The Public - A Journal of Democracy, 1918: The Macedonian Problem

The Public - A Journal of Democracy is the name of the magazine we are quoting from today, more precisely from the article "Drama in the Orient" from August 1918.

In the "Drama in the Orient" we find the article "The Macedonian Problem" by author S. Zimand. As an introduction to his article he writes: One of the biggest problems that needs to be solved in relation to the Balkans is the Macedonian question...

The Macedonian Problem 

by S. Zimand

One of the main problems to be solved in connection with the Balkans is the Macedonian question. In the middle of the nineteenth century Macedonia represented the household economy. The peasants produced articles for use and not for sale. In the weekly markets of Ipek and Prizrend the Macedonians could be found bartering grain for salts and hides for iron. Money was practically unknown. After the Crimean War, under the pressure of European capitalism the money economy gradually began to emerge. Capitalism employed two means in its efforts to revolutionize the economic structure of the Balkans; the system of state debts and railroads. Fearing always an attack from Russia, Turkey was compelled to maintain a strong army, and in its efforts to do this it was compelled to pay large sums of money to European armament manufacturers. As a consequence, European capitalists laid their hands heavily on the state incomes of Turkey, and, from 1881 the control of the chief state incomes has passed from the Turkish financial minister to representatives of European banks. Those incomes later were used to pay interest on European capital. Taxes and peasant incomes inevitably increased to such a point that peasants were forced to sell part of their harvests to pay their taxes. They were thus compelled to produce for the market.

The railroads, built with Austrian, Belgian and French capital, beginning with the year 1872, brought European goods to the Macedonian market, and by creating a desire among the peasants for European products also accelerated the development from household economy to money economy.

The two great classes in Macedonian society were the landlords on the one hand and the peasants on the other. The class conflict was at one and the same time both a national conflict and a religious conflict. The landlords, the Spahis, as they are called in Turkey, are Mohammedans and Turks, and the peasants are Christians and mostly of Slavic race. In the development from one economy to the other the relations between these two classes entirely changed. The main tax of the country was the tithe. The peasant had to deliver a tenth of his harvest to the state as a compulsory tax. The state turned over this tax to the landlord who, in turn, was supposed to furnish the warriors for the state. After the European revolution abolished feudalism in Europe, Turkey also abolished the feudal system as the basis of its armies. The Spahis were not compelled to furnish the state with soldiers, but neither did the receive state tithes any longer. Henceforth the tithes went to the state, but were collected by the Spahis who exacted a commission, which increased with the increase in the amount of taxes collected. Conflicts between the two groups inevitably followed. The collector, in these conflicts ever had the advantage, as he controlled the army officers, to coerce any resisting peasants,. The peasants were helpless and their position became more and more aggravated. Added ti this condition the peasants' cattle were decimated by disease and the peasants were massacred by officers of the army.

The Macedonian peasants were divided into three groups - the free peasants, the peasants who had to pay taxes and the serfs. The introduction of money economy increased the second class and decreased the the number of free peasants. the peasant, as is well known, found little assistance in the Turkis authority. The Turkish officer and judge stood beside the Mohammedan master who did not fail to give them their backshich (tip in Turkish). The bitterness of the peasant became greater and greater. They realized that their brethren in the Serbian, Bulgarian and Greek states were living under better conditions. From these Serbian and Bulgarian countries the Turkish Spahis had been driven out. The Serbian and Bulgarian peasants were not compelled to pay tithes.  The national tithe had been replaced by the modern system of taxation and it was no wonder that the Macedonian peasant saw their liberators in the Serbian and Bulgarian troops. Turkey could not abolish the feudal system. It was impossible for it to expropriate its own people, Mohammedans and Turkish, in order to free the Christians and Slav peasants. It was impossible to make the change in any other way than abolishing the Turkish mastery in Macedonia. The driving out of Turkey from Macedonia constituted for these peoples the French revolution of 1789. Feudalism was possible in Macedonia as long as the old economic system was predominant. But when the money economy took its place, the feudal system was unable to maintain itself.

This historical change would have taken place long ago if it had not been for two hindrances. The first of these was the national struggles of the Balkan people among themselves; the second, the intrigues of the great powers who wanted to prolong the life of Turkey, because they could not come to an understanding as to who should get the spoils.

An important phase of the quarrels of the Balkan people among themselves is the struggle against the Greeks which took place in the Balkans. Between the Turkish landowners and the Slavic peasants we find the Greek bourgeoisie and the Greek clergy. When the Turks took possession of the Balkan peninsula in the 16th century, the aristocrats of the Slavs who did not go over to Islam were entirely destroyed. 

The Slavs became a people of poor exploited illiterate peasants, a people without an alphabet, without writing, without political life, without manners. The Serbians and Bulgarians were from the beginning of the Turkish domination up to their liberation, nations without any history. The Greeks were in a different position. They were the masters of the old Byzantine empire. Not only in Greece did the Greeks belong to the higher class of the population, but also in Romania, Bulgaria, Serbia. They were different from the Slavs, who degenerated into poor peasants without tradition.

At the head of the Greek society was the aristocracy of Phanar. Phanar is a district of Constantinople, inhabited by the Greek families of Byzantine Empire. They enjoyed special privileges and were composed of the rich merchants and bankers, shipowners and traders, with whom the Turks did business. Not a few of them were at the service of the Sultan and possessed influence. Among the aristocrats of Phanar were also the Christian princes who dominated Rumania for nearly a hundred years. The main power of Greek domination lay in the Greek Church, and the Christian peoples of the Balkans belonged to that Church. The church was the only organization of the Christians peoples. The church schools were the only places in which Christians could receive an education. It was the only defensive organization which the Balkans had against the Turkish oligarchy. But this Christian church was entirely Greek. The Greek language was the language of the Church, of the schools, and of all other organizations, belonging thereto. This spiritual and economic superiority of the Greeks over the other people was used by the Turk only to help him to suppress the Balkan people. Every intelligent Bulgarian or Serbian with any degree of education adopted the Greek language as his language. Just as Bohemia in the 18th century, the Czechs took the German language as their own, just as the Belgians used the French language, so in the Turkish Empire all the rich and educated Christians became Greeks. It was the intention of these Greeks possessing, as they did, such great power, to realize their old dream of an Hellenic Empire.

It is true that the Greek Church fulfilled  a historical mission. Their organization was the means of giving to the Christians a certain autonomy. Their schools taught the Balkan people some elemnts of Byzantine education, but for this the Balkan people paid dearly. There is an old Macedonia roverb that the Slav work and the Greeks holds the plow.

But the Church was responsible for another kind of oppression. The seats of Bishops were sold. After a newly installed Bishop took his seat he imposed high taxes on his congregation in order to compensate himself for his outlay in obtaining his seat. This aroused an intense bitterness among the Christian population who began to work for independence from the Greek Church.

In the period of revolution from the beginning of the Serbian revolt of 1804 up to the Russo-Turkish war of 1878, the Rumanians, Bulgarians and Serbians became independent of Turkey. With the mastery of the Turk, they also became independent of Phanar. A period of renaissance developed in these nations that had no history.  They created a national literature and alphabet, and as a result gradually severed their connections with the Patriarchat, the head of the Greek Church living in Phanar. This rebirth of nations that have little or no historical background, is one of the most interesting events of modern time.

The great struggle against the Greeks was led in the beginning by the Bulgarians. They later became independent of the Greek Church in 1870 and at that time formed their Exarchat. The we have the struggle between the Bulgarians and the Greeks to induce Macedonians to join their Church. The Greek Patriarch was attempting to push his propaganda all over the country, employing armed bands to terrorize the villagers into declaring themselves Greek. This, of course, was a campaign carried on conjunction with the Greek Government, which wished to Hellenize Macedonia against the say when Turkey should be driven out, so that it could lay claim to the country on the strength of blood kinship. The Serbians also entered the contest and endeavored to intervene in favor of their church, and finally, the Rumanians also.

Sunday after Sunday could be observed massacres of peasants from the different Churches. The poor Macedonian peasants were constantly receiving invitations from various groups urging them to join their Church, accompanied by threats of death in case of failure to acquiesce. This is one of the bloodiest chapters in the history of the Balkans. In this struggle the Bulgarians were finally victorious.

The Turks tried to intervene in these struggles, but this interference led the Christian population, which had fought amongst itself to unite and fight the Turks. The upshot was the Macedonian revolt of 1903. Russia was than busy in Macedonia and did not wish the "Sick-man" to be partitioned at that moment. A convention called the "Muerzsteg Programme" in October, 1903, and to which Turkey assented in principle, was planned by Austria and Russia, the Kaiser Franz Josef of Austria and the Czar Nikolas, for the enforcement of reforms. But these reforms were paralyzed from the beginning on account of jealousy of the Great Powers. The Austrian-Russian agreement came to an end and wars replaced by the so called Reval Programme of June, 1908, King Edward VII and he Czar agreed upon a new Reform Programme in Macedonia. The conditions in European Turkey went from bad to worse, and under the influence of the Russian Revolution, which has influenced all the people in the Orient, there broke out the Turkish Revolution of 1908. The Young Turks brought into their Government stricter rules, rules of the iron hand, to bring order out of chaos. This in turn made the Balkan people forget their struggles and unite against the Turks. This was the occasion of the First Balkan War. Then the intrigues of the old regime in Russia and Austria brought about the Second Balkan War, which many believe is in part the cause of the present catastrophe.  The building of the Bagdad Railroad, the commercial rivalries  of the Great Powers, commercial crusades and competition made a hell of the Balkan peninsula.

What is the solution? There is only one lasting solution. It is the unification of the Balkan people into a federation of states such as is found in the United States. The necessity for a closer alliance of the Balkan people has been recognized for a number of years.As far back as 1846 we find French and Hungarian revolutions publishing a manifesto advocating a federation of the Balkan states. Among the signers we find the names of Victor Hugo, Kossuth, and Rollin. This unification will also be the beginning of a real political independence among the people of the Balkans. It will solve the Near Eastern Question and will be the most potent factor in bringing about intelligent cooperation. With the internationalization of Constantinople, it will open the way to a world federation which we are all seeking.

Source: The Public - A Journal of Democracy, 1918: The Macedonian Problem