Krste Petkov Misirkov

In memoriam

Krste Petkov Misirkov was an Eastern South Slavic philologist, journalist, historian and ethnographer. In the period between 1903 and 1907 he published a book and a scientific magazine in which he affirmed the existence of a Macedonian national identity separate from other Balkan nations, and attempted to codify a Standard Macedonian language based on the central Western Macedonian dialects. A survey conducted in the Republic of Macedonia (now North Macedonia) found Misirkov to be "the most significant Macedonian of the 20th century". For his efforts to codify a standard Macedonian language, he is often considered "the founder of the modern Macedonian literary language". However, in 1907 he began publishing predominantly articles, written from a Bulgarian nationalist perspective. During the First World War he became a member of the local parliament in Bessarabia as a representative of the Bulgarian minority there. Misirkov reverted to Macedonian nationalism for a short in 1919. During the 1920s his views changed again, and he encouraged the Macedonian Slavs to adopt a Bulgarian national identity. Misirkov died in 1926 and was buried in the graveyards in Sofia with the financial support from the Ministry of Education, as a honoured Bulgarian educator. Because Misirkov expressed conflicting views about the national identity of the Macedonians Slavs at different points in his life, his national affiliation and legacy remains a matter of dispute between Bulgaria and North Macedonia. While Misirkov's work and personality remain highly controversial and disputed, there have been attempts among international scholars to reconcile the conflicting and self-contradictory statements made by Misirkov. According to historian Ivo Banac, Misirkov viewed both himself and the Slavs of Macedonia as Bulgarians, and espoused pan-Bulgarian patriotism in a larger Balkan context. However, in the context of the larger Bulgarian unit/nation, Misirkov sought both cultural and national differentiation from the Bulgarians and called both himself and the Slavs of Macedonia Macedonians.

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