On the Road of Time – Chapter 7

On the Road of Time – Chapter 7

The winding forest road took us to the top of Lisets Hill whose summit soars at an elevation of 1827 meters above sea level. The top of the hill, where the antennas are located, is bare and treeless with a wide view of the surrounding mountains. One can see Bigla, Lundzer, Vicho, Siniachka and Mali-Madi from here. And beyond there, one can see Orle, Odre, Gorusha, Bel Kamen, Nikoler, Aliabitsa and further, further away in the gray fog one can see the summit of Gramos. At the foot of the mountain is an area called Koreshta which includes the Kostur Region valley, the city Kostur and Lake Kostur. To the west lie Vrba, Ivan Mountain, Galichitsa and the two Prespa lakes. The picturesque view was captivating and charming. But we did not come here to admire the picturesque landscape and the rare and beautiful Macedonian mountains. We came here to look for traces of the struggle, of the last effort symbolized by the slogan “The enemy will not pass Vicho”. Thousands of villagers from nearby and distant Macedonian villages, along with seven or eight thousand Partisans from DAG (Democratic Army of Greece) spent seven months here digging trenches and building bunkers. All the hills and mountains in the Vicho vicinity were a chain of defence. On the eve of the major offensive, on the eighth and ninth of August, the opponent brought a large force to the Koreshtanska basin and all through the night the Partisans, through the bunker gun holes, watched the lights of the pitched tents. The Partisan brigade commanders, deployed in the surrounding hills and mountains, kept a watchful eye on the build up of this large government force and did nothing to stop it. They received no orders to start bombarding it with their 45 cannon and mortar tubes. Not a single shell or grenade exploded in the Koreshtanska Basin that night. What would have been the result if all the Partisan forces in the surrounding hills had concentrated their fire on the government forces in the Koreshtanska Basin? What would have been the result if the entire Partisan artillery, positioned all around the hills, were to thunder before the great and decisive battle? Unfortunately the Partisan guns never thundered... Insiders say that never happened because there was treason... ...During the night of August 10th and 11th the government brigade attacked Lisets. The hill exchanged hands several times before it was eventually taken by the government troops. The enemy passed Vicho and the road was wide open for Prespa and for escape to Albania. While standing on top of Lisets Hill, I took my notebook out of my backpack and began to read the notes I had made at the Institute of National History of Macedonia, before leaving on this trip. Safeguarded at the Institute were dozens of monographs, written in the last forty years or so, about the villages of this part of Macedonia. Some monographs were simple point-form notes, made in a hurry to preserve the information. Others were properly written with elaborate data attached to them. Irrespective of how they were written, the monographs are historic documents that detail many facts about the villages such as names, places, description of events, customs, folk songs, dances, etc. They prove that each village was once a living and thriving entity. The information about these villages that left me with the most painful impression was the numbers. Population numbers, the number of people mobilized, the number of people that died during the wars, the number of people that died in the prisons camps and dried islands, the number of people displaced and evicted from their homes and so on. But the numbers which I wrote in my notebook were the numbers pertaining to the Greek Civil War as follows:

Village name, number of people mobilized, number of people killed

Aitos, mobilized132, killed 39 Besfina, mobilized 96, killed 25 Bapchor, mobilized 180, killed 62 Tiolishta, mobilized 55, killed 20 Mokren mobilized 188, killed 75 Konomladi, mobilized 367, killed 69 Dobrolishta, mobilized 53, killed 20 Ezerets, mobilized 34, killed 12 Krchishta, mobilized 43, killed 29 Vmbel, mobilized 105, killed 19 Grache, mobilized 66, killed 38 Grazhdeno, mobilized 46, killed 21 Zagorichani, mobilized 87, killed 62 German, mobilized 288, killed 92 Nestram, mobilized 127, killed 60 Statitsa, mobilized 185, killed 53 Setina, mobilized 160, killed 65 Oshchima, mobilized 87, killed 26 Zelenich, mobilized 95, killed 23 Dobrolishcha, mobilized 51, killed 20 Breshcheni mobilized 41, killed 13 Kosinets, mobilized 66, killed 22 Sheshtevo, mobilized 87, killed 20 Staricheni, mobilized 30, killed 12 Zhuzheltse, mobilized 33, killed 11 Chereshnitsa, mobilized 54, killed 13 Novoseleni, mobilized 32, killed 15 Krushoradi, mobilized 62, killed 36

Drenoveni, mobilized 42, killed 9 Rulia, mobilized 125, killed 36

Under what law were these people mobilized when a government did not exist? During the course of the war one of the orders was to “go in with ten and come out with twenty”. In other words, ten fighters would go into a village and they would return to the mountains with ten more. This is how they mobilized the young men and women from the villages and forced them out to the mountains… Many of these young men and women, forced out of their homes, lost their lives in battle. A great number of them were killed in 1948 and 1949 at Gramos, Vicho, Negush, Voden and Lerin. This is how many I recorded in my notebook… But how many more died that are not recorded, that I don’t know about? .................................................................... .................................................................... .................................................................... …………………………………………… …………………………………………… …………………………………………… (The dotted lines above are left for the readers to fill.)

I owe my gratitude to each reader or researcher if they can fill the empty rows above with information about their village and all the villages they know about the number of people mobilized and the number of people lost during the Greek Civil War. Those empty rows were left there deliberately so that our readers can make a personal effort to supplement the list with more information before that valuable information is forgotten and lost forever. This list represents the tragedy that befell the Macedonian people in their struggle for their rights and freedom. And that’s not all. How many more have died and remain forever in the cemeteries of the Eastern European countries, former USSR and former Yugoslavia? Numbers… Numbers… Numbers… Behind each number there is pain. Behind each number there are tears, suffering and the hopelessness of having to wait. Behind each number there is a widow and orphans. Behind each number there is an unknown, unmarked grave. Behind each number there were many long marches in rain, snow and cold. Behind each number there were unsuccessful battles, hunger, wounds… Numbers… Behind each number there is an abandoned house and roots that have been cut. Behind each number there is a dearest, a loved one, a close one, a most thought of, a most waited for,… Numbers… and as you close your eyes it seems like they come to life, they smile and promise that today, tomorrow, the day after, next year, they will return… Numbers… they are for those who were left at Kopanche, Aliavitsa, Charno, Krastavets, Sveti Ilia, Krusha, Gorisha, Kiafa, Kleftis, Gorna Arena, Dolna Arena, Vicho, Mali-Madi, Baro, Iamata, Roto, Plati, Krsto, Bigla, Lundzer, Bela Voda, Vrba, Grevena, Negush, Voden, Lerin, Prespansko Ezero, the hospitals in Korcha, Durres, Elbasan, Tirana, Sukt, Iasenovo, Katlanovo… Numbers… Numbers… Numbers… We put a foot on Vicho and Bigla, on Lundzer, Lisets and Mali-Madi and the rest of the hills looked like they were tied by a chain in a circle looking like a giant wreath… I felt like yelling so I called out: People, people, oh people!... Where are you oh people!!! There was no answer. Only heavy silence as deep as the dark abyss; fatal silence from a heavy curse… and pain, pain from an open wound… This was the wish of others… “for there to be no people… for there to be no human answer…”