45 Facts About Krste Misirkov

Krste Misirkov returned to Macedonian nationalism for a period in 1914 and again in 1924 and 1925.

Krste Misirkov died in 1926 and was buried in the Sofia Central Cemetery with the financial support from the Ministry of Education, as an honoured Bulgarian educator.

Krste Petkov Misirkov was born on 18 November 1874 in the village of Postol in the Salonica vilayet of the Ottoman Empire.

Krste Misirkov started his elementary education in the local Greek school, where he studied until the sixth grade, but the bad financial situation of his family could not support his further education at that point and he left the school.

Krste Misirkov then faced a similar situation in Bulgaria, this time being confronted with pro-Bulgarian propaganda.

Krste Misirkov again went to Serbia to continue his education, but without any success as he was rejected by the Society of St Sava, most likely for his part in the protests conducted against it.

Krste Misirkov was sent to Sabac, where he finished his fourth secondary education course, but this time in the local gymnasium, which happened to be his last course.

Krste Misirkov's qualifications obtained in Belgrade were not recognized in Russia.

Krste Misirkov had to study from the very beginning in the Seminary at Poltava.

Later Krste Misirkov abandoned the university and left for Ottoman Macedonia.

Krste Misirkov began to plan the opening of local schools and publishing textbooks in Macedonian, but the Ilinden Uprising in 1903 and the assassination of the Russian Consul changed his plans and he soon returned to Russia.

In Russia, Krste Misirkov published different articles about the Ilinden Uprising and the justifications and causes as to why the Consul was assassinated.

Krste Misirkov attacked the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization, among others, as a Bulgarian creation.

On 18 April 1907, Krste Misirkov began to cooperate with the Sofia magazine "Macedonian-Adrianople Review", edited by Nikola Naumov, which was de facto organ of the IMRO.

On 24 April 1909, in Odessa, Krste Misirkov printed his work about the South Slavic epic legends on Krali Marko.

Krste Misirkov published some articles in the Russian press demanding that the Ottomans be driven out of Macedonia.

In 1913 after the outbreak of the Second Balkan War, Krste Misirkov went back to Russia, where he worked as a teacher in the Bulgarian language schools in Odessa.

At that point, Krste Misirkov made contacts with the Macedonian Scientific and Literary Society, which started publishing the journal, Makedonski glas in Russian.

Krste Misirkov defended and wrote about Macedonian ideals which, according to him, were in contrast with Bulgarian ideals and the general Bulgarian populace.

Krste Misirkov proceeded to work as a teacher and director of the high schools in Karlovo and Koprivshtitsa.

Krste Misirkov resumed his journalistic activity and published many articles on the Macedonian Question in the Bulgarian press and in some of them expressed Macedonian national ideas.

Krste 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 honored educator.

The articles that Krste Misirkov wrote were published in different newspapers and focused on different topics.

One of the most important works of Krste Misirkov is the Macedonian book On the Macedonian Matters published in 1903 in Sofia, in which he laid down the principles of modern Macedonian.

Krste Misirkov attacked both the Bulgarian Exarchate and the Internal Macedonian-Adrianople Revolutionary Organization as agents of the Bulgarian interests in Macedonia.

Furthermore, Krste Misirkov appealed to the Ottoman authorities for eventual recognition of a separate Macedonian nation.

Krste Misirkov admitted that there was no Macedonian nation, but argued that it should be created, when the necessary historical circumstances would arise.

Krste Misirkov was the author and editor of the first scientific magazine in Macedonian.

The magazine was published only once, because of the financial problems that Krste Misirkov had been facing with at that time.

Krste Misirkov expressed views about the national distinctiveness of the Macedonians.

Krste Misirkov published his articles in Macedonian, Russian and Bulgarian and he published them either in Russia or in Bulgaria.

In 2006, a handwritten diary by Krste Misirkov written during his stay in Russia in 1913 was discovered.

The content of the diary clearly shows that at the time, Krste Misirkov identified himself as a Macedonian Bulgarian and had a clear pro-Bulgarian stance.

Per academic Alexis Heraclides, Krste Misirkov's stance was not clear-cut and he sounded Macedonian at times too.

Krste Misirkov wrote it in Kotovsk's nearby village of Klimentove, where he lived and worked at the time.

In several publications, Krste Misirkov made an attempt to determine the border between the Serbo-Croatian and Bulgarian language, including in the Bulgarian dialect area, nearly all of Torlakian and Macedonian dialects.

Krste Misirkov pointed there, that the population in Pomoravlje is autochthonous and Bulgarian by origin, excluding any later migrations during the Ottoman rule from Bulgaria.

At different points in his life, Krste Misirkov expressed conflicting statements about the ethnicity of the Slavs living in Macedonia, including his own ethnicity.

Krste Misirkov's ideas had a small impact in his own time and he was re-discovered in the post-WW2 era.

In Bulgaria, Krste Misirkov is regarded as a controversial educator with scientific contribution to Bulgarian dialectology and ethnography.

Krste Misirkov graduated from the Belgrade University as a student of Prof.

Krste Misirkov argued that the Slavic population of Macedonia was not "a formless paste" but a "well baked Bulgarian bread".

In North Macedonia, Krste Misirkov is regarded as the most prominent Macedonian publicist, philologist and linguist who set the principles of the standard Macedonian in the early 20th century.

Krste Misirkov is the author of the first scientific magazine in Macedonian and because of his contributions to the Macedonian national cause, he has been widely regarded as the greatest Macedonian of the 20th century by the Macedonian public.

Krste Misirkov's work and ideas became a major field of exploration for scholars from the Macedonian Academy of Sciences and Arts, who used them to support the claim that there was a Macedonian national consciousness in the 19th century.