Risto Stefov

OSHCHIMA The Story of a Small Village in Western Macedonia By Risto Stefov OSHCHIMA The Story of a Small Village in Western Macedonia Published by: Risto Stefov Publications [email protected] Toronto, Canada All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system without written consent from the author, except for the inclusion of brief and documented quotations in a review. Copyright 2003 by Risto Stefov e-book edition 2 INDEX INTRODUCTION.......................................................................................................................................4 MACEDONIAN HISTORY FROM 1800 to 1950 ...................................................................................4 The Plight of the Macedonian Refugee Children...................................................................................71 History of the Village Oshchima..............................................................................................................80 Life in the Village Oshchima....................................................................................................................86 Family life in the Village Oshchima ........................................................................................................99 Benefit Society Oshchima.......................................................................................................................101 Post war Oshchima .................................................................................................................................102 Interviews ................................................................................................................................................104 Poem by Edward Spero Thompson.......................................................................................................171 Water Rights............................................................................................................................................172 Water Mills..............................................................................................................................................172 Water for consumption...........................................................................................................................173 Blagodarnica ........................................................................................................................................173 Mila O{~ima........................................................................................................................................174 Children’s games.....................................................................................................................................175 The Oshchima School .............................................................................................................................176 A Young Shepherd’s Journey ................................................................................................................176 Oshcimian Pioneers to Canada..............................................................................................................177 Oshchimians arrested on April 17th, 1947 and sent to concentration camps.....................................177 Oshchimians involved in the Greek Italian war...................................................................................177 Drafted, trained but did not see action .................................................................................................177 OSHCHIMIANS KILLED BETWEEN 1900 - 1949 ...........................................................................178 Oshchimians who joined the Partisans in the period from 1940 - 1949.............................................178 Oshchimian Refugee children in Poland...............................................................................................178 Mothers who helped the refugee children.............................................................................................179 Relations ..................................................................................................................................................179 Macedonian months - Makedonski izvorni mesetsi .............................................................................179 References................................................................................................................................................185 3 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS It is my wish to express my deepest appreciation to all those who encouraged me to make this book a reality. I would like to express my heartfelt thanks to all Oshchimians who welcomed me into their homes and allowed me the opportunity to interview them. Specials thanks to my parents Nikola and Sofia Stefou for putting up with me and for answering so many of my questions. Also many thanks to my wife Laurie for her help in making this book possible. INTRODUCTION This is the story of Oshchima, a small village in western Macedonia whose people have lived through good times and tragedies. My initial motivation for writing this book was to document individual experiences of Oshchimians who lived through the turbulent war times in the first half of the 20th century. During the last decade or so, many Canadian Oshchimians expressed interest in having their personal life experiences documented and preserved for future generations, before they were lost forever. Without the reader having personal experience of what life was like in Oshchima during the first half of the 20th century, I felt that understanding the stories expressed by the interviews alone could not be fully appreciated, especially by those unfamiliar with Oshchima. For that purpose I have included background information on 19th and 20th century Macedonian history as well as what is known about Oshchima’s history. To truly define the character of ordinary Oshchimians, the story delves into details of life in the village describing important events and daily activities that would ordinarily fill a yearly cycle. The book begins with an overview of the region’s 19th and 20th century history as witnessed through the eyes of the Macedonian people. It then turns inward and examines Oshchima’s own history as was orally handed down from generation to generation from pre-recorded times to the present. History stops for a year in 1939 and takes you on a journey to experience the trials and tribulations of village life, tradition, and family. MACEDONIAN HISTORY FROM 1800 to 1950 Balkan History 1800 to 1878 Even before Alexander’s time Macedonia was a single nation. With time she grew and shrank but always remained a single nation until her partition in 1912-13. If the Balkan roots lie in antiquity then the first stem that created the modern Balkan countries sprang up in the 19th century. The 19th century is the most important period in modern Balkan history. There is no event in recorded history that unfolded without Super Power intervention and there is no time in recorded history where one nation put another nation’s interests ahead of its own. Prior to 1829 there was no state, place name or geographical region called Greece or Hellas. During Roman times, after the fall of the Macedonian Empire, there existed a small region called “Achaia” (pages 126-134, Fishwick, The Foundations of the West). Also see the inside cover of Vasil Bogov’s book “Macedonian Revelation, Historical Documents Rock and Shatter Modern Political Ideology”. Similarly, prior to 1878 there was no state, region or place name called Bulgaria. The history the new states adopted prior to the 19th century belongs to all the Balkan people, the Macedonians in particular. Macedonia’s problems can be traced back to the 1200s after Tsari Grad (Constantinople) was sacked by the crusaders in 1204. While the Pravoslaven (Byzantine) Empire was recovering from the crusader attack, a Nomad Muslim tribe was entering Anatolia from Central Asia. The tribe was called 4 “Ottoman” named after their first leader Osman. The Ottomans first made their presence and crossed into Europe in 1345 as mercenaries hired by the Byzantines to defend their Empire. As the Ottomans grew in number they settled at Galipoly, west of the Macedonian Dardanelles (Endrene), and used the area as a staging ground for conquest. In 1389 the Ottomans attacked Kosovo and destroyed the Pravoslavna army, killing the nobility in the process. In 1392 they attacked and conquered geographical Macedonia including Solun but not Sveta Gora (Holy Mountain). In 1444 while attempting to drive north, through today’s Bulgaria, they were met by the crusaders led by the king of Hungary, Wladyslaw III of Poland, supported by George Brankovic of Serbia and by János Hunyadi of Transylvania. But there were disagreements among its leaders, and the Christian army was annihilated at Varna in 1444. Soon afterwards the Ottomans besieged and took Tsari Grad in 1453, looting all the wealth that had been accumulated for over two millennia. The Ottomans then turned northwest and in 1526 attacked and destroyed the Hungarian army, killing 25,000 knights. After that they unsuccessfully tried twice to take Vienna, once in 1529 and then again in 1683. The failure to take Vienna halted the Ottoman expansion in Europe. After sacking Tsari Grad the

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