Miladinov brothers

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Dimitar Miladinov
Konstantin Miladinov
Naum Miladinov

The Miladinov brothers (Bulgarian: Братя Миладинови, romanizedBratya Miladinovi, Macedonian: Браќа Миладиновци, romanizedBrakja Miladinovci), Dimitar Miladinov (1810–1862) and Konstantin Miladinov (1830–1862), were Bulgarian poets, folklorists, and activists of the Bulgarian national movement in Ottoman Macedonia.[1][2] They are best known for their collection of folk songs called Bulgarian Folk Songs,[3][4] considered to be the greatest of their contributions to Bulgarian literature[5] and the genesis of folklore studies during the Bulgarian National Revival.[6] Their third brother Naum (1817-1897) helped compile this collection too. Konstantin Miladinov is also famous for his poem Taga za Yug (Grief for the South) which he wrote during his stay in Russia.

In

literary tradition. Many of the Miladinov brothers' original works have been unavailable to the general public and only censored versions, and redacted copies of them have been published there.[7][8]

Family

The mother of the Miladinov brothers was Sultana Miladinova. Her father was an Aromanian from Magarevo who moved to Ohrid and studied in Moscopole with Daniel Moscopolites. Sultana's mother was a native of Ohrid[9] and the granddaughter of sakellarios Pop Stefan, who was so fond of his pupil Dimitrius of Ioannou that he let him marry her.[10][11] The brothers' father, Hristo Miladinov, was also from Magarevo. He was a pottery merchant, who moved to Struga in around 1810.[12]

Dimitar Miladinov

Front cover of the original edition of Bulgarian Folk Songs. "Bulgarian Folk Songs collected by the Miladinovi Brothers Dimitar and Konstantin and published by Konstantin in Zagreb at the printing house of A. Jakic, 1861"
A letter from Dimitar Miladinov to Victor Grigorovich from February 25th, 1846 about his search for Bulgarian folk songs and artifacts in Macedonia.[13]

Dimitar Miladinov was born around 1810 in the town of

North Macedonia
, in the family of a potter named Hristo Miladinov and his wife, Sultana. Dimitar was the eldest of eight children, six boys and two girls.

Young Dimitar was sent by his father to the

Konstantin, Dimitar worked briefly as a bookkeeper in the trade chamber of the town of Durrës, today in Albania. From 1833 to 1836 he studied in Ioannina
, in what was considered to be one of the best Greek high schools, where he mastered the Greek language. After graduating, Dimitar returned to Ohrid and continued teaching.

As a teacher, in 1836 Dimitar introduced the

pan-Slavic ideas and was imprisoned in Istanbul, later to be joined by his supporting brother Konstantin. In January 1862, both brothers died in prison from typhus.[16]

Dimitar's daughter Tsarevna Miladinova continued his Bulgarian nationalist efforts, co-founding the Bulgarian Girls' High School of Thessaloniki in 1882.[17]

Konstantin Miladinov

Georgi Rakovski from 8 January 1861 to explain the use of the term Bulgarian in the title of the collection.[18]
The first biography of the Miladinov brothers, written by their brother-in-law Kuzman Shapkarev and issued in Plovdiv, 1884.[19]

Konstantin Miladinov was the youngest son in the family of the potter Hristo Miladinov. He was born in 1830 in

as a dangerous Russian agent, he was arrested. It is not clear whether he was placed in the same cell with his brother, or whether the two brothers saw each other. Very soon both of them became ill and in a matter of few days died.

Naum Miladinov

Naum Miladinov was the brother of Dimitar and Konstantin. He was born in 1817 and finished primary school in Struga. Later he went with his brother Dimitar to Duras, where Naum learned to play the violin. After that, together with Dimitar, Naum graduated from the Ioannina Greek High School and worked as his assistant-teacher. From 1841 to 1844 he studied at the Halki seminary, where he graduated in music and grammar. In 1843 he wrote a textbook on music and prepared a Greek grammar. After returning to Struga, Naum became involved in the activities of his brothers and became a proponent of the Bulgarian National Revival. Assists in collecting materials for the collection "Bulgarian Folk Songs". The folk songs collected by him are also notated. After 1878 he settled in the newly established Principality of Bulgaria. Naum received a national pension as a Bulgarian educator. He wrote a biography of his brothers, but failed to publish it. He died in 1897 in Sofia.[21]

Significance

Konstantin Miladinov (right), together with the Bulgarian national activists Lyuben Karavelov and Petar Hadzhipeev in Moscow, 1858.

The two brothers' educationalist activity and deaths ensured them a worthy place in the history of the Bulgarian cultural movement and the Bulgarian national liberation struggle in the 19th century. The brothers are known also for their keen interest in Bulgarian folk poetry as a result of which the collection "Bulgarian Folk Songs" appeared. The songs were collected between 1854 and 1860 mostly by the elder brother, Dimitar, who taught in several

Panagyurishte area, were recorded by Marin Drinov and Nesho Bonchev, but were sent by Vasil Cholakov. Rayko Zhinzifov, who went to Russia with the help of D. Miladinov, was another collaborator. Dimitar and Konstantin Miladinovi were aware of the great significance of the folklore in the period of the national revival and did their best to collect the best poetic writing which the Bulgarian people
had created throughout the ages.

Their activity in this field is indicative of the growing interest shown towards folklore by the Bulgarian intelligentsia in the middle of the 19th century – by

Georgi Rakovski, Petko Slaveykov, etc. The collecting was highly assessed by its contemporaries - Lyuben Karavelov, Nesho Bonchev, Ivan Bogorov, Kuzman Shapkarev, Rayko Zhinzifov and others. The collection was met with great interest by foreign scholars. The Russian scholar Izmail Sreznevsky pointed out in 1863: "…It can be seen by the published collection that the Bulgarians far from lagging behind other peoples in poetic abilities even surpass them with the vitality of their poetry…" Soon parts of the collection were translated in Czech, Russian and German. Elias Riggs, an American linguist in Constantinople, translated nine songs into English and sent them to the American Oriental Society
in Princeton, New Jersey. In a letter from in June 1862, Riggs wrote: "…The whole present an interesting picture of the traditions and fancies prevailing among the mass of the Bulgarian people…" The collection compiled by the Miladinov brothers also played a great role in the development of the modern

Controversy

Bulgarian Primary School "Miladinov Brothers" in Cer, near Kičevo, then in the Ottoman Empire (1912).

The Miladinov brothers were fervent proponents of the Bulgarian national idea in Macedonia and unequivocally identified as Bulgarians, referring to their language and culture exclusively as Bulgarian.[24][25][26] Miladinov and other educated Macedonian Slavs then in fact worried that use of the designation Macedonian would imply an identification with the Greek nation. Nevertheless, their ethnicity, language, and legacy are a contentious political issue between Bulgaria and North Macedonia.

Per Alexis Heraclides, the Miladinov brothers were among "the earliest pioneers of a sense of Macedonian identity, as least as conceived by contemporary Macedonian historians and other scholars".[27] The official view in North Macedonia is that the Miladinov brothers were in fact Macedonians who spoke Macedonian and contributed to Macedonian literature.[28] However, the Miladinov brothers deliberately avoided using the term Macedonian in reference to the region, arguing that it presents a threat to the Bulgarian character of the population, and proposed the name Western Bulgaria instead.[29][30][31]

After the conquest of the

Georgi Rakovski, Konstantin Miladinov expressed concern over the use of the name Macedonia as it may be used to justify Greek claims to the region and the local Bulgarian population, so he suggested that the region should be called Western Bulgaria instead.[29][30][31]

In post-war

Yugoslav Macedonia, the Miladinov brothers were appropriated by the historians as part of the Macedonian National Revival and their original works were hidden from the general public.[36][37]
Their works were claimed to be Macedonian, despite them stating in their works that they were Bulgarians.

Today in North Macedonia there are schools named after the Miladinov Brothers,[38] but the pupils there do not have the access to the works of their schools' patrons in original. There is a similar case with the national museum of North Macedonia which, apparently, refuses to display original works by the two brothers, because of the Bulgarian labels on some of them.[24]

Honour

The Miladinov brothers' hometown of Struga hosts the international Struga Poetry Evenings festival in their honour including a poetry award named after them. The Miladinovi Islets near Livingston Island in the South Shetland Islands, Antarctica are named after the brothers.

References

  1. ^ In the announcement by the Miladinov Brothers about the subscription for their collection called Bulgarian Folk Songs, published in Belgrade by Konstantin Miladinov on February 7, 1861 in the Bulgarian newspaper Dunavski Lebed, issue № 20, he wrote: "We started collecting folk songs six years ago from all parts of Western Bulgaria, i.e. Macedonia... as well as from Eastern Bulgaria. These folk songs will be supplemented with traditional rites of betrothal and match-making from Struga and Kukush; proverbs, riddles, legends and about 2,000 words which have become obsolete or differ from other dialects". For more see: D. Kossev et al., Macedonia, documents and materials, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, (in English) Sofia, 1978, p. 48.
  2. , p. 84.
  3. , p. 144.
  4. , p. 189.
  5. , p. 326.
  6. , p. 179.
  7. ^ Миладинова, М. 140 години "Български народни песни" от братя Миладинови. Отзвук и значение. сп. Македонски преглед, 2001, Македонският научен институт, бр. 4, стр. 5-21.
  8. ^ "ms0601". www.soros.org.mk. Archived from the original on 2012-04-05. Retrieved 2008-03-18.
  9. ^ Todorovski, Gane (1990). Книга нашинска сиреч славјанска. Makedonska kniga. p. 19.
  10. ^ "Izbor" - Konstantin Miladinov. Gane Todorovski, 1980 Misla Publishing. Page 366 & 395.
  11. ^ Литературен збор. Volume 36 - 1989 - page 29.
  12. ^ Михайлов, Крум. Родът на Братя Миладинови. В: Стари български родове. Издателство Отечествен фронт, 1989, стр. 83-133.
  13. ^ "...In the meantime my efforts concerning our Bulgarian language and the Bulgarian (folk) songs, in compliance with your recommendations are unsurpassed. I have not for one moment ceased to fulfill the pledge which I made to you, Sir, because the Bulgarians are spontaneously striving for the truth. But I hope you will excuse my delay up till now, which is due to the difficulty I had in selecting the best songs and also in my work on the grammar. I hope that, on another convenient occasion, after I have collected more songs and finished the grammar, I will be able to send them to you. Please write where and through whom it would be safe to send them to you (as you so ardently wish)..."
  14. , p. 17.
  15. ^ Трайков, Н. Братя Миладинови.Преписка.1964 с. 43, 44
  16. .
  17. ^ "Tsarevna Miladinova-Alexieva (1856-1934)". Women and the Transfer of Knowledge in the Black Sea Region. 2018. Retrieved 2021-04-08.
  18. ^ "...But I implore you to publish the foreword I sent you in your newspaper, adding a word or two about the songs and especially about the Western Bulgarians in Macedonia. In the foreword I have called Macedonia - Western Bulgaria (as it should be called), because the Greeks in Vienna are treating us just like sheep. They consider Macedonia a Greek province and they are not even able to understand that it is not a Greek region. But what shall we do with the Bulgarians there who are more than two million people? Surely the Bulgarians will not still be sheep with a few Greeks as their shepherds? That time has irrevocably passed and the Greeks will have to be satisfied merely with their sweet dreams. I think that the songs should be distributed chiefly among the Bulgarians, and this is why I have fixed a low price..."
  19. ^ According to Shapkarev himself: "Until then, [1857-1859, when the Miladinovs launched their educational campaign], everyone acknowledged them to be a Bulgarian."
  20. ^ Петър Динеков, Делото на братя Милядинови. (Българска акдемия на науките, 1961 г.)
  21. ^ Исторически албум на град Струга, София, 1930, стр. 34 – 35.
  22. ^ Люлка на старата и новата българска писменост. Академик Емил Георгиев, (Държавно издателство Народна просвета, София 1980)
  23. ^ Петър Динеков. Делото на братя Миладинови.(Българска акдемия на науките, 1961 г.)
  24. ^ .
  25. ^ In their correspondence both brothers self identified as Bulgarians, see: Братя Миладинови – преписка. Издирил, коментирал и редактирал Никола Трайков (Българска академия на науките, Институт за история. Издателство на БАН, София 1964); in English: Miladinov Brothers - Correspondence. Collected, commented and redacted from Nicola Traykov, (Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, Historical Institute, Sofia 1964.)
  26. .
  27. .
  28. , p. 149.
  29. ^ , pp. 273-330.
  30. ^ , p. 72.
  31. ^ .
  32. .
  33. .
  34. , pp. 36–37.
  35. , p. 160.
  36. ^ , Introduction, pp. V–VIII.
  37. .
  38. .

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