At the same time, and for the decades following, Gorna Dzhumaia
became a haven for refugees for those parts of Macedonia --
Pirin, Aegean, Vardar -- that in one manner or another came under
Greek, Serb or Yugoslav rule. Life was harsh for these refugees,
suffering as they did homelessness, penury, unemployment, hunger
and disease. A life was harsh politically, as when Bulgarian
authorities cooperated with Serbian officials in the tracking
down and persecution of individuals active in the struggle to
prevent Serb control of Pirin and Vardar Macedonia.
For the period during and immediately following the Second World
War, the political persecution continued, now at the hands of
Bulgarian Communist regime which had decided to concede to what
it saw as international realities and to recognize the
legitimacy of a (Communist) Republic of Macedonia with the
attributes of nationhood. Particularly traumatizing for the
population of Pirin Bulgaria was their forced self-declaration
as Macedonians by language and nationality in a census in 1946.
The pivotal importance of this development in the current
mentality of Pirin Bulgarians was noted recently by the
prominent Bulgarian politician, Filip Dimitrov, leader of the
Union of Democratic Forces.
The Bulgarians in Pirin Macedonia
underwent violence, were soundly trashed and suffered, when
they were forced to register themselves as "Macedonians". For
them we are talking about a question of self-identity that has
a quite specific meaning, they have suffered through it and that
has helped them to sense themselves engaged through this whole
period with their identification with the Bulgarian ethnos and
the Bulgarian nation.
What F Dimitrov described, and what can be offered here as the
first conclusion about the Macedonian Question in Blagoevgrad
today, is the existence of a strong regional temperament, whose
prism yields the rich hues and shades of the current discussion
in Pirin Bulgaria. This perspective -- i.e., the outlook of the
people themselves -- has not often been the subject of the many
historians of the Macedonain Question. It is an outlook, a
mentality, that at first instance combines a compelling and
vibrant regional identity with an equally strong sense of
Bulgarian consciousness.