The Ethnic and Historical origins of F.Y.R.O.M
akritas
the Slavs of F.Y.R.O.M and the historical circumstances under which
the first emergence of the ethnically artificial 'Macedonism' occured
during the mid-19th century and the course it has taken until the
present day. These first Macedonists were defined as a individuals
favouring an autonomous or independent Macedonian state. As an
extension of this they favoured, in differing degrees, the complete or
partial seperation from the Bulgarian consciousness in the region of a
Slavic 'Macedonian ethnicity' and hence also a 'Macedonian'
conciousness and language.
The first origins of Macedonism in the mid-19th century occured as a
result of the turmoil created by the competing forces in the region;
the Austrian, Pan-Slavist Russian and Ottoman Empires as well as
Serbia, Bulgaria, Greece and the other Great Powers as well. The
geopolitics of the Serbs' evidently played the crucial role in the
ethnogenosis by promoting a seperate Macedonian consciousness at the
expense of the Bulgarians. Though the Serbs initially put forward the
idea that the majority of Slavs in Macedonia were Serbs; upon the
realisation that their initial claim of the Slavs of Macedonia being
Serbs and not Bulgarians was making little headway in the solidly
Bulgarian Slav population, they began a systematic 'encouragement' of
a seperate Macedonian consciousness.
The Macedonist ideology drew on the historical legacy of the region
with an implied sense of ethnicity in order to draw support to its
cause. Despite gaining in support and appeal via reactionist forces,
the ideology struggled to win the support of the Slavs of Vardar, the
majority continued to be described and describe themselves as
Bulgarian by all foreign records and censuses.
The ideology later found fruition with the support of the Soviet Union
and later advent of Yugoslav communist rule for the sake of the
communists' own political interests. Various declarations were made
during the 1920s & 30s seeing the official adoption of Macedonism by
the Comintern (the international communist organ headed in Moscow
coordinating communist parties in other countries) and in turn
declarations were made by the Greek, Yugoslav and Bulgarian communist
parties, as they agreed on the adoption of Macedonism as their
official policy for the region: the various Comintern congresses of
the 1930s called for a 'Macedonian' nation as part of a wider 'Balkan
Federation'.
In 1944, wartime Yugoslav Communist Partisan leader Tito, who had
gained control of the region during the war and aided by growing
leftist reactionist support for Macedonism, proclaimed the 'Peoples'
Republic of Macedonia' as part of the Yugoslav Federation, thus
partially forfilling the Comintern's pre-war policy, despite a split
between Tito and Stalin in 1948.
With the break up of Yugoslavia in 1991, the independent 'Republic of
Macedonia' was proclaimed. The situation exists today in the form
where the Slavs of F.Y.R.O.M (Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia)
have a 'Macedonian' nationality, a nationality having been constructed
for over a century, owing to multiple historic and political factors.
Primary and secondary sources following will illustrate this point.