| Kiril i Metodi |
[:(][:(]In November 1943 in Jajce, (Bosnia), representatives of the communist-led resistance movement in Yugoslavia, for a few hours’ time, founded a new people, called Macedonian, and a bright new state, called Republic of Macedonia. Till then, officially in Yugoslavia, these people were called South Serbs, whilst the region they lived in, was called South Serbia. The world apart of Yugoslavia considered them Bulgarians from Macedonia.
The Slavic tribes, inhabiting the lands of the ancient Macedonian State, experienced a rather complicated historical run.
The name of the ancient state of Macedonia, turned into a Roman province of Macedonia, disappeared during the Slav migration in the 6th century AD. Driven away by the Slavs, the ancient Macedonian people (the Macedons), were assimilated into the huge Byzantine Empire. Byzantines gave the name of Sclavinia to all the lands from Peloponesse to the Sava River, inclusive Macedonia, inhabited by independent Slavic tribes and ruled by their own princes. While khan Asparukh founded the Bulgarian State, another group of Bulgars (Proto-Bulgarians), led by Kuber, settled in the Bitola plain. For many a years, they took part in the struggle of the native Slavic tribes against the Byzantenes. In 850 AD, during the reign of khan Pressian, the Slavs in Macedonia, intermingling with the Kuber’s Bulgars, voluntarily joined the Bulgarian State where their kindred Slavs and Bulgars lived. Initially, this region was called Kutmiceviza, a Proto-Bulgarian derivation, meaning a “new gained” land. Later, it was subsequently called the Lower Land and Lower (Western) Bulgaria. The Saints Cyril and Methodius’ disciple, Clement, who was sent by Boris I on mission in Ohrid, along with his students, established there a Bulgarian literary school. In the 9th and 10th century, the Slavs and the Bulgars, allied with the remaining Moesian and Thracian people, formed the Bulgarian nationality in the former Roman provinces of Moesia, Thrace and Macedonia. Since then, the Slavs of Macedonia have been calling themselves Bulgarians, this has also been considered by all the Byzantine authors, Medieval travelers, crusaders, Turks, Greeks, Albanians, Vlachs. Only the Serbians, by the end of the 19th century, called them “right” Serbs, then South Serbs, and after 1943 Macedonians.
In Bulgarian language, when speaking of Thracians, Macedonians, Dobrudjans, the word goes for Bulgarians inhabiting or originating from the regions of Thrace, Macedonia or Dobrudja.
After the Byzantine conquest in 1018, the Lower Bulgaria was made a Byzantine province (theme). Nonetheless, the former Bulgarian capital, Ohrid, preserved the right of having a Bulgarian archbishop.
In the province (theme) of Bulgaria, including Kutmicevza (Macedonia), arose two big, though not-successful political uprisings: the first, in 1040, was under the leadership of Petar Deljan, a descendent of tsar Samuel, the second, in 1072, was led by Georgi Voiteh, a Scopian notable. It should be noticed that the Byzantines called theme Macedonia (from the end of the 8th till 10th century) a part of Eastern Thrace with town of Odrin as its center. The Emperor Vassiliy II, although of Armenian origin, and because he had been borne in Odrin, became the founder of the Macedonian dynasty.
After the liberation of Bulgaria from the Byzantine rule in 1186, the region of Kutmiceviza (Macedonia) was included into the Bulgarian State, a natural continuation of the First Bulgarian Kingdom. After 1250 began the decline of the Bulgarian State. At the same time, on the west began the rise of the Serbian State, particularly after 1330, when it seized from Bulgaria the town of Nish – the key-point to Macedonia. Stefan Dusan occupied all of Macedonia, Albania, Epirus and Thesalia and titled himself an Emperor and autocrat of all the Serbs, Greeks, Bulgarians and Albanians. But, after his death in 1355, the Serbian Empire disintegrated. The feudal lords Valkishan and Uglesh, governors of Macedonia, declared themselves independent. In 1371 the Turks conquered Macedonia and ruled over it till 1912, when, at last, they were expelled by the allied Balkan countries: Bulgaria, Serbia, Montenegro and Greece.
The national revival of the Bulgarians began in Macedonia in the 18th century. A monk, Paisiy, born in Macedonia, wrote in 1762:“A Slaveno-Bulgarian history”. After the restoration of an independent Bulgarian church in 1870 (separate from the Greek), the Bulgarians in Macedonia joined it, not the Serbian or the Greek church. Generally, in all their struggles for independence, the Macedonian Bulgarians were always in very close connections with the other Bulgarians, living in Moesia and Thrace.
In all the international conferences held by the end of the 19th century the Slavs in Macedonia are mentioned as Bulgarians (the conference of Tzarigrad in 1876, the Treaty of San Stefano in 1878, the Congress of Berlin in 1878).
After the liberation of Macedonia from its Ottoman Turkish rulers and after the Balkan War II, disastrous for Bulgaria, the greater part of Macedonia was divided between Serbia (7/10) and Greece (2/10). After the Balkan War II (1913) and World War I (1918), most of the intellectuals and the liberty-loving people from Vardar Macedonia rested in Serbia, whilst those from Aegian Macedonia, which was part of Greece, came as refugees to Bulgaria.
Modern Bulgarian literary language dates from the liberation of Bulgaria from the Turkish yoke, when different dialects unified in forming a compact language. Due to their living out of the country, the Bulgarians from the Vardar Macedonia could nor take part in the formation of the Bulgarian literary language. Actually, it was the dialect of these people, which was considered “a Macedonian language” at the Jajce conference in 1943 and the region of the Vardar Macedonia was called Republic of Macedonia.
Between 1945 and 1991 Macedonia was part of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. On 17 September 1991 it proclaimed itself independence under the name of Republic of Macedonia; the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) is its name within UN.
Macedonia has an area of 25333 sq. km and a population of 1995859 habitants (1997).[:(][:(][:(]
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