Front Matter - Part 04

I personally think that the emergence of TOMO was a basic need for our people to resist on mass the hypocritical anti-Macedonian politics conducted by our Greek friends. And that is what is important for the history of the Macedonian national liberation movement in Greek occupied Macedonia. TOMO was the result of the Macedonian activists and of the Macedonian people in general, coming together in an effort to defend themselves on the ground against Greek aggression. I said nothing to Pekar at the first bureau meeting held on May 28, 1945, about my personal accomplishments just to be praised, even though a few months ago I established a Macedonian organization in the field and that same organization was quickly expanded from Karadzhova all the way to Voden. But I did that! Then years later, in 1972, while I was writing my book entitled “Vo dlabokata nok zorata se ragia” (In the deep night, dawn is born) which can be obtained from INI, I talked about the conditions on the ground being responsible for imposing the need to organize the people which resulted in the formation of TOMO. Of course, I never guessed that later people would call me a petty liar, and a usurper of other people’s work and glory! Perhaps I did not have to take the direction I did with this, but I was forced to do it in my defense. This was a slanderous distortion of the facts. An attack on my contribution to the Macedonian national liberation movement and on me as a person who was directly involved in the mentioned events as a leader in these Macedonian organizations. It would be the same as saying: “Look at the dishonest kind of people that constituted the top leadership of the Macedonian national liberation movement in Greek occupied Macedonia.” That is why I could not just let it go! I offered my rebuttal and my own documents to “Nova Makedonija”, “Glasnik”, “Istoria”, “Sovremenost”, and other publications, but the people in charge ignored them and refused to publish them. Now,

here I am writing my biography and defending the truth and myself...

Let us continue…

The fact that the CPM (CPY) leadership recognized and appointed Paskal Mitrevski top leader in our movement said a lot to me, but, at the same time I knew nothing about him. A little later Vera gave me an overseas newspaper with an article about Mitrevski in which he exclusively talked about himself and about his involvement in matters in which he was never involved. Dzhozho was the most important Party figure among us. Dzhodzo was appointed second secretary of the CPG District Committee and member of the CPG Bureau for Macedonia and Thrace (in the widest composition). There was not a word about Dzhozho in the article... So I thought to myself for a person to act this way, to credit himself with everything, especially with the work of others, this person must lack dignity and good principles. Sadly, I was not mistaken... Mitrevski valued everything and everyone not according to how much they contributed to the promotion of our movement, but according how much they contributed to his personal authority and to his own career. Mitrevski endeavored to remove everyone from their leadership positions in the field, especially those who worked hard and were very capable, only because they were inclined to support Keramidziev or Peiov. We had a lot strong clashes in the Bureau. In June 1946, even though I was sick at the time, I was sent as neutral person to Kostur and Lerin Regions to evaluate the situation on the ground. (44) I reported that the leaders and activists in question were hard working people who were well liked and respected by the local population. My report unfortunately upset Mitrevski. One evening while we were dining alone in the “Moscow” restaurant (it was later destroyed by the earthquake) I decided to ask him if I could speak with him frankly. The fact that he was the “number one” figure in our movement has always been the object of our attention. As his associate and comrade, I thought that I should be open with him and tell him what I thought was negative about him. Of course, I wanted to help him with this, not to turn him into an enemy. I said: “If you are prepared to listen to me without getting angry, I will start!” He sat there quietly and calmly as he assured me that he would listen with interest and would not get angry. That

evening I tried to convince him that he needed to act much more convincingly as the leader of our movement. I told him that he needed to stop putting his own alleged interests and his own career above the interests of the movement. I gave him examples of what I meant and of what he was doing wrong. That evening I brought up the name Machiavelli in our conversation for the first time. I told him that he had no principles… And that the only single principle he had was to ignore the principles of his people. I told him that morals and honesty for him seemed like foolish things. I told him that he honoured nothing and no one. I told him he needed to show deep respect and modesty in front of his people even if he had to act while doing it. I told him that his inability to be convincing and persuasive was harmful to our movement. I told him that because of that capable comrades and leaders like Ilia Dimovski-Goche, Naum Shupurkovski-Leon, Lazo Oshenski, Naum Peiov, Trifko Popov, Dzhodzho Turundzov and others were alienated. I told him that he constantly strived to surround himself with people who thought like him, etc… He calmly listened to me without saying a word. In the end he shook my hand and thanked me. He looked frank. But I knew he was acting...

To learn more about the top Macedonian leadership’s “ups and downs” in the Macedonian liberation movement in Greek occupied Macedonia consult my other works found in INI under the title “In the deep night dawn is born” (1972). Historians and researchers are welcome. But in order to maintain continuity in my autobiographical presentation, I will briefly summarize some of the characteristic “incidents” I survived and their influence on my activities... Nothing changed after I had my talk with Mitrevski at the “Moscow” restaurant. His attitude towards his people remained the same. But, as his uncompromising associate, I felt it was my duty to defend the interests of the movement. I decided to write a summary report about the “shortcomings in our movement” and forwarded it to the CPM Central Committee. The Central Committee however (Tsvetko Uzunovski-Abas) rejected it and informed me that the summary report would have to be reviewed and accepted by our leadership bureau before anything could be done. At a glance it seemed like it was the right thing to do. Unfortunately no action was taken to “correct” the situation. This, by itself tells me that Mitrevski was occupying a privileged position which allowed him to influence the

leadership in Skopje. When the issue finally surfaced, Mitrevski naturally repented with much sincerity and self-criticism, which I believe was just an act, and seized the opportunity to put it to rest. And, while still playing the role of my sincere comrade he found ways to provoke me.

The problems that Greece was experiencing at the time were under consideration at the UN. The Soviet delegation had proposed reconciliation, general amnesty and general elections. One evening when we went for a walk Mitrevski asked me: “What do you think will happen to NOF if there is reconciliation, if we are given a general amnesty and if we are allowed to go back home?”

“There can be no reconciliation if NOF is liquidated!” I replied.

“But what if NOF is recognized as a democratic organization and then they find reasons to dissolve it!”...” he said.

“What reasons could they possibly find after they recognize it…?” I asked.

“They will accuse all the NOF cadres of being agents of OZNA and spies. They will make claims that NOF is not a democratic organization but a spy ring, etc. They will then find someone who will admit to that…” Mitrevski explained.

I couldn’t disagree.

During one of our meetings, in the presence of Nikola Minchev, we asked if we can request from OZNA not to convert NOF’s apparatus into its own, but to orient itself towards the creation of a special apparatus.

At the next Bureau meeting I spoke about this and about some other issues. Mitrevski did not say anything about this. Later he apologized...

I was not called in to provide an explanation. Obviously, my “suspicious” loyalty or, more precisely, my “disloyalty” was self-evident. Or perhaps instead of me, Mitrevski himself, under his own

authority as head of the Bureau, gave them enough of an explanation… (You can find more information on this in my book “In the deep night dawn is born”, p.236).

One more example:

I worked with the local residents collecting information on the Macedonian population for a long time which included how many Macedonian families lived in each village, in each district and so on, in Greek occupied Macedonia. When I was finished and after I had the information systematized, I had to travel to Belgrade and hand it over to the Yugoslav authorities as well as answer questions if required.

One day Mitrevski came to the bureau office. I was on duty sitting there. He looked around for a bit and then went out. It seemed to me like he was checking to see if was there. About half an hour later he came back and told me to go and see Kolishevski, he was waiting for me.

I went immediately. His office was about three hundred meters away.

Kolishevski was not happy to see me. He was angry and yelled at me in a high tone of voice. He said he was waiting for me for a long time... But he had no right to behave like that and to humiliate me. But, I grinned and kept quiet. To his question if the material was ready…I said: “Yes!” Unfortunately someone else was sent to Belgrade to take credit for my work. (You can find more information on this in my book “In the deep night dawn is born”, p.237).

There isn’t and there can be no doubt that with this kind of masterful intrigue, which must be recognized, Mitrevski managed to draw and use the CPM leadership to remove many of our capable comrades from their positions. As for me, I was just stunned, but not completely knocked out...

The crossing of the ELAS Macedonian battalions into Yugoslavia or more accurately into the People’s Republic of Macedonia, of course

was an event of great historical and political significance. Above all, this was a Macedonian revolutionary act against the discrimination, suppression and hindrance perpetrated by the CPG leadership “patriots” against the Macedonian anti-fascist national liberation movement. But this was nothing new. The Greeks from the entire Greek political spectrum, on the one hand, have been oppressing the Macedonian people since Macedonia’s illegal invasion, occupation and partition in 1912, 1913. And ever since then, the Macedonian people, on the other hand, have been trying to re-gain what they lost. So, there is absolutely nothing wrong with the Macedonian people trying to regain their independence and trying to reunite their Macedonia, which is an act of self-determination of a people clearly expressing a desire to live unified…. even if they have to live with the other Yugoslav nations.

The Greeks, of course, had no illusions about this Greek-Macedonian relationship. As early as 1945, my father received an official document from a Greek military court. It was my “my death sentence”. I was accused and found guilty “of high treason” against the Greek state and sentenced to death.

One time my comrades and members of NOF, sent me copies of the Solun Greek newspapers “To fos” and “Makedonia” as well as a book entitled “The Macedonian Question From the Aspect of Events in Almopia”, (the old Greek name of Meglen Region), in which my activities among the “native people” were deemed as high treason against the Greek state and nation.

Years later in Lerin, my father received another document with a new death sentence against me from another Greek military court. I was again accused of treason against Greece. It happened again later, for a third time...

This Greek negative attitude taken against me confirms that I was doing the right thing for the Macedonian cause and for the people, which gave me great pleasure and made me proud. It was recognition of my work and came directly from my opponent!

But, at the same time, I truly believe that my political, and possibly my physical liquidation, was planned here in Skopje. One of my

neighbours from Lerin, going by the name Hadzhi-Iliev, was sent here to keep an eye on me… to provoke me into doing something I would later regret. It is too long of a story for me to tackle it all here so I will only say a couple basic things about it.

a) I spoke about him with Dimitar Aleksievski-Pekar, then head of OZNA for Macedonia. He said nothing! But then the person who followed my like a shadow, a constant companion, suddenly disappeared forever… just like that! And Pekar miraculously forgot about it…

b) One day Hadzi-Iliev approached me and told me something provocative. He said: “Because you are a good friend I will tell you something very important. A group of Skopje chemists from Afion are making hashish. You often cross the border and no one searches you. All you need to do is transfer some hashish to Voden. You know there is a channel that links Voden, Solun, Alexandria, Cairo. There is plenty of money… brother… gold! Kilograms of gold! For the organization (meaning for NOF), and some for yourself… What do you say, huh?”

Hadzi-Iliev was well aware that I always gave my all to the struggle and I would have given even more if I had the chance. My wife Niki Kachorova was tortured in the ELAS camps together with the prostitutes, spies, and collaborators of the Italian, German and Bulgarian fascists. She did not endure and died before her time… Our son also died a little earlier. I lost them both and here I was still fighting in the struggle. In other words, I was not in this struggle for myself and for profit. Of course he emphasized that the “gold” would be for NOF however he couldn’t help himself but say that “some of it would be for me!”

It was a very interesting proposal! I told him I will think about it and get back to him later...

But, instead of getting back to him, I went straight to Pekar and, low and behold, Hadzi-Iliev disappeared...

I was shaken and deeply offended. Apparently I had a powerful enemy who had the power to influence OZNA...

It was sometime in the middle of November 1946. I went from Enidzh-Vardar, through Gevgelia, to Kostur Region where, on November 21, 1946, I attended a NOF leadership meeting. While passing through Gevgelia, Aleko Kiaev, head of the local OZNA, told me that the people in Skopje were looking for me and wanted me to get in touch with OZNA in Skopje. But I did not want to meet with those people so I asked Aleko to convey my message and tell them that I wasn’t going to Skopje, I had no work there. In other words I defied their orders. THAT WAS THE FIRST INCIDENT when the “blackness” in our ranks directly affected my actions.

In October 1949, on Zahariadis’s orders and on those of the CPG and DAG leaderships, I was arrested as a Yugoslav agent. Vlantas, then a member of the CPG Central Committee Politburo and a DAG General, gave me half a pad of paper and three newly sharpened pencils and said:

“Write! Write down your betrayals from the start, from the time when you became Tito’s agent in Skopje!”

I barely wrote two and a half pages. I focused mainly on the following three most fundamental things in my life:

a) Doing my work. I worked with my heart all the time, to organize our people on mass to become involved in the joint struggle with the Greek people against the reactionaries and their foreign patrons.

b) Being in the field. I felt free and at home among out people… but not when I was wasting my time in Skopje.

c) Being in Skopje. In Skopje I was treated like an alien, a suspicious element, for which I have material evidence. In other words I saw for myself that I was an undesirable element, which had to be removed, even by some insidious manner, if necessary. And so on and so forth, in that spirit...

Of course what I wrote was completely unnecessary. But what Vlantas said to me rubbed me the wrong way. And so, this was the

SECOND INCIDENT, when the “blackness” in our ranks directly affected my actions.

Back in Skopje, I did nothing to expose the provocateur or those who sent the provocateur after me, and neither did I abandon what I was doing for our Macedonia. The provocations and provocateurs were just another occurrence in my everyday life with the movement. I continued with my active participation in leading our people in the revolutionary struggle, as if nothing had happened…

Something else also happened worth noting at this point. At different times and under different circumstances it was pointed out to me by a couple of comrades, that the “Security Services” allegedly and “in an official capacity” needed to “conduct security checks” on the various cadres. So, I ask myself, was this done to find dirt on them and prepare them for their grave if necessary…? This cannot be dismissed. I find this humiliating to have to point it out… but I am forced to.

As I mentioned earlier my enemies sentenced me to death three times… I am assuming here for working for our movement’s interests which was contrary to our enemy’s interests.

The crossing over of the ELAS Voden Macedonian Battalion to the People’s Republic of Macedonia, i.e. to Federal Yugoslavia, was an act of great political and historical significance and it was carried out under my command and initiative.

My activities as a member of the NOF top leadership and one of its founders, without a doubt have their value and importance...

These values, I mention here have been perceived even by our opponent, and yet here I am having been set aside and accused of wrong doing, of things I have not done… invented things. They created a trap for me and tried to push me into it. Who needed this trap and why was it necessary? The provocateur, who also had influence in OZNA, kept trying to get rid of me and by doing so allowed me to find out for myself that I was being politically liquidated, i.e. removed. As it turned out, there were some comrades who believed I too had the “dangerous” weakness just like the many

comrades who had been removed from our Macedonian national liberation movement. In particular, it turned out that, as they did, I also managed to see Mitrevski’s true character and, as a consequence, without hesitation, “I was allowed” to have different opinions from his, that is, to oppose him...

Here I will refer to a characteristic moment from our movement in this part of Macedonia. Personal ambitions and a struggle for supremacy is a phenomenon that occurs in almost every movement. The difference from one case to another however is in the intensity and size of the phenomenon.

This kind of phenomenon, personal ambitions and a struggle for supremacy, also existed in the ranks of our Macedonian anti-fascist liberation movement. I prepared a brochure entitled “NOF” (1947), with Keramidziev’s knowledge and some cooperation. The brochure was intended for the delegates of the 1st NOF Congress. In it I wrote about NOF’s ideological foundations and the struggle our people were leading alongside the Greek people. Mitrevski made an “objection” exactly on the same day the congress was held. Our Greek friends, understandably, were expecting that. It turned out that Keramidziev too was expecting it, who then accepted Mitrevski’s “objection”. Maybe I am wrong, but it looked to me like both of them were afraid that I was becoming too popular. The brochure was scrapped for allegedly having “nationalistic” content. In other words it was not given out to the delegates and almost all the samples were burned by Kotsopoulos. In the brochure’s introduction I wrote:

“The Slovo-Macedonian National Liberation Movement is a reality. Its beginning is merging with the beginning of the national resistance movement of the Greek people.

Organizationally – the movement is forming under NOF.

Politically - its goals are formed in NOF’s political program.

Extremism, of course, is not absent - but it will be successfully eradicated in time.

Today the movement is imposed in the consciousness of all - even in the consciousness of our enemies. It exists, acts and puts its own stamp on the situation here in Macedonia. ‘Elections’ and ‘referendum’ - these are confirming examples that appear before our eyes. Regarding the case of ‘election’ from 100% abstinence, they did not fall below 70% regionally. In the case of the ‘referendum’, the same percentage of people who had the opportunity to vote, voted with white (blank) ballots. This was all NOF’s work:

The movement has friends… the Greek democratic people are its friends.

The movement has its enemies - they are the enemies of democracy in Greece. But the movement has friends and enemies outside of Greece. They are the friends and enemies of Greek people abroad. But:

How did this happen? ... What are the causes?”

This was the introduction in the brochure. Then, immediately under number 1, the title of the next paragraph, was the answer to the question asked:

“IT EXPRESSES THE TRUE NEEDS FOR ADVANCEMENT IN THE SLAVO-MACEDONIAN PEOPLE!

The aforementioned struggle for supremacy had no relation to the character of our Macedonian anti-fascist movement. The movement itself was always clean, temperate and strong, because it was universal and unique. This, indeed, was a very characteristic moment. The struggle for supremacy in NOF did not take place at the ground level with the participation of the masses, but mainly up at the top leadership level with the assistance of external factors such as the CPG and CPM leaderships. The first to take advantage of their differences was the CPG which hijacked the struggle for its own special purposes. The CPM too, skillfully dragged along and used it for its special purposes. Given my personal experience with both I have no doubt about this at all. The events themselves, as we experienced them, confirm this bitter truth about us...

As I mentioned earlier, in November 1946, NOF was placed under the CPG leadership while its military formations in the mountains Paiak, Kaimakchalan and Vicho were placed under the command of DAG. This is what was said about this in the famous INI edition entitled “Aegean Storms”: “The NOF leadership in Voden Region was charged with having made an agreement with the CPG to betray the expectations of the Macedonian people. This was a ‘second Varkiza (betrayal) for the Macedonians’… The activists in Voden Region pointed out that this was a wrong move that would negatively affect the development of the Macedonian liberation movement and the struggle against the Monarcho-fascists in Greece...” (45)

Of course, nobody in Voden Region ever told me that merging our combat units with those of the Greek people was a wrong move and by which we failed the expectations of the Macedonian people. In reality, as it happened, just after the units were merged the struggle against the Monarcho-fascists began to gain momentum and became more massive. Here again Aianovski, author of “Aegean Storms”, used his imagination when he put his words on paper three decades later, and decided to politically bury the entire NOF-KOEM managing asset which struggled on the hot terrain, by proclaiming that they, by name and surname, were all traitors! (46) It is certain, and not without foundation, that the well-known comments Vangel Aianovski made in “Aegean Storms” were structured with the “revolution” beginning and ending with himself. Aianovski wrote a beautiful autobiography in which he threw mud on others, and at the same time highly praised himself with someone else’s effort…

As for me, who truly appreciated Aianovski’s contributions as an activist of the Macedonian national liberation movement, it was incomprehensible how low this man had allowed himself to fall.

This affected me as well. Some years after the book “Aegean Storms” was published, the editorial board of the journal “Istoria” (2/1981) announced:

“In regard to the reaction of the Macedonians in Voden Region... against the NOF-CPG merging agreement as was carried out in November 1946, Rakovski simply and without much thought argued

that the agreement was not NOF’s work, but that the leadership was allegedly given a directive from above. Rakovski alluded to the fact that the directive allegedly came from the CPY. Here Pavle Rakovski was playing with very dangerous misinformation. The most cruel misinformation is that the Yugoslav leadership gave the NOF leadership a directive, with no discussion, to unite with the CPG (of course, this is arbitrary, a fabrication, with no evidence to confirm it). But the truth is completely different. The Communist Party of Yugoslavia’s leadership, in the interests of the struggle, suggested to NOF to settle with the CPG and unite its forces under conditions acceptable to both sides. In fact, Pavle Rakovski himself and other NOF leaders have written in their reports about the CPG’s failure to comply with the agreement. What this means is that if there was a direct order and not an agreement, then there could not have been a place for negotiations and an agreement…” (p. 291)

It is hard for me to understand why they would want to distort history. Namely, the truth is exactly that… the truth. The agreement was not “negotiated” by NOF’s leadership. It was communicated down to the NOF leadership (to the secretariat) as a directive from above, both from the CPM, CPY and from CPG. The “agreement” and other relevant issues were worked out between the two Communist Parties (Tempo-Ververis-Zimas, Tempo-Siantos, Tsvetko Uzunovski-Leonidas Stringos, Mitrevski-Zahariadis, etc.) and openly published, so it makes no sense in this case to make it a secret. It is well-known that Mitrevski followed the CPY/CPM Central Committee’s direction and instructions when he was negotiating the establishment of the disrupted combat unity between the Greek and Macedonian revolutionary movements with the Greek side, i.e. between the CPG and NOF. Here is one of those published reports by Mitrevski on how the negotiations and the difficulties that were encountered took place: