Essay
On Macedonian Matters
За македонцките работи
Krste Petkov Misirkov · 1903
Synopsis
A plea for recognising the Macedonians as a distinct Slavic people, alongside the Bulgarians, Croats and Serbs, and for giving them a written language based on the dialects of the centre of the country, from Veles to Ohrid, which the book itself uses. The author criticises Bulgarian and Serbian influences, the revolutionary organisation and the Exarchate, calls for the restoration of the Archbishopric of Ohrid, and deals with history, ethnography and culture, making language the foundation of the nation.
Context
The book appeared in Sofia in the last days of 1903, from the presses of the Liberal Club. The Bulgarian police and militants of the revolutionary organisation seized and destroyed most of the copies, and the author was expelled. It had little echo before 1946, the date of its reprinting from a copy in the public library of Sofia; the author, who had meanwhile returned to pro-Bulgarian positions, disowned it in a preface of 1907. There are Greek and English translations, the latter in 2010.
Who it is for
An essay in Macedonian, with no French translation. It helps to know that the language used here received an official standard only in 1945.
Prizes and reception
Regarded as the manifesto of the Macedonian nation, it supplied the principles taken up by the codification of the language after the war.