Venko Markovski

Infobox Writer
name = Venko Markovski


pseudonym =
nationality = Bulgarian
birthdate = birth date|1915|3|5|mf=y
birthplace = Skopje, Kingdom of Serbia (now Republic of Macedonia)
deathdate = death date and age|1988|1|7|1915|3|5|mf=y
deathplace = Sofia, People's Republic of Bulgaria (today Bulgaria)
occupation = writer, poet, politician
genre = poems, history, sonnets
notableworks = "Predania zavetni"

Venko Markovski (Cyrillic: Венко Марковски) (March 3 1915, Skopje—January 7 1988, Sofia) was a writer, poet and Communist politician from Macedonia.

Biography

Born on March 15, 1915 in Skopje, Kingdom of Serbia (now Republic of Macedonia), Markovski completed his secondary education in Skopje, later studying Slavic Philology in Sofia. Markovski was an important figure in contemporary Macedonian literature and went on to publish what was to be the first book written in the "standard" Macedonian language, "Narodni bigori" in 1938. He also published a number of poems in Bulgarian whilst living in Sofia, among them the sonnet crown "Dante Alighieri".

In 1941 he was sent to a concentration camp "Enikyoi" by the Bulgarian police. In 1943-1944 he was a partisan in Macedonia, together with his wife and five-year old son, Mile. He wrote some of the most popular partisan marches songs of the Yugoslav partisans.

In 1944-1945 he participated in the Commission for the "Creation of the Macedonian Alphabet". After end of World War II, Markovski was among the leaders of the newly-established Republic of Macedonia, as part of Yugoslavia.

In 1948, he broke relations with the Yugoslav president Tito over the forced Macedonization of the population in the Socialist Republic of Macedonia, and was subsequently imprisoned at the concentration camp in Idrizovo. In 1956, Markovski was once again imprisoned, this time serving a five-year hard labor sentence at the notorious prison camp on the island of Goli otok in the Adriatic sea under the name "Veniamin Milanov Toshev".

In 1965, he left Yugoslavia in search of medical treatment in Bulgaria where he would remain until his death in 1988. Markovski was accepted by the people of Bulgaria and soon began publishing in Bulgarian. Among many poems, dedicated to the ideal of Communism, he wrote a number of sonnets, publishing three books of sonnet crowns, dedicated to various historical figures. Markovski also wrote "Saga of Testaments", a history of Bulgaria in verses (with a total of 44,444 verses).

Venko Markovski was a member of the Bulgarian Writers' Union, and a member of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences (1979), and was awarded highest Bulgarian orders, among them "Hero of the Socialist Labour" (1975), and "Hero of Bulgaria" (1985). He was member of several Parliaments from 1971 until his death in 1988.

Surprising considering his involvement with the Socialist Republic of Macedonia, Markovski stated, in an interview for Bulgarian National Television only seven days prior to his death, that ethnic Macedonians and the Macedonian language do not exist and that they were a result of Comintern manipulation. [Citation
last =Mitewa
first =Yulia
title =ИДЕЯТА ЗА ЕЗИКА В МАКЕДОНСКИЯ ЛИТЕРАТУРЕН КРЪЖОК - ЕСТЕТИЧЕСКИ И ИДЕОЛОГИЧЕСКИ АСПЕКТИ
place=Veliko Tarnovo
publisher =Litera
year =2001]

Venko Markovski passed away on January 7, 1988, in Sofia at the age of 72. He was married and had two children.

Bibiliography

In Macedonian

* Narodni bigori (1938)
* Oginot (1938)
* Ilinden (1940)
* Lunja (1940
* Elegii
* Goce
* Čudna e Makedonija
* Glamji
* Klime (1945)
* Nad plamnati bezdni
* Skazna za rezbarot

In Bulgarian

* Orlitsata (1941)
* Istinata e zhestoka (1968)
* Legenda za Gotse (1968), a play
* Kravta voda ne stava (1971, 1981, 2002), a response to the book "History of the Macedonian Nation"
* Predaniya zavetni (1978, also in Russian)
* Pismo do drugarkata (1979)
* Sudbovni machenitsi (1981), sonnet crown
* Buntovni voshtenitsi (1983), sonnet crown
* Vekovni varvolici (1984), sonnet crown
* Goli Otok: The Poison of Death (1984, published in English)

References

External links

* [http://veni.com/venko2.html The site of Venko Markovski's grandson]
* [http://veni.com/kravta-forward.html A foreword from one of Markovski's books]