Blaže Koneski (
Macedonian and ; 19 December 1921 – 7 December 1993) was a
Macedonian poet, writer,
literary translator, and
linguistic
Linguistics is the scientific study of language. The areas of linguistic analysis are syntax (rules governing the structure of sentences), semantics (meaning), Morphology (linguistics), morphology (structure of words), phonetics (speech sounds ...
scholar, who had a major contribution to the codification of the standard
Macedonian language
Macedonian ( ; , , ) is an Eastern South Slavic language. It is part of the Indo-European languages, Indo-European language family, and is one of the Slavic languages, which are part of a larger Balto-Slavic languages, Balto-Slavic branch. Sp ...
, for which he earned the reputation of father of the
Macedonian literary language.
He is the key figure who shaped Macedonian literature and intellectual life in the country.
Biography
Early years
Koneski was born on 19 December 1921 in
Nebregovo in the province of
South Serbia, part of the
Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes
The Kingdom of Yugoslavia was a country in Southeast and Central Europe that existed from 1918 until 1941. From 1918 to 1929, it was officially called the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes, but the term "Yugoslavia" () has been its colloq ...
(current-day
North Macedonia
North Macedonia, officially the Republic of North Macedonia, is a landlocked country in Southeast Europe. It shares land borders with Greece to the south, Albania to the west, Bulgaria to the east, Kosovo to the northwest and Serbia to the n ...
), in a
pro-Serbian oriented family.
He belonged to the Ljamevci family, whose
Slava (patron saint) was St. Nicholas Day. He received a Royal Serbian scholarship to study in the
Kragujevac
Kragujevac ( sr-Cyrl, Крагујевац, ) is the List of cities in Serbia, fourth largest city in Serbia and the administrative centre of the Šumadija District. It is the historical centre of the geographical region of Šumadija in central Se ...
gymnasium or high school in central Serbia.
When Koneski returned to his native village, he spoke a heavily Serbianized language and was ridiculed for this, upon that he felt like he betrayed his people. Later, he studied medicine at the
University of Belgrade
The University of Belgrade () is a public university, public research university in Belgrade, Serbia. It is the oldest and largest modern university in Serbia.
Founded in 1808 as the Belgrade Higher School in revolutionary Serbia, by 1838 it me ...
, and then changed to
Slavic studies
Slavic (American English) or Slavonic (British English) studies, also known as Slavistics, is the academic field of area studies concerned with Slavic peoples, Slavic peoples, languages, literature, history, and culture. Originally, a Slavist or ...
. In 1941, after the defeat of Yugoslavia in
Aufmarsch 25, and the subsequent
Bulgarian rule of Macedonia, he enrolled in the Faculty of Slavic Studies at the
Sofia University
Sofia University "St. Kliment Ohridski" () is a public university, public research university in Sofia, Bulgaria. It is the oldest institution of higher education in Bulgaria.
Founded on 1 October 1888, the edifice of the university was constr ...
under the name Blagoy Konev. After the
Bulgarian coup d'état in September 1944, he returned to his native land, before completing his higher education. Here Koneski began working in the department for communist
agitprop
Agitprop (; from , portmanteau of ''agitatsiya'', "agitation" and ''propaganda'', "propaganda") refers to an intentional, vigorous promulgation of ideas. The term originated in the Soviet Union where it referred to popular media, such as literatu ...
at the Main Headquarters of the
Macedonian Partisans.
After WWII
In 1945 at the age of 23, he became one of the most important contributors to the
standardization
Standardization (American English) or standardisation (British English) is the process of implementing and developing technical standards based on the consensus of different parties that include firms, users, interest groups, standards organiza ...
of
Macedonian. He worked as a lector in the Macedonian National Theater, however in 1946, he joined the faculty at the Philosophy Department of the
Ss. Cyril and Methodius University of Skopje
The Saints Cyril and Methodius University () is a public university, public research university in Skopje, North Macedonia. It is the oldest and largest public university in the country. It is named after the Byzantine Empire, Byzantine Christ ...
, where he worked until his retirement. In 1957 he received there the title of full professor. At the same time, he taught the subject of the history of the Macedonian language, and during his entire university career, he held the position of head of the Department of Macedonian Language and South Slavic Languages. In 1952/1953 he was dean of the Faculty of Philosophy, and in 1958-1960 he was rector of the University of Skopje. Meanwhile, Koneski worked as an editor and was a prolific contributor to the literary journal "Nov Den", the predecessor of the oldest-survived literary journal "
Sovremenost", and "Macedonian Language", published by the Institute for Macedonian language.
He became a member of the
Macedonian Academy of Sciences and Arts
The Macedonian Academy of Sciences and Arts () is an academic institution in North Macedonia.
History
The Academy of Sciences and Arts was established by the Socialist Republic of Macedonia's assembly on 23 February 1967 as the highest scientifi ...
in 1967 and served as its first president, until 1975.
Koneski was also a member of the
Zagreb
Zagreb ( ) is the capital (political), capital and List of cities and towns in Croatia#List of cities and towns, largest city of Croatia. It is in the Northern Croatia, north of the country, along the Sava river, at the southern slopes of the ...
(
Croatia
Croatia, officially the Republic of Croatia, is a country in Central Europe, Central and Southeast Europe, on the coast of the Adriatic Sea. It borders Slovenia to the northwest, Hungary to the northeast, Serbia to the east, Bosnia and Herze ...
),
Belgrade
Belgrade is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Serbia, largest city of Serbia. It is located at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers and at the crossroads of the Pannonian Basin, Pannonian Plain and the Balkan Peninsula. T ...
(
Serbia
, image_flag = Flag of Serbia.svg
, national_motto =
, image_coat = Coat of arms of Serbia.svg
, national_anthem = ()
, image_map =
, map_caption = Location of Serbia (gree ...
),
Ljubljana
{{Infobox settlement
, name = Ljubljana
, official_name =
, settlement_type = Capital city
, image_skyline = {{multiple image
, border = infobox
, perrow = 1/2/2/1
, total_widt ...
(
Slovenia
Slovenia, officially the Republic of Slovenia, is a country in Central Europe. It borders Italy to the west, Austria to the north, Hungary to the northeast, Croatia to the south and southeast, and a short (46.6 km) coastline within the Adriati ...
) and
Łódź
Łódź is a city in central Poland and a former industrial centre. It is the capital of Łódź Voivodeship, and is located south-west of Warsaw. Łódź has a population of 655,279, making it the country's List of cities and towns in Polan ...
(
Poland
Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south, bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukrai ...
) Academies of Sciences and Arts, and an honorary doctor of the Universities of
Chicago
Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...
,
United States
The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...
, and
Kraków
, officially the Royal Capital City of Kraków, is the List of cities and towns in Poland, second-largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland. Situated on the Vistula River in Lesser Poland Voivodeship, the city has a population of 804,237 ...
in Poland. The American Slavist
Victor Friedman mentioned Koneski as one of his mentors.
Blaže Koneski died in
Skopje
Skopje ( , ; ; , sq-definite, Shkupi) is the capital and largest city of North Macedonia. It lies in the northern part of the country, in the Skopje Basin, Skopje Valley along the Vardar River, and is the political, economic, and cultura ...
on 7 December 1993. He received a state funeral for his distinguished literary career and his contributions to the codification of standard Macedonian.
Literary works
Koneski wrote poetry and prose. His most famous collections of poetry are: ''Mostot, Pesni, Zemjata i ljubovta, Vezilka, Zapisi, Cesmite, Stari i novi pesni, Seizmograf'', among others. His collection of short stories ''Vineyard '' is also famous. His 1948 poem ''Teškoto'' (named after the dance
Teškoto) is taught in Macedonian elementary schools.
Koneski was a distinguished translator of poetry from German, Russian, Slovenian, Serbian and Polish; he translated the works of
Njegoš,
Prešeren,
Heine
Heine is both a surname and a given name of German origin. People with that name include:
People with the surname
* Albert Heine (1867–1949), German actor
* Alice Heine (1858–1925), American-born princess of Monaco
* Armand Heine (1818–1883) ...
,
Blok,
Neruda, and others.
Awards and recognitions
Blaže Koneski won a number of literary prizes such as the
AVNOJ
The Anti-Fascist Council for the National Liberation of Yugoslavia,; ; commonly abbreviated as the AVNOJ, was a deliberative and legislative body that was established in Bihać, Yugoslavia, in November 1942. It was established by Josip Broz ...
prize, the
Njegoš prize, the Golden Wreath ("Zlaten Venec") of the
Struga Poetry Evenings
Struga Poetry Evenings (SPE) (, СВП; tr. ''Struški večeri na poezijata'', ''SVP'') is an international poetry festival held annually in Struga, North Macedonia. During the several decades of its existence, the Festival has awarded its most ...
(in 1981), the Award of the
Writer's Union of the USSR,
Herder Prize
The Herder Prize (), named after the German philosopher Johann Gottfried Herder (1744–1803), was a prestigious international prize awarded every year from 1964 to 2006 to scholars and artists from Central and Southeast Europe whose life and wor ...
(in 1971) and others.
The Faculty of Philology at the
Ss. Cyril and Methodius University of Skopje
The Saints Cyril and Methodius University () is a public university, public research university in Skopje, North Macedonia. It is the oldest and largest public university in the country. It is named after the Byzantine Empire, Byzantine Christ ...
is named after him.
Work on standard Macedonian
Koneski is remembered for his work on codifying the
Macedonian standard language. He is the author of ''On Standard Macedonian'' (), ''Grammar of Standard Macedonian'' (), ''History of Macedonian'' (), among other works. He was one of the editors of ''Macedonian Dictionary'' ().
Reception
Accusation of Serbophilia and on Serbianization of Macedonian standard
The official stance of
Bulgaria
Bulgaria, officially the Republic of Bulgaria, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern portion of the Balkans directly south of the Danube river and west of the Black Sea. Bulgaria is bordered by Greece and Turkey t ...
is that the
Macedonian language
Macedonian ( ; , , ) is an Eastern South Slavic language. It is part of the Indo-European languages, Indo-European language family, and is one of the Slavic languages, which are part of a larger Balto-Slavic languages, Balto-Slavic branch. Sp ...
is a Bulgarian dialect, modified through a politically motivated
Serbification during the period of
SR Macedonia
The Socialist Republic of Macedonia (), or SR Macedonia, commonly referred to as Socialist Macedonia, Yugoslav Macedonia or simply Macedonia, was one of the six constituent republics of the post-World War II Socialist Federal Republic of Y ...
. Based on their language, the Macedonians are considered as an "artificial" construction, a political modification of the Bulgarian historical nation. Thus, Koneski is seen as the main protagonist of the Serbification. After the
fall of Communism
The revolutions of 1989, also known as the Fall of Communism, were a revolutionary wave of liberal democracy movements that resulted in the collapse of most Marxist–Leninist governments in the Eastern Bloc and other parts of the world. Th ...
in the early 1990s, Serbification accusations against Koneski appeared also from domestic Macedonian authors. These writers and journalists were close to the
VMRO-DPMNE
The Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization – Democratic Party for Macedonian National Unity (), abbreviated as VMRO-DPMNE (), is a conservative and the main centre-right to right-wing political party in North Macedonia.
It was establ ...
and pro-Bulgarian, denouncing the Macedonian national identity in the same way as Bulgaria. They regarded Koneski as a "Serbian agent" and glorified his opponent
Venko Markovski.
According to the
Macedonian Bulgarian authors Dragi Dragnev and Kosta Tsarnushanov, Konevski was born as ''Blagoje Ordan Ljameski or Ljamević'' in a family that was strongly pro-Serbian and identified as Serbs, thus he followed his uncle's
Gligor Sokolović footsteps in the field of language and the history of language and literature, when he repeatedly tried to impose the Serbian alphabet in SR Macedonia. Macedonian linguist Gјorgјi Kiselinov, who had a conflict with Koneski during the early codification phase, also claimed Koneski came from a pro-Serbian family and was raised in that spirit. The
IMRO
The Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization (IMRO; ; ), was a secret revolutionary society founded in the Ottoman territories in Europe, that operated in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
Founded in 1893 in Salonica, it init ...
revolutionary Trajcho Chundev, described him in his diary as
sic
The Latin adverb ''sic'' (; ''thus'', ''so'', and ''in this manner'') inserted after a quotation indicates that the quoted matter has been transcribed or translated as found in the source text, including erroneous, archaic, or unusual spelling ...
: "
Serboman" who insists on the Serbian alphabet. According to historian Chris Kostov, in his youth he regarded
Serbian as his native language.
Koneski has been accused of deliberately
serbianizing the Macedonian
standard Standard may refer to:
Symbols
* Colours, standards and guidons, kinds of military signs
* Standard (emblem), a type of a large symbol or emblem used for identification
Norms, conventions or requirements
* Standard (metrology), an object ...
.
Bulgarian linguists such as
Iliya Talev, in his ''History of the Macedonian Language'', have accused Koneski of plagiarizing
Kiril Mirchev's ''Historical Grammar of the Bulgarian Language'' because both authors analyzed the same corpus of texts. In Bulgaria, he has also been accused of manipulating historical facts for political goals. It has been also claimed there that the Macedonian standard was Serbianized with the help of Koneski. According to
Christian Voss the turning point in the Serbianization of Macedonian took place in the late 1950s, coinciding with the preparation period for the dictionary of Koneski published between 1961 and 1966. Voss argues that it contains a consistent pro-Serbian bias. When Koneski visited Chicago in 1969 and received the title of "Doctor Honoris Causa" from a local university, letters of protest were sent to the rector by two Albanian intellectuals from
Bitola
Bitola (; ) is a city in the southwestern part of North Macedonia. It is located in the southern part of the Pelagonia valley, surrounded by the Baba, Nidže, and Kajmakčalan mountain ranges, north of the Medžitlija-Níki border crossing ...
living in
Istanbul
Istanbul is the List of largest cities and towns in Turkey, largest city in Turkey, constituting the country's economic, cultural, and historical heart. With Demographics of Istanbul, a population over , it is home to 18% of the Demographics ...
, claiming the Macedonian language was invented by the Yugoslav Communists to de-Bulgarianize the local Slavs. From the 1990s,
Macedonian historical revisionists, who questioned the narrative established in Communist Yugoslavia, have described the process of codifying Macedonian, to which Koneski was an important contributor, as 'Serbianization'. Anti-Yugoslav right-wing Macedonian nationalists have also accused Koneski and the communist elite of Serbianizing the Macedonian standard language. In his participation in the
linguistic Commissions of
ASNOM
The Anti-fascist Assembly for the National Liberation of Macedonia (, ''Antifašističko sobranie za narodno osloboduvanje na Makedonija''; Serbo-Croatian: ''Antifašističko sobranje narodnog oslobođenja Makedonije''; abbr. ASNOM) was the supr ...
, Koneski advocated for the full adoption of the
Serbian Cyrillic alphabet
The Serbian Cyrillic alphabet (, ), also known as the Serbian script, (, ), is a standardized variation of the Cyrillic script used to write the Serbian language. It originated in medieval Serbia and was significantly reformed in the 19th cen ...
.
According to Chris Kostov, there were heated debates among the members of the
linguistic Commission for standardization of the Macedonian language, where Koneski insisted on the replacement of Bulgarian words with Serbian as much as possible, while
Venko Markovski was opposed to this.
Per Macedonian revisionist historian Stojan Kiselinovski, Koneski who was from a family which followed Serbian traditional values, engaged in conflict with Markovski whose family nurtured
Bulgarian Exarchate
The Bulgarian Exarchate (; ) was the official name of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church before its autocephaly was recognized by the Ecumenical See in 1945 and the Bulgarian Patriarchate was restored in 1953.
The Exarchate (a de facto autocephaly) ...
traditional values. Much later, in his memoirs, Markovski will depict this conflict as a national one and that he was trying to save the alphabet from total Serbification. However, the stenographic transcripts of the debates show that this opposition was not nationally based, since Markovski, the future pro-Bulgarian, even apprised the historical legacy of
Krste Misirkov
Krste Petkov Misirkov (, ; ; Serbian Cyrillic: Крста Петковић Мисирков; ; 18 November 1874 – 26 July 1926) was a philologist, journalist, historian and ethnographer from the region of Macedonia.
In the period between 1903 ...
to the other members of the "Commission for the Establishment of the Macedonian Language, Alphabet and Orthography" of
ASNOM
The Anti-fascist Assembly for the National Liberation of Macedonia (, ''Antifašističko sobranie za narodno osloboduvanje na Makedonija''; Serbo-Croatian: ''Antifašističko sobranje narodnog oslobođenja Makedonije''; abbr. ASNOM) was the supr ...
.
According to the Austrian linguist
Otto Kronsteiner, no poet appeared who was able to give the Serbianized Macedonian language fame and finesse, and the poetic efforts of Blaže Koneski were printed with state money, although were not read. In December 1993, shortly after Koneski's death, the doyen of Macedonian historians
Blaže Ristovski Blaže Ristovski (March 21, 1931, Garnikovo, Kavadarci, Kingdom of Yugoslavia – November 28, 2018, Skopje, Macedonia, both in present-day North Macedonia) was a Macedonian linguist, folklorist and historian.
He graduated from Faculty of Philolog ...
also criticized Koneski's alphabet and insisted on its reform, demanding changes in the Macedonian letters described as Bulgarophilic.
Per Bulgarian historian Tchavdar Marinov, the process of the language planning within SR Macedonia was certainly more complex than the unambiguous "Sebification" notion.
According to Marinov, it is nearly a taboo topic in North Macedonia to point out the Serbophilia of the post-WWII builders of the Macedonian language and national identity as Koneski, and this is considered there a pro-Bulgarian act.
Other views
According to Koneski himself, his village became oriented towards the
Serbian propaganda in the early 20th century and his mother's uncle
Gligor Sokolović was responsible for this shift. However, per Koneski, this shift was not nationally motivated and although his family was pro-Serbian, they did not raise him as a Serbian, rather he always felt as a Macedonian.
The Slavist
Victor Friedman firmly rejects the idea that the
Macedonian standard was created out of the air, by decree after 1944, rather it was recognition to a literary language whose modern development began in the 19th century. Friedman claims that Koneski advocated for the adoption of Serbian Cyrillic on purely linguistic and pedagogical grounds. Also, Koneski emphasized that at the time most Macedonians were educated with this orthography and insisted that any other choice would send them back into illiteracy.
Furthermore, Friedman while analysing Voss, emphasizes that phonologically the West Central dialectal base of Macedonian is closer to Serbian and this is clearly the result of pre-Ottoman medieval factors. Also per Friedman, the revisionist linguistic debates were politicized issues, among those who carry on the principles from Yugoslavia and by the ones associating Macedonian closer to Bulgarian, thus the revisionist
Serbophobic linguistic policies in a particularly ironic effect ended up appearing
Bulgarophilic. Friedman ironically points out that the depiction of Macedonian vocabulary as ''Serbified'' is only valid if for example the Bulgarian vocabulary is characterized as ''
Russified''.
[Victor A. Friedman (1998). “The implementation of Standard Macedonian: Problems and results.” International Journal of the Sociology of Language 131: pp. 20-25.] This view is espoused by Tchavdar Marinov, per who Bulgarian polemicists condemned the Serbian influence in Macedonian while they hail the Russian influence in Bulgarian as an enrichment. Thus Macedonian cannot be understood without reference to Serbian and Bulgarian, the same as Bulgarian is fundamentally interlaced with the
Russian language
Russian is an East Slavic languages, East Slavic language belonging to the Balto-Slavic languages, Balto-Slavic branch of the Indo-European languages, Indo-European language family. It is one of the four extant East Slavic languages, and is ...
.
Bibliography
Poetry and prose
*''Land and Love'' (poetry, 1948)
*''Poems'' (1953)
*''The Embroideress'' (poetry, 1955)
*''The Vineyard'' (short stories, 1955)
*''Poems'' (1963)
*''Sterna (poetry, 1966), Hand - Shaking'' (narrative poem, 1969)
*''Notes'' (poetry, 1974)
*''Poems Old and New'' (poetry, 1979)
*''Places and Moments'' (poetry, 1981)
*''The Fountains'' (poetry, 1984)
*''The Epistle'' (poetry, 1987)
*''Meeting in Heaven'' (poetry, 1988)
*''The Church'' (poetry 1988)
*''A Diary after Many Years'' (prose, 1988)
*''Golden Peak'' (poetry, 1989)
*''Seismograph'' (poetry, 1989)
*''The Heavenly River'' (poems and translations, 1991)
*''The Black Ram'' (poetry, 1993)
Academic and other works
*''Normative Guide with a Dictionary of Standard Macedonian with Krum Tošev'' (1950)
*''Grammar of Standard Macedonian'' (volume 1, 1952)
*''Standard Macedonian'' (1959)
*''A Grammar of Standard Macedonian'' (volume 2, 1954)
*''Macedonian Dictionary'' (1961)
*''A History of Macedonian'' (1965)
*''Macedonian Dictionary'' (volume 2, edited, 1965)
*''Macedonian Dictionary'' (volume 3, 1966)
*''The Language of the Macedonian Folk Poetry'' (1971)
*''Speeches and Essays'' (1972)
*''Macedonian Textbooks of 19th Century: Linguistic, Literary, Historical Texts'' (1986)
*''Images and Themes'' (essays, 1987)
*''The Tikveš Anthology'' (study, 1987)
*''Poetry (Konstantin Miladinov), the Way Blaze Koneski Reads It'' (1989)
*''Macedonian Locations and Topics'' (essays, 1991)
*''The World of the Legend and the Song'' (essays, 1993)
References
Further reading
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Koneski, Blaže
1921 births
1993 deaths
People from Dolneni Municipality
20th-century translators
Macedonian communists
20th-century Macedonian poets
Macedonists
Macedonian people of Serbian descent
University of Belgrade Faculty of Philology alumni
Members of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts
Academic staff of the Ss. Cyril and Methodius University of Skopje
Struga Poetry Evenings Golden Wreath laureates
Literary translators
Herder Prize recipients
Yugoslav poets
Yugoslav writers
Members of the Macedonian Academy of Sciences and Arts