Mr. Nikola Zezov is Assistant Professor at
the Institute of History of the Faculty of Philosophy, |
Macedonian History Distorsions and manipulations of the scientific discourse in Macedonian History
I estimate that this theme is very difficult for discussion and that it is product of the past society system, which directly influenced the national historiography in all former socialist countries, so on the Macedonian too. Because of that, I will focus my attention only on the communist system-curriculum of the national historiography, especially Macedonian, without analysing the essence of that system. In that direction, my presentation will be pointed on the historiography in Macedonia, between 1944-1990, and on the period from 1990 to our days, since the Republic of Macedonia is an independent country. I will speak also about the ideological pressures which are present especially during the first period. Macedonian historical science is very young and it was born after the liberation of Macedonia in the Second World War, when we were part of former Yugoslavia. For that purpose were created two organizations: Institute for History on the State University and Institute for National History. They gave a big contribution for the development of the national historiography in Macedonia. Besides all this facts, with big importance for the Macedonian identity, the first mistakes were made. That generation of historians were forced to write about the historic events and persons, peculiarly connected with the period of the liberation war 1941-45 and the Communist revolution. This options were connected with the programs of the Communist Party and the views and ideological directions controlled by the leader of Yugoslavia, Tito. Of course, we cannot say that there were not good historians at that time; only that older generation of historians were under the big pressure of the system. Some of them were trying to create the objective directions in writing history, but soon they were removed by the communistic authorities. What were the characteristics of the Macedonian national historiography in that period, especially in the '50s and the '60s: the historians were forced to write that the Macedonian history and identity was strongly connected with Yugoslavia, as country and idea. The first and second decade of Tito's Yugoslavia was ruled with ideological instrumentalization of the past, with the learning of the history in view of the so-called "higher ideals". The curricula of the State University was teaching about the history of the Macedonian people during the Second World War in all parts of Macedonia with intention to make a picture that the partisan liberation war was leading to create new Yugoslavia, not a Macedonian independent state. The influence of the politics on the curriculum of the national historiography was notice in the fact of avoiding the national moment and the main thing was ideological support of the idea for the whole Yugoslavia. As a typical example for that style of writing history, we can use the attitude of some historians that Gorce Petrov, one of the founders of the legendary Macedonian liberation organization during the Turkish slavery-IMRO (VMRO), before the end of his life was supporting the Yugoslav idea. If we rejected the political and ideological pressures from that period, we can make conclusion that the idea of that type was not expectable for the leaders of the Macedonian national liberation movement at the end of the XIXth and beginning of XXth century. However, this attitude of some historians about historical events and persons from Macedonian national history we can explain as result of the communist domination on the scientists and the fear of losing their jobs in the conditions of a totalitarian society. In that period, curricula of the University were written in the spirit of Yugoslav brotherhood with advantage for learning the persons and events who worked on Macedonian-Serbian friendship. Those were described like positive persons despite the fact that part of them caused bad consequences on the foundation of the Macedonian national identity, and struggle for Macedonian independence. In opposite of this, the persons from the latest Macedonian history, which were not members of the Communist Party or if they were with any kind of connections with Bulgaria, were marked like probulgarian and betrayers of the Macedonian people. Like pro-Bulgarian were pointed also almost all activities of the Macedonian revolutionary organization IMRO between the two World Wars. That ideological pressures had the purpose and task to built an enemy mood of the Macedonian people against our Eastern neighbor and to make stronger connections with other Yugoslav republics. The main purpose of that ideology was to create a feeling to the Macedonian people that it cannot survive as an independent country. We can count a few examples of the famous persons from the Macedonian history: Metodija Andonov Chento - the first President of the Macedonian National Assembly, convicted as a national betrayer from the Communist authorities. Metodija Satorov Sarlo - the leader of the Communist Party in Macedonia, before the Second World War, was removed and killed in mysterious circumstances. Panko Brasnarov - fighter in the Ilinden uprising and member of the Macedonian National Assembly, died as political prisoner on the Goli Otok Island. Pavel Satev - old Macedonian revolutionary, Minister in the first Macedonian Government, convicted for the close relations with Soviet Union, died in home prison. Venko Markovski - writer and poet, one of the creators of the Macedonian literary language, died in Bulgaria etc. Latter in the '90s, Macedonian historiography, now eased from the ideological pressures, rehabilitated them. Good step forward in the '50s was publishing of the new documents about the Ilinden uprising in 1903 by a group of Macedonian historians, which was not approved by the Communistic authorities. The main reason for that attitude, not only for this example, but generally in the '50s and '60s , was the fear of the Yugoslav authorities of the Macedonian national history. They thought that it can be used for supporting the ideas for independence of Macedonia, which was still existing between the people, besides all the pressures and strong measures in the system. Another taboo, or I would say, restricted areas for researching was the period of the Macedonian ancient history, the Balkan wars in 1912-13, Macedonian liberation movement between the two World Wars, the Civil War in Greece 1945-49 and the ideas for independent and united Macedonia. About the first historic area, the reason was very simple: they claim that the Macedonian origin is pure Slav and there is no connections with the ancient Macedonians, which has not a scientific base. The Balkan Wars are very sensitive historical area in the history of the Macedonian people. After the wars, Macedonia as ethnical and geographical territory was divided between our neighbors: Serbia, Bulgaria, Greece and Albania. Macedonian historiography under the ideological influence of the Yugoslav communistic government and the Communist Party, purposely was avoiding to search and explain this problem. After the Balkan Wars, there were started the efforts and activities of the Balkan countries for assimilation of the Macedonian people in the parts of Macedonia under their authority. That's why, for the goodness not only for Macedonia, but for all the Balkans, soon we have to explain and research those periods, which is connected with all the Balkan countries. Macedonian liberation movement between the World Wars was a historical problem abandoned by the Macedonian historians in that period as a result of the Yugoslav policy. A few of them which were exploring that theme, were on the opinion that almost all Macedonian emigrant organizations in Bulgaria were pro-Bulgarian and against the independence of Macedonia. The latest researching are making different light on this events, persons and organizations, which is result of the neutral and objective attitude of this generation of historians. But even from this positions we cannot conclude that everything is cleared and explored, because the Archives in Belgrade, Sofia, Athens and other Balkan countries contains a lot of documents, connected with this sensitive question. What can we say about the period of the Civil War in Greece from 1945-49? A tragic war not only for us Macedonians, but for Greece too. Because of ideological reasons a few historians were writing and conducted research on the issue. To the rest of the world is not known the exodus of the thousands Macedonians from the Aegean part of Macedonia in many European countries, away from their homes and their country. On the movements and ideas for independence of Macedonia after the Second World War, we can say that it was forbidden to write, to speak and even think about that in Macedonian historiography. The first steps for researching that area were made in the 90s in the independent Republic of Macedonia. During the 70s and 80s before the decomposing of Yugoslavia, situation in the historical science was better and ideological pressures and manipulations were almost disappeared. After the Constitution in 1974, which allowed more freedom and independence of the republics in Yugoslavia, were made good conditions for the fast development of Macedonian historiography, especially when Macedonia became an independent country. In 1991, Republic of Macedonia on a peaceful way got her independence. In this period of 11 years, Macedonian historiography reached a high level of development. It is a golden time for publishing historical monographies from all the periods of the Macedonian history, eased by the ideological tights and pressures like in the communist system. The new system and society with proclaimed democracy guaranteed historical science in the real sense of the word. It is important to say that the nationalism as a post communist appearance, with some exceptions, was not practiced in the Macedonian historiography. I'm saying that because we saw that the Civil War in former Yugoslavia was a result of the nationalistic campaigns and distorted historiography with dreams for so called Great countries: Great Serbia, Great Croatia, Great Albania etc. In that direction, in my opinion, the Macedonian historiography created a soft, reasonable nationalism, pointed only in direction to defend the Macedonian national interests. What are the frames of the modern Macedonian historiography now? The modern historiography now is a modern science, its style and directions are to be creative, objective, with the clear style of writing and making big efforts to be closer to the historical truth. Our historiography is abandoning the ideological methods from the former society and is trying to focus on the persons and events which were not deeply explored and researched. The priority is giving now not only on Liberation War 1941-45, but also to the national moment, which is very important for the Macedonian new history. The contribution in making clear picture for the historical events and persons in the Macedonian historic science gives a lot of translated literature on Macedonian language, which concerned our history. It is very important to say that in that direction those monographies, books and articles are translated in their original version, without changing names, the original views and attitudes of the documents or their writers. Thus, a chance is given to our students, readers to make their own conclusions about those events and persons, according to the original documents and writers. Nikola Zezov University “St. Cyril and Metody” in Skopje |