THE LIFE AND WORK OF THE DONOR ATANAS BLIZNAKOV IN THE MONOGRAPHS BY SLAVE KATIN
In July 1968, on the occasion of the 65th anniversary of the Ilinden Uprising, Atanas and Slavka Bliznakov came to Macedonia for the second time. They came to take part in the great Ilinden festive celebrations. Then, being guests of the Matica, Atanas and Slavka were members of the Delegation of the Emigrants.
They visited Bitola, Prilep, Ohrid, and Prespa, but Kruševo warmed their hearts, while Mečkin Kamen boosted their morale and strengthened their love for Macedonia. Atanas took advantage of that occasion to address the Macedonian people on Skopje Television, extending congratulations for the great celebrations and the results achieved in building a new life. Their stay was also covered by other national media. During their stay, Atanas Bliznakov also took part in activities related to the manifestation “Ten Days of the Kruševo Republic” in Kruševo.
After they returned to America, Atanas and Slavka Bliznakov immediately considered an idea and harbored a desire to return to and live in the liberated part of Macedonia for good. Atanas was obsessed by an idea to do something to help his homeland, his people in some way. That was how the initiative was conceived to establish the Foundation “Atanas Bliznakoff” to assist talented students at Skopje’s University “Ss. Cyril and Methodius.” The Foundation was formally inaugurated on 18 April, 1977.
When they returned to Gary after their second visit to Macedonia, Atanas sent a large number of thank you letters to individuals, institutions and newspapers in Macedonia. In his letter to the ‘Macedonia’ Magazine, Atanas Bliznakov, among other things, wrote:
My dear friends, dear Macedonians,
I have spent four months among you; the Macedonian people in the Socialist Republic of Macedonia. I have visited many towns in Macedonia, I have walked across the Macedonian mountains, and I have visited the flowery towns and fields.
I have no words to express how enjoyable and pleasant my stay in Macedonia was; I cannot find words to describe how emotional my meetings with you were, and my encounters with my brothers and sisters in Macedonia. All these favorable impressions have left warm memories in my soul and heart. Again and again, I feel a strong desire to return and be among you, and with my dear Macedonian people who are so precious to me, among whom I was born and grew up, among whom I spent my youth.
Panorama of Skopje
Accept my countless friendly regards. I am sending regards to my old and new friends, and I am sending special regards to Mr. Tome Bukleski, President of the Matica, Mr. Dimče Mire, Vice-President of the Matica, Mr. Ivan Točko, Editor-in-Chief, as well as to all associates at Matica and the Magazine ‘Macedonia’.
After visiting Macedonia in 1968, Atanas Bliznakov sent a letter to the newspaper ‘Nova Makedonija’ too, which was published under the title “There is no place for lies and forgery among honest Macedonians” that, inter alia, reads:
Several months have passed since I said goodbye to my closest and dearest, to my friends and acquaintances; since I said goodbye to the Macedonian people, and left our dear homeland, liberated Macedonia.
I was born in the southwestern region of Kostur, but I went to and was welcomed in liberated Macedonia. Only liberated Macedonia welcomes the Macedonian expatriates returning to the People’s Republic of Macedonia. It welcomes Macedonian expatriates in the same way as a mother welcomes her dear children.
The Macedonian people from Vardar Macedonia have laid the foundations for the Macedonian National Republic, for the Republic for which the Macedonian national movements inside Macedonia waged war.
The Macedonian-American National Alliance also struggled for these precious goals and ideals but until now when some of the leadership of the Alliance left for Bulgaria and have, for the sake of their own personal interests, become servants to the Bulgarian national aspirations and interest.
Any progressive and honest Macedonian in America knows the texts published in the ‘Narodna Volja’, the newspaper of the Macedonian National Alliance in America, the resolutions that were adopted at the congresses of MANS, and especially after 1944 when we all rejoiced and celebrated the moment when the Macedonian people in the liberated part of Macedonia, i.e. Vardar Macedonia, got their national, social and political rights to use their mother tongue, rejoicing and developing their own national history and culture.
In the fight against the Balkan and German fascists, the Macedonian people and the nationalities of Vardar Macedonia, under the blood-stained flag of the Macedonian Republic of Kruševo, achieved their national, political and social freedom with full national and political rights for the Macedonians and all nationalities living in Macedonia, and they laid the foundations of the Macedonian People’s Republic as well. It is the Republic for which the Ilinden freedom-fighters were also waging war; it is the Macedonian Republic for which Goce Delčev, Nikola Karev, Lazar Pop Trajkov, Pitu Guli, and many other Macedonian freedom-fighters also waged war.
But, the day will come when the Macedonian people of Aegean and Pirin Macedonia shall also get their right of self-determination for freedom, brotherhood and peace among all the Balkan peoples within a Balkan unity.
Therefore there isn’t and cannot be any real friendship and peace among the Balkan peoples as long as the Macedonian national issue isn’t solved justly. And in order to solve it justly, the highest, leading Balkan politicians should abandon their aspirations for Macedonia and reject the current forged histories of the Bulgarian and Greek chauvinists about the Macedonian national issue.
It is a great injustice to deny the people who created the alphabet and laid down the foundations of the history and culture of all Slavic peoples, since that history and culture, that science, has saved the Slavic peoples from being assimilated and deprived of their identity!
I believe that it is the obligation of each Macedonian, and especially for us who are older and who have been involved in the Macedonian national and political movements for a long time, who know the reasons for this anti-Macedonian campaign, to write something about the Macedonian national issue and to give an explanation about from where and why such propagandas appear,” reads Bliznakov’s letter.
A similar or identical letter of Atanas Bliznakov was published in the magazine ‘Macedonia’, in its edition No. 194, in June 1969.
To be continued
By SLAVE KATIN
