Front Matter - Part 03

because they are not only socially, but also nationally enslaved in Bulgaria. The masses want VMRO (United) to fight for their national liberation. He also assessed the views of the communists who took opposite views on VMRO (United) and called them "non-Bolshevik, narrow-minded and opportunist". And finally he criticized the communists who opposed the views on the existence of the Macedonian nation.

Here is a quote in part of what Shatorov wrote: "There are comrades who cannot understand that the party recognizes that the Macedonian Slays (speakers) are a separate nation which is not a subject of doubt. These comrades argue that the Macedonian Slays (speakers) speak the Bulgarian language. However, Macedonians,

28 Ibid., p. 222.

both under Bulgarian and Serbian rule, do not speak the Bulgarian language. This has been proven by several international philologists.

But let's assume for a moment that they spoke Bulgarian... Does that mean they are all part of the Bulgarian nation? Of course not...

Many Macedonians do speak Bulgarian despite the fact that they belong to a Macedonian nation. According to our conviction, the issue of a separate Macedonian language is not something that we cannot resolve. The comrades who claim that a Macedonian nation does not exist stand on non-Bolshevik positions on the national question. They actually support the positions that "Macedonians from Macedonia are Bulgarians, Bulgarians from old Bulgaria, i.e.

belonging to the conquering imperialist Bulgarian bourgeoisie..." 29 At this time, on various occasions, both the BCP and VMRO (United) persistently advocate the position that Macedonians are not Bulgarians, but a separate Macedonian nation, subjected to national oppression and class exploitation. Based on that, the Macedonian people organized themselves to struggle against forced assimilation imposed on them by Belgrade, Sofia and Athens. They are struggling for the right to self-determination and for unification in an independent Macedonian state. They are struggling for the right to speak the Macedonian language in schools, because the Macedonian people have all the marks of a unique nation. 30 In 1935, under Shatorov's leadership, the Regional Committee undertook a series of activities to construct a practical VMRO (United) platform in order to create a single united revolutionary front. To do that the Regional Committee recommended that revolutionary committees be created to include everyone regardless of whether the people were mihailovsist or protogerovist sympathizers. At the same time, all VMRO (United) factions had to work intensively on the masses to convince them to accept the VMRO (United) views, with the ultimate goal of electing only progressive leaders from the brotherhoods. The program for building a single Macedonian front in general was a VMRO (United)

political position and called on the masses to immediately accept it because it was urgent that they create an independent Macedonian

29 Ibid., pp. 222, 223, and Illegal periodical press in Bulgaria (Kovachev Velcho), 1923-1941, Sofia, 1986, p. 236. 30 Ibid., p. 223.

movement which was to struggle against supremacy and Great Bulgarian chauvinism; for a free and independent Macedonia; for the Macedonian people's national, political and economic liberation;

for a general struggle together with the socially oppressed people in Bulgaria; for the right of the Pirin part of Macedonia to self-determination until separation and union together with the other two parts of an independent Macedonian state. 31 With its change of attitude towards VMRO (supremacist), the VMRO (United) Regional Committee convened a special session, during which Metodija Shatorov, then Organizational Secretary, submitted a report on the need to organize a single front that would include VMRO members from all sides. 32 The BCP Central Committee Foreign Bureau sent a letter to the internal party leadership regarding these views and requested that measures be taken to attract the Mihailovists to the united Macedonian front. It was estimated that with their inclusion VMRO (United) would once again raise the flag of unification. This position was implemented in the spring of 1935 with Shatorov's entry as leader of the VMRO (United) Regional Committee for the Pirin part of Macedonia. The situation for VMRO (United) improved after Vancho Mihailov's 33 VMRO was banned by the Bulgarian authorities in 1934.

In April 1935, under Shatorov's leadership, the VMRO (United)

Regional Committee for Macedonia under Bulgarian rule published several proclamations, appeals and other articles directed at the Macedonian people. Here we will quote and comment on parts of those documents. The following was said when the 1935 May Day celebration was being organized: "On May Day, the nationally enslaved Macedonian people including the immigrants living in Bulgaria will build a single revolutionary front that will include Bulgarian, Serbian and Greek workers and peasants with aims to struggle against their enslavers... To this day all activities carried out in the name of freedom and for an independent Macedonia have been mistreated and even the name Macedonian has been persecuted. And here, as in Greece and Serbia, we are denied our Macedonian nationality... We call on the state to relinquish lands ' Ibid., pp. 227, 228. 32 Ibid., pp. 228, 229.

Ibid., p. 229.

held by municipalities, monasteries, farmsteads and other state lands and give them to the landless and poor peasants for free... We call on the Macedonian people to raise high the flag of Gotse Delchev, Jane Sandanski, and Dimo Hadzhi Dimov... We call on the people to defend our independent nationality... We demand the right to self-determination of Macedonia under Bulgarian rule (Petrich Region), including the right to its separation into an independent state... We seek liberation and unification of the three parts of Macedonia in an independent republic of the Macedonian workers". 34 This is what was said in the January-April 1935, declaration: "In addition to measures already taken, Zlatev's government is preparing to stifle the Macedonian national-revolutionary movement. Zlatev even canceled the right of Macedonians to call themselves Macedonian and, in this way, is widely acting to disfigure Macedonians as a people and a nation". 35 Here is what was said in part about the resolution adopted in May 1935, regarding future VMRO (United) activities: "VMRO (United)

should instill and strengthen iron discipline in its ranks during the struggle and during the growing development of the struggle, overcoming all phenomena of laxity, opportunism and hesitation.

The struggle must be raised higher on two fronts; against opportunism and for reconciliation, igniting a more decisive struggle to unmask the supremacists in the two camps (Mihailovists and Protogerovists); everyone must be united around the VMRO (United) District Committee resolutely and at an accelerated pace to fortify the strength of the single revolutionary front with Bulgarian and Balkan workers for the liquidation of Bulgarian and Balkan imperialism; for the definitive defeat of supremacy in Macedonia;

for winning the right to self-determination of Petrich Region and the whole of Macedonia until its consolidation into an independent political state." 36 Opportunism was articulated as follows: denying the need for VMRO (United)' s existence; asserting that one should first build the organization and then conduct actions; that terror should be

14 VMRO (United), Documents and materials, book 2, pp. 303, 304, 305. 15 Ibid., p. 305. 36 Ibid., pp. 313, 314.

answered with terror, which did not coincide with VMRO (United)'s principles. 37 In its call to the working population in Macedonia under Bulgarian rule, issued in the middle of May 1935, and on the occasion of the coup in Bulgaria on May 19, 1934, the Regional Committee said:

"Working Macedonian brothers! Enough hunger and slavery!

Enough with silence and a bowed head! We have learned enough lessons from the past. May 19 is also a good lesson for us not to hope that someone from outside will come to free us! 'Our freedom rests in our own hands', that's what Gotse Delchev and Jane Sandanski taught us, that's what VMRO (United), the only organization to continue their work, teaches us today. Let's take our only sure way to organize a mass struggle... and in alliance with the Bulgarian workers and peasants let's rise as one to overthrow the bloody military-fascist government in Macedonia and its hegemonic tools (the Mihailovists and Protogerovists) in the name of our demands: Self-determination of Petrich Region after its separation from imperialist Bulgaria to serve as a start and incentive for the liberation and unification of all of Macedonia as a free republic of the Macedonian workers". 38 This is what was said in the call "Tortured and wronged Macedonians" made in mid-May 1935: "The arrest and mistreatment of 300 peasants and workers in Svetivrachko and the conviction of 26 of them; the new process against 19 students and 9 citizens in Gorno Dzhumaja; Bulgarian imperialism wants to make us unquestioning slaves with fire and sword, but it will not succeed.

Despite everything, we Macedonians, together with Bulgarian workers and peasants, will crush the beastly head of Bulgarian imperialism. Long live the struggle of the Macedonian workers and peasants fighting for economic and national liberation". 39 This is what was said in an appeal by the VMRO (United) Regional Committee in Macedonia under Bulgarian rule, issued in May 1935:

"Brother Macedonians! A massive number of Macedonians have been arrested in Bulgarian ruled Macedonia and in Sofia. Those Ibid., p. 313. 38 Ibid., pp. 315 318, 319.

Ibid., p. 319.

arrested were severely tortured. Some were released, but many were sent to prison. Their only crime was that they are progressive Macedonians - nationalists, and opponents of supremacy. However, the Police Directorate in Sofia has given the press false information saying that those people, sons of our people, have set themselves the goal to introduce Soviet power in Petrich Region... They slander our Macedonian national-revolutionary movement. The fascist press has labeled VMRO (United) a communist organization, an agent of the Third International! Macedonians! Don't trust police intrigues.

The Bulgarian press and the police suppress the truth, because they are afraid of it. VMRO (United) is a national organization that fights against slavery in Macedonia. It expresses the Macedonian national consciousness and holds the flag of the national liberation struggle.

Macedonians join the ranks of VMRO (United) regardless of your political beliefs. VMRO (United) members are those Macedonians who have accepted the revolutionary-democratic struggle for national and economic liberation - including communism. Our organizations are fighting against Bulgarian imperialism, as (they do) over (the border) - against Greek and Serbian imperialism.

Petrich Region has been turned into a colony, whose population is mercilessly exploited and oppressed through high taxes, free labor, forced Bulgarian serfdom, military status... which has become a system absent of freedom. They have banned the Macedonian language in schools, institutions and more. All this makes the situation in Petrich Region unbearable. VMRO (United) is fighting against this slavery; but the Bulgarian imperialists say nothing about it! They deny Macedonians the right to their own state - they want to preserve their dominance in Petrich Region. They are carrying out Bulgarian propaganda among our people, in order to justify their conquering policy in relation to all of Macedonia. In this they are helped by the Supremacists-Mihailovists and Protogerovists.

Deprived and tortured Macedonians! The authorities have made mass arrests at a time when world carnage between nations is expected to begin at any moment. The Bulgarian imperialists want us, the Macedonians, together with the Bulgarian people, to push us to fight for their interests. Do not oppose the Macedonian liberation movement because it is fighting against the war and intends to lead the Macedonian people to a new victorious Ilinden. Protest against the arrests of progressive Macedonians! Join VMRO (United) - the only successor to the old VMRO led by Delchev, Gjorche, Pere and Sandanski! Fight against slavery in Macedonia! Push out the Bulgarian occupying armed forces from Macedonia! Down with the violent Bulgarian oppression in Macedonia! Defend your nationality! Build a unique Macedonian front to struggle against the imperialist yoke! Long live free and independent Macedonia!" 40 In another call, made by the same District Committee, issued at the end of July 1935, it was said: "Macedonians, ILINDEN, the great holiday of the Macedonian revolution is before us. In 1903, 32 years ago, the Macedonian people led, en masse, by their beloved Delchev's VMRO, rose to an armed uprising against the Ottoman Sultan and his Beys. The goal of the Ilinden Uprising was to liberate the people from Ottoman slavery and give the lands back to the peasants. The Ilinden uprising is the most memorable and brightest day in the history of the Macedonian revolutionary movement. The Ilinden Uprising unfortunately ended in failure, but it was a great achievement and will remain the most magnificent act in modern Macedonian history. It will show the way to Macedonian freedom and independence. Macedonian brothers! One of the reasons why the Ilinden Uprising failed was because the supremacists - agents of Bulgarian imperialism, whose goal was to interfere from the outside and make it possible for Bulgaria to occupy Macedonia. The same old sinners, who are now in the governing body of the Ilinden organization, are calling on the refugees and migrants to come to their commemorations and meetings in order to abuse and make victims of them, to trade their Macedonian souls and to implement the hegemonic- fascist policy of the Bulgarian imperialists. By refusing to take part in the national Macedonian committee for a joint celebration of Ilinden, the governing body of the Ilinden organization has underlined its hegemonic nature once again.

Boycott commemorations and gatherings organized by the supremacist leadership of the Ilinden organization! All go to anti-supremacist meetings and demonstrations. Long live Ilinden! Long live free and independent Macedonia! Stand up and fight to end the Gorno Dzhumaja process, demand the immediate release of all those arrested! Down with military and police terror". 41

40 Ibid., p. 321.

' Ibid., p. 337.

Another call, also issued by the District Committee a little later, believed to have been issued in the summer of 1935, said: "Enslaved Macedonian brothers! As if the crime of dividing Macedonia between Bulgaria, Serbia and Greece was not enough, the Bulgarian imperialists had to commit another devastating crime. They divided Petrich Region into two parts, which they annexed to two Bulgarian districts - Sofia and Plovdiv.

Why did the thugs from Sofia have to tear apart our Macedonian region? Because they didn't want anyone to mention that a Macedonian region existed within the borders of Bulgaria. Because they needed to strengthen their imperialist control over Petrich Region so that it would remain under fascist Bulgaria and to stop the unification with the other two parts of Macedonia from becoming an independent Macedonian state. The enslavers from Sofia thought they could perpetuate their rule in Macedonia under Bulgarian rule.

But they are lying to themselves! The people from Petrich Region will fight and will win the right to self-determination in Petrich Region until its secession from fascist Bulgaria! Long live the unification of Macedonia as an independent republic..." 42 This is what was said in the call published in the summer of 1935:

"Brother Macedonians. The Greek chauvinists call us 'Slavophone Greeks' and the Serbians call us 'Old Serbians'. Why? - It is clear:

to justify their rule and warlike aspirations towards Macedonia.

Bulgarian chauvinists act in the same way. They use the Slavic closeness between Macedonians and Bulgarians and declare that Macedonians are an 'inseparable part of the Bulgarian nation'.

The Bulgarian imperialists always sought and are still seeking to conquer and enslave Macedonia, not to liberate it. The proof is that we are enslaved right now. Did we fight and are we struggling for this kind of "freedom", as it exists in Petrich Region? Working Macedonians, We must declare for everyone to hear that we are neither Serbians, nor Greeks, nor Bulgarians. We are Macedonians, a unique and independent Macedonian nation. Only in this way will

42 Ibid., p. 345.

we best be able to defend the independence of our movement and our right for an independent Macedonian state.

Our enslavers in Belgrade, Athens and Sofia are hiding and obscuring this truth so that they can perpetuate their rule over Macedonia. There are also rich Macedonians who support them in this. They have become Serbians, Bulgarians and Greeks, and together with the imperialists are robbing and oppressing the working Macedonian population.

Working Macedonians and you Macedonian national intellectuals who are struggling for our national and economic liberation must also struggle against the assimilation perpetrated against our people by Belgrade, Sofia and Athens! Let's shout out loud that we don't want to be Serbians, Greeks, or Bulgarians. Let us be a thorn in the eyes of our enslavers and shout out loud that we are Macedonians 43 and as Macedonians we want to have our own Macedonian state".

Since he took control of the VMRO (United) Regional Committee and the entire region, Shatorov and his activists couldn't remain unnoticed by the Bulgarian police. A large number of these people were arrested, tried and imprisoned. This is what the newspaper "Makedonski vesti" wrote about it on July 8, 1936, under the title "The Great Macedonian VMRO (United) Trial." Among other things the newspaper wrote: "On the 7th of this month in the Sofia District Court at the third criminal level a case against 20 Macedonians was opened. They were accused of committing crimes in accordance with article 2, 3, 6, 7 of the ZZD code, accused of being members of VMRO (United).

The following people were accused of various crimes as follows:

Dimitar Vlahov, Vladimir Poptomov and Jordan Anastasov Konstantinov were accused of being members of the VMRO (United) Central Committee. Vasil Atanasov Ivanovski, Metodi Shatorov, Asen Charakchiev and Hr. K. Kalajdzhiev were accused of being members of the VMRO (United) Regional Committee in Bulgaria. Grigor Dinev Stefanov was accused of being secretary of the District Committee. Stefan Georgiev Nanov, Hristo Georgiev 41 Ibid., pp. 345, 346.

Dimitrov and Blagoj Pop Jordanov were accused of being secretaries of the Regional Committee. Aneshti Nikolov Uzunov was accused of being a technical person. Ivan Denishtev Nakov and Filip Georgiev were accused of being members of the Regional Committee. Arso Vasilev Poptodorov, Minko Popov, Arso Vasilev, Mara Dimitrova Petrova and Petar Minev Kalchev were accused of helping VMRO (United), even though they weren't members.

Aleksandar Onchev Martulkov and Boris Iliev Mihov were accused of creating an action committee related to VMRO (United).

The trial caused an extraordinary amount of interest. About a hundred Sofia lawyers expressed their desire to defend the defendants, including Vrvan Angelov, D. Matsankiev, Gladnev, Runevski, N. Nikolov, Meshkov, T. Tatarchev, Kopchev, Stoimenov and others.

The main task of the defense was to overturn the accusation made by the prosecutor who claimed that the defendants were communists and to prove that they were actors of the Macedonian national- 44 revolutionary liberation movement".

After he was tried Metodija Shatorov was sentenced in absentia to 5 years in prison and fined 50,000 Bulgarian leva.

Under the new conditions the Macedonian national-revolutionary movement was faced with several dilemmas in relation to its basic program goals. Solving the Macedonian question became connected with the "Balkan Federation", "Autonomous Macedonia", "Independent Macedonia". After analyzing these views it was concluded that: Macedonia's liberation would be achieved by connecting to the Balkan Federation which limited the Macedonian people's right to self-determination only to autonomy, without the right to self-determination as an independent state. Unfortunately the solution the Balkan Federation offered was unsuitable because the liberation struggle in the Balkans had not matured at the same pace as everywhere else, and wouldn't allow any of its allies outside of the Balkan Federation to join. This drawback or defect in the Balkan Federation represented a big obstacle in building a single front with

44 Ibid., pp. 356, 357.

other enslaved peoples (Greece), who had not accepted the idea of a Balkan Federation. There was the possibility that this unsuitability would be exploited by the imperialists (Greece) to achieve their goals. Several options were possible: if Macedonia wins its liberation, in a situation where imperialist states around it existed, it would separate from them and organize an independent state;

another option was: if the battle front in Bulgaria won, the population of Petrich Region would separate into its own independent state, until the other two parts of Macedonia are freed, and then the three parts would unite into one state. Due to all these difficult options it was decided to abandon the idea of a Balkan Federation.

The possibility for an independent Macedonia was viewed strictly as a separatist issue, which called for separation without the Macedonian people's unification with other liberated nations on autonomous-federal principles. In other words the two options; the Balkan Federation and an independent Macedonia were in conflict.

The struggle for the Macedonian people's liberation and the struggle for self-determination should not have been set in the framework, nor should the issue of separation into an independent state been pre-determined. How the Macedonian people would use their right to self-determination until secession, would depend on specific conditions, after the masses succeeded in winning their struggle for liberation.

These are the reasons which forced the Macedonian people, i.e. the progressive movement, to take down the old slogan and replace it with the only correct strategic slogan "the Macedonian people's right to self-determination until their separation and the creation of 45 an independent Macedonian state".

Shatorov was one of the bearers of these basic new arrangements regarding the struggle against the triple enslavement of Macedonia.

This is what was said in a report describing VMRO (United)'s activities after its founding: "There is no doubt that the ultimate ideal of our first apostles of the Macedonian revolution in their struggle was to create an independent Macedonian state". 46

45 Ibid., pp. 215, 216. 46 Shatorov's abstract, p. 1.

However, Shatorov doesn't mention anything about a "Balkan Federation" in this document, but emphasizes the right to self-determination up to secession and the formation of an independent Macedonian state.

The following call was also found in this document: "We address the Sofia warriors as follows: '...you gentlemen claim that the Macedonians are Bulgarians and that Macedonia is Bulgarian. You pretend that you strive to free the Macedonian people. Well, we claim that the Macedonians are not Bulgarians, that Macedonia is not yours, that, on the contrary, you are the same kind of enslavers like those in Belgrade and Athens. Let us now take the question to the people of Petrich Region. Let them have their say on how they feel and whether they want to live under your yoke, or will they, together with the rest of the population, wish to unite with the other two parts of Macedonia in an independent Macedonian state. In short, give them the right to self-determination so that the people can express their free will by withdrawing the Bulgarian army and 47 police from Macedonia.'... " The supremacists (Mihailovists and Protogerovists) on the other hand, had taken a diametrically opposite position, showing their true colours, by quickly opposing the slogan "for the right to self-determination, to separation into an independent Macedonian state." They were against creating a common front with the Bulgarian workers and peasants. They rejected the existence of a national-colonial oppression in Petrich Region and the idea that a double (economic and political) slavery existed in the Macedonian working masses in this region. But the Macedonian people quickly recognized that these people were rebellious provocateurs and were quickly thrown into the landfill, where the enemies of the Macedonian people belong. On top of that, the supremacists actively implemented fascist Bulgarian policies calling for all of Macedonia to join Bulgaria. As faithful servants of the Bulgarian bourgeoisie, the role of the Mihailovists didn't change despite the fact that in 1934, during the last two brotherhood Congresses, they called for an independent Macedonia. The Bulgarian imperialists directed their attack against the Macedonian progressive movement together with

41 Ibid., p. 9.

their old agents from "Macedonia", from the "Macedonian Justice" and the "new" ones congregating around the "Macedonian Struggle". They were now trying to develop a "new" flag to perpetuate Macedonia's slavery. And so this is how things were developing in those days... 48 After the Organization was burglarized and after the court trials ended in the summer of 1936, Shatorov was convicted in absentia.

As a result he was forced to leave Bulgaria and illegally move to Moscow.

As can be seen from the available documents, there were different views shared about VMRO (United)'s fate between the BCP Central Committee internal leadership and the Central Committee Foreign Office in Moscow. The plan to reorganize VMRO (United) was taken over by the BCP Central Committee which tried to make changes until it was liquidated. The foreign office on the other hand, twice in 1937 tried to discuss the BCP's policy towards Macedonia and VMRO (United)'s fate. This issue was separately considered during the two Council of Ministers sessions held in February and April of the same year. The prevailing opinion was that at a specific political moment, when the Bulgarian government was implementing an anti-Macedonian foreign policy, it would be necessary to again raise the slogan for the unification of the Macedonian forces. This kind of initiative could only have come from VMRO (United).

At a Foreign Office session held in January 1937, (in the presence of Metodija Shatorov, V. Kolarov, VI. Poptomov, I. Iskrov, and Tr.

Kostov-Spiridonov) it was emphasized that VMRO (United) could still be used as a means to create a large democratic movement.

Even after the court trials in 1935 and 1936, VMRO (United)

continued to be active in order to protect the Macedonian people from certain members of the BCP and others who were denying the 49 Macedonian people's existence.

On April 19, 1937, the Foreign Office sent a letter to the Central Committee in Bulgaria expressing their views on the preservation of

48 VMRO (United), Documents and materials, book 2, pp. 222 and 229.

49 D. Dobrinov, p. 240.

VMRO (United) in Bulgaria. Among other things the letter said:

"No matter what the current opinion of VMRO (United) is, in any case, it is a popular Macedonian organization and as such it has acquired certain political positions among the Macedonian people, which we should not give up. This will create a mass base for a Macedonian national front. Creating this base will be a central obligation to the Macedonian national liberation movement in Bulgaria". 50 In item 4 of this letter however, where the Macedonian movement's platform was expressed, it was formulated that VMRO (United) would struggle for the Macedonian people's national rights but only in Greece and Yugoslavia. This was in contradiction with the Comintern conception, VMRO (United)'s and Shatorov's views who worked in the Foreign Office. As a result of Shatorov's objection, a correction was made and a new letter was sent on April 20, in which "Yugoslavia and Greece" were removed from item 4 and "Macedonians are fighting for national rights in the three states" was added. In the list of slogans, the words "independent Macedonia" were removed and replaced with the words "the right to self-determination, but that should not be interpreted as self-determination in general, but as the right to self-determination." 51 But with time, international circumstances had changed and with them the attitudes of the USSR and the Comintern. In this regard, in 1938, the BCP Foreign Office drafted a new Macedonian national liberation movement platform. This platform contained seven points that fully supported Comintern and the USSR policies in the Balkans. The goal of these policies was to avoid conflicts in the Balkans by removing contentions. Unfortunately the Macedonian question was a permanent contention.

The platform's basic idea was that the Macedonian situation was the same in all three states that occupied Macedonian territory.

According to item 1, one of the tasks was to struggle for the right to have the Macedonians recognized as an independent nation, culturally and linguistically equal to other nations within each Balkan state. The Macedonian movement's goal was to create a Balkan anti-fascist bloc and to orient its foreign policy towards cooperating with the democratic forces and with the USSR. At the

50 Ibid., p. 241. ' Ibid., p. 242.

same time (point 7) to expose the German and Italian "mission of liberation" for what it was, "occupation", and to convince the people that they were not liberated but enslaved by the new regimes. 52 To this day we have not yet found the Foreign Office document that details specifically when in 1938 these views were adopted and whether Shatorov was present or not. According to the same letter Shatorov was sent to Paris on April 23, 1938 under the pseudonym /Marko/. Then a letter dated June 8, 1938, was received from Shatorov from Barcelona (Spain). And then another letter was again received from Paris, where he stayed until November 1939, before he went to Prilep. From the documentation we have, it can be concluded that the last letter Shatorov sent from Paris was dated October 19, 1939.

4. Metodija Shatorov's attitude towards VMRO

(supremacist)

Shatorov' s attitude towards VMRO (supremacist) was determined by his basic position on the Macedonian national question. He believed and promoted the idea that the Macedonian people had a separate Macedonian national consciousness which was based on the fact that the Slav speakers who lived in Macedonia at a certain historical time constituted themselves into a separate nation, and thus they were neither Serbians nor Bulgarians, but a separate Macedonian people with all the necessary characteristics.

Shatorov was well aware that the supremacists were created by the Bulgarian state in order to act against the Macedonian movement.

Inspired by Emperor Ferdinand at the end of the last century, the supremacists, with help from well-known emigrant circles, implemented a Greater Bulgarian chauvinist policy to force Macedonia to join Bulgaria even by way of war if necessary.

In a report prepared for the 1926 Conference about the history and fundamental nature of VMRO (United) when the Regional Committee for the Macedonian part in Bulgaria was established, the following was highlighted: "The only people who want autonomy

52 Ibid., p. 243.

for Macedonia are the supremacists who hide inside the organization, the conductors of Bulgarian belligerent policies staging Macedonia towards its accession to Bulgaria". The Supremacist Committee was created in Sofia by Court order. It consisted primarily of Bulgarian officers whose goal was to subjugate the internal Macedonian organization to their will. With promises and armed pressure from the outside the Supremacist Committee tried and failed but did not give up. Its new tactic was to send its special member, Boris Sarafov to Macedonia. (As well as some other supremacists like him, who seemingly accepted the centralist idea that in order to subjugate the Organization they needed to penetrate it and take it over from the inside.)

In 1902-1903, the clandestine supremacist leaders (including Garvanov and Sarafov) hiding inside the Organization helped the supremacists fulfill their obligation, which was to provoke an early uprising before the people were prepared. Their goal was to compromise the revolutionary struggle, to disillusion the people so that they would lose faith in their own forces and turn their hopes to the Bulgarian army. Unfortunately the people didn't know about their hegemonic intentions and they rose up in revolt. The people weren't at fault and did what was expected of them, the fault lay with the top hegemonic element which had penetrated the VMRO leadership.

Even during the Young Turk uprising the supremacists played a destructive role. Even then it was not too late for them to instigate internal provocation and insurgent attacks directed from outside to cause harm inside Macedonia. Their aim was to instigate mass terror against the Ottoman government and against the people to turn the Young Turk uprising into a counter-revolutionary force, to compromise the rebellion and to create conditions for Bulgaria and the other Balkan states to declare war on the Ottomans and initiate Macedonia's partition. This anti-Macedonian course was taken by Todor Aleksandrov and Aleksandar Protogerov, the new members of the VMRO Supremacist Central Committee, who remained faithful to the Bulgarian imperialist policy both before and after the First World War.

The supremacists and the Bulgarian state leadership were the main culprits responsible for Macedonia's new problems. This included its invasion, occupation and partition by Sofia, Belgrade and Athens.

After all the suffering the Macedonian people had endured, the supremacist illusion that some kind of "liberation" would come from Bulgaria and the other Balkan states, faded away. In this way the supremacists suffered their first great defeat." Further down in the same report, in the section that described the state of distribution of the revolutionary forces in Macedonia, Shatorov said: "The reactionaries took advantage of the situation following a suggestion made by the so-called "black block", at the time when Todor Aleksandrov and A. Protogerov were renewing VMRO, to put on the autonomist mask in order to fool the Macedonian people and convince them to help the fascists fight against the rising revolutionary will of the people in Petrich Region and in the Bulgarian interior. As a result VMRO again fell into supremacist hands and was used by the fascists for war in the 1923 fascist coup in Bulgaria.

In was under these conditions that the Macedonian revolutionaries wanted to unite all Macedonian forces to struggle against the supremacists and to orientate themselves towards an anti-imperialist, anti-fascist front. The Macedonian revolutionaries were gathering great strength, especially before 1924, when the Communist Party corrected its policy regarding the Macedonian national question and when the Macedonian communists took an active role in the Macedonian national movement for the advancement of the Macedonian liberation cause. Because of this T. Alexandrov and A.

Protogerov made an agreement with Petar Chaulev, third VMRO Central Committee member, to sign the historic Vienna Manifesto for an alliance with all revolutionary factors in the Balkans who fought against the Balkan imperialists and to struggle to free Macedonia and to create and independent Macedonian state.

However, under pressure from the Bulgarian government, T.

Alexandrov and A. Protogerov shamefully renounced the Manifesto and again returned to the service of Bulgarian imperialism. Because of this, the supremacists and the Bulgarian establishment in Bulgarian occupied Macedonia dealt a blow to the Macedonian cause and temporarily overshadowed its independent national feelings.

By doing so the supremacists, who tried to convince the Slav speaking Macedonian population that the Macedonians were Bulgarians and sometimes put on a mask pretending to struggle for an autonomous or independent Macedonia, unmasked themselves even more before the Macedonian people." 53 Among other things, this is what Shatorov said about the VMRO (supremacists) in the documents published between April 1935 and the middle of 1936, when he was VMRO (United) Regional Committee secretary for the Pirin part of Macedonia: "The blows that Bulgarian imperialism and the Macedonian supremacist gangs inflicted on the VMRO (United) organizations didn't give them their expected result. Their terrorist actions (murders, kidnappings, etc.)

only temporarily stopped the organization's growth, but in parallel with that, the revolutionary upsurge and dissatisfaction among the Macedonian working masses increased much more which, together with the Bulgarian workers and peasants, threatened the very rule of Bulgarian imperialism.

After the general revolutionary upsurge began to strengthen in Macedonia and with the Macedonian people's persistent revolutionary struggle against Bulgarian and Balkan imperialism and against the Macedonian supremacists, the VMRO (United)

leadership began to expand its legal position. 54 At this point VMRO (United) called on the Macedonian people to resolutely resist the terror perpetrated by the Mihailovist gangs. It was now up to the Regional Committee to decisively and at an accelerated pace strengthen the single revolutionary front being created, which was to include the Bulgarian and Balkan workers, in order to liquidate Bulgarian and Balkan imperialism, and to once and for all defeat Macedonian supremacists so that the Macedonian people could gain the right to self-determination for Petrich Region and for the whole of Macedonia until its separation and the creation of an independent Macedonian state." 55 53 Shatorov's report, pp. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7. 54 VMRO (United) documents and materials, book 2, pp. 308, 309. 55 Ibid., pp. 310, 313, 314.

Among other things, this is what was said in an appeal issued by the VMRO (United) Regional Committee in May 1935: "We, the Macedonians who live in Bulgaria, more than ever, should now unite today under Gotse Delchev's banner and under the May Manifesto. Today there is a fascist dictatorship raging in Bulgaria under the sign of wild chauvinism and military preparation. The rise of the revisionist wave has made previous concealments carried out by the Mihailovist organizations unnecessary. The temporary game played for an "independent Macedonia" became redundant. Today the imperialists have declared the work carried out by the Macedonians to be part of Bulgarian state policy. They want to impose the Great Bulgarian ideology on all of us at any cost. That is why the National Committee (founded by a supremacist group in

1919) is invading our organizations and persecuting our Macedonian name, our Macedonian struggle, and our ideal of independence.

Those who encouraged the Maihailovists to act out the parables are now making a banner out of our struggle against them in order to win over the people. 56 (In other words, the supremacists secretly invaded Macedonians organizations and are now pretending to be revolutionaries working for the Macedonian cause and are focusing the people's anger against their former selves... At the same time they are inviting the people to join them. What treachery!).

The Bulgarian government is persecuting every righteous thought and every creative activity even more ferociously than ever before.

In St. Vrach for example, it has sentenced 25 of our brothers to about 100 years in prison just because they fought for freedom, for Delchev's and Sandanski's ideals and against Mihailovist tyranny.

The Mihailovists broke up their gangs in order to save them and themselves from the population's revenge and wrath which had already begun to riot. Now the people are becoming aware that the Mihailovists are no "liberators" but oppressors...

In another document it was said: "Let our people's VMRO (United)

in alliance with the Bulgarian workers and peasants, rise as one to overthrow the bloody fascist anti-Macedonian Bulgarian government and its hegemonic tools (the Mihailovists and

56 Ibid., p. 316.

Protogerovists). We demand the withdrawal of all Bulgarian military, police and administrative authorities from Petrich Region to be replaced with local Macedonian militias and an administration made up of conscripts. In this way conditions for self-determination can be created for Petrich Region in order to separate from imperialist Bulgaria. This will serve as a beginning of the liberation and unification of all of Macedonia. Down with bloody Bulgarian 57 imperialism and its agent VMRO (supremacist)." Among other things, this is what was said in the call "Tortured and wronged Macedonians" in the middle of May 1935: "At the suggestion of the emperor and as ordered by the army, supremacist gangs carried out the most ferocious terror against us. After the military-fascist coup on May 19, last year, the government dissolved Vancho Mihailov's organizations because they were interfering in Bulgarian imperialist matters. However, this didn't improve our situation. The terror perpetrated by these massive gangs was now being perpetrated by the military and the police." 58 Among other things, this is what VMRO (United) said during the May 1935 call regarding the Bulgarian imperialists and the supremacists (Mihailovists and Protogerovists): "They are denying the Macedonian people's right to their own state; to their own Macedonian national consciousness; to their own Macedonian language... the Bulgarian imperialists want to preserve their dominance over Petrich Region. They are carrying out Bulgarian propaganda among our people, in order to justify their occupying policy in relation to all of Macedonia. At the end, VMRO (United)

would like to highlight the slogans: Out with the Bulgarian occupying armed forces in Macedonia; Down with the violent planting of Bulgarian propaganda in Macedonia; defend your nationality; build the only Macedonian front to fight against the imperialist yoke." 59 Among other things, this is what the Regional Committee, headed by Shatorov, said in the June 1935 call: "The supremacists lack ideological arguments so they use parables, murders, distractions,

51 Ibid., pp. 315, 318, 319. 58 Ibid., p. 319. 59 Ibid., pp. 320, 321.

beatings and other similar acts. This bloody hegemony, encouraged by Bulgarian imperialism, is aimed at destroying VMRO (United)