Το Περιοδικό Μακεδονικών Σπουδών δημοσιεύει ακαδημαϊκές έρευνες σε διάφορους τομείς και κλάδους σχετικά με τη Μακεδονία, συμπεριλαμβανομένων των ανθρωπολογικών, κοινωνικό-πολιτιστικών, γλωσσικών και ιστορικών που σχετίζονται με τον Ελληνισμό. Το πεδίο σπουδών εκτείνεται στην ευρύτερη γεωγραφική περιοχή της Μακεδονίας από τον 11ο αιώνα π.Χ. έως σήμερα, καλύπτοντας την αρχαία, μεσαιωνική και μετα-απελευθερωτική περίοδο.
THE GULIARIA OF PALAIOCHORI ON MOUNT PANGAION:
This article examines the Guliaria of Palaiochori on Mount Pangaion in Eastern Macedonia, Greece, a now-discontinued ritual performance remembered by local elders as an ancient custom and last publicly enacted in 1969. Drawing on folkloric documentation and archaeo-historical and anthropological interpretation, the study analyses the ritual’s terminology, secrecy, initiation, bodily transformation, performative structure, and communal effects. During the performance, the Guliarides, the male initiates of the Guliaria, appeared on Clean Monday as nearly nude, soot-blackened, and unrecognizable figures wearing vegetal coverings, carrying agricultural implements, moving rhythmically through the village, shouting, teasing, disappearing, and reappearing unexpectedly. The article argues that the custom should not be reduced to Carnival entertainment, but understood as a ritual performance preserving pre-Christian symbolic elements associated with spring renewal, social cohesion, and Dionysian transformation. More specifically, it proposes that the Guliaria preserve vestiges of a Dionysian ritual world, tenaciously transmitted through local cultural memory and, even when reconfigured across changing historical and religious conditions, still recognizable in the custom’s secrecy, bodily transformation, ecstatic movement, vegetal symbolism, ritual laughter, and collective liberation.
Πνευματική ιδιοκτησία (c) 2026 Περιοδικό Μακεδονικών Σπουδών
The Bulgarian Exarchate in the Occupied Eastern Macedonia and Thrace (1941-1944)
Once Bulgaria occupied Eastern Macedonia and Thrace, the Bulgarian government developed an ambitious and expensive action plan, which aimed at the administrative, economic, and cultural integration of the Greek provinces as an indivisible part of the Bulgarian state. For the successful implementation of this plan, the active participation of key actors and stakeholders of the social and political sphere was of paramount importance. The aim of this paper is to provide a concise presentation of the role the Bulgarian Exarchate played during this period, utilizing primary and secondary sources.
Πνευματική ιδιοκτησία (c) 2024 Περιοδικό Μακεδονικών Σπουδών
Η Μάχη του Φαρδύκαμπου ήταν η πιο επιτυχημένη μάχη που κέρδισε η ελληνική αντίσταση κατά τον Β' Παγκόσμιο Πόλεμο. Η μάχη έλαβε χώρα γύρω από την πόλη της Σιάτιστας στην περιοχή της Δυτικής Μακεδονίας τον Μάρτιο του 1943. Αυτή η αφήγηση της μάχης είναι από ένα βιβλίο που εκδόθηκε αρχικά από τον συγγραφέα το 2008.
Ελληνική Λαογραφία, Λαογράφοι, Ελληνικός Πολιτισμός, Παράδοση, Ελληνική Λαϊκή Τέχνη.
Αρχή και Πατέρας της Λαογραφίας, ο Νικόλαος Γ. Πολίτης (1909), ο οποίος θεωρείται και Πατέρας της Ιστορίας της Λαογραφίας στην Ελλάδα, που και συγχρόνως εγκαθίδρυσε και ονομάτισε στα Ελληνικά, το γνωστό αντικείμενο της Λαογραφίας. Ο Νικόλαος Γ. Πολίτης στηρίζει τον ορισμό του, στις κατά παράδοση πράξεις και ενέργειες του ψυχικού και Κοινωνικού βίου του λαού. (Το Διεθνές Συνέδριο, κατέδειξε την Ευρωπαϊκή και Διενή Εμβέλεια της προσωπικότητας του Νικολάου Γ. Πολίτη).
The Deportation of the Jews from the Bulgarian-Occupied Territories
The aim of this paper is to present the impact of the Bulgarian occupation on the Jews of Yugoslav Macedonia, Eastern Macedonia and Thrace through the utilization of historical documents held at the Bulgarian State Archives. The paper describes the application of restrictive measures against the local Jewish communities, as well as Bulgaria’s involvement in the design and implementation of the deportation operation of the Yugoslav and Greek Jews to the Treblinka extermination camp (1941-1943).
THE ICONOGRAPHY OF THE MACEDONIAN STRUGGLE: A Unique Phenomenon of Historical Sculpture in Greece
The Macedonian Struggle (1904-1908) was one of the most important national efforts of the 20th century and the one that prepared the ground for the liberation of Macedonia during the Balkan Wars (1912-13). It was trench warfare conducted by the Greeks both against the Ottoman Turks and the Bulgarian comitadjis who were plotting its lands. The Greekness of Macedonia was the dominant issue and many people from all over Greece gave their lives, including Pavlos Melas, whose premature and unjust sacrifice was a point of reference for all fighters. Thus, a new generation of heroes was “born”, and their descendants tried tenaciously to keep their memory alive. In order to honor and acknowledge the sacrifice of the Macedonian fighters, they created monuments in Macedonian cities, towns and villages that immortalized the protagonists and chronicled the events of the period. On the other hand, these works are not only historical monuments but also art monuments that enrich with their new elements the sculpture of historical subjects of Modern Greek art. In fact, their number is impressive and far exceeds works of this type that refer to other national moments of the Greek history.
Πνευματική ιδιοκτησία (c) 2023 Περιοδικό Μακεδονικών Σπουδών
Παγκόσμιο Συνέδριο Παμμακεδονικών (Θεσσαλονίκη, 23 Ιουλίου 2017)
Τα Μακεδονικά, ηπειρωτικά, μικρασιατικά (ιωνικά και ποντιακά) και κυπριακά σωματεία ιδρύθηκαν και λειτούργησαν με δύο βασικούς ρόλους: (α) τη διατήρηση της ιδιαίτερης εθνογλωσσικής και πολιτιστικής τους ταυτότητας και (β) την προαγωγή των σχετικών ή λεγόμενων εθνικών (αλυτρωτικών) στόχων και επιδιώξεων με πανελλήνια διάσταση. Εξαιτίας της δεύτερης σκοπιμότητας βλέπουμε συχνά και μέλη του Ελληνισμού, που δεν ανήκουν λειτουργικά στο συγκεκριμένο γεωγραφικό χώρο τους να είναι μέλη και στελέχη του συγκεκριμένου φορέα.
Πνευματική ιδιοκτησία (c) 2021 Περιοδικό Μακεδονικών Σπουδών
Australian Institute of Macedonian Studies
In 2017, after thirty-four years of shining input to Macedonian Hellenism and the enhancement of its historical and cultural values to Macedonians of Hellas, the Australian Institute of Macedonian Studies (AIMS) remains in the Hellenic Diaspora one of its monumental literary, research and academic institutions, marking a milestone in the history of Macedonians abroad. Throughout the last three decades, over four-hundred remarkable European, American, Asian and Oceanian scholars, moved by their perfervid zeal for the history of Hellas, made their work, writings and thought a striking feature of the intellectual life of this institution. Their passionate devotion to the legacies of Macedonian Hellenism thought, and achievement was expressed, with assumed enthusiasm, in various international and national Conferences, symposia, concerts, publications, fellowships and academic visits planned by the AIMS. Some of the most prominent historians of the 20th century in classic, Byzantine and contemporary Macedonia presented their fundamental scholarly findings in those academic fora established by the AIMS rendering due service to truth, against those few whose fervid zeal was shown in appropriating the doctrines and legacies of Aristotle, Philip of Macedon, Alexander the Great and the Olympian deities.
The Case of Greek as a National Language
For any non-dominant language to be maintained in a bilingual environment without diglossia at inter-generational level requires the following: 1) The existence of a populous base of speakers; 2) Adequate function of language use; 3) Acceptability within the broader society; 4) Stability of the given language.
Codifying the Academic Contribution of AIMS
The Australian Institute of Macedonian Studies (AIMS) is celebrating its 30th anniversary; during that time its entire focus has been the history, language, heritage and culture of Macedonia from ancient to modern times. This has been achieved by organising international conferences, publishing books and academic journals, inviting noted scholars to present public lectures at Australian Universities and Greek Community and contributing to the cultural life of the Greek-Australian community.
The Borders of Ancient Makedonia III: Roman Makedonia
The history and geography of Makedonia in the Roman and Byzantine periods have received less study, particularly from writers in English, than its history and geography in the earlier periods. In fact, even the latest (fourth) edition of The Oxford Classical Dictionary only recycles an earlier article by N. G. L. Hammond on this subject and does not discuss Hellenistic or Roman Macedonia. The volume of the Tabula Imperii Byzantini that will deal with this area remains in the course of being constructed, and will, of course, be very useful when it appears. The chapter on “Géographie Historique” that occupies pp. 19–33 of M. B. Hatzopoulos’s work La Macédoine: géographie historique, langue, cultes et croyances, institutions (Paris 2006) does not extend to the Roman period. Similarly, Argyro Tataki’s work, The Roman Presence in Macedonia: Evidence from personal Names (Paris 2006) and Fanoula Papazoglou’s book, The towns of Macedonia in the Roman era (Athens 1988) confine themselves to the area of the present Greek province of Makedonia.
From Macedonism to Neo-Macedonism: The Self–Identification of Alexander the Great
A very popular belief amongst the Macedonian Slavs of the 19th century was that the ancient Macedonians were their ethno-genetic1 ancestors. It is said that even distinguished Macedono-Bulgarian educators like Konstnatin and Dimitar Miladinov (1830–1962 & 1810–1962) believed that “not only Philip, Alexander and the Ancient Macedonians were Slavs, but also Homer, Demosthenes and Strabo” (Marinov, 2013, p. 385). In 1878, Giorgi Pulevski (1823–1893) — widely regarded as the “father” of Slavo-Macedonian nationhood and a pioneer of Macedonism (Friedman, 1986, p. 285; Rossos, 2008, p. 95; Koneski, 1961. 61; Pribichevich, 1982, p. 113) — was urging his countrymen to rise up and fight for Macedonia’s independence: “like our people under Alexander fought” (Koneski, 1961, p. 74).
Directions of the Recent Historiography of Skopje
If each generation has a duty to rewrite history, as per Karl Popper’s famous saying, then the post-communist generation of historians from the former communist Balkan countries has several reasons to re-evaluate the historical past. The commanded and ideologically charged historiography of the Balkan communist countries had as its interpretative starting point the “principle of the class-struggle”, which was the driving force in historical materialism, and saw socialist society more as a result of internal social struggles than as a product of the Cold War and the imposition of the Soviet model. Thus, events were interpreted through refractive prisms with the main characteristics being: the emergence of the progressive role of the Communist Party, the demonisation of bourgeois class enemies, and the axiom of the dialectical relationship of “material basis and ideological superstructure”, which in most cases was applied mechanistically rather than in a constructive and productive way.
The Identity of the Occupant of the Amphipolis Tomb Beneath the Kasta Mound
The ancient monument known as the Kasta Mound lying just outside the ancient Macedonian city of Amphipolis has been subject to continual excavation since the 1960s, but in August of 2014, the site came to extraordinary prominence when its archaeologists announced the discovery of chambers beneath the mound, which have become known as the Amphipolis Tomb. This monument is of interest to the study of ancient history, because it is the largest and most magnificently decorated tomb ever discovered in Greece and because it appears to date to the immediate aftermath of the reign of Alexander the Great. However, a particular reason for readers of this journal to concern themselves with this matter is the question of the identity of the person for whom this complex was constructed, because the solution that has been proposed by the archaeologists is quite at odds with our understanding of the history of events after Alexander’s death as portrayed by the written sources and all other evidence to date.
The First World War has been a major event in the modern history of the Balkans because (i) it created the largest battlefront that the world had seen in the area; (ii) it broke up the Ottoman Empire; (iii) it strengthened nation states; and (iv) it created millions of refugees. In addition, during that time the genocide of the Armenians took place, arguably one of the least known genocides in history.
Πνευματική ιδιοκτησία (c) 2015 Περιοδικό Μακεδονικών Σπουδών
The Museum for the Macedonian Struggle is located in the centre of the city of Thessaloniki, Central Macedonia, Greece. It occupies a neoclassical building built in 1893 and designed by the renowned German philhellene architect Ernst Ziller to house the Greek Consulate General in Thessaloniki.
The Salonica theatre of operations and its part in the outcome of the First World War
Salonica and World War I are a pairing that inevitably brings specific images to mind: the existence, for instance, of a curious medley of races and cultures, to which the circumstantial presence of foreign troops (many of them coming from the distant colonies) added a rather exotic note; the great fire of 1917 and the planning and rebuilding of the city; the upsurge of political passions and confrontations that led to the eruption of the Venizelist National Defence movement and the formation of a provisional government; images, finally, like the existence in the same space of an international expeditionary force that enjoyed the luxury, in time of war, of gardening -to repeat the expression of France’s government- and whose overriding concern was not to add to the already long list of losses due to malaria. But is this how it really was?
The Borders of Ancient Makedonia II: from Philippos II to Andriskos
Because more written and archaeological evidence relating to this period survives than the limited evidence for the period discussed in the first of these articles, the second part of this account will be even more of an epitome than the first. However, one thing is gradually becoming clearer: it is now increasingly possible to define the borders of Makedonia, even if the occasional raids made by neighbouring groups still caused them to fluctuate from time to time. It was during this period that this country took a form that is approximately equivalent to the modern Greek province of Makedonia (if we add a small triangle outside it to the north-west that includes Bitola). Also, it was during this period that the separate ethnicities of the different groups that existed in this area began to fade, and be replaced by a general Makedonian identity. Again, what must have been a diversity of slightly different dialects (most of which are lost to us) was gradually replaced from the late fourth century B.C. onwards by a version of the Attic dialect (later called the koine or common language) in Makedonia as elsewhere in the Greek world and in the eastern areas that had been conquered by Alexandros III.
Public Art in FYROM: From Tito to Alexander the Great
Public art aims at the construction of a historical continuation thus reproducing a “useful past” into the present. Within this concept, “places of public memory” are an everchanging visual recording of historic memory. Ideologies, political and historical circumstances as well as current expectations are but a few elements that shape the way in which humans depict the past. As a matter of fact, public art remains an essential part of the complex institutional dynamic, linking the political state and the nation.
A review of ICG’s report “Macedonia’s Name: Breaking the Deadlock”
The Brussels-based International Crisis Group (ICG) has recently issued a new report on the so-called “name dispute” between Athens and Skopje.1 Its alleged primary aim was to provide a set of proposals for the two parties involved to reach an agreement, thus paving the way for “the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia” (FYROM) to join NATO and eventually the EU. Its reasoning was based on the assumption that the acceptance of its proposals will help avert the destabilization of the region; will compensate the Slav Macedonians for concessions to which they were coerced to make to the Albanian Macedonians; and, finally, will honor promises to Skopje (mainly by the Bush Administration) for entering NATO and eventually the EU.
The First World War of 1914-1918 - “the Great War to end all wars” - was a period of great importance for Greek Macedonia, a time of dramatic political and military events. Foreign armies fought over its territory, with Greece remaining a neutral at the outset, and cast envious eyes at the possibility of controlling it politically. There was besides the Greek “National Schism”, the split between the supporters of the Prime Minister Eleftherios Venizelos and those of King Constantine, formalized by the setting up of a provisional government in Salonica. In September 1918 the Allies made a great drive into Macedonia, with the Greek army now taking part, the Macedonian Front of the Germans was at last broken, and the outcome of the war was no longer in doubt. At this same period Macedonia was in what may be called a transitional state. No longer was it a multiracial province, but it had been transformed into an ethnically fairly homogeneous area, as a result of population movements during and immediately after the Great War. Conditions in Macedonia -demographic, social, economic, and political- were described by contemporary observers, Greeks and foreigners, from their various standpoints. It was particularly the foreign observers, the soldiers, diplomats, commercial representatives, journalists, secret agents, and so on, who would leave posterity a valuable picture of Macedonia at this time. Their productions include memoirs, sketches, and even documentary films. But most typical of all were their photographs, which were legion, and many of which can be seen in the form of postcards that made Salonica and its environs familiar throughout the world. This made the Macedonia of the Great War one of the most thoroughly photographed subjects in Greek history, and in European history for that matter.
From revolution to counter-revolution: Demonstrations in Macedonia in the era of the Young Turks
The foremost objective of this study is to demonstrate the manner in which the Young Turks tried to manipulate public opinion by organizing outdoor public assemblies, in order to extend their influence in certain population groups and thus get the Great Powers’ diplomats convinced that the empire’s public opinion was in agreement with their choices. The second objective is to demonstrate the nationalities’ attitude in the three vilayets (provinces) of Macedonia towards the various political and diplomatic developments as expressed through their participation in outdoor public assemblies organized by the representatives of the population groups themselves. The main sources for the recording of the assemblies are the reports drawn up by the British and Austro-Hungarian consuls in the capitals of the three Macedonian vilayets, i.e. Thessaloniki, Monastir (Bitola) and Skopje.
Women and costumes of Naoussa, the end of an era
The folk culture within the Greek area, in the same way as the folk art, managed to develop themselves under the status of the long servitude to the Turks quite independently within the community. Still the folk culture portrays the living standard and the cultural level of a closed and quite often isolated community, which has already formulated strict morals and customs by following a specific way of living, which transforms the figures in time in a very slow rhythm.
Πνευματική ιδιοκτησία (c) 2014 Περιοδικό Μακεδονικών Σπουδών
The Greek-Americans and Balkan Wars 1912-13
This study is about the reception and preparation of the Greek-American community to the Balkan Wars 1912-13 which also raised the issue of ethnic identity and divided loyalties between the old homeland and the adopted one. The Greeks, who migrated to the U.S during the period 1880-1910, were very anxious to maintain their ethnic identity and close ties with the old homeland (patrida) in a hostile environment dominated by sentiments of xenophobia and racial prejudice.
Skopje’s Political Efficiency: Converting a National Goal to National Policy
Although the focus of this paper is Skopje’s political efficiency, one must first have a general idea about the formation of a nation’s national security policy. I am offering in very general and rudimental terms enough information regarding a country’s national security as I deem necessary to establish a reasonable background. Politics and war although differ in means of delivery, they aim at identical objectives, i.e. the imposition of one’s will over an-other. Thus, when one reads a text that in one’s mind it is associated with war, one should convert one’s thoughts as if the subject refers to politics.
There is little doubt that Alexander the Great was a very successful battlefield commander. Yet what was this success based upon? Many scholars attribute Alexander’s success (at least in part) to tactical innovation. But how correct is such a conclusion? An examination of the four major set-piece battles that Alexander fought as part of his Eastern campaign provides the details of his implementation of tactics. By comparing these details to a set of criteria that many modern military theorists use to gauge tactical competency, the level of Alexander’s ability as a battlefield commander can be determined. The results of this comparison show that, while in some areas Alexander’s tactical ability was nothing original nor inventive, his use of variation within the construct of a base tactical plan was what ensured victory and made him one of the greatest military leaders of the ancient world.
MACEDONIAN HELLENES: FROM DARIUS TO POLIBIUS AND THE GRAECO-INDIAN KINGDOMS
Τα όρια της αρχαίας Μακεδονίας και οι φυλές και εθνότητες που κατακτήθηκαν και αφομοιώθηκαν πολιτιστικά από τους Αρχαίους Μακεδόνες παραμένουν αντικείμενο επιστημονικής έρευνας και συζήτησης. Οι Μακεδόνες, ωστόσο, καταγράφηκαν στις αρχαίες πηγές από την εποχή του Δαρείου στην Περσία, και του Αισχύλου στην Ελλάδα, μέσα από έργα ποίησης, ιστοριογραφίας, θεάτρου, γεωγραφίας, πολιτικής και θρησκειολογίας ως φυλή ελληνική, με ελληνική λαλιά, με παραδόσεις και δοξασίες ελληνικές, με βιώματα που δεν διέφεραν ουσιαστικά από τους συμπατριώτες τους στον υπόλοιπο ελληνικό χώρο του νότου ούτε και της Aνατολής μέχρι την Ιωνία και την Καππαδοκία, ούτε και της Δύσης μέχρι τη Σικελία και την Ιταλία του Νότου. Είχαν τις δικές τους περιφερειακές ιδιαιτερότητες, το δικό τους πολιτικό σύστημα, τη δική του ντοπιολαλιά, αλλά τα ονόματα και τα έθιμά τους ήσαν κοινά, όπως και η τεράστια δεξαμενή της ελληνικής πολιτιστικής κληρονομιάς από την οποία αντλούσαν την καθημερινότητά τους. Ο Πέρσης βασιλιάς Δαρείος ο Μέγας αποκαλούσε τους Έλληνες Yaunâ, δηλαδή «Ίωνες» και τους Μακεδόνες ως Yaunâ takabarâ δηλαδή «Ίωνες που φέρουν τα καπέλα του ήλιου». Τα βασίλεια που εμφανίσθηκαν το 311 π.Χ. στα βάθη της Ανατολής, γέννημα των Μακεδόνων συναγωνιστών του Μεγάλου Αλε- ξάνδρου, αναγνωρίσθηκαν ως «Ελληνο-Ινδικά βασίλεια» από τους ντόπιους Ινδούς, Πέρ- σες, ακόμη και Κινέζους της Άπω Ανατολής και ως τέτοια μαρτυρούνται στην παγκόσμια ιστορία, διότι για τους λαούς αυτούς της αρχαιότητας ο Μακεδόνας και ο Έλληνας λειτουργούσαν ως ταυτόσημες έννοιες, όπως ο Σπαρτιάτης και ο Αθηναίος. Οι λαοί της Ανατολής δεν ξεχώριζαν εθνικά τους Μακεδόνες από τους υπόλοιπους Έλληνες. Έπρεπε να προκληθεί μία εθνογέννηση με τρόπο εφεύρεσης και κατασκευής στα Βαλκάνια για να αμφισβητηθεί η ταυτότητα του μακεδονικού Ελληνισμού από τους ιδίους, κάτι που αναγνώριζαν Μήδοι, Πέρσες, Ινδοί και Κινέζοι 2.500 χρόνια πριν...
The Borders of Ancient Makedonia I: To Perdikkas III
At a time that cannot be closely determined, about 1,000 B.C., the Makedones began to establish themselves in a small area north of Mount Olympos. At a later date their kings were buried at Aigai (close to Vergina), which must have been the centre of the territory that they began to control. By the beginning of the 4th century B.C. they had expanded (with a few short periods of contraction) in a remarkable manner, ‘absorbing’ or expelling the neighbouring groups of people until their territory extended further to the north and west and to the sea (although not at first to Chalkidike, where there were many colonies established by southern Hellenic cities) and to the Axios river. However, it is clear that many of the groups that they had ‘absorbed’ still retained their identity and independence, even if they were in some way under the control of the rulers of Makedonia. For this reason, the ‘borders’ of Makedonia are difficult to define, at least before the time of Philippos II. By 500 B.C. they were the leading power in the area. About 400 B.C. they moved their capital further north to Pella, which was near a river which was at that time navigable to the Thermaic Gulf. In the fourth century B.C. Philippos II (360/59-336 B.C.) again expanded the area under their control, annexing Chalkidike and land to the east. ‘Makedonia’ now be-came approximately the same as the modern Greek province of Makedonia. As neighbours the Makedonians now had the Illyrians to the west, the Paiones to the north, and the Dar-danoi beyond them, the Thessalians to the south and the Thrakes to the east. These were independent groups, although the Paionians may have had a ‘client kingdom’ relationship with the Makedonians (their kings issued coins independently, but they supplied cavalry to assist Alexander the Great in his eastward campaign). This geographical area stayed the same until the Roman conquest of 168 B.C. After this the Romans tried to destroy the identity of the Makedonians by establishing a new province that was split into four different areas, with restrictions on some activities that might be conducted between one area and another. After two decades this proved to be unsuccessful, and after a revolt (which was quickly quelled), another approach was adopted. A new Roman province was created which was still called ‘Makedonia’, but now contained land which stretched as far as the Adriatic, and much further south than the original Makedonia. As a result, ‘Makedonia’ became a geographical rather than an ethnic name. In the following centuries, the borders of this province were modified again, but it still covered a much larger area than the Makedonia that had existed in the time of Philip II and his son Alexander the Great.
The purpose of the current article is to present a broad description of Bulgaria’s stance toward the Macedonian Question after 1948; its objective is also to describe the upheavals in the Bulgarian- Yugoslavian relations in their efforts to secure as their own a large portion of the broader region’s history. Bearing this in mind, the study will focus on the decisions of the Bulgarian Communist Party, during its plenum of March 1963, and the way it was linked to the ongoing battle of the two rival countries in a certain area, that of filmmaking. With the use of unpublished Bulgarian archival documents, it reveals an unknown, until today, incident between Bulgaria and Yugoslavia concerning a renowned film and nominee for Oscar award, the “Battle of Neretva”.
In November 1950, Marshal Tito gave his first interview to a German journalist referring, among other things, to German-Yugoslav foreign relations. In the interview he emphasised Yugoslavia’s willingness to strengthen the trade cooperation between the two nations, but also to restore it to prewar levels. Following the reconstitution of full diplomatic relations, Tito felt these prospects to be favourable. He assured the Germans that the Yugoslavs held no hard feelings towards them regarding the war, emphatically stating: “We do not hate any peoples, we hate only fascism”. Characterizing the German people as highly competent and diligent, he re-affirmed his support for a united Germany, deeming that the formation of two Germanies held dangers analogous to those of the Korean peninsula. Clearly, Tito’s views, stated above, started a new phase in bi-lateral relations. On the one hand, both sides sought a convergence in the fields of politics, economics and culture, and on the other, attempts were made to overcome the legacy of the past, of which the war was a part. The Bonn government included in this latter category the pressing issues concerning the German prisoners-of-war, the war criminals, and the ethnic-German minority in Yugoslavia.