MISFORTUNE COMES TO A PERSON WITH GOOD WILL

MISFORTUNE COMES TO A PERSON WITH GOOD WILL

It was Uranitsa’s idea to go to a place where a buzuki was playing. I had my reservations and objected. I said: “We are not that kind of

people Lale my dear”. She looked at me with wide open eyes and said: “Why not…? Are those who go there any better than us…?”

After that I figured it is best to show some good will and stop complaining. We went to a local buzuki that same evening. It was a strange thing to see! Little by little the passionate music carried me off! Influenced by the ambience I began to forget my troubles. And when I saw the others ordering plates and breaking them on the dancing tide, I too called the waiter and ordered three dozen plates…!

Uranitsa vigorously intervened and said: “What’s wrong with you! Why did you order the plates? You want to look like a gentleman with deep pockets… you poor creature…?”

By then I was already completely overtaken by the ambience and did not hear anything she said. I had already had a few drinks too many and my vanity had taken hold of me...

“Tonight I will chew iron…!” I yelled out, “Let death die…!”

“Sit still…!” she whispered sternly through her teeth.

“Tonight we are celebrating…!” I grunted in a loud voice.

“Get a grip Onufri…!” she yelled, “You are making an ass of yourself… Damn it!”

“I will pay for them and I will break them!” I hissed back at her like a bumblebee and called the waiter again: “Bring me the plates you clumsy oaf…!”

He quickly ran back and brought me the plates.

“Give them to me…!” ordered Uranitsa and took them. “Now you got me going…!” she yelled.

She did not waste any time before she started breaking the dishes one by one over my head while smiling at the audience in the room... As if that was not enough, at the same time, the singer

deliberately blurted the words “I am a man... I am doing what I like…” right into the song.

Imagine the kind of situation that was…!

(Romance)

The manuscript “KITKA PLEVELI” is a selection of short satirical and humorous stories translated from Russian to Macedonian. I have used this book to try to show the kind of humour that exists in the USSR. I offered it in two or three places without success.

I am particularly fond of the manuscript entitled “THE MACEDONIANS AND THE NATIONAL LIBERATION WAR -THE GREEK CIVIL WAR”. This was written on the occasion of the publishing of the book “General Markos” by Dragan Kliakich, GLOBUS edition, Zagreb 1979. Skopje 1980.

That was the cover page. And written under point 1 was:

“Recently, a book by Dragan Kliakich, entitled “General Markos” appeared in our bookstores, published by Zagreb’s GLOBUS in 1979.

Several works have been published in neighbouring Greece on the same topic, i.e. the national liberation war and the Greek Civil War, but none can be compared to Dragan Kliakich’s book by the strength of his arguments presented and his clear interpretation of events. The reason for that is simple: None of the Greek authors have far-reaching testimony like that of Dragan Kliakich.

a) Testimony given by Svetozar Vukmanovich-Tempo:

As delegate of NOVJ Supreme Headquarters, Tempo visited ELAS Headquarters in the middle of 1943 in order to exchange experiences and establish maximum cooperation. He had several meetings and lengthy talks with the competent resistance leaders in Greece. At that time ELAS command was headed by Andreas Dzhimas, Aris Velouhiotis, Stephanos Sarafis and CPG secretary Georgios Siantos. Because of the profoundly different strategy and

tactics used by the Greek resistance leaders, there was no significant cooperation. Tempo highlighted those differences in his testimony. Given this, the reader should have no difficulty understanding why the resistance movement in Greece suffered a disaster even though ELAS held almost all of Greece in its hands…

b) Testimony given by Ivan Karaivanov:

Karaivanov worked in the Comintern executive council and in the Balkan communist Parties personnel department from the beginning of the 1930’s to the end of 1937. In his book “People and Pygmies” (1950) Karaivanov wrote a great deal about the various communist leaders who he had the opportunity to meet and get to know. A decade later he visited DAG Headquarters on Mount Pind and, together with General Markos, reviewed DAG’s combat positions. Karaivanov followed developments in Greece with great interest. Karaivanov’s book “People and Pygmies” was published after DAG was defeated and after the uprising in Greece ended. According to Kliakich this is what, among other things, Karaivanov thought of Zahariadis:

I. “In 1926, Zahariadis was appointed secretary of the youth communist organization in Solun. He was arrested and imprisoned in the Edikule prison but escaped three months later. After that he was summoned to go to Athens where he became a member of the Communist Youth of Greece Central Committee and was sent back to work in Solun. He was again arrested but managed to again escape when he was being escorted to prison. Zahariadis was appointed Party Secretary of the party organization in Piraeus in May 1926. Towards the end of 1926 the police arrested him again, but he managed to flee for the third time. In 1927 the police arrested him in Volos and again he managed to escape for the fourth time. Zahariadis escaped again, for the fifth time, this time from the hands of the police in 1928 when they were taking him up the underground Athens-Piraeus railway...”

“I mentioned all these incidents,” wrote Karaivanov, “so that our readers can see how Zahariadis managed to slip out of the hands of the authorities and be saved so many times…” Immediately after that Karaivanov wrote: “Zahariadis’s escapes are reminiscent of the

escapades practiced by the Japanese police with their agents among the Communists in the first years after the First World War...”

II. – According to what was written in the first volume of Zahariadis’s biography, published in 1949 in Sofia in the Bulgarian language, the “Greek Reporting Service and the English” handed Zahariadis to Hitler’s people on May 20, 1941. According to Karaivanov the “Gestapo took him to prison in Vienna where he was immediately subjected to a hearing, but Zahariadis did not say anything about the CPG and ended the hearings with statements made against Hitler and Greece’s German and Italian occupiers.” Karaivanov did not find it necessary to comment about this case. Zahariadis’s apparent heroism and especially how he was tolerated by the Gestapo, speaks for itself… In other words the whole thing was staged...

III. – According to Karaivanov “The Gestapo then transferred Zahariadis to the Dachau concentration camp. Here he invested all his strength in organizing not only the Greek Communistsbut also the German Communists, as well as the Communists of other European nations who lived in Hitler’s hell and fought against Hitler’s politics in the camp…” Karaivanov wanted his readers to know what kind of person Zahariadis was and what he did in the Dachau camp. Karaivanov wrote: “Zahariadis organized all the Communists and fought against Hitler’s politics but we are adding this passage out of his biography because we want our readers to remember him. No leader of the communist parties was left alive by Hitler’s people, with the exception of the famous Trogler who showed himself to be a traitor during Dimitrov’s trial in Leipzig and, of course, Zahariadis who was allowed to organize the Communists and fight against Hitler’s politics in Dachau…!” Following that Karaivanov wrote: “It will only be a matter of time before the documents from Dachau come to light and we will know Zahariadis’s true role in Dachau...”

IV. After Hitler’s Germany capitulated, the English took Zahariadis over from the Gestapo who “for some reason” was kept alive and, according to Greek sources, was kept safe and sound at their German headquarters working as an interpreter from where, according to his biography, he was freed by the English and

Americans. Then, after about a three-week stay in London, out of the goodness of his English hosts, he was shipped out on a special plane which brought him to Athens on May 29, 1945. Zahariadis was then again formally elected CPG Secretary General at the CPG VII Congress in October 1945. Karaivanov wrote:

“Historically speaking Zahariadis did not link the labour movement with the partisan movement. The partisan struggle in Greece was a villager struggle under CPG leadership. And this was a weakness for the partisan movement. Without the working class as the core and without the people’s intelligentsia, the partisan units could not play their liberating role... That Zahariadis knew very well...”

This is true. The partisan movement was never tied to the workers’ movement. It remained isolated from the proletariat in the cities and from the people’s intelligentsia. But there was more than that: Soon after the CPG Central Committee II Plenum was held in February 1946, say by the middle of 1946, the Party organizations in the villages were dissolved. In other words the CPG did not act in the villages. It was also characteristic that Markos, from the very beginning, was given a directive not to create Party cells and Party organizations in the partisan units...

From what Karaivanov wrote and from what Kliakich deduced, it can be concluded that Zahariadis was a retired police agent (page 223), an agent of international anti-communism...

c) General Markos’s testimony:

Based on his own diary and source documents of that time, Markos Vafiadis has gone into great detail to describe the rise and development of the Greek Civil War. This is what Leo Mathes wrote in “Reich Publishing” (p. 13): “That is possible, with a most surprising view, an interesting kind of book…” but not only “with a more surprising view…” As DAG Supreme Commander Markos was a very important person for the history of the Greek Civil War. The information he provided was first-hand, authentic and original. And this is exactly what is not found in similar works by Greek authors. Undoubtedly, Tempo, Karaivanov, and Markos’s testimonies are the element that elevated Kliakick’s work above that

of many Greek authors, both in terms of weight of arguments and clear interpretation of events. After the reader becomes acquainted with their testimonials, he or she will clearly know the reason why the revolutionary forces suffered defeat in succession and why the revolution in Greece failed.

All of this is under point 1. And beyond that are fifty typed pages in which I argue about the deviations from the historical truth. I sent the handwritten document to Dragan Kliakich by mail. He came to Skopje and came to my home to visit me. He was a pleasant man. Branko Kavkale, my friend from Prilep, was there with me when Kliakich said: “Pavle, I quoted you as Marx” in General Markos’s second edition. He then turned to my wife Urania and said: “You don’t even know who you have for a husband…” In general, I got the impression that he was impressed with my handwritten document...

I will digress for a moment to say something that happened that was very important to me. Today is Monday, March 25, 1985. I am tired but satisfied to sit behind my desk. I submitted the following document, which I wrote because I was boiling inside, to the SKM Central Committee Presidency, registered at the 28th branch office as number 1371/1, and sent a second copy to the Socialist Republic of Macedonia President’s secretary. Here is the text in full:

“My letter - a protest and an application for protection, was sent to the SVR of SRM. I am citing it here to show you what this is all about:

To the Republic Secretariat of the SRM Interior - Skopje