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The British Foreign Office and Macedonian National Identity, 1918-1941

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 January 2017

Andrew Rossos
Andrew Rossos*
Affiliation:
The Department of History, University of Toronto
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Extract

The study of the Macedonian identity has given rise to far greater controversies and debates than that of most, if not all, other nationalisms in eastern Europe. This has been only in part due to the hazy past of the Slavic speaking population of Macedonia and to the lack of a continuous and separate state tradition, a trait they had in common with other "small" and "young," or so-called "non-historic," peoples in the area.

Type
Research Article
Information
Slavic Review , Volume 53 , Issue 2 , Summer 1994 , pp. 369 - 394
Copyright
Copyright © Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies. 1994

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References

1. For a discussion of the significance of international recognition or legitimacy in the development of Balkan nationalisms, see especially Breuilly, John, Nationalism and the State (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1982), 103–11, 115–16 and 373Google Scholar; and Alan, Warwick Palmer, The Lands Between: A History of East-Central Europe since the Congress of Vienna (London: Macmillan, 1970, 28–29 Google Scholar.

2. See especially Ristovski, Blaže, Makedonskiot narod i mahedonskata nacija (Skopje: Misla, 1983), 1: 475–86, 163–87, 263–80Google Scholar. Ristovski is the leading authority on Macedonian national thought and development. His two volumes contain previously published studies on the subject. See also the following works published recently in the west: Adanir, Fikret, Die Makedonische Frage. Ihre Entstchung und Entwicklung bis 1908 (Wiesbaden: Steiner, 1979 Google Scholar; Dogo, Marco, Lingua e Nazionalitd in Macedonia: Vicende e pensieri di profeti disarmati, 1902–1903 (Milan: Jaca Book, 1985 Google Scholar; dejong, Jutta, Die nationale Kern des makedonischen Problems: Ansatze und Grundlagen einer makedonischen Nationalbewegung (1890–1903) (Frankfurt: Lang, 1982 Google Scholar; Andrew Rossos, “Macedonianism and Macedonian Nationalism on the Left” to be published in Ivo Banac and Katherine Verdery, eds., National Character and National Ideology in Interwar Eastern Europe.

3. The literature on the struggles in Macedonia is vast but rather uneven and polemical in nature. A good documentary survey in English of the activities of the neighboring Balkan states in Macedonia is to be found in George, P. Gooch and Temperley, Harold, eds., British Documents on the Origins of the War, 1898–1914 (London: H. M. Stationary Office, 1926–1938), 5: 100–23Google Scholar. Among the more useful works in western languages are Perry, Duncan M., The Politics of Terror: The Macedonian Revolutionary Movements, 1893–1903 (Durham: Duke University Press, 1988 Google Scholar; Brailsford, Henry N., Macedonia: Its Races and Their Future (1906, reprint, New York: Arno Press, 1980)Google Scholar; Barker, Elizabeth, Macedonia: Its Place in Balkan Power Politics (1950, reprint, Westport: Greenwood Press, 1980)Google Scholar; Ancel, Jacques, La Macédoine (Paris, 1930)Google Scholar; Weigand, Gustav, Ethnographie von Makedonien (Leipzig, 1924)Google Scholar. For a representative sampling of the divergent points of view, see Jovanović, Jovan M., Južna Srbija od kraja XVIII veka do oslobodjenja (Belgrade, 1941)Google Scholar (Serbian); Bazhdarov, G., Makedonskiat vūpros vchera i dnes, (Sofia, 1925) (Bulgarian)Google Scholar; Modes, Georgios, O makedonikos agon kai i neoteri makedoniki istoria (Salonica: Etaireia Makedonikon Spoudon, 1967) (Greek)Google Scholar. Macedonan historians have turned their attention to this problem more recently. See Džambazovski, Kliment, Kulturno-opštestvenite vrski na Makedoncite so Srbija vo tekot na XIX vek (Skopje: Institut za nacionalna istorija (Ini), 1960)Google Scholar; Poplazarov, Risto, Grčkata politka sprema Makedonija vo vtorata polovina na XIX i početokot na XX vek (Skopje: Ini, 1973 Google Scholar; Slavko Dimevski, Makedonskoto nacionalno osloboditelno dviženie i egzarhijata (1893–1912) (Skopje: Kultura, 1963 Google Scholar; Bitoski, Krste, Makedonija i Kneževstvo Bugarija (1893–1903) (Skopje: Ini, 1977 Google Scholar. On the partition of Macedonia, see Rossos, Andrew, Russia and the Balkans: Inter-Balkan Rivalries and Russian Foreign Policy, 1908–1914 (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1981 Google Scholar; Stojanov, Petar, Makedonija vo vremeto na balkanskite i prvata svetska vojna (1912–1918) (Skopje: Ini, 1969 Google Scholar.

4. Ristovski, Blaže, Portreti i procesi od makedonskata literaturna i nacionalna istorija (Skopje: Kultura, 1990), 3: 34 Google Scholar.

5. Ristovski, op cit. and 2: 24–72; and my forthcoming study “Macedonianism and Macedonian Nationalism on the Left. “

6. The Bulgarian, Greek and Serbian claims were extensively publicized. For a representative sampling of the divergent points of view, see Georgevich, Tihomir R., Macedonia (London: G. Allen & Unwin, 1918) (Serbian)Google Scholar; Ivanov, Iordan, La question macedoine (Paris, 1920) (Bulgarian)Google Scholar; Nicolaides, Cleanthes, La Macedeine (Berlin, 1899) (Greek)Google Scholar. See also the works cited in note 3.

7. See (London) Public Record Office, FO371/10667, Central Department, Memorandum, “The Macedonian Question and Komitaji Activity,” 26 November 1925, 3–4. (All Foreign Office documents cited hereafter are found in the Public Record Office). See also Andonov-Poljanski, Hristo, Velika Britania i makedonskoto pra šanje na pariskata mirovna konferencija vo 1919 godina (Skopje: Arhiv na Makedonija, 1973 Google Scholar; Katardžiev, Ivan, Vreme na zreenje. Makedonskoto nacionalno pra šanje megju dvete svetski vojni (1919–1930) (Skopje: Kultura, 1977), 1 Google Scholar: chap. 1. Katardžiev provides the most comprehensive, valuable and interesting treatment of the Macedonian national question in the 1920s.

8. F0371/14316, A. Henderson (Belgrade) to N. Henderson, 9 May 1930, Enclosure 2, “Memorandum by Vice-Consul Blakeney. “

9. F0371/29785, Campbell (Belgrade) to Halifax, 6 January 1941. On developments in Vardar Macedonia during the interwar years, see also Katardžiev, op.cit., 1: 23–85; Institut za nacionalna istorija, Istorija na makedonskiot narod (Skopje, 1969), 3: part 11; Apostolov, Aleksandar, Kolonizacijata na Makedonija vo stara Jugoslavia (Skopje: Kultura, 1966 Google Scholar, and “Specifičnata položba na makedonskiot narod vo kralstvoto Jugoslavia,” Glasnik (Skopje) 16, no. 1 (1972): 39–62.

10. FO 371/8566, Bentinck (Athens) to Curzon, 20 August 1923, Enclosure, Colonel A.C. Corfe, “Notes on a Tour Made by the Commission on Greco-Bulgarian Emigration in Western and Central Macedonia,” 5. By “Bulgars,” Lambros meant Macedonians.

11. On the situation of the Macedonians in Aegean Macedonia, see Rossos, Andrew, “The Macedonians of Aegean Macedonia: A British Officer's Report, 1944,” The Slavonic and East European Review (London) 69, no. 2 (April 1991): 282–88Google Scholar. See also katardžiev, Vreme na zreenje, 1: 85–106; Istorija na makedonskiot narod, 3: part 13; Kiselinovski, Stojan, Grčkata kolonizacija vo Egejska Makedonija (1913–1940) (Skopje: Ini, 1981 Google Scholar; Mojsov, Lazo, Okolu pra šanjeto na makedonskoto nacionalno malcinstovo vo Grcija (Skopje: Ini, 1954, 207–87Google Scholar; Giorgi, Abadžiev, et al., Egejska Makedonija vo na šata nacionalna istorija (Skopje, 1951)Google Scholar.

12. Rossos, “Macedonians of Aegean Macedonia,” 293–94. Captain P.H. Evans’ “Report on the Free Macedonia Movement in Area Fiorina 1944” is given verbatim, 291–309.

13. F0371/12856, Kennard (Belgrade) to Sargent, 16 February 1928.

14. F0371/8568, 22. A few years later, O. Sargent, a counselor in the Foreign Office, complained that “the Macedonian Revolutionary Organisation … defies openly the Bulgarian Government and practically administers and governs part of the Bulgarian territory” (F0371/12856, Sargent [London] to Sperling, 1 October 1928).

15. On Pirin Macedonia as well as the Macedonians in Bulgaria, see katardžiev, Vreme na zreenje, 1: 107–19; Istorija na makedonskiot narod, 3: part 12; Mitrev, Dimitar, Pirinska Makedonija (Skopje: Nasa Kniga, 1970, 126–202 Google Scholar.

16. See Troebst, Stefan, Mussolini, Makedonien und die Machte, 1922–1930: Die “Innere Makeodnische Revolutionäre Organisation” in der Südosteuropapolitik der faschistischen Italien (Cologne: Böhlau, 1987 Google Scholar; and Barker, Macedonia, chap. 2; Stavrianos, Leften S., Balkan Federation: A History of the Movement Toward Balkan Unity in Modern Times (1944, reprint, Hamden: Archon Books, 1964)Google Scholar, chaps. 8 and 9.

17. F0371/8568, p. 22.

18. F0371/7375, Erskine (Sofia) to Curzon, 25 January 1922. Harold Nicolson commented: “There is less disparity between the Irish and Macedonian temperament than might be supposed” (Minute, 1 February 1922).

19. katardžiev, Vreme no. zreenje, 1: part 2, chap. 1.

20. Kiselinovski, Grčkata kolonizacija, chap. 4.

21. katardžiev, op.cit.; Kiosev, Dino, Istoria na makedonskoto natsionalno revoliutsionerno dvizhenie (Sofia: Otechestven front, 1954, 493–99Google Scholar.

22. katardžiev, Vreme na zreenje, 1: 171–83 and part 2, chap. 2; Kiosev, ibid., 512–28. On the activities of the IMRO in all three parts of Macedonia, see also the memoirs of its leader after 1924: Mikhailov, Ivan, Spomeni, 4 vols. (Selci, Louvain, Indianapolis, 1952, 1965, 1967, 1973)Google Scholar.

23. katardžiev, Vreme na zreenje, 1: 375–76; Istorija na makedonskiot narod, 3: 20–23, 176–78; Kofos, Evangelos, Nationalism and Communism in Macedonia (Salonica: Institute for Balkan Studies, 1964), 69 Google Scholar; Kousoulas, Dimitrios G., Revolution and Defeat: The Story of the Communist Party of Greece (London: Oxford University Press, 1965), 65 Google Scholar.

24. F0371/7377, Erskine (Sofia) to Curzon, 20 March 1922.

25. F0371/6197, Peel (Sofia) to Curzon, 10 February 1921.

26. See F0371/8568.

27. On communism and Macedonian nationalism, see katardžiev, Vreme na zreenje, 1: part 3, chaps. 1–4, 2: part 5, and ed., Predavnicite na makedonskoto delo (Skopje: Kultura, 1983), 5–56; Kiselinovski, Stojan, KPG i makedonskoto nacionalno prašanje, 1918–1940 (Skopje: Misla, 1985 Google Scholar, chaps. 2–4; Miljovski, Kiril, Makedonskoto prašanje vo nacionalnata programa na KPJ (1919–1937) (Skopje: Kultura, 1962, 24–140 Google Scholar; Mitrev, Dimitar, BKP i Pirinska Makedonija (Skopje: Kultura, 1960, 42–59 Google Scholar; Kofos, op.cit., chap. 4; Pačemska, Darinka, Vnatre šnata makedonska revolucionerna organizacija (Obedineta) (Skopje: “Studentski zbor,” 1985)Google Scholar. I have dealt with the subject in “Macedonianism and Macedonian Nationalism on the Left” to be published in Ivo Banac and Katherine Verdery, eds., National Character and National Ideology in Interwar Eastern Europe.

28. FO371/10667, Central Department, Memorandum, “The Macedonian Question and Komitaji Activity,” 26 November 1925, 4.

29. FO371/10793, Kennard (Belgrade) to A. Chamberlain, 6July 1925, Enclosure, Footman (Skopje) to Kennard, 30 June 1925, 5. John David Footman was a fellow of St. Antony's College, Oxford (1953–1963) and author of several books on modern Russian history.

30. See especially ibid., 14 and F0371/8568, 3 and FO371/10667, 6.

31. FO371/11405, Kennard (Belgrade) to A. Chamberlain, 21 April 1926; Enclosure, R.A. Gallop, “Conditions in Macedonia,” 19 April 1926, 4.

32. F0371/11245, O.Ch. Harvey, “Notes on a Visit to Jugoslavia and Greece,” April 1926, 6 May 1926, 3.

33. FO371/11405, 5.

34. FO371/10793, 6.

35. F0371/8566, 3.

36. FO371/10793, 6.

37. F0371/14316, N. Henderson (Belgrade) to A. Henderson, 13 May 1930, Enclosure 1, Oxley to N. Henderson, 9 May 1930.

38. F0371/14317, Central Department, Memorandum, “The Origins of the Macedonian Revolutionary Organisation and Its History Since the Great War,” 1 July 1930, 12.

39. See F0371/11337, Kennard (Belgrade) to H. Smith, Enclosure, R.A. Gallop “Notes,” 23 April 1926.

40. F0371/11337, C.H. Bateman, “Memorandum on “Serbian Minorities” in Greek Macedonia,” 3 March 1926, 2.

41. Ibid.

42. See FO371/10793 and F0371/11337.

43. F0371/11337.

44. See F0371/8568.

45. F0371/8566.

46. FO371/10793. Footman dismissed the Serbian claims to a “Serbian minority” in Aegean Macedonia and pointed to two other factors as the real causes of the Greek-Serbian dispute: “a) Politically, the Serb displeasure at Slav inhabitants of Greek Macedonia being recognised as Bulgars; and b) Economically, the loss suffered by Serbian Macedonia and the Kingdom as a whole by being separated by a frontier from Salonica” (6).

47. FO371/10667, Central Department, Memorandum, “The Macedonian Question and Komitaji Activity,” 26 November 1925. It gave the following figures: Macedonian Slavs 1, 150, 000; Turks 400, 000; Greeks 300,000; Vlachs 200, 000; Albanians 120, 000; Jews 100, 000; Gypsies 10, 000 (2).

48. Ibid., 4.

49. Ibid.

50. Ibid.

51. Ibid., 1, 4; See also Rossos, “Macedonians of Aegean Macedonia,” 284–85, 290, 293–94.

52. Ibid., 7.

53. F0371/11337, 1.

54. Ibid., 4.

55. FO371/11405, Kennard (Belgrade) to A. Chamberlain, 21 April 1926, Enclosure, R.A. Gallop, “Conditions in Macedonia,” 19 April 1926, 1.

56. “I should like to know the names of any authorities who are impartial,” wrote Gallop. “Certainly none of the Serbian, Bulgarian, Russian, British or German ever are!” (F0371/11337, Enclosure, 23 April 1926).

57. F0371/11245, 2.

58. Ibid., p. 3.

59. Footman argued that “such local autonomy would have greater chance of success were it to be introduced by some future government in which Croats and Slovenes held the preponderating position. There is throughout Macedonia a sullen bitterness against the Serbs … “ (F0371/12856, Footman [Skopje] to Kennard, 4 February 1928 in Kennard [Belgrade] to Chamberlain, 18 February 1928).

60. Ibid., Kennard (Belgrade) to Sargent, 16 February 1928, Minute, 24 February 1928; see also Sargent (London) to Kennard, 20 February 1928.

61. Ibid., Sperling (Sofia) to Cushendun, 13 September 1928.

62. Ibid., Kennard (Belgrade) to Sargent, 20 September 1928.

63. Ibid., C.H. Bateman, Minute, 20 September 1928.

64. Ibid., O. Sargent, Minute, 28 September 1928.

65. Ibid., R.G. Vansittart, Minute, 29 September 1928. Robert Gilbert Vansittart was knighted in 1929 and created a baron in 1941.

66. Ibid., Sargent (London) to Sperling, 10 October 1928.

67. Ibid., Sperling (Sofia) to Sargent, 10 October 1928.

68. Ibid., C.H. Bateman, Minute, 18 October 1928.

69. Ibid., Sargent (London) to Sperling, 22 October 1928.

70. “The fact was of course that the framers of the Minorities Treaty hesitated to mention them under any specific name,” wrote Bateman. “The most they could be called is Macedo-Slavs” (ibid., C.H. Bateman, Minute, 18 October 1928).

71. Great Britian, Foreign Office, The Foreign Office List and Diplomatic and Consular Year Book for 1935 (London, 1935), 416.

72. F0371/14316, Waterlow (Sofia) to Vansittart, 21 May 1930.

73. Ibid., 7.

74. Ibid., 8–9.

75. Ibid., 9.

76. Ibid., ]. Balfour, Minute, 2 June 1930.

77. F0371/13573, Central Department, Memorandum, “The Macedonian Question and Komitaji Activity,” 6 December 1929, 9 pp.

78. F0371/14317, Central Department, Memorandum, “The Origins of the Macedonian Revolutionary Organization and Its History Since the Great War,” 1 July 1930, 16 pp.

79. Ibid., 9.

80. Ibid., 14.

81. Ibid., 15.

82. Ibid.

83. Ibid., 16.

84. F0371/57473, Waterlow (Sofia) to Simon, 5 February 1932. According to the assistant to the Bishop of Nevrokop, one of the major centers of Pirin Macedonia, “The Revolutionary Organisation itself was split by a growing Communist current, … . aiming at the liberation of Macedonia by the bolshevisation of the Balkans, while the local population was in its turn divided, about half being for the organisation and half against, and the hostile half being largely Communist in feeling… .” (F0371/ 15896, Waterlow [Sofia] to Simon, 22 June 1932; see also F0371/19486, Bentinck [Sofia] to Hoare, 16 September 1935 and 26 September 1935). On the left of the Macedonian movement see also the works cited in note 27.

85. FO371/16650, Waterlow (Sofia) to Simon, 27 February 1933.

86. FO371/24880, Rendel (Sofia) to Nichols, 25 August 1940.

87. F0371/19486, Bentinck (Sofia) to Hoare, 26 September 1935.

88. F0371/16651, Waterlow (Sofia) to Simon, 21 July 1933.

89. F0371/16775, Clerk (Constantinople) to Simon, 6 October 1933.

90. F0371/16651.

91. On the aims of Macedonian nationalism on the left in the 1930s, see Biblioteka, “Makedonsko zname,” no. 1, Ideite i zadachite na Makedonskoto progresivno dvizhenie v Būlgaria (Sofia, 1933)Google Scholar; Ristovski, Makedonskiot norod i makedonskata nacija, 2: 481–560; and my forthcoming study “Macedonianism and Macedonian Nationalism on the Left. “

92. FO371/24880, Rendel (Sofia) to F.O., 15 August 1940.

93. Ibid.

94. FO371/24880, Rendel (Sofia) to Nichols, 25 August 1940. George L. Clutton of the Foreign Office described the Macedonians as “discontented peasants who are anti-Jugoslav, anti-Greek, anti-Bulgarian, anti-German, and anti everything except possibly anti-Russian” (FO371/24880, Campbell [Belgrade] to F.O., 4 September 1940, G.L. Clutton, Minute, 10 September 1940).

95. F0371/29785, Campbell (Belgrade) to Halifax, 6January 1941, Enclosure, “Report on the General Situation in Southern Serbia by Mr. Thomas, British Vice-Consul at Skoplje.“

96. Ibid.

97. Ibid., ReginaldJ. Bowker, Minute, 16January 1941.

98. On the aims of Macedonian nationalism during the Second World War, see the informative and illuminating discussions by Miljovski, Kiril, “Motivite na revolucijata 1941–1944 godina vo Makedonija,” Istorija (Skopje) 10, no. 1 (1974): 19ff Google Scholar; and by Uzunovski, Cvetko, “Vostanieto vo 1941 vo Makedonija,” Istorija, 10, no. 2 (1974): 103ff Google Scholar.