CHAPTER 19
World War I and After
I. After the War Was Lost
II. The Religious Life
III. Bulgarians and Americanization
IV. The Macedonian Struggle
The Bulgarians had not yet recovered from the defeat in the Balkan Wars when they had to face the dilemma of World War that broke out in late 1914. In October 1915 Bulgaria joined the Central Powers: Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Turkey. The main reason for the decision of King Ferdinands government was Macedonia. Ferdinand, a native of Germany, was convinced that after a victorious war he would be able to gain Macedonia that had been taken away from him by Serbs and Greeks.
When by the end of 1915, the Bulgarian armies occupied Serbia, the Bulgarians in America were happy. However, the response of a majority of those who joined the Bulgarian army was less than enthusiastic because of bad experiences only two years earlier. Many Bulgarian Socialists, who were especially strong in the Midwest, followed the general anti-war line taken by their American comrades.
The Bulgarians in America, especially those who had not become citizens, did not fare well. It was probably because "their continued opposition to Serbian and Greek rule in Macedonia was looked upon by U.S. authorities with distrust." Moreover, the Greek and Serbian colonies also conducted their campaign against them. In spite of these obstacles the Macedonian revolutionary group continued its activities, and in 1918, a large Macedonian conference was held in Chicago, and passed a resolution in favor of liberty of Macedonia. [1]
One of the enemies of Bulgarian aspirations was the Serbian scientist and scholar, Professor Michael Pupin, who also served as an honorary Serbian consul in New York. In his speeches and articles he constantly advocated a Great Serbia in which Macedonia was to be merely Southern Serbia. All the Bulgarians
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who were not American citizens were regarded by American authorities and many influental people as German allies and enemies, especially after April of 1917. It was difficult to be a Bulgarian in America during World War I.
One of the outspoken Bulgarians at the time was Todor Cvetkov, a Bulgarian Socialist who arrived in Chicago at the end of 1908. Cvetkov had left Bulgaria for political reasons and lived for a while in the Croatian capital Zagreb which traditionally attracted many young Bulgarians. Vvetkov was a former theology student and in Zagreb he learned fluent Croatian, having experienced his conversion to Socialism. In Chicago he became the editor of the Croatian Socialist weekly Radnička Straža (Worker's Sentinel) that started to appear in December 1907. Later on Cvetkov finished his studies in the Law School at Valparaiso University, Indiana, where many South Slavs received their degrees.
Cvetkov became attorney-at-law and then worked among the the Croatians and Bulgarians and wherever his help was needed. A dedicated Socialist, he was for years a friend and adviser to many people in need. Turing the war Cvetkov was in the forefront of those that denounced the war. He also attacked the activities of the South Slav movement and even engaged in public debates with some of its leaders. As an editor of Radnička Straža Cvetkov aroused the ire of U.S. authorities. In the fall of 1917 they prohibited the publication of his paper because of its anti-war stand. Later on the paper continued for a while under several different titles always adhering to its radical Socialist ideas. [2]
The Socialists were strong among the Bulgarians and very active in publishing newspapers and periodicals. Until 1930 there were in the United States close to Thirty such publications. Because the Bulgarian language uses the Cyrillic alphabet all were printed this way. As a majority of Bulgarians were uneducated and illiterate, many learned to write and read in America. One of the primary goals of the Socialist Bulgarian press was to educate its readers, to inform them about events in the homeland and in America, to report the activities of Bulgarian and other Socialist workers, and to help them adapt to their life in America.
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In New York City the Robotnik (The Worker) was started in 1906. In September of 1907 the first Bulgarian daily Naroden Glas — The National Herald came into exisence in Granite City, Illinois, at the time the main and largest Bulgarian colony in America. [3]
I. After the War Was Lost
For his principles of self-determination which he had publicly announced, President Wilson was hailed by several of the Slavic peoples in Europe. However after the end of the war in which hundreds of thousands of Balkan soldiers had perished, self-determination was denied to several Slavic nations. One of them was Bulgaria. In the autumn of 1018 the Allies defeated the Bulgarian armies. The victors then imposed on Bulgaria the peace treaty of Neuilly on November 27, 1919. Bulgaria lost Macedonia in the west and the access to the Aegean Sea which she had gained in 1913. King Ferdinand abdicated in favor of his son Boris. Alexander Stambuliski, an agrarian politician, formed the new government. The country suffered a great deal from the consequences of the war and the punitive peace treaty which also limited its army to a minimum. [4] But most of all, the Bulgarians suffered emotionally from the loss of Macedonia. It was again placed under the harsh rule of Belgrade and Athens. Between 1918 and 1941, the Serbs and Greeks treated Bulgarian-speaking Macedonians as enemies and mercilessly suppressed any signs of Bulgarian nationalism, forced the people to change their family names, abolished their schooh, subjugated their Orthodox Church, arrested men by the thousands, declared an open season on all patriots, liquidated large numbers, and an the whole treated the Macedonians worse than the Turks had done. As the Macedonians had many friends among the former Western Protectant missionaries (most of whom were expelled by the new conquerors) and among the scholars, a great deal of publicity in the West followed.
Thus the Bulgarian defeat and loss of Macedonia caused bitter feelings among the Bulgarians and Macedonians in America. During and after the war a few thousand Bulgarians returned to the homeland. Some again made the trip back to America
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alone or with their families. Many wives and children, after 1919, joined the immigrants in America. There were now many more women among them than before 1914. And a new American-born generation was now making its appearance. Also, there was an increasing number of educated people and professionals.
II. The Religious Life
Over ninety percent of all Bulgarians and Macedonians belong to the Bulgarian Orthodox Church which is administered by the Patriarch in Sofia. In America the first Bulgarian Proteatant group was organized in Chicago around 1905. Its leader was P. D. Vassilef. An evangelical mission was started in the Methodist church on Monroe Street. Gradually there were established Methodist, Congregational, Presbyterian, and Baptist missions among the Bulgarians in Granite City and Madison, Illinois, and in Battle Creek, Michigan. Most of the books the ministers used were in the Bulgarian language. [5]
The only Bulgarian parochial school in the United States at that time was in Steelton, Pennsylvania, There were, however, evening schools for the children and grown-ups in Granite City and Madison, Illinois; Indianapolis, Indiana; Detroit and Battle-Creek, Michigan; Toledo and Lorain, Ohio; Homestead and Johnstown, Pennsylvania; and Lackawanna, New York.
The first Bulgarian Orthodox church to America, that at Sts. Cyril and Methodius, was established in 1909 in Granite City, Illinois. Other churches were founded in Steelton, Pennsylvania (1910); St. Stephen, Indianapolis (1915); St. Clement Ohridsky, Detroit (1929); St. Trinity, Madison, Illinois (1929); and one in Lorain, Ohio, in 1934. The number of regtstered parishioners was approximately eight thousand at the end of the 1920s.
As an administrative body, the Bulgarian Church began its official activities in 1920 as the Bulgarian Orthodox Mission under the jurisdiction of the Holy Synod of the Bulgarian Exarchate in Sofia. (In 1953 it was elevated to the Patriarchate.) The first head of the mission was Reverend Dr. K. Tsenoff. The center for the mission for the entire United States and Canada was in Indianapolis, Indiana. In 1937 it was named the Bul-
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garian Eastern Orthodox Church, Diocese of the United States and Canada. [6]
In 1947 a canonical conference in Buffalo, New York, under the Chairmanship of Metropolitan Leonty, Primate of the Russian Orthodox Metropolia, elected Bishop Audrey Velitcki as the administrator of the diocese. The conference severed ties with the Holy Synod in Bulgaria "due to the takeover by the communists." However, in 1963 "for unjustified reasons, Bishop Andrey subordinated himself to the administrative orders of Sofia... without the knowledge and against the will of the entire clergy and elected representatives the parishes." As a result the diocese experienced many difficulties.
In 1963 another canonical conference convened in Detroit and decided not to accent the administrative orders from Sofia even though continuing "a spiritual relationship with the Mother Church." The Holy Synod then reorganized its structure in the United States "to settle the problems of church life ss determined by the conditions of this country." The Holy Synod of Sofia recently instructed Bishop Andrey to limit his activities to the city of New York. In the rest of the United States and Canada the head of the Bulgarian Church is still Bishop Kyril, who does not recognize the patriarch in Sofia.
There are twenty-five parishes in America and Canada served by full-time clergy. As Bishop Kyril says: "We are blessed with beautiful churches, educational buildings, social halls, choirs, and a very normal religious life." The headquarters of Bishop Kyril are in Toledo, Ohio. He was consecrated as bishop in the Russian Orthodox Monastery, Holy Trinity, Jordanville, New York, in August 1984. He refused to recognize the recently created Macedonian Church with the see at Ohrid, Macedonian Republic of Yugoslavia. In his statement in the Macedonian Tribune Bishop Kyril also said:
We, the Bulgarians, regardless of place of birth, are true Orthodox believers. We love and hold dear our traditions and national customs. But at the same tune, we are very devoted and thankful to the citizens of this great country of America — to worship, preach and teach without being disturbed by any outside sources. [7]
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While a great majority of the members of the diocese before the 1950s were the immigrants from Macedonia and their descendants, hundreds of newcomers from Bulgaria, mostly refugees from the Communist rule, became new members during the last twenty years. They were also joined by the Immigrants from the Yugoslav Macedonian Republic whose center is in Skoplje.
The split within the Bulgarian Church in America and Canada is still wide open, causing a lot of bitter feelings on both sides. The controversy goes on in the same fashion as in the American Serbian Orthodox Church. It remains to be seen how and when — if ever — it will be resolved. [8]
III. Bulgarians and Americanization
Even though a Balkan immigrant may not be a regular churchgoer, the church always played a great role in his life. Basically, most old-timers — the peasant immigrants from Bulgaria — were conservative. In America many changed their views. In fact, some Bulgarians came as Socialists from the old country or from a stopover in Europe. Bulgarians like all other Slavic peasants possessed a lot of natural intelligence and inherited from the long time of struggle against the Turks an inborn sense of distrust, suspicion, and shrewdness.
It is interesting that the Dictionary of Races and Peoples of the Reports of the Immigration Commission (1910-1911) described the Bulgarians "less warriors in spirit" than some of their neighbors, und "more settled as agriculturists" due to their, traditional skill in horticulture. [9] While the assertion about Bulgarians as being less warlike may not be true, their ability as farmers and gardeners has been well known for a long time.
Surprisingly, many educated Bulgarians embraced Americanization eagerly and deliberately severed all ties with their mother country. This was, for instance, the case of the Bulgarian Stoyan Christowe, a fairly successful American writer. Born in 1896 in Konomlady, Macedonia, he came to the United States as a young lad and was educated at Valparaiso University, Valparaiso, Indiana. He described, in his autobiography, how eagerly he embraced Americanization. To him this was not
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"the shock of alienation." Christowe claims that, while visiting in Bulgaria in the spring of 1838, during the audience with King Boris in Sofia it was easier tor him to talk with the king in English than in his native Bulgarian. He felt that "America, my America, stretched her arms across the distance so that I might hold on to her hand." So poignant was his nostalgia for America that he could hug a Ford car just because it was made there. He was afraid that after a few months he might become "re-Balkanized" and was happy when his friends told him: "You belong to America. America belongs to you. You don't know how fortunate you are." [10]
John Gunther, the American writer, who visited Bulgaria during the l930s calls the Bulgarians "poor, clean, intensely honest ... the best people in the Balkans." These are high compliments by a writer who traveled all over Europe at the time and met many other peoples. Gunther was impressed with the beauty of the Bulgarian country and the modesty of its king. Appropriately he called Bulgaria "the unfortunate little country ... mercilessly chopped asunder ... by the peace treaties." [11]
Reuben Markham, who spent years In Sofia as a correspondent of The Christian Science Monitor, also highly praised the Bulgarians and was their true friend. In 1931 he published a book Meet Bulgaria which reflected his intimate knowledge of the subject. The work was considered the best general discussion of Bulgaria in the English language.
The people that Gunther called "the best ... in the Balkans" have had, like the rest of the Slavs, their share of problems in experiencing adjustment, alienation, and assimilation in America. Christowe (who partly anglicized his Bulgarian family name) after all his eager attempts to become a true American reflected in one of his writings upon some problems that Bulgarians experienced in the process of becoming Americans. "While I am not a whole American, neither am I what I was when I first landed here; that is, a Bulgarian," he wrote. His inherited native traits barred him "forever from complete assimilation." As a visitor in Bulgaria he "felt like a foreigner and was so regarded." While in Bulgaria he was not wholly a Bulgarian. in the United States he was not wholly an American. Thus he had to go "through life with a dual nationality." In America
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he longed for the sleepy villages and the intimate life of the Balkans. When he was in the Balkans he dreamed of America day and night. "Yes I cannot leave America," he writes, "though I am but half American." [12]
Christowe modified his views later on. At least to a certain degree this is how many educated Bulgarians felt about the problem. Millions of immigrants reacted differently in each individual case. Many even second and third generation ethnics have in a way dual personalities. They are torn apart by two loves: one for America, one for the country of their ancestors. Many Bulgarian immigrants, their children, and grandchildren have remained "half Americans." Indeed it can be said that millions of other ethnics feel the same way.
IV. The Macedonian Struggle
The activities of the church, press, and political organizations contributed to the making of many Bulgarians "half Americans." Most of the Bulgarian political activities in this country were, caused and prolonged by the Macedonian problem. The situation in Serbian and Greek controlled parts of divided Macedonia remained precarious. During the 1920s and 1930s the American and Western press kept reporting about the fighting in mountains and valleys in the heart of the Balkans: between the troops, and gendarmes on one side and the guerillas of the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization on the other side. IMRO's leader was Ivan Mihajlov, popularly known as Vanča. The armed struggle in Yugoslavia went on for years. Mihajlov directed his struggle against Belgrade from his hideouts Sofia and the Bulgarian part of Macedonia.
The American Macedonians reacted vehemently against despotic rule, against the terror, killing, tortures, and burning in their native land. Their postwar organization in America was the Union of Macedonian Political Organizations. In Octobers 1922 it convened in a congress in Fort Wayne, Indiana. Delegates represented the organizations from some fifteen cities. The result of this gathering was the creation of the Macedonian Patriotic Organization, a union of all Macedonian patriotic organizations "under one standard and with one ideal: the liberation and
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unification of Macedonia." The president of the Central Committee was Anastas Stephanoff of Port Wayne; its secretary was Atanas Lebamoff. The center of the MPO moved to Indianapolis, Indiana.
The MPO claims to be the political spokesman of the American and Canadian Macedonians and has generally supported the goals and activities of the homeland IMRO. In its official creed the Macedonians are regarded as an integral part of the Bulgarian nation and the Macedonian language as a Bulgarian dialect. Since its founding the MPO has undertaken numerous activities and printed papers, memoranda, pamphlets, books, and almanacs in English and Bulgarian on the Macedonian struggle. It has tried to attract the interest of congressmen and senators In Washington and has appealed to several U.S. Presidents to intervene diplomatically in favor of Macedonians outside Bulgaria. It has also held yearly congresses at which many American and foreign scholars have spoken in sympathy with and in support of the Macedonian cause.
On February 10, 1927, the first issue of Makedonska Tribuna — The Macedonian Tribune, a weekly organ of the MPO, appeared in Indianapolis. It has been published ever since. It also serves as the voice of the Macedono-Bulgarian Orthodox Church in the United States and Canada. For fifty years it has been an interesting chronicle of the lives of Macedonians and other Bulgarians on this continent and in the homeland. It is printed in both Macedonian (with Cyrillic letters) and English. [13]
Out of the movement that was founded by patriotic Macedonians during the 1920s has developed a well-concerted effort by a large number of Macedonians in America and foreign lands. Trieir goals are described by the leader of the IMRO, Ivan Minailoff, in his book in English, Macedonia: A Switzerland of the Balkans.
When he was a young revolutionary leader in the mountains of the Balkans, and his name was mentioned in whispers in Yugoslav Macedonia, he received Stoyan Christowe in his mountainous hideout in Bulgaria. Christowe as correspondent of the Chicago Daily News was the first foreign correspondent to be granted such an opportunity by Mihailoff. John Gunther who then worked for the same paper was refused an interview
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by "Vanča." The Daily News and scores of other American papers featured Christowe's articles on Mihailoff and the Macedonian revolutionary struggle in the Balkans. Later on Christowe wrote his book Heroes and Assassins on the same subject. However, the book was a great disappointment to the Macedonians. His hosts in the mountains expected him "to be a Macedonian first, a writer and an American afterward." [14]