Macedonian nationalism: Difference between revisions

Part of a series on
Macedonians
By region or country
Macedonia (region)
North Macedonia Albania Bulgaria Greece
Diaspora
Former Yugoslavia Bosnia and Herzegovina Croatia Montenegro Serbia Slovenia
Elsewhere in Europe Austria Czech Republic France Germany Poland Romania Sweden Switzerland United Kingdom
Americas Argentina Canada United States
Oceania Australia
Subgroups and related groups
Gorani Torbeši Mijaks Brsjaks Shopi
Culture
Art Cinema Cuisine Education Language Literature Music Symbols
Religion
Macedonian Orthodox Church Catholic Church (Latin Catholic Greek Catholic) Protestantism Islam Judaism Rodnovery
Other topics
History List of Macedonians Macedonian nationalism Public holidays
v t e

Macedonian nationalism is a term referring to Macedonian version of nationalism.

The national awakening of the ethnic Macedonians^[1] can be said to have begun its development in the late 19th and early 20th century.^[2][3] This is the time of the first expressions of ethnic nationalism by limited groups of intellectuals in Belgrade, Sofia, Thessaloniki and St. Petersburg.^[2] During Ottoman rule, most of the Orthodox Slavic population of Macedonia had not formed a national identity separate from their neighbors and were instead identified through their religious affiliation. Therefore, until 20th century and beyond the majority of the Slav-speaking population of the region was identified as Bulgarian^[4][5] and after 1870 joined the Bulgarian Exarchate.^[6] However labels reflecting collective identity, such as "Bulgarian", changed into national labels, from being broad terms, sometimes being almost synonymous with peasant, and without political significance.^{[2][verification needed]} At the beginning of 20th Century H. N. Brailsford, described the Slavic speakers from Macedonia as related both with Serbs and Bulgarians, but without clear defined ethnic consciousness. However, he accepted that a part of this population is "definitely Serbs", while the other part is "clearly Bulgarians"^[7] This confusion is illustrated by Robert Newman in 1935, who recounts discovering in a village in Vardar Macedonia as part of Kingdom of Yugoslavia^[8] two brothers, one who considered himself a Serb, and the other considered himself a Bulgarian. In another village he met a man who had been, "a Macedonian peasant all his life", but who had varyingly been called a Turk, a Serb and a Bulgarian.^[9] In 1934 the Comintern issued a resolution about the recognition of Macedonian ethnicity.^[10] It must be noted that the existence of a separate Macedonian national consciousness prior to the 1940s is disputed.^[11][12] Anti-Serban and pro-Bulgarian feelings among the local population at this period prevailed.^[13] Because of that Vardar Macedonia was the only region where Yugoslav communist leader Josip Broz Tito had not developed a strong Partisan movement after its annexation to Bulgaria in 1941. To improve the situation, in 1943 the Communist Party of Macedonia was established. But the Bulgarians soon fell into the old Balkan trap of centralization. The new provinces were quickly staffed with officials from Bulgaria proper who behaved with typical official arrogance to the local inhabitants.^[14] By the end of the war "a Macedonian national consciousness hardly existed beyond a general conviction^{[citation needed]}, gained from bitter experience, that rule from Sofia was as unpalatable as that from Belgrade"^[15].

After 1944 Communist Bulgaria and Communist Yugoslavia began a policy of making Macedonia connecting link for the establishment of new Balkan Federative Republic and stimulating here a development of distinct Slav Macedonian consciousness.^[16] The Greek communists as well as its fraternal parties in Bulgaria and Yugoslavia, had already been influenced by the Comintern and it was the only political party in Greece to recognize Macedonian national identity.^[17] The region received the status of a constituent republic within Yugoslavia and in 1945 a separate, Macedonian language was codified. The population was promulgated ethnic Macedonian, a nationality different from both Serbs and Bulgarians. However the situation deteriorated after the Greek Communists lost the Greek Civil War. Thousands of Aegean Macedonians were expelled and fled to the newly-established Socialist Republic of Macedonia, while thousands more children took refuge in other Eastern Bloc countries. Аs well at the end of the 1950s the Bulgarian Communist Party repealed its previous decision and adopted a position denying the existence of a Macedonian ethnicity. As result in Macedonia the Bulgarophobia increased almost to the level of State ideology.^[18] This put the end of the idea of the Balkan Communist Federation about unification of all of Macedonia under Communist rule. On the other hand, the Yugoslav authorities forcibly suppressed the ideologists of an independent Macedonian country. Later a separate Macedonian Orthodox Church was established too, splitting off from the Serbian Orthodox Church in 1967. The encouragement and evolution of Macedonian culture has had a far greater and more permanent impact on Macedonian nationalism than has any other aspect of Yugoslav policy. While development of national music, films and the graphic arts has been encouraged in Macedonia, the greatest cultural effect has come from the codification of the Macedonian language and literature, the new Macedonian national interpretation of history and the establishment of a Macedonian Orthodox Church.^[19]

On September 8, 1991, the Socialist Republic of Macedonia held a referendum that established its independence from Yugoslavia, under the name of the Republic of Macedonia. With the Fall of communism and the consequent lack of a Great power in the region, Republic of Macedonia came under attack from all of its neighbors. Without the protection of the Yugoslav Federation, Republic of Macedonia found its security weakened and as a response a more assertive and uncompromising strand of Macedonian nationalism emerged.^[20] The Slav Macedonians of the Republic of Macedonia have demonstrated without any exception a strong and even aggressive at times Macedonian consciousness.^[21]

Macedonism (Macedonian and Serbian: Македонизам, Bulgarian: Македонизъм, all transliterated: Makedonizam, and Greek: Μακεδονισμός - Makedonismós) is a political term used in a polemic sense to refer to a set of ideas perceived as characteristic of aggressive ethnic Macedonian nationalism by some Bulgarian^[22] and Greek authors,^[23][24][25] where it has strong pejorative connotations. It is occasionally used in international scholarship^{[26] [27]} and in an apologetic sense in isolated examples from some Macedonian authors.^[28][29][30] Macedonism has also faced strong criticism from moderate political views in the Republic of Macedonia.^[31] The roots of the concept were first developed in the late 19th century, in the context of Greek, Bulgarian and Serbian initiatives to take control over the region of Macedonia, which was at that time ruled by the Ottoman Empire. It was originally used in a contemptuous manner to refer to Macedonians who believed they constituted a distinct ethnic group, separate from their neighbours. The first to use the term "Macedonist" was the Bulgarian author Petko Slaveykov, who coined the term in his article The Macedonian Question, published in the newspaper Makedoniya in 1871, to criticise those Macedonians espousing such views, calling them Macedonists. Another early recorded use of the term "Macedonism" is found in a report by the Serbian politician Stojan Novaković from 1887. He proposed to employ the macedonistic ideology as a means to counteract the Bulgarian influence in Macedonia, thereby promoting Serbian interests in the region.^[32]

Among the views and opinions that are often perceived as representative of Macedonian nationalism and criticised as parts of "Macedonism" by those who use the term^[33] are the following:

• The notion of unbroken racial continuity between the modern ethnic Macedonians and the ancient autochthonous peoples of the region, in particular the ancient Macedonians;
• The belief that Bulgarians are of a different race, which manifests itself in ethnic slurs like "tatars" (also "mongolo-tatars", "turko-tatars"). Bulgarians in the macedonist imagination and propaganda are supposed be short, dark and Asian looking, while there aren't any differences in appearance between the two groups.
• The idea that there is a fundamental, ethnogenetic distinction between Macedonians and Bulgarians, going back much further than the political divisions between the two nations during the 20th century; (see Identities of the ethnic Macedonians)
• The belief that this distinction is related to the inheritance of ethnic elements of the ancient non-Slavic tribe of the Bulgars, supposed to form an essential part of modern Bulgarian but not Macedonian heritage; (see Origins of the ethnic Macedonians, Ethnogenesis of the Bulgarians)
• Irredentist political views about the neighbouring regions of Greek Macedonia ("Aegean Macedonia") and parts of southwest Bulgaria ("Pirin Macedonia") and about the existence of ethnic Macedonian minorities in these areas, connected to the irredentist concept of a United Macedonia.

Other, related areas of Macedonian (as ethnic Macedonian)–Bulgarian national polemics relate to:

• The presence of the Bulgars in Medieval Macedonia and their connection to today's Macedonians; (see Kouber)
• The ethnic character of various medieval historical figures and entities, including the saints Cyril and Methodius, the medieval Tsar Samuil and his kingdom, and the medieval Archbishopric of Ohrid;
• The historical role of the Bulgarian Exarchate and the ethnic character of the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization;
• The historical role of various Macedonian insurgent movements during Ottoman rule (see Ilinden Uprising) and during the Bulgarian occupation of Macedonia in World War II; (see National Liberation War of Macedonia)
• The opinion that a separate Macedonian nationhood was the artificial product of a Communist plot during the 20th century^[34] and the belief of some Bulgarians that Macedonians — for whatever reason — constitute a subgroup of the Bulgarian people. (see Demographic history of Macedonia)

On the other hand, areas of Macedonian–Greek national polemics relate to:

• The cultural identity of the ancient Macedonians and the classification of the ancient Macedonian language and their relation to the contemporary Macedonian and Greek languages and people. ^[35][36] (see Origins of the Greeks, The Arnaiz-Villena controversy)

• Ethnogenesis
• Macedonian Question
• History of the Macedonians (ethnic group)