The Young Macedonian Literary Society, [1] also known as Young Macedonian Literary Association, was founded in 1891 in Sofia, Bulgaria. The association was formed as primarily a cultural and educational society. It published a magazine called Loza (The Vine).
Following the establishment of the Bulgarian Exarchate in 1870, as a result of plebiscites held between 1872 and 1875, the Slavic population in the bishoprics of Skopje and Ohrid voted overwhelmingly in favor of joining the new national Church (Skopje by 91%, Ohrid by 97%). [2] At that time a long discussion was held in the Bulgarian periodicals about the need for a dialectal group (Eastern Bulgarian, Western Macedonian or compromise) upon which to base the new standard and which dialect that should be. [3] During the 1870s this issue became contentious and sparked fierce debates. [4]
After a distinct Bulgarian state was established in 1878, Macedonia remained outside its borders. In the 1880s, the Bulgarian codificators rejected the idea of a Macedono-Bulgarian linguistic compromise and chose eastern Bulgarian dialects as a basis for standard Bulgarian. One purpose of the Young Macedonian Literary Society magazine was to defend the Macedonian dialects, and to have them more represented in the Bulgarian language. Their articles were of a historical, cultural, and ethnographic nature.
The organization was established in Sofia, Bulgaria, in 1891 as a type of cultural and educational society by Macedonian emigrants. [5] It had the purpose of protecting the various Macedonian dialects. [6] In 1892, it created and published a monthly magazine called Loza (The Vine), which is where their name "Lozari" (Lozars) was derived from. [5] The first issue of the magazine was printed in Sofia in January 1892 and its main article contained the Program Principles of the organization. The association's founders included Kosta Shahov, its chairman. [7]
In the middle of 1892, Bulgarian prime minister Stefan Stambolov's government officially banned the organization. [5] In May 1894, after the fall of Stambolov, the Macedonian Youth Society in Sofia revived the Young Macedonian Literary Society. The new group had a newspaper called Glas Makedonski and opened a Reading Room Club. [8] The group included a number of educators, revolutionaries, and public figures from Macedonia—Evtim Sprostranov, Petar Poparsov, Thoma Karayovov, Hristo Popkotsev, Dimitar Mirchev, Andrey Lyapchev, Naum Tyufekchiev, Georgi Balaschev, Georgi Belev, etc. [9]
Later, for a short time, Dame Gruev, Gotse Delchev, Luka Dzherov, Ivan Hadzhinikolov and Hristo Matov were also involved in the company. [10] These activists went on various paths. Some members went on to become leaders of the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization in 1894 and the Supreme Macedonian Committee in 1895. Others later became prominent intellectuals, including Andrey Lyapchev who became the Prime Minister of Bulgaria.
The Greek national activist from Aromanian background Konstantinos Bellios was considered a "Macedonian compatriot" by the Lozars. [11] The members of the Young Macedonian Literary Association self-identified as Macedonian Bulgarians. [12] [13]
Its magazine Loza was attacked in the Bulgarian press as "separatist." [7] An article in the official People's Liberal Party newspaper "Svoboda" blamed the organization for lack of loyalty and separatism. The Society rejected these accusations of linguistic and national separatism, [14] and in a response to "Svoboda" claimed that their "society is far from any separatist thoughts, in which we were accused and to say that the ideal of Young Macedonian Literary Society is not separatism, but unity of the entire Bulgarian nation". [15] Some scholars identify the journal as an early platform of Macedonian linguistic separatism. [16] [17] Macedonian historians, such as Andrew Rossos, saw expression of Macedonian nationalism in their activity. [18] However, the Lozars demonstrated both: Bulgarian and Macedonian loyalty and combined their Bulgarian nationalism with Macedonian regional and cultural identity. [19]
The Ilinden–Preobrazhenie Uprising, or simply the Ilinden Uprising, of August–October 1903, was an organized revolt against the Ottoman Empire, which was prepared and carried out by the Internal Macedonian-Adrianople Revolutionary Organization, with the support of the Supreme Macedonian-Adrianople Committee, which included mostly Bulgarian military personnel. The name of the uprising refers to Ilinden, a name for Elijah's day, and to Preobrazhenie which means Feast of the Transfiguration. Some historians describe the rebellion in the Serres revolutionary district as a separate uprising, calling it the Krastovden Uprising, because on September 14 the revolutionaries there also rebelled. The revolt lasted from the beginning of August to the end of October and covered a vast territory from the western Black Sea coast in the east to the shores of Lake Ohrid in the west.
Gotse Delchev, is a town in Gotse Delchev Municipality in Blagoevgrad Province of Bulgaria.
Georgi Nikolov Delchev, known as Gotse Delchev or Goce Delčev, was a prominent Macedonian Bulgarian revolutionary (komitadji) and one of the most important leaders of what is commonly known as the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization (IMRO), active in the Ottoman-ruled Macedonia and Adrianople regions, as well as in Bulgaria, at the turn of the 20th century. Delchev was IMRO's foreign representative in Sofia, the capital of the Principality of Bulgaria. As such, he was also a member of the Supreme Macedonian-Adrianople Committee (SMAC), participating in the work of its governing body. He was killed in a skirmish with an Ottoman unit on the eve of the Ilinden-Preobrazhenie uprising.
Krste Petkov Misirkov was a philologist, journalist, historian and ethnographer from the region of Macedonia.
Dimitar Blagoev Nikolov was a Bulgarian political leader and philosopher. He was the founder of the Bulgarian left-wing political movement and of the first social-democratic party in the Balkans, the Marxist Bulgarian Social Democratic Party. Blagoev was also an important figure in the early history of Russian Marxism, and later founded and led the Bulgarian Communist Party. He was a prominent proponent of ideas for the establishment of a Balkan Federation. He is usually regarded and self-identified as a Bulgarian, and occasionally as a Macedonian Slav.
Gyorche Petrov Nikolov born Georgi Petrov Nikolov, was a Bulgarian teacher and revolutionary, one of the leaders of the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization (IMRO). He was its representative in Sofia, the capital of Principality of Bulgaria. As such he was also a member of the Supreme Macedonian-Adrianople Committee (SMAC), participating in the work of its governing body. During the Balkan Wars, Petrov was a Bulgarian army volunteer, and during the First World War, he was involved in the activity of the Bulgarian occupation authorities in Serbia and Greece. Subsequently, he participated in Bulgarian politics, but was eventually killed by the rivaling IMRO right-wing faction. According to the Macedonian historiography, he was an ethnic Macedonian.
Andrey Tasev Lyapchev (Tarpov) (Bulgarian: Андрей Тасев Ляпчев (Tърпов)) (30 November 1866 – 6 November 1933) was a Bulgarian Prime Minister in three consecutive governments.
Kuzman Anastasov Shapkarev was a Bulgarian folklorist and ethnographer from the Ottoman region of Macedonia, author of textbooks and ethnographic studies, and a figure of the Bulgarian National Revival.
The history of the Macedonian language refers to the developmental periods of current-day Macedonian, an Eastern South Slavic language spoken on the territory of North Macedonia. The Macedonian language developed during the Middle Ages from the Old Church Slavonic, the common language spoken by Slavic people.
Petar Poparsov or Petar Pop Arsov was a Macedonian Bulgarian revolutionary, educator and one of the founders of the Internal Macedonian Adrianople Revolutionary Organization (IMARO). He is regarded as an ethnic Macedonian by the historiography in North Macedonia.
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 during 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 that occurred in and originated from Macedonia, 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.
The Ser-Drama-Lagadin-Nevrokop dialect is a dialect currently treated both in the contexts of the southeastern group of Bulgarian dialects and the southeastern subgroup of dialects of the Macedonian. Prior to the codification of standard Macedonian in 1945, the dialects of Macedonia were classified as Bulgarian. The dialect is dynamic and is well known for the shortening of the words, and also characterised by the excessive use of for the Proto-Slavic yat even in cases where standard Bulgarian has, a feature which is typical for a number of dialects spoken in southern and southwestern Bulgaria . The Ser-Drama-Lagadin-Nevrokop dialect is closely related to the neighbouring dialects. It is closer to all Eastern Bulgarian dialects than to all Western. Macedonian shares much less features with the dialect than it does with the Maleševo-Pirin dialect of Macedonian and Bulgarian. Some Bulgarian dialects are more similar to Macedonian than the Ser-Nevrokop dialect, the Samokov dialect shares more features with Macedonian than both the Ser-Nevrokop and the Pirin-Malasevo dialects do, even though it is not considered a Macedonian dialect, most of the western Bulgarian dialects and the Smolyan dialect share more similarities with Macedonian than the Ser dialect does. The Samokov dialect, most remarkably, shares with Macedonian and the Maleševo-Pirin dialect—the "to be" verb for future tense—"ke", which in contrast is "shte" in the Ser-Nevrokop dialect and in the Bulgarian language. The Yat border passes through the Maleševo-Pirin dialect and divides it on such a way that in the northern area of the dialect the yat is pronounced "e" and in the south—"ya". In the Ser-Nevrokop dialect the yat is pronounced in most places "ya", therefore the city of Serres, after which the dialect is named, is called "Syar" by the locals, as opposed to "Ser" in Macedonian. The first person singular is as in Bulgarian, ending with "a" or "am" as opposed to the constant "am" in Macedonian and the Bulgarian Smolyan dialect. The words for man -"m'zh" and for a dream "s'n" are as in Bulgarian, unlike the Macedonian "mazh" and "son". The words for night and tear—"nosht" and "s'lza" are as the Bulgarian, unlike the Macedonian "nok" and "solza".
Koprivlen is a village in Hadzhidimovo Municipality, in Blagoevgrad Province, Bulgaria.
Novo Leski is a village in Hadzhidimovo Municipality, in Blagoevgrad Province, Bulgaria.
Vasil Kostov Glavinov was a Bulgarian left-wing politician from Ottoman Macedonia, and an activist of the Bulgarian workers' movement.
Kosta S. Shahov was a Macedonian Bulgarian public figure, journalist, activist of the Young Macedonian Literary Society and the Supreme Macedonian-Adrianople Committee.
Petar (Pere) Naumov Toshev was a Bulgarian teacher and an activist of the Internal Macedonian-Adrianople Revolutionary Organization. In the historiography in North Macedonia he is considered an ethnic Macedonian revolutionary.
The Eastern South Slavic dialects form the eastern subgroup of the South Slavic languages. They are spoken mostly in Bulgaria and North Macedonia, and adjacent areas in the neighbouring countries. They form the so-called Balkan Slavic linguistic area, which encompasses the southeastern part of the dialect continuum of South Slavic.
Naum Tyufekchiev, born on June 29, 1864, in Resen, in the Ottoman Empire, was a Bulgarian and Macedonian revolutionary, explosives expert, tactician, and anarchist arms dealer. He was a member and leader of the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization (IMRO).