Resolution of the Comintern on the Macedonian question

The resolution of the Comintern of January 11, 1934, was an official political document, in which for the first time, an authoritative international organization has recognized the existence of a separate Macedonian nation and Macedonian language.^[1]

The first page of the Resolution. The document is classified.

Background

At that time there were few historians, ethnographers or linguists who claimed that a separate Macedonian nation and language existed.^[2][3] In early 20th century, among the small number of the Slavs in the region of Macedonia who had a national identity, most coexisted Bulgarian ethnic sentiments and regional Macedonian identity.^[4][5] However, for the majority of Macedonian Slavs, national identity was a political and flexible option imposed by the educational and religious propaganda, as seen by contemporary observers at the time.^[6][7] The partition of the Ottoman Macedonia between Balkan nation-states after the conclusion of the Balkan Wars (1912–1913) and World War I (1914–1918) left the area divided mainly between Greece and Serbia (later Yugoslavia), while the smallest portion was acquired by Bulgaria. As result many Macedonians of Serbian Macedonia and Greek Macedonia were forced to emigrate to Bulgarian Macedonia.^[8] All of the countries pursued a policy of trying to assimilate the inherited population.^[1] Under Serbian control in Vardar Macedonia the locals faced with the policy of forced Serbianisation.^[9] The Greek governments also began a process of Hellenization, promulgating a policy of persecution of the use of Slavic dialects both in public and in private, as well of expressions of any ethnic distinctiveness.^[10] In 1919 and 1927 population exchange agreements were signed and some of the Slavic-speaking population in Greece left for Bulgaria. In Vardar Macedonia amid the oppressive Serbianisation campaign a Macedonian consciousness seemed to be growing.^[1]

Resolution

In June 1931 the registrar of the Comintern Otto Kuusinen in his report on the national question to the executive committee, suggested that the main weakness of the Comintern was the insufficient appreciation of the national questions.^[11] Kuusinen called to discuss the national question in order to develop a new national program for each of the parties. Meanwhile, to the Balkan communist parties a directive was provided, for the gradual abandonment of the slogan of the Balkan Federation, highlighting in its foreground the "right of the distinct peoples of self-determination to a full separation". The reason for this political turning, was the rising of Nazism in Germany. Thus in 1932 a members of the Comintern sponsored IMRO (United), put for the first time the issue of the recognition of a separate Macedonian nation.^[12] This question was discussed among them, however, there was a split when Vasil Hadzhikimov and his group, refused to agree that the Macedonians are a separate people from the Bulgarians. Nevertheless, the highest institutions of the Comintern were informed about this issue from Dino Kyosev who gave a lecture in Moscow in 1933 on the distinct Macedonian national consciousness.

As a result, in the autumn of 1933 Dimitar Vlahov - leader of the IMRO (United) and former Bulgarian diplomat, was summoned in Moscow and took part in a number of meetings related to the Macedonian Question and the recognition of a Macedonian nation.^[13] Vlahov claimed, that before the convening of the consultation, the leadership had already reached its stand that the Macedonian nation exists.^[14][15] Vlahov who was a Soviet spy and declared himself until the 1930s as a Macedonian Bulgarian,^[16][17][18] accepted the decision without any personal reaction or substantive comment.^[19] However, his intervention seemed crucial in the adoption of this resolution.^[20] The executive committee ordered the leading cadres of the Balkan Secretariate, Henryk Walecki - a Pole, and Bohumír Šmeral - a Czech, to draw up a special resolution on the issue. Because they had no concept of this problem, using Vlahov's help the resolution yet had been prepared.^[21] So on January 11, 1934, the Political Secretariat of the executive committee of the Comintern adopted its final decision on the Macedonian Question which was the recognition of the existence of a separate Macedonian nation. The decision was based on the activity of IMRO (United).^[20][22] The basis of the new concept was the common view that the region of Macedonia is one of the pivots of future imperialist war and therefore the Comintern seeks an option to blunt the contradictions between the countries that possess it.^[23] The Resolution was published for the first time in the April issue of the IMRO (United) newspaper Makedonsko delo.^[24] Among the more significant points of it was:

"The bourgeoisie of the three imperialist nations among which Macedonia has been divided is endeavouring to conceal the ethnic oppression by denying the national characteristics of the Macedonian people and the existence of a Macedonian nation. The Greek chauvinists maintain that the local Slav population in the Greek-occupied sector of Macedonia consists of Greeks who were slavicized in past centuries and must be forcibly “brought back” to Greek culture through the interdiction of the speaking and teaching of their mother tongue. The Great Serbia chauvinists cite the existence of Serbian words in the language spoken by the local Slav population as a pretext for declaring this population to be one of the “tribes” of the Yugoslav nation and they are subjecting it to forcible serbianization. The Bulgarian chauvinists are exploiting the affinity between the Macedonian and Bulgarian languages to assert that the Macedonians are Bulgarians, and trying thus to justify their occupation of the Petritch area and their expansionist policy throughout Macedonia."

Vlahov mentioned that the resolution had a hostile reception both from members of the Bulgarian Communist Party and of the IMRO (United), residing in Moscow.^[25] The Resolution did not ever mention Vlahov as a leader of the IMRO (United).^[26] At the meeting where the resolution was adopted, due to the negative reactions to it by the majority of Bulgarian communists present, fears were expressed that it would cause many left-wing Macedonian revolutionaries to switch to Ivan Mihailov's "fascist" and anti-communist IMRO.^[22][27] Following the decision of the Comintern, IMRO (United) took as its slogan "the right of the Macedonian people to self-determination up to secession" and formation of "Macedonian Republic of working masses". Despite the fact that this was formally a Resolution of IMRO (United), it was a document adopted by the Comintern, which was immediately published in all the mouthpieces of this international communist centre. Afterwards the mainstream Bulgarian public opinion has maintained that the Comintern is the "inventor" of the idea about the existence of a separate Macedonian nation.^[28] Dimitar Vlahov in his memoirs confirmed that the national emancipation of the left-wing and communist Macedonian activists has certainly shaped the formula blessed by the Comintern. Hence, one cannot speak of a purely communist invention with no connection to reality.^[20]

Significance

Prior to the Second World War, these views on the Macedonian issue had been of little practical importance. During the War the Macedonian national ideas were further developed by the communist Macedonian Partisans. Most researchers doubt that even at that time the majority of Macedonian Slavs could precisely identify what they are. There were still some pro-Bulgarian sentiments among them, and they clearly would not identify as Serbs.^[6][29][22] However, after the Bulgarian occupation of most of Macedonia, the new oppressive regime established to enforce the Bulgarisation policy as a backlash stimulated the further development of a Macedonian nationality.^[1] In August 1944, the Macedonian Partisans proclaimed a Macedonian nation-state of ethnic Macedonians. After the Red Army entered the Balkans in the late 1944, new communist regimes came into power in Bulgaria and Yugoslavia and their policy on the Macedonian Question was committed to supporting a distinct ethnic Macedonian identity.^[1] A separate Macedonian language was also codified in 1945.

See also

• Macedonian nationalism