Macedonian Scientific and Literary Society

The Macedonian Scientific and Literary Society or also called The Slavic-Macedonian Scholarly and Literary Society^[1] was a society of slavic-speaking Macedonians in Russia. Its creation was influenced by the Macedonian Club, a literary society in Belgrade and it fought for creation of autonomous Macedonia^{[citation needed]}, encompassing the entire geographic and ethnic region of Macedonia, according to maps drawn by the society itself.^[2] One of its founders was Dimitrija Čupovski who was its president from 1902 to 1917.

Map of Macedonia from a publication in the newspaper "Makedonski Golos", issued by the Macedonian Scientific and Literary Society.^[3]

The Macedonian Literary and Scientific Society was the most prominent society of its type in its time.^{[citation needed]} It was established in St. Petersburg on 28 October 1902 and was presided over by Dimitrija Čupovski. It expanded, establishing branches in Sofia (1903) and Odessa (1905), as well as in Bitola and Thessaloniki (1910-13).^{[citation needed]} As part of its scholarly and literary activities, the society proclaimed a "Macedonian language" as its official language in Article 12 of its Constitution adopted on 16 December 1903.^{[dubious – discuss][4]}

It published the first book in a precursor of the modern Macedonian literary language (Za Makedonskite Raboti - On Macedonian Matters) in 1903 by Krste Misirkov. The book was published in the central dialects of Macedonia, which would later form the core of the Macedonian Literary Language, as proposed in the book itself.^{[citation needed]} The book also used a modified Cyrillic script which would later be accepted as the official Macedonian Cyrillic script.^{[dubious – discuss][5]}

In 1905 the Society published Vardar, the first scholarly, scientific and literary journal in the central dialects of Macedonia, which later would form the Standard Macedonian Language^{[citation needed]}, while in 1913 it produced the first ethnic and geographic map of Macedonia. In addition it published the most renown journal in its Macedonian and Russian "Makedonskye golos" (Macedonian Voice) (1913-14).^{[citation needed]} It designed a "Macedonian flag" (1914) and prepared and published the Programme for a Democratic and Federative Balkan Republic (1917).^{[citation needed]}

For these reasons this scholarly institution with its literary and national cultural activity is considered the foundation upon which the history of the modern Macedonian Academy was built upon.^{[citation needed]}

References

See also

• Macedonian literature