Noose – Chapter 1

Noose – Chapter 1

Foretellers of doom.

The political committee in Bitola was dissolved around the middle of April 1945. In its place the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Macedonia (CPM) in Skopje, on April 23rd, 1945, created the Organizations NOF (National Liberation Front) simultaneously with AFZH (Women’s Anti-Fascist Front) and NOMS (People’s Liberation Youth Union of the Aegean Macedonians). These organizations belonged to the Macedonians from Aegean (Greek occupied) Macedonia. Their first message sent was: “MACEDONIAN BROTHERS! STAND FIRM AND LOOK FOR THE SALVATION THAT NOF AND AFZH WILL DELIVER!” (Leading Macedonian activists who were convicted by the CPG (Communist Party of Greece) and had fled Greece and gone to Yugoslavia were accepted by the CPM and the CPY (Communist Party of Yugoslavia). Then with public support from the CPM and the CPY the Political Committee of Aegean Macedonia was constituted in October 1944. The First Aegean Macedonian Brigade was formed in November, 1944. In April 1945 NOF, AFZH and NOMS were simultaneously formed.)

1.

After the Second World War, trouble came to Rudino as unexpectedly as the early spring when suddenly the fields and meadows became green, the gardens flowered early and the mountains became infested with new revolutionaries and all kinds of gangs. One Sunday morning in May 1945 we heard the church bell ringing, informing us not of a death or a holiday but of something disturbing and strange. This was evident by the bell’s irregular rings and by Vane Mingov’s hoarse voice calling out: “Villagers! Oh Villagers! Go to the village square. Our people will speak to us. Don’t be afraid…” “Newcomers! Who are these people with such mindless desire for power that makes them not only vile but also very gullible? Where do you come from, comrades? Hey friends, where are you from?” voices were heard asking. The purpose of the newcomers visiting the village was introduced by File Jazhin, Secretary of the Main Organization, a communist and member of the immediate NOF leadership. The villagers were surprised when they discovered that the reason for their summoning was to start a revolution. But when Jazhin began to force everyone to become members of NOF and AFZH, people were even more surprised and were left with their mouths wide open. And we, the youth who had just turned seventeen, were left dumbfounded. Voices among the villagers were heard whispering: “Didn’t the war just end!?” Perhaps that was the first phase of the war but it had certainly begun a new journey for my generation. Jazhin continued talking with a revolutionary tone of voice: “Remember your grandparents from Ilinden,” he said. “They too were not quite eighteen years of age when the first battles began and they fought with courage and dedication, becoming one of the most disciplined groups of fighters of that era. They rebelled and fought with courage as armed groups in this end of our world. Today, in this holy war, you will be led by NOF, behind which stand Marshal Tito and Generalissimo Stalin. It is time that our Macedonian cheek radiates light even at night! Nowhere has the Macedonian hero embarrassed or humiliated himself, he has always walked upright and that means a lot for all mankind, especially for us, the Macedonians.” This is how Jazhin addressed the crowd, thus introducing this deliberate “national action” prepared by the Organizations NOF and AFZH. He continued: “Dear villagers! Allow me to pass on to you this great joy that NOF, headed by Mitrovski, has organized its own armed units in Kostur, which are engaged in guerrilla warfare. They are the first units of our Macedonian army. NOF’s aim, directed by the Macedonian National Liberation Movement, is to apply all forms of struggle and to strive for self-determination and to unite the Macedonian people.”

2.

Ever since the first arrival of the activists in the village, Rudino was gripped by great excitement and suspicion. Six people were present belonging to the Organizations NOF and AFZH, all dressed in leather coats and brandishing Russian machine guns over their shoulders. Every man and woman in the village came to see them. There were also large groups of village children gathered in their presence. There were various stories spread about these activists. Some people were saying that they were fighters who had left ELAS (National Liberation Army of Greece) and had joined Tito's army, at General Tempo’s invitation. Now they had become hardened communists and were here to extinguish our sacred churches and monasteries. Others were whispering saying that the activists were there to extinguish their faith and pollute the holy water in which they were baptized. Yet others feared that the activists were there to defile their minds and ruin their love of God. Some were wondering if they were there to ruin their homes and erase their memories of God and their name.

But then a village woman spoke up. Her name was Ristana Shumenkova Bogdanova but in the village she was known as Traikovitsa Bogdanova, sister-in-law to Lina Goidova Bogdanova, better known as Lambrovitsa Bogdanova. During the large gathering Ristana said she had a question. The moment she spoke the entire crowd turned to listen to her. The activists frowned at her and changed their mood. Un-phased Ristana stepped forward onto the makeshift stage, standing upright and tall with her head held high and said: “I want to say something. Does it mean that we women will now all belong to the Anti-Fascist Front? Personally, I don’t believe that these organizations are Macedonian. If they are Macedonian why are they not called MNOF and MAFZH? (M for Macedonian). There is something unclear here! To what Macedonian front will you be taking us? Didn’t Germany just capitulate? Are there more Fascists? How are we going to establish this front and with what kind of weapons will we be fighting? And what kind of struggle will we be leading? What about our children? With whom will we be leaving our children? What would be an even bigger shame is when our husbands working in America and Australia find out, what will they say? America will have the right to tell our husbands, ‘What is with you people? We employ you here so that your wives back home can pick up rifles and fight against Anglo-American imperialism?!’ You are forcing us to become Godless. And in what church will we pray then? Or are you playing a mock-war with us? If we give up our God and accept to follow your leader, who then will protect us from the anger of a neglected God? The ground that feeds us will then swallow us… Like insane women – without husbands and children. That would be the ultimate evil and we will forever walk the earth tarred…” Ristana paused for a moment and then resumed her talk against the evil that these people were bringing upon them… “Let me ask you again, are you not putting a NOOSE around our necks by doing this?” Ristana Shumenkova Bogdanova stood there upright and alone with her stature. With her eyes open, arms spread out, heart wide open and as if a lump had gotten stuck in her throat, she stood there in despair but without losing hope. Her forehead became moist with sweat and she thought to herself that she had better not faint. And while feeling badly and waiting for an answer, she cursed through her teeth, “Kapka da ve udri.” She then raised her arms as if she was caught in a NOOSE. One of the women from AFZH gave Ristana Shumenkova Bogdanova an inquisitive glance and said to her: “Your God is not a living God and cannot cause you any harm… We have all decided to fight against Anglo-American imperialism and, if need be, we will all die for the freedom of our people! And you Comrade Bogdanova, with what you said, we now know and understand that you and those like you are on the side of America.” All at once, everyone started talking, shouting and reaching out to seize her and get her off the makeshift stage. At that moment the woman from AFZH, with a spark of a fighter in her eye and with a stern and nervous voice, said: “You are crazy – a sold out soul and here I am telling you about the communist revolution.” Ristana at that point crossed herself and said: “God help me. Up to now we all knew that men made war. But you sister, what are you doing with that machine gun on your shoulder? Women are born to hold children on their chests, not guns that kill people! War and machine guns belong to men. The truth is that most men love war because it brings them glory and they take pleasure in fighting. Women do not enjoy war. We women are made to give birth and raise a nation, not kill one. We witnessed enough horror and barbarism in the German and Italian war; we don’t need any more wars. Why war again? Why is the AFZH calling on all Macedonian women to go to war en masse?” Agitated by the bickering, Risto Kalchunov, at that moment, yelled at the AFZH woman saying: “You are not only wrong about God, you are wrong about us too.

And you comrade should know that almost all of our men are migrant workers and are out there earning a living so that they can feed their families. And now you have declared them to be our enemies and working for the Anglo-American fascists? Why do you do that? Why do you anger and antagonize the villagers?” Several giggling girls looked curiously at the newcomers. “Be quiet,” I said to them, “I want to hear what is going on.” I could barely keep myself from laughing because I could not believe the words coming out of the AFZH woman’s mouth. She spoke with such insolence that she reminded me of a banished bride from a good household… We, the village boys, did not understand what was actually happening. We did not understand what was truly meant by a “revolution”. For us these were just words that File Jazhin used. I remember him whispering to me, “Look, in such a muddy situation you don’t say no! If you do, maybe tomorrow you will suffer just the same under communist rule. This is the time to say yes. You along with my son, as young people, must follow any orders given to you without objection. Were your grandfathers and mine not fighters of Ilinden? There will be no objections. You will listen and perhaps one day we Macedonians will gain our freedom...”

3.

So the people of NOF began “to lay the foundation for the ‘future’ of the Macedonian people and for Macedonia” and to fill the minds of this small nation with GREAT ILLUSIONS. Activists began to spread the message to villagers saying: “He who today does not feel the breath of Soviet-ization (which is sweeping across Europe) will be unconditionally and quickly rejected and trapped in a future classless society: in a United Macedonia within Yugoslavia.” One activist waving a newspaper showed us a statement made by Marshal Tito in Moscow in April 1945, published by the newspaper “The New York Times”, which said: “... If the Macedonians in Greece express desire to unite with the Macedonians in Yugoslavia, we will respect their wishes…” There was a strong cry of “Hooray! Hooray, long live comrades Tito and Stalin” to this statement. The activists spoke so convincingly that one of the villagers said: “It would be terrible to stand in the way of these loyal people of ours who have dedicated themselves and directed their energies towards our salvation and towards the love of big brothers Tito and Stalin.” Another villager, unshaven, with red cheeks, sitting on the edge of the fence with his legs crossed and hands placed on his knees, smiled and jokingly spoke slowly but clearly in his Kostur dialect. He was called Sotir Gaidov-The learned. He was the son of Pop Damian Gaidov. Sotir turned towards the speaker and said: “The real reason for your visit is unclear. It sounds to me like this is someone’s fantasy, or a good strategy of a great revolutionary, a dreamer who wants to reshape the new Balkans or this is Tito’s plan to solve his internal problems on the backs of the Macedonians. We the Macedonians are neither the first nor the last to be used in this great Balkan experiment, which you call ‘SOVET-IZATION OF THE BALKANS’. Strange are the times we live in. Balkan wars are usually fought on the backs of the Macedonians. Every TRUE path is very difficult to take, but I want to know: First, what kind of future and government are you offering us? What are your thoughts and, according to you, would we Macedonians be able to stop the war and the eradication of our homeland? Perhaps today nobody believes that such a war could be utilized for the benefit of strangers and for us to be left with our finger in our mouth... Surely you must know that on February 12th this year the Varkiza agreement was signed, an agreement between the CPG, EAM and ELAS on one side and the Plastiras Greek government and Skobi, the British General on the other, and that power to govern Greece was handed over to the British. Second, it bothers me that you don’t know that what you are proclaiming today as ‘the whole Macedonian people having the desire for a United Macedonia’ was also the attitude of Pijade, Rankovic, Djilas and Vlahov at the National Assembly of Serbia, held on November 10, 1944. But then, only two days later on November 12th, 1944, when Josip Broz -Tito met with a Greek delegation, he said: “The issue of unification of Aegean Macedonia with the other parts of Macedonia was never put in place.”

How about the attitude of big brother Stalin? After the Soviet Army entered Bulgaria there was talk about a Yugoslav-Bulgarian Federation, emphasizing the unification of Macedonia, which assumed the separation of Aegean Macedonia from Greece. Was this talk not the reason why Churchill traveled to Moscow on October 8th, 1944, where he and Stalin signed a mutual agreement that Greece now fully fell under the influence and control of Great Britain? Then, soon after that, British troops landed in Greece and on October 18th, 1944 the Papandreou government in exile was installed in Greece. Then on November 5th, 1944 orders were issued to disband the ELAS units. And with that the ‘SOVET-IZATION OF GREECE’ became one great big lie. And really because you don’t know all these things you are running around, as our people would say ‘barefoot on thorns’. And by doing that are you not helping the Greek government and the British to completely stamp out our people? For what brothers and what Soviet-ization are you talking about?” asked Sotir Gaidov, continuing: “Have you really forgotten the Yalta agreement? (A meeting between the spheres of influence took place in Yalta where it was decided that all boundaries were to remain unchanged). So I ask myself and many people ask themselves: What will happen with the formation of NOF and AFZH in Skopje under the leadership of the CPM and CPY? Are you not, with these organizations, perhaps unconsciously, being ordered by strangers to import a revolution into Aegean Macedonia? Perhaps this would be a good time to desire the past a little less and refrain from going back in time. Do you not see how the Macedonian consciousness of themselves and their reality has been fully turned into ideological activism? Don’t you see that with this, strangers are pushing us into the arms of the colonists (Greeks)? How complex can history be? Instead of seeking peace after a World War, we are now being asked to turn to fight another war, a senseless war. We are forcing our people to go to war against their will. This kind of war will never be justified! It is a deceiving enigma. Justice will be long and expensive and it could bring us genocide. First, the Greek communists began a campaign to seize power but then ELAS turned around and surrendered its arms and turned its power over to Papandreou’s Greek government, which had just returned from exile! Second, the Yugoslav communists arrested and even killed Macedonian fighters who asked to go to Solun! And today the very same people who arrested the Macedonian fighters are the ones who are organizing NOF and AFZH! Don’t you think that they are pulling us into a dangerous trap? Don’t you think that perhaps they are putting our fate into a NOOSE, again? There was truly a reason not to go to Solun on January 7th, 1944 because at that time the British were already in Greece and had, and still have, stationed some 200,000 troops, 400 aircraft and 3,000 tanks. Besides those, there were also 100,000 Greek soldiers. In addition to those, in Solun there were also about 10,000 Royal Yugoslav troops. All of them were still under the command of British General Skobi. Now I ask myself: ‘What are you doing here?’ Tito, the same person who justifiably prevented Macedonian fighters from going to Solun, almost a couple of months later, has sent you here?! You, in the name of NOF and AFZH are now calling the people to start a new war. But don’t you see that this is only a call to murder your own people? Don’t you see that this is a call for your own people to grab the arms that will slay them? Don’t you think that someone is perpetrating a great big lie on us?! Why can’t you understand that your actions have nothing to do with the legitimacy or honour of our people? We Macedonians must not allow ourselves to be used in this way. We must not allow our people to be pushed to go to war. We must not allow others to impose an alien will on us. We have to accept the fact that in this way, through the call to war by NOF and AFZH, we have no realistic chance of success.

But what I fear will happen is that, through these actions of NOF and AFZH, we will be crammed under the CPG umbrella and the Greeks are masters of manipulation. And just then we will not be able to defend our political ideals. Even as fighters we will not be able to defend our political stance which is beneficial to our people and to our homeland. What do you think? Calling the Macedonian people to unite and join NOF and AFZH in good faith, is not someone else’s initiative supported by the CPG and the CPY? Has this idea been born and approved by our nation, the Macedonian people themselves? Will any one of us dare speak out against these disloyal patriotic ideas in front of these harsh totalitarian regimes? I don’t know about that! If anyone does, I am sure they will immediately be declared disobedient and rogue and you know such people are known to disappear and to end up in prison, in exile or, God forbid, under the ground as enemies of the people. Do you think we will find the strength to say, ‘Macedonian people, the leaders Tito or Zahariadis will not implement what they preach and promise?’ I am convinced that no one will understand the fraud you are perpetrating here. No one will be able to explain how through organizations such as NOF and AFZH some can perpetrate such deliberate actions. I remember the words my grandfather told me, ‘He who does not love and respect his own, will be used by strangers as many times as they need to use him’.”

4.

Radio London reported that a meeting of the “Big three” was held from July 17th to August 5th, 1945 in the palace Selienkof located in the town of

Potsdam near Berlin. The meeting accomplished basically nothing except that it started the so-called ‘Cold War’. The anti-Hitler coalition allies consisting of Great Britain (Winston Churchill), the United States (Harry Truman) and the Soviet Union (dictator of the USSR, Joseph Visarionovich Stalin), who, in their final effort managed to defeat German fascism, ceased to love each other, setting the stage for our more recent history that only later became known as the Cold War era. It was at this conference in Potsdam that Winston Churchill also coined the phrase “iron curtain” which divided Europe into spheres of interest.

5.

The Greek reactionaries defined NOF as treacherous, autonomist and extremely “dangerous” to Greek national interests. Then in April and June 1945, at their XI and XII Central Committee Plenums, the CPG Central Committee made ignorant decisions to actually not recognize NOF, resulting in a frontal attack against its leading cadres and against all Macedonians who were members of this and other organizations. The following statement was made regarding NOF by the CPG Central Committee at Plenum XII in June 1945: “NOF, with its rapid popularization and with its military formations, is dangerously threatening the Greek character of Macedonia, Greece’s positions and interests therein and Greece’s territorial integrity.” With statements such as these, especially the one about Greece’s territorial integrity being in “danger” from NOF, the CPG practically declared war on the Macedonians. This was a call on the Greek population in Macedonia and in all of Greece to fight against NOF in order to save Macedonia because the CPG feared that Tito had “aggressive plans against Greek Macedonia and wanted to annex Aegean Macedonia to Yugoslavia.”