R E P U B L I C OF M A C E D O N I A

R E P U B L I C OF M A C E D O N I A

University of “St. Cyril and Methodius” Faculty of Philology “Blazhe Koneski” - Skopje

Literature of fact in Petre Nakovski’s novels - Master’s thesis -

Mentor: Professor Dr. Kristina Nikolovska

Candidate: Tatjana Pelivanova

Skopje, 2013

Translated from Macedonian to English and edited by Risto Stefov

SUMMARY

The novels “Postela za chemernite” (A bed for the wretched), “I kamenot e zemia” (A stone too is soil), “Golemata udolnitsa” (The great decline), “Golemata izmama” (The great lie), and “Na pat so vremeto” (On the road of time)”, written by Petre Nakovski, are in theme dedicated to the Macedonian national minority in Greece and its experience during the Greek Civil War (1946-1949). They cover events that took place prior to and during that turbulent and tragic period. The novels particularly deal with the fate of individual and collective consequences.

The above-mentioned novels depict the most essential historical and social events before and during the Greek Civil War with special attention given to the Macedonian participation.

The main feature of the above mentioned novels is the true representation of historically authentic events, which through facts, testimonies, historical documents, authentic occurrences and places have captured the truth about the perseverance and survival of the Macedonian people in Aegean Macedonia (Northern Greece) which should be known worldwide. The novels, through Petre Nakovski’s literary works, reveal the tragic individual and collective truth of the experience the Macedonians under Greece underwent which destroyed their human psyche. The novels are literature about the bitter truth, literature about Macedonian DAG fighter heroism, literature that defines the DAG fighters, the child exodus, the mobilization of the children’s parents in the war effort, the participation of Macedonian women in the Greek Civil War and DAG’s tragic defeat that led to the eradication and relocation of the Macedonian people from their place of origin without the possibility of ever returning to their homes.

With this master’s thesis, entitled “Literature of fact in Petre Nakovski’s novels”, the intent is to provide a deeper analytical penetration into the essence of the literature of fact in which the most important elements are the truth, the historical fact, the authentic event…

One of the aims in this paper is to emphasize Nakovski’s literary value which, through his novels, reveals the tragic fate of those who suffered during the Greek Civil War, from one side showing resilience while facing suffering and death, and from another demonstrating endless trust, faith, heroism and hope. For this reason, perhaps, there is a need to answer the following question:

“Did the traumas end for the Macedonian people who experienced the exodus?”

Keywords: Greek Civil War, document, fact, exodus, suffering, truth, faith, hope.

1. INTRODUCTION

After the conclusion of World War II and during the Greek Civil War (1946-1949), the status of the Macedonian national minority in Greece was not well represented in the Macedonian historiography and contemporary Macedonian literature. Although it was very interesting it was insufficiently researched, especially the experience of the Macedonian people under Greece. Macedonian contemporary literature for this period, however, is well reflected in Petre Nakovski’s novels:

- “Postela za chemernite” (1985) (A bed for the wretched); - “I kamenot e zemia” (1988) (A stone too is soil); - “Golemata udolnitsa” (2003) (The great decline); - “Golemata izmama” (2007) (The great lie); - “Na pat so vremeto” (2010) (On the road of time); as well as the two works “Makedonskite detsa vo Polska 1948-1968” (Macedonian children in Poland 1948-1968” and the collection of documents entitled “Makedonskite begaltsi vo Polska 1948-1975” (Macedonian refugees in Poland 1948-1975).

Without a doubt Petre Nakovski’s novels can be viewed as testimony of the Greek Civil War, a document of the time, as well as a testament to the people who persevered. Among other things, the novels also contain evidence of antihumanism and crimes committed against the Macedonians. The novels authentically describe the tragedy experienced by the Macedonian people during the Greek Civil War. They are a historical record of human suffering, of people losing their hearth, of people being nationally and ideologically tormented and of betrayed illusions of the individual. The novels are a record of the historical tragedy and real life agony the Macedonian people experienced in Northern Greece. The novels are also a record of great suffering and of the years of self-sacrifice in the name of freedom and national and individual dignity.

Nakovski’s aim in writing these novels was motivated by the need to expose the entire evil that the war imposed on the Macedonian people. The novels are abundant with descriptions of incidents and chronicles of cruelty, violence, ruthlessness, humiliation,uand betrayal in this historical slaughter which the “pro-communist Greek generals and the then communist countries created for the Aegean Macedonian hermits who dreamed of their homeland and their altar of autocephaly.”1

The novels are the literature of the Greek Civil War, a peculiar judgment of the people, a picture of the behavior of the individual and the collective before the act of endangerment.

1 See: Review of the novel “Golemata udolnitsa”. - Petre Nakovski: Skopje, Makavej, 2003

They are literature of the destruction of the human psyche, literature of the bitter truth, literature of the distinctiveness of the boys and girls who fought in DAG.

Literature of the Macedonian tradition presented through the elements: folklore, faith, collective symbols, toponyms, etc.

They are literature that recounts the participation of Macedonian women in the Greek Civil War.

They are literature that describes tragic events - the exodus of children and the mobilization of their parents.

Petre Nakovski’s novels have offered the reader the chance to uncover the truth about the Macedonians under Greece and to answer the question:

What truly happened to the Macedonians under Greece during the Greek Civil War and what does the modern Macedonian know about that?

In these novels we will look for answers to the following questions:

• Could the author of these novels forestall the fate of the people who were actors in those tragic events?

• Did the Macedonian people in Aegean Macedonia (Northern Greece) join the Greek Civil War as communists, i.e. as disciplined members of the CPG, or did they join the war looking for something other than what the communist idea offered?

• How much influence did the so-called “White terror” 2 have on the individual and on the Macedonian masses to join the resistance?

• What were the Greek state’s motives to carry out the “white terror” against the Macedonians?

• What motivated the Macedonians to join en masse and participate in the Greek Civil War?

• Did the CPG, at the appointed time, exercise the Macedonian people’s national rights?

• What were the Macedonians looking for?

• What did they gain?

• What did they lose?

2 See: Ετσι αρхισε ο εµφυλιος, Εκδοσεις Γλαρος, 1987 (This is how the Civil War began).

• Were they criminals or heroes?

• Could their behaviour and posture deserve to be condemned “post factum” morally from the point of view of the time in which the novels were written?

• Should we modern Macedonians erase the image of the Greek Civil War from our personal and national memory?

The consequences of the Greek Civil War have been uncovered through analysis of the novels over: facts, testimonies, historical documents, authentic events and places. The Greek Civil War ended with the defeat of the Macedonian national aspirations and the physical extermination of the Macedonian people in this region – a destroyed Macedonian economy in the Kostur-Lerin Region, many villages destroyed, people evicted and exiled from their homes, their properties confiscated, their homes looted, the Macedonian family destroyed through the child collection program and through the taking of children to Eastern European countries.

And now we will attempt to answer the following questions:

- “How much did the Greek Civil War contribute to the survival of the Macedonians?”

- “What were the consequences for the cultural and ordinary life?”

- “What ways and means did the Greek State use to assimilate the Macedonian population? What was its position in regards to education, administration, ban on the use of the Macedonian language, denial of the Macedonian national identity, forced changes to personal names, surnames and toponyms?”

Two words were most often used in the communist propaganda that was supposed to attract the Macedonian population; they were “fascism” and “monarcho-fascism”. Fascism was a remnant of the Italian, German and Bulgarian occupations, and monarcho-fascism was derived from the restoration of the monarchy in Greece and from the “white terror” and “anti-communism” imposed on the Macedonian people.

The answers to these questions are at the heart of Nakovski’s novels, which will also be the subject of this research.

The novels are a testimony to the tragic fate of those who suffered in the Greek Civil War, who, on the one hand demonstrated their perseverance in the face of suffering and death, and on the other, their endless heroism.

The Greek Civil War ended in defeat for the resistance.

“Did the trauma end for the Macedonian people who survived the exodus?”

The title “Literature of fact in Petre Nakovski’s novels” of this master’s thesis was chosen for the need of deeper analysis through: facts, testimonies, historical documents, authentic events and places… There was a need to know the truth about the survival and perseverance of the Macedonian people from the Aegean part of Macedonia (Northern Greece).

Petre Nakovski’s above-mentioned novels deal with the very essential historical and social events that took place before and during the Greek Civil War with special reference to the participation of the Macedonian people.

The main feature of the above-mentioned novels is that they all refer to the Greek Civil War. It is noteworthy to mention that they all serve as source material for the Greek State’s terror against the Macedonian population. They chronicle the Macedonian participation in the Greek Civil War; the Macedonian commitment, courage and self-sacrifice for national liberation and for defense of the Macedonian identity and human dignity. The most essential part of the novels is the truth; the historical authentic events which provide the reader with a wide opportunity for learning the truth about those difficult, dramatic and sad times.