IDEOLOGY OF SERBIAN NATIONALISM - Part 01

IDEOLOGY OF SERBIAN NATIONALISM

Scientific and journalistic work of Professor Dr. M. Lazo Kostich

By Dr. Vojislav Shesheli

GREATER SERBIA a.d., BELGRADE 2002

Note

Of the many papers that have been published in Serbia in the last 15-20 years, which have made contribution to the building of the Serbian national doctrine, included certainly are those of Lazo M. Kostich. Vojislav Shesheli, leader of the Serbian Radical Party who was indicted by The Hague in 2002, has published a very extensive monograph on Kostich’s work. It is a labour of over 1000 pages, with a very complex structure (15 chapters with over 50 sections, subdivisions, etc., with numerous references, literature and so on.), which cover the entire history of the Serbian people, their territory, religion, language and culture, and their relations with the other neighbouring nations, including other topics. Special attention was given to Serbian relations with the Croats, Albanians, Muslims etc., and between the Serbians and Macedonians. Only three excerpts of small sections are provided in this paper, all pertaining to Macedonia): “Serbian Macedonia” the 10th section of the first chapter (p.157-169); “Artificial construct of the Macedonian nation”, the 14th Section of the sixth chapter (p. 464-467) and “the Macedonian Question”, 2nd section of the 11th chapter (pages 725-737).

10. Serbian Macedonia

Serbian Macedonia covers only 37% of the total Macedonian territory, grouped mainly along the Vardar River. The Bulgarian and Greek part, Pirin and Aegean Macedonia, today exist only as geographic regions, seeming like the process of systematic assimilation and melting of the Macedonian population in Bulgaria and Greece has been completed. Today as a political entity, as an independent state and as the homeland of the Macedonian nation, only the section of Macedonia freed from the Turkish yoke by the

Serbian army exists. About the Macedonians, mostly we cannot say that they are Serbians in the true sense of the word, but they certainly are an ethnic group which is closely related to the Serbians. Serbians and Macedonians are like twin brothers - not the same, but very, very similar. The Slavs in the region borrowed the name “Macedonians” from the ancient inhabitants of the Macedonian state which they created in the early seventh century BC. The original Macedonians are a people of ethnic Greek structure with large additions from the Illyrian and Thracian branches, as well as other prehistoric peoples whose tribes were mixed with each other and were assimilated. In the mid-fourth century BC, Macedonia took the lead among the ancient Greek states, and its ruler Philip II, became the unquestioned master of the Balkans. His son, Alexander the Great, set out to conquer the world, and with amazing military successes he quickly conquered the eastern and southern parts of the known world. His majestic rise lasted only a short time: Alexander died in 323 BC, he was probably poisoned.

Alexander’s military efforts rewarded his soldiers with rich booty, spread Hellenistic culture, but at the same time thinned out Macedonia which was strained a lot from its opportunities. Many Macedonian people died in the massive military campaigns or were lost to settlements in the conquered territories. The death of its ruler led to a rapid disintegration of the empire.

Barbarian invasions began in the third century BC. The Gauls then robbed Macedonia and almost its entire population was led into slavery which left the entire territory desolate. Macedonia recovered towards the end of the third century but then in the early second century BC the Romans took over and in 168 BC they occupied it and thoroughly robbed it. In 148 BC Macedonia formally became a Roman province, and after several uprisings against Roman rule in the following years, it was brutally crushed. The administrative position of Macedonia in the coming centuries occasionally changed, and in the time of Emperor Diocletian it entered the diocese of Moesia, today Serbia and then Constantine made it into an Illyrian prefecture. At the end of the third century AD, a new mass barbaric fury began. The first to tear through it were the Kostobots, then the Visigoths in the fourth century AD, the Huns in the fifth century AD who left almost no population. The Slavs then

participated in the devastation left in the eastern parts of the Balkan Peninsula, about which Byzantine sources made mention that they were Sclavinians under Hun domination. Unlike the Huns, the Sclavinians frequently settled in the conquered territories.

a) Slavic settlements in Macedonia

We are talking about the south-Carpathian Slavs who were densely concentrated in the Gierdap at the mouth of the Danube. The Sclavinians belonged to the same Slavic group to which the Russians, Ukrainians, Belarusians and Serbs belonged, which previously were visibly differentiated from the Leshka group which included the Czechs, Poles, Slovaks, Croats and Slovenes. At the end of the fifth century AD most of the Sclavinians were conquered by the Bulgarians, who blended in them, but they were able to impose their own name and royal coat of arms. The assimilation of Bulgarian Sclavinians did not occur on the territory of Macedonia, and this is the first differentiation of ethnic Macedonians from other Sclavinians. The second element of differentiation was the settlement of Serbs in the early seventh century AD in Solun Region. Very close to the Sclavinians, they quickly blended with them and then jointly assimilated and joined the remnants of the former population. The destiny of the Sclavinians north of the Danube was different.

They were assimilated by a larger number of Romanians, and with this ethnic melting they became Romanians. The entire sixth century was marked by repeated mass invasions of Sclavinians in the eastern half of the Balkans down to the Aegean Sea and into Epirus on the west side, while the western half was plundered by the Avars.

While Byzantine resistance was growing weaker, Slavic war booty was mounting as Slav military power grew and gained strength. Massively and systematically the Slav settlements in Macedonia continued from the eighties of the sixth century to the twenties of seventh century.

“The Dragovites settled in the most southern direction of the flow of the river Bistritsa, west of Solun to Bar. Immediately next to them the Velegezites settled and north of them, in the space between

Ohrid, Bitola and Veles, the Berzitites settled whose name is preserved in the people to this day. Close to Solun lived the Sagudatites. To the east of the city, along the river Struma and the Halkidiki peninsula lived the Rinhinites. Past the Struma River valleys and Strumesnitsa the Strumianites were settled and east of the river Mesta the Smilianites were settled. One part of the Dragovites later settled in Polog”. (“History of the Macedonian people”, Institute for publishing textbooks, Belgrade, 1970, Volume I, p. 73-74.)...

Mid way into the ninth century the Bulgarian Khan attacked the Macedonian territory of the Slav tribe, and Khan Boris, after 852, occupied almost the whole territory of Strumitsa and Bregalnitsa. After that he moved to the right riverbank of the Vardar and made his way to Ohrid. Under the 864 peace agreement between Bulgaria and the Byzantine Empire, the greater part of Macedonia fell under Bulgarian rule. Macedonia in its entirety firmed up at the time of the Bulgarian ruler Simeon between 893 and 927. It was definitely a time when Christianity was strengthened among the Slavs, the creation of the Slavic alphabet took place under the educational activities of Cyril and Methodius, Clement and Naum, Constantine Presbyter, Tsrnorizets Hrabar, and the priest Bogomil at the base of the Mount Banuna and the emergence of the Bogomil movement which spilled over into Bulgaria, Macedonia, Thrace, Bosnia and Raska. The Bulgarians on Macedonian territory broke apart the old clan-tribal social relations and introduced the feudal system.

b) Macedonia at the time of Tsar Samoil

One of the most powerful nobles of the Bulgarian state during the reign of Peter was Prince Nicholas who was of Armenian descent. After Peter’s death his sons David, Moses, Aaron and Samoil - in 969 incited a rebellion in order to take over the throne.

To prevent this, the Byzantine Empire helped Boris, son of Peter, to become a Bulgarian king, but while the Russians were invading from the east a rebellion was ignited south of Sofia. But in 971, after the Byzantine army defeated the Russian prince Sviatislav, the Byzantine Emperor Iovan I Tsimiski dethroned Boris and brought him back to Constantinople as a prisoner, and Bulgaria joined the

Byzantine Empire. Nicholas’s sons kept a low profile until Tsimiski’s death and then incited a new uprising, this time against the Byzantine Empire. The four brothers ruled the large freed territory jointly, then after David and Moses died in different places, Aaron and Samoil clashed, whereby Samoil won and executed his brother and his entire family, leaving only one of his son’s alive. Samoil was an able military commander and quickly conquered large parts of Macedonia, Greece, Bulgaria and Serbia.

Samoil declared himself a Bulgarian ruler and formed his capital in Prespa. In 986, Samoil at Traian’s door, near Sofia, dealt the Byzantine emperor Basil II a heavy defeat, and, using the internal unrest and struggle for the throne of the Byzantine Empire, continued with successful conquests, winning the whole of Raska and Duklia, and by fraud captured the Serbian King Iovan Vladimir, taking him captive in Prespa. He also burned down Kotor and Dubrovnik and devastated Bosnia and Dalmatia all the way to Zadar...

Basil II made it his personal mission to pursue Samoil militarily with an unexpected attack on the right bank of the Vardar River near Skopje, forcing him to flee. For commander of Skopje, Samoil had previously appointed the Skopje Roman emperor’s younger son Peter, who surrendered the city to the Byzantine Emperor. Samuel’s son banished his wife, the Hungarian princess, which then caused a conflict with King Stephen I, who defeated Samoil. Considerably weakened, Samoil was then defeated by Basil II in 1014 at Belasitsa but Samoil managed to escape to Prespa. Basil then blinded 10,000 of Samoil’s captured soldiers, leaving every hundredth soldier with one eye to take them back to their military ruler.

Two days later, after Samoil saw the blind soldiers, he died from grief and so did his rule of this great state which he ruled for a period of over 38 years.

The country survived even after Samoil’s death and embraced all the Serbian lands to the river Tsetina, almost all of Macedonia, most of Bulgaria, Albania, Epirus and Thessaly. Contemporaries called it a Bulgarian state even though the Bulgarians were an overwhelming minority. Even though all the Serbs and all the Macedonians lived in

his country, with only some Bulgarians and Greeks, Samoil wanted to follow Bulgarian statehood traditions. In his time he formed the Ohrid Archbishopric, and in his country he formed the Dubrovnik and Drach archbishoprics...

(Following are five shortened pages about the feudal Crusader wars in Macedonia up until 1282 when Macedonia was put under Turkish slavery.)

c) Decades of rebellious turmoil

At that time Macedonia was gripped by a deep differentiation in the population. While Muslims were existentially tied to the survival of Turkish rule and saw their future only in it, the Macedonians viewed their perspective in a greater binding to Serbia, while many of the smaller number of Vlachs were in favour of the Greek option. The Bulgarians, by offering great bribes to Ottoman authorities in 1870, managed to secure a decree to establish a Bulgarian Orthodox Exarchate, independent of the Ecumenical Patriarchate, to which they forcibly connected the Macedonian bishoprics in Veles, Skopje and Ohrid, as well as the Serbian bishoprics in Nish and Pirot. Instead of the Greek language, then provided in the church organization, they began to force the Bulgarian language, which caused Macedonian intellectuals to react by forming traditional schools and reading rooms, collecting and publishing popular literary works, writing and publishing a number of school textbooks in Macedonian, some of which were printed in Belgrade. The Macedonian vernacular gradually opened the way to literary transformation.

The poor economic situation, systematic oppression from the Ottoman authorities and the unproductive years sparked the 1876 great Razlovtsi uprising. In response to it, the Ottoman authorities strengthened their repressive measures against the Christian population. This was at the time when Russia, Serbia and Montenegro declared war on the Ottomans and when Islamic religious fanaticism began to unfold leading to the murder of the French and German consuls in Solun.

At the same time there was a coup in Istanbul, which dethroned Sultan Abdul Aziz who was then charged with being too lenient towards the Christian subjects and was executed. Leading the Razlog Uprising was Dmitar Patorgiev Berovski (Error: Dimitar Pop Georgiev-Berovski), who had lived long in Belgrade and excelled in fighting against the Ottomans and who, in 1862, bombed the Serbian capital. The Ottomans crushed this uprising but Berovski, although wounded in the head, slipped through the Ottoman encirclement and, with his closest associates and unit, continued to fight. The civilian population was again exposed to retaliatory Ottoman anger and robbery, which further increased their desire to resist. The next year the insurgency movement ignited again in support of the Serbian and Russian war effort. The main role was played by Dimitar Berovski. Many Macedonian volunteers joined the Russian and Serbian army and Russian, Serbian and Macedonian insurgents penetrated deep into Macedonia.

With the San Stefano Peace Treaty, Russia and the Ottoman Empire agreed that Serbia, Montenegro and Romania would expand territorially and gain their independence, Bulgaria would become an autonomous vassal state within the Ottoman Empire, included in which would be a large part of the Serbian and Macedonian national territories. The Russian army settled for two years in the Bulgarian vassal territory to allow for the establishment of autonomous government institutions. The Macedonians were the hardest hit by the fact that a large number of Muslims migrated from the Serbian and Bulgarian regions and settled in Macedonia, changing the population structure and making it hard for them to continue with their freedom fighting effort.

The resettled Muslims, being angry at having to leave their homes, took their anger on the Macedonian Christians. They looted and burned many homes and villages. They were joined by Albanian pillaging gangs whose effort grew significantly, threatening villages and even cities. There were not many choices left for the Macedonians but to band together and take part in anti-Ottoman bands in order to protect themselves. Then towards the end of 1878 the Kresna Uprising flared up in Struma. This uprising was led by a Russian Cossack ataman named Adam Kolmikov and his chief of staff was Dimitar Berovski.

The English government helped the Ottomans suppress the uprising by providing rapid transport for their troops...

After various conspiracy initiatives in Solun in 1894 (Error: should say1893) the Macedonian Revolutionary Organization and the Central Macedonian Revolutionary Committee were formed. Hristo Tatarchev was chairman and Dime (Error: Dame) Gruev was Secretary. In ideological terms its leaders were mainly influenced by Russia, by anarchism and by the Machiavelli-ists and Garibaldi-ists. The organization declared that its primary goals were Macedonian autonomy and awakening the Macedonian consciousness which, in organizational terms, insisted that the Macedonians were an exclusive nation, even though it had many intellectuals educated in Bulgaria. At the start there was a bitter struggle against the Bulgarian Exarchate organization and its policies, which effectively treated them all as Bugarophils with initial misconceptions. This motivated the Bulgarian government to step up its own propaganda and insurgency activities; at the same time it urged the Ottomans to suppress Serbian propaganda. To rival the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization, a Congress was held in 1895 in Sofia that included all Macedonian immigrant associations during which a Macedonian Committee was formed with distinctively pro-Bulgarian aspirations. The Bulgarian insurgency units did not achieve any significant results, but their activities managed to worsen the situation for the Macedonian people in the Ottoman yoke and to compromise their position in world public opinion. This further motivated the Macedonian revolutionary movement, led by Gotse Delchev who, during the Solun Congress in 1896, insisted on the autochthony and independence of the movement.

Financial problems forced the rebels to resort to terrorist methods for raising funds, primarily by kidnapping and extorting wealthy Ottomans.

Most successful was the kidnapping of American missionary Miss Stone in 1901. This brought prominence to the revolutionary Iane Sandanski who attracted a lot of money for the Organization as well as international, although negative, publicity. The Organization often used force to collect “voluntary” contributions from the richer

Macedonians. The organization increasingly became armed and quickly acceded to form guerrilla bands. The revolutionary movement became massive and was led mainly by teachers.

The Supremacists on the ground were of little opposition... The Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization systematically prepared for the uprising, but then when its main leaders were forced to retreat deep underground or flee abroad, the presidency of the Organization was usurped by agents of the Bulgarian government and secret Supremacist exponent Ivan Garvanov, who scheduled a Congress in Solun in 1903 and pushed the movement into a premature uprising, although such a solution was opposed by Gotse Delchev who was absent and by Giorche Petrov and Iane Sandanski. An internal schism took place and, after the Solun assassinations and diversions, the Ottoman authorities arrested a greater number of the national fighters. Shortly afterwards, in a skirmish with the Ottoman army near Seres, Gotse Delchev was killed and the Ottomans captured Ivan Garvanov in Solun. The uprising in Bitola Region began on August 2, 1903, during the Ilinden celebration. Best organized were the rebels in Krushevo Region, led by Nikola Karev. Krushevo fell into rebel hands and became a major centre for the Ilinden Uprising and for the Krushevo Republic. The Republic formed a provisional government and began to organize life for the liberated territories. However, besides the rebellion in Bitola Region, there were no characteristic mass movements in Skopje, Solun and in the Odrin Districts. It only amounted to intensive insurgent actions. In Seres District clashes between the Macedonian national and Supremacist bands took place. To quell the Uprising, the Ottomans dispatched a large force of 170,000 soldiers and nearly 500 cannons. Despite the great courage demonstrated by the fighters in the three-month struggle, the rebellion failed. The angry Ottomans carried out massive massacres against the Macedonian population. They killed almost 10,000 people. But the tragedy of the Macedonian people had a strong echo in the world, increasing the animosity towards the Ottoman administration.

To ease the difficult Macedonian situation, the Russian and Austrian Kings, in November 1903, imposed on the Ottomans the so-called Murzsteg Reform Program which was enacted the following year

and which gave control to European powers to act inside the Ottoman administrative apparatus. In 1904 an agreement was reached between Serbia and Bulgaria to divide the sphere of influence inside Macedonia and intensify the deposition of guerrilla bands in the Macedonian territory. The Bulgarian Supremacist insurgents were under the control of Bulgarian General Tsonchev and their activities became massive in 1905. During this period there were numerous clashes between the Supremacists and Iane Sandanski’s troops, delivering heavy losses and eventually defeating the Macedonian nationalists in Melnik Region. Since 1904, the Serbian government also established its own insurgency in Macedonia whose activities intensified in 1905, especially in Kumanovo, Skopje, Palan, Kratovo, Brod and Kichevo Regions. Serbian insurgents fought fiercely against the Bulgarian Supremacists bands. Included among the notable Serbian commanders were Gligor Sokolovich, Iovan Babunski, Iovan Dovezenski, Vasilie Trbich, etc. Greek guerrilla bands acted in Solun Region. The Macedonian Revolutionary Organization at that time was facing its own crisis, with problems, conflicts, strife, persecution, being persecuted by the Supremacists, with calling conventions, and with unsuccessfully trying to regain its former strength and political influence among the Macedonian people.

A new and important moment in Macedonian political circumstances appeared during the Young Turk Uprising in 1908, in which Macedonian Christianity became involved with great enthusiasm. Solun was the Centre of the Young Turk Movement. The Uprising managed to oust Abdul Hamid II and appoint Mehmed V as the new Sultan, but with the strengthening of Young Turk power, the Macedonian situation worsened markedly. Disillusioned and systematically persecuted, the Macedonian national revolutionaries, in 1909, formed a Federal National Party which, instead of primarily pursuing an armed struggle like before, turned to parliament to resolve its issues. The main leaders of the Party were Dimitar Vlahov and Iane Sandanski. Immediately after the Founding Congress, Bulgarian agents, for a second time, attempted to assassinate Iane Sandanski, who this time was badly wounded. Vlahov became a member of the Ottoman Parliament. But soon afterwards the party split from infighting and in 1910 Vlahov ousted Sandanski, wanting to distance himself from the revolutionary

elements. An Extraordinary Congress was held during which Vlahov was removed, but soon afterwards the Young Turk regime banned the party...

d) Serbian liberation of Macedonia

In 1912 Serbia and Bulgaria entered into an alliance and agreed to divide Macedonia. The union was soon joined by Greece and Montenegro. On October 18, 1912, the Allies declared war on the Ottoman Empire. The Serbian army delivered a heavy blow and defeated the Ottomans in Kumanovo and soon occupied Skopje. Here, to prevent its military destruction, foreign consuls encouraged the Ottomans to leave without a fight. The Serbians defeated the Ottomans in Bitola and forced them to flee. The Bulgarians pushed their way to the Aegean Sea and the Greeks entered Solun. Many Macedonians and Bulgarians joined the Serbian army in its area of operational activities. Macedonia’s division sparked the Second Balkan War in 1913, during which Bulgaria was defeated and lost enormous territories: by the 1913 Treaty of Bucharest Macedonia’s division became definitive. Serbia did not lift its military administration from its part of Macedonia because it had to suppress Albanian unrest and aid in the relocation of the Muslims to Turkey. After that the First World War started. The Serbian army recruited 50,000 Macedonians who fought bravely on all fronts. Even though the Allies demanded that Serbia sacrifice Macedonia to win over Bulgaria, the Serbian government did not agree because Macedonia was considered, felt and embraced as an integral part of Serbia in the true sense of the word.

In 1915 Serbia found itself in a very difficult situation. After Bulgaria entered the war and after heavy fighting in Krivolak the Bulgarians took the Serbian part of Macedonia. The Serbian-Greek border was formed at the front line which held Bulgaria back at the north end. The south end was held by Anglo-French troops. Bulgarian troops occupied the eastern part of Aegean Macedonia, forming the Struma front. The Serbians and the French, in 1916, freed Bitola, created a new line and continued to wage positional warfare.

The Bulgarian and German occupiers behaved brutally towards the Macedonian population exposing it to heavy reprisals.

“During the entire duration of the occupation, the Bulgarian and German occupiers and their allies implemented all kinds of requisitions in Macedonia from all sectors of life, including human and animal feed. They took massive numbers of cattle from Macedonia, slaughtered them and shipped them out. They took material and cultural resources. A massive part of the population was sent to forced-labour camps. Massive voluntary and forceful recruitment and mobilization of the Macedonian population was conducted for military purposes. Large numbers of people were interned and deported and many villages were burned down and the people slaughtered. These were basic and everyday occurrences in the multidimensional occupation of Macedonia. Then thousands of Macedonians died of starvation, disease, physical exhaustion and devastation.” (“History of the Macedonian people”, book II, p. 368.)...

Up until after the First World War, Vardar Macedonia was fully integrated into Serbian lands within the Yugoslav state. The war caused much destruction and a deep economic and social crisis. The government, rather clumsily, implemented agrarian reforms, which undoubtedly, influenced by the Bolshevik revolution, led to the breakthrough of the destructive Communist ideology. The state bureaucracy did not have a good ear for the ethnic, cultural and linguistic specificities of Macedonia, especially for the average educational level of the population, while the Bulgarian government continued to send insurgent gangs, putting them under the direct control of the remnants of the former VMRO. The western parts were rife with Albanian killer gangs. The strongest influence among the political parties in the Macedonian regions was the Radical Democratic and Turkish-Muslim Dzhemiet. The communists enjoyed significant success in the local and parliamentary elections up until the Communist Party of Yugoslavia was outlawed, being labeled subversive and an instrument of foreign powers. The central government abolished feudal relations and the Turks, a considerable number of local Muslims and some Albanians, moved to Turkey. Based on agrarian reform, from the total agrarian fund, 40% of the land was divided among the Macedonian peasants who had no land,

the other 60% of the land was resettled by peasants who had no land in the densely populated areas, with a view that Macedonia was sparsely populated, compared to the Yugoslav average. In 1921, in the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, 49 residents on average lived on a square kilometre, while the average for Macedonia was only 31. The Radical Party had publicly expressed its willingness to have the Macedonian dialect officially used in the workplace and in the state administration, but there were no serious attempts to have that language regulated in its literary form. There can be no word about special national oppression for the simple reason that the regime was led by the concept of an integrated Yugoslavia and displaying the Serbian flag was not allowed and was deemed offensive...

Bulgaria and Greece signed the Nice Peace Treaty Convention for the exchange of population on the basis of which the Bulgarians and Macedonians from Aegean Macedonia and Thrace would migrate to Bulgaria and the Greeks from Bulgaria to Turkey. Macedonian refugees settled all across Bulgaria, which facilitated their denationalization. The Supremacists formed an autonomous VMRO, which acted together with the United VMRO inside the Yugoslav territory, lying to the people that they wanted an autonomous Macedonia, but enjoyed the support of the Bulgarian secret services and promoted Greater Bulgarian interests which, in practice, served only terrorist methods. The agricultural government led by Alexander Stamboliski had a very favourable attitude towards the Macedonians and their aspirations and developed friendly relations with Belgrade, wanting a Common Yugoslav union. In 1923, after three years of rule, the court circles enacted a coup and killed Stamboliski and many of his supporters.... The new regime disbanded the VMRO terrorist gangs and continued with its distinctively anti-Macedonian policy, systematically suppressing all forms of expression of the Macedonian national awareness.

Only 30% of the total population living in Aegean Macedonia was Macedonian before the First World War. There were 30% Turks, less than 15 % Greeks and the rest were various other nationalities. With the Lausanne Convention of 1923, Greece and Turkey agreed to a population exchange. Almost all Turks left and Greeks came from Asia Minor, and the region under the Greek national structure

finally became Greek. After that about 50,000 Macedonians left for Bulgaria and Yugoslavia from a total of 330,000. After that Macedonian participation in the Aegean structure slid below 25%. Given that soon afterwards twice the number or 640,000 Turkish migrant Greeks came to Macedonia, the percentage of Macedonians became even smaller. The Greek government has repeatedly avoided fulfilling its obligations under the ratified international agreements regarding the protection of minority rights and attempted more subtle methods to denationalize and assimilate the Macedonians. In 1924 the Greek government expressed readiness to treat the Aegean Macedonians as a Bulgarian national minority, but this led to severe disturbances in Yugoslav-Greek relations. “At the request of the Macedonians from Aegean Macedonia, the Yugoslav government, in particular, insisted that they be recognized as Serbians or as a Serbian national minority in Greece”. (“History of the Macedonian people”, book III, p. 233). The Greek government caved in and, in 1926, the Aegean Macedonians were recognized as members of the Serbian national minority in their own country. At the time of the Metaxas dictatorship in 1938, a special law in Greece was enacted which banned the use of the Macedonian language in private life, and members of the Macedonian national minority were discriminated against in every way.

After the Nazi’s invaded and destroyed Yugoslavia, a large part of Macedonia along the Morava, Nish and Timok Regions was occupied by the Bulgarian army. The western part of Vardar Macedonia was occupied jointly by the Italians and Albanians. Military police apparatus was fully imported from Bulgaria and installed in the Bulgarian occupied zone. The Bulgarians did not trust the local Macedonians. Most of the Bulgarian civil service was brought in from Bulgaria and placed in charge of the administrative apparatus. The Bulgarians applied a special occupation legal system, based on naked repression and execution of judicial power by the military courts... The Bulgarian occupiers were able to form a quisling government and were very successful in forming a network of informants and spies. They systematically spread propaganda about denationalizing the Macedonians and turning them into Bulgarians, especially through forced re-education. The communist movement in Vardar Macedonia lacked spirit and boiled down to sporadic diversions and attacks until Italy capitulated. Then, when

conditions were created to form a free territory, people sprang into action and freed Debar and Kichevo. Drazha Mihailovich’s Chetniks in 1943 did not have such great success, when they recovered they formed the Vardar Chetnik Corps, composed of four brigades. The Partisans and Chetniks collided on Macedonian soil. The communists believed that the Chetniks were a much greater threat and more dangerous than the occupiers. However, the communists devoted special attention to the construction of an organizational infrastructure, in almost the entire territory, and were ready to welcome the great amassing of partisan detachments, as the Western allies placed their support behind Tito when the Red Army set foot on the Balkan Peninsula and German forces began to withdraw from the Aegean Sea. Fighting against the German and Bulgarian occupiers became more intense. Even during the war, the Communists proclaimed Macedonia a federal unit within Yugoslavia and its will was realized immediately after the war.

14. Artificial construct of the Macedonian nation

The Macedonian nation was proclaimed by the communist regime and sanctioned in practice by decree. It then became a category in official statistics reports, even though Slavic scientific circles could not enthrone its broken off language. And as Kostich said: “That does not go so lightly: a nation cannot be created with a magic wand. It needs many props, one being primarily tradition.” (p. 42) When, for the first time, at the beginning of this century, during the Ottoman occupation, the idea was launched to create a Macedonian language, the prominent slavist Vatroslav Jagich, in his book “Slavic languages”, published in 1909, reacted with the following words: “The proposal comprised in this age, one Macedonian dialect to be made into a written language of the country, even if it was correctly thought of, must be decisively rejected…” (p. 42) According to Aleksandar Belich there are only three South Slavic languages: Serbo-Croatian, Bulgarian and Slovenian. The old Slavic language disappeared and Macedonian never existed.

In 1878 Jevrem Gruich, a representative of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, wrote to Jovan Tsviich, unofficial Serbian representative in the Berlin Congress: “The residents of Veles have written and hundreds of them have signed a petition begging to join Serbia

because they always have been Serbians (p. 43)… We cannot say about them that they have been settled in a completely strange and naturally different country”. (p. 43) All those under the dictatorial communist government were forcibly recombined to form a new, artificial nation... and not just Jovan Tsviich, but many other scientists a long time ago proved that the areas of Skopje, Tetovo and Kratovo were not included in the “geographical notion of Macedonia, but of Serbia”. And the “historical-geographical lexicon”, printed in Basel in 1727, argues that Skopje is located in Serbia and Macedonia is located to the south of it, while the “universal dictionary”, published in Leipzig in 1740, specifies the territorial scope of Serbia by the then understanding of science: “Serbia, Latin Servia or, according to some, Serblia, is a large fertile province in Europe, which the Romans called Upper Moesia, to the east it borders with Bulgaria, to the west with Bosnia and Dalmatia, to the south with Albania and Macedonia and to the north with the Danube and Sava Rivers which divide it from Erdelia and Wallachia. It certainly got its name from the Serbians...” And at the time when the Pech Patriarchate had the narrowest territorial scope, the Diocese of Skopje and Shtip belonged to it. While the territories south of Tetovo, Skopje, Veles and Shtip belonged to the Ohrid Archbishopric... According to Kostich’s conclusion: “The toponyms in this region have left their Serbian footprint. In the northwestern part of Macedonia today, for example, there are villages called Srbinovo, Srbitsa and Srbiani, which are found to have originated from the Middle Ages. Srbinovo is not far from Gostivar in the down flow of the River Lakavitsa, whereas Srbitsa and Srbiani are located near Kichevo. Srbinovo today has 120, Srbitsa 170 and Srbiani 100 households. Albanians now live in Srbinovo and Srbitsa, and Macedonians and Albanians in Srbiani.” (p. 50) Kostich is aware that the process of national identification in Macedonia has not been resolved and that the issue is very complicated. Decades of forced de-Serbian-ization has been performed in the Serbian part of Macedonia. In the Bulgarian and Greek parts meanwhile, the concept of a separate Macedonian nation is simply not supported. Scientists and experts have indicated that the Macedonian population is either Serbian or Bulgarian, but has never seriously been considered as a separate nation.

Official Bulgarian and Greek authorities do not recognize the existence of the Macedonian nation. Bulgarians claim that it was only about their compatriots. “The Macedonian nationality was created by Yugoslavia; by a clique of anti-Serbians. Bulgarian and Greek behaviour shows that, even during the time of the communists, Serbia would never have recognized a separate Macedonian nation. This was only possible because of Yugoslavia and because of some anti-Serbian leaders.” (p. 59)

A significant proportion of the Serbian population in Vojvodina is originally from Macedonia. Many people from many places in Macedonia were responsible and significantly contributed to the preservation of the Serbian national consciousness. Kostich cited Hristifor Zhefarovich, a prominent heraldic from the XVIII century, born in Ohrid, Atanas Jovanovich, a painter born in Vratse, the social lyric Kosta Abrasevich from Ohrid, prominent writer Angelko Krstich from Struga, Momchilo Nastasievich, a great writer, Petar Dzhadzhich, a literary critic from Bitola and others.

Even though their homeland was in the vicinity of Lake Prespa, Branislav Nushich had said that inside of him flowed Serbian, Vlach and Albanian blood, but mostly Serbian. Nowhere was it mentioned that, perhaps, he was Macedonian. And let us not forget the patriotic Serbian poet Vladislav Petkovich Dis, originally from Kumanovo. Jovan Jovanovich Zmai boasted of the fact that his great-grandfather moved here from Macedonia. Nikola Pasich, Branko Radikievich and Jovan Steria Popovich also came here from Macedonia.

e) The Macedonian Question

The question of Macedonia, as a separate federal unit, was considered as a specific question by Kostich for as long as the Yugoslav federation survived. “Macedonia is territorially autonomous and demographically more diverse than any of the other regions, with its linguistic and even ethnic uniqueness. This ethnic specificity is quite recent:

“Macedonia was not ready, Macedonia happened quite suddenly even for experts (ethnographic and Slavists), it did not win its place at all, it was a gift. It was not a direct result of Macedonian activists

(they were divided between fondness and affection towards Bulgaria to Serbia), but rather a result of the activities of Svetozar Vukmanovich Tempo and his acquaintances. However, this ethnic distinctiveness was now widespread in the entire world and all parties entered it into their encyclopedias and lexicons (regardless of whether science accepted it or not), and the residents of Macedonia became more faithful. This will now never be able to be redefined, to be erased, or to be considered non-existent. No doubt that over time it will soften and it will get a more natural proportion, but it will never disappear. It was a worthwhile endeavour for the current rulers of Macedonia and Yugoslavia to be in an equally anti-Serbian mood.” (p. 121)

For the Serbians a Federation of four will be unfavourable because in the state there will be more Croatians, Slovenians and Macedonians combined, and in the government there will be participation with one-quarter influence. Besides that, they will be exposed to coalition blockades in state institutions. “This collaboration of all units against Serbia is more than certain. I have already seen this with my own eyes. The elves always work together against the genie if they want to achieve something”. (p. 122) Kostich recognized the fact that Serbians living in North Macedonia were happy to join their territory with Serbia, whereas the Albanians from the western parts would prefer to be grouped with their own compatriots. “It is not impossible that even other ethnic factions may manifest themselves inside Macedonia that don’t correspond to the given moulds. Because today’s Macedonia with its nationality was not created naturally, as was said above. The nationality was imposed on the population. Perhaps a significant part of the population gladly accepted it, but there are many who were conquered by force, and have remained essentially what they were. Undoubtedly there are Serbians inside Macedonia, in the south and in the west, but are unable to surface. With freedom they may be able to rise again, and Macedonia with its uniqueness could be consumed”. (p. 122)

Here is what Kostich said about the Macedonian language: “It is a transitional type of language sitting between the Serbian and Bulgarian languages. To me it resembles the Bulgarian language (because I don’t know Bulgarian), and to the Bulgarians it resembles

the Serbian language. But no doubt it is close to the one and to the other”. (p. 123) There never was a Macedonian literary language or literature or literacy in general, until the Second World War.

“Similarly, it is well known to all historians and to all linguists that there never existed any old monuments with Macedonian writing on them, but only Serbian, and to a much lesser extent Bulgarian... In the Serbian part of Macedonia many dialects exist, but two among them behave almost as separate languages; the differences between them are very slight and almost resemble the Serbian language, or slightly less.” (p. 124)...

After studying the scientific research results generated by competent linguists, Kostich summarized the question of the Macedonian language with the following words: “The official ‘Macedonian language’, created in the year of our Lord 1945, is actually a combination of various dialects spoken in Macedonia. Not one dialect has a written form, but something oral is taken from each. But, the basis for the literary language of the Macedonians was taken from the western part of central Macedonia, primarily from the triangle Prilep, Bitola, Veles-Kichevo, and especially from the Prilep speech. From what we have seen, the dialect that differs most from the Serbian language was used to form the basis. According to all this, we can say that today’s Macedonian language is an artificial creation, something created and imposed rather than derived organically (like the Serbian language), a language without a basis and roots. After the new literary language was created, they were able to create a new alphabet in order to establish that language. And that was done very fast. Committee’s were appointed and the issue was resolved by decree”. (p. 125)...

Jovan Tsviich called the Macedonians a floating mass, ready to blend with the Serbians or with the Bulgarians, depending in which state they found themselves. Wendell described them in a similar manner. According to Joseph Berge, Macedonia is a deep melting pot of people and cultures. In addition to the archaic, prehistoric, Balkan and Slavic populations that settled here there were also the Pechenegs, Kumans, Cherkezs, Tatars, Turks, Arbanasians, and many Muslim groups. After the First World War this region was populated by a large number of Serbian colonies.