OVERVIEW OF EVENTS THAT ADDITIONALLY EXPLAIN THE GENERAL FLOW OF THE SITUATION

OVERVIEW OF EVENTS THAT ADDITIONALLY EXPLAIN THE GENERAL FLOW OF THE SITUATION IN AEGEAN MACEDONIA - CPG MANIPULATIONS

The Informburo Resolution adopted on July 28-29, 1949, during the CPG Central Committee 4th Plenum was the topic of discussion. The Plenum decided to accept the Informburo Resolution and summarized it under a separate document entitled: “CPG Central

Committee 5th Plenum Resolution regarding the Communist and Working Parties and the situation with the Communist Party of Yugoslavia.” However, because of what was said in the resolution “specifically by the CPG and its position towards Yugoslavia” the Plenum decided to keep the Resolution “internal and not release it to the world”.

The BCP and KPSS leaderships were not happy and did not endorse the CPG’s secret policy towards the CPY and vowed not to allow “another Tito” to appear in the Balkans.

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In response to this conference, the KOEM, NOF, AFZH and NOMS leaderships, as well as the DAG fighters whose families were in Yugoslavia but still defended the CPG policy, issued a statement saying: “We Macedonians will defend the position and view of Comrade Zahariadis and the CPG leadership taken against Yugoslavia and its leadership, which is leading a treacherous policy and we will fight with the Greek Communists in the struggle led by the CPG and DAG until we free Greece from the Monarcho-Fascists”.

EVENTS IN SKOPJE AND THE PEOPLE’S REPUBLIC OF MACEDONIA – CPM/CPY MANIPULATIONS

February 9, 1949. Porfirogenis (CPG and Politburo member) led a CPG delegation to Skopje where he held a meeting with NOF representatives and demanded that they recruit around 300 new fighters for DAG from the Macedonian refugees who had earlier fled to Yugoslavia from Greek occupied Macedonia. His plan, however, was not realized.

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August 1, 1949. The newspaper “Pros ti niki” (To Victory), organ of DAG General Headquarters, (no. 168, published on August 3, 1949) carried the KOEM, NOF, AFZH and NOMS leadership response to the July 29, 1949 Skopje Conference attended by representatives of some 30,000 refugees from Aegean Macedonia (whose children,

brothers and sisters were mobilized in the ranks of DAG and died in the battlefields of Gramos, Vicho and throughout Greece and who were now defending CPY politics).

Among other things the response said: “Several former activists of NOF and AFZH – Tito’s clique of traitors, who deserted from the ranks of DAG, are now treacherously calling on all Macedonians who are fighting in the ranks of DAG to desert. They are using slogans such as ‘Brothers, Macedonians! Drop your weapons and flee to Yugoslavia. No longer shed the blood of Macedonia for foreign interests. The Greeks lied to us and want to sacrifice us in this war’!”

A resolution was passed during the Skopje conference which said: “The Macedonian people from Aegean Macedonia will never forget the assistance provided by the Yugoslav people led by Marshal Tito and will always preserve their eternal love and gratitude.” The conference strongly condemned the CPG’s defamatory campaign and rejected its latest slanders.

STALIN AGAINST TITO AND TITO AGAINST STALIN WITH THE MACEDONIANS AT THEIR MERCY

During this ideological rivalry and political games played by Stalin and Tito in the period between 1948 and 1949, Stalin began to design a new concept, “The Vishinski Plan” to overthrow the Yugoslav leadership. This plan, among other things, envisioned a campaign to create an “independent Macedonian state”, which, under the auspices of the Infoburo, would encompass all Macedonians from “Pirin, Vardar and Aegean Macedonian”. The Inforburo slogan for creating a United Macedonian State called on all Macedonians from the Aegean and Vardar parts of Macedonia to work against Yugoslavia. For more information on this see: Milovan Djilas, “Razgovority so Stalin” (Talks with Stalin)," p. 175 - 178.

Milovan Djilas in his book “Vlast” wrote: “This harsh, violent and reckless conduct was a consequence of the view that Cominformizm must be uprooted from its roots.” “This view was not designed by any forum; it was designed by Tito himself who was the highest forum, if not unique, regarding these kinds of issues. By being

witness to the Stalinist Soviet experience, which worked to fulfill personal desires and ambitions, Tito knew that after the Revolution Stalin could jeopardize him and the Yugoslav state by internal communist opposition. So, in the fall of 1948, Tito began to call for, and not only one time, sending people to jail and to the camps! And in this instance some served him well even if they had to work against their own people.” For more details see: “Utrinski Vesnik”, published July 3, 2006.

In the book “Yugoslav Communism and the Macedonian Question” by Steve E. Palmer and Robert R. King, Archon Books, 1971, on p. 117, the following was written: “Beyond the differences expressed by the Yugoslav and Soviet party leaders, in February 1948, Stalin changed direction by attempting to create a Bulgarian - Yugoslav Federation in order to subdue the Communist Party of Yugoslavia but was having difficulties convincing the Yugoslavs to accept his direction. In this confused situation, the Macedonian Question was completely avoided during the first Bulgarian Congress held in January 1948. But during the Pirin Macedonian Party conference, held at the end of April in Blagoevgrad, a hostile attitude was taken towards the initiatives of the Macedonians from Yugoslavia. When the CPY was excluded from the Cominform on June 28, 1948, there was a big break in relations between Yugoslavia and Moscow.”

After the Cominform resolution, the Bulgarian Party began to furiously attack the Yugoslavs and took immediate steps to eliminate Yugoslav influence on the Macedonians in Pirin Macedonia.

During the CPB Central Committee Sixteenth Plenum, held on July 12, 1948, it was stated that: “A Federation of Southern Slavs and the eventual annexation of Pirin to create a United Macedonia was only possible if Yugoslavia were to remain faithful to a common Socialist Front (i.e. the Cominform).”

December 1948. During the CPB 5th Congress Dimitrov announced: “Our party has always defended our standpoint and it will continue to defend the position that Macedonia belongs to the Macedonians.” But then he added that national unity was possible “only within a federation of southern Slavs”.