2020
Macedonian
The Macedonian Question from 1944 to the Present: Communism and Nationalism in the Balkans
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This work has been made available with the consent of the author. The materials are used exclusively for scholarly, educational, and cultural-historical purposes, in support of the preservation, study, and promotion of Macedonian cultural heritage.
Description
The Macedonian Question from 1944 to the Present: Communism and Nationalism in the Balkans offers a comprehensive study of the political, historical, and cultural debates surrounding the identity and nationhood of the Macedonian people. The book examines the roots of the “Macedonian Question” in the Ottoman era, its evolution through the Balkan Wars and World War I, and its central role in the interwar and World War II periods, when competing national movements clashed over Macedonia’s future.
Marinov explores how Bulgarian, Serbian, Greek, and later Yugoslav and international perspectives shaped the dispute, analyzing political ideologies, historiography, and state policies. He also considers the role of the communist movement and the establishment of the Socialist Republic of Macedonia in 1944, which institutionalized a distinct Macedonian identity. In doing so, the book reveals how the Macedonian Question became not only a regional but also a European and global issue.
The work is both analytical and critical, balancing political history with intellectual debates. It highlights the intersection of nationalism, identity, and memory, while also questioning the use of history as a political weapon. Through this approach, Marinov demonstrates why the Macedonian Question has remained a persistent and unresolved issue in the Balkans up to the present day.
About the Author
Author
Tchavdar Marinov(1974)
Tchavdar Marinov is a Bulgarian historian whose research focuses on nationalism, identity politics, and the modern history of Southeast Europe, with particular attention to the historiography of the Macedonian Question and heritage politics in the Balkans.
He is a researcher at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences (Institute of Philosophy and Sociology) and was trained in philosophy at Sofia University and in history and civilizations at the EHESS in Paris. Marinov is the author of the monograph La Question macédonienne de 1944 à nos jours: Communisme et nationalisme dans les Balkans (2010; later developed into the Macedonian-language study The Macedonian Question from 1944 to the Present).
He has also co-edited major academic volumes, including Entangled Histories of the Balkans, Volume One: National Ideologies and Language Policies (with Roumen Daskalov).