IntroductionI
Macedonian Text-books of the Nineteenth Century
The Activities of Parteni Zografski
Kuzman Sapkarev and other Followers of Parteni Zografski
The Macedonist G'org'i (G'orgo) Pulevski
Conclusion
1) Compiled by Macedonians and published between1857 and 1880.
2) Written in Macedonian or with many elements of the language of our
people.
3) Used in Macedonian schools or generally among the people (e.g. for
self-education).
We mention a total of sixteen such books by the following writers: Parteni Zografski, Kuzman Šapkarev, Dimitar V. Makedonski and Gjorgji Pulevski. The period of their publication is an especially important and interesting one for our new national history. It was the time when, though still in embryo, some of the basic historical factors which were later to influence our further national development were emerging. The publication of Macedonian text-books together with their use in schools, reflecting, as it does, the independent development of the Macedonian people, represents for us an important cultural and historical phenomenon. Interest in them is, therefore, not restricted solely to surveying them from the linguistic and pedagogical viewpoint. It is directed first of all to the question: what does the publication of these text-books reveal of our national development about the middle of the last century and later. To present the subject in this way means entering deeper into the history of the Macedonian people in the nineteenth century. But, here, we come across a series of difficulties. Our national history has not, so far, been worked out in sufficient detail. Our nation's past has been left for us to illuminate in an objective, scientific and comprehensive fashion. When to do this is, at this present time, only a burning desire, what is there left for a man who is chiefly interested in our cultural history in the nineteenth century to do, but to start by constructing himself a very general picture of the economic and political history of our people at that period? Yet it is well known that such a general summary of anything, even when correctly based, hides a series of dangers in imprecision, obscurity and inaccuracy in dealing with individual questions.
So realizing the inevitability of blank spaces and unexplained elements in the present state of our historical science we shall proceed first of all to a short description though incomplete and restricted only to certain aspects of our people's life towards the middle of the nineteenth century. It is necessary, however, to give such a description, incomplete though it may be, in order to throw more light on the phenomenon which mainly interests us here.
2
One process of fundamental importance for the life
of the people at the end of the eighteenth and in the first half of the
nineteenth century was the establishment of our “Čaršija”[1].
This was caused by the penetration of capitalism into the Turkish Empire
which, with breaks, was moving slowly but inevitably along the road of
capitalist development.
The establishment of our “Čaršija” and of our young bourgeoisie meant the creation of that social medium which was to have the principle influence on the economic, cul-tural and political life of the Macedonian people during the nineteenth century. We must mention that the Macedonian element in the towns was particularly strengthened by the great influx of rural population looking for protection from the heavy robber attacks of the second halt of the eighteenth century. "The rural population of Macedonia«, writes a French consul, "like that of France, is leaving the field and running away to the town. Only our French peasant go to the towns to find an easy way of earning money and pleasure; while the Christian peasants in Turkey flee from the villages to save themselves from the ferocity and exploitation of the beys.”
This rural multitude under the new conditions of life slowly undertook the crafts and trade which were enlivened in Turkey towards the beginning of the last century. All the same, as it had been before, so it remained for a considerable time afterwards up to the middle of the century, the time which concerns us most directly, the principal burden of “Čaršija” life and social matters fell upon the Greek or even more frequently on the Tsintsar turned Greek element, which was actually the first leaven of our “Čaršija”. As an example it is sufficient to mention that in a town like Prilep with its compact Macedonian population the community's responsibilities were in the hands of a small group of Tsintsars up to the sixties, when they were taken over by our “Čaršija” people. We don't need to mention Ohrid and Bitola towns influenced by Greeks in a variety of ways at that time. It was an ordinary phenomenon for our better situated "Čaršija" people to turn Greek. First the Greeks enjoyed special privileges and second our people were impressed by the higher Greek culture and refinement so that in the first half of the nineteenth century we cannot separate the formation of our intelligentsia from strong Greek influences.
But with the increased economic and cultural strength of the Macedonian citizens towards the middle of the last century there developed especially sharpened competition in the “Carsija” between our and Greek, or Graeco-Tsintsar, merchants and craftsmen. This fight began to take on a national color and after a number of crises ended in Macedonians taking over the Greek controlled positions in all but some of our most southerly towns. We shall say something more definite about this at another time.
The development of our trade and craftsmanship followed an upward path during the first half of the nineteenth century. The fifties represent the highest point. We have data from that time showing that eight hundred workers were earning their livelihood in the leather works at Ohrid while there were the same number employed in the same work at home. During the first fifty years of the nineteenth century our merchant competition with other European countries became more and more frequent. Our leather products appear in mid-European markets while tobacco, opium and cotton were exported. Each year in May a caravan of merchants from Prilep used to leave for Austria. They would bring back goods for the entire year which they used to sell particularly during the much frequented Prilep Fair in August. This mingling with Europe could not occur without having an influence on the outlook and even the way of life of our people.
Clearly the development of trade and crafts introduced new needs in the field of culture and enlightenment. Our citizens were outgrowing the narrowness of religious enlightenment which was at that time fading in the cell schools. They started to encourage secular education. In the cultural field they appear to speak more often. Merchants helped the printing of our first books by Joakim Krcovski. They also undertook the construction of the new secular schools where they could gain certain knowledge indispensable to the practical occupation of a merchant. They took care of their maintenance providing teachers and textbooks. Towards the middle of the last century there were quite a few such schools in Macedonia.
To end this extremely general survey of our citizens' development it is necessary to mention an event of decisive importance which reflects on the internal economy of Turkey and of Macedonia as a Turkish province.. This was the publication of the Hatti-Humayoun of 1856 an act which provided for the undisturbed penetration of European capital. One paragraph says “Everything that may prove contrary to Trade and Agriculture is to be removed. In order to achieve that end means are to be sought by which to profit from the science, arts and capital of Europe and so gradually to put them in action”. The period we are going to consider more closely in connection with the publication of Macedonian textbooks i.e. the sixties is characterized by a slowing down and decline of our economic development before the preponderant competition of European capital. Also we ought continually to bear in mind one fact: our economic, cultural and political development in Macedonia was considerably behind that of the adjacent countries Serbia, Greece and Bulgaria.
3
The development of capitalist economy and the break-up
of the narrow, feudal, natural economy resulted in the formation of the
nations in Balkan countries under Turkish rule towards the second half
of the eighteenth and the first half of the nineteenth centuries. From
its very beginning onward the nineteenth century was a period of fighting
by the Balkan peoples for national freedom. Macedonians took an active
part in the uprising of the neighboring peoples. Some acquired celebrated
names. Here we need only mention the hero of the Greek War of Independence
of 1821 Marko Bochvar from Voden. In the later Macedonian struggles a prominent
part was taken by people from the neighboring countries.
But in the nineteenth century the Macedonian people were backward in national development. The weakness of our citizens who were to develop our national consciousness shows itself by the adaptation of part of them to their circumstances. In such conditions the independent national development of the Macedonian people could only progress with difficult involutions. Even from its very inception hegemonic circles in the adjacent countries employed all kind of methods to smother it. And if' despite all the internal movement overcame the forces of interven-tion and ii all the same, the Macedonian independent national development was victorious, this witnesses to its deep socio-historical roots.
Free from the prejudice of national spirit bestowed from eternity which slumbers only from time to time we had better ask ourselves about the conditions and the times when national feeling started to grow among our people. Under the Turkish Empire on, up to the nine-teenth century, there was among the people a religious feeling in its full power which we meet as the essence of such a book as Kiril Pejchinovich “Mirror” (1816). Turks and Christians, suppressing and suppressed religions, there was the powerful centuries-old conflict.
The material we shall refer to later in connection with the appearance of Macedonian textbooks allows us to conclude that signs of Macedonian national consciousness appear in the course of the nineteenth century. This was most definitely, expressed in the sixties when among other things it was realized that there was a need to build up an independent Macedonian literary language. There is no doubt that the further disclosure of the necessary material will make it possible for us to follow in greater detail the development of our national consciousness at the time of the initial penetration of capitalism in Macedonia.
But even the material we have at our disposal today is sufficient to show the irresponsibility of some contemporary statements as for example the following taken from A short Bulgarian History by Hr. Gandev, (edited by the Bureau of Popular Culture, Sofia 1947). “…during the period of the Bulgarian Renaissance the population of this area (i. e. Macedonia) lived the usual Bulgarian life and considered itself as a part of the Bulgarian people…” (p 113). It is interesting to compare this categorical assertion with the statements about the pro-Bulgarian attitude of Macedonians made by an earlier Bulgarian writer who was almost a contemporary of the Bulgarian Renaissance and who could least of all be accused of being without pro-Bulgarian bias. This is the well-known A. Sopov (Ofejkov). In his article “Materials for the Bulgarian Renaissance in Macedonia” (Periodicesko Spisanie, XVIII 1885) he says that “…up to the last Russo-Turkish war (he has the war of 1877-8 for the liberation in mind) the Macedonian Bulgars were almost exempt from national consciousness while the main part in their life was played by their religion which, at the same time, was also nationality for them.” (p.440).
It is understood that we are far from denying the strength of our people's religious feeling at the time mentioned but there is no reason to dwell on it any longer here. The important thing is that Sopov, contrary to the modern historian Gandev, acknowledges that it is impossible to speak of some kind of Bulgarian consciousness such as Gandev has in mind in Macedonia at the time of the Bulgarian Renaissance. We shall later have the opportunity of seeing what the attitude of our people was in this respect.
We ought to stress the disparity between these two authors fully, the first a contemporary of the renaissance, the second a contemporary of ours. The disparity is neither accidental nor surprising: it is the result of a tendency to distort or to pass over in silence the real facts of the Macedonian past which grows stronger as we approach our time.
4
In considering the questions related to the developmerit
of our people in the middle of the last century we n;ow approach the most
important event - the struggle againat the Phanariot Patriarchate of Constantinople.
This developed later with us than in Bulgaria and took on a popular character
in the sixties when the Patriarchate rule was expelled from several towns.
We have already mentioned that this struggle started primarily with the
sharper competition between our merchants and the Graeco-Tsintsar element
in the contemporary “Čaršija” e. g. in Prilep relations had become
so tense that preparations had been started for an economic boycott so
that no one would exchange goods with the Prilep Tsinzars (Citaliste
III 1872, p. 176). This is the first struggle in which our townspeople
took an organized part. In enlightenment and ecclesiastical affairs the
struggle took the form of a movement against the Patriarchate which controlled
the churches and schools, against the use of the Greek language in them
and for independent management of the churches and generally for substituting
the Greek domination with “resounding Slavism”.
The Patriarchate of Constantinople was the active inspiration of the
bourgeoisie of Magna Graeca in strengthening its position in Bulgaria and
Macedonia. Moreover this utterly corrupt establishment with its numerous
and insatiable army of metropolitans, bishops, archimandrites, protosingels
and others had for its main aim not the Pastoral Care, but the initial
accumulation of capital.
Our townspeople's struggle against the Phanariot Patriarchate of Constantinople was of a deeply progressive character. It was a fight for the people's liberation from a heavy spiritual and economic servitude. We cannot separate it from the events which were taking place in Bulgaria at the time. The Macedonian and Bulgarian peoples suffered under the same foreign yoke. Their destinies were similar and the period we are examining presented them both with a number of common interests and duties. Actually, the ecclesiastical struggle was organized even earlier in Bulgaria because the Bulgarian bourgeoisie had developed further. It took place in Constantinople where the representatives for church matters circulated and where a Bulgarian cultural milieu was forming and where papers and magazines appeared which gave a line to the ecclesiastical struggle. Our citizens found a natural ally in the Bulgarians and therefore joined with them in the common struggle against the enemy. The alliance was fortified by the closeness of the languages and the common Slav traditions which were then being revived. In addition, our bourgeoisie, as we shall explain in further detail, were introducing specific aims of their own into the struggle but, because they were not so fully developed either economically or culturally, the leadership was retained in the hands of the bigger merchants in Constantinople and in those of the intelligentsia associated with them. These things together made possible the spread of Bulgarian influence in Macedonia, so that in the sixties a part of our intelligentsia on the basis of these real interests began to orientate towards Bulgaria. That was the time when the Bulgarian language and textbooks began to penetrate into our schools. At that time and earlier Serbian textbooks had been in use, as we shall see. From 1871 onward the Bulgarian influence was directed by the powerful Bulgarian Exarchate. Subsequently and particularly after the liberation of Bulgaria, the Bulgarian positions in Macedonia were being strengthened at the expense of the Greek ones which were continually giving ground, but which, especially in the south Macedonian towns, still constituted a power.
It would be interesting to examine the part played by Russian diplomacy in extending Bulgarian influence through Macedonia, but that is still a work of the future. Everything shows that that part in Macedonia itself was of some Consequence and that contact with thS Russian consuls was for some of our peonle the probable first cause of an orientation towards Bulgarianism. “Years ago at the very beginning of the Bulgarian Renaissance” Šopov declares in the aforementioned article “the Russian consul at Thessalonika at that time had incited Lazarovci and Robevci in Bitola not to hide their nationality, but to pass as Bulgarians since, as rich and influential people, they were looked up to and followed by the common people” (p.441.). Of special import was the drawing of young Macedonians to Russia for study. Šopov mentions a case when the Russian consul at Varna, Racinski, travelling in Macedonia, tried at Thessalonika “to send two Macedonians to Moscow to study” (the chosen man was Georgi Dingov who had earlier studied in Athens). The connection between D. Miladinov and Racinski is well known. With the latter's help Miladinov managed to send both his brother and Raiko Zinzifov to Russia where they matured within the Bulgarian student circle (L. Karavelov, N. Boncev, M. Drinov inter alia).
But the process of creating pro-Bulgarian sympathy in Macedonia, at the time which interests us, was still in its initial stages being, as far as we can judge from the evidence cited, especially from opov's words, both limited in scope and depth. It remains on the surface affecting a part of our “Čaršija” people who had dealings with Bulgaria. Macedonia is far from being involved in the Bulgarian Renaissance. Such an involvement presupposes a much closer interrelation, a more clearly expressed feeling of association and unity than was really present. The fact of Macedonia's exclusion from the net of secret revolutionary committees organized by Vasil Levski speaks convincingly enough in this respect for the beginning of the seventies. It shows that the Macedonian people remained untouched by the highest undertaking of the Bulgarian Renaissance, in which the Bulgarian people's solidarity was truly forged. Macedonians lived through their national revolution later under different conditions.
As for mutual connections in the field of culture and enlightenment a measure of their strength in the sixties and after is to be found in the number of Macedonians who subscribed to the Bulgarian papers and magazines of the time. There is no mention in the course of three years of any subscription from Macedonia to the magazine “Bhlgarski knizici” a bi-monthly published in Constantinople from 1858 onward. In its fourth year of life, subscriptions were collected by Konstantin Dingo in Thessalonika and Manco Baskov at Veles. The poor circulation of Bulgarian publications is underlined in an article to the newspaper “Makedonija” (13th July, 1871). Twenty copies only of the papers “Pravo” and “Macedonija” were being received and no magazines at all. Out of the 720 subscribers to the magazine “Citaliste” for its fourth year(1874) only twelve are from Macedonia: seven from Prilep and five from Veles. The so-called Macedonian-Bulgarian association with its headquarters in Constantinople developed, at the beginning of the seventies, a campaign for the distribution of Bulgarian books and newspapers in Macedonia as well as for the dispatching of teachers and material aid for Macedonian schools. They list voluntary subscriptions for individual places in Macedonia, but the response was poor so that in almost every second number of “Citaliste" we come across complaints about the meanness and lack of enthusiasm among Bulgarians while at the same time the Greek societies for the spread of Greek culture in Macedonia collect great sums on a voluntary basis.
Be it as it may, this evidence helps us to assess
the extent of Bulgarian influence on Macedonia at the time of the ecclesiastical
struggles.
5
We mentioned above the use of Serbian textbooks
in our schools. Up to 1856, when the Crimean War ended, the exact time
when the movement against the Patriarchate began, the influence of Serbian
enlightenment in Macedonia was preponderant over the Bulgarian, though
not the Greek. Kuzman Šapkarev tells us how at Ohrid in 1855 he was given
for the first time by his colleague Konstantin Hr. Uzunov “a Serbian
Reader, for at that time there was no Bulgarian in our parts, nor anyone
who thought of Bulgarian but now (1864) thank God…” (“Autobiography”,
Makedonski pregled III, 2. p.45). Afterwards as a teacher at Struga he
received fifteen Serbian readers from Prilep, written in church script.
They were sent by D. Mladinov who also taught Serbian in the school at
Prilep (ref. p.58).
Any description of the development of the Macedonian bourgeoisie during the early and middle parts of the nineteenth century would be very onesided, inaccurate and even incomplete if we did not give full importance to the relations of our people with Serbia. It is a pity that up to the present time there is no exhaustive work which examines those connections fully. Of itself, the importance of Serbian influence is clear: Serbia was a free Slav state which was bound to inspire some hopes in our people. In addition the commercial ties with Serbia were being tightened and this drew Macedonia into the range of Serbian influence.
Together with the use of Serbian textbooks we need to stress the coming of the Serbs themselves e. g. at Veles from 1843 to 1860 four Serbian teachers followed each other: Spiridon Jovanovic, Aksentije Budimirovic, Jovan Veskovic and Djordje Miletic. In the school at Veles Serbian and Serbian history were taught. These teachers had been engaged through the personal connections of our merchants A planned campaign in this direction, made by the Serbian rulers and directed at penetrating into Macedonia, will start later.
The struggle against the Patriarchate of Constantinople, the confirmation of the frontiers of the free Bulgarian Church through that struggle, meant for the young Bulgarian bourgeoisie delimitation of the sphere of her interests. On the other hand Serbia could not allow the strengthening of Bulgaria's position in Macedonia without protest, for long. As for Macedonian townsfolk, their attitude towards this opposition is though it had already begun in the sixties, not sufficiently clear. Life in one country under the same conditions, the common struggle against Greek influences, made its path parallel with that of the Bulgarian citizens. The pro-Bulgarian orientation in Macedonia promised successful development within the framework of the Ottoman Empire, while Serbianism, to the contrary, was becoming increasingly incriminating with the Turks, as time went on. Yet at the same time the connection with Serbia was, as we have seen, strong, so that during this period there was a clear opposition to Greek influence while Serbian and Bulgarian influences both passed as Slavism. The use of Serbian textbooks and the arrival of Serbian teachers continues therefore in the sixties. Meanwhile, the Bulgarian newspapers in Constantinople made attempts to separate the Bulgarian from the Serbian influences and to eliminate Serbian culture and education from Macedonia. We cannot, here, go deeper into these quarrels. All the same we found it necessary to adduce some facts in illustration of what we have said, the more because the disputes between Serbs and Bulgars in the cultural field have a direct bearing on our main theme - the question of textbooks and the medium of teaching in our country round about the sixties and seventies of the last century.
We have an echo of this dispute in a contribution by someone called T. Nenov Manastirski and dated the thirteenth of September 1862 which was published in the “Carigradski vestnik” for the first of December 1862. Entitled “Patriotic Advice”, it addresses Macedonians as follows: “I implore you Macedonian brothers. It seems that you look upon your Bulgarian and Thracian brothers with contempt since you do not approve of their text-books, but run rapidly after Serbism”. You could say he goes on that our language is similar to the Serbian dialects: “that is true but there is no greater similarity with them than with the Bulgarian and for that reason if you reprobate my impertinent advice I shall be silent, as the accused, but if you reason carefully, I think that you'll approve of my sincere advice as I implore you to have your children taught in the clear Bulgarian vernacular of today and not in Serbian...” Because he says “the Bulgarian language is an older acquaintance of yours than the Serbian”. Another argument brought in at the end of the letter is that no teacher as good as those they have in Bulgaria has come to Macedonia for a long time and therefore it is unnecessary to look to Serbia for teachers.”... therefore we ought to follow the Tsar's desire and take teachers from among our kinsmen.”
Because of what we have already said about Serbian influence in Macedonia this letter needs no special comment. We only stress that the disapproval of Bulgarian text-books which is mentioned incorporates not only the use of Serbian books but also the tendency to introduce our own textbooks into Macedonian schools.
At the end of the sixties the struggle of the two propaganda movements in Macedonia grows sharper. It is not, for instance, accidental that in H. G. Danov's branch bookshop at Veles we do not, according to the records for 1869-72, find a single Serbian book, though the book-shop stocked books in Turkish, French, Greek, Armenian, Hebrew, English, German and other languages.
However we still come across Serbian teachers and teaching in Macedonia. An interesting corroboration is revealed for this in an article from Veles printed in the newspaper “Makedonija” of 15th. June, 1868. The writer reports on the annual examinations and, among other things, without giving special distinction to it, but writing as of a normal thing, mentions that there was an examination in Serbian History at the Girls High-School. From the editorial staff comes a resentful note on this as follows: “We would like to know above all to have it explained to us by the gentlemen of Veles themselves, whether they are Serbs or Bulgars, and if they are Bulgars why they teach their children to study the Serbian language and history. If they have been misled to believe that Serbian and Bulgarian are the same or that Serbian history is more glorious than Bulgarian we would tell them that that is a misconception... There is nothing more hateful or lower than the denial of one's kinsmen…”
It is clear what sort of attitude was taken by the Bulgarians towards the penetration of Serbian education in to Macedonia.
An article in “Makedonija” on the 22nd June, 1871, gives information about a Serbian teacher at the village of Bogomila near Veles who had brought text-books along with him which he distributed free of charge.
We end the material we adduce concerning this question with the following quotation from an article which appeared in the newspaper “Pravo” on the 7th February, 1872, which is concerned with happenings at Kratovo. The writer says that the citizens of Kratovo introduced a Serbian teacher and were accustomed to saying that they were Serbs (they had found it so written in old books). After reprobating them he finally addresses them in this way: “You are now obliged to declare your ancient nationality through the papers and to produce those documents so that both the people and the government may understand that you are Serbs; otherwise, since you have brought in a Serbian teacher you fall under the suspicion of our honored Imperial Government, which we ask to turn its attention to the aims of such Serbian propaganda... “
The accusatory tone of this article is characteristic. Here we have revealed one motif in the struggle which was then beginning and which was to become more unscrupulous about its means later. It is understood that everything is to fall on the shoulders of the Macedonian people. At that time Serbian propaganda stood worse with the “honoured governments” because of its attitude to Serbia; that was used by Bulgarian propaganda.
In concluding this chapter we ought to mention that it is at exactly the moment, which we are considering in connection with the publication of Macedonian textbooks, when all the hegemonic powers clash in Macedonia for the first time: Greek, Serbian and Bulgarian bourgeoisie. How fatal were the results of these struggles to the Macedonian people can be seen in the subsequent pages of its history compounded of suffering, division, bloodshed and fratricidal conflict. But in the same period the aspiration towards an independent Macedonian national development appeared which was finally victorious, as we shall see.
6
What was the position and the role of our few intellectuals
at this time so full of incipient social movement? We ask this question
in connection with our teachers who at this time were the sole representatives
of the intelligentsia here.
The process of the reorientation of some of our deeply hellenised people towards what they called Slavism is shown here in an interesting light. Earlier, Athens had been for them the source of really high culture. “My fate was being decided then,” Prlicev says in the “Autobiography” of his first visit to Athens. “There was no one to advise me to go to Russia; then only the name of Athens and Janino was heard here... I went to Athens not only to learn but also to be cured for I thought that there were no better doctors in the world than the Athenian ones as there is no better poet in the world than Homer.”
To begin with we must make clear the qualifications and the way of life of these teachers who were the protagonists in the battle on behalf of secular education in Macedonia. Few of them could boast of a good education or wide culture. The majority except for their bare literacy and very elementary knowledge of the sciences had nothing to pass on to their pupils. Šapkarev writes in his biography of a teacher colleague of his that he could not sign even his own name correctly. Among our few promi-nent teachers at this time we have D. Miladinov. It is a notable fact that almost all of the people from the middle of the last century who have left a name in our people's cultural history were either pupils of Miladinov himself or of his circle. They are: R. Zinzifov, Parteni Zografski, K. Miladinov, G. Prlicev and K. Šapkarev. From outside that circle we have only J. H. Konstantinov - Dzinot. The brothers Miladinov were from Struga, Šapkarev and Prlicev from Ohrid that is from the part most firmly influenced by Greek culture, since Ohrid was a town with well-organized Greek schools and a more active educational life. This is the reason why at about the middle of the century the best teachers originated from the area. Among these the first was D. Miladinov: “He had something attractive in his every movement. His words dropped from his tongue like honey. Sacred fire burnt in his eyes” (Prlicev “Autobiography” p. 23). But these were people nourished on the Hellenic spirit, who had, in the expression of one of them, to turn from Saul to Paul. Already in the sixties of the last century there comes a new generation of teachers, taught in Russia and the other neighboring countries of the Slavic region.
“Good wine a copper up, good teacher a pound down.“ This is a joke on teachers of Miladinov's time which shows their situation well enough. The recurring theme of Šapkarev's autobiography is his continual trouble to find and keep a teaching post. In the land at this time it was neither good for the rich to be known for rich nor for the learned to be seen for very learned. The rich were frequently robbed, the learned were denounced as Russian spies. All the same it was better to be rich. The poor teacher was unprotected against the pretensions of Greek bishops and protosingels as well as other prominent men (without mentioning the Turkish government). If he was not patronized by a rich man he was left without work, “I got apprenticed in Struga” says Šapkarev, for at that time the teachers even got apprenticed after the fashion of herdsmen. Once when he was left without a post and stayed in Bitola hoping to get apprenticed somewhere “people from Ohrid and especially Gorshe Grdan, seeing me without work, used to say to me: Wander now without work like a herdsman” (Makedonski pregled III 2, p.49). Placed in such circumstances and with their own and their families existence continually threatened at a time when the struggle against Hellenism had begun and when varied propaganda was coming into operation here, it is not surprising that our teachers hesitated in the adoption of an attitude and that they compromised without showing stability. The adaptability of our citizens, in the attempt to find bread and peace, is a feature of our middle-class intelligentsia of the time. But none the less, even under such inhumane conditions, people were born, workers for culture, who made for their advancement. They bore faithfully all the limitations of their time and their environment, but a certain credit is due to those humble teachers who resurrected Slav culture in Macedonia, the land which had once been the first to produce that culture.
The struggle against the Patriarchate of Constantinople proved the turning-point in the lives of the small intelligentsia of the period. Distinctively characteristic is the reorientation of D. Miladinov our intelligentsia's most prominent representative. This is what Kuzman Šapkarev notes about him “ ... let us say that until recently he taught at Magarevo and perhaps somewhat earlier he was a fanatical pro-Hellenist. He probably greatly offended the Bulgarian nation. But this nationalist feeling has arisen from that though I don't know why. So that when he was in Bitola he was moderately pro-Slav and sometimes even fanatically so. After being in Bitola he made a tour of Herzegovina, Bosnia and Serbia with the aid of the Dean of Mostar and when he returned circa 1856-57 he made a contract to teach Greek in Prilep.. From that time when he changed from Saul to Paul he was absorbed by an unquenchable patriotism so enormous that it was touched by fanaticism. But although this was so, his diligence was extremely helpful in arousing the national spirit in those people who knew little of it and cared less... “ (Makedonski pregled III, 2, p.60).
Sapkarev tells us that he doesn't know what made D. Miladinov “change from Saul to Paul”. It is easily understood that in this particular case there may be further external causes. We have mentioned the connection between Miladinov and Racinski. However the foundation and general cause of the change is evident: the changes that were apparent in the economic and social development of our country at the turn of the last century. Our intelligentsia had to orientate itself in the clash with Hellenism. Those who had not lost contact with the people and who felt their suffering, couldn't do otherwise than stand by the progressive forces of our people, which had begun to fight against the economic and spiritual servitude of the Phanariot Patriarchate. Those, on the contrary, who associated their wellbeing with faithful service to the Patriarchate stood firmly for it in the ecclesiastical dispute.
Miladinov was among the first. Himself the son of a -poor family and as a teacher in continuous touch with the -people he could not remain deaf to its cries for long. At the time when the people starts to move he takes on him the organization of the movement. The following words taken from one of his articles (printed in “Carigradski vestnik” on the 7th May, 1860) show how alive he was to the people's troubles. Here he speaks of the crimes of the Bishop of Ohrid The Phanariot Melletios: “let him promise to one or another a thousand coins and say that he will support all the schools in the Eparchate while he is in it, -but he will do nothing himself, for the people of Ohrid -know where he will get the money from; can he sell an estate inherited from his father or start to trade with Europe? Where then? It comes from the poor and the peasants. He will instantly shut the mouths pf the old-aged and will rob them as pitilessly as he can and if a poor man comes to complain of him he will answer ”You know that I have no other way to get money to maintain the schools except by taking it from the peasants. “How pitiable will be those schools which are to be maintained only by the sweat and tears of the poor. We had better not have them.”
It is interesting to note with what sharpness Miladinov himself, in 1859, recently converted, expresses his -views of Prlicev and some other pro-Hellenes. He calls them apostates who have withdrawn from their parents, country and nationality “who have... obstinately decided -morally to overwhelm their Slav blood and to create themselves Greek butterflies with typhoid ridden souls...” (A -letter to Janaki Strezov, published in “Ilyustracija Svetlina” Bk. 7 p. 2,1898). Thus Miladinov expresses his opinion of the same Prlicev who, two or three years later was -to experience the same metamorphosis from Saul to Paul in even more distinctive personal circumstances. Prlicev -was an acknowledged Greek poet, whose life shone with fame and success, when he decided to cast all of it away and return from Athens in order to be a teacher, for in such a milieu he could be nothing else. For him the return to his native country and the abandonment of Greek literature marked the end of his poetic growth. All the same he took the step as he says himself in the autobiography under the direct influence of the brothers Miladinov's death.
“One day the priest of the Russian Church in Athens told me that the brothers Miladinov had lost their lives in prison in Constantinople... and that they had probably been poisoned. He said that he had read it that very day in “Dunavski lebed”. I stood like a statue immovable without answering but my heart cursed the Greek Spiritual Authorities. I collected my things and leaving my poem “Skenderbeg” for M. T. Sapundziev asking him to deliver it to the commission not later than February 13th I left him with a firm decision either to die or to revenge the brothers Miladinov.”
Prlicev's complete change couldn't have come about
at once without mental conflict and hesitation. Reading in his autobiography
of his povertystricken childhood is sufficient to assure us that the young
Hellenist, fascinated by the ancient language of Homer, could not avoid
hearing the suppressed people. The child of a serving woman and an orphan
he says of himself “As if I was appointed general avenger of the poor,
I always hated, persecuted and beat the rich children and those of my teachers
when they behaved haughtily towards my schoolmates.” He watched with
anguish “the daily rows of landworkers driven into prison for the nonpayment
of their taxes; honorable peasants who bowed their heads to the hypocritical,
pitiless silver-hungry monks who scoffed inhumanly above the very heads
of their pilgrims”. So when his conscience raised in all its acuteness
the question as to whether he should follow only his own success, by making
his career among those who had killed the brothers Miladinov, or help his
enslaved and backward people, he chose the latter. His example even more
vividly than that of D. Miladinov confirms what we have said about the
reorientation of the Macedonian intelligentsia of that generation from
pro-Hellenism to Slavism. Naturally the process was not so fundamental
with everybody. In some cases oscillation from one nationality to the other
accompanied by speculation is observable. Here we cannot enter into greater
detail concerning this question. We considered it necessary to say something
generally about the life of the people who will be mentioned in connection
with the tex-tbooks and the medium of instruction in our schools around
the sixties of the century. We turn now to our central theme.
1) The introduction of a language common to the Macedonians and Bulgars, a common language but such as would represent a compromise, a mean of Macedonian and Bulgarian dialects.
2) The introduction of a purely Macedonian language because the Macedonians are not Bulgars, but separate people.
Common to the two propositions was an opposition to the Bulgarian literary language of that day which had developed from the basis of an East Bulgarian dialect. The infiltration of that language met an opposition which we have already seen expressed in the article to the “Carigradski Vestnik” where it was remarked that Macedo nians did not approve of Bulgarian text-books.
The social foundation of these two tendencies is clear. The first is in those citizens who considered it both possible and profitable to go side bv side with the Bulgarian citizens, since they had a number of common problems and interests, so that it was possible to reach an understanding without mutual injury, in relation to the social positions both in the ecclesiastical and educational administration, and in the future common free state. To these people it was clear that such matters were to be brought out into the open in good time so that everyone might know what to expect in the event of a free state.
The second is in those so-called “Macedonists” who even at that time fully realized the appetites of the young Bulgarian bourgeoisie where Macedonia was concerned.
“We have hardly managed to get away from one foot and is another going to tread on us?” was their query. They comprehended the dangers in using the church disputes of the Macedonian people in the interests of the more highly developed Bulgarian bourgeoisie (which was what happened). Therefore they recognized independence as the only true way for the Macedonian people. For this reason they were also in favor of the creation of a separate Macedonian literary language.
We have especially emphasized these two responses because they will become an element in all our future exposition. It is clear that a full picture of the relationship in the field of education and culture can only be had if we do not forget that the Serbian language was also used in our schools having even a tendency to spread, while the Greek language was still active.
Let us move straight to the work on text-books of
the time in Macedonia and to the questions of language and general national
development connected with them.
In Russia, Parteni graduated from a seminary and was for a certain time religious instructor to the Czar’s children. A man of considerable culture, he distinguished himself by his knowledge of languages, among which he knew ancient Greek, Latin, Hebrew and ancient Chaldean (op. cit. p.36).
The important period for his literary activity was from 1857-59 when he established himself in Constantinople. That is the time when he edited his Macedonian text-books:
1) A Short Religious History of the Old and New Testament Church, translated by the Archimandrite Parteni Zografski, Constantinople - Galata, published by D. Cankov and B. Markov, 1857.
2) A Beginner for Children, published by the Archimandrite Parteni Zografski (same publisher, 1858).
By the end of 1857 Parteni had been appointed as Bishop of Poljan and he left for Kukus. It is of especial interest for our purposes to point out his connections during the period when he was Bishop of Poljan, with some of the Macedonian merchants in Thessalonika, among whom Kirijak Drzilovic, and the Pauncev brothers are mentioned. He persuaded Kirijak to open a Slavic section in his printing business where he could reprint his Beginner in 4,000 copies (op. cit. p.51). But the plan for opening the printing concern did not succeed, because of Greek interference. We find this spoken of in the following article from Thessalonika dated April 4th, 1860, and printed in the “Carigradski vestnik” no.479,16 to 28 April 1860: “For more than ten years Mr. Kirijak Drzilovic has had a printing press here doing considerable good to the citizens, since it printed all the beginners for the Greek schools which were sold at a moderate price. Now, however, when Mr. Kirijak Drzilovic meant to introduce Bulgarian type also in order to print books for the inhabitants of Macedonia, which would have been very profitable, the envious Greeks come forward with tales and slander Mr. Kirijak and so succeed in closing his press.”
These facts are important as they show the endeavors of Parteni to create a center from which Macedonian text-books and books might be published and from which they could be disseminated. Later we shall examine his work with the aforementioned people from Thessalonika and see to what extent it left discernable traces.
2
The language of the text-books by Parteni Zografski, especially of the "Sacred History," is based on his native speech of Galicnik.
Here is a short characteristic of the language of the first text-books:
The change of ж > o is reflected: n i k o j p o t, b e z p o t n o, m o ž k i t e, s k o p i j a vъ ž i t o t o.
The secondary ъ > o: 1 o ž n i, o g o n.
The Macedonian change is common } (from *tj), | (from *dj). Parteni writes the first as tъ, and the second as dъ. This way of working shows the importance of the fricative element for these sounds in the pronunciation of Galicnik: t ъ a b i d e t, p r a t ъ a š e, n o t ъ a, n e s r e t ъ a , b r a t ъ a, v e t ъ e (and v e k ъ e); t u d ъ a, m e d ъ u . Less frequently we come across examples like: n o t a, obešta, po meždu im - influenced by the Church Slavonic i.e. Bulgarian language.
There is a tendency to write h in its old place: hvati, hranit hodeshe, nihna and so on, but also bea, se rodia, fatie.
The speech of Galichnik is also indicated by the forms: m i e, z a t e j a, t a k e, c ъ r k o v-t a.
For the change of nouns the case forms of the perso-nal names are characteristic, e. g. : Se veti Noeve.
The verbs regularly end in t in the third person singular present tense. In the plural the forms like os t a n a e are also purely West-Macedonian (and from Galichnik). It is important to notice the following: while with the verbs from a-group the forms like c e k a e t, v e r uv a e t, se vikaet se klanjaet etc. are regular in the third person singular of the present tense, with the verbs from e-, i-group we find: prinosat, možat, se strasat, se n a d e a t. We shall come across forms ending in - et and - it, which are characteristic of the speech of Galicnik, only as exceptions: r a z b e r e t, i z 1 e z e et, d a se klanjaet i molit This feature is interesting because it demonstrates the conscious combination in his written language of elements from various dialects of ours for the choice of what seemed to him the more constructive. We pay attention to this characteristic because we shall find it reflected in the works of the other textbook writers, which speaks for itself about the exchange of practice among them. Besides ostanae, živuvae, bee, n e m o ž e e, s e s t o r i e etc. we have almost as exam-ples the following: m o ž e a, g o v or i a, bea, se rodia, ostavaha.
There are also retreats from the speech of Galicnik with the gerund: bideešti, sklonuvaešti, očistuvašti.
Zografski's orthography is based on the old Russian orthography.
The language of the second book “A Beginner for Children” is characterized by greater deviation from some features limited only to a narrow circle of West-Macedonian dialects. This is reflected in the spelling of kжd e, rжka, pжt (not kode, roka, pot), and especially in the entire substitution of the suffix - et in the third person plural present tense: pravat, velat učat, znajat pejat, pogrešuvat ka žuvat, sakaat. He also writes toa (not t e a). This shows Zografski's attempt to choose more general features, which being such will be more easily accepted in different Macedonian areas.
This vacillation and searching by a man who was the first consciously here to approach the cultivation of the literary language is quite clear. It is true that before this people wrote in Macedonian and even printed some books, but in them, based on a given popular speech, we do not see a planned endeavor to build a more general literary norm, in the sphere of grammar as well as in relation to spelling. With Parteni the thing is different because he is a man who had at his disposal some philological knowledge.
Here is an example that certifies Parteni's hesitation between one or another form. In an article of his on lan-guage, printed in issues of Caregradskj Vestnik in 1857 he says that the article should be written “for melodious purposes” rather with o, like čeloveko, than čelovek - ot (Caregradski Vestnik, number 316). So he writes. But already in the Sacred History printed in the same year, he does not spell accordingly but takes the article - ot: p r i m e r - o t, d o m - o t, p o t o p - o t, etc.
By the way we mentioned some features of the Bulgarian
language in the text-books of Zografski. In some examples they are not
of accidental character, but are re-sults of planned adoption, which, as
we shall see, is based on Parteni's view of the literary language. Such
is the case with the use of the relative pronoun in forms like: koj
- to, koja - to etc.: oblak koj - to slegaše ot neboto (29);
silni
moži koj -to etc. (38). The assembly of the different influences in
the language of Zografski's text-books is supplemented by some lexical
borrowings in which are included a number of Church-Slavonic and Russian
examples: p o č t e n i e, upovanie, junoša, mstitelen, poneže
obače, takože, soderžanie, mъrzost-ta, konec, ugrjum, nrav, da
polučit, se ušibna, mir-ot (the world); tolko (only) and a
number of others. But besides all that the West-Macedonian basis of the
language is predominant.
3
Parteni Zografaki not only used his mother tongue
in practice, but also tried to raise the theoretical question of what the
written language which would be used in Macedonia ought to be. He did this
in his two articles on the language; the first appeared in the Caregradski
Vestnik in 1857 in a few issues starting with number 315 (9th February);
the second in the magazine Bъlgarski Knižici I,1, 1858, under
the title Thoughts on the Bulgarian Language (Misli za Bolgarskijot
jazik). With these articles Zografski was the first in introducing, here,
a language in common with the Bulgarians, but such as represented a compromise
between the Macedonian and Bulgarian dialects. At the time when Parteni
formulated this standpoint the Bulgarian literary language was considerably
advanced in its development. It was developing on the basis of East-Bulgarian
dialects, those most removed from the Macedonian language, which reflected
a necessity, because East Bulgaria was the center of the Bulgarian economic
and cultural revival. Towards the end of the 50's of the last century there
is neither a final establishment of Bulga-rian orthography, nor decision
upon the separate features of the literary language, but the basic question:
on which dialect was it going to be built, was, in practice solved by former
Bulgarian literary development. The thesis proposed by Zografski was fundamentally
opposed to that natural development.
We shall examine his view in that second article since the latter sums up what was said in the first regarding the structure of the literary language.
“We have said it before and now repeat” - Zografski begins - “that in order to compose a common written language it is first of all necessary to reveal all the local dialects and idiotisms if our language is to be built: before that is done nobody can or has the right to judge and give orders concerning the common written language basing his work on one dialect whatever it may be and every such similar judgement or order though not full, is fruitless and vain.”
These words express the viewpoint that if there is to be a common language which is to lie adopted by the Macedonians, then it is impossible to exclude from it the Macedonian dialects. Zografski goes even further to assert that the latter contain all the properties for it to be raised to the level of a literary language:
“The Macedonian dialect not only ought not to and cannot be excluded from the common literary language, but it would be good if it were taken for its main basis; for these reasons: it is more sonorous, more elevated and better built, and in many respects fuller and richer. Representative of that dialect are the southwest regions of Macedonia.”
Zografski with his text-books gave an example of such a literary language where the West-Macedonian dialect is the “main basis.” He had been making prepara-tions as he says in the article, to issue a grammar on it also. Unfortunately he did not manage to realize his intention. A Macedonian grammar, edited then, would have had an influence on our cultural and educational development. His notes concerning separate linguistic questions show that Zografski was entitled to do that job successfully. So in the article we are concerned with after the cited passages, he gives a parallel between the Macedonian and Bulgarian languages, pointing to the most important differences. Zografski formulated them under the following headings:
. 1) The difference in accent. This consists in the inclination existing in the Macedonian “dialect” - “which stresses the beginning of the words, while the other one does it to the end”... “Here the Macedonian dialect comes closer to the Serbian.”
2) In Macedonian the “following fricatives ž and š in front of d and t “are not tolerated. The question concerns the groups žd and št from the Proto-Slav *dj, *tj, in which place in most Macedonian dialects the substitute ѓ and ќ usually appear: meѓu: mežd u, s v e ќ a: s v e š t a.
3) There is also no reduction to the unaccented a, e, o. (As is clear Zografski generally takes into consideration the features of the West-Macedonian dialect: because the reduction in our south eastern dialect is strongly expressed: uvčar, ženta,etc.)
4) In relation to ъ and ь only in one sub-dialect, they say as in Bulgarian: korst corkov, korv, poln, kort, torga etc. From the examples it is clear that Zografski does not have in mind old reduced vowels but the groups trt, tlt.
5) ъ>e, but not ja.
6) The consonant h is either lost: oda, ubavo, oro, arno, pištea or odea, stoea etc. or passes into f: pišef, čitaf, praf, fala, fъrlja; or finally into v: uvo, bъlva.
7) In Macedonian there are two more articles - ov and - on.
8) Names retain more traces of the old declension.
9) Yet nouns of neuter gender like pole form the plural with the suffix - i n j a: p o 1 i n j a.
10) In 3rd. person singular of the present tense the verbs end in - t. As far as the plural is concerned the suffixes differ according to dialects.
11) In Macedonian there is a verbal adverb.
12) At the end Zografski dwells on the fate of the nasal ж in Macedonian dialects. “The ж letter” - he says - “is pronounced like a clear a, in some places like o, for instance, raka, maka, laža, kade, maž etc... or roka, moka, pot, loža etc. It is preserved only in one dialect and especially when it is a stem letter”. In connection with this Zografski dwells at the end of the article on the orthography of ж , speaking against its spelling in the accusative with nouns of feminine gender. He says that now it is unnecessary for people as a whole “when they come across ж to make ready their mouth in order to pronounce it correctly«. He is also opposed to the usage of the letter ьi, because there is no basis for it in living speech.
The survey of the differences between the Macedonian and the Bulgarian language, beside its imprecision, especially in relation to linguistic terminology reveals Zografski to us as a man who makes note of linguistic phenomena and what he thought about them while systematizing them. We see that he is not only acquainted with native speech but also with some of the fundamental characteristics of other West Macedonian dialects. As far as differences between the Macedonian and Bulgarian languages are concerned he has ascertained them quite correctly, though in some cases, with present day knowledge, further elaboration can be made. We have all that represented by Zografski as the first person with some scientific conception of the language with a system of views on different dialects and their relation to the literary language, a man who could really at that time contribute towards the working out in detail of Macedonian grammar.
We can also gather interesting data on Zografski as a philologist from his article printed in issues of Caregradski Vestnik in 1857. Without any intention of exhausting the question because that is work for a special study which would examine from all sides the practical and theoretical activity of Zografski on the language, we emphasize from that article only a few places which are necessary for our subject. Actually we have an attempt there to sketch certain parts of the grammar. So in number 315, February 9th, 1857, the question of articles is treated, and in number 322, March 30th 1857, that of declensions of nouns.
In the articles Zografski saw compensation for the “decline” of our language (he considered the development from the old period of the language to the new as degeneration “falling”). However the articles give the language “special expressiveness, strength and agreeability.”
Of a special interest is his revelation that the article has come (in the Macedonian and Bulgarian languages) from mixing with Greek. The latter was also influenced so that in the immediate contiguity a “new construction, face and expression” has been worked out. That that was so, Parteni asserts, a person can easily be persuaded by comparison. This supposition of Parteni Zografski, as early as l857, when the study of Macedonian and Bulgarian national speech had hardly begun has been justified by contemporary scientific research. The historical comparative method, which was mainly known to Parteni, helped him to comprehend correctly the question of common ties between the languages in our Peninsula, - material which brought about a special branch in contemporary linguistics so called Balkanistics.
We shall stop longer here, so that his attitude will be made clearer, on what Zografski published concerning the Macedonian articles - ov and - on, because here he came back to the question of the “common” literary language. That place is also interesting for its style which comes out of the framework of calm grammatical debating: “Well! what are those other articles like? many will say who have not heard about them from relatives. Have some patience and you'll learn, and how great ought your wonder and curiosity to be, if you are a sincere patriot and philologist”. We shall see further that these “discoveries” of Parteni, who felt himself the guardian of the peoples' linguistic treasure were not much welcomed. He knew that he was going to be opposed and immediately starts discussion with his imagined opponents: “Well, what? those who hear these things for the first time can say - Well what? Do you want to hang on us all these?” At your will, my Masters. Nothing can be given to anybody by force. But we must remember the condition that one dialect should complement the other, wherever it is necessary, so in that way we can make a common written language which will be rich, varied and pleasant to all, our own. Otherwise, we shall be greatly offended and nothing will come out of it... Altogether the work should be brotherly and Christian. Don't be afraid, there are cases and places, as we shall see further down, where the Macedonian dialect should also follow the other.”
This extract makes it possible for us to understand the feelings of Parteni towards the language question. He did not allow that Macedonians should accept a written language removed from their national language. Every blind support from the Macedonian side of the language of “upper Bulgars” he calls, further on, “absurd and unjust.” This means, he understands it as a subordination, inadmissible when the “Macedonian dialect” contains in itself such beauties and riches. The creation of a common language cannot be achieved by imposition from the Bulgarian side, but by a “brotherly and Christian” compromise. Otherwise Parteni does not see any possibility of accepting such a language, it is only the Macedonians who will be “greatly offended, and nothing will come of that”. It means that the Macedonians would not agree to anything else. Already this standpoint shows clearly what opposition was appearing in Macedonia to the penetration of the Bulgarian literary language. It is surprising that Parteni took such a standpoint, the man who was accepted as a Russian scholarship holder with Aprilov's help and, as a clergyman, moved in Bulgarian company in Odessa and later in Constantinople. He at least had the time and the chance to get used to the East Bulgarian dialect. But as we see, he felt the beauty of his mother tongue and had a reason for not rejecting it.
From what we have said so far, we can get an idea of Parteni as a representative of a tendency in our cultural life about the 60's, the social basis of which is known to us and also for his system of views on the literary language. We know that his standpoint was in direct opposition to the natural development of the Bulgarian literary language. Therefore his articles and two text-books met with such sharp criticism from the Bulgarian side. That marked the beginning of the struggle against the tendency represented by Parteni not to speak of the tendency represented by the Macedonists, who were not accepting the Bulgarian language at all. To the echo that was roused among the Bulgarian literary and cultural workers by the standpoint of Parteni - we shall pass in the following section.
4
Already in number 336 of the Caregradski Vestnik (6th July, 1857) we find a negative reply to Parteni's article:
“We know - says the writer (B. Petkov) - that he, who advises us in the Caregradski Vestnik to introduce the article o, if he sees the old article t, as objectionable, he'll also find objectionable the personal pronoun az, and the auxiliary verb šta, šteš, šte. He will find it more correct to use ja instead of az, kьem (as he writes it), instead of š t e m etc. which are expressions characteristic of the Serbian language.”
Two points should be distinguished here: 1) that no surrender should be made to the Macedonians in relation to the language, because one will be followed by another: 2) that the Macedonian characteristics are actually characteristics of the Serbian language so it is out of the question to take them into consideration.
We shall see that this argument is repeated later. Contrary to it B. Petkov asserts that “the nearby places of the central Balkans and on both sides of Thrace have preserved the clearest Bulgarian language, which has made the smallest retreats from the old written language”. With the authority which the old Slavonic church language had at that time, it was an exceptionally important argument to stress the greater proximity of the given dialect to that language. Therefore we see that here this thesis lied. But correctly from the Macedonian side, especially from that of the Macedonists something quite opposite is expressed: that the Macedonian dialects are those which originate directly from the old written language and those which have kept greater contact with it.
Afterwards, as we know, at the beginning of the following year (1858) Parteni's article was printed in the magazine Bьlgarski knizici, where he does not at all retreat from his former position. To show that he has found response, he sends a private letter to the editors of Bьlgarski knizici” which was received by Konstantin Rajnov from Plovdiv, a lawyer. The letter was written on 10.1.1858 in Constantinople, and printed in the number for January the 31st of the same year. In it the language of the “Sacred history” is praised: “I am so sorry that I cannot uphold it, and I shall regret more, if I see you, Sir, depart from your mother Macedono - Bulgarian dialect, which, I think, surpasses all Bulgarian dialects as far as melodiousness and sweetness are concerned and which, for that reason, is particularly suitable for poetry” (p.46).
Everything shows that that is the only support Parteni received in Constantinople.
The attacks against him carry an understandable spleen. So, it seems that P. R. Slavejkov's mocking in Nova moda kalendar za 1857 is addressed to him (and probably some other Macedonians round him): “A few Albanian writers have come together and thought of composing a grammar for Bulgarians."[2] We shall discuss mockery of this sort later when we talk about the activities of Kuzman Sapkarev.
Ultimately in Bьblgarski knizici, 15th September, 1858, a short but severe echo against Parteni's text-books appeared. The reviewer calls their language “a mixture of Bulgarian and Serbian”, a “Bulgar-Serbian dialect”. He says that borderline speech is always funny and therefore ought not to be taken into consideration at all when building a literary language. Aiming, of course, at Parteni, he condemns those who “want to impose as more regular their dialect which will prove a burden to the Bulgarians: such things, as, until they receive their shape in Bulgarian literature, will do great damage to its final achievement”. Parteni, as a consequence receives the following advice: “Father Parteni, whose right hand we kiss with great respect, let it be allowed us to notice, has no place to write a book for the whole nation in a local dialect, he actually ought first to see how the majority speak and then allow his language to be used in the same way”.
This is the only overt reply that could be given by the Bulgarian side relating to what Parteni was searching for. The establishment of the “common” literary language was not understood there with the meaning which he gave to it, but simply as the acceptance in Macedonia of the Bulgarian literary language founded on the East-Bulgarian dialects. Any compromise was out of the question - the only possibility was what Parteni had seen an imposition. And what did that mean? It meant that Parteni's efforts to come at a common language, in which the Macedonian dialects would play their part were, from the outset, destined to failure. The arguments primarily developed by Parteni will be raised later by others of our people. But only one choice was left in the end, either accepting the Bulgarian language (or Serbian) or building up an independent Macedonian literary language. As we know, history has made this second choice victorious.
Parteni's biographer Lazar Dimitrov makes the following comment on the reaction against Parteni's text-books: “It is easy to explain why the reviews of Parteni's books are sharp. The book publishers of that day who were exclusively from Thrace and Mysia did not like the participation of the Macedonian dialect in the literary language, which was then in the making, because they did not know it and considered it something of a mixture between the Serbian and Bulgarian dialects and also they feared that the appearance of Macedonian men of letters might further the imposition of the West-Bulgarian dialects (!) as a literary language more so because there was already some movement in that direction! The first men of letters, Kiril Pejcinovic and Joakim Krcovski had by then begun such endeavors. Of the same school are K. Dzinot from Veles, G Prlcev from Ohrid and R. Zinzifov. The most ardent and enduring pupil of that school is Hadzi Parteni (Izvestija na seminara za slavjanska filologija, Sofia 1904/5, p. 378-9).
We stress particularly the last assertion. And truly we would be quite mistaken to think Parteni's appearance on the language question platform was lonely and accidental. It has its definite place and its causal connection with what was with us earlier on the literary plane and also with what was happening then and what was to come later. Kiril Pejcinovic and Joakim Krcovski showed that books could be written in our language. Also we must not ignore those collections of the first half of the nineteenth century which were written and rewritten here, frequently with the Greek alphabet, and which contributed to the establishment of Macedonian as a literary language. The compiler of such a short collection from 1841 was Dimitar Miladinov (Sbornik na BAK, IX, 1918, Documents and Notes, p. 17). All that created a written tradition which Parteni wanted to extend.
We cannot consider Parteni as isolated in his views on language even at the time when he expressed them. On the contrary everything convinces us that Parteni was a man who took a standpoint shared by the other distinguished men of D. Miladinov's circle. In B?lgarski knizici III, August 1860 a word is said about tension on the Macedonian side “because their dialect is not taken into consideration.” All the literary practice of our men of letters of that time - the brothers Miladinov, Rajko Zinzifov, Grigor Prlicev - reveals a refusal on their part to accept the East-Bulgarian norm. We cannot explain that fact only by the reason that they simply had not managed as yet to master the Bulgarian literary language which was then in the period of formation. A viewpoint is in question - given public presentation by Parteni. In this sense the fate of our poets is interesting. Let us not speak of Konstantin Miladinov who uses in his poetry the language of our folk songs, achieving a vigorous expressiveness. But there is Rajko Zinzifov - he went further in his compromise with the Bulgarian language and all the same stayed consistent to the very end in conveying a number of Macedonian features in his language. So he made a language (after Parteni's precepts) which is today the main obstacle to accepting his poetry.
G. Prlicev's search was turned in a completely different direction, though he went to Constantinople in 1868 for the sole reason of learning Bulgarian from Ivan Najde-nov. He was enraptured by the idea of creating a common Slavonic language. “I know that it is a fantasy” he says, “but the need is also great”. And so the highly gifted poet buried his talent unable to find the right way in what is body and soul to Poetry - the language. And all this searching and wandering with these people proves that they were not fired by the Bulgarian literary language. In Bulgaria however, his contemporaries were such poets as P. R. Slavejkov, Hr. Botev and Iv. Vazov who raised Bulgarian poetry high. But the time was coming in Macedonia also for the birth of artistic poetry in the same language in which the people sang such beautiful songs.
Now let us return to Parteni. He was D. Miladinov's pupil at Ohrid in 1835. When he came back from Russia he met Miladinov again. Then according to L. Dimitrov he "Passed through Ohrid and met his temporary teacher D. Miladinov. On Parteni's invitation the latter left for Debar and from there went to Galičnik. It is not known how long D. Miladinov spent there but surely he was invited by Parteni not only as a guest but also for purposes of agitation” (op. cit. p.361). During their contact they could not have avoided the important question of the literary language. In any case we know that D. Miladinov, while staying in Prilep in 1856-57 introduced the Macedonian language as a medium of instruction and a little later sent to K. Šapkarev from Kukus to Struga quite a number of “Sacred Histories” by Parteni Zografski (Autobiography; Makedonski pregled III, 2 p.58). D. Miladinov taught from Parteni's books and also distributed them. We can, therefore, suppose that he shared Parteni's viewpoint concerning the language.
How were Parteni's text-books accepted by our people? An answer to this question can be found in what Rajko Zinzifov has written. He was at that time an assis-tant of D. Miladinov in Kukus: “The parents, says Zinzifov, were endlessly glad to hear their children read from the “Sacred History” by Father Parteni, who later became a dean at the demand of the people of Kukus, and they did not have to ask questions about what was written in the book, because they were able to understand what was being read alone” (From the article on the Brothers Miladinov following the translation from Russian printed in Bъlgarska ilustracija 1880, Bk. 8, p.21).
This means the people's response was quite different from that of the Bulgarian milieu in Constantinople. That made Parteni maintain his attitudes. That he did not retreat in 1860 in face of these criticisms, is shown by the fact that he worked on the establishment of a printing office in Thessalonika in order to have books printed in Macedonian for the inhabitants of these parts.”
5
It is clear that the appearance of Macedonian text-books and the viewpoint in relation to the '”common” literary language, formulated by Parteni Zografski were only a symptom of something based deeper in our life at the time. What are we to look for behind all that? We ought to see the aspirations of our bourgeoisie - of those who accepted the Bulgarian cause - to be treated as an equal partner, to have their views and feelings concerning questions of culture and enlightenment respected. To say this more clearly: those men wanted to collaborate with the Bulgarians, they agreed to have the struggle against Hellenization led under the name of a common Bulgarian cause, but in the same way as some disagreed with the importation of the Bulgarian language into Macedonia, but demanded the making of a “common« language” fifty-fifty, so that nobody would find himself wronged, so -we say - they did not agree to the conquest of Macedonian markets by the Bulgarian bourgeoisie. After pushing Greek merchants out, our merchants did not want to have their place taken by Bulgarians. They wanted to spread themselves more widely in Macedonia. What came out in the cultural field, in relation to books and schools, was actually only a projection of what happened everyday, but not so visibly, in the market place and in the economic field.
A common struggle was started against the Patriarchate of Constantinople with the aim of getting an independent church. But it was impossible not to ask what sort of independence that was going to be. Who was to profit and in what from that independence, who was going to participate in the course of the struggle and what was his participation going to be.
That people here thought in this way and that they could not calculate otherwise we shall show later from our material. But sufficient clarity is thrown on the question in the article we now cite. It appeared in the paper “Makedonija” 23rd June, 1870. Its title is striking – “A Voice for the whole of Macedonia”. At the moment when the Sultan had granted the founding of the Exarchate, this article comes to remind people what Macedonians think of the establishment of the new church and what they expect from it. While the importance of the Sultan's act is underlined it is said that “that high mercy is not exclusively for Bulgarians, but also is promised to Macedonians through article 10, according to which if all or 2/3 show their wishes they will be joined with the Bulgarian church. But before we join we think and consider it our duty to ask them and hear answer as to how they are going to act whether according to the gospel or as the Greek bishops have acted until now - t y r a n i c a l l y a n d o p p r e s s i v e 1 y. For we have a feeling that even now they show inclinations towards despotism. But it is no shame to hear that it will be so, that will spare us many troubles in finding it out, and also great headaches with Macedonian questions.”
Here are expressed the contradictions of the moment of the creation of the Exarchate. On the Macedonian side one basic condition is laid down for the union: that it should not be centralized. For it was known that in that case all power would be concentrated in the hands of the big Bulgarian merchants of Constantinople, who were closely connected with the Turkish government, those who later in liberated Bulgaria, formed the conservative party. To take power in hand meant for them to order things as they wanted in Macedonia as well. Therefore we find that warning in the article, and the intimation of “Macedonian questions”, which means breaking the collaboration. Our merchants and guilds demanded a democratic constitution for the Exarchate, that they might have full control over Macedonian affairs through their councils. But our bourgeoisie had one misfortune - it was weak as a class. It was deceived in its expectations and at the end centralization was the rule of the Exarchate. The subsequent tensions between our councils and the Exarchate stemmed from that; independent movement of the Macedonian people also resulted from that and was led by the Internal Organization (IMRO), appearing about the 90's of the last century initially as a struggle against the Exarchate.
Since the evidence from the time shows the calculations people made in reality, acting in this or that way, Simeon Radev's declaration that “the unquenchable patriotism of the Bulgarians, the mysterious and deep instinct which connects one with the other all parts of this people..." was drawing Macedonians to join the Exarchate, is revealed in all its pompous pose (S. Radev, Makedonija i Bъlgarskoto vъzraždane v XIX vek, part III, p. 454). There he talks about the meeting in January 1871, when the constitution of the Exarchate was to be accepted and when it was discussed whether to accept Macedonian delegates to the assembly or not, because with the Sultan’s order the question of the greater number of Macedonian eparchies was left to be decided subsequently by a plebiscite.
“We come to the most important psychological moment of the Bulgarian movement” - says Radev, of it. “Its future will depend for a long time on the turn it is going to take. Will Macedonia be sacrificed from fear of schism or submissiveness to Russia? Or shall we see to it, that in order to preserve Macedonia for the mother-land that it withstands the blows of the church and the anger of the enormous empire? The moment is difficult when a nation must ask where its duty lies...” (op. cit. p.453).
The “unquenchable patriotism” and the “mysterious instinct” and the call of the “native land” is presented to us in a different light in an article in the newspaper Makedonija 1871, where a Macedonian complains that “some of the representatives do not want to let Macedonian representatives be present at the assembly which will discuss the constitution of the independent Bulgarian Exarchate, and find such causes as this for instance: that it is not nice for Macedonian representatives to be present at that assembly because they will insist on having the seat of the Bulgarian Exarchate placed at Ohrid! Or because they will try to separate from the other Bulgarians and have an Exarchate of their own! Or even more logical: Macedonians are not Bulgarians but Tsintsars”.
It becomes clear that at “the most important psychological moment of the whole Bulgarian movement” some people wanted to have their work carried on behind the backs of the Macedonians (Why should they appear with their demands to cause more headaches?) At that extremely important moment one group of the Bulgarian representatives showed what was later to become a characteristic method of the Exarchate in its dealings with Macedonia - to rule without listening to any representatives of the people. Very soon complaints were to be heard from Macedonia against it, already from Veles in Makedonija 18 July, 1872, there comes bad news concerning the actions of the Exarchate. The Eparchate of Veles having had 6500 marriages was due to pay the Archierate a sum of 45,000 groschen: “I do not know where that sum of money will come from and it is individualized 2 groschen for a wedding for the Exarchate chest and another two for the chest of the Eparchate”. At the very same time the Eparchate in Samokov and Kjustendil, with 30,000 marriages each paid only as much as that of Veles -45,000 gr. “What a comparison” cries the correspondent “Strange Justice!” The Exarchate, quite evidently, became the means for the penetration of the Bulgarian bourgeoisie into Macedonia; after the Bulgarian liberation it strengthened its role in this connection. The hopes which the Macedonians had had in the Exarchate were not realized.
But let us return to Parteni Zografski to see what was happening to him at this time. Filip Tomov in the article cited earlier notes that on the 8th. November 1874 Dr. Stojan Comakov wrote to the Bishop of Veles this among other things: “Maybe you have heard about the good-hearted and honorable Parteni, he is banished from Constantinople and is today persecuted both by the Government and by the Exarchate” (Makedonski pregled X, 1 and 2, p.96). L. Dimitrov tells us that Parteni was very embittered and did not mention the name of the Exarch in his services but only that of the Synod. And it is easy to establish a reason. He was the only one from Macedonia among so many from Thrace and Mysia” (op. cit. p. 371). In these last words we find some indication concerning our remarks in connection with the real social positions of the Bulgarian and our citizens. “The main cause, however, for these relations between Parteni and the present Exarch was the latter's attempt to centralize the control of the spiritual authority in his hands, as is now the case” (op. cit. p.371).
As far as his struggle in the literary field was
concerned “Parteni's efforts couldn't have a successful result. He anticipated
that and closed his eyes with a sorrowful mind tired of worries and distress”
(op. cit. p.379).
a. Sapkarev was altogether of Parteni's opinion on the “common language” as a compromise between Bulgarian and Macedonian.
b. Sapkarev only saw his text-books as the medium for an easier approximation of Macedonian to Bulgarian which the people felt to be remote.
c. Sapkarev was a fervent Macedonist. This means that he considered the Macedonians as a separate people who needs must have a special literary language.
How is it possible to reconcile three such different attitudes in the one man? The answer to this question is made more difficult to obtain by the lack of any more detailed examination of Sapkarev's life especially of the period of it which interests us. All the same we think that we shall not be far from the truth if we say that he wavered between two distinct marks - the pro-Macedonian and the pro-Bulgarian ideas expressed in the sixties - trying to keep on good terms with each group according to the time and place. Formerly a Greek teacher and a Hellenist, Sapkarev swung from one to the other of the means observable in Macedonian life of his time. The material we shall adduce later does, we feel, give sufficient support to this assertion.
From his activity as a text-book editor we rightly think of Sapkarev as a successor of Parteni. Zografski's example was before his eyes. We have already mentioned that he had become acquainted with Zografski's text-books through D. Miladinov and used them in his teaching. Even in the composition of his own text-books he adopted some things from them. In the 1868 beginner he presents the following maxim “Their native tongue ought to be precious to everybody and everybody should be taught to use books in it at first and then if he has time he might go on to learn to use books in other languages also” (p.45)-This thought is borrowed from Parteni's Beginner where he says “Learn at first from books in your own language then, if you have time, learn from those in other languages”(p.33).
Rightly seeing in Sapkarev a successor of Parteni Zografski we ought naturally to consider his work as a reflection of the same conditions which qualified Parteni's attitude. But those conditions were sharper in outline by the time that Sapkarev appeared, because those were the years immediately preceding the formation of the Exar-chate.
First of all we shall try to represent the period accurately from the point of view of the movement for separate text-books for Macedonian schools, through the memoirs of two Bulgarians who before the end of the sixties were living in Macedonia - Nikola Emcerev and Stefan Salgandziev
Emcerev, born in Panadjuriste, a teacher at Prilep from 1866 to 1878, charges Sapkarev with creating a gulf between the Macedonians and the Bulgarians by means of his text-books: “K. P. Sapkarev would have been in a position to do a lot to facilitate the learning of the neo-Greek language if he had to that end made a short grammar, a reader, a conversation book and other auxiliary material but he did not do it, first because great material funds were necessary and he hadn't such at his disposal, and then because he was entirely taken up with speculations which would bring him greater material profit, by turning into Macedonian the text-books edited by Danov, adding endings like ajki and ištem and other Macedonian dialect words and phrases. The text-books so remade he addressed to the Macedonian councils influencing them to introduce such text-books into their schools. It. was this that started the dislike of the upper Bulgarian dialect. Soon Sapkarev gained a supporter in the person of D. V. Makedonski and someone called Macukovski started to boast in the newspapers that he was making preparations to print a grammar of the Macedonian dialect. With that a discussion started in the papers (Pravo V, nos 40, 45) Then Petar Ivanov of St. Zagora discountenanced them fully with a number of articles in Pravo, 1872, and forced them to retire” (Spomeni ot moeto učitelstvo v Prilep - Memories of my Teaching Days in Prilep, Sbornik za narodni umotvorenija XX. 1904, p. 21-22).
These lines are a good introduction to Sapkarev's work and the reply it evoked. But some corrections to them are needed. Dimitar V. Makedonski, who has been mentioned above, had started editing his text-books shortly before Sapkarev and consequently can not be regarded as his follower, but only as a man who came forward at the same time to satisfy a recognized need of his society. Makedonski (? - 1896) was born at the village of Embore in the Kajlar district. Educated in Constantinople, he afterwards taught in Vlaho Klisura, Struga and Bitola. He edited three text-books. They are: A Short Sacred History for use in the Schools throughout Macedonia (Constantinople, Makedonija, 1867), “A. Beginner for use in Macedonian Schools” (1867) and “A Shortened Catechism for the Orthodox” Translated from the Greek, Constantinople, Macedonia, 1868.
Of D. V. Makedonski's three text-books we have only come by his Short Sacred History. The others we cite from V. Pogorelov's description. The book is written in the form of questions and answers. As originating from a man from southern Macedonia it is primarily interesting for its linguistic connections with the other text-books of the time, all edited by people from Western Macedonia (P. Zografski, K. Sapkarev, G. Pulevski). It shows that those Macedonianisms which accorded with the characteristics of Church Slavonic were most easily made common. The authority of the church language helped in their acceptance. So D. Makedonski uses almost regularly the form of the third person singular present with the suffix-t (možet, storit, milvat).
There are such elements in the language employed by Makedonski as undoubtedly point to a connection with the language of our other text-book writers. He uses sedoni, potem, and often forms ending in-aet, as sohranja-vaet which were then characteristics of Zografski's language. From another side, as Sapkarev does later (i.e. after 1869), he writes: dobruvajat, se milvajat etc., also he uses such forms as se kazvit, se pametvit from Ohrid. These features of western speech are also noteworthy: et, se (si-de by side with sa), ova. Of course, Makedonski could have got used to some such forms in direct contact with west Macedonians especially those who themselves wrote or were at all interested in the form of the written language.
Some characteristics of his native dialect are also found in Makedonski's book. Without going into details we shall note the peculiar pronunciation češa (čaša), then some cases of the reduction of the vowels: duhuve, nivoti, istulkuvarm, and from his vocabulary words like: gredeha, se urva, dibot, umreška etc.
In some cases Makedonski explains some words by synonyms used in different dialects. So side by side with ubil he gives the word opral, with klal - turil with arma-sana - svršena. From this we can see his anxiety to make his text easily comprehensible to pupils from different areas.
Going back to Enicerev's remarks about Sapkarev we must reject as inaccurate the assertion that, after P. Ivanov's criticism, our text-book writers were silent, because two years later Sapkarev himself edited his Beginner but now not at Constantinople where his other books had appeared but at Thessalonika.
It is also untrue that Sapkarev personally with his text-books was the first cause of the dislike of the introduction of Bulgarian into the Macedonian schools. The situation, as we know was quite to the contrary. Such an inclination existed among the people themselves and Sapkarev appeared as a person who more or less provided for such an inclination. Sapkarev could easily find out from his teaching experience how Parteni's text-books were received by the people and how unwilling was their acceptance of Bulgarian text-books, how well understood were the first and how difficult were the latter on account of their language. Enicerev describes him as a person interested mainly in profit, even if this is so it is not fundamental. We rightly conclude that though inconsistent, though undecided in his opinions and pliable in character, as we know Sapkarev to have been from his later biography, he expressed at a definite moment, though but partially, for both subjective and objective reasons the inclination that existed among the Macedonians to have their language used as the medium of instruction in their schools as the best because the best understood.
The acceptance given to Sapkarev's books proves what kind of important cultural and historical phenomenon we meet in him. In one place it is announced that they “were distributed almost over the whole of south and central Macedonia and were soon sold out so that the need for a second edition appeared very soon. They made a real revolution in those parts of the districts where till then the Greek language had reigned in the schools" (Ilustracija Svetlina, June 1898. Bk. VII, p.2). The very fact that in the course of a few years (1867-1875) Sapkarev, D. Makedonski and G. Pulevski (who we shall speak of later) edited thirteen Macedonian books, shows the importance of the phenomenon. For Sapkarev's book The Holy Epistles (1870) according to the list given in it there were 1270 helpers from the following places. Kukus 465, the surrounding villages 75, the borough of Karadag 153, the borough of Gevgelija 82, Ohrid 124, the town of Struga 30, the surrounding villages 47, Resen 18, Bitola 51, Prilep 6, Kavadarci 25, Vatasa 19, Negotino 12, the village of Prždevo 6, Štip 21, the village of Miravci 2, Dojran 12, the village of Poroj Gorni 18, Ser 20, Thessalonika and the surrounding villages 16, the district of Voden 74.
This is a truly enviable number for a time when the book came out. Let us mention that at the same time the Bulgarian papers in Constantinople had this circulation Makedonija 1.100, Pravo 700, Turcija 500 (vid. Zornica, Periodical Evangelical Magazine, 1869, No.5, p.40).
The movement for the introduction of Macedonian text-books into the schools could not have a separate course from that of the development of the Macedonian consciousness among the people. About that and the range of. the movement we have some information from a book by the aforementioned Stefan K. Salgandziev (Lični dela i spomeni Personal Deeds and Memories, Plovdiv 1906) where we find mention of what was going on in Thessalonika towards the end of the sixties. Salgandziev was sent to Thessalonika by the managing body of the Constantinople Reading Library as an editor of the Bulgarian part of an official newspaper Seljanik. “During the. whole of my stay in Thessalonika whether on duty or not, my activity consisted mainly in study of the situa-tion of the Bulgarian cause in the whole district and in sending to the Constantinople Reading Library reports on its fluctuations” (p.26). This is what Salgandziev says about the thing which concerns us. He explains how certain members of the Thessalonika district headed by the man from Ohrid D. Paunčev, a merchant-commissioner, Georgi Dinkata and the well-known bookseller and printer Kirijak Držilovič started a struggle against somebody called Božkov a Bulgarian teacher sent to Thessalonika and maintained by the Constantinople Reading Library.. This is joined to the fact that, following Salgandžiev, “At that time the wind blew in the direction of a long-contemplated plan by some teachers from western Macedonia, according. to which Macedonian children ought to be taught and trained solely in Macedonian and for that end they had started to edit and edited several text-books in that dialect which were stored at the warehouse of Božkov's persecutors. That made many believe (and I was among them) that the persecution of Božkov was carried on with intention of replacing him by one of those teachers who were protagonists of the above mentioned idea” (p.34).
A relative of D. Paun?ev of Ohrid was appointed as the new teacher. This is how Salgandžiev describes him: “He was Bulgarian from his mother and his father was Kucovlah- Cinzar, and he himself spoke Bulgarian absolutely incorrectly. When he was asked to which of the two mentioned nationalities he belonged he used to answer” I am neither Bulgarian non Greek nor am I Cinzar. I am a pure Macedonian as were Philip and Alexander of Macedon and the philosopher Aristotle. To this mixture of nationalities was entrusted the teaching of the Bulgarian children in Thessalonika in their mother tongue only without his knowing Bulgarian” Salgandžiev cries.
Let us remind ourselves that in the persons of the citizens of Thessalonika whom Salgandžiev mentions as blown by the wind we meet those people with whom Parteni Zografski worked in 1860, when he wanted to establish a printing press. We see that his influence on them had not died but that they still appear as a group towards the end of the sixties. Georgi Dinkata, a great friend of D. Miladinov wrote text-books himself which he used in his teaching (Šopov op. cit. 447). In the teachers words we have exactly the appearance of Macedonian consciousness, something that was not confined only to that “mixture of nationalities" but was also expressed as we shall see by many other people of the time who were, so to speak, pure in nationality.
From 1869-71 Venijamin Mačukovski also taught in Thessalonika, he had been born in the village of Mačkovo in the neighborhood of Gevgelija and he had been educated in Russia. He is the Mačukovski of whom Eničerev said that he started to boast in the newspapers that he was making preparations “to print a grammar of the Macedonian dialect.” Who wished, that is, to realize the ideal presented by Parteni Zografski ten years earlier.
Commenting on his coming to Thessalonika as a teacher Stefan Salgandžiev says “I ought to note that with the taking of the teaching appointment by Mr. Mačukovski everybody said that, being born a Macedonian the new teacher was going to satisfy the pretensions of a certain circle - who wished to have the pupils taught in the Macedonian dialect, pretensions not shared by others among the citizens of Thessalonika outside the circle who it could only be right to mention did not agree with that circle only for the fact that the children received the books from the Managing body of the Reading Library free while the text-books in the Macedonian dialect had to be paid for” (p.43).
The people from the “circle” were actually those with whose names the appearance of Slavonic education in Thessalonika is connected. From what Salgandžiev says we become acquainted with a kind of book-sellers' competition since the Library in Constantinople distributes its text-books free. The fact that in the lists of the bookseller H. G. Danov for 1868-72 we do not find (in addition to books in Serbian) any of the Macedonian text-books that came out exactly at the time speaks for the competition between Macedonian and Bulgarian text-books (see Letostruj Calender pub. by H. G. Danov for these years). The Danov bookshop with a branch in Veles, is at this time the widest distributor of Bulgarian books in Macedonia. Danov himself was writing text-books which he, naturally was trying to popularize with the Macedonian schools as much as possible. The Macedonian text-books were an obstacle to his efforts. What happened then? On one side we have H. G. Danov with Bulgarian text-books and on the other Kirijak Držilovic in Thessalonika with Macedonian text-books in stock. The market is one and the same - the Macedonian schools. The logical result is competition which in this particular case has much deeper social roots, because it appears also as an expression of the struggle about which language is the teaching to be conducted in at the Macedonian schools. From such an example we can get an impression of the tangle of interests also in other spheres of trade, which made Macedonian traders worry about their positions at that time. (Brotherhood is Brotherhood, but you get your cheese for money). What means Šapkarev used to win over the citizens of Resen to return to H. G. Danov the textbooks which had come from Veles in the autumn of 1871 we shall see later. Here it is sufficient to emphasize the booksellers' competition.
2
We said that Sapkarev published eight text-books. Their names are:
1. A Short Sacred History from the Old and New Testaments with a short Holy Catechism” 62 8.
2. A Short Geography 64 8.
3. A Bulgarian Beginner 64 8.
4. A Big Bulgarian Reader 138 8.
5. Primary Knowledge for Small Children 62 8.
6. The Holy Annuncia-tion 146 8.
7. Handy Sacred Orders 144 8.
8. The Mother Tongue - A Beginner 40 8.
The first five books appeared in Constantinople in 1868 at the printing press of the newspaper Makedonija. Instead of the name of the compiler they have only “A Macedonian” and the editor was Andreja Anastasov Resenec a well-known old book-seller of the period who sold books at fairs. We come across him as the editor of P. Radov's Eternal Calendar (5th edition supplemented and printed by Andreja A. Resenec Kiev 1865 305 p. 8. (See Danov's Letostruj« 1869)
The book under number five is not mentioned in the well-known Description by V. Pogorelov, where, otherwise, all the rest are described. That it was edited in 1868 is clear from p.57 where it is mentioned that the Bishopric of Ohrid had been abolished a hundred years earlier. The language unambiguously points to Sapkarev as a compiler. But Sapkarev himself informing his readers on the back of the flyleaf of the Beginner of 1868 about the books he is publishing mentions as number five Primary Knowledge and he mentions it again in the foreword to the reader, under no. 7.
The book under number six was issued in 1869 at the printing house of Tadea Divit?ian (not at that of the newspaper Makedonija). We can call the last two books text books in so far as they served in teaching, otherwise they represent a selection of readings from the Gospel and Acts which were designed for wider usage among the people.
Finally The Mother Tongue was edited in 1874 in Thessalonika as a publication of the booksellers the brothers A. & P. Šapkarev. It is said that this is a third completely revised edition. Because this has no connection with the beginner of 1868, we cannot say whether Šapkarev did not consider that as a first edition, and in general when and where the first and second editions appeared we do not know.
The books under numbers 1,2 and 5 are written in the form of question and answer.
Except for the printed text-books, Šapkarev had only compiled, as he tells us in the foreword to the Reader of 1868 and a few other books Collected Lists for Reading, Collected Lists for Calculation and The Same Collected in a Short Book for Sums.
We shall make short notes concerning the language of Sapkarev’s text-books. Generally speaking, compared to Parteni's language, we find in Šapkarev a greater admixture of Bulgarian elements. He himself defines his language as being “a western Macedonian dialect mired mith the Bulgar in unitten dialect of the day.” (Foreword to the Reader). This is its general character. There is evolution from one book to the next with him as with Parteni. It is noticeable, for instance, that his last text-book The Mother Tongue (1874 is marked by the clarity of its Macedonian in comparison with his others. That was due to the fact that folk songs are used as reading texts.
The base of Sapkarev's language is Ohrid speech which is characterized by the change of ж > ъ: rъka, pъt etc. Sapkarev chose exactly that change, which in this point brought his language nearer to Bulgarian.
Among these forms from Ohrid we point to the verbal forms: ostanvit, svetvit etc. Besides, in connection with the present tense we ought to point out that for Sapkarev the following forms are common: kažit, rečit etc. (The Ohrid dialect does not have an “e” group) In the first person singular of the present tense the ending -is only used with “a” group verbs: begam, not with the others: kaža; third person singular present tense is used generally with the ending - t: kažit, rečit, ostavit, vikat etc.
In the third person plural of the present tense we have a certain evolution in Sapkarev. In the textbooks of 1868 he follows the rule laid down by Parteni that the verbs from “a” group end in -aet, the rest in -at so: irnaet, razvivaet, obrabotuvaet, but dadжt, činat, govorjat, etc. In this example there is a further interesting point to show Parteni's influence on Sapkarev, for the above rule does not correspond to the facts of Ohrid speech whe-re the third person plural of the present tense ends in -et, - eet. Consequently we can see that the unity of our text-book writers is developing. It is more interesting to see the same characteristic reflected again later in the writings of G. Pulevski. What is actually happening? The-re is a demand for a certain compromise between the suffix -et which was present in the three mentioned, but which would, otherwise only have been accepted with some difficulty on the part of other Macedonians and the more widely spread ending -at. Yet we know that in his second text-book Parteni uses only this latter ending. The same thing is done by Sapkarev who in 1869 drops the ending -et. We learn that Sapkarev did that on the advice of people from other parts of Macedonia where that ending was not used. In fact in the newspaper "Pravo”,30th November, 1870, one of Sapkarev's attackers says of his language “That dialect is purely from Ohrid and is not used in other Macedonian towns”. And as an example, he cites exactly the forms hodaet, praet, vikaet etc. A defense of Sapkarev, signed by ten people, comes from Prilep where concerning this point they say “if a mouse fell into the sea the sea would not smell. We know that friendly notices are given to Sapkarev and that he has made in Sunday and Holiday Readings a beautiful Macedonian dialect by throwing away some endings like “vikaet”, which are not used in Macedonian (Pravo, 5th April, 1871). This reveals to us the reverse influence of Macedonian readers on Sapkarev who could not disregard the echo roused by his language as to what was accepted and what was not accepted as being too regional.
Of Ohrid forms we ought to notice the verbal adverbs in -item: krevaeitem.
Contrary to Parteni, Sapkarev uses the relative pro noun in the form of koj or kojito, koi ito etc. even written as one word i. e. koeito, kojaito etc.
Sapkarev's orthography comes nearer to the Bulgarian of that time which was not as yet regularized. He uses the letter ж: rжce, parж. The use of t outside its etimological context is noteworthy. He also writes regularly h.
In connection with the language of our text-books and of Sapkarev's in particular it is important to devote attention to the vocabulary. We mentioned the Church Slavonic and Russian borrowings of Zografski. The same thing concerns Sapkarev to a certain extent. It is interesting, through his text-books, to follow how much further the Slavonic elements whether either terminology or general abstract words were felt as new at the time. They were then actually beginning to gain wider currency. Because of this Sapkarev was forced, in order to explain their meaning, to supply under his text the corresponding Turkish or other words known to the people, to describe and even in some cases to introduce words of his own in order to give a closer explanation of the new word. Here are some examples taken from his booklet "Primary Knowledge" (Sapkarev's explanations are given here second): mъdrost - umiština, sъštestvo - nešto, polza - fajda, dlъžnost - bore, nužda - iktiza, dobrodetel - harnina, sъstojanie - mertebe, vъzduh - hava, tъrgovija - tudžarlъk, hudožnici - marifetcii, narodi - mileti, plemena - sojovi, žilište - mesto za zivenie, prostranstvo - širina i dlъžina v edno, cetvъrtita - cetiri kъošinja etc.
3
In this section we shall again turn to the fundamental
question what aim Sapkarev wanted to achieve by publishing his text-books
and what his attitude to the literary language in our country was. We said
earlier that in this respect we noticed contradictions in him. We shall
acquaint ourselves with him more thoroughly in the following order of topics.
First we shall expose Sapkarev's thoughts as contained in the forewords
to the text-books themselves, then his declarations in the newspapers and
the discussion in general which went on in the Bulgarian papers at the
time concerning the questions which are of interest to us.
In the foreword to the reader (dated: Macedonia, 15th January, 1868) Sapkarev tells us that the need which made him compile his text-books was to provide books for Macedonian children which might be most easily understood. Sapkarev expresses himself picturesquely “the youngsters are still very tender and can neither accept nor digest any other harder food brought from afar, but only the nearby milk from the natural homely breast”. The harder and more distant food is in this case the Bulgarian language. The practical experience of our teachers in their work with the children daily confirmed them in the opinion that teaching in the mother tongue was much easier and that, understandably, encouraged them to defend it. Opposition developed in their heads: Why accept another's language? They themselves are not using it and to do so they must desert their own when it serves the purposes of instruction better. As far as our teachers are concerned we must not forget certain fears that they may have had: if the Bulgarian language is introduced and they do not know it well then the value of the Bulgarian teachers would rise. A movement against the influx of Bulgarian intellectuals clearly developed here during the nineties; vid. Petar popArsov “Stambolovstinata v Makedonija” (“Stambolovism in Macedonia”).
Further on in the foreword Sapkarev enumerates the text-books which he has compiled and says that he hopes “others will follow among which will be a grammar with sufficient notes about the Macedonian dialect and comparisons of it with the Upper-Bulgarian dialect”. It is regrettable that this proposed grammar, like Parteni's did not appear. Did Sapkarev ever manage to compile it? But as a teacher he taught grammar and it was natural for him to model. his teaching in accordance with the language of his text-books. The composition of such a grammar would have presented no difficulty, but perhaps its publication did. A Macedonian grammar would have meant that the strongest foundation for views on the literary language which were held in Macedonia was brought into existence an its use in schools would have organized the people with convinced views more firmly. This would have become a big obstacle to the penetration of the Bulgarian literary language with its East-Bulgarian basis and could easily have led towards the development of an independent Macedonian literary language. In Constantinople which was the only place where Sapkarev could have had his works printed, it would not have been difficult to advise people not to print such a grammar. We are brought to this conclusion by the sham reaction against V. Mačukovski's announcement that he was going to publish a grammar (we shall refer to this again later.) Here, however, Sapkarev announces that he has no intention of creating a particular Macedonian language in his text-books, “as some of our eastern brethren fear, vainly” “For this same reason I did not call it “Macedonian” he says of the “dialect” in his books “and also because it is not so but only parts, or more accurately, West -Macedonian mingled with contemporary written Bulgarian, neither could it be such for reasons we hope to discuss more fully on a later occasion”.
Sapkarev here denies even the possibility of creating
a written Macedonian language. Then what was his real attitude? It is completely
consolidated with what was expressed by Parteni Zografski ten years earlier
about the nature of a common language as a compromise between the Bulgarian
and Macedonian dialects. Sapkarev expre-sses this view in a neighborly
colloquial fashion in the hope of getting something done. He implores “the
higher educated brothers” to “yield something and for the sake of their
Macedonian brothers to drop bits of Macedonian salt into their dialect
so that the descendants of Cyril and Clement might come across less difficulties
in the study of their mother tongue... On our part we are heartily ready
to give up anything that is necessary.”
In order to help this forward Sapkarev worked at a “Short Dictionary« divided into three parts. “The first containing Macedonian translated into Upper Bulgarian, the second Upper-Bulgarian translated into Macedonian and the third foreign words found in the Bulgarian literary language.”
The second foreword which is important for Sapka-rev's views and those of other people in Macedonia, appeared a year later in the book The Holy Annunciation (dated: Kukus, 29th May, 1869). We can draw particularly important evidence from the following words: “In our area, from which the Bulgarian language has been expelled, it is understood that nobody from the youngest to the oldest does not know how to read Bulgarian, so how can it be easily introduced? Moreover there are some, among our people, who, besides not knowing and not wanting to learn and being from the one side convinced of what they have found and from the other exercising influence upon people are a considerable obstacle to the others by giving them all sorts of excuses. One of their numerous handy obstacles is this - the Bulgarian church language was Serbian (?) and they could not understand it (!) and even that it was forbidden (?) by the Government (?) Concerning the contemporary East-Bulgarian dialect they say that it is “Sopian” and here Sop means the most vulgar potbelly, and demand “Are we all going to make Sops of ourselves?”
It here becomes clearer that the penetration of the Bulgarian language met with opposition from among the people. The appearance of the Macedonian text-books and all the questions of language connected with them rested finally upon that fact. Sapkarev with all his marks of exclamation attempts to separate himself from those people who cried “Are we going to make Sops of ourselves” from the so-called Macedonists. Their influence upon the people, as we can see, was not small. “But” says Sapkarev, “it must not be thought that some of tho-se people do this from malice to Bulgarianism or affection for Hellenization. On the contrary, they readily agree to listen to the Bulgarian in churches and schools. But so that they all understand, in such cases they are pleased.” The people this means. as was quite natural, were glad to hear an understandable word of their own mother tongue in church and at school. They did not feel that the Bulgarian language was such. It is important to understand what Sapkarev says here about the Macedonists - that they had no love for Hellenization such as some wished to attribute to them.
Seen in this light, what is the meaning of Sapkarev's work? He separates himself off from those who were speaking against the “Sopian dialect”, and in practice - though not fully - he follows the line of their demands in relation to the language. He declares that he has no intention of dividing the common language but in practice his text-books do just that, independently of how much be himself was aware of the fact. The editing of those works was not an armchair affair but came from life experience and in turn influenced it. As to the creation of a “Bulgarian” generally which Sapkarev also declared himself for, what could have had a more destructive effect than the demand that the cultural development of the Bulgarian language be changed from its normal course up to that time to create an artificial Bulgaro-Macedonian language? We now repeat that it was impossible. The only choice was either to adopt the Bulgarian or the Serbian language or to build a Macedonian literary language. The second was the choice realized.
Further on in the foreword we are considering Sapkarev expresses himself with a different significance concerning the aim of his text-books. According to him there would be a gradual process of approximation to the Bulgarian language. “Accordingly from our attitude expressed elsewhere it is necessary for us to climb up little by little, as small children learn to walk, not all at once”. It is quite clear that this opinion is contrary to what Sapkarev had previously announced as his point of view on the creation of a common language. We pointed to the inconsistency in Sapkarev at the very beginning of this chapter. Here he says that the language of his new book The Holy Annunciation differs from the language of the books which appeared a year earlier, 1868, namely in the step it makes nearer to the “common” language. “Also the orthography is almost the common one. I did this following the thought expressed earlier about bring-ing the Macedonian dialect to a more common one based on a common orthography.” Understood in this way the task of the Macedonian text-books must have been acceptable and even a commendable method for the operation in Macedonia of some people, those, - as it appears, round the newspaper Makedonija edited by P. R. Slavejkov. The policy of teaspoon by teaspoon could have attracted either side. Greek influence was sure to be eliminated sooner or later and the more effectively if the Macedonian people were given books in a language nearer to their own, at the same time this would repel the advances of the Bulgarian language. On the other hand by this method the dissemination of the Bulgarian language would be achieved with less difficulty.
For what was in fact thought at the time by the Bulgarians of text-books especially adapted for Macedonians as a counter attraction to Serbian we have some evidence. In an article “Some Features of Nikola Pervanov’s Life” (Citaliste 1875, Bk. 6) we read that he “Much earlier wrote a Bulgarian beginner for the Macedonians. His main object in publishing that book was to preserve our Macedonian brothers from the way in which Serbians pronounce Bulgarian words, i. e. not to stress the first syllable in each word.”
The Macedonian text-books could also have filled a similar temporary role if only the people who compiled them would stay wholeheartedly in the same beliefs. In any case we have a few suggestions in the newspaper “Makedonija” which tell us about the reception of those text-books and about the reliance placed on their certain usefulness. In the number for the 24th February 1868 thanks are sent from Thessalonika for the text-books received to “Mr. D. Dobrovic for sixty “Sacred Histories,” in the Macedonian dialect, to P. R. Slavejkov for fifty, and to Iv. St. Jovcev for 10 copies”. These “Sacred Histories” could only have been by D. Makedonski who is also mentioned as one of the dispatchers.
On the appearance of Sapkarev's text-books the newspaper “Makedonija” issued a short but commendatory notice in the number of July 13th 1868. “The choice and arrangement« are praised (except that of the Beginner) as perhaps the “most successful of such books which we have published so far.” They could be recommended for use not only in Macedonian but in other schools, if the orthography were not an obstacle (rather than the language). In conclusion it is said that they will be treated of in subsequent numbers “when we are going to explain the justifiable reasons of the compiler for his choice of method”. Though we do not find another review in later numbers these last words can act as evidence of the attitude which the group round that newspaper took to Macedonian text-books and their aim in the sense we spoke of above. It is clear that others took a different attitude. The notice is characterized by an exaggerated elevation of Sapkarev, when we consider that his text-books are all modeled on those of Danov and also