Bulgarian Folk Songs [note 2] [note 3] [note 4] is a collection of folk songs and traditions from the then Ottoman Empire, especially from the region of Macedonia, but also from Shopluk and Srednogorie, published in 1861 by the Miladinov brothers. The Miladinovs' collection remains one of the greatest single works in the history of Bulgarian folklore studies and has been republished many times. [3] The collection is considered also to have played an important role by the historiography in North Macedonia.
The two brothers were interested in Bulgarian folklore. This inspired them to compile the collection. Dimitar was the first one to start collecting songs. He was advised to begin this by the Russian Victor Grigorovich in 1845. Between 1844 and 1847 Grigorovich made a tour through the Ottoman Balkans. Dimitar promised to send some folk songs later to him. He and his brother started to collect folk songs. In 1857 Konstantin took the collection prepared by them to Moscow with the hope of publishing it there, but could not find a publisher. One of the main problems was that the materials were written down in Bulgarian, but with Greek letters. In Moscow he received the encouragement of the Bulgarian students there. Vasil Cholakov assisted, providing him with songs, and taking a direct part in transcribing the songs taken down by the Miladinov brothers, in preparing for publishing their collection. [4] The 660 songs were collected mainly between 1854 and 1860. Most of them by the elder brother, Dimitar, who taught in several Macedonian towns (Ohrid, Struga, Prilep, Kukush and Bitola) and was able to put into writing 584 folk songs from the area. The songs from the Sofia district were supplied by the Sofia schoolmaster Sava Filaretov. Those from Panagyurishte area, were recorded by Marin Drinov and Nesho Bonchev. Rayko Zhinzifov, who went to Russia with the help of D. Miladinov, was another collaborator.
In 1860 Konstantin addressed Croatian Bishop Joseph Strossmayer who sympathized with the Bulgarian people, with an appeal to publish the collection. Originally, the book was written using Greek orthography. He answered Konstantin's letter positively, but insisted the folk songs should be written in the Cyrillic alphabet. Its preprint was finalized in Đakovo and it was printed in Zagreb in 1861. The collection was dedicated to Strosmayer. The book represents an anthology of 660 folk songs, but also folk legends, traditions, rituals, names, riddles, and proverbs. [5] The collecting was highly assessed by its contemporaries - Lyuben Karavelov, Nesho Bonchev, Ivan Bogorov, Kuzman Shapkarev, Rayko Zhinzifov and others. The Russian scholar Izmail Sreznevsky pointed out in 1863 that the Bulgarians are far from lagging behind other peoples in poetic abilities. Elias Riggs, an American linguist in Constantinople, translated some songs into English and sent them to the American Oriental Society in Princeton, New Jersey. In 1862, Riggs wrote the collection presents an interesting picture of the traditions and fancies prevailing among the mass of the Bulgarian people. The collection compiled by the Miladinov brothers also played a great role in the development of the modern Bulgarian literature. [6] [7]
The Miladinov Brothers Collection has been published many times in Bulgaria. The second edition came out in 1891, already in Bulgarian Principality. The third one was released in 1942, the fourth, in 1961, etc.
After World War II the Collection's historical context and its authors' national identity became a source of dispute and disagreement between the newly created Macedonian scientific community and its Bulgarian colleagues. [8] Although there was no clear separating isogloss into the Eastern South Slavic dialects then, a distinct Macedonian standard was codified in Yugoslavia in 1945. [9] Despite some pro-Bulgarian sentiments still having persisted there, [10] [11] a separate Macedonian nation was also formed. [12] In post-war Yugoslav Macedonia the collection was published for the first time in 1962 and afterwards in 1983 under the title "The Collection of the Miladinov Brothers". [13] The reference to Macedonia as Western Bulgaria in the foreword was removed. The Brothers called Macedonia Western Bulgaria, because they disliked the first name since it was a Greek term. [14] [15] [16] [17] [18] All references to Bulgarian and Bulgarians were replaced with Macedonian and Macedonians. However, after the fall of Communism in 1999, Dimitar Dimitrov, a Bulgarophile and minister of culture, provoked a series of public scandals that resulted finally in his dismissal. Under his auspices the collection of the Miladinov brothers, was reissued under its original title, which caused serious protests of Macedonian historians. [19] As a result the Macedonian State Archive displayed a photocopy of the book in cooperation with the Soros Foundation and the text on the cover was simply "Folk Songs", the upper part of the page showing "Bulgarian" was cut off. [20] Bulgarian scholars have accused their Macedonian colleagues of forging the original edition of the work of the Brothers by deliberately deleting the word "Bulgarian" from the Collection. This Bulgarian argument has strong support in international academic circles. [21]
Macedonian researchers claim the "Bulgarian" designation appeared in the title shortly prior to the book’s publication, [22] [20] and it originally was titled “Macedonian folk songs”. [23] Researchers from North Macedonia also point to Cholakov, who specified Konstantin Miladinov's 100-forint debt. It was the exact sum Cholakov demanded for a dispatch of 100 Eastern Bulgarian songs and an authorization to Miladinovs to attach the "Bulgarian" ethnonym thereto. [24] In fact, Miladinovs did not seek authorization and their idea was to have songs from all the Bulgarian lands, not only from Western Bulgaria, as they called Macedonia. Because of that, they aspired to these Eastern Bulgarian [note 5] songs collected from Cholakov. [25] Thus in the preface to the Collection, the Brothers expressed their greatest thanks to Cholakov, among all their associates. [26] They have also claimed that it was published under this title because its authors were forced to use Bulgarian. [27] However at that time, there was no standardized Bulgarian or Macedonian language with which to conform. [28] [note 6] Educated Macedonian Slavs then, called themselves Bulgarians [29] and worked together to create a common literary standard, called Bulgarian. [30] [31] Today in North Macedonia the pupils do not have the access to this collection in original, while the museums there also refuse to display it, because of the Bulgarian labels in the text. [32] Under such circumstances generations of students there were educated in pseudo-history. [33] In March 2021, a shipment with the original edition of the book, which was intended for the Cultural Center of Bulgaria in Skopje, was not allowed on the territory of North Macedonia, which provoked an official protest from the Bulgarian side. [34] [35]
English language | Bulgarian orthography | Macedonian orthography | Original orthography |
---|---|---|---|
Yoan Popov left, | Кинисал ми Йо'ан Попов, | Кинисал ми Јо’ан Попов, | Кинисалъ ми Јо’анъ Поповъ, |
Krste Petkov Misirkov was a philologist, journalist, historian and ethnographer from the region of Macedonia.
The Miladinov brothers, Dimitar Miladinov (1810–1862) and Konstantin Miladinov (1830–1862), were Bulgarian poets, folklorists, and activists of the Bulgarian national movement in Ottoman Macedonia. They are best known for their collection of folk songs called Bulgarian Folk Songs, considered to be the greatest of their contributions to Bulgarian literature and the genesis of folklore studies during the Bulgarian National Revival. Their third brother Naum (1817-1897) helped compile this collection too. Konstantin Miladinov is also famous for his poem Taga za Yug which he wrote during his stay in Russia.
Hristo Tatarchev was a Macedonian Bulgarian doctor, revolutionary and one of the founders of the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization (IMRO). Tatarchev authored several political journalistic works between the First and Second World War. He is considered an ethnic Macedonian in the Macedonian historiography.
Nikola Yanakiev Karev was a Macedonian Bulgarian revolutionary. He was born in Kırşova and died in the village of Rayçani (Rajčani), both today in North Macedonia. Karev was a local leader of what later became known as the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization (IMRO). He was also a teacher in the Bulgarian school system in his native area, and a member of the Bulgarian Workers' Social Democratic Party. Today he is considered a hero in Bulgaria and in North Macedonia.
Marko Kostov Tsepenkov was a Bulgarian folklorist from Ottoman Macedonia. In his own time, he identified himself, his compatriots and his language as Bulgarian.
The existence and distinctiveness of the Macedonian language is disputed in Bulgaria and the name of the language was disputed by Greece. By signing the Prespa Agreement, Greece accepted the name "Macedonian language" in reference to the official language of North Macedonia.
Kuzman Anastasov Shapkarev,, was a Bulgarian folklorist, ethnographer and scientist from the Ottoman region of Macedonia, author of textbooks and ethnographic studies and a significant figure of the Bulgarian National Revival.
Blaže Koneski was a Macedonian poet, writer, literary translator, and linguistic scholar.
Taga za Yug is the name of a famous poem by the Macedonian National Revival poet Konstantin Miladinov. It is a patriotic-reflexive song in which the author, who lives in Moscow, expresses his homesickness for his homeland. By the end of the 1850s, Bulgarian poets as Miladinov started to write lyric poetry in vernacular. This poem is written specifically using the Struga dialect.
Macedonian nationalism is a general grouping of nationalist ideas and concepts among ethnic Macedonians that were first formed in the late 19th century among separatists seeking the autonomy of the region of Macedonia from the Ottoman Empire. The idea evolved during the early 20th century alongside the first expressions of ethnic nationalism among the Slavs of Macedonia. The separate Macedonian nation gained recognition after World War II when the "Socialist Republic of Macedonia" was created as part of Yugoslavia. Macedonian historiography has since established links between the ethnic Macedonians and various historical events and individual figures, which range from the Middle Ages up to the 20th century. Following the independence of the Republic of Macedonia in the late 20th century, issues of Macedonian national identity have become contested by the country's neighbours, as some adherents to aggressive Macedonian nationalism, called Macedonism, hold more extreme beliefs such as an unbroken continuity between ancient Macedonians, and modern ethnic Macedonians, and views connected to the irredentist concept of a United Macedonia, which involves territorial claims on a large portion of Greece and Bulgaria, along with smaller regions of Albania, Kosovo and Serbia.
Mihailo Apostolski was a Macedonian general, partisan, military theoretician, politician, academic and historian. He was the commander of the General Staff of the National Liberation Army and Partisan Detachments of Macedonia, colonel general of the Yugoslav People's Army, and was declared a People's Hero of Yugoslavia.
Hitar Petar or Itar Pejo (Itar Petar) (Bulgarian: Хитър Петър, Macedonian: Итар Пејо or Итар Петар, meaning "Crafty Peter" or "Clever Peter" is a character of Bulgarian and Macedonian folklore.
Rayko Ivanov (Yoanov) Zhinzifov or Rajko Žinzifov,, born Ksenofont Dzindzifi was a Bulgarian National Revival poet and translator from Veles in today's North Macedonia, who spent most of his life in the Russian Empire.
Biljana platno beleše is a folk song from Vardar Macedonia. In Bulgaria it is considered a Bulgarian folk song. In North Macedonia it is viewed as a Macedonian folk song.
The resolution of the Comintern of January 11, 1934, was an official political document, in which for the first time, an authoritative international organization has recognized the existence of a separate Macedonian nation and Macedonian language.
The Kostur dialect, is a member of the Southwestern subgroup of the Southeastern group of dialects of the Macedonian language. This dialect is mainly spoken in and around the town of Kastoria, known locally in Macedonian as Kostur, and in the surrounding Korešta region, which encompasses most of the area to the northwest of the town. The Kostur dialect is also partially spoken in Albania, most notably in Bilisht and the village of Vërnik (Vrabnik). The dialect is partially preserved among the ″people of Bulgarian origin in Mustafapaşa and Cemilköy, Turkey, descending from the village of Agios Antonios (Zhèrveni) in Kostur region ″.
Iliya Argirov was a prominent Bulgarian folk singer from the Macedonian folklore region and one of the symbols of the Bulgarian folklore music.
Historiography in North Macedonia is the methodology of historical studies developed and employed by Macedonian historians. It traces its origins to 1945, when SR Macedonia became part of Yugoslavia. According to German historian Stefan Troebst, it has preserved nearly the same agenda as Marxist historiography from the times of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. The generation of Macedonian historians closely associated with the Yugoslav period, who were instrumental in establishing national historical narratives, still exerts an influence on modern-day institutions. In the field of historiography, communism and Macedonian nationalism are closely related. After the Fall of communism, Macedonian historiography did not significantly revise its communist past, because of the key role played by communist policies in establishing a distinct Macedonian nation.
Sirma Voyvoda (1776–1864), was a Bulgarian rebel soldier. Disguised as a man, she participated in the guerilla movement in Ottoman Vardar Macedonia between 1791 and 1813. In 1856/1857, as an 80-year-old woman, the Bulgarian educator Dimitar Miladinov met her. In their collection "Bulgarian Folk Songs" the Miladinov brothers recorded a song about Sirma Voyvoda. Per the note that Dimitar Miladinov left under this song № 212, which refers to Sirma Vojvoda, she married a Bulgarian Mijak from Krushevo. She was killed by Turks in 1864. Sirma Voyvoda is recognized as a patriotic heroine also in what is today North Macedonia.
Folk Songs of the Macedonian Bulgarians is an ethnographic collection of folk songs collected by Stefan Verković, considered to be his most valuable contribution in the field of Bulgarian folklore. It was published in Serbian in 1860, in Belgrade.