A letter from the Serbian embassy in Sofia to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Serbia, regarding purchasing of 50 copies of Misirkov's book.
Za makedonckite raboti (Cyrillic script: За македонцките работи, English translation: On Macedonian Matters) is a book written by Krste Misirkov and published in 1903 in Sofia, Bulgaria. The book presents the author's views towards the Macedonian Question, and explores the sense of national belonging and nеed for affirmation of the Macedonians as a separate people. The book marked the first complete outline of Macedonian as a separate language and proposed the need for its codification. The book also covers the rules of the standard language, its orthography and alphabet.
Background
Za makedonckite raboti marked the first attempt to formalize a separate Macedonian literary language.[1] With the book, Misirkov outlined an overview of the Macedonian grammar and expressed the ultimate goal of codifying the language and using it as the language of instruction in the education system. The author proposed to use the Prilep-Bitola dialect be used as a dialectal basis for the formation of the Macedonian standard language. His ideas however were not adopted until the 1940s.[2][3] Misirkov appealed to the Ottoman authorities for eventual recognition of a separate Macedonian nation. He admitted there was not such one, and most of the Macedonian Slavs has called themselves Bulgarians, but it should be created, when the necessary historical circumstances would arise.[4][5][6][7][8][9] He also explained that the reason for that was because local Slavs were allies with the Bulgars in the wars against Byzantine Empire and because of that Byzantine Greeks renamed them into "Bulgarians", in that way the term became a identification for Macedonian Slavs in the future.
Printing history
In November 1903 Misirkov arrived from Russia in Sofia for the purpose of printing his book, which was published at the end of the year. Most copies were confiscated or destroyed by the Bulgarian police and Internal Macedonian-Adrianople Revolutionary Organization (IMARO) activists, shortly after the book was published.[10] As a consequence, in December, Misirkov arrived in Belgrade. Here he met with Stojan Novakovic, at that time a Serbian foreign minister.[11] From his book, Novakovic ordered the purchase of 50 pieces by the Serbian Diplomatic Agency in Sofia.[12] The purchased exemplars were shipped through Serbian diplomatic channels to Macedonia. Because of that at his own time, the book had little or no impact and did not become popular until the middle of the 1940s.[13]
Consequences
In 1907, in the introduction to his article "Notes on South Slavic Philology and History", Misirkov rejected the ideas of his 1903 book.
According to some researchers Misirkov's principles played a crucial role in the future codification of Macedonian, right after World War II, while Loring Danforth considers that the language planners involved in the codification of standard literary Macedonian in 1944, were working in complete ignorance of Misirkov's work.[14]
After the Second World War Misirkov's book will be permanently cited by the historians in Macedonia as an indication of the existence of a separate Macedonian ethnicity at his time. However, only two years later Misirkov changed his stance, and published a series of articles in the IMARO press written from a Bulgarian nationalist perspective,[15] claiming Bulgarian identity for himself and the Macedonian Slavs[16][17]
Notes
^Kramer 1999, p. 236 harvnb error: no target: CITEREFKramer1999 (help)
^The term 'project' tackles likewise the specific temporal orientation of the initial stage of formation of Macedonian ethnic nationalism: the Macedonian self-determination is seen by Misirkov as a future ideal and his national manifesto on the Macedonian Matters (Sofia, 1903) recognizes the lack of actual correlation between the concept of Macedonian Slavic ethnicity and the real self-identifications of the majority of Macedonian Slavs. In a rather demiurgical way, Misirkov is the first who exposes the basic 'ethnographic' characteristics of what he regards as 'inexistent' but 'possible' and 'necessary' Macedonian Slavic ethnicity... Tchavdar Marinov, "Between Political Autonomism and Ethnic Nationalism: Competing Constructions of Modern Macedonian National Ideology (1878–1913)", p. 3.
^Misirkov lamented that "no local Macedonian patriotism" existed and would have to be created. He anticipated that Macedonians would respond to his proposal with a series of baffled questions: "What sort of new Macedonian nation can this be when we, and our fathers and grandfathers and great-grandfathers have always been called Bulgarians?...Macedonian as a nationality has never existed, and it does not exist now"... Misirkov answered by observing that national loyalties change with time: "What has not existed in the past may still be brought into existence later, provided that the appropriate historical circumstances arise... Misirkov in short wanted, the Ottoman state to promote Macedonian nation-building, calling for "official recognition". Region, Regional Identity and Regionalism in Southeastern Europe, Klaus Roth, Ulf Brunnbauer, LIT Verlag Münster, 2008, ISBN3825813878, p. 138.
^The idea of a separate (Slavic) Macedonian nationhood most certainly had its antecedents before the 1930s – nor is that surprising, considering the political history of the area. Krste Misirkov, the "first creator of a clear and rounded representation, of argued and systematic conception about the national essence of Macedonian people," brought arguments in favor of Macedonian "national separatism" in his on Macedonian matters, but still considered the Macedonian question a part of a larger Bulgarian complex, if for no other reason than linguistic. Misirkov's pan-Bulgarian patriotism was based largely on the kinship of language, and his pan-Bulgarian positions, which he used, moreover frontally, against the Serbs and Greeks.The National Question in Yugoslavia: Origins, History, Politics, Ivo Banac, Cornell University Press, 1988, ISBN0801494931, p. 327.
^Misirkov speaks, for instance, of the relations between "the Macedonian peoples" [makedonckite narodi], of the "convergence of interests of all Macedonian peoples." The term "nation" appears rarely and is contrasted to the term "nationality": e.g., Misirkov suggests that, in Macedonia, there are many "nationalities" [nacionalnosti], while "a distinct Macedonian Slavic nation [naciia]" does not yet exist (p. 46). This usage actually implies that the "nation" is seen as a political phenomenon of a "higher" degree, transcending a multiplicity of actual ethnic and/or confessional particularities. We, the People: Politics of National Peculiarity in Southeastern Europe, Diana Mishkova, European University Press, 2009, ISBN9639776289, p. 133.
^Misirkov accepted that his project for Macedonian particularist nationalism broke with considerable Bulgarian sentiment. He admitted both that there was "no local Macedonian patriotism", and that ordinary Macedonians would see Macedonian particularism as a novelty: "What sort of new Macedonian nation can this be when we and our fathers and grandfathers and great-grandfathers have always been called Bulgarians?” Responding to these arguments, Misirkov showed a surprising acceptance that national communities evolve in response to events: "what has not existed in the past may still be brought into existence later, provided that the appropriate historical circumstances arise". Misirkov thus tried to create the appropriate historical circumstances. Sundry Macedonias, Alexander Mark Maxwell, University of Wisconsin—Madison, 1998, pp. 50–51.
^Many people will want to know what sort of national separatism we are concerned with; they will ask if we are not thinking of creating a new Macedonian nation. Such a thing would be artificial and short-lived. And, anyway? What sort of new Macedonian nation can this be when we, and our fathers and grandfathers and great-grandfathers have always been called Bulgarians?...One of the first questions which will be posed by the opponents of national unification and of the revival movement in Macedonia will be: what is the Macedonian Slav nation? Macedonian as a nationality has never existed, they will say, and it does not exist now.... The first objection – that a Macedonian Slav nationality has never existed – may be very simply answered as follows: what has not existed in the past may still be brought into existence later, provided that the appropriate historical circumstances arise...On Macedonian Matters. (1903) by Krste Misirkov.
^Loring M. Danforth – The Macedonian Conflict: Ethnic Nationalism in a Transnational World, p. 67
^Historical Dictionary of the Republic of Macedonia, Dimitar Bechev, Scarecrow Press, 2009, ISBN0810862956, p. 153.
^Misirkovs book will be widely cited in the 20th and the 21st centuries by all historians in the R. Macedonia as a clear indication of the existence of a separate Macedonian ethnicity. However, they ignored the fact that Misirkov abandoned his ideas and in 1910 in the Bulgarian Almanac, as well as in his memoirs, he clearly indicated his Bulgarian ethnic identity. Contested Ethnic Identity: The Case of Macedonian Immigrants in Toronto, 1900–1996, Chris Kostov, Peter Lang, 2010, ISBN3034301960, pp. 66–67.
^The eminent Macedonian literary historian Blazhe Ristovski’s History of the Macedonian Nation describes the "awakening" and formation of the Macedonian nation by various intellectuals in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Ristovski aims to prove the Macedonian nature of writers, poets, and other intellectuals who can be said to have been champions of the Macedonian cause. If these persons declared themselves, at one time or another, "Bulgarians", then Ristovski goes to great length to point out that they cannot have meant it quite like that. For example, in the case of Krste Misirkov – "the most eminent, most significant and most versatile Macedonian cultural and national worker before liberation" – Ristovski states that Misirkov’s support for the annexation of Macedonia by Bulgaria did not reflect "his genuine beliefs and sentiments" but was "dictated by the conditions of the time". Serving the Nation: Historiography in the Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) After Socialism, Historein, vol. 4 (2003–4) Ulf Brunnbauer.
Kramer, Christina; Mitkovska, Liljana (2003), Macedonian: A Course for Beginning and Intermediate Students. (2nd ed.), University of Wisconsin Press, ISBN978-0-299-18804-7
Usikova, Rina Pavlovna (2005), Языки мира. Славянские языки: Македонский язык [Languages of the world. Slavic languages: Macedonian language] (in Russian), Moscow: Academia, pp. 102–139, ISBN5-87444-216-2
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