Part II

Part II

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EXCERPTS FROM DOBRIN SUVOGORSKI’S DIARY

RAKOVSKI - PART 2

CHAPTER ONE - The wanderers called the shelters “our universities”

It was very early in the morning and no one noticed what time it was when we heard a loud knock on the big door of the shelter. We all ran quickly to open it. The person knocking was persistent because he wanted to meet us, the wanderers of the world, as much as we wanted to meet him.

All of us who had left our homeland and were now immigrants often talked about our teacher Dobrin Suvogorski who taught us Marxism-Leninism and the importance of the Comintern. Together we sang the “International”, which roared from Moscow all the way down to Kostur, Lerin, Voden… but after the Greek Civil War (1945-1949) it disappeared… gone into oblivion. Now the desolation that rules kills all.

He was a communist to the bone capable of ordering people around without shouting, almost in silence. He made decisions alone about most things. He always made it clear what could be done and what couldn’t done, in every given situation.

When he looked at us all sitting down on our iron beds he looked like his eyes were sparkling. And indeed, his eyes looked like they were filled with tears as he took a big step over the threshold to enter the room.

I was surprised to see a person show up, who no one had invited. But then, for a moment, I thought of how things were in the past...

The moment Suvogorski entered the shelter he greeted everyone, one by one, leaned over one of the iron beds, and said: “I am happy to tell you that I am back from Siberia!”

He then addressed everyone by saying: “This may not be quite clear to you, but what I want to do is tell you that I feel guilty and want to share some things with you. I want to share them with the people with whom I fought side by side, which left great devastation in our homeland! The truth is, what happened to us was not our fault. We did what we were told to do and we followed someone else’s terrible

strategy because we had no strategy of our own. This is how we ended up being driven out of our ancestral hearth.

I discovered this during a long Siberian winter. One of the Russian interrogators literally told me: ‘Comrade Suvogorski, you sacrificed yourself and the Macedonian people simply for foreign interests. You know very well that during the years 1945 to 1949 you Macedonians were under Greek control. You were under the same dark, cloudy conditions that you were under about one hundred years ago. This is why we Russians have the saying ‘those who rule make the rules’, which you Macedonians have yet to learn. So here are some facts as to why you could not achieve that which you were falsely led to believe you could achieve:

1. To this day all researchers are amazed as to how the CPG masterminded the Greek Civil War (1946-1949) under the pretense that socialism was possible in Greece, when the whole world knew that during the Yalta Conference, held between February 4 and 11, 1945, Churchill, Stalin and Roosevelt, in the presence of their foreign ministers, decided that Greece was 90% under the British and American sphere of influence and that in Yalta Stalin guaranteed that no socialist system would be implemented in Greece even with the Greek Civil War taking place. So there was only one reason for having the Greek Civil War and that was to ethnically cleanse the Macedonian population from Greece. This was done by internationalizing the problem and by doing it by legal means. This was done to make more space for the Asia Minor settlers and colonists deposited in Greek occupied Macedonia during the 1920’s. See: ΦΟ371/43649 - 00201 Ρ. 20431/1009/67.

2. About dividing the Balkans into spheres of influence, in his memoirs Churchill described the division as follows: ‘We arrived in Moscow in the late hours of October 9, 1944. We had the first significant meeting and counseling arranged in the Kremlin on October 10. Present in the meeting were Stalin, Molotov, Eden and myself (Churchill). The Majors Bierce and Popov did the translating for us...’ In other words the division of spheres of influence was such that Greece was left almost entirely to British influence and as a result Britain had the right, as needed at any time, to be able to intervene with all possible means.

3. The policy of the Soviet Union towards the ‘Macedonian Question’ was a function of global policy and strategy in general, and with Greece in particular. The ‘Macedonian Question’ and the attitude of the English, Americans and Greeks towards the Macedonian people in Greek occupied Macedonia, Stalin treated as a cover for his own policies that he implemented in the countries that fell under his influence after World War II. During the Second World War the communist parties in the countries that included parts of divided Macedonia firmly respected the declarative principles of the Great Powers, which called for ‘not altering prewar borders’. The following should also be known: It was on Stalin’s initiative that the Comintern was dissolved. The Comintern had formally recognized the right of independence of each Communist Party and supported the thesis of ‘one country one party’. When Stalin made a deal with the other Great Powers in Moscow in October, 1944, to divide the Balkans into spheres of influence, the Balkan borders were already intact and they were not going to change no matter what. This was Stalin’s answer to all of us Macedonians who were looking to Russia to save us. This was the first blow against us and shows how we lost our united spiritual system, i.e. our nation was left without a strategy for the spiritual survival of our ethnic space in the Balkans.

4. At about the same time Stalin sold us out, the CPG became the new almighty master of the Macedonian people in Greek occupied Macedonia and the consequences of that were not small. The ‘new order’ needed victims for its activities and there were plenty of Macedonians to go around. The all important slogan was invented which called for ‘All to arms! Everything for freedom!’

As a nation and as individual people, were we the Macedonians intellectually, politically and militarily prepared and able to preserve the territorial integrity of Greek occupied Macedonia and the compactness of the Macedonian population during World War II?

When the Great Powers divided the Balkans into spheres of influence their position was a ‘policy of status quo’. At the same time the permanent border separating Greece and Yugoslavia

became an International border belonging to the two opposing camps.

Why did we Macedonians think that we could defy the Great Powers and bring down an International border, the iron curtain that divided the two opposing Great Power camps all on our own – with help from the Greek communists?

Did NOF have any strategy of its own regarding this? Obviously not! This is why our people were led by foreigners whose main goal was to lead us to hell and to ethnically cleanse us from our homeland.

There is a lesson here for the ‘Guardians of Aegean History’ who believe that ‘we had no other alternative’ but to take the course we took. Please explain to us what would have happened if the Greek Civil War had never taken place, if we Macedonians had not joined the Democratic Army of Greece and if NOF had never been formed and managed by the CPM/CPY? Would we have suffered the same fate; so many of us being killed and so many, many more of us being permanently driven out of our homes, with no hope of ever returning? Would we have experienced the same disaster? And how much worse would it have been had we not done all those things?

These issues are very sensitive and charged with emotion. Even now, so many years later, we refuse to accept that we had been duped. We refuse to accept that acts of evil had been perpetrated against us and we unwittingly had participated in a campaign of self-destruction. The secrets of our past are dark but they must come out one day so that we can learn from them and not repeat our mistakes in the future. There is no question that we were led by foreigners and fought and sacrificed our lives for foreign interests and, worst of all, we did all this against our own interests… How gullible is that?

There are many contradictions to our story and most are due to the fact that our history, up until recently, had been written under censorship and under arbitration so that the truth could be well hidden… and so that we would never be able to find the root of the evil and the dark secrets of our genocide. All this was meant to destruct us from looking in the right places... And all this was done

in favour of daily politics, of maintaining good neighbourly relations, particularly between Greece and Yugoslavia.

But now things need to change. We know from history which wars were successful and which ones were disastrous. Every civilized nation looks at its own history for its values and lessons learned before it moves forward. And so the time has come for Macedonian historians to begin looking at Macedonia’s history from the Macedonian people’s point of view and apply lessons learned for our future. We can’t ignore the fact that for a couple of centuries now Greece has been kept alive, with help from its patrons, and has been allowed to slaughter Macedonians in order to appropriate Macedonian lands, history and culture. We Macedonians need to learn this fact and erase the illusion that “someone else” is more interested in us than we are, and that “someone else” is willing to help us for our sake and not for their own personal interest. It is a fact that the Macedonian people have been divided and this has weakened us and brought us disunity. It is a fact that Hellenism has been used in Greece to eradicate us. These are facts and important lessons to be learned so that we can better be prepared for the future. We cannot dismiss the crimes committed against us because they are painful and bitter, or because we are embarrassed, or because we want to have better relations with our enemies; those who committed the crimes against us. Several genocides have been committed against our people and we have become “wanderers” and drifters in this world. We have been driven out of our homeland, not because we are guilty of something but to serve foreign and illegal interests. If we continue to go in the same direction we have been going up until now, we will not only permanently lose our homeland but we will admit to “National defeat” and prove to the world that we were “wrong” and that those who committed the genocides against us were “right”. Events that took place in the three and a half years of so-called Greek Civil War are confirmation of the old truth that the Greek Civil War was no coincidence; the ideological violence was conveniently perpetrated against us. The violent mobilization of so many Macedonian people, who did their best, and in return received death, persecution, destruction of their homes and exile was no coincidence. And the fact that we are not allowed to go back, not even to light a candle on the graves of those who gave their lives for us, is also no coincidence. All this was perpetrated to

permanently “get rid” of the Macedonian presence from Greek occupied Macedonia. This is a fact.

5. On January 30 and 31, 1949 the CPG Central Committee, during its 5th Plenum, introduced the slogan: “A United Macedonian State within a Balkan Federation.” Then, on March 7, 1949, the same CPG Central Committee denied introducing such a slogan. This “denial” was accepted by the NOF leadership during its 2nd NOF Plenum held on February 3, 1949, even before the CPG denied it. On August 14, 1949, after the frontal battles for Vicho were fought and lost, Vasilis Bardzhiotas, Supreme Political Commissar, introduced the slogan: “Gramos will become the tomb of the Monarcho-Fascist government army.” This was an army that numbered ten times that of DAG, its opponent. Then on August 29, 1949, when the last battles were taking place on Mount Gramos, before the war was lost, DAG Headquarters announced that: “…the DAG units were pulling out from Gramos and heading for Albania because they had completed their heroic task...” Unfortunately that “heroic task” was DAG’s capitulation and liquidation. Then on October 7, 1949, while camped in Albania in a region called “Bureli”, the CPG declared it lost the war because of the spies and traitors to the revolution present among them. And those spies and traitors, the CPG pointed out, were the 11 NOF, AFZH and NOMS members, all Macedonians, and called for their execution. But because the Albanian authorities would not allow such gruesome acts to take place in their country, the 11 were sent to the Siberian prison camps. The CPG, of course, did this to place the guilt on the Macedonians so that the guilty Greeks in the CPG could be “guilt free”. And thus a new CPG slogan was introduced: “Guilty without guilt!”

6. On March 23, 1949, the CPG created the organization KOEM (Communist Organization of Aegean Macedonia) and declared that the Macedonian people were a “bright spot” in history. In its resolution KOEM declared that: “The CPY created the national -democratic bloc; the Yugoslav nations, including the Macedonians, and then handed them over to the imperialists...” But our history (the mainstream history about the Macedonians in Greek occupied Macedonia) says: “The adopted resolution of KOEM and of all organizations in NOF, AFZH and DAG fighters served as a means

of implementing a hysterical campaign against Yugoslavia and its leadership.” On June 16, 1949 the AFZH Executive Board called on all Macedonian women to the defense of the Vicho front line.

7. Tito and Stalin fight over “Greek Line”

The main reason why Stalin and Tito were fighting was because Marshal Tito refused to stop supplying the partisans in Greece with weapons and equipment during the Greek Civil War, as revealed by secret CIA documents.

Secret CIA documents

Recently declassified United States National Security Agency (NSA) secret documents have revealed that the world was on the brink of a Third World War, involving nuclear weapons, during the epic clash between Stalin and Tito. This may seem incredible but Tito and Stalin’s tiff, which began in 1946, almost started a world war. And all this was because Yugoslavia was supplying the partisans in Greece with aid, weapons and ammunition during the Greek Civil War. CIA declassified secret documents have revealed that in the years after the Second World War great geopolitical power games for the redistribution of borders had been played on the Republic of Macedonia’s southern border. The 11 page NSA analysis has revealed the real cause for the feud between Tito and Stalin. This will be fascinating reading for historians who collect puzzle pieces for the mosaic of the so-called “Greek Civil War” especially about the Macedonians who participated in the partisan battalions and in helping the Yugoslav army. This analysis shows how far the two opposing Great Power sides were prepared to go in the fierce Cold War that followed World War II.

8. Soviet proposals to the CPG for ending the Greek Civil War

On April 11, 1949 Zahariadis was summoned to Moscow where Stalin personally gave him a directive to end the armed struggle in Greece. Stalin’s decision to end the armed struggle in Greece was based on information he had received on plans to attack Albania during the summer offensive against DAG. The Greek government

army and NATO were preparing to attack Albania and, because of its conflict with Yugoslavia, the USSR would not be able to help.

On April 20, 1949 Zahariadis informed the immediate CPG leadership of Stalin’s directive and made plans to withdraw DAG from Greece, which according to Stalin should be have been done by the end of May 1949.

But then on May 4, 1949, the Soviet administration suddenly reversed its decision and told Zahariadis to temporarily postpone DAG’s early withdrawal and continue the struggle.

So the question is: “In view of these facts, can we Macedonians believe that we were a political and military factor in the Greek Civil War and that we had power to command DAG, in whose ranks over 15,000 Macedonian fighters from our villages served, like our mainstream history has led us to believe?”

Should we even waste words on the foreign manipulations committed against us or on our NOF and AFZH leaders who themselves were heavily manipulated?! Our so-called NOF “spiritual” leaders, who chose to remain in our service and who called for a “total mobilization” of our people, perhaps unbeknown to them, became the leaders of our fateful march to oblivion… Instead of worrying which Party to serve – the CPY or the CPG – perhaps they should have cared a bit more about the fate of the Macedonian people and a bit more about the “march” they took them to.

The truth, as hard as it is to accept, needs to come out. Over 70 years have already passed and generations have come and gone, and we continue believing fairy tales; rather than to admit that we, again, “failed to fulfill our national objectives” (screwed up). We have failed in the face of many complex problems created by internal and external factors. We failed to properly evaluate our aims and capability to deliver results in view of the situation and conditions imposed on us. In other words, we had no realistic strategic plans and we relied on foreigners (our eternal enemies) to deliver us to where we thought we were going. It was a grave mistake of the Macedonian leadership to rely heavily on the CPY (which

abandoned us) and the CPG (which destroyed us), two foreign entities, to unreservedly implement our political interests… It was never in their interests, as it turned out and as events have shown, to do that, except to support and encourage us on our mission to our GENOCIDE.

9. Decades later, after the Greek Civil War ended, General Markos Vafiadis returned to Greece and in a couple of interviews with the Athens’s daily “Ta Nea” and with Solun’s “Ellinikos Voras” Markos said: “Zahariadis wanted the disaster he created... He planned it that way… We were betrayed by the Party leadership…!” (See “Ellinikos Voras”, August 1978.) Later in the interviews he said: “At the time I did not know that Zahariadis was a provocateur… that he was playing the English and American game…” (See Dim. Gousidis.) A correspondent asked Markos: “What evidence do you have that puts the blame on Zahariadis? Do you have any documents, Mr. Vafiadis?” To which Markos replied: “Yes, there are documents? I have papers... And the events themselves speak about it!” (See “Ta Nea”, August 22, 1978.)

10. In February 1953 Ankara led trilateral talks for forming a Balkan pact of friendship and cooperation between Greece, Yugoslavia and Turkey. In August 1954 an amended pact was signed and put into effect in Bled (Yugoslavia) about a “military alliance” between the three signatories. The Balkan Pact of 1953 is evidence, a moment in time, of when the west openly offered support to Yugoslavia to protect it from communist camp threats, a pact that did not last too long. In 1961 the three countries agreed that the “Balkan Pact” was dead.

But the signing of the Balkan Pact created consequences for the “Macedonian Question”. To get this deal Yugoslavia had to make concessions to please Greece. The following concessions were made: The “Association of Macedonians from Aegean Macedonia” was dissolved and the newspaper “Voice of the Aegeans” was silenced.

* * *

It was a real war against Macedonian-ism...

Everyone opened their eyes wide open as Suvogorski calmly continued with his story:

“I now want to tell my story,” he said. “I arrived in Siberia more curious than concerned. And as the saying goes ‘lies have short legs and can’t go too far’. I was sure I would not be in prison for long...

I was arrested on October 3, 1949 on orders from Zahariadis and the CPG Central Committee.

On May 30, 1952 I was informed of my charges and that I was charged in accordance with Article 58, paragraph 4 and 11 of the Russian Federation Criminal Code for committing a number of international crimes to do with organized activities… I don’t want to torment you any more with this so that’s all I am going to tell you for now.

* * *

The night train from Belgrade arrived in Skopje on March 1, 1960. It was early in the morning and the platform was empty. Several security personnel came over to greet me but apparently not to help me. With my family and with hands full of suitcases we headed for the only address I knew; to my friend Vangel Aianovski Oche’s house. But he did not greet me as his old revolutionary leader and friend. In the afternoon when I asked him if we could take a walk through Skopje, he did not come with me. Instead he sent someone else; one of his ‘aids’. I was his guest for only that evening. The next day I moved into the shelter in ‘Chair’… And from that day forward the ‘university’ in the shelter was open...”

* * *

“When I arrived,” Dobrin continued, “the long-time residents of the shelter were asking each other if this truly was the Suvogorski they knew, the man who taught them Marxism-Leninism and the importance of the Comintern. Was this the man with whom they sang the ‘international’ song that roared from Moscow all the way

down to Kostur, Lerin and Voden Regions, but which, after the Greek Civil War (1945-1949), was gone into oblivion?

I looked around and what did I see? Rows of people sitting on iron beds looking in my direction, showing some joy in their sparkling eyes. I took a big step over the threshold and entered…

An uninvited man just appeared… no one had invited him… His sudden appearance started me thinking of some details from the past...”

But what Suvogorski strictly kept to himself (instilled in him by the Communists) was the bloodiest story of the Greek Civil War. He was ready and prepared to expose and uncover those people who were members of the Party, who were among the communist hierarchy who he believed were the architects of our disaster. He had been taught to always have a watchful eye and to dutifully perform Party tasks exactly the way they were decided from above: “Everything for the struggle… everything for victory…” and this is how he tasked and ordered his own subordinates. He felt proud when tasks were performed according to plan. He proudly fulfilled NOF and AFZH tasks exactly as ordered by the CPG and by the CPM/CPY.

There he was now leaning on his cane and wearing a Russian overcoat. And on his head he wore a hat made from the skin of a Persian lamb.

He looked for us for days. He wanted to see us. He wanted to know how we were doing. He wanted to know what we were doing in the shelters and how we were coping. He wanted to know how many times and why we were counting and re-counting the number of bricks on the walls… We lived useless lives… as if expecting to soon die... We felt all alone… Until yesterday we were companions and co-fighters… today we rot together but alone… Life stinks to high heaven… like sour soup…

Old, weak, bent over, slim looking with a hoarse voice, Suvogorski kept walking. He took cautious and temperate steps; at least that’s what it looked like from the distance. And in its depth his voice

trembled, echoing in the hallway of the old shelter in “Chair”. He greeted us in poor Russian mixed with Macedonian: “Zdrastvuite moi dorogie nezaboraveni sobortsi! Sonot mi se ostvari. Slava Bogi… Mi se stvari sonot…” (Greetings my comrades and unforgotten co-fighters! I have realized my dream. Glory to God! My dream has materialized…)

Behind the baggy wrinkles on his temple and slightly frowning furrowed brow, of course, he still carried the ugly images that were imprinted in his brain in the “Taished 041” detention camp in the USSR. His face was unreadable, inaccessible and stern. His tight lips, his stern look, were indications that he was thinking of something important, probing while taking small steps towards me with arms open, getting ready to embrace me. And in his hand he held a book entitled “Sources of totalitarianism” by Hannah Arendt.

Suvogorski was like that. He was a pretty stubborn person, even though no one thought of him as being stubborn or evil.

Well, this is how he was. I knew him from a long time ago. I was with him during the hellish war. He always wanted to take on stronger opponents and argue with them until they surrendered… after long and terrible deliberations. Deep inside him he wanted a protégé. He craved for someone stronger than himself, a self-proclaimed Marxist or even an internationalist...?

I looked at him and kept staring at him… It took me a while to picture him from present to past. To remember him, how he looked during our youth. There, in front of me, stood a white-haired old man who very much resembled my teacher Suvogorski. Here, in front of me, stood the same partisan and ideological activist who taught me survival skills during the culmination of fascism as a universal evil. Here was the man who taught me what communism and fascism were all about. Both ideologies, he said, were capable of bloodying the hands of its supporters in their romantic quest to win power and especially the moment after political theory turns into hard practice. Suvogorski is still saying the same thing, that both ideologies are harmful, but far from being the same.

In an effort to break the silence I said: “Tell me something about yourself...”

He looked at me with a stern look on his face while I stood there frozen in silence, thinking how much the man had aged and the big difference between us. It seemed like I had been rejuvenated in the past 65 years while he had aged terribly. Something was obviously tormenting him. The one thing that tormented him the most was that it was too painful for him to think about the many things that bothered him; the war, the Siberian prisons... He is even unable to write about them because it is too difficult for him to think about them… When things were fresh in his mind they refused to give him a pencil and paper to write on. Especially in the Siberian prisons… not even an ordinary pencil and some plain paper.

* * *

“Zdravo Dobrin!” I said. “Don’t just stand there, please come in and sit down. Please sit here…”

Even though he was lost in his own thoughts, he still looked at me carefully, not so much as to recognize me, but because he wanted to make sure I was ready to listen to all his secrets which he carried around with him during his ideological activism days, especially during the civil war years (1945-1949), and when he was under constant surveillance and torment in the Siberian camps.

When our eyes met, the two of us stood there in silence staring at each other. In his eyes I could see desperation and love for us all, his former co-fighters. When he smiled I noticed the same unchanging expression he had had a half century ago. It was my teacher alright… I recognized that smile. It was the same smile from our past from when we talked about our future, of building a caring and democratic society favourable to all. Most of us remembered him from the time when Suvogorski stood in front of the Macedonian villagers and spoke about Lenin’s principle… and we were all happy.

I still remember and carry with me the idea from when we talked about a “United Macedonia”.

Look at him now. He is shaking… he is in pain. He looks angry and full of grief because we lost the war. His revolutionary ideals for a “United Macedonia” never materialized. He acquired these convictions in January 1945 when he began to study the draft Agreement being negotiated by the Yugoslav and Bulgarian governments during which time the first article was written: “The Government of Bulgaria and the Government of Yugoslavia declare that the approach taken to the South Slav unification will be done through joint education provided by the two federal states and will be called ‘Federation of South Slavs’ (FSS). It will have joint national representatives, joint foreign ministries and a military. Ultimately all joint institutions and ministries will be established under a joint FSS constitution…”

* * *

Suvogorski was a measured and cautious person in all his articulations. He was filled with admirable restraint and mystery.

I welcomed him to his homeland. He sat down. His darting eyes calmed down and, as he looked me in the eyes, I asked him:

“How are you my dear teacher?”

He was happy because our meeting was cordial, open and pleasant, but very emotional and moving at times. After he recovered from his emotional episodes he would smile with red glowing cheeks. He was still very emotional about his turbulent past even 65 years later. He tried very hard to let me know that he always cared for us. He said:

“You know that I always thought of you all. I know that you lived with nostalgia for our homeland. So, half a century or so later, here we are, in Macedonia…”

“I remember; you always socialized with the Socialists…” I replied.

Dobrin adjusted himself and said: “Well, I went further than socialism, I wanted to follow the communist movement. But every ideology has its pathology. Just like nationalism and communism. I

was against any nationalism because nationalism is dangerous, and you saw how Greeks and Macedonians behaved even though they were all members of the CPG...”

Dobrin went silent for a moment, then, looking somewhat strange, like he was guilty of something, said: “When I think of all these things I feel like I am digging my own grave. I get this sinking feeling in my heart...

We Macedonians failed to form a Communist Party because we adhered to Lenin’s principle: “One state one party…” and we Macedonians under Greece chose to remain as orphans in the Communist Party of Greece. And what happened to us as a result?

When Macedonians began to leave Greece and join Parties abroad (Yugoslavia, Bulgaria, Albania) they did what they were told and served the communist party’s interests, irrespective of their own interests. For example, look at what happened during the civil war when some followed Tito’s CPY and others Zahariadis’s CPG. Both parties were working against Macedonian interests and at the same time they had Macedonians working against each other. The results were overwhelmingly counterproductive, primarily against the Macedonians. The needs of the Macedonian people were completely ignored while Macedonians were fighting against Macedonians. And what is the truth? The truth is that it has been this way for ages… Macedonians have been manipulated by outsiders to fight amongst themselves…” concluded Dobrin.

At that moment Bozhin Ristuichin walked in. He opened the newspaper he was holding and, with a hoarse sounding voice, said: “No one has ever saved themselves from being exposed and no one has ever failed to confess. Researchers are now preoccupied with us, studying NOF and AFZH’s role in the political struggle. Unfortunately their current allegiance and commitments do not allow them to tell the truth… what the Macedonian people really experienced and that they now find themselves in exile, rooted out of their homes and centuries-old native lands...

My grandfather used to say: ‘In those days, if you discovered something not right or evil happening to your people and dared to

talk about it, then, sooner or later, you could expect to be dead’...” concluded Bozhin.

Yes, my grandfather also used to say: “You can run from poverty but you can’t run from poor people...”

* * *

Suvogorski continued: “I chose a more dangerous route. I was expected to sacrifice my family, my homeland, my right to my property and the brightest values of my personal life. It was demanded of me to do this in the simple service of the proletarian masses and to vigorously denounce the bourgeois elite. Each generation is led to believe that it is a contemporary of major change and yet, to this day, nothing has changed over so many years. Unlike other generations, our generation was the bearer of the Soviet-ization of the Balkans and the world. But, as it turned out we were only victims, because in the countries where socialism was a system and collapsed, much stronger raw capitalism was born. Even inequality has increased dramatically. Today’s generation is the carrier of modern change which gives realism to economic, political and cultural changes, all united under Globalization. Today is a time when capitalism is spreading around the globe faster than ever before. And, yes, I am really taken aback by what is happening!”

I then said to him: “I know that you have talked to us about a human society in view of a “program for a beautiful world” and have given us so much evidence and sketches of what had been planned in those days. I also know why you did this and with it you could have taken us to the end of the world. Besides that, everyone who knew you had told us that you were an honest man, and that you were prepared to give all the vast wealth of the world to the poor people.

He then said: “I remember well the history lessons about the lords who depended on the half-enslaved peasants for their wealth and power. I don’t know under whose initiative this was, but one morning the people from the villages Iasnopole and Rudino woke up amazed: Written on every fence, on every brick wall, on every goat path were the slogans:

‘Destroy the monarchy!’, ‘Destroy patriotism!’, ‘Destroy religion!’ ‘Our goal is Communism!’…” concluded Dobrin in a loud voice.

His voice was calm and natural, and loud as it should be, but in its depth it still quivered. He stared deeply at us all… bringing all the women, who had long been conversing among themselves, to silence.

Dobrin the teacher was now looking down. He was silent and for a long time he refused to look at us. Then, with a sick stare in his eyes, he said:

“If you really want to know the truth, the only thing that ideological activism did for the Macedonian people in Greece, in those fateful years, particularly from 1945 to 1949, in the name of building our Macedonian national identity and our unity, was that it exposed us to our genocide. Look at what we were promised and look at what we received… GENOCIDE!!” he yelled out loud.

He continued: “This was a time when the Great Powers were playing chess games in Yalta and the prize was the division of spheres of influence in the Balkans. I am also very sad and bitter… Dear God, I don’t think you have ever heard the Russian proverb which goes something like this: ‘With a bullet you can kill a person but with a word you can lead battalions to war’…”

“Yes! I have heard of that Russian proverb…” I replied.

“In those days we needed to be convinced that ‘capitalism’ was rotten,” he said, “and that our path to freedom was mapped out for us. Their way of seizing power was through a united and depersonalized people and once the people were depersonalized it was easy to lead them with a leader who had a personal touch and a lot of ‘charisma’...”

After he said that, Dobrin looked at me and, with a confident look in his eyes, said: “It was a time of miracles for the Greek and Yugoslav Communist Parties. It was done intentionally… All generations needed to be ideologically ‘reeled in’. In fact, we all ate up the socialist ideology and doctrine and we thought it was heaven for all

those who had long suffered and had been enslaved, especially our small Macedonian nation…”

There was silence in the shelter, even an old dog that was barking outside had stopped barking.

The shelter was furnished with very old furniture. The bed frames were made of iron bars. The residents were jokingly saying that the beds were especially made for us “wanderers” and so-called “Aegeans”… a derogatory term which we all detested.

Anyway, this is how the beds were made. If a person sat on one, it creaked and crunched like a pile of marbles had fallen on the floor. They made a loud noise each time a person moved on them.

But now everything and everyone was silent, waiting for Dobrin to continue with his stories which, for years, while he was in exile, had been locked in his mind and his tongue had been tied.

He sat silently at the edge of a bed and look at everyone one by one. After he looked at me he continued:

“There are many examples that confirm the historical truth that the Greek propaganda in Macedonia under Greece had fought hard against each Macedonian family. It used the worst methods possible, including terror, to force them out of their homes. This reminds me of the time when the Macedonian people were forced to get rid of the Macedonian icons from their homes and replace them with Greek ones. My grandparents used to say: ‘May God protect us from these damned Greeks!’…” concluded Dobrin and went silent.

Then, a sudden and strong creak broke the silence. Bozhin Ristuichin moved closer to the edge of his bed and said: “We Macedonians have suffered immensely so that our descendants are born Macedonians and not buried as Greeks. Is God helping these Greeks?!

Well, this is how life was for us and we all thought that we could live humanely in a communist society, but as it turned out that too was a lie, the communist leaders lied to us and we Macedonians

experienced the same things from them as we experienced from the others. But in doing so, this time they first mobilized our souls, after that, as it turned out during the Civil war years 1945 to 1949, they offered us “brotherhood” but that too turned out to be a lie. It was a time of many lies… It was a time when everyone wanted to have a red card and to be a communist. And when we found ourselves in those lines, as my grandfather used to say: ‘When you find yourself among the blind you have to close one eye’…” concluded Bozhin Ristuichin.

We all cracked up laughing; even Suvogorski, but our laughter had a trace of irony.

I said to Dobrin: “You used to say to us: ‘Look at that steep slope over there! This is where your climb to freedom begins.’ You also used to say: ‘Look at that lake… that river… that deep well… There, sitting at the bottom is freedom’. You used to say: ‘Do you see that short, slightly dried unhappy tree? Well, freedom hangs from it. Do you feel your neck, throat and heart? This is your saviour from slavery’… Isn’t this what you used to tell us?”

Dobrin asked for a glass of water... After taking a few sips he said:

“Yes, but history teaches us, if we care to learn from it, that we need a change of government, a new state of mind in which awareness of democracy, tolerance, human rights and freedom will prevail.

Now I wonder if such things could really happen in my little divided country.

Revolutionary ideas are born from opposing tyranny and injustice, on the one hand, and hope for a better world, on the other. We Communists did not believe in God but wanted a radical break with the constant society. With the revolution we sought to resist continuity and start a new beginning in history. You all know what Sartre, who is an atheist, not a Christian, has said in his book ‘Existentialism is Humanism’. He said: ‘Even if there is a God, nothing will change; that is our opinion. We, of course, do not believe that God exists, but it is not in the work of his existence that man should handle himself. Man needs to convince himself that

nothing can save him from himself, even if there is proof of the existence of God. Everything depends on the inner sense of what people feel, which is in line with them and with the world’…” concluded Dobrin.

I said to him: “In other words, your criticism of the then society was the way that it was structured, but you wanted it to be structured in a different way. And was it not your curiosity of the future, of what you thought a person needs to hope for, that drove you in that direction?

We know that this kind of behaviour is inherent in the human spirit. But then why did you, on the other hand, marginalize the national interests of the oppressed minorities in Greece?”

He said: “In the beginning, in order to win over the masses, the secret of success was communist agitation and creating chaos. Our aim was ‘to multiply and increase national feelings, habits, passions and living conditions for all people, so that something like chaos could be achieved in which no one would be able to understand where they belonged in the mess.” When this was going on, I felt like I belonged here, with my people, helping them make the right choice. The easiest way to manipulate someone, our villagers, when they are confused, is to show them the way, the right way. In such a mess they could have just as easily been manipulated by the other side.

The new socialist order proclaimed in Greece turned into a new disorder in which the new-old strongmen were now supported by the new-strongest in the world.

The new order also opened a big door (to divide the world into spheres of influence, according to the Yalta Agreement) for full American domination in Greece.

It happened exactly like Erich Fromm (1900-1980), an Armenian psychoanalyst, had predicted: “Desire for power has no root in strength but in weakness…” concluded Dobrin.