Secret Macedonian Committee

Temko Popov, one of the leaders of the society
For the Greek revolutionary organization in Macedonia, see Hellenic Macedonian Committee.

The Macedonian Society or Secret Macedonian Committee (Macedonian: Таен македонски комитет, romanized: Taen makedonski komitet; Serbian: Тајни македонски комитет, Tajni makedonski komitet), was secret organization established in 1885 by Macedonian Slavs in Sofia, Bulgaria, to promote а Slav Macedonian identity, distinguished especially from the ethnic identity of the Bulgarians, the establishment of the Archbishopric of Ohrid separate from the Bulgarian Exarchate and the promotion of the Macedonian language.[1][2][3] Its leaders were Naum Evrov, Kosta Grupčev, Vasilij Karajovev and Temko Popov.[4]

In 1886 the Bulgarian government revealеd the organization and it was disbanded. Some of its leaders went in the same year back to Belgrade, where the Government of Serbia established a cooperation with that ephemeral Macedonian Society.[5] Through support to the Macedonian movement the Government of Serbia had intention to suppress the process of Bulgarisation of Macedonian Christian Slavs or to debulgarize them.[6][7] In accordance with the Serbo-Macedonian cooperation in the same year in Constantinople was founded the Association of Serbo-Macedonians. This compromise with the Serbian interests in Macedonia, led it later to abandonment of its separatist program altogether.[8] As result, later its members promoted already only pro-Serbian ideas.[9]

  1. ^ Ванчо Ѓорѓиев, Слобода или Смрт, Македонското националноослободително дело во Солунскиот вилает 1893-1903 година, Скопје, Институт за Историја-Филозофски Факултет
  2. ^ Славко Димевски, За развојот на македонската национална мисла до создавањето на ТМОРО, Култура - Скопје, 1980
  3. ^ Филологическа част: да се пише на чисто македонски език, но тъй като македонският език книжовно не е усъвършенствуван, да се изхвърли всеки български израз и да се въвежда сръбски. Да се вземе сръбската азбука като най-удобна за македонския език и при писането да се придържа към сръбската граматика. Църнушанов, К. Македонизмът и съпротивата на Македония срещу него, София, Университетско издателство "Св. Климент Охридски", 1992, 31 и сл.
  4. ^ Dragan Taškovski (1969). Rađanje makedonske nacije. Zavod za izdavanje udžbenika Socijalističke Republike Srbije. p. 175. Retrieved 23 May 2013. коју су предводили Наум Евров, Коста Групчев, Василиј Карајовев и Темко Попов
  5. ^ In 1886 four members of the Secret Macedonian Committee (founded that year in Sofia) — Temko Popov, Naum Evro, Kosta Grupce and Vasil Karajovov — conducted talks with the Serbian government in Belgrade. The Macedonian Question: Cultural, Historiography, Politics, Victor Roudometof, East European Monographs, 2000, ISBN 0880334517, p 185.
  6. ^ Dragan Taškovski (1969). Rađanje makedonske nacije. Zavod za izdavanje udžbenika Socijalističke Republike Srbije. p. 175. Retrieved 23 May 2013. Прва оваква сарадња између српске владе и једне групе представника македонског покрета остварена је 1886. године
  7. ^ But it can indicate that the “Slav-Macedonian” identity was also the result of the same instrumentalization. That identity was even directly encouraged by representatives of Belgrade. Here the example most often referred to by Bulgarian polemicist is that of Stojan Novakovic... “Macedonism” was seen by Novaković as a possible counterweight to Bulgarian influence in Macedonia: according to the Serbian diplomat, Belgrade had to use the existing, Macedonian linguistic and identitary particularism and to encourage its development. Similarly, some of the first “Macedonists” were educated in Serbia or under Serbian cultural influence, sometimes they sought to spride that influence. Such was the example of Macedonian Slavs who migrated to Serbia and developed a kind of Macedonian pro-Serbian identity. This was likely the case with four activists - Temko Popov, Naum Evrov, Kosta Grupčev and Vasilije Karajovev, who in 1886 formed in Sofia an ephemeral Secret Macedonian Committee. Roumen Daskalov and Tchavdar Marinov. Entangled Histories of the Balkans: Volume One: National Ideologies and Language Policies. BRILL, 2013. p. 317.
  8. ^ Sociolinguistica, Volumes 5–6, Klaus J. Mattheier, Publisher: M. Niemeyer, 1991, ISBN 3484603682, p. 131.
  9. ^ Dimitar Bechev (13 April 2009). Historical Dictionary of the Republic of Macedonia. Scarecrow Press. p. 162. ISBN 978-0-8108-6295-1.