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Mara Buneva

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Mara Buneva
Мара Бунева
A photograph of Mara Buneva
Born1902
Tetovo, Ottoman Empire
DiedJanuary 13, 1928
Skopje, Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes
OrganizationIMRO

Mara Buneva (Cyrillic: Мара Бунева; 1902 – January 13, 1928) was a Macedonian Bulgarian revolutionary,[1][2] a member of the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization, who assassinated Velimir Prelić, a former Serbian Chetnik commander and Yugoslav legal official of the Skopje Oblast. She shot herself in the chest, and subsequently died in a hospital a few hours after the attack, while Prelić died a few days later.

Today, in general Buneva is considered a heroine in Bulgaria,[3] while in North Macedonia she is regarded as a controversial Bulgarophile.[4][5] Her death is commemorated annually at the place where she shot herself on Vardar in Skopje.

Biography

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Buneva was born in 1902 in Tetovo, then in the Kosovo Vilayet of the Ottoman Empire (present-day North Macedonia). Her family originates from the village of Setole.[6] Between 1915 and 1918, Vardar Macedonia which after the Balkan Wars (1912-1913) was turned into a Serbian province called South Serbia, was under Bulgarian occupation. Her father Nikola Bunev became then the mayor of Tetovo. At that time Buneva studied at the Skopje's Girls' High School.

In 1919 Buneva moved to Bulgaria. There she studied at the Sofia University, and married a Bulgarian officer.[7] In 1926 she divorced, and under the influence of her brother Boris, also a Bulgarian officer, Buneva joined the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization (IMRO). Later on direct order by the leader of the IMRO, Ivan Mihaylov, she was trained in Sofia for fulfilling of a future terrorist actions. In 1927 she went back to Yugoslavia and opened a shop in Skopje with a conspiratorial mission.[8]

There she managed to acquaint herself with Velimir Prelić, the legal adviser of the Serbian governor of the Skopje district. Prelić was instrumental in arrests of young local students, members of Macedonian Youth Secret Revolutionary Organization.[9] The organization was discovered by the authorities in May 1927 and its leaders were arrested. On a trial in Skopje against 20 of them, most were sentenced in December to long-term imprisonment.[10] As a result, IMRO ordered the execution of Prelić.[11] At the appointed time on January 13, 1928, Buneva intercepted him on his way to lunch and shot the official after which she committed suicide.[12] On the next day, the Serbian police buried Buneva's body at an unknown place.[13] Prelić also died in hospital a few days later and was buried in Skopje.[14]

Legacy

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A commemoration plate was mounted on the death place of Buneva in 1943 by the Bulgarian authorities, later destroyed by the Yugoslav communist authorities.
A bTV - news screenshot, showing а broken, illegally placed plate commemorating Buneva on the Vardar river levee, after being destroyed by local ultra-nationalists.

Her act echoed as in Bulgaria and Europe, as well as among the Macedono-Bulgarian emigration in America. The first Macedonian Patriotic Organization ladies auxiliary branch was created in Toronto in 1928 and named after Mara Buneva.[15] In Bulgaria she was celebrated as a martyr for the freedom of Macedonia. Today, streets in Sofia and Blagoevgrad are named after her, as well as the Buneva Point in Antarctica has been named after Mara Buneva by the Bulgarian Antarctic Institute.[16] During the Second World War Bulgaria annexed Vardar Macedonia and on the place of the death of Mara Buneva a commemoration plate was mounted.[17] However, later it was destroyed by the new Yugoslav communist authorities.

Since the beginning of the 2000s, almost every year on the day of her death, Bulgarians from North Macedonia and Bulgaria, particularly VMRO-BND activists, have begun illegally[18] mounting new commemoration plates.[19] However, the plates are quickly removed or destroyed.[18] In January 2007 the celebration ended with a fight in Skopje.[20] Former Macedonian Prime Minister Ljubčo Georgievski claims that to be against Buneva means, not to have adequate knowledge of the history, and to defend the Serbian chauvinism.[21] According to Bulgarian officials, the repetitive incidents in Skopje are part of an ongoing anti-Bulgarian campaign there.[22]

Her memory has not been honored by the official authorities in Skopje.[23] However, some Macedonian nationalist associations in the 2010s have declared Buneva as an ethnic Macedonian heroine, claiming she was allegedly appropriated by the Bulgarians.[24] In 2015, even a commemorative plaque in Macedonian was placed on her deathplace by them.[25] Such a rendition of history is one example of misinterpretation of the historical past.[26] A wax figure of Buneva was set up in the Museum of the Macedonian Struggle opened in 2011 in Skopje. According to Macedonian historians, placing wax figure of such controversial figures like her, only causes further confusion among museum visitors.[27] On January 16, 2024, a film about her called The Avenger (2023) was screened at the Bulgarian Culture and Information Centre in Skopje.[3]

See also

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Wikimedia Commons has media related to Mara Buneva.

References

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  1. ^ Nationalism, Margaret H. Lamb, Heinemann Educational Books, 1975, p. 31.
  2. ^ Encyclopedia of Motherhood, Volume 1, Andrea O'Reilly, SAGE, 2010, ISBN 1412968461, p. 149.
  3. ^ a b "Macedonian Bulgarian Revolutionary Mara Buneva Commemorated with Film Screening in Skopje". Bulgarian News Agency. 17 January 2024. Retrieved 30 April 2024.
  4. ^ "Атентаторката на Прелиќ не живее во меморијата на Македонците. На панихидите доаѓаат тие што се чувствуваат Бугари и ја негираат македонската нација. В. Цветаноски, Утрински вестник. 22.02.2007 г." Archived from the original on 2014-01-13. Retrieved 2014-01-13.
  5. ^ "Бугарската окупаторска власт и' оддаде незапаметена почит, Која е контроверзната тетовка што ја слават Бугарите? В. Цветаноски, Утрински вестник. 23.02.2007 г." Archived from the original on 2014-01-13. Retrieved 2014-01-13.
  6. ^ Трифуноски, Јован (1976). Полог (in Serbo-Croatian). Београд. p. 340.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  7. ^ Подвигът на Мара Бунева, Цочо Билярски, ИК "Анико", 2010, ISBN 9789548247115, стр. 16.
  8. ^ Иван Михайлов: отвъд легендите, Том 1, Иван Гаджев, УИ "Св. Климент Охридски", 2007, стр. 787.
  9. ^ Contested Ethnic Identity: The Case of Macedonian Immigrants in Toronto, 1900-1996, Chris Kostov, Peter Lang, 2010, ISBN 3034301960, p. 77.
  10. ^ „Националноосвободителната борба в Македония, 1919 - 1941 г.“, Колектив, ИК „Знание“, София, 1998 г., стр.221.
  11. ^ Българки стрелят в показни атентати, 06.02.2013, в-к 24 Часа. Archived 2014-01-16 at the Wayback Machine
  12. ^ Terrorism and the Politics of Social Change: A Durkheimian Analysis, James Dingley, Ashgate Publishing, Ltd., 2013, ISBN 1409499766, p. 64.
  13. ^ Бунев, Борис. Кратки бележки из живота на Мара Бунева, 7 август 1936 година, в: Билярски, Цочо. Подвигът на Мара Бунева (съкратено издание), Анико, София, 2010, стр.45.
  14. ^ Kedourie, Elie (1993). Nationalism. Blackwell Publishing. p. 99. ISBN 0-631-18885-1.[1]
  15. ^ Whose Are You?: Identity and Ethnicity Among the Toronto Macedonians, Peter Vasiliadis, Ams Press Inc, 1989, ISBN 0404194680, p. 238.
  16. ^ Buneva Point. SCAR Composite Gazetteer of Antarctica
  17. ^ Македонска библиотека, Снимки, документи и материали за историята на българите от областта Македония. Паметник на Мара Бунева в Скопие през 1943 г.[dead link]
  18. ^ a b "Искршена поставената плоча за Мара Бунева". ВОА (in Macedonian). 13 January 2014. Retrieved 2023-02-18.
  19. ^ Historical Dictionary of the Republic of Macedonia, Dimitar Bechev, Scarecrow Press, 2009, ISBN 0810862956, p. 35.
  20. ^ Катерина Тосева, „Потрошиха паметника на Мара Бунева", 15.01.2007, News.bg.
  21. ^ "Georgievski: Pro Serbian ideas and installations are putting the country in danger, Independent Balkan News Agency, 15.01.2014". Archived from the original on 2014-01-16. Retrieved 2014-01-15.
  22. ^ "The Sofia Echo, Mon, Jan. 22. 2007, Anti-Bulgarianism in Macedonia". Archived from the original on 2014-01-16. Retrieved 2014-01-15.
  23. ^ В Скопие отбелязаха годишнина от смъртта на Мара Бунева. Над 600 родолюбиви българи почетоха паметта на Мара Бунева, предаде репортер на БГНЕС. BGNES, 14.01.2023.
  24. ^ ТМРО: Мара Бунева е Македонка достојна за почит. 14 јануари 2014, МКД.мк. Archived 2022-09-04 at the Wayback Machine
  25. ^ Македонците си присвоиха и Мара Бунева. FROG NEWS, 12.01.2015.
  26. ^ Лозанка Пейчева и колектив, Конструиране на българско национално културно наследство в чужбина. Paradigma, 2022, ISBN 9543264961, p. 117.
  27. ^ Восъчни фигури на Мара Бунева и Ванче Михайлов в Скопие. 18 Юни 2009, Blitz.bg.
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