Macedonian Scientific Institute

On the 21st of December 1923 in auditorium 10 of Sofia University 52 professors, scholars, writers and public figures from among the Macedonian Bulgarians founded the Macedonian Scientific Institute (MSI). Prof. Dr.Ivan Georgov was elected to be its first president (1924-1928). The Institute began to publish the journal Macedonian Review and other studies on the fate of the Bulgarian population in Aegean and Vardar Macedonia.

From 1928 to 1937 the Macedonian Scientific Institute was headed by the famous Bulgarian scholar Prof.Dr. Ljubomir Miletich. Under his direction a large-scale research work developed and the Macedonian House of Culture in Sofia was built. After Prof. Miletich's death Prof. Nikola Stoyanov continued the patriotic and socially useful activity of the Institute (1938-1945).

After 1945 the work of the MSI was politicized and placed at the service of the false policy on the Macedonian question. The Managing Board headed by Prof. Stoyanov was removed by order of the Ministry of the Inferior and a new one was appointed. On the insistence of Scoplje and Belgrade in 1947 Politburo of the Central Committee of the Bulgarian Workers' Party (communists) "recommended" the self-liquidation of the MSI. The archives and the rich museum collection together with the mortal remains of Gotse Delchev were turned over to the authorities in Scoplje.

On May 3, 1990 the Macedonian Scientific Institute was restored. A Scientific Council and a 5-member Executive Council were elected with Prof. Dr. Petar Shapkarev as president of the Institute. Since June 29, 1997 the president of the MSI has been Assoc. Prof. Dimitar Gotsev.

In the past period the restored Macedonian Scientific Institute renewed its scientific traditions and won recognition as an all-national centre. In short time a good team of scholars, specialists in various fields of knowledge - historians, linguists, ethnologists and public figures - were involved. Now the staff of the Institute comprises 60 researchers studying different aspects of the Macedonian question. The MSI started publishing of Macedonian Review as a renewal of the old journal. It won recognition as a reputable scientific periodical at home and abroad. All qualified scholars doing researches on Macedonia joint round it.

The Macedonian Scientific Institute accepted a long-term research programme. It renewed the series Macedonian Library and published 35 collections of documents, monographs and popular science booklets, among them The National Liberation Movement of the Bulgarians in Macedonia and Thrace, vol. 1-3; The Bulgarians in Aegian Macedonia. Myth or Reality; Researches on the Macedonian Question; Linguistic Studies on Macedonia; The Fabrication of the So Called Macedonian Language, British Diplomatic Documents on the Bulgarian National Question, Macedonia As Seen by the Austrian Consuls; Greek and Serbian Propagandas in Macedonia. New Documents, etc.

The Institute has relations with scholars and centres of Slavonic and Bulgarian studies in Europe, the USA, Canada, Australia. Its publications are translated and issued abroad. Foreigners who submit and have their works published in Bulgaria have also appeared. Prof. Otto Kronsteiner (Austria), Prof. Tadeush Shimanski (Poland), Prof. Heinrich Stamler (USA) were elected to be Foreign Corresponding Members of the MSI. Young scholars from Russia, the Ukraine, Germany, Greece, Italy, Austria, France, Poland and other countries have had short-term specializations and consultations at the Institute.

In future the MSI will continue to publish foreign diplomatic documents - English, German, Russian, French, Italian, etc., giving their interpretation of different periods of the national and liberation movement of Macedonia and the Macedonian question. The authentic sources will reveal some deep-seated delusions at home and especially abroad.

At the same time the programme of the MSI pays serious attention to the scientific treatment of various problems of the contemporary relations between Bulgaria and the Republic of Macedonia.

The MSI will continue to expand its ties with international research centres as well as with scientific organizations and institutes in the Republic of Macedonia.

Scientific conferences, symposia and other scientific activities are an important stream in the work of the Institute. Round anniversaries of significant events in the Bulgarian history as the Balkan wars, the signing of San-Stephano Peace Treaty, the establishment of the Internal Macedonian and Adrianople Revolutionary Organization, the Ilinden and Preobrazhenie uprising are forthcoming. New unknown so far documents will be put in requisition in science, personalities and events forgotten for short-term policy considerations will find their new evaluation.



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