PROTEST AND APPEAL TO SVR

PROTEST AND APPEAL TO SVR

“From Dobrin Suvogorski, charged with being a contributor to the ‘Intelligence service’, and an ‘agent of Tito’ and sent to the socialist camp… Now a ‘Russian spy’ and ‘...’?” Dobrin wrote, while attempting to compose a protest letter.

“I am compelled to remind you that here in Skopje, on April 23, 1945, the CPM Central Committee constituted the NOF Founding Bureau for Aegean (Greek occupied) Macedonia. Fortunately (or unfortunately) it happened and I was one of those five people who laid the foundation…” he wrote, looked outside and continued:

“With this letter I protest against my exclusion and ask for your protection. I know there have been many statements made against me from a long time ago by people who were afraid of endangering their careers and wanted to disassociate themselves from me. They were the ones who invented the idea that I am some sort of Russian agent. But that is only slander, disgusting slander which I have always refuted. With this letter of protest I have decided to seek your protection and rehabilitation, not so much for me but more so for my wife and son...

I want to believe that you will consider my plea and show some understanding and goodwill, especially for an old fighter and his family, and release me from these fabricated charges that I had to endure for a long time... After having endured five and a half years in the Siberian prison camps, four and a half years of internment in Kazakhstan for being a ‘Macedonian nationalist’, I finally received my visa to return to Macedonia. Then, unexpectedly, my family and I were escorted off the train in Subotitsa and transferred to Panchevo in a prison car. There, we were placed under house arrest in a military compound. After that we were interrogated by Strogov. He interrogated me for ten days and my wife for four days. In the end he said to me, ‘Dobrin, we can’t ascertain anything because we have no evidence, but we still think you came back as an agent...’ I denied the charges but it was all done in vain. On top of that he insulted me when, at one point, he said, ‘I would have done this to ten Suvogorski’s for the sake of our Yugoslavia…’ ‘Our Yugoslavia!?’ What kind of odd patriotism is that? Was this personal or...? One

more thing, a little less bitter - our couriers were recognized as fighters and received their dignity by law, except for me... I made a fatal error and waited for twenty-six years to pass... it is a long time... the humiliation must stop, I am a son of this nation, and not of your government, I am a Macedonian fighter who fought for my people, and not for your government...

I admit: At this point, with some bitterness, I remember that I earlier addressed the CPG Central Committee and Chemerski, its President, but my address had the fate of a cry in the wilderness... Now that reminder makes me humble... I remain a son of the tormented Macedonian people and you, Strogov, you can check after I am dead to see if I am still alive...

Dobrin Suvogorski March 25, 1985 Skopje”

Dobrin picked up the letter and read it over. He then looked up and began to wonder if being involved in politics was perhaps unique in our nature.

“Am I satisfied that I truly captured the essence of what I wanted to say?” Dobrin asked himself. He then looked up and began to think about the war and if it perhaps had a selective biological and psychological grip on people… and, maybe this was necessary for every nation... “But we are a small nation and the people’s behaviour would not lead to destruction… And I am a Russian spy!?” he said to himself out loud while repeatedly laughing out loud in the dark of night.

“My life has become pointless and without perspective… not worth it…” he said to himself. He thought of the time in August 1949, when he was removed from NOF and demoted from a functionary to an ordinary soldier and sent to the front line in Gramos to fight in the last decisive battle against the Monarcho-Fascists.

“Even then they wanted to eliminate me physically…” Dobrin said to himself. “That task was entrusted to the Commander of the Independent Battalion, the one with the heavy weapons, at DAG

Division 10. That man was a major named Hrisostomos...” Dobrin remembered.

Dobrin kept himself busy going through his weary thoughts until dawn. He remembered how he had created the Macedonian alphabet, the first Macedonian primer in 1945 and used it until 1947 in order to facilitate the cultural and educational elevation of the Macedonian people in Lerin, Voden and Kostur Regions. He was happy to know that he had helped more then ten thousand Macedonian students learn the Macedonian language. He listened to them… how freely they spoke Macedonian and sang Macedonian songs. How easily they rejected their Greek slave names and adopted the Macedonian names their mothers had given them. He remembered editing the newspaper “Nepokoren”… After that his thoughts took him to the opening of the first course for teachers… He remembered telling them: “This course here will prepare all of you to become teachers...” He then perked up his ears and imagined the long applause he received. With eyes closed he began to fold his fingers one by one as he remembered the new schools he opened. “Zhelevo, Orovnik, Strkovo, Rabi, German...” he said. One by one he mentioned all 87 of them, remembering the desolation that Metaxas had left behind. His mind was churning like gurgling clear water, escaping from a mountain spring. He was especially proud of the speech he gave in Prague on April 27, 1949… He was proud of chanting in the Macedonian language in the Czechoslovak parliament, where the First World Congress was held on World Peace. Fueled by the applause of the audience he yelled out:

“On behalf of the Macedonian people, from this part of Macedonia, who, since the Balkan Wars, have lived together with the Greek people under the same oppressive and exploitative bourgeois regime in Greece, I cordially welcome the delegates from our socialist sun, the great Soviet Union, the delegates from heroic China, the delegates from democratic Spain and all the delegates from the democratic and peace-loving countries in the socialist camp... No matter what happens, regardless of the casualties, we the Macedonian people, along with the heroic Greek people, will win our freedom and peace...

Long live freedom and peace in the entire world! Long live the great Stalin!”

At one point Dobrin felt relaxed and completely calm, as if he was recognized by the people, the world public, the socialist working class, by all the thinkers of the socialist camp… But then when a piece of paper fell into his hand he became noticeably upset. He looked around and tried to avoid looking at the paper. But, with great difficulty, he then mastered his unwillingness to look and, despite his need to go to sleep, he began to read:

“In regards to international reaction and for organized activities working in its favour, according to Article 58, paragraphs 4 and 11 of the Russian Federation Criminal Code – ‘Osoboe Soveshchanie’ – it was decided by the USSR Supreme Court to: ‘Condemn Dobrin Mikhailovich Suvogorski to a ten-year prison term, by confiscating his personal freedom, to be served in the ‘Isledovatelnie Trudovie’ forced labour camps in – ITL – Siberia’.”

After reading the letter Dobrin became visibly upset and very angry. He turned around and smashed the window. But it did not close so he pushed hard again. Dry crumbs of glue fell on his palm… “This is what powers do…” he mumbled to himself. He lay on his bare bed curled up into a ball, staring at the ceiling. He meditated for a long time thinking about the revolution which, in his dream, appeared to him as a dead beauty with uncovered breasts and a naked blue body, like the well-kept awful bodies they kept in the ITL camps in Varkuta. He suddenly woke up as if hit by some reality. Then, before his eyes, he saw figures appear dressed in long leather coats. They were his interrogators Comrades Firsov, Panteliev, Strogov...

He remembered Lieutenant Colonel Firsov interrogating him during the time he was in solitary confinement in Moscow for two years and five months from January 4, 1950 to the end of May 1952.