VENKO MARKOVSKI 1915-1988

VENKO MARKOVSKI  

MACEDONIAN POET LAUREATE

DECLARED BULGAROPHILE

SENT TO GOLI OTOK PRISON

 

Born in Skopje, Markovski went to Sofia in 1937, where he had his first book of verse "Narodni Bigori" published in 1938. The preface by prof. St. Mladenov, says,
"THERE'S NO BIG WONDER WHY MR. MARKOVSKI, BORN IN MACEDONIA UNDER SERBS, AND STUDIED IN A SERBIAN SCHOOL, WRITES SO FINE IN BULGARIAN, BECAUSE THE PEOPLE IN MACEDONIA SPEAK BULGARIAN AND SING ITS BULGARIAN SONGS."
Further, Venko Markovski writes himself,
"THE EXPERIMENT HOW FROM BULGARIAN ONE MAY TURN INTO MACEDONIAN I EXPERIENCED MYSELF. FROM SKOPIE I CAME TO SOFIA BULGARIAN, AND IN SOFIA I BECAME MACEDONIAN"
Referred to as "Macedonian's Greatest Poet" by Metodi Shatorov, Venko Markovski later became a prominent figure of the Macedonian resistance movement during WWII and wrote its most famous marches. Returning to Vardar from Bulgaria after the war Venko Markovski was feted as a national hero and enjoyed the status of a poet laureate. This reputation made him an automatic choice as one of the 12 members comprising the Philological Committee on the Establishment of the Macedonian Alphabet and the Macedonian Literary Language in Skopje, during Nov 27 - Dec 3, 1944. The Committee included 10 linguists/teachers, one politician and one poet - Venko Markovski.

However what was happening in Tito's Yugoslavia caused Markovski so much consternation that he wrote to Georgi Dimitrov

"TAKE MEASURES... THE BULGARIANS IN VARDAR MACEDONIA
ARE BEING SERBIANIZED WITH NO MERCY."
What happened to Serbia's opponents, like Markovski, is described in the following newspaper article
LEADING COMMUNIST POET IN DISFAVOR

ONCE VENKO MARKOVSKI WAS PROCLAIMED AS A LEADING MACEDONIAN POET BY THE COMMUNISTS. TWO YEARS AGO, HE WROTE A PLAY ENTITLED "NATIVE PLACE." PEOPLE GREETED WITH GREAT ENTHUSIASM ITS FIRST PERFORMANCE IN SKOPJE. BUT TITO'S HENCHMEN, ZOGOVITCH AND DJILAS, WERE DISTURBED BY THE FACT THAT MARKOVSKI'S PLAY REPRESENTED BELGRADE'S ADMINISTRATION OVER MACEDONIA DARKER THAN SOFIA'S. THEY ACCUSED HIM OF BEING PRO-BULGARIAN. HIS PLAY WAS PROHIBITED AND SOON MARKOVSKI FOUND HIMSELF EXPELLED FROM THE COMMUNIST PARTY.

BEING IN DISFAVOR, MARKOVSKI HAD TO FACE THE CONSEQUENCES. TODAY HE IS PENNILESS, BADLY STRICKEN WITH TUBERCULOSIS, HALF BODY PARALYSED. RECENTLY, MARKOVSKI AND HIS WIFE WERE FORCIBLY EVICTED FROM THEIR HOME, WHICH WAS GIVEN TO KOLE CHASHULE, HEAD OF THE POLITICAL DEPARTMENT OF RADIO SKOPIE AND TO ELIA TOPALOVSKI-AVRAM, HEAD OF THE PRESS AND PROPAGANDA GOVERNMENT

"Macedonia" Vol I, No. 2, Sep 1949, p2          

Subsequently Markovski was tried as a Bulgarian agent and imprisoned for 5 long years on Goli-Otok, a barren island in the Adriatic. After his release he managed to escape to Bulgaria, where he wrote two important books, "Krywta Woda Ne Stawa" and "Goli Otok - Island of Death", both vividly exposed the tyranny and serbianization of the Macedonian People's Republic, under the dictatorship of Tito's Macedonian appointee, Lazar Kolishevski.

Venko Markovski's judgment on the legitimacy of Tito and Kolishevski's Macedonian People's Republic, is poignantly illustrated by the following passage from his text

KRYWTA WODA NE STAWA 1981, p287

The entirety of the serious scholars via different ways, have arrived at the conviction that Macedonia, Thrace, Moesia and Dobrudzhia, towns and villages alike, are inhabited by Bulgarians; that the national awareness of these Bulgarians is neither Macedonian, nor Thracian, nor Moesian, nor Dobrudzhian, but Bulgarian; that the language of these Bulgarians is neither Macedonian, nor Thracian, nor Moesian, nor Dobrudzhian, but Bulgarian; that the literature of these Bulgarians is neither Macedonian, nor Thracian, nor Moesian, nor Dobrudzhian, but Bulgarian; that the history of these Bulgarians living in Macedonia, and in Thrace, and in Moesia, and in Dobrudzhia, is not a separate one such as - Macedonian, Thracian, Moesian, Dobrudzhian history, but a common, Bulgarian history; and that Macedonia, Thrace, Moesia, Dobrudzhia are the geographic expression of the Bulgarian territory

In his acclaimed text, "WITH STALIN AGAINST TITO", Ivo Banac sees Markovski as an important character in events associated with that historic period, but leaves no doubt as to the leanings of the "Macedonian old-guard", like Markovski, when he writes

MARKOVSKI NEVER CONCEALED HIS DISDAIN FOR BELGRADE AND THE NOTION THAT THE MACEDONIANS WERE OUTSIDE THE BULGAR NATION. DURING THE LAST DECADE OF HIS LIFE HE WAS AT THE CENTRE OF COMINFORMIST ACTIVITIES IN SOFIA, PLAYING THE ROLE OF THE FLAME-KEEPER OF UNREDEEMED MACEDONIA. MARKOVSKI WROTE POEMS GLORIFYING FIGURES OF THE MACEDONIAN AND BULGARIAN PAST "WHO SAFEGUARDED BULGAR NATIONHOOD" (KLIMENT OHRIDSKI, BOGOMIL, TSAR SAMUIL, HRISTO BOTEV) AND MORE RECENT MACEDONIAN HEROES (GOCE DELCHEV, JANE SANDANSKI). DESPITE PROTESTS FROM BELGRADE, HE WAS ENTRENCHED IN SOFIA.
Unfortunately many of Markovski's comrades, like Metodi Chento, also seriously underestimated the Serbian influence and control within Vardar Macedonia.

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