Preface

The Bulgarians from Macedonia and Thrace never reconciled with the decisions of the Berlin Congress from 1878. They expressed their aspirations for liberation and unification with Bulgaria in many different ways. This strive was displayed clearly by the mass armed revolutionary struggle of the Bulgarians in the enslaved parts. A su­preme moment in this struggle are the rebellions - in Kresna-Razlog from 1878-1879, in Melnik detachment action from 1895, Gorna Dzhoumaya from 1902, Ilinden-Preobrazhenie from 1903, in Tikvesh and Ohrid-Debur from 1913, and also the wars led by the Bulgarian state for the liberation and unification of the enslaved lands - Serbi­an-Bulgarian war from 1885, Balkan wars (1912-1913) and the World War I (1914-1918). There the Bulgarians from Macedonia and Thrace participated in large numbers.

The participation and the destiny of the Bulgarian people in Macedonia and Thrace during above wars and rebellions are com­paratively well investigated in Bulgarian historiography.

Almost nothing is known about their fate during the World War II. There is no research about the nature of the campaign commit­tees in Macedonia in 1941. In some separate publications our scien­tists mention about them.¹

Having in mind the significance of the problem - the attitude of the population in Macedonia towards Bulgaria in such a crucial moment, as is the liberation of Macedonia in 1941, it is necessary to examine it in details. In this sense the beginning was laid by the Formation and Activity of the Bulgarian campaign committees in Vardar Macedonia in 1941".²

When preparing the above said article at the time, however, I had at my disposal only the written statements for the establishment of the committees and the memoirs of Vassil Hadzhikimov - its sec­retary-organizer. Further on, my work gave me the possibility to obtain other documents, that enriched the notion mostly about the activity of the members of the committees mostly for meeting the Bulgarian army in the region, about the liberation of the Macedonian Bulgarians - prisoners of war in the German army, about the orga­nizing of the celebrations and important anniversaries as well as the dismissal of the campaign committees. In my work at the time I did not have the chance to use the whole file of the Macedonia maga­zine - the organ of the Bulgarian Central Campaign Committee (BCCC). With the present monograph this shortcoming is eliminat­ed. Three issues of the organ of BCCC were used. In the article I managed to publish only 25 documents and even they were incom­plete - unlike all rules of archaeography. It was because of the limited space that the magazine proposed. Due to that reason I could not publish the most important documents, namely the lists of the participants in the campaign committees - a weakness that the present research overcomes.

Actually the reasons that gave me the idea to deepen my re­search, and to offer it as a book, could not be expressed by arith­metic enumeration of the advantages of the monograph. The present research should not be regarded as a second edition of the study. To the 25 documents that are published in full, 40 more are added - a result of continuous and profound work in the registers after the study was printed. The new documents permitted new interpreta­tions, analyses and evaluations, new conclusions, amending the mis­takes and weaknesses. Last but not least it should be reminded that the article was written at a time, when few were interested in the Macedonian question. And even those, who were interested, could have hardly come across it. Along with the big distribution possibil­ities nowadays and the great interest in the national question, I be­lieve that this type of book would be welcomed by the readers. Even more, I believe that it would be well met in Vardar Macedonia, where a lot of people could read of their parents’ feelings and response to the challenges of that troubled 1941. Of course this does not mean that I intended to make premeditated propaganda. The very circum­stance, that I use mainly documents, and that they are published in full, worked up in archaeographic respect, decline all denuncia­tions in misappropriation. The fact that the whole Bulgarian popula­tion in Macedonia simultaneously wanted to be accessed to Bulgaria in 1941 did not necessarily mean an appeal for something similar today. However it is a fact, and the facts of the history should not be hidden, otherwise it would allow misuse.

It would be interesting to have a look at the condition of histori­ography in former Yugoslavia, to see how this phenomenon - the campaign committees - was apprehended there. As it is well-known, the dominating idea there was, that all Bulgarian manifestations were a sign of deterioration and fascism, and everything that was Mace­donian, was personified with what was the progressive, where progress is identical with the left-wing power, according to the dom­inating value system. The campaign committees were mentioned dominant superficially, and the interpretation and appraisal were negative ³,

That is why the present research would not regard any articles by Yugoslav authors, and show their weak points, as it is obvious, that they served political line and deserve mostly a moral stigmatization. There is no need science to be occupied by similar works. In some of them, apart from the interpretations, there is certain useful information about the campaign committees, and this information was used in the present book⁴. An example is enough to convince us that it is useless to criticize the Yugoslavian forgery: the author Yovan Pavlovski cited the declaration of BCCC, “Macedonia is free and is currently in the Bulgarian national community"⁵ in the fol­lowing way: ,,Macedonia is free and is now a Bulgarian national property..."⁶. First of all translation was not necessary, since the declaration was written in pure Bulgarian language - the language of the disciples of Cyril and Methodius. Secondly, the translation had twisted the meaning.

Original, and little known documents were used when writing the present monography, connected with the creation and the func­tioning of the campaign committees. The memoirs of Vassil Hadzhikimov - organizational secretary of the BCCC for Macedonia, were used as well. When defining some dates in the documents and the memoirs of Hadzhikimov, I noticed certain disparity, so I took for authentic the first ones, since the memoirs were written later on.

The written statements for the formation of the committees, which I present in the appendix were in Central State Historical Archive (CSA), f. 396. The archival unit and the page are specified after each document. The text is given in the way it is in the original, without any changes, if not considering the updating. Should be noted that some of the names like ,,Hadzhikimov", or ,,Popankov" appear in the different archival documents in different ways, for example ,,Hadzhi Kimov" and ,,Pop Pankov"; they are given in the book in one word. The language in the documents is mainly Bulgar­ian, but sometimes the lexis and the grammar are Serbian. It should be reminded that the Macedonian Bulgarians endured the Serbian suppression for more than 20 years after the Versailles Treaty. Far more than ten thousand Serbs were colonized in Vardar Macedonia. The official language of the administration was Serbian. The offi­cials, the teachers, etc. were Serbs. It was impossible the Bulgarian language to remain unaffected. But there was something else. The presence of Serbian words was a proof that the committees were formed from the local population. Another proof were the long lists of participants in the campaign committees. Almost all of them were Bulgarians, born in Vardar Macedonia. All of them lobbied for Bul­garia.

The published documents are without unabridged, as I have tried to arrange them unabridged chronologically. An exception is docu­ment N. 64. It is abridged - as it was published by the Yugoslav author Yovan Pavlovski; unfortunately this document was not found in original and I was not in a position to publish it in full.

Notes

       
¹ Paleshutski, K. ,,The Macedonian Question in Bourgeois Yugoslavia 1918-1941", S. 1983, p. 215; ,,The Yugoslav Communist Party and the Macedonian Question 1919-1945". S. 1985, p. 280; Gotsev, D. ,,The National Liberation Youth Organizations of the Macedonian Bulgarians 1919-1941", Sofia 1988, page 259; The Idea for Autonomy as a Tactics in the Programs of the National Liberation Movements in Macedonia and Odrin 1893-1941", Sofia,1983, p. 59; Velev, T. ^Interrelations between Bulgarian Communist Party and Yugoslav Communist Party during World War II and the Development of the Macedonian Question", p. 150-171; Sirkov, D. ,,The Bulgarian National Territorial Problem During World War II and the Development of the Macedonian Issue" - In: The Bulgarian Nationality and Nation During the Centuries. - Materials from a Scientific Conference., Part Two, 1988, p. 95-149; ,,History of the Fatherland War of Bulgaria 1944-1945, volume I, Sofia.. 1981, p. 105-106; Panayotov, L, Paleshutski K. and Michev D. ,,The Macedonian Issue and the Bulgarian-Yugoslav Rela­tions". Sofia, 1987, p. 87-89; Pandev, K. and Paleshutski K., ,,The Bulgarian Na­tional Liberation Movement after the Berlin Congress (1878-1941)" in: Historical Review, 1981, N. 3-4, p. 113; Michev, D. ,,The Bulgarian Communist Party and the Macedonian Issue till September 9, 1944" In: Military-Historical Collection, 1986, N. 6, p. 17-18; Daskalov, G. ,,The Bulgarian-Yugoslav Political Relations 1944-1945", Sofia, 1989, p. 30; Filov, B, ,,Dnevnik", Sofia, 1986, p. 289.

² Minchev, D. formation and Activity of the Bulgarian Campaign Commit­tees in Vardar Macedonia in 1941" In: Notice of Military History Institute and Military History Scientific Unity, 1990, vol. 50, p. 39-94.

³ The Yugoslav historiography created a whole library of ,,scientific litera­ture" devoted to the resistance movement during the World War II. Sec Filipova, L. ,,Vardar Macedonia (1941-1944) in Yugoslav Historical Literature". Bibliog­raphy. Sofia, 1992. Most of them mention cursorily the campaign committees, so I decided not to include them here.

⁴Ivanovski, V. ,,The Liberation War in Western Macedonia 1941-1944'*, Skopje, 1973, p. 19-27; Talevski, B. and Solunski K. ,,Priiep's Chronicle", in: Narodno-Oslobodilacka Borba (People's Struggle for Liberation), Prilep, 1972, p. 78-79.

⁵ Macedonia N. 1, 1941.

⁶ Pavlovski, J. ,,The Judgement as the Last Defeat", Tetovo, 1979, p. 34

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