Dimitrija Čupovski

Dimitrija Čupovski
Born(1878-11-08)November 8, 1878
Papradište, Ottoman Empire
DiedOctober 29, 1940(1940-10-29) (aged 61)
Leningrad, Soviet Union
OccupationLexicographer, writer and journalist

Dimitrija Čupovski (Macedonian: Димитрија Чуповски; November 8, 1878 – October 29, 1940) was a Macedonian poet, writer, journalist and lexicographer.[1][2] He is considered а prominent organizer and affirmer of Macedonian national thought.[3]

Biography

Dimitrija Čupovski was born on November 8, 1878, in the village of Papradište in the Ottoman Empire (present-day Čaška Municipality, North Macedonia). He was born after the murder of his father, studying in his native village and Kruševo.[3] He then attended the evening school of the Lozars in Sofia in 1892 and the evening school of St. Sava in Belgrade from 1892 to 1895.[4] In 1893, the student society Vardar was founded in Belgrade, of which he was a member, where he first began to develop his Macedonist ideas.[5] After returning to Ottoman Macedonia, he worked as a teacher in his native village from 1895 to 1896. He continued his education at the theological seminaries in Novgorod and Simferopol from 1897 to 1900, and at Saint Petersburg State University.[4]

Čupovski was one of the founders of the Macedonian Scientific and Literary Society, established in Saint Petersburg on October 28, 1902,[5] and served as its president from 1903 to 1917, after Dijamandija Mišajkov.[6] In 1905, Čupovski tried to organize for the first time a pan-Macedonian conference in Veles, where he was expelled by a local chief of IMRO Ivan Naumov,[7][8] and was threatened with death for promoting Macedonian autonomy free from Bulgarian influence.[9] Macedonian historian Blaže Ristovski wrote that it happened because of the intrigues of the local Bulgarian Metropolitan bishop and the activity of the Macedonian Bulgarian revolutionary Hristo Shaldev, who then described Čupovski as a Serbian agent.[10]  Shaldev, who lived then in St. Petersburg, described him as a person under the influence of Serbian propaganda and "the main exponent of the theory on Slavomacedonism by Professors Cvijic and Belic."[11] Čupovski was a proponent of the movement known as Macedonism, which appeared in the 19th century, receiving some Serbian governmental support to counter Bulgarian influence in Macedonia, but the movement was marginal and had no impact on the Macedonian population.[12]  

In December 1912, he arrived in Skopje where he visited his uncle.[13] Čupovski attempted to convince people in Skopje to send a memorandum to the Russian government for the recognition of the Macedonians as a separate people with a distinct language and to ask for the establishment of an independent Macedonian state, but he was ignored as the notables of the city identified as Bulgarians.[6] His uncle expelled him. He attempted to spread his ideas in Veles next again but failed again.[13] Afterwards, Čupovski left Macedonia and returned to St. Petersburg, where he initiated the sending of a memorandum to the independence of Macedonia on March 1, 1913,[4] to the London Peace Conference,[14] calling for the reunification of the parts of Macedonia annexed by the Balkan monarchies and for the proclamation of a Macedonian state. In the same year, he started publishing the Russian-language newspaper Macedonian Voice, where he wrote articles that emphasized Macedonians' distinctiveness and countered Bulgarian, Greek and Serbian propaganda.[15] He sent another memorandum on June 7, 1913, to the Balkan states. After an unsuccessful attempt to return to Macedonia in 1916, Čupovski formed the Macedonian Revolutionary Committee in 1917 and authored a program for a Balkan Federative Democratic Republic. Following the October Revolution, Čupovski was forced to move with his family, spending five years in Yeysk and frequently travelling to Rostov-on-Don and Ekaterinodar before returning to Petrograd in 1923.[4]

He was detained in 1934‒1935 and authorities revoked his right to vote, on charges of "owning a house" and selling 2/9 of it, while in 1936 they charged him as "the former owner of a bureau". He worked on articles and scientific studies, such as the Macedonian-Russian Dictionary and the study "Macedonia and the Macedonian Question". According to his son, the encyclopedic material and other works of his were destroyed during the siege of Leningrad in 1942.[16] Per historian Alexander Maxwell, Čupovski and Krste Misirkov promoted Macedonian ethnic distinction to encourage reform in the Ottoman Empire. However, their views did not represent popular opinion in Macedonia, nor the consensus of the Macedonian diaspora.[17] Čupovski had barely any influence during his lifetime.[6] He died in Leningrad on October 29, 1940, aged 61.[18] During his burial, he was covered with the flag of the Macedonian Petrograd colony from 1914.[4] His son inscribed "A fighter for the right and freedom of the Macedonian people" on the cross of his grave.[3] 

Legacy

Čupovski's work was re-discovered by Macedonian linguist Blaže Koneski in the 1960s.[6] His remains were ceremoniously transferred to the City Cemetery in Skopje with state honors in 1990.[4] Some Bulgarian scholars, such as Kosta Tsarnushanov, have regarded Čupovski as a marginal figure and Russian-Serbian agent in the service of the Russian Imperial Ministry of Foreign Affairs.[19][13] The Macedonian historiography refers to him and Krste Misirkov as figures of significant historical importance. However, Macedonian nationalism was relatively marginal until the interwar period.[15] In 1992, the Chemical-Technological School "Boris Kidrič" in Veles was renamed "Dimitrija Čupovski". A monument dedicated to Čupovski was placed at Macedonia Square in Skopje in 2011 and a central street in the city bears his name.[4]

References

  1. ^ Biljana Ristovska-Josifovska; Dragi Gjorgiev, eds. (2018). The Beginnings of Macedonian Academic Research and Institution Building (19th ‒ Early 20th Century). Skopje: Institute of National History. pp. 72, 150.
  2. ^ Lucien J. Frary; Mara Kozelsky, eds. (2014). Russian-Ottoman Borderlands: The Eastern Question Reconsidered. University of Wisconsin Press. p. 331. ISBN 9780299298043.
  3. ^ a b c Македонска енциклопедија [Macedonian Encyclopedia] (in Macedonian). Skopje: Macedonian Academy of Sciences and Arts. 2009. pp. 1632–1633. ISBN 978-608-203-023-4.
  4. ^ a b c d e f g Biljana Ristovska-Josifovska, ed. (2024). Role of Historical Figures in History and Collective Memory. Skopje: Institute of National History. pp. 12, 27, 72, 77, 79–83, 86. ISBN 978-608-4981-28-2.
  5. ^ a b Victor Roudometof, ed. (2000). The Macedonian Question: Culture, Historiography, Politics. East European Monographs. pp. 185–186. ISBN 9780880334518.
  6. ^ a b c d Alexis Heraclides (2021). The Macedonian Question and the Macedonians: A History. Routledge. pp. 71, 74, 155. ISBN 9780367218263.
  7. ^ Diana Mishkova, ed. (2009). We, the People: Politics of National Peculiarity in Southeastern Europe. Central European University Press. pp. 132–133. ISBN 978-9639776289.
  8. ^ Blaže Ristovski (1966). Вардар: научно-литературно и општествено-политичко списание на К. П. Мисирков (in Macedonian). Skopje. p. 34.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  9. ^ Keith Brown (2003). The Past in Question: Modern Macedonia and the Uncertainties of Nation. Princeton University Press. p. 270. ISBN 0691099952.
  10. ^ Blaže Ristovski (2001). Столетиjа на македонската свест: Истражувања за културно-националниот развиток (in Macedonian). Skopje: Kultura. p. 35. ISBN 9789989322617.
  11. ^ "2. The Slav Macedonian Student Society in St. Petersburg". Extracts from the memoirs of Hristo Shaldev, Macedonian revolutionary (1876–1962). Adelaide, Australia: Macedonian Patriotic Organization "TA". 1993. pp. 17–19.
  12. ^ Jolanta Sujecka, ed. (2002). The National Idea as a Research Problem. Slawistyczny Ośrodek Wydawniczy. pp. 279–280. ISBN 838661949X.
  13. ^ a b c Коста Църнушанов (1992). Македонизмът и съпротивата на Македония срещу него (in Bulgarian). Sofia: Унив. изд. "Св. Климент Охридски". pp. 80–82.
  14. ^ Igor Despot (2012). The Balkan Wars in the Eyes of the Warring Parties: Perceptions and Interpretations. iUniverse. p. 242. ISBN 1475947038.
  15. ^ a b Roumen Daskalov; Tchavdar Marinov, eds. (2013). Entangled Histories of the Balkans - Volume 1: National Ideologies and Language Policies. Brill. pp. 322–323, 444. ISBN 9789004250765.
  16. ^ Milena Angelova; Sergii Glebov, eds. (2022). Academic Cultures Between Dependencies and Interdependencies in the Interwar Black Sea Region. University Publishing House Neofit Rilski. pp. 227–228. ISBN 9789540003030.
  17. ^ Klaus Roth; Ulf Brunnbauer, eds. (2008). Region, Regional Identity and Regionalism in Southeastern Europe. LIT Verlag Münster. p. 142. ISBN 9783825813871.
  18. ^ Biljana Ristovska-Josifovska; Dragi Gjorgiev, eds. (2018). The Beginnings of Macedonian Academic Research and Institution Building (19th ‒ Early 20th Century). Skopje: Institute of National History. pp. 72, 150.
  19. ^ Dimitar Bechev (2009). Historical Dictionary of the Republic of Macedonia. Scarecrow Press. p. 52. ISBN 0810862956.
  • Media related to Dimitrija Čupovski at Wikimedia Commons
  • МАКЕДОНСКIЙ ГОЛОСЪ – Број 1 (9 Јуни 1913 година). (in Russian)
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