EMERGENCY

EMERGENCY

Ref. A.F.H.Q. FX 66493 of 10th Dec and my M/279 of 11th Dec., Most reliable information tells us that within last 24 hours he has received following news from several independent sources of whom bone fides he is sure but whose reports are so far unconfirmed. Partisans of General Apostolovski’s Macedonia Army have crossed Greek frontier ostensibly to give aid to ELAS but in fact to establish themselves in Greek Macedonia. These troops described as 1st Macedonian Bde reported commanded by Petsko Trajkov probably number about 3,000. Some source states that Bulgarian Partisans under Slavche Trnski have entered Thrace between Nevrokop and Drama in co-operation with Macedonians.

It is not (rpt not) believed that Bulgarian Govt is in any way party to either of these movements. Personality notes on Trajkov and Trnski follow. Please pass to foreign office.

T.0.0.1710.

FOREIGN NATIONALITY GROUPS IN THE UNITED STATES

MEMORANDUM BY THE FOREIGN NATIONALITIE BRANCH TO THE DIRECTOR OF STRATEGIC SERVICES

NUMBER 189 - 13 MAY 1944

BULGARIAN-AMERICANS AND THE MACEDONIAN QUESTION

Bulgarian-Americans, most of whom originated in the disputed areas of Bulgaria, Yugoslavia, and Greece known as "Macedonia," are concerned that this irredentist Balkan region shall become independent or autonomous after the war. The nationalistic Macedonian Political Organization (MPO), standing traditionally for an independent Macedonia, is showing signs of coming closer to the view of the pro-Soviet Macedonian-American People's League (MAPL) which wants to see Macedonia an autonomous member of a Slavic or Balkan federation, and whose leaders have played an important part in the pro-Tito United Committee of South-Slavic Americans.

OF PRIMARY INTEREST to Bulgarian-Americans is Bulgaria's irredenta- Macedonia. Three wars have been fought over Macedonia in recent times and its fate in the present war has yet to be decided. Lately the Bulgarian-American press has become almost exclusively concerned with discussion of this question. The Macedonian Political Organization (MPO), recently assembled in special meeting, drew up a declaration to be sent to President Roosevelt urging the establishment of a free and independent Macedonia. On the other hand the Macedonia-American People's League and the Bulgarian-Macedonian Congress, both Sovietophile and pro-Partisan and both standing in opposition to the MPO, have been moved to appeal to all Macedonians and Bulgarians in the United States to join the United Committee of South-Slavic Americans and work for a South -Slav federation.

Though Bulgarian- and Macedonian-Americans (1) are agreed on two points- that Greek and Yugoslav Macedonia must not remain in

Greek (2) and Yugoslav hands after the war, and that Macedonia must become "whole" again - this difference of opinion among them as to what is to be done with the disputed region once it is reconstituted, is fundamental. Macedonian-Americans are divided between those who want an independent Macedonia and those who want the region to be autonomous within a Balkan federation. Bulgarians and Bulgarian-Americans for their part insist that Macedonia must be a part of Bulgaria.

Bulgarians in the United States

Although the 1940 Census lists only 15,500 persons of Bulgarians in Bulgarian origin in the United States, the Bulgarian- the United States Macedonian-Americans themselves claim a total of nearly 40,000. They point out that many Bulgarians were listed in the Census as Greeks, Yugoslavs, and Turks because they were born in places which became incorporated in Greece, Yugoslavia, or Turkey. Most of the Bulgarian emigrants in the United States did not come from Bulgaria proper. It is estimated that 70 per cent of the Bulgarian emigration came from Macedonia, beginning as early as 1878, at the end of the Russo-Turkish war. It was not until the decade preceding the First World War that a large wave, estimated by some as high as forty thousand, reached American shores. After 1920, a large number of Bulgarian-Macedonians, seeking to escape oppression and to find better living conditions, emigrated from areas annexed by Greece and Yugoslavia. For the most part the immigrants settled in the mining and manufacturing sections of Indiana, Ohio, Illinois, and Missouri. Very few chose to work on farms.

Geographically, the emigrants of Bulgarian origin are scattered over a wide area of the United States. Though most of them were of peasant origin and though few were literate at the time of their arrival, the fact that they were less segregated than most foreign emigres tended to speed up their Americanization. This has been especially the case with the new generations which tend to sever all connections with their foreign-born forebears.

In Europe Bulgaro-Macedonians number, according to varying estimates, from one and one-half to three million persons.

Linguistically, they are more akin to Bulgaria than to Serbia, and politically also they are closer to the Bulgarians than to either the Greeks or the Yugoslavs. Especially in times of political upheaval, the Bulgarian-Americans point out, Slavo-Macedonians turn their eyes toward Bulgaria-a tendency which receives further impetus from the fact that their Orthodox Church looked to Sofia rather than to Athens or to Belgrade.

Bulgarian-American Organizations

Bulgarian -and Macedonian -American immigrants Bulgarian-American in the United States are grouped around a number Organizations of fraternal and mutual aid societies, four of which are politically active. Among the most important is the Macedonian Political Organization (MPO) of the United States and Canada, led by Luben Dimitroff, with headquarters in Indianapolis. The MPO, organized in 1921, has 1,800 members grouped into thirty-six branches. Its single political objective, expressed through its weekly, the Makekedonska Tribuna of Indianapolis, is the independence of Macedonia. (3) However, the MPO has also argued for, an autonomous Macedonia within the Bulgarian state, and before Pearl Harbor approved of King Boris's policy of collaboration with the Axis. The MPO has been regarded as the American branch of the IMRO, the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization which has sought by terroristic means to "liberate" Macedonia; but the MPO leadership claims there is no such connection. More recently, MPO leaders have, begun to look with favor on the idea of "federation."

Standing in opposition to the MPO is the Macedonian-American People's League (MAPL) headed by Smile Voydanoff. The League represents the pro-Soviet wing of the Macedonian movement and is the publisher of the Communist-line Bulgarian-language weekly, Narodna Volya. The MAPL was founded in Detroit in 1930. It has worked closely with the Federation of Bulgarian-Macedonian Educational Clubs whose pro-Soviet Views are also expressed through Narodna Volya. Arguing for an autonomous Macedonia within a Balkan federation, MAPL leadership, along with its counterpart in the Federation of Bulgarian-Macedonian Educational Clubs, has found its way into the pro-Partisan United Committee of

South-Slavic Americans which was organized by the Slovenian-American writer Louis Adamic.

A body of Bulgarian-American nationalists not united in any formal organization express themselves through the semi-weekly Naroden Glas of Granite City (Illinois). The oldest and one of the most influential Bulgarian- language papers in the United States, Narode Glas supports the idea of a "greater Bulgaria." It opposes MAPL for following the Communist-line and it opposes the Macedonian-nationalist MPO because Macedonia, according to Naroden Glas spokesmen, is a "natural part of Bulgaria" and must belong to that state entirely.

The Bulgarian-Socialist Labor Federation is a small group of old-time Bulgarian- and Macedonian-American Socialists whose activities are more intellectual than political. They take little interest in the affairs of the homeland. Their mouthpiece is the Granite City weekly Rabotnicheska Prosveta, scornful alike of the Macedonian nationalists and the conventional Socialists and Communists. The professed aim of Rabotnicheska Prosveta is ". ..to preach among the Bulgarian workers the principles of the true proletarian revolution-the destruction, and not the reform of capitalism and the creation , of the Workers' Socialist Industrial Republic.”

Collaboration with Germany Explained

In this war as in the last, most Macedonian- and Bulgarian-Americans claim that Bulgarian support of the "Central Powers" resulted from the unwillingness of the democracies to support Bulgaria. When their homeland accepted Hitler, they argue, Bulgaria was, in the words of an MPO spokesman only "applying the principles of the Atlantic Charter.” Luben Dimitroff, editor of Makedonska Tribuna, and secretary of the MPO, explained the collaboration between the Macedonians and the Nazis as follows: “The ideology of Nazism is completely foreign to the Macedonians ...[the Germans] freed about 2,500 young Macedonians exiled on various Greek islands and permitted the Macedonians to use their own language and worship in their own churches. No matter who would have given them those privileges they [the Macedonians] would have been grateful...”

Macedonian Independence Demanded by MPO

The problem of Macedonia was the single concern of a meeting held by the Macedonian Political Organization at the Macedonian-Bulgarian Hall in Akron (Ohio), 23 April. Gathered in extraordinary session, about 200 members of the MPO discussed a declaration demanding independence for Macedonia. The flnished memorandum, sent to President Roosevelt asserted that "in the land bearing the ancient name Macedonia...there live approximately three million inhabitants whose ethnic and linguistic diversity [has served as a] ...pretext upon which Macedonian neighbors have based their claims for domination of Macedonia." Mindful of the political and administrative problem which Macedonia has created "for every Balkan state," the declaration called for a "Macedonia for the Macedonians."

In addition to its own delegates, three delegates led by Cross Misheff, representing the Macedonian-American Unity for Victory Club of Detroit came to MPO's assembly. Formerly a leader with George Pirinsky, secretary, of the Michigan Slav Congress, in the pro-Soviet Macedonian-American People's League, Misheff broke with that organization, which he had helped to found, and established his own Victory Club.

Cross Misheff vs. the anti-Communists

Misheff's participation in the MPO meeting gave it a unique flavor. A renegade fellow-traveler, signed the declaration calling for Macedonian independence but not before he succeeded in having a line of its text changed to read "allied" instead of "American" occupation of Macedonia. He proposed several resolutions which the Assembly passed. One was a message to Macedonians in the "armed forces fighting fascism." The other, addressed broadly to Macedonians fighting the Nazis abroad, brought up the question: to whom, specifically, should the resolution be sent? Misheff suggested that it be sent to Dimitri Vlakhoff, a Communist and at present reported to be in Moscow as the Macedonian representative of Tito's Government, and to Mihailo Apostolsky, a Major General leading Macedonian guerrillas under Tito's banner in Macedonia.

Although there were objections to the resolution, it was finally decided to submit the message to the Office of War Information to be short-waved to Europe. Misheff failed in his attempt to have a resolution passed calling for an understanding with the pro-Partisan Macedonian- American People's League. MPO leadership tabled it. Nothing, said Luben Dimitroff, secretary of MPO, would be done to encourage any, meeting with "Communist-line" groups.

Dimitroff and Balkan Federation

What political weight Luben Dimitroff has, derives from the fact that he represents the views of some 5,000 American citizens on an issue about which the American public as a whole will probably never be called to express an opiriion. Dimitroff's ruling passion is Macedonian independence. Born in Macedonia in the first decade of this century, he was reared and educated in Sofia. He was active in the Macedonian movement there and came to this country in 1931 to carry on MPO's struggle for Macedonian freedom. In a recent talk with a representative of this Branch, Dimitroff said: "We want a Macedonia like Switzerland. The Swiss have no nation but consist of Germans, French, and Italians. We have no nation -only a geographical location- but we want to be known as Macedonians."

Dimitroff prefers a Balkan to a South Slav federation. In his opinion a Balkan federation should include Slovenia, Serbia, Montenegro, Bosnia, Herzegovina, Croatia, Albania, Greece, Bulgaria, and Rumania, "roughly a bloc of 60,000,000." A federal government elected by all groups would rule the federation in which each nation would preserve its own nationality. Dimitroff's preference for a Balkan rather than an exclusively Slav federation is based upon his belief that the exclusion of Greece and Rumania would produce friction; the traditional Slav desire for an outlet to the Medifterranean at Salonika would prove particularly troublesome if Greece were excluded.

Asked for his opinion of the Yugoslav Partisans, Dimitroff replied, "We will not take any definite stand until the thing crystallizes. However, if it has to be a choice between King Peter and Tito, we prefer Tito. In my opinion the Tito movement is not all

communistic.” He would oppose a Bulgaro-Macedonian republic, he added.

Dimitroff expressed his attitude towards the Adamic-Balokovich United Committee of South-Slavic Americans in this way. "We are not working against the South-Slavic Committee, but we are not joining them either. If they had based their committee on broader principles I would have been for them but up to now they have followed the Communist-line too closely. So far, their path is too narrow but if they should change their attitude we might join with them.”

Bulgarian-American Communist-Line Politics

Pro-Soviet Bulgarian-American organizations, though envisaging the creation of a federation of republican Slavic states in which Bulgaro-Macedonian aspirations to "liberation" would be realized, tend to play down specifically Macedonian aims. Blago Popoff, Bulgarian-American member of the United Committee of South-Slavic Americans, expressed this inclination when he stated the leftist case against the MPO program. "There is a tendency on their part," he said, "to work out the borders of Macedonia at the present time. ..[when] ...the main thing now should be the winning of the war." In like manner most leftist Bulgarian-Macedonian leaders in the United States have joined the United Committee whose program is Balkan rather than Bulgarian or Macedonian.

The Macedonian-American People's League, as noted above, and its affiliates, the Federation of Bulgarian Macedonian Educational Clubs and the Bulgarian-Macedonian Congress (organized by leftists in July 1943) were quick to ally themselves with the Adamic-founded United Committee. George Pirinsky and Smile Voydanoff, respectively general secretary and president of the MAPL; Peter Peff, wealthy New York businessman and chairman of the Bulgarian-Macedonian Congress; and Victor Sharenkoff of the Bulgarian-Macedonian Educational Clubs; all hold offices in the United Committee. The political activity of these leaders has not been focused on their own organizations. Instead their efforts have been directed to bullding up the United Committee which, over the

signature of Peter Peff, all Bulgarian- and Macedonian-Americans have recently been asked to join.

NOTES;

(1) The term Macedonian-American, as used in this paper, refers to those whose mother tongue was Slavic and excludes the Greek-speaking element deriving from Macedonia.

(2) For a description of the Greek-American concern with the Macedonian question, see FN Number 153 of 29 September 1943.

(3) A map published by the Central Committee of the MPO (February 1944) illustrates what is conceived by this organization to be Macedonia. It includes all western, central, and eastern Greek Macedonia plus the island of Thasos; southwestern Bulgaria; southern Yugoslavia to a point north of Skopije; and a small strip of eastern Albania. The territory is described as an area of 23,000 square miles (about as large as the State of West Virginia).

The Bulgarian Character of the Macedonian Villagers

October 18, 1943

The Foreign Service of the United States of America No, 1578 (R-1484 American Consulate General, Istanbul, Turkey

SUBJECT: The Bulgarian Character of the Macedonian Villagers