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Bloody Christmas (1945)

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TheBloody Christmas(Bulgarian:Кървава Коледа,Kărvava Koleda;Macedonian:Крвава Коледа,Krvava Koleda) or theBloody Bozhik(Bulgarian:Кървав Божик,Karvav Bozhik;Macedonian:Крвав Божиќ,Krvav Božiḱ) was a campaign in which several hundred people ofMacedonian Bulgariandescent were killed as collaborationists by theYugoslavcommunist authorities in theSocialist Republic of Macedoniafrom 7 to 9 January 1945.[1][2]Thousands of others who retained their pro-Bulgarian sympathies or views, suffered severe repression as a result.[3]However many people accused of pro-Bulgarian orientation, (in most cases they were pro-Independence and anti-Yugoslav), were also arrested, sentenced on fabricated charges and imprisoned.

After the end of the Second World War,Bulgariansin the so-called "new lands" inVardar Macedonia,briefly annexed to Bulgaria during the war, were persecuted using charges of "great-Bulgarian chauvinism". This chapter of Macedonian history was ataboosubject for conversation until the late 1980s, and, as a result, decades of official silence created a reaction in the form of numerousdata manipulationsfornationalistandcommunistpropagandapurposes.[4][5]To wipe out theBulgarophilesentiments of parts of the local population, theYugoslavcommunists started a process ofnation-building.[6]

From the start of the newSocialist Republic of Macedonia,accusations surfaced that new authorities were involved in retribution against people who did not support the formation of the newethnic Macedonianidentity.[7]The number of dead "traitors" and "collaborators" due to organized killings of Bulgarians during Bloody Christmas and afterwards is unclear, but some sources put the number of victims at 1,200.[8]The idea was to weaken the Bulgarian intelligentsia in Macedonia, to eradicate the Bulgarian self-identification of parts of the population, and to speed-up the process ofMacedonisation.[9]At the end of 1944, a law was passedfor the protection of the Macedonian national honour,which legalized the persecution of people who openly expressed Bulgarian self-identification. Special courts were also set up to protect Macedonia's national honour.

During the terror of January 1945, on the road betweenLake OhridandLake Prespa,and on the hills ofGaličicamountain near the village ofOteševoand other villages, more Bulgarians were executed.[10]Most of the bodies were disposed of in Lake Prespa. Nearly all inhabited places inVardar Macedoniaprovided victims for the campaign.[11]In several cities in Vardar Macedonia which were set up people's courts, issuing death sentences over citizens charged of "great-Bulgarian chauvinism". InSkopje.in 1945 alone, 18 trials were held with 226 defendants, 22 of whom were sentenced to death. InŠtipin the same period, seven Bulgarians were sentenced to death. Ten Bulgarians were sentenced to death inPrilepand inVeles.InBitola,nine were sentenced to death.[12]

The centralCommunist Party of Yugoslavia(CPY) expressed discontent with these actions of theCommunist Party of Macedonia(CPM), with an exchange of letters showing that the latter misunderstood the repressions to be greenlit by the former. The CPY struggled in these earlier years to assert itself over the affairs of the CPM, which was subject to considerable factionalism at the time. To make matters worse, the CPY's former representative in Macedonia with considerable understanding of the regional situation,Svetozar Vukmanović-Tempo,had been recalled earlier in November 1944 and replaced with the less knowledgableMiha Marinko.[13]

According to Bulgarian sources, between 1945 and 1947 over 4,700Bulgariansweremassacredor went missing.[14]As a result of the purge, up to 100,000 people were deported, displaced, imprisoned, persecuted or sent to concentration camps inYugoslavia.[15][notes 1]

See also

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References

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Informational notes

  1. ^Additionally, some 100,000 people were imprisoned in the post-1944 period for violations of the law for the "protection of Macedonian national honor," and some 1,260 Bulgarian sympathizers were allegedly killed. (Troebst, 1997: 248-50, 255-57; 1994: 116-22; Poulton, 2000: 118-19). For more see: Roudometof, Victor (2002)Collective Memory, National Identity, and Ethnic Conflict: Greece, Bulgaria, and the Macedonian Question.Westport: Connecticut: Praeger. p.104.ISBN0-275-97648-3

Citations

  1. ^The most poignant example of Communist Party of Macedonia excess was Bloody Christmas: a series of pro-Bulgarian Macedonian purges that started in January 1945.For more see: James Horncastle, The Macedonian Slavs in the Greek Civil War, 1944–1949, Rowman & Littlefield, 2019,ISBN1498585051,p. 107.
  2. ^Bechev, Dimitar (2009)Historical Dictionary of the Republic of Macedonia.Scarecrow Press. p.287.ISBN0810855658
  3. ^Poulton, Hugh (2000)Who Are the Macedonians?.C. Hurst & Co. p.118.ISBN1850655340
  4. ^Kostov, Chris (2010)Contested Ethnic Identity: The Case of Macedonian Immigrants in Toronto, 1900-1996.Peter Lang. p.84/ISBN3034301960
  5. ^Ramet, Sabrina P. (2005)Thinking About Yugoslavia: Scholarly Debates About the Yugoslav Breakup and the Wars in Bosnia and Kosovo.Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press. p.281.ISBN0521616905
  6. ^Zahariadis, Mickolaos (2005)Essence of Political Manipulation: Emotion, Institutions, and Greek Foreign Policy.Peter Lang. p.85.ISBN0820479039
  7. ^Djokić, Dejan (2003).Yugoslavism: Histories of a Failed Idea, 1918-1992,C. Hurst & Co. p. 122.ISBN1-85065-663-0
  8. ^Phillips, John (2004)Macedonia: Warlords and Rebels in the Balkans.I.B. Tauris. p.40ISBN186064841X
  9. ^Michev, D. (1994)The Macedonian Question and the Bulgarian-Yugoslav Relations 1944-1949.(in Bulgarian) Sofia:St. Kliment Ohridski University Publishing House. pp.80-82
  10. ^(1992)Macedonianism and Macedonia's Resistance Against It Kosta Tsarnushanov.Sofia: (in Bulgarian) St. Kliment Ohridski University Publishing House. Chapters 25 and 26
  11. ^Angelov, Veselin (2003)Macedonian Bloody Christmas.Sofia: Galik Publishing House. pp.179-201.ISBN9548008777
  12. ^Serafimov, Tsanko (2004)Encyclopedic Dictionary of Macedonia and Macedonian Affairs(in Bulgarian) Orbel. p.298.
  13. ^Horncastle, James (3 June 2019).The Macedonian Slavs in the Greek Civil War, 1944–1949.Rowman & Littlefield.ISBN978-1-4985-8505-7.
  14. ^Gotsev, Dimitar (1998)The New National Liberation Struggle in Vardar Macedonia 1944-1991.Sofia:Macedonian Scientific Institute. p.3
  15. ^Rae, Heather (2002)State Identities and the Homogenisation of Peoples.Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press. p.227.ISBN052179708X
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