Krste Misirkov - Biography

Biography

Krste Petkov Misirkov was born on 18 November 1874 in the village of Postol, Ottoman Empire. He started his elementary education in the local Greek school, where he was studying until the sixth grade elementary school, but the bad financial situation of his family could not support his further education at that point and he left the school. At that period Serbian propaganda began to promote its variant of "Macedonism" and to recruit young people in order to "Serbianize" them. After some period without proper education, Misirkov applied and was granted a scholarship by the Serbian association "St. Sava".

Misirkov spent some time in Serbia, where he was studying in Serbian, and soon after he realized that the propaganda was the main goal of the Serbian association. That politics practiced by the association, forced the Misirkov and the other Macedonian students to participate in a students' revolt against the Saint Sava society. As a result of that, Misirkov and other companions moved from Belgrade to Sofia. Since he faced up with similar situation in Bulgaria, i.e., another propaganda, Misirkov again went to Serbia to continue his education, but without any success because he was rejected by the "St. Sava" association. Since he was willing to get higher education, he was forced, by a chain of events, to enroll a theological school for teachers. Similar to the association "St. Sava", this school as well had its own propagandistic goals and that resulted in another revolt of the students. As a result of it, the school stopped working and the students were sent throughout Serbia. Misirkov was sent to Šabac, where he finished the last, fourth, class of secondary education, but this time in the local gymnasium. In both, Serbia and Bulgaria, Misirkov and his friend were treated as Serbians or Bulgarians in order to be accepted in the educational system. After the gymnasium, even though he graduated, Misirkov enrolled in another secondary school for teachers in Belgrade, where he graduated in 1895. During this time, particularly in 1893, Misirkov founded an association of students called "Vardar". Its charter included, among other things, the aim of studying and spreading a knowledge of their country as regards its geographical, ethnographic and historical aspects and the cardinal principle of its program was that Macedonia should belong to the Macedonians. In other words, the students were not satisfied by the Serbianization of the Macedonians. This idea was inspired by the Macedonians in Sophia called "Lozari". However, the Serbs were opposed to this thesis of the young Macedonians, so their society did not last very long and it was disbanded in 1895. Afterwards he was appointed as a Serbian teacher in Pristina. Misirkov refused and left for Odessa to continue his studies.

His educational qualifications obtained in Belgrade were not recognized in Russia. Misirkov had to study from the very beginning in the Seminary at Poltava. In 1897 he was able to enter the Petersburg University. Here he entered at first the Bulgarian Students Association. Misirkov carried out here his first scholarly lecture on the ethnography and history of the Balkan Peninsula before the members of the Russian Imperial Geographical Society. In 1901, he moved to the University of Odessa. Of great importance to Misirkov was the founding of the Macedonian Scientific and Literary Society in Petersburg. Its creation was influenced by the Macedonian Club founded in Belgrade. After the Club was closed, its chief founders left for the Russian capital, where they organized the new Macedonian Society. This foundation in 1902 became the most important Macedonian institution abroad. In the same year this Society sent a special Memorandum to the Great Powers, in which the Macedonian Question was examined from the national point of view. It was proposed also Macedonian literary language to be codified. The question was also examined of establishing a Macedonian Church under the Ohrid Archbishopric. The aim of this Memorandum was that the Macedonians should be recognized as a separate nation and that Macedonia should be granted full autonomy within the Ottoman Empire.

Later Misirkov abandoned the University and left for Ottoman Macedonia. Facing financial obstacles to continue his postgraduate education, he accepted the proposal of the Bulgarian Exarchate to be appointed teacher in a high school in Bitola. There he became friendly with the Russian consul in Bitola. He began to plan opening of local schools and publishing textbooks in Macedonian language. But the Ilinden Uprising in 1903 and the assassination of the Russian Consul changed his plans and he returned to Russia. There There Misirkov published different articles about the Ilinden Uprising and the reasons why the Consul was assassinated. Soon afterwards he wrote the brochure "The Macedonian matters" and published it in Sofia. This book, was written in the Macedonian language, and Misirkov attacked in his writings both, the Bulgarian Exarchate and the Internal Macedonian-Adrianople Revolutionary Organization (IMARO) as pro-Bulgarian creations. As result, he was persecuted by IMARO, and it is believed its members destroyed a lot of copies of his book. In 1905 he left for Berdiansk in Southern Russia. There he resumed publication of the journal "Vardar" and worked as Bulgarian teacher. In many of his next articles after 1905 Misirkov exposed pro-Bulgarian views and even categorically renounced the point of his book "The Macedonian matters". On 18 April 1907 Misirkov began to cooperate with the issued in Sofia magazine Macedonian-Adrianople Review, edited by Nikola Naumov, which was de facto organ of the IMARO. On 24 April 1909 K. Missirkov printed in Odessa in a separate booklet his work "South Slavic epic legends of the marriage of King Volkashin in connection with the question of the reasons for the popularity of Krali Marko among the South Slavs". On 1 October 1909 he printed the article, "The foundations of a Serbian-Bulgarian rapprochement" in the Magazine "Bulgarian collection" edited by Bulgarian diplomats in St. Petersburg. By the time, a Slavic Festival was held in Sofia in 1910 and Missirkov was attend as its guest of honor. In 1910–1911, he translated from Bulgarian to Russian the book of the Bulgarian geographer Prof. Atanas Ishirkov "Bulgaria".

When the First Balkan war was declared, Misirkov went to Macedonia as a Russian war correspondent. There he could follow the military operations of the Bulgarian Army. Misirkov published a series of articles in the Russian press and some articles demanding that the Ottomans should be driven out of Macedonia. In 1913 after the outbreak of the Second Balkan war Misirkov went back to Russia, where he worked as a teacher also in the Bulgarian schools in Odessa. Here he wrote his diary, which was found in 2006. Later he was appointed teacher of the Bulgarian school at Kishinev. While working as a teacher in Kishinev, Misirkov sent а letter to the Bulgarian academic Aleksandar Teodorov-Balan with a request to be assigned as a professor at Sofia University. That request clearly indicates his self-identification at that time - As a Bulgarian, I would willingly return to Bulgaria, if there is a need of a scientific research of the fate of the Bulgarian lands, especially Macedonia.. At that point, Misirkov made contacts with the Macedonian Scientific and Literary Society, which started publishing the magazine "Macedonian Voice" in Russian. Misirkov was publishing in this magazine for some period under the pseudonym "K. Pelski".

After the outbreak of the First World War in 1914 Bessarabia became a republic, and he was elected a member of the local parliament Sfatul Ţării as a representative of the Bulgarian minority. At the same time, Misirkov worked as a secretary in the Bulgarian educational commission in Bessarabia. However, the Parliament was forced to declare the annexation of Bessarabia to Romania in April 1918. Еxpelled by the Romanian authorities, at the end of 1918 Misirkov returned to Sofia, where he spent one year as a head of the Historical department of the National Museum of Ethnography. Then, he worked as a teacher and director of the high schools in Karlovo and Koprivshtitsa. During this period (but before 1923) the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization (IMRO) apparently marked Misirkov as harmful to its cause and supposedly considering his assassination, but reconsidered after he met with a representative of the organization. He also resumed his journalistic activity and published many articles on the Macedonian Question in the Bulgarian press. Misirkov died in 1926 and was buried in the graveyards in Sofia with the financial support of 5000 levs from the Ministry of Education, as an honoured educator.