Historiography in North Macedonia

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The Warrior on a Horse monument dedicated to Alexander the Great in Skopje. The area of modern Skopje was never part of Ancient Macedonia. Alexander-Statue-Skopje.jpg
The Warrior on a Horse monument dedicated to Alexander the Great in Skopje. The area of modern Skopje was never part of Ancient Macedonia.
Front cover of the Bulgarian Folk Songs collected by the Miladinov Brothers and published in 1861. In the early 2000s the Macedonian State Archive displayed a photocopy of the book, but with the upper part showing the word "Bulgarian" being cut off. Bulgarian Folk Songs Miladinov1.jpg
Front cover of the Bulgarian Folk Songs collected by the Miladinov Brothers and published in 1861. In the early 2000s the Macedonian State Archive displayed a photocopy of the book, but with the upper part showing the word "Bulgarian" being cut off.

Historiography in North Macedonia is the methodology of historical studies developed and employed by Macedonian historians. It traces its origins to the 1940s, when SR Macedonia became part of Yugoslavia. Although references to "ethnic Macedonians" do not appear in primary sources before 1870, the first generation of Macedonian historians after WWII traced Macedonian ethnogenesis to the beginning of the 19th century. [5] However, after the Tito-Stalin split, an important break occurred and the nation's origins were traced further back in time, to the medieval empire of Samuel of Bulgaria, which was appropriated as Macedonian rather than Bulgarian. [6] [5] After the Republic of Macedonia's independence from Yugoslavia and after the beginning of the Macedonia name dispute with Greece, Macedonian historiography carried the nation's origins back even earlier, to antiquity and to the ancient kingdom of Macedon with a particular emphasis on Alexander the Great. [6] [5]

Contents

In the field of historiography, communism and Macedonian nationalism are closely related. [7] 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. [8] Some domestic and foreign scholars have criticized this agenda of negationist historiography, whose apparent goal is to affirm the continuous existence of a separate Macedonian nation throughout history. [9] This controversial view is ahistorical, as it projects modern ethnic distinctions onto the past. [10] Such a reading of history contributes to the distortion of Macedonian national identity, and does harm to the academic integrity of history as a discipline. [11] Via the medium of education, unsubstantiated historical claims have been transmitted to generations of students in the country, to conceal that many prominent Macedonians had viewed themselves as Bulgarians. [12] The Skopje 2014 project, for example, promoted the idea of continuity of the Macedonian nation from antiquity until modern times. [13] The debates in North Macedonia concerning its relationships with Bulgaria and Greece have had significant impact on historiographic narrative in the country, introducing a new revisionist interpretation of the past. [14]

History

Pre-independence

In 1892, Georgi Pulevski, one of the first Macedonian national activists, completed a "General History of the Macedonian Slavs", although his knowledge of history may have been somewhat limited. [15] The Macedonian historical narrative is rooted in leftist and communist groups active during the Interwar period, especially in the 1930s, [16] when the Comintern issued a special resolution in their support. According to activists from those groups, the Macedonian nation was forged through a differentiation from the earlier Bulgarian nation. In that framework, the Macedonian awakening in the 19th century took place as part of the Bulgarian National Revival, but managed to evolve separately from it in the early 20th century. [17] One of them — Vasil Ivanovski, declared for the first time that many Bulgarian historical figures were, in fact, ethnic Macedonians. [18] It was only after the Second World War, however, that those writings were widely appreciated, as prior to the establishment of Communist Yugoslavia, the existence of a separate Macedonian nation was still not widely recognized.

A history department was established in the University of Skopje in 1946. The first national scientific institution in this field – the Institute for National History of the PR Macedonia - was established in July 20, 1948, under the Cyril Methodius University in Skopje. [19] [20] It had the obligation of studying the history of the Macedonian people. [20]  The role played by the Macedonian partisans and the Communist Party of Yugoslavia was emphasised by the Yugoslav Macedonian historiography. [5] The leader of the new Socialist Republic of Macedonia – Lazar Koliševski, initially proclaimed that the Republic's history had begun with the communist struggle during the Second World War, whereas early 20th century events such as the Ilinden Uprising, or organisations such as the IMRO, were mere Bulgarian conspiracies. [21] [22] At the same time, the first rector of the University of Skopje - Kiril Miljovski - admitted that early Macedonian revivalists and revolutionaries identified as Bulgarians. [23] With explicit state support from the Yugoslav government, historical studies emphasizing the distinctness of Macedonian nationhood were expanded. [24] New Macedonian historiography held, as a central principle, that Macedonian history was separate from Bulgarian history. Its primary goal was to foster an independent Macedonian national consciousness, with an "anti-Bulgarian" or "de-Bulgarizing" trend, and to sever any ties with Bulgaria. [25] This distinct Slavic consciousness would inspire identification with Yugoslavia.

The Bitola inscription from 1016/1017. Originally exhibited in the local museum, it was locked away when Bulgarian scientists became aware of its content, confirming the Cometopuli considered their state Bulgarian. Bitola Inscription, Museum of Bitola.jpg
The Bitola inscription from 1016/1017. Originally exhibited in the local museum, it was locked away when Bulgarian scientists became aware of its content, confirming the Cometopuli considered their state Bulgarian.

The first generation of Macedonian historians focused on the 19th and 20th centuries, claiming a Macedonian national awakening and distinguished it from the Bulgarian one. [8] However, some people from the region who were included in the narrative had also played a significant role in the Bulgarian National Revival. This apparent problem was solved by the Communist system using censorship, control of historical information, and manipulation. [27] Numerous prominent activists with pro-Bulgarian sentiment from the 19th and the early 20th centuries were described as (ethnic) Macedonians. Despite the fact that in many documents of that period, the local Slavic population was not referred to as "Macedonian", but rather as "Bulgarian", Macedonian historians argued that it was Macedonian anyway. They also claimed that the term "Bulgarian" did not refer to any specific ethnicity at the time, but was rather used as a synonym for "Slavic", "Christian" or "peasant". [28] Bulgarian historians view this as part of a systematic trend of denigrating and reviling the ethnonym "Bulgarian". [29]

After the Tito-Stalin split, in the 1950s, Macedonian historians also traced the origin of the Macedonian nation further back into the Middle Ages. [8] [5] Croatian historian Stjepan Antoljak gave Macedonian historians the idea to claim Samuel of Bulgaria as an ethnic Macedonian ruler. [30] Macedonian historians declared Samuel's kingdom as a Macedonian kingdom. [8] When historians from Skopje University published in 1985 their collection of documents on the struggle of the Macedonian people, they included into the excerpts of medieval chronicles a footnote for every use of the terms "Bulgaria" and "Bulgarian". [30] In the 1960s, Macedonian and Serbian scholars typically referred to the ancient local tribes of the Central Balkan region as Daco-Moesian. [31] Yugoslav Macedonian historians argued that any plausible link between ethnic Macedonians and their ancient namesakes was, at best, accidental. [32]

Post-independence

The statute of the turn of the 20th century Bulgarian Macedonian-Adrianople Revolutionary Committees (later IMARO/IMRO). Its membership then was allowed only for Bulgarians. It was discovered by Ivan Katardziev in Skopje, but its authenticity has been disputed by most Macedonian historians for obvious reasons. Ustavmakodr.jpg
The statute of the turn of the 20th century Bulgarian Macedonian-Adrianople Revolutionary Committees (later IMARO/IMRO). Its membership then was allowed only for Bulgarians. It was discovered by Ivan Katardžiev in Skopje, but its authenticity has been disputed by most Macedonian historians for obvious reasons.
Bulgarian invasion in Vardar Banovina, April 1941. Bulgarians were greeted as liberators. The local communists then joined the BCP and refused any military actions against the Bulgarians. After the war, the Yugoslav communist historiography did a lot to equate the term Bulgarian with fascist occupier. Bulgarian army 1941.jpg
Bulgarian invasion in Vardar Banovina, April 1941. Bulgarians were greeted as liberators. The local communists then joined the BCP and refused any military actions against the Bulgarians. After the war, the Yugoslav communist historiography did a lot to equate the term Bulgarian with fascist occupier.
Bulgarian forces entering Skopje in November 1944 after they ejected the Germans from the city. Macedonian sources claim no Bulgarian troops participated in the capture of the city, even as observers. Bulgarian sources maintain they seized the town. Skopje on November 13, 1944.jpg
Bulgarian forces entering Skopje in November 1944 after they ejected the Germans from the city. Macedonian sources claim no Bulgarian troops participated in the capture of the city, even as observers. Bulgarian sources maintain they seized the town.

The situation did not change significantly after the Republic of Macedonia achieved independence in the late 20th century. The reluctance towards a thorough reexamination of Yugoslav communist historiography was fueled by the fact that the Macedonian nation was a product of Yugoslav communist policies. [8] The generation of Macedonian historians closely associated with the Yugoslav period, who were instrumental in establishing national myths, have been in charge of the Institute, while the Institute monopolised the historiography. [20] The main goal of the historiography has been to prove that the Macedonian nation existed. [43] Bulgarian historians have continued to dispute the Macedonian interpretation of events. [16] As a result of the Macedonia naming dispute and Greek opposition, there were efforts to include ancient Macedonians in the narrative. According to this new narrative, most of the cultural achievements of the ancient Macedonians were actually (ethnic) Macedonian. This new historical trend, called antiquisation, has depicted the Macedonian nation as being a thousand years older. [44] In this view, Ancient Macedonians were not Greeks, and a separate existence of ancient Macedonians in the Early Middle Ages is maintained, 800 years after the fall of their kingdom, as well as their admixture in the Byzantine Empire with early Slavic settlers arriving in the late 6th century. [5] The Macedonian Academy of Sciences and Arts (MANU) was also involved in efforts of proving that ethnic Macedonians are the descendants of ancient Macedonians. [43]

In 2009, the first Macedonian Encyclopedia was published by MANU. The publication caused international and domestic protests because of its content, and it has been subject to criticism. Even some Macedonian academics criticised the book as hastily prepared and politically motivated. [45] Soon thereafter, the controversial encyclopedia was withdrawn from libraries. [46] In 2008, Macedonian Canadian historian Andrew Rossos published the first professional English language overview of the history of Macedonia. However, Stefan Troebst had suggested that his narrative was influenced by the dominant views in the Republic of Macedonia, thus reflecting the latest developments in official Macedonian historiography. [47]

The governments of Bulgaria and Macedonia signed a friendship treaty to bolster the complicated relations between the two Balkan states in August 2017. As a provision of the treaty, a joint commission on historical and educational issues was formed in 2018. This intergovernmental commission is a forum where controversial historical issues are to be raised and discussed, to resolve problematic readings of history. In an interview given in 2019, the Macedonian co-president of the joint historical commission - Dragi Gjorgiev - indicated that it was necessary to acknowledge there had been forgeries made on the Macedonian side. An example provided was the replacement of "Bulgarian" with "Macedonian" in certain historical artifacts, seen in Macedonian textbooks. According to Gjorgiev, the historiography had been a function of the process of nation-building for many years. [48]

In early October 2019, Bulgaria set a lot of tough terms for North Macedonia's EU progress. The Bulgarian government accepted an ultimate "Framework Position", warning that Bulgaria would not let the EU integration of North Macedonia be accompanied by European legitimization of an anti-Bulgarian ideology. In the list, there were more than 20 demands and a timetable to fulfill them, during the process of North Macedonia's accession negotiations. It stated that the rewriting of the history of part of the Bulgarian people after 1944 was one of the pillars of the bulgarophobic agenda of then-Yugoslav communism. The "Framework Position" was approved by a parliamentary vote on 10 October. [49] As a result, in an interview with Bulgarian media in November 2020, Macedonian Prime Minister Zoran Zaev conceded that, among other things, Bulgaria was not a fascist occupier during WWII, and had in fact joined Macedonian Partisans in battles to repel Germans from the area in 1944. [50] This sparked criticism and accusations by Macedonian public figures, politicians and historians of historical revisionism. [51] Protests broke out demanding Zaev's resignation. [52] The leader of VMRO-DPMNE, Hristijan Mickoski stated that he was concerned that the negotiation process with Bulgaria could threaten Macedonian national identity. [53] Protests broke out demanding Zaev's resignation. [54] According to former Macedonian Prime Minister Ljubčo Georgievski, those reactions were the result of ignorance, hypocrisy or politicking. [55]

On November 17, 2020, Bulgaria blocked the official start of North Macedonia's EU accession negotiations. [56] One of the main reasons provided was an "ongoing nation-building process" based on historical negationism of Bulgarian identity, culture and legacy in the broader region of Macedonia. [57] The acknowledgement of Bulgarian influence on Macedonian history is highly problematic, because it clashes with the post-WWII Yugoslav Macedonian narratives, based on a profound anti-Bulgarian stance in the historiography as well. [58] In August 2022, the joint historical commission reached an agreement and recommended the joint commemoration of historical figures like Cyril and Methodius, Clement of Ohrid, Saint Naum and Tsar Samuel. [59]

Domestic and revisionist views

After the fall of Communism, historical revisionists in the Republic of Macedonia (now North Macedonia) questioned the narrative established in Communist Yugoslavia. [32] Specifically revisionism came into prominence from the mid-1990s. Some revisionists include Zoran Todorovski, Stojan Kiselinovski, Violeta Ačkoska and Stojan Risteski, who have been ideologically aligned with VMRO-DPMNE. [19] After 1945 the Yugoslav authorities rehabilitated only certain IMRO revolutionaries, who were not associated with the idea of union of Macedonia with Bulgaria, while other IMRO figures remained neglected because of their strong pro-Bulgarian stands. Todorovski has tried to rehabilitate figures regarded as controversial pro-Bulgarians in the historiography such as Todor Aleksandrov and Ivan Mihailov. [32] Hstorian Todor Čepreganov insisted that almost all Macedonian revolutionaries sometimes took pro-Bulgarian stands or identified themselves as Bulgarians. [60] Based on his opinions, Bulgarian sources maintain that similar views were also espoused by Ivan Katardžiev. [61] [62] Kiselinovski on the other hand has re-evaluated the standardization of the Macedonian language and the role that Blaže Koneski played in it. Ačkoska and Risteski have written about the repressions against the opponents of the communist regime. [32] Revisionist historians with anti-Yugoslav sentiments have argued the politics of SFR Yugoslavia continued the pre-war oppressive Serbian policies. [63]

People such as Ivan Mikulčić, Krste Crvenkovski and Slavko Milosavlevski tried to openly oppose the popular historical myths in the Republic of Macedonia. Mikulčić, for example, proved through archaeological evidence that there were no ancient Macedonians when the Early Slavs arrived in Macedonia. He also found several Bulgar settlements on the territory of the modern republic and argued the Slavs in Macedonia adopted the ethnonym "Bulgarians" in the 9th century. [64] Milosavlevski and Crvenkovski challenged the myth of the significance of the communist partisan resistance movement against the Bulgarian Army during the Second World War. Such studies became the only exception to the new Macedonian historiography, with most historians staying loyal to the political elite, writing publications appropriating the Hellenistic part of the Macedonian past, the medieval Bulgarian Empire and the Bulgarian national revival from the Ottoman period. [30] According to Macedonian professor of pathology and then-MP Vesna Janevska, the conflict during WWII was a fratricidal or civil war. [65] Per Macedonian philosopher Katerina Kolozova, the term "Bulgarian fascist occupiers" is dubious, because significant part of them were practically local collaborators of the Bulgarian authorities. [66] [67] [68] According to her, the connection of modern Macedonian identity with anti-fascism and partisans has been so deeply rooted in the society, that any historical revision of it is unimaginable. [68] Historian Petar Todorov wrote that the myth of victimisation is among the biggest and most important myths within the historiography. [69]

Intellectuals from the Macedonian elite, such as Denko Maleski and Ljubčo Georgievski, admit that the distinct Macedonian nation is a recent phenomenon that developed in the years around the Second World War. Such views are spread among younger educated citizens, as well as Macedonians who lived in the 1940s. Their views align with scholars such as Hugh Poulton, Jan Rychlík and Ulf Brunnbauer. [70] At the end of 2015, the film director Darko Mitrevski, published a nine-part article in the newspaper "Nova Makedonija" entitled "Our big forgery", criticising the Macedonian historical narrative. According to him, if Macedonians do not accept their real history, they will be a nation with historical complexes. They will remain at loggerheads with their neighbors if they continue to build out a fictional history of styrofoam. According to him, such a nation does not need a history, but psychiatry. [71]

Foreign studies and views

The mainstream European historiography maintains that the separate Macedonian nation was developed during the Second World War. [70] Per political consultant and journalist Carsten Wieland, Stefan Troebst sees the Macedonian nation building as an ideal example of Gellner's theory of nationalism. Since the creation of the Yugoslav Macedonia, it was realized immediately. [72] Whether in antiquity the Ancient Macedonians were originally a Greek tribe or not is ultimately a redundant question according to professor of anthropology Loring Danforth. [63] Historian John Van Antwerp Fine stated that throughout the Middle Ages and Ottoman era modern Bulgarians and Macedonians comprised a single people. [73] Per historian Bernard Lory the ethnic divergence between Bulgarians and Macedonians occurred mainly in the first half of the 20th century. [74] Historian Alexander Maxwell maintains that scarcely by the middle of that century, Macedonians began to see Macedonian and Bulgarian loyalties as mutually exclusive. [75] According to historian Eugene N. Borza, the Macedonians, who are a recently emergent people and have had no history, are in search of their past. This search is an attempt to help legitimize their unsure present, surviving in the disorder of Balkan politics. [76] Anthropologist Ivaylo Dichev argues that the Macedonian historiography has the impossible task of filling in the huge gaps between the ancient kingdom of Macedon that collapsed in the 2nd century BC, the 10th-11th century state of the Cometopuli, and Yugoslav Macedonia, established in the middle of the 20th century. [77] Despite the myths of national purity and continuity that came to dominate the official Macedonian historiography, something not unusual for the Balkan region, historian İpek Yosmaoğlu affirmed there is not much to be gained from a search for a Macedonian national lineage, because the Macedonian nationhood was shaped mainly in the decades following World War II. [78] Per social psychologist Georgi Stankov, the historiography is based on the postmodernist approach, which erases the distinctions between "fact" and "value" and "reality" and "perception." [79]

According to German historian Stefan Troebst  [ de ], the Macedonian narrative was identical from 1944 to 1991. [80] Troebst wrote in 1983 that historical research in SR Macedonia was about direct political action. [81] He would go on to characterize this reciprocal dependence of historiography and politics as being more pronounced than what had been observed in Eastern and Southeast Europe. [82] According to Austrian historian Ulf Brunnbauer  [ de ], the Macedonian nation-building process is still ongoing. Per him, diverging approaches are discouraged within the historiography, due to economic limitations and academics who do try new approaches endanger their academic careers and get accused of being traitors. [20] Croatian historian Tvrtko Jakovina cited the appropriation of Alexander the Great by the historiography as an example of an "obvious lie". [83] With respect to the Macedonian narrative, both Greek and Bulgarian historiographers have questioned Macedonian historiography's factual basis. Per economics historian Michael Palairet, in the three-way dispute about Macedonian identity, the Bulgarian view is probably more objective than either the Greek or Macedonian view, but the Macedonian historiographical version departs from common sense and the historical record more than either the Greek or the Bulgarian ones. [84]

See also

References

  1. ↑ Elisabeth Kontogiorgi, Population Exchange in Greek Macedonia: The Rural Settlement of Refugees 1922-1930, Oxford Historical Monographs, Clarendon Press, 2006, ISBN   0-19-151555-8, p. 12.
  2. ↑ "ms0601". www.soros.org.mk. Archived from the original on 5 April 2012. Retrieved 18 March 2008.
  3. ↑ "The dispute about their origins had reached the phase in which the Bulgarian scholars accused their Macedonian colleagues of forging the archival editions of the work of the Miladinovis by deliberately deleting the word "Bulgarian" from the front covers and their refusal to display them in museums. On the other hand, Macedonians insist that the word "Bulgarian" was inserted on the facsimiles of the first editions of the Miladinovs' works by the Bulgarian nationalists and that the copies displayed in the Macedonian museums are original. (...) However, it appears that the Bulgarian argument has much stronger support in international academic circles." For more see: Dragana Lazarević, The Politics of Heritage in the West Balkans: The Evolution of Nation-building and the Invention of National Narratives as a Consequence of Political Changes, Cardiff University, 2015, pp. 323–324.
  4. ↑ However, the polemics about the instigation of the Miladinov brothers' miscellany have continued in the 20th century, since the 1983 Macedonian edition as the Collection of the Miladinov Brothers, reprinted in Skopje, removed every single "Bulgarian" reference therefrom. A republishing of the original in the year 2000 tried to restrain the passions but only triggered a vigorous protest by the Macedonian historians. Eventually, the Macedonian State Archive, financed by the Soros Foundation, displayed a copy thereof, having previously meticulously cut off the adjective "Bulgarian," so the cover page simple read Folk Songs. For more see: Živić, T., Vranješ, A. (2017). Josip Juraj Strossmayer: A Statesman of Culture. Култура/Culture, 6 (14), pp. 136-144; ISSN   1857-7725.
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Ulf Brunnbauer, ed. (2004). "Historiography, Myths and Nation in the Republic of Macedonia". (Re)Writing History. Historiography in Southeast Europe after Socialism. Lit Verlag. pp. 165–200.
  6. 1 2 Yosmaoğlu, İpek (2013). Blood Ties: Religion, Violence and the Politics of Nationhood in Ottoman Macedonia, 1878–1908. Cornell University Press. p. 24. ISBN   978-0-8014-6979-4.
  7. ↑ Roumen Daskalov; Diana Mishkova, eds. (2013). Entangled Histories of the Balkans - Volume Two: Transfers of Political Ideologies and Institutions. BRILL. p. 499. ISBN   90-04-26191-5.
  8. 1 2 3 4 5 Ulf Brunnbauer (2005). "Pro-Serbians vs. Pro-Bulgarians: Revisionism in Post-Socialist Macedonian Historiography". History Compass: Abstract, 5. doi:10.1111/j.1478-0542.2005.00130.x.
  9. ↑ James Pettifer, ed. (2015). War in the Balkans: Conflict and Diplomacy before World War I. I.B.Tauris. ISBN   0-85773-968-9.
  10. ↑ Kyril Drezov (1999). "Macedonian identity: an overview of the major claims". In James Pettifer (ed.). The New Macedonian Question. Springer. p. 55. ISBN   0-230-53579-8.
  11. ↑ Irena Stefoska, Nation, Education and Historiographic Narratives: the Case of the Socialist Republic of Macedonia (1944-1990); Introduction In discussions of identities (ethnic, national, religious, gender, etc.), Fragments of the History of Macedonian Nationalism: An Introduction to the Research Problem, pp. 34-35.
  12. ↑ Michael L. Benson (2003). Yugoslavia: A Concise History (2nd ed.). Springer. p. 89. ISBN   1-4039-9720-9. The past was systematically falsified to conceal the fact that many prominent 'Macedonians' had supposed themselves to be Bulgarian, and generations of students were taught the "pseudo-history" of the 'Macedonian nation.
  13. ↑ Klaus Roth; Asker Kartar, eds. (2017). Cultures of Crisis in Southeast Europe, Volume 2. LIT Verlag Münster. p. 169. ISBN   3-643-90791-5.
  14. ↑ Petar Todorov (2023). "Macedonian Historiography: The Question of Identity and Politics". Contemporary European History: 895–901. doi:10.1017/S0960777323000528.
  15. ↑ Mitko B. Panov (2019). The Blinded State: Historiographic Debates about Samuel Cometopoulos and His State (10th-11th Century). BRILL. p. 277. ISBN   90-04-39429-X.
  16. 1 2 Tchavdar Marinov (May 2010). "Historiographical Revisionism and Re-Articulation of Memory in the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia" (PDF). Sociétés politiques comparées (25): 3.
  17. ↑ Spyridon Sfetas, The Configuration of Slavomacedonian Identity. A Painful Evolution. Thessaloniki: Vanias, 2003. Balcanica XLVI, pp. 426-429. Reviewed by Athanasios Loupas.
  18. ↑ Roumen Daskalov; Alexander Vezenkov, eds. (2015). Entangled Histories of the Balkans - Volume Three: Shared Pasts, Disputed Legacies. BRILL. p. 449. ISBN   90-04-29036-2.
  19. 1 2 Alexis Heraclides (2021). The Macedonian Question and the Macedonians: A History. Routledge. pp. 169, 183. ISBN   9780429266362.
  20. 1 2 3 4 Ulf Brunnbauer (2004). "Serving the Nation: Historiography in the Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) after Socialism". Historien. 4: 163–164, 174–175. doi: 10.12681/historein.86 .
  21. ↑ Мичев. Д. Македонският въпрос и българо-югославските отношения – 9 септември 1944–1949, Издателство: СУ Св. Кл. Охридски, 1992, стр. 91.
  22. ↑ Катарџиев, Иван. Васил Ивановски – живот и дело, предговор кон: Ивановски, Васил. Зошто ние Македонците сме одделна нација, Избрани дела, Скопје, 1995, стр. 25-26.
  23. ↑ Милен Михов, Политика в историята! Новата българска история и македонската историография 1944 - 2005 г., УИ „Св. св. Кирил и Методий", Велико Търново, 2006, ISBN   978-954-524-532-9; стр. 40 - 41.
  24. ↑ Stefan Troebst (1983). Die bulgarisch-jugoslawische Kontroverse um Makedonien 1967-1982 (in German). R. Oldenbourg. p. 15. ISBN   3-486-51521-7.
  25. ↑ Stephen E. Palmer; Robert R. King (1971). Yugoslav communism and the Macedonian question. Archon Books. pp. 6–7. ISBN   0-208-00821-7.
  26. ↑ J. Pettifer ed., The New Macedonian Question, St Antony's Series, Springer, 1999, ISBN   0-230-53579-8, p. 75.
  27. ↑ Dejan Djokić, ed. (2003). Yugoslavism: Histories of a Failed Idea, 1918-1992. Hurst & Co. Publishers. pp. 121–122. ISBN   1-85065-663-0.
  28. ↑ Blaže Ristovski (1969). Istorija na makedonskata nacija[History of the Macedonian nation] (in Macedonian). Skopje. pp. 13–14.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  29. ↑ Величков, Йордан [in Bulgarian] (2016). Векът на престъпните безумия (1912 - 2012 г.) : Равносметката на едно провалено столетие (in Bulgarian). София: Издателство „Захарий Стоянов", Македонски научен институт. pp. 254–256. ISBN   9789540909394.
  30. 1 2 3 Chris Kostov (2010). Contested Ethnic Identity: The Case of Macedonian Immigrants in Toronto, 1900-1996. Peter Lang. pp. 91, 107–109. ISBN   3-0343-0196-0.
  31. ↑ Zorica Kuzmanović; Ivan Vranić (2013). "On the reflexive nature of archaeologies of the Western Balkan Iron Age: a case study of the "Illyrian argument"". Anthropologie: 6. ISSN   0323-1119.
  32. 1 2 3 4 Dimitar Bechev (2019). Historical Dictionary of North Macedonia. Rowman & Littlefield. pp. 40, 254–255. ISBN   978-1-5381-1962-4.
  33. ↑ The dogma of Macedonian historiography is that it was an 'ethnic Macedonian' organisation and the acronym IMARO has been routinely abbreviated in Macedonian historiography to IMRO to avoid difficult questions about the presence in the same organizations of people nowadays described as 'ethnic Macedonians' from geographic Macedonia – together with 'ethnic Bulgarians' from the Vilajet of Adrianople. In these cases, a present-day reality is projected wholesale into the past. For more see: Kyril Drezov, Macedonian identity: an overview of the major claims in The New Macedonian Question with J. Pettifer as ed., Springer, 1999, ISBN   0-230-53579-8, p. 55.
  34. ↑ The revolutionary committee dedicated itself to fight for "full political autonomy for Macedonia and Adrianople." Since they sought autonomy only for those areas inhabited by Bulgarians, they denied other nationalities membership in IMRO. According to Article 3 of the statutes, "any Bulgarian could become a member". For more see: Laura Beth Sherman, Fires on the mountain: the Macedonian revolutionary movement and the kidnapping of Ellen Stone, Volume 62, East European Monographs, 1980, ISBN   0-914710-55-9, p. 10.
  35. ↑ Mishkova Diana as ed., We, the People: Politics of National Peculiarity in Southeastern Europe, Central European University Press, 2009, ISBN   963-9776-28-9, pp. 113-114.
  36. ↑ Иван Катарџиев, Некои прашања за уставите и правилниците на ВМРО до Илинденското востание. Гласник на Институтот за национална Историја, Скопје, 1961, бр. No 1, стр. 149-164.
  37. ↑ Raymond Detrez, The A to Z of Bulgaria, G - Reference, Scarecrow Press Inc, 2010, ISBN   0-8108-7202-1, p. 485.
  38. ↑ Carl Skutsch as ed., Encyclopedia of the World's Minorities, Routledge, 2013, ISBN   1-135-19388-6, p. 766.
  39. ↑ Crawford, Steve. The Eastern Front Day by Day, 1941-45: A Photographic Chronology, Potomac Books, 2006, ISBN   1-59797-010-7, p. 170: "November 13, 1944, ...The Bulgarian First Army ejects Army Group E from Skopje..."
  40. ↑ Livanios, Dimitris, The Macedonian Question: Britain and the Southern Balkans 1939-1949, Oxford University Publishing, 2008, ISBN   0-19-152872-2, pp. 134-135.
  41. ↑ Michael Palairet, Macedonia: A Voyage through History (Vol. 2), Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2016, ISBN   1-4438-8849-4, p. 212.
  42. ↑ The first unit, which entered at 6.30pm Skopje, already left from the Germans under the pressure of the Bulgarian army, was the reconnaissance platoon of the Second infantry division of the 4th Bulgarian army. For the liberation of Skopje contributed also detachments of the Second infantry division of the First Bulgarian Army. They forced the withdrawing Nazi detachments to retreat the city and on November 13th at 11pm took under their control the southern and the southeastern areas of the city. At the midnight they seized also its center. Georgi Daskalov, Bulgarian-Yugoslav political relations, 1944-1945, Kliment Ohridski University Press, 1989, p. 113; (in Bulgarian).
  43. 1 2 Corina Palasan, ed. (2011). Avatars of Intellectuals Under Communism. Zeta Books. p. 246. ISBN   9786068266145.
  44. ↑ Anastas Vangeli (2011). "Nation-building ancient Macedonian style: the origins and the effects of the so-called antiquization in Macedonia". Nationalities Papers. 39 (1): 15–24.
  45. ↑ "Macedonian Encyclopedia Sparks Balkan Ethnic Row". Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. Retrieved 14 June 2021.
  46. ↑ "Macedonia embroiled in encyclopaedia row". Euractiv. 13 October 2009.
  47. ↑ Canadian-Macedonian historian Andrew Rossos is credited as having published 'the first professional English language overview of the history of Macedonia, although the historian Stefan Troebst suggests that his 'teleologic portrayal is negatively affected by the Skopjan view of history' and thus is considered a pro-Macedonian nationalist account, representing the latest developments in Macedonian historiography. For more see: The Historical Association, Teaching history journal, March 2015, The Democratisation of the Macedonian Question, Adrienne Wright Smith's Hill High School Wollongong, HTA extension essay price 2014 – 1st place.p. 49.
  48. ↑ "Проф. Драги Георгиев: Да признаем, че е имало и фалшифициране - вместо "българин" са писали "македонец"- това е истината". Faktor.bg (in Bulgarian). 21 March 2020.
  49. ↑ Sinisa Jakov Marusic (10 October 2019). "Bulgaria Sets Tough Terms for North Macedonia's EU Progress Skopje". BIRN.
  50. ↑ "Зоран Заев: Договорът с България ще бъде закон. Меdiapool публикува интервюто на Любчо Нешков, собственик на информационната агенция БГНЕС". Mediapool.bg (in Bulgarian). 25 November 2020. 'We need to change that. We have already changed more than 20 plates in the country where "Bulgarian fascist occupier" was written. This is not so - Bulgaria is not fascism, Bulgaria is our friend... There was once an administration at this moment, at the beginning. After that, Bulgaria rises together with anti-fascism, fights for freedom, for democracy and is undoubtedly part of the anti-fascist front. Bulgarian and Macedonian troops were liberating territories - Kriva Palanka, Kumanovo, the whole region, Skopje and this whole part.
  51. ↑ Sinisa Jakov Marusic (26 November 2020). "North Macedonia PM's Remarks About History Hit a Nerve". BIRN. An interview that North Macedonia's Prime Minister Zoran Zaev gave Bulgarian news agency BGNES, published on Wednesday – in which he suggested that Bulgaria had not been occupying force in today's North Macedonia during World War II, has hit raw nerve in his own country. His remarks have drawn criticism from historians, public figures, as well as politicians, even from his own ruling Social Democratic Party, accusing him of historical revisionism. The opposition called for protests.
  52. ↑ "Протест во 7 градови: "Оставка на Заев, слобода на народот"". www.slobodnaevropa.mk (in Macedonian). Retrieved 23 September 2022.
  53. ↑ Мицкоски загрижен за македонскиот идентитет. ДТЗ /ДВ, 25.11.2020.
  54. ↑ "Протест во 7 градови: "Оставка на Заев, слобода на народот"". www.slobodnaevropa.mk. Retrieved 23 September 2022.
  55. ↑ Historians have shrunk into the shells of the former Yugoslav schemes and are not coming out of them. Historians do not reveal the truth about Yugoslavia... An ambassador from Brussels, whose father was not only a Bulgarian-phile, but also by definition a Macedonian-Bulgarian - and he is now coming out with some philosophical interpretations. Well, is it possible for such hypocrisy to exist in Macedonia?" For more see: Любчо Георгиевски: Хората са шокирани от Заев, защото не познават миналото. Епицентър, 28 ноем. 2020.
  56. ↑ "Bulgaria blocks EU accession talks with North Macedonia". National post. 17 November 2020.
  57. ↑ "Foreign Minister Zaharieva: Bulgaria Cannot Approve EU Negotiating Framework with North Macedonia, Novinite.com - Sofia News Agency". www.novinite.com. Retrieved 11 December 2020.
  58. ↑ Paul Reef. "Macedonian Monument Culture Beyond 'Skopje 2014'". Comparative Southeast European Studies: 465. doi: 10.1515/soeu-2018-0037 .
  59. ↑ "Bulgarian-Macedonian Historical Commission: Tsar Samuil was a Ruler of the Bulgarian Kingdom, Novinite.com - Sofia News Agency". www.novinite.com.
  60. ↑ "Sinisa Jakov Marusic, New Statue Awakens Past Quarrels in Macedonia". Balkan Insight. 13 July 2012.
  61. ↑ Tchavdar Marinov (30 April 2004). "Сто години Илинден или сто години Мисирков? История и политика в Република Македония през 2003 г." Култура (in Bulgarian).
  62. ↑ "Стефан Дечев: Две държава, две истории, много „истини" и една клета наука - трета част". Marginalia (in Bulgarian). 15 June 2018.
  63. 1 2 Loring M. Danforth (1997). The Macedonian Conflict: Ethnic Nationalism in a Transnational World. Princeton. Princeton University Press. pp. 53, 169. ISBN   0-691-04356-6.
  64. ↑ Ivan Mikulčić (1996). Средновековни градови и тврдини во Македонија. MANU. p. 72. After the bordering Byzantine lands were conquered, the military concept was also changed from the time of Simeon. A symbiosis was established between the small Asian Proto-Bulgarians and the numerous Slavic tribes who, in the wide area from the Danube in the north, to the Aegean in the south and from the Adriatic in the west, to the Black Sea in the east, accepted the common ethnicity "Bulgarians". The Slavic language became common to all the inhabitants of that area. The Proto-Bulgarians melted and disappeared into the Slavic masses, and with them the model of nomadic war hordes living in aulis.
  65. ↑ Стенографски белешки от Тринаесеттото продолжение на Четиринаесеттата седница на Собранието на Република Македонија, одржана на 17 јануари 2007 година.
  66. ↑ "Колозова: Практично сите „окупатори" биле наши луѓе, не може Бугарите да депортираат толку Евреи без локална помош". Македонски весник (in Macedonian). 25 July 2022. Archived from the original on 28 July 2022.
  67. ↑ "Проф. Катерина Колозова: Потомците на партизаните в Македония претендират, че са нация, създадена от "чиста тъкан". Антифашизмът e лицето на техния фашизъм". Faktor.bg (in Bulgarian). 25 March 2021.
  68. 1 2 Katerina Kolozova (7 December 2020). "On the Macedonian-Bulgarian dispute and historical revisionism". Al Jazeera.
  69. ↑ Katrin Boeckh; Sabine Rutar, eds. (2017). The Balkan Wars from Contemporary Perception to Historic Memory. Springer International Publishing. p. 296.
  70. 1 2 Naoum Kaytchev (2014). "Being Macedonian: Different Types of Ethnic Identifications in the Contemporary Republic of Macedonia". Politeja: 123–125. doi: 10.12797/Politeja.11.2014.30.13 .
  71. ↑ "Дарко Митревски, пред „Нова Македонија": Охрид няма да стане български град, ако признаем, че цар Самуил е носел българска корона". Pan.bg (in Bulgarian). 28 December 2015.
  72. ↑ "National language, national literature, national history and national church were not available in 1944, but they were accomplished in a short time. The south-east-Slavic regional idiom of the area of Prilep-Veles was codified as the script, normed orthographically by means of the Cyrillic Alphabet, and taken over immediately by the newly created media. And the people have been patching up the national history ever since. Thus, they are forming more of an "ethnic" than a political concept of nation. For more, see: One Macedonia With Three Faces: Domestic Debates and Nation Concepts, in Intermarium; Columbia University; Volume 4, No. 3 (2000–2001).
  73. ↑ John Van Antwerp Fine (1991). The Early Medieval Balkans: A Critical Survey from the Sixth to the Late Twelfth Century. University of Michigan Press. pp. 36–37. ISBN   0-472-08149-7.
  74. ↑ Bernard Lory, The Bulgarian-Macedonian Divergence, An Attempted Elucidation, INALCO, Paris in Developing Cultural Identity in the Balkans: Convergence Vs. Divergence with Raymond Detrez and Pieter Plas as ed., Peter Lang, 2005, ISBN   90-5201-297-0, pp. 165-193.
  75. ↑ Alexander Maxwell (2008). "Slavic Macedonian Nationalism: From "Regional" to "Ethnic"'". In Klaus Roth; Ulf Brunnbauer (eds.). Region, Regional Identity and Regionalism in Southeastern Europe, Part 1. LIT, Münster. pp. 127–154. ISBN   3-8258-1387-8.
  76. ↑ Eugene N. Borza (1999). "Macedonia Redux". In Frances B. Titchener; Richard F. Moorton (eds.). The Eye Expanded: Life and the Arts in Greco-Roman Antiquity. University of California Press. p. 259. ISBN   0-520-21029-8.
  77. ↑ Dichev, Ivaylo, Eros Identiteta, In: Dušan Bjelić, Obrad Savić (eds.), Balkan kao metafora: između globalizacije i fragmentacije. Beograd: Beogradski krug, 2003, pp. 269-284.
  78. ↑ İpek Yosmaoğlu (2013). Blood Ties: Religion, Violence and the Politics of Nationhood in Ottoman Macedonia, 1878–1908. Cornell University Press. p. 16. ISBN   0-8014-6979-1.
  79. ↑ Станков. Г. (2021). Тврдења без докази: македонската историография като постмодернистки проект. В Сборник с научни трудове от международна научна конференция, "Кризи и сигурност - корелации и предизвикателства". Нов Български Университет, Том 1. Кризи и сигурност на международно и регионално ниво, ISBN   978-619-7383-22-5; стр. 138-146.
  80. ↑ Stefan Troebst (2003). "Historical Politics and Historical 'Masterpieces' in Macedonia before and after 1991". New Balkan Politics.
  81. ↑ Morten Dehli Andreassen, June 2011; "If you don't vote VMRO you're not Macedonian". A study of Macedonian identity and national discourse in Skopje. Thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of Master of Arts Degree. Department of Social Anthropology, University of Bergen, p. 81.
  82. ↑ "At any rate, the beginning of the active national-historical direction with the historical "masterpieces", which was for the first time possible in 1944, developed in Macedonia much harder than was the case with the creation of the neighbouring nations of the Greeks, Serbs, Bulgarians and others in the 19th century. These neighbours almost completely "plundered" the historical events and characters from the land, and there was only debris left for the belated nation. A consequence of this was that first that parts of the "plundered history" were returned, and a second was that an attempt was made to make the debris become a fundamental part of an autochthonous history. This resulted in a long phase of experimenting and revising, during which the influence of non-scientific instances increased. This specific link of politics with historiography in the Socialist Republic of Macedonia... was that this was a case of mutual dependence, i.e. influence between politics and historical science, where historians do not simply have the role of registrars obedient to orders. For their significant political influence, they had to pay the price for the rigidity of the science... There is no similar case of mutual dependence of historiography and politics on such a level in Eastern or Southeast Europe." For more see: Stefan Trobest, "Historical Politics and Histrocial 'Masterpieces' in Macedonia before and after 1991", New Balkan Politics, 6 (2003).
  83. ↑ Jakovina, Tvrtko (2021). "Being in Love with Traitors: Views on Collaboration during World War II in Several Balkan Countries after the End of the Cold War". In Bitunjac, Martina; Schoeps, Julius H. (eds.). Complicated Complicity: European Collaboration with Nazi Germany during World War II. Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG. p. 296. ISBN   978-3-11-067118-6.
  84. ↑ Michael Palairet (2016). Macedonia: A Voyage through History (Vol. 1, From Ancient Times to the Ottoman Invasions). Cambridge Scholars Publishing. p. 16. ISBN   1-4438-8843-5.
  85. ↑ Македонизмът и съпротивата на Македония срещу него, Коста Църнушанов, Унив. изд. "Св. Климент Охридски", София, 1992 г. стр. 206.
  86. ↑ Македонска Енциклопедија, МАНУ, Скопје, 2009, Том I (А - Л), стр. 76.
  87. ↑ Ташев, Т., „Българската войска 1941 – 1945 – енциклопедичен справочник", София, 2008, „Военно издателство", ISBN   978-954-509-407-1, стр. 9.
  88. ↑ В Ястребино свирят куршуми - една забравена трагедия.
  89. ↑ Bulgarian sources assert that thousands lost their lives due to this cause after 1944, and that more than 100,000 people were imprisoned under the law for the protection of Macedonian national honour 'for opposing the new ethnogenesis'. 1,260 leading Bulgarians were allegedly killed in Skopje, Veles, Kumanovo, Prilep, Bitola and Stip... For more see: Hugh Poulton, Who are the Macedonians? C. Hurst & Co. Publishers, 2000, ISBN   1-85065-534-0, p. 118.
  90. ↑ John Phillips, Macedonia: Warlords and Rebels in the Balkans. (2004) I.B. Tauris (publisher), ISBN   1-86064-841-X, p. 40.
  91. ↑ In Macedonia, the interwar VMRO has traditionally been portrayed as Bulgarian, and as a champion of the ideal of a 'Greater Bulgaria' that included Macedonia. In turn, thus, SDSM politicians and mainstream historians have accused the VMRO-DPMNE of falsifying history and of taking a pro-Bulgarian stance. The acknowledgement of Bulgarian influence on Macedonian history is highly problematic to many Macedonians because it clashes with the Yugo-Macedonian narratives. Especially after the Tito–Stalin split of 1948, the cornerstone of Macedonian national identity and historiography had been the notion of a distinct, non-Bulgarian, Macedonian national consciousness, leading to a profoundly anti-Bulgarian stance in politics and historiography. For more see: Paul Reef (2018) Macedonian Monument Culture Beyond 'Skopje 2014'. From the journal Comparative Southeast European Studies. De Gruyter Oldenbourg. doi : 10.1515/soeu-2018-0037
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