NOF leaders, wrote about the CPG defaulting on this agreement in their reports”. But there is more. It was said that: “If the agreement was given only

as a directive, then it means that there could not have been a place for objections!” But all this is a kind of verbal acrobatics that supports a false claim. What were these often talked about objections…? Condemning the act “of being played” means asking for consistency in the application of the agreement, i.e. supporting it, and not objecting to it.

And that’s what happened to me:

“Pavle Rakovski not once, and by no accident, has emphasized that NOF has never been independent and was influenced and managed by the CPM (CPY)... What is the goal and in whose interest is this misinformation being spread by him..?”

The above statement was quoted in the journal “Istoria” on page 293. They continue to publicly accuse me of spreading “disinformation” against the CPM (CPY).

Simply unbelievable! “O kosmos tohi timbano, ke mis krifo kamari!” (A drum beats to the world, and we make a secret of it!) This is how the neighbouring people around Greece are expressing themselves as to what was happening... Let us now list a few more important facts:

The withdrawal of the ELAS Macedonian battalions to the People’s Republic of Macedonia, with the consent of the CPM (CPY) of course, was no secret to anyone...

The creation of the Political Commission for Aegean Macedonia in Bitola, led by representatives of the CPM Central Committee, cannot be a secret. It happened publicly in front of the people of Bitola and in front of the world, and a program declaration was published...

The political commission organized protest rallies with the Macedonians in Bitola who had fled Greek occupied Macedonia. I was there with them.

On November 18, 1944, a representative from the NOV and POJ General Headquarters for Macedonia gave the then newly formed

Aegean Brigade a battle flag. The flag was presented in front of the Political Committee and in front of a large number of spectators. The event ended with the battalions and the brigade parading in front of the Political Committee and in front of the people of Bitola...

In April 1945, the Political Committee ceased to exist and was replaced by the NOF Central Executive Board for Aegean Macedonia, which was constituted on April 23, 1945 by the CPM Central Committee. NOF’s activities were managed by the CPM Central Committee through its representatives (Pekar and Minchev). Almost every report generated by this leadership regarding the situation in Greek occupied Macedonia was published in the edition “Aegean Macedonia in the National Liberation War”. Sadly the editorial board did not specify to whom these NOF reports were directed. Were they naively making an attempt to hide something that was commonly known? Everyone knew about our frequent visits to the field and about our returning to Skopje for meetings with members of the main leadership. By that I am saying everyone who was interested in all of Skopje and Bitola knew about us, including the CPG representatives who resided in Skopje. Even the report content itself unambiguously showed to whom those reports were directed...

According to published documents, as early as June 1943, Tempo took a trip to central Greece in order to reach a military and political alliance agreement for a joint Balkan Headquarters with the CPG and ELAS, which apparently was achieved. But the Greek side abandoned this agreement in August 1943… only because of Macedonia…

Also, according to published documents of that time, in September 1943, a representative of the CPM Central Committee met with a representative of the CPG and managed to reach an agreement in which, among other things, the Greek side was to issue a Macedonian newspaper, in the Macedonian language, and to create separate Macedonian partisan units. But this agreement too was not implemented by the Greek side...

These are some of the more important, and otherwise well-known, events in which the interests and concerns of the victorious socialist revolution in Yugoslavia came to the fore regarding the fate of the “national struggle” in neighbouring Greece in general, and especially regarding the fate of our Macedonian anti-fascist liberation movement. Of course, such interests and concerns are quite understandable and justified when one takes into consideration the fact that the “patriotic” CPG line for “national unity” with the domestic bourgeoisie practically meant a line of anti-communism, anti-socialism (and anti-Macedonian-ism) which led to a “national struggle” subordinated to the English imperialists. There is no doubt that this line was anti-Macedonian because the Macedonians came under severe fire with much discrimination, suppression and the destruction of the Macedonian national liberation movement. Another thing; The dissolution of the independent Political Commission along with the Aegean Brigade and the formation of the NOF organization, which was dependent on the CPM-CPY, was a hasty solution, or whatever you want to call it, which provoked much reaction on the Greek side at the expense of our people. We will talk about it later…

But despite what I presented and offered, the editorial office still accused me of being an anti-Party element that spreads misinformation… Although widely familiar with the events presented, the publication “Istoria” still tried to arbitrarily and unreasonably publicly declare me a menace. So, I would like to ask: “What was the purpose or my motive for creating this misinformation?” I don’t think there is anyone out there who will take this low blow seriously...

On November 21, 1946, during a meeting held in the village Turie, Lerin Region, at the time when “unity” was established, new tasks were assigned to each individual. My task was to urgently find the necessary people and technical means to organize a central agitation and propaganda department at the central council and begin publishing the newspaper “Nepokoren” and the magazine “Nova Makedonika” central organs of NOF and AFZH, as well as issuing leaflets, brochures and other cultural and educational material and propaganda. I arrived in Skopje sometime in late November. As it turned out I had to stay there all of December and did not return to

the field until January 4, 1947. By then I had acquired all the necessary technical means as well as the people, which included Paskal Paskalevski, Foti Ilkovski and Naso Gitovski, to do the job. Before leaving Skopje I decided to go to the CPM Central Committee office and visit my comrades but I only found Comrade Tsvetko Uzunovski-Abas. We had a few cordial words and a brief conversation about the establishment of “unity” with the Greek side. From my long-standing personal experience with our Greek friends I was well aware that such a “unity” between Macedonians and Greeks could easily be compared to the unity established between the Hindu soldiers and their English commanders. I said to Comrade Abas: “Our Greek friends are not honest. They will remove us all from the NOF leadership and will appoint their own people who they trust and they will be picked from a pool of Greek supremacists... What will we do then…?”

“There is no returning to us... You will be disciplined... You will go, even as simple soldiers if it’s necessary, wherever they send you...” replied Comrade Abas.

What did he mean by that? Did he mean that our Macedonian anti-fascist movement in Greek occupied Macedonia ceased to have a backbone? At least that was my impression... But, as it turned out, we were abandoned by our previous backers… It would appear that the victorious socialist revolution in Yugoslavia could no longer interfere in the development of events in neighbouring Greece. The CPY Central Committee tried to influence this development, but only through letters to the CPG Central Committee…letters that were hushed up and completely ignored. Of course, it was not possible to expect anything different from the CPG leadership which had a tendency to ignore things and simply not implement them, even if their signatures were on them. Our Macedonian anti-fascist movement was literally left without a spine!

Immediately after returning to the field, my NOF agitation and propaganda department was ready to begin work. The only thing that remained was where to establish it. I was waiting for orders from the Party leadership, i.e. from the CPG Bureau for Macedonia-Thrace, on where to establish our headquarters from where we were

expected to accommodate and organize ties with NOF, AFZH and NOMS and to serve the various DAG units.

After some delay, Petris, CPG Bureau organizing secretary, picked out the village Kotili on Mount Voios as our headquarters. I found it to be far beyond the NOF, AFZH and NOMS areas, but we did as we were ordered by Petris who promised to provide us with “immediate party assistance”.

We were isolated, without any connections and too far from NOF, AFZF and NOMS so what kind of work were we expected to do? On top of that the Party assistance that was promised never materialized. But, despite the many difficulties we had, we slowly began to establish connections... But just then, a new “Party directive” was issued, ordering us to destroy the connections we made and to immediately leave Kotili, head for the liberated territory and wait for a new directive!

On our way we stopped in one of the villages and waited for ten days for our new directive to arrive. But nothing! No one contacted us. Then, something unexpected happened. Three Spitfires appeared out of the blue and in clear open skies and began to bomb the house in which we were staying. After circling the village, during the first pass they then lined up and began to drop bombs on the very house we were in. They flew over us several times, dropped their bombs and then left. Some of the bombs did hit the house and caused extensive structural damage but none of us was hit, and neither was our equipment… The village was headquarters to a large DAG unit. This village also accommodated some of the heads of political organizations. But, as it turned out, they only bombed the house we were in! Obviously, someone must have informed them and pointed out the target for the enemy spitfires...

As it turned out, our NOF, AFZH and NOMS agitation and propaganda department headquarters was moved to a village called Likorahi in Epirus (outside of Greek occupied Macedonia). If Kotili was far beyond the areas where NOF, AFZH and NOMS operated, Likorahi was not even in Macedonia at all. But here we were told we would have “immediate party assistance”, and we would receive materials for our work through Party channels.

However, days, weeks and months passed by and no “party assistance” or materials arrived! But to be honest, I had no illusions about any of this...

Located in the woods not far above the village Likorahi was DAG’s General Headquarters. I went there to see Stringos whom I met for the first time. He received me in his office, a spacious barracks made of planks. I assume he had invited me there to see what I looked like. (48) He probably wanted to see what the “traitor” who “stole” the ELAS Macedonian battalion from Kaimakchalan looked like. I must have inconvenienced him when he was secretary of the Bureau for Macedonia. He was sitting in front of his massive table drinking coffee. He had a hardened face looking like it was made of grey clay. After a quick inquisitive glance at me his eyes drifted towards the window. I greeted him but he ignored my greeting. I looked right at his face but he continued to look through the window with “devastating” indifference, completely “ignoring” my presence. He gave me the impression that the branches in front of his window were more important than me. He held himself more superior than any of the gods of Olympus could, before an ordinary mortal. Obviously, by doing this he wanted to let me know that for him I was nothing and nobody. He continued to drink coffee, watching the branches in front of his window, without saying a single word. He did not even ask me to sit down...

Sometime later during a meeting with Zahariadis, we proposed to separate the Macedonian fighters from the common units and create unique Macedonian DAG units. The idea was to have Greek and Macedonian units compete against each other to see who would have greater success, which would contribute more to their fighting skills and so on. By doing so, we would strengthen and improve our combat activities in all of DAG.

He thought about it for a few seconds and said no! He then went on to say that all current battalions and brigades need to be disbanded because this is no good!

And that was the end of that point, which got me thinking. Why is this “no good”? Competition is always good and will achieve much more in DAG than what we currently have.

Then I found the answer:

It is “no good” because there were Greek fears that the Macedonian side of the struggle would be strongly promoted, with the addition of many new volunteers and, above all, would be widely promoted in the entire world. With such a struggle the Macedonian people would write their own Macedonian history, as it happened, fighting together with their Greek comrades in a common struggle, and the Macedonian struggle could no longer be hidden or presented as a Greek struggle. This, it seems to me, is why Zahariadis so quickly gave up on the competition idea in general and on reinforcing DAG in particular. Only later, especially after the conclusion of the CPG Central Committee VI Extended Plenum held in March 1956, I finally and slowly came to the realization that Zahariadis was generally responsible for “undermining DAG’s victory”... (49)

Anyway, Zahariadis was right in this case. Namely, if we were to separate the Macedonian fighters from the common units and create unique Macedonian units it would have meant that there were no uniquely “GREEK” battalions and brigades in the main revolutionary hotspot in Greek occupied Macedonia. After “unity” was established, and according to the NOF directive, Macedonian fighters began to join DAG en masse. So, there is no other way to describe this than to say these battalions and brigades were created with Macedonians... So here we were and this bloated man named Stringos, standing in front of me, in reality looked like a hilarious caricature. Why was he posturing like a god? Was he that ignorant? I don’t know. I briefly said, what he already knew, “I don’t have any work here… I am leaving!”

He did not even try to stop me. In his superior tone of voice he lazily mumbled:

“So, go then!”

With this unique blurt of three words, this man from the Party of Olympus started and ended his conversation with me… a mere mortal man... The NOF-AFZH-NOMS central agitation and propaganda department returned to Macedonia and, on May 1, 1947, LONG AFTER “UNITY” WAS ESTABLISHED, we managed to publish the first issue of “Nepokoren” with barely one hundred copies and in a very small format the size of a math exercise book. We had no paper! We were only allowed to obtain paper from the regional Party organs and from nowhere else. Why was this, I don’t know? I tried to convince Keramidziev to organize the purchase of the bulk of our paper independently from Lerin, Kostur, Voden or Solun, but he disagreed. He said this would violate the Party’s directive which stated that: “Paper supplies must be obtained only through the party…” This was ridiculous… It would have made more sense if he had said he simply did not want to spend the organization’s money on paper...

We did our best and utilized our resources to the maximum to continue to operate the Macedonian press. In the second issue of “Nepokoren” we included information on the 1st NOF-AFZH-NOMS Conference Resolution and managed to print 70 copies of which 20 were sent to Voden Region. Unfortunately, during their delivery the courier was arrested and the newspapers were destroyed. The newspapers were destroyed and the courier was arrested by Tasios Gusiopoulos-Makis, a Party committee secretary in Voden.

The printed word in the native Macedonian language, which for decades had been banned by official Greece, was in public again being spread from hand to hand and bringing excitement and warming the hearts of the Macedonian people. The resurfacing of the Macedonian language alone was a significant driving force that mobilized the Macedonian people in the struggle for their survival and for a decent life in the Greek state. It was this kind of driving force that frightened our Greek Party and DAG comrades who wasted no time to suppress it and prevent it from developing. The fact that in the entire year of 1947, the Macedonian newspaper “Nepokoren”, and let us not speak of “Nova Makedonka”, managed to come out only five times, editions 1 to 5, shows not only how our Greek comrades used everything in their arsenal to suppress and

destroy it, but also how determined the people in the agitation and propaganda department were in keeping it going...

Regarding the question of NOF being “independent” here is what was said in the works “Istoria”: “The claim that Oche (Aianovski) made that NOF was independent, and according to Pavle Rakovski that it was losing its independence because its leadership was at fault, is simple demagogy... It shows that Pavle Rakovski had given up on the very thing for which he himself had always advocated. The fact is that NOF, despite having been put under the leadership of the CPG in November 1946, managed to preserve its autonomy until its First Congress in January 1948. NOF’s autonomy was lost when Zahariadis managed to infiltrate NOF and place his own people into it, who then opposed the NOF leadership.” (50)

Of course, this explanation makes sense if you look at the situation from the distance. This was the opinion of people who were not in the process, that is, not only were they not participants in the events, but draw the wrong conclusions about the appearance of things from afar. And the phrase “NOF... losing its independence because its leadership was at fault…” is only spoken by the need to strike at the NOF leadership and, in the spirit of Aianovski’s well-known effort, to scorn and disqualify those comrades. Otherwise, there is no talk of NOF’s autonomy. Namely, NOF was a Macedonian organization headed by the communists and members of the CPM/CPY and the CPG. Accordingly, NOF was never a separate independent organization that stood between the two communist parties. The Macedonian national liberation movement in Greek occupied Macedonia was the subject of controversy, discussion and cooperation between the CPM/CPY and the CPG. Tempo was in Greece, Abas was in Solun and there were other similar contacts made over time. The various phases of the Macedonian liberation movement did not occur spontaneously or “independently”. It was a reflection of the engagement and activities in both the CPM/CPY and CPG. After NOF was formed, it operated for a year and a half under the CPM/CPY’s leadership. NOF was also under the CPM/CPY leadership when it was transferred and placed under the CPG leadership. In other words, the Macedonian communists who stood at the helm of the Macedonian liberation movement always worked under the leadership of the CPM/CPY or CPG. This is how

it was… But, of course, some call it misinformation and plain demagogy. And then when NOF was put under the CPG they speak of losing its autonomy because the NOF leadership was somehow “at fault”. And that, I suppose, explains everything…

Let us now take a closer look at the unfounded assertion that NOF managed to preserve its autonomy until its First Congress. Here are some of the specific events that took place:

After visiting the Macedonian squads and units and after enforcing the unity agreement, Mitrevski disappeared from the terrain for a period of six months. He isolated himself in Skopje at the Greek representative’s office working on some “Party directives”.

Rakovski was with NOF’s central agitation and propaganda department working on some appropriate “party directives” and remained isolated for a period of six months in Voios, Epirus, outside the reach of the NOF organizations.

Keramidzhiev and Vera were left alone for a period of six months, and thus far it is unknown what kind of “party directive” they were working on. In other words, it is unknown where they were and what they were doing. Perhaps Keramidzhiev wrote about it in his memoirs?

Historically, this was the last check of the correctness of the famous Greek chauvinistic “theory” that claims that: “There is no Macedonian nation and therefore there can be no genuine Macedonian movement!” According to the same Greeks, these NOF people were not Macedonians but “adventurous elements” who were out there sowing seeds of discontentment in the peaceful ‘Slavophone’ villages. Remove them, neutralize them and everything will be fine and peaceful again. At the time of the unity agreement, the goal was to open a frontal attack, instigated by the leaders of the “split”, under the influence and pressure from the huge party authority… But that was not achieved... It did not come true. So now, immediately after the agreement, they tried to isolate the leaders to see what would happen… whether the NOF movement would fail or not...

As was said earlier, according to the “unity” agreement, the immediate secretariat of NOF was reduced to Keramidzhiev, Rakovski and Vera. This was their new assignment. They were tasked by the Party to carry out their assignments in a way that suited the Party. But even after six months of isolation, members of this secretariat still managed to come together for a meeting and, as we know, decided to choose Vangel Aianovski-Oche member of the secretariat responsible for organizational matters… which was done. But nothing became of Aianovski. The Party intervened and reversed the decision… Aianovski was then immediately dismissed...

According to the “unity” agreement, NOF and its agitation and propaganda department was to act in accordance with party guidelines, working closely with the Party leadership and party organizations in Greek occupied Macedonia. The NOF agitation and propaganda department was to closely cooperate with the other corresponding party agitation and propaganda departments for its supply of necessary materials and paper. Anything above that would be taken care of by the Party leadership, that is, the Party organization.

According to the above events presented here, there is no doubt that NOF was not “autonomous” and the CPG leadership responsible for managing it could not hide its anti-Macedonian character…

These are the facts. It was not after the 1st NOF Congress, but immediately after the “unity” agreement was made that the Greek leaders began to implement their plans to destroy NOF and the Macedonian liberation movement in general...

It would be interesting, as a valuable lesson, to see how and why Zahariadis and the CPG leadership accepted and acknowledged NOF. The accepted thesis in our historiography is that Zahariadis reversed his policy regarding NOF as a result of the decision made to militarily engage the Monarcho-fascists in Greece, something that could not have been imagined without the Macedonians and without NOF. But it is well-known that Zahariadis did not want a military confrontation with the Monarcho-fascists. He did what he did in order to undermine DAG’s victory, for which he was expelled from

the party. If that was so our accepted thesis then falls short and must be rejected.

Now let us look at the events and let the facts speak for themselves.

As we all know, the unfriendly campaign against the Macedonian communists and against the activists of the Macedonian anti-fascist liberation movement was initiated by Siantos’s CPG leadership during the national liberation war against the fascist occupiers, and was continued by Zahariadis’s leadership at an even greater intensity.

But, parallel to that, something new, invented and cunning came up.

On May 16, 1944, the “Etnikon Simvoulion” (National Council) passed an Act in which the Macedonian people were treated as Greeks and the “Greek character” of Macedonia was proclaimed.

In the meantime, the central Party organs KOMEP and RIZOPASTIS proclaimed that Macedonia was Attica (meaning there were no Macedonians in Macedonia). In contrast to that, the Party newspaper LAIKI FONY quoted ELAS commanders Bakirdzis and Sarafis claiming that the Macedonian people were Slavophone Greeks.

On the other hand we have program documents from EAM, ELAS and PEEA, which completely ignore the existence of the Macedonian people.

There is also the Greek concept that “no Macedonian Question exists for Greece”, which gave birth to the anti-Macedonian policy with regards to the Macedonian anti-fascist liberation movement.

Then, contrary to all that, THE PARTY PRESS BEGAN TO LEAD A DIFFERENT KIND OF CAMPAIGN:

On June 16, 1945, the newspaper “Rizospastis” published an article entitled POLICY OF NATIONAL EQUALITY. Among other things, it said that the CPG’s position regarding the

MACEDONIAN QUESTION was full equality for the MACEDONIAN NATIONAL MINORITY in the Greek state.

On July 8, 1945, “Rizospastis” published another article entitled “THE TRUTH ABOUT THE SLAVO-MACEDONIANS”. In this article it stressed that the Macedonian people were a separate nation, with their own history, culture, language, traditions, songs, etc., which are similar to those of the “Slavo-Macedonians in Yugoslavia”. The article went on to say that the historical truth about the Slavo-Macedonians must be emphasized and that they should not be accused of being “Bulgarians” and that the Slavo-Macedonians played the most resolute role in destroying the counter-bands...

On August 24, 1945, according to LAIKI FONI from August 25, 1945, Zahariadis stood in front of 120,000 people in Solun and, among other things, spoke about the very difficult situation the Macedonians were facing due to a terror campaign waged against them by the Greek racists elements, and asked the Party and the other democratic organizations to help them in their fight against terror, to take them under their own protection, and so on...

At a CPG Bureau for Macedonia and Thrace meeting, held on December 26 and 27, 1945, for the first time Zahariadis spoke about the Macedonian national liberation movement and publicly said that NOF was a people’s democratic organization with which he needed to co-operate. According to LAIKI FONI from December 28, 1945, Zahariadis said: “We go shoulder to shoulder with the Slavo-Macedonians against the domestic Monarcho-fascists and against the counter-band autonomists and their foreign backers who encourage and finance them both…”

On January 13, 1946, Rizopastis defended the “Slavo-Macedonians against the terrible and incredible ill-treatment…” The persecution of the Macedonian people was described as “the greatest and most terrible persecution known to mankind in the history of Greece... An entire army of terrorists is spilling unprecedented rage and perpetrating unspeakable atrocities against them. They are being tortured, arrested, tormented like animals, robbed of their possessions and women and girls are being raped. The mercenaries

relentlessly raid and devastate their villages... I (Solon Grigoriadis author of the article) saw a village in which 90% of the men were arrested and taken away. Some villages were completely empty…! They all fled en masse. A whole village was fleeing to the mountains to seek shelter. Some people were fleeing to Yugoslavia to save themselves…!”

On February 7, 1946, Leonidas Stringos, Secretary of the CPG Bureau for Macedonia and Thrace, in an article titled “The struggle for democracy and the problem with the Slavo-Macedonians”, published in PROTOPOROS (number 1/1946), a monthly organ of the same Bureau, explained the CPG’s position with regards to the Macedonian Question, and then advocated for greater cooperation and understanding between the CPG and NOF...

The reactionary (Monarcho-Fascist) press in its anti-Macedonian hysteria, especially in Solun, tried to portray the Macedonian people as the “Sudetes of Greece” and, allegedly in the interests of peace in Greece and the Balkans, demanded that they be forcibly expelled from the Greek state. In an editorial article entitled “True and False Sudetes” published in May 1946, in response to the reactionary press article “Protoporos”, organ of the CPG Bureau for Macedonia and Thrace, in disclosing the aims of this defamatory campaign, described the Czechoslovak Sudetes as a fifth column in their role in favour of Hitler’s Germany and pointed out the fact that the Macedonian people took a massive part in the struggle against the fascist occupiers and, on top of that, they were also responsible for breaking up the counter-band autonomist movement in Greek occupied Macedonia, so it is not possible to look at them any different than as a progressive anti-fascist factor or material force of peace and democracy in Greece and the Balkans.

There were more such stories published by the central Party press. It was as if they were coming around and painting a different picture of the Macedonians all around Greek occupied Macedonia, especially around the Macedonian countryside and the main party organizations on the ground. At first glance this looked like the Greek leadership, in a “twist”, had “changed” their attitude towards the Macedonian liberation movement and towards the Macedonian

people. This is how the situation was also evaluated by our Macedonian leading authors and by our historiography.

But we should not be fooling ourselves. At the same time our Greek comrades and Party leaders led this new and different campaign in the press, a campaign of friendship and solidarity with the Macedonian people, they continued with their hostile campaign against leading Macedonian Communists, the most conscious people and most active bearers of the Macedonian national ideals. The goal here was obvious. While pretending they were all for the Macedonian cause, they compromised, slandered and destroyed the most valuable Macedonian people, the leaders of the movement. And with their destruction they aimed to behead and defile the Macedonian national liberation movement until it was destroyed.

Proof of this was delivered in February 1946, during the CPG Central Committee II Plenum. Despite the “nice things” the CPG press was publishing about the Macedonian people in general, the CPG officially treated the Macedonians NOT AS PART OF ANOTHER AND UNIQUE NATION, but as a “mass of people”, a “Slavophone population” which lived in Greek occupied Macedonia on the lands of the Greek state. During the II Plenum the CPG proclaimed that it will fight for “the recognition of rights and equality” (51) as a Slavophone population, but without NOF’s leadership. And so the Party regional press (local) in Macedonia continued its hostilities against the NOF leadership, even after the II Plenum.

The fact that NOF was founded without the participation of our Greek friends, without their assistance and contrary to their wishes and plans, exacerbated their anti-Macedonian sentiments. And as General Markos used to say, this was a “gross mistake” made by the top CPG leadership. As I have already said it was only a matter of time before the leading Macedonians would be destroyed. There was extreme pressure from the Party authorities for that to happen so that the Macedonian national liberation movement would slowly be diversified until it disappeared.

But, in spite of the CPG’s effort to destroy NOF, instead of weakening and decaying, the Macedonian national liberation

movement grew, expanded and became more significant, especially NOF’s armed wing. Unfortunately all this worked against “Greek national interests” and was getting dangerously close to jeopardizing the “Greek character” of Macedonia.

So, tactics had to change…

Zahariadis again turned to the Party press and began to promote his new tactics. Using the Macedonian people’s natural aspiration for freedom, he called on the Macedonian fighters to join the Greek revolutionary forces in a “unified struggle” led by the CPG. With his declarations, which turned out to be just empty words, Zahariadis recognized NOF and, like a kind of Trojan horse entering the wide door of a fortress, managed to take possession of it.

And as NOF fell into his hands, so did its military formations. They too fell into Zahariadis’s hands…!

The first thing the Zahariadis leadership sought to achieve immediately after establishing “unity” was to prevent the NOF leadership from doing its work. And it succeeded... For the next six months after “unity” was established, that is from November 21, 1946 to May 20, 1947, when the NOF leaders got together for a meeting, the NOF leadership sat idle. In other words Paskal Mitrevski, then instructor of the CPG Macedonian Committee, and the NOF Secretariat consisting of Keramidziev, Rakovski and Vera did not meet at all or take any action to guide the organization. In the meantime the NOF-AFZH organizations on the ground waited to see what would happen because they had no confidence in their Greek comrades who were in charge of them.

I was very upset when I came back to Macedonia from Epirus. Upon my return I managed to convince comrades Vera and Keramidiev that our Greek friends had aims to turn NOF into a dysfunctional organization and strip it of its revolutionary character and effectiveness. I suggested it was time for us to resist. It was time to call a meeting, gather all the regional and district leaderships, sit down and talk to the people, raise their morale and resume our revolutionary activities in the Macedonian villages. I then presented my agitation and propaganda department’s really ambitious plans,

which included plans to introduce Macedonian culture and education through the publication of news bulletins and brochures and by creating Macedonian choirs, Macedonian theaters, organizing plays in the villages, offering Macedonian courses for Macedonian teachers, publishing Macedonian textbooks, publishing materials that highlighted the struggle, etc. In other words, create a Macedonian cultural, artistic and educational movement in parallel with NOF’s armed struggle. In addition to that I also proposed that we seek ways to expand our secretariat as follows:

I proposed that Keramidziev be appointed political secretary, a new comrade be appointed in charge of organizational matters, Vera be appointed secretary of AFZH, and I, Pavle Rakovski, be exclusively devoted to realizing my plans. I proposed we appoint Vangel Aianovski-Oche secretary of organizational matters. I thought he was the most promising among the regional activists for that role. Keramidzhiev then said to me:

“I don’t understand... why you would want to elevate someone else above you?!”

I was surprised by his remark. He was still thinking of “a career” even under these circumstances...

“It would be in the interest of our struggle!” I replied.

Keramidzhiev just shrugged his shoulders and said nothing. After that the NOF secretariat agreed to convene a meeting and appoint Aianovski NOF organizational secretary. As is well-known, and many people witnessed this, I then went before the acting body and, among other things, explained my proposal, which was then accepted.

However, this is what was said about me in “Istoria” regarding to that:

“In order to attach himself to the importance of playing a major role in NOF, Pavle Rakovski claims that Aianovski was elected ‘MEMBERS OF THE NOF NARROW LEADERSHIP’ during the NOF meeting held in May 20, 1947. Rakovski claims that this

allegedly took place at Rakovski’s own initiative and responsibility. Does Pavle Rakovski truly believe he can convince anyone with such an assertion? The question of which comrades made up the NOF leadership was not and could not have been an individual’s task, at least not Pavle Rakovski’s task, but of the CPG and NOF leaderships. Rakovski’s non-objectivity was also expressed through his statement that Aianovski was elected “member of the leadership” but is silent about the fact that Aianovski was elected organizational secretary, which means the he was the second top man in the organization!”