The Ethnic and Jleligious Structure of the Topulation in the Vardar Part Of
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УАК 314.04(497.1: =163.3) Ί921/1931"; "1921/1931" The Ethnic and JLeligious Structure o f the Topulation in the Vardar part of Macedonia according to the Censuses of 1921 and 1931 Borce I l ie v s k i Ss. Cyril and Methodius University, Faculty of Philosophy Skopje, Macedonia The author humbly dedicates his article to Dannka Petreska, PhD 1. Upon the foundation of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (Kingdom of SHS) on December 1,1918, it was necessary to determine the exact number and structure of the population in the new state. To this end, a census was taken in the whole territory of the Kingdom of SHS on January 31, 1921} The census of 1921 was the first all-encompassing census in the territory of present-day Republic of Macedonia, taken with the use of a modern statis tical methodology. In the official publication released in 1932, which included statistics about the religion, native language, gender and age of the population, the Vardar part of Macedonia was officially part of the province of South Ser bia.1 2 The published statistics of the censuses are the fundamental statistical source for studying the changes to the size and structure of the population be 1 Censuses are a pragmatic need of a state, being a product of the growth of the state and its administration, and of the need to obtain a precise image of the struc ture of its society. The first censuses depended on two significant parameters: military requirements and taxes. The censuses, in the present-day sense of the word, taken with a modern methodology, are a new historical phenomenon. 2 Дефинитивни резултати Полиса Становништва од 31 јануара 1921 године, Сарајево, државна штампарија 1932 204 Borce Ilievski tween the two W orld Wars.3 The statistics of the census of 1921 represent an important source for comparing the demography of the population before the Balkan Wars and World War I and the consequences that the wars had left on the size and struc ture of the population of the Vardar part of Macedonia. The ethnic structure of the population can be determined only indirectly, through the statistics about the native language and religion, and therefore those statistics can be only ap proximate. In keeping with the official state politics of the time, Macedonians by their native language were registered as Serbs or Croats. In fact, the censuses were also used for putting into practice the state and national politics of the time.4 To the question of what their religion was, people had the chance to choose one of the options listed on the census forms or add their own.5 Ac cording to the native language, the published statistics of the census of 1921 re veal fourteen ethno-lingual groups.6 In order to establish the exact, or nearly exact, number of Macedonians, we have to address the statistics critically, comparing those about the religion and the native language, so as to obtain a figure closest to the real one. Accord ing to certain estimates, some 550,000-600,000 Macedonians lived in the king 3 The initial results of the census of 1921 were published in 1924, while the definite re sults were published in 1932. The definite results of the census of 1931 were published in four volumes that came out from 1937 to 1940: Definitivni rezul tati popisa stanovništva od marta 1931 godine, knjiga I, Prisutno stanovništvo broj kuća i domaćinstva, Beograd, 1937; Definitivni rezultati popisa stanovništva od marta 1931 godine, knjiga II, Prisutno stanovništvo po verois- povesti, Beograd, 1938; Definitivni rezultati popisa stanovništva od marta 1931 godine, knjiga III, Prisutno stanovništvo po pismenosti i starosti; Definitivni rezultati popisa stanovništva od marta 1931 godine, knjiga IV, Prisutno stanovništvo po glavnom zanimanju, Beograd, 1940 4 C. Радовановић, Етничка структура Крал>евине Југославије у контексту нацио- налне политике југословенства,Лемографија, књ. IV, 2007,130-131 5 By their religion, the residents of the Kingdom of SHS were registered as: Orthodox, Roman Catholics, Greek Catholics, Evangelists, Muslims, Israelis, atheists, and unknown. 6 Serbs or Croats, Slovenes, Czechoslovaks, Rusyns (Ruthenians, Malorussians), Poles, Russians, Hungarians, Germans, Arnauts, Turks, Romanians or Tsintsars (to gether), Italians, French, English, other and unknown. ____ The Ethnic and Religious Structure of the Population in the Vardar part... 205 dom in 1921.7 On the other hand, the remaining population — Albanians (offi cially registered as Arnauts by their native language), Turks and Vlachs (regis tered as Romanians-Tsintsars by their native language) - was listed as separate statistical units. Despite certain errors concerning these ethnic groups, there are almost no problems determining their exact figures. A problem occurs in regard to the Serbs considering they are in the group of Serbs or Croats by their native language and considering they are Orthodox by religion, it is virtually impossi ble to separate them from the Macedonians. It is during this period that the col onization of Macedonia with Serbian population went underway. Most of the administration and the military and police forces were also Serbian and so the presence of Serbs since 1918 had been rising. In 1921, the colonization of the Vardar part of Macedonia was at its very beginning. The biggest colonial settle ments were established after the census and therefore the colonizing population in this period represented a very small portion of the total population. The re gion of Kosovo and Metohija remained a primary territory for colonization for the authorities throughout the period between the two World Wars.8 At the time of taking the census, Macedonia was divided into seven dis tricts9 and twenty-nine counties and its population totaled 798,291.10 This num ber does not include the residents of the municipalities of Radovnica, Stajevce and Trgovište in the county of Kriva Palanka, which were annexed to Serbia after 1945.11 According to the official publications about the total number of resi 7 Vladanjovanovićjugoslovenska država i Južna Srbija. Makedonija, Sandžak, Kosovo i Metohija u Kraljevini SHS, Beograd, 2002,46 8 If comparing the statistics about the colonizing families, which is not a subject of this paper, it can be concluded that the authorities were particularly interested in “pacifying” the tumultuous areas in Kosovo dominantly populated with Alba nians by settling Serbian and Montenegrin colonists. Most of those setded in what were known as Southern Areas were in fact setded in the areas of Kosovo and Metohija. 9 The districts of Bitola, Bregalnica, Kumanovo, Ohrid, Skopje, Tetovo and Tikves 10 Дефинитивни резултати Полиса Становништва од 31 јануара 1921 године, Сарајево, државна штампарија 1932,88-123 11 Lazar Sokolov, Promena u strukturi stanovništva na teritoriju NR Makedonije 1921- 1953 godine kao odraz ekonomskog razvoja, Skopje 1962,30. On the issue of the border line demarcation between Macedonia and Serbia upon their consti tution as reublics in Yugoslavia, see: Виодета Ачкоска, Братството и Единството 1944-1974 помеѓу хармонија и дисхармонија, Скопје 2003, 206 Borce Ilievski dents in 1921, the population totaled 808,724.12 The History of Macedonians of 1969 cites the incorrect figure of 728,286,13 while the publication of 2000 states that in the Vardar part of Macedonia, after the end of World War I, the population totaled 771,678.14 If we compare the statistics of the census of 1921 with the statistics of the first Serbian census in this territory of 1913,15 as well as with other statistics pertaining to the total number of residents immediately before the Balkan Wars, we can infer the conclusion that the Vardar part of Macedonia lost approxi mately 100,000 residents in less than a decade.16 It was a result primarily of the emigration of a part of the Muslim population immediately after the Balkan Wars and also of the emigration of a portion of the other population (Mace donians, Vlachs) after the Balkan Wars and World War I, as well as of the loss of lives during the wars.17 From 1912 to 1918, some cities lost a substantial portion 208-218. 12 Статистички годишник на P. Македонија, завод за Статистика на Р. Македонија, Скопје 1998; Vladimir Simeunović, Stanovništvo Jugoslavije i socijalističkih republika 1921-1961, Beograd, 1964,22 13 Историја на македонскиот народ, книга трета, Скопје, 1969; Михајло Апостолски Етничките промени во Македонија во XX век, Сп. Историја, XX/2, Скопје, 1984,67-68. The Statistical Office of the People’s Republic of Macedonia says in its monthly report No 9 of 1953, on page 43, that 797,346 people lived in the territory of the People’s Republic of Macedonia in 1921. Lazar Sokolov also deducts 10,443 residents of Radovnica, Stajevce and Tr govište from the total number of residents and obtains the result of 798,286 residents in Macedonia in 1921. (Lazar Sokolov, Op.cit, 30) 14 Историја на македонскиот народ том четврти, Македонија меѓу балканските и Втората светска војна, Скопје, 2000,133 15 Речник места у ослобођеној области старе Србије по службеним податдима, израдио Мил. Ант. Вујовић, Београд, 1914 16 According to the official statistics, in 1913-1914, in the Vardar part of Macedonia, the region of Strumica excluded, the population totaled 890,000. (ibidem...,15- 151) 17 Estimates are that by the end of March 1914, some 60,000 Muslims emigrated from the areas occupied by Serbia (Macedonia, Kosovo and Sandžak). (Vladan Jo- vanović, Iseljavanje muslimana iz Vardarske banovine između stihije i državne akcije, Zbornik Pisati istoriju Jugoslavije: Viđnje srpskog faktora, 81 ; Dimitrije Djodjevic, Migrations during the 1912-1913 Balkan Wars and World War One, Migrations in Balkan History, Belgrade, 1989,115-118) ____ The Ethnic and Religious Structure of the Population in the Vardar part..