3. FIRST REPORT

3. FIRST REPORT

The situation in Voden Region

By Pavle Rakovski

1. General remarks.

a) Our people in their entirety dislike the Greek reactionaries and are afraid of them.

b) The reactionaries are trying to force the people to join their organizations. Those who eventually do join are armed and 1) pompously try to influence and break the people’s desire to join the Greek and Macedonian people’s resistance movement, and 2) by use of arrests and other terror tactics try to disorganize and break the CPG and our front (NOF) resistance forces which we are trying to keep united and organized.

c) Almost the entire Macedonian population has joined the resistance movement where NOF is organized and has made its presence. This is a public condemnation of the CPG’s anti-Front campaign, and its non-existence in many villages and neighbourhoods.

d) The CPG is still our fronts’ (NOF) main opponent because it attacks and strikes not only from the front, but also from inside and outside. With its hostile campaign it prevents the masses from decisively moving along the path shown to them by our organization and reduces the people’s willingness to fight.

2. The organization’s position

a) Party: No Party has been organized so far but all NOF officials are strong Macedonian patriots and strong Communists.

b) Front (NOF): Front in each village is organized according to the village size. The boards consist of 3 to 6 individuals. There are 13 well-organized mountain villages in one group which also have a regional board. Our activists are also working in other regions, some more successfully and others less, but we continue to expand our organization in the Macedonian villages. We have already established a city board in Voden. During our last meeting with our activists, we decided to hold a NOF district conference and elect a district board. The district conference is scheduled for June, next month. The basic organizational units are not the same everywhere. In Voden we work in threes and fours while in the mountain villages

our meetings look like rallies where the entire population participates.

c) AFZH: We do not have an AFZH organization. We just appointed two women activists to start to organize it.

d) Youth: We have no separate youth organization. The young people are taking part in our movement together with the older people. We are now in the process of starting NOMS.

e) Groups: All armed groups are under one command and at the disposal of the political organizations. A group of five strong comrades is permanently located in the city Voden.

f) Reserve army: Fighters in each village are voluntarily organizing themselves into groups to form a reserve army, more specifically, to form reserve armed groups. Work is progressing well. A few days before my arrival, the reserve army from three villages moved to another region and occupied two villages there. It was well-intentioned and friendly, of course. It was like a military exercise, but it was much more than a simple military exercise. While it had the villages occupied, the reserve army gathered the people in the village square and talked to them about our movement. The other day, there was a rumour circulating that about 600 to 700 armed Macedonians appeared in that region. In reality that number was closer to 50...

g) Publishing: We have no equipment to publish anything. Our agitation and propaganda is still being done orally.

h) Economic issues: It would be a tactical mistake to start placing economic issues before the people. It is more important to first win over their confidence in our movement, to convince them that our movement is the correct way to go, that is, to disarm the slanderous CPG campaign. After that we can hope for economic help...

3. The reactionary forces

The reactionary forces are not always organized the same way. They can number anywhere from 30 to 100 troops and are permanently

located in certain villages. There are 150 to 300 in the city Voden. They are well-armed. Sometimes they are only Greeks or Arabs and Englishmen, and sometimes they are mixed. Next to them are the peasants who were armed by reactionaries but they are not many. It has been said that the Voulgaris government will call to arms three to four battalions.

4. Forms of reactionary activities

Voulgaris is trying to organize the people into nationalist reactionary organizations, especially the youth. He is systematically organizing excursions, parades, riotous manifestations, theatrical festivities, feasts and parties with the young people who he has managed to win over. This is a psychological weapon...

There are also the arrests and terror. The villagers don’t go to the cities anymore and don’t sleep at home in their villages. More than three hundred people have been arrested and almost all of them in the city Voden. There were Greek colonists among them, but it is well-known that the vast majority were Macedonians. So far there is no burning of villages, plundering and assaults of women reported in Voden Region.

5. NOF and the CPG

I will cite one characteristic case:

On Sunday, May 13, 1945, three Greek men arrived in the village Dolno Rodovo. They were the CPG instructor for that region (Karadzova), the secretary for Orma Region (Tresino), a man named Stavros, and an agitator for the same region. The three gathered all the villagers at the village square for a mass meeting. As it happened two of my friends and I had just arrived in the village when this was happening. When the people saw us coming they all left the meeting and ran down the street to greet us with applause and by singing Macedonian songs.

Surprised and looking sad, our Greek comrades were left standing all alone.

That evening we had a long and friendly talk with the Greeks and in the end all they wanted from us was “not to attack the reactionaries”. In fact they begged us not to attack the enemy because if we did attack them it would “ruin us! Everything would collapse over our heads!” This was the only serious requirement they had… that our organizations refrain from attacking the reactionaries… our and their worst enemy...

I will talk about the specifics of our movement in Voden Region and the tasks I set out for our activists there, during our Bureau meeting.

May 27, 1945 (Signature).

4. - A document on terror

The situation was worse in other regions, especially in Kostur Region. A number of reports describing the orgy of terror committed by the armed reactionaries against the Macedonian villages were compiled and sent to the NOF main leadership. Following is one such report: