MPO IN THE UNITED STATES, CANADA AND AUSTRALIA
Dr Trendafil Mitev
 

Introduction

Bulgarian emigrants moved to North America in the last decades of the 19th century. By the end of World War II their number amounted to about 100,000 [1]. The largest Bulgarian colonies were established in the east and northeast states of the United States and Southern Canada – mainly in New York, Toronto, Chicago, Indianapolis, Akron, Fort Wayne, Lorain, Youngstown, St. Louis, Stilton Gerry, Madison, Granite City, Springfield, Lackawanna, and in South Australia. For a century the Bulgarians managed to stabilize their economic positions and form different political, educational and cultural organizations, which played an important role for the immigration’s establishment in the New World. They also had an impact upon the progress in cultural relations between the Bulgarian nation and the American, Canadian and Australian peoples. The following survey has the purpose of clarifying the issues on the formation, major stages and aims in the activities of one of the most interesting and active emigrant organizations – the Macedonian Patriotic Organization in the United States, Canada and Australia (MPO)**. It incorporated mainly Bulgarians from Macedonia who had moved to the States, Canada and Australia [2]. The Macedonian Patriotic Organization uncompromisingly protected the historical truth of Macedonia’s Bulgarian ethnic character. It fought for its freedom by exposing the false ideas of “Macedonianism”, which aimed to “prove” the existence of a separate “Macedonian nation” on the basis of anti-Bulgarian feelings.

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1 Jubille Almanac of Naroden Glas (1907 – 1918), USA,1933

* The initial name of the organization is “The Macedonian patriotic organization in the United States, Canada”. Since the 50's it is called “The Macedonian patriotic organization in the United states, Canada and Australia”.