Contrary to most Yugoslav and Eastern European states, Macedonia embarked only very lately on a significant revision of its socialist past. Though relatively untouched during the 1990s, more and more voices among the right wing began to blame this period as standing against national development and called for a removal of its legacies in urban space. Given that most socialist buildings and memorials had been totally neglected since the breakup of Yugoslavia, it was not difficult for the VMRO-DPMNE to argue for their replacement by new ones, thus ‘fill[ing] the empty and sterile socialist-era buildings and places’14. Both the earthquake and the functionalist planning that followed were commonly denounced as having disrupted the ‘natural’ development of the city – i.e. the architectural neoclassicism of the Serbian period. The main symbol of this disruption – the ‘facelessness’ of the empty central square (Lafazanovski, 2006) – was explained in terms of a lack of interest within the regime in promoting culture among Macedonian society. The most important task of the Skopje 2014 planners would be to fill this void, re-establish the connection with an idealised image of pre- socialist Skopje and reclaim urban space in the name of Macedonian cultural rebirth
(figure 20). By doing so, they aim to recreate a form of historical continuity where the
socialist narrative is considered a parenthesis in the life of the city.
13 Programme for Rebirth of VMRO-DPMNE 2008-2012 (Програма за преродба на ВМРО-ДПМНЕ) 14 Quotation from Pasko Kuzman, Macedonian director of the Bureau for Protection of Cultural Heritage (Mijalkovic and Urbanek, 2011)
a: the Square in 2008.
Figure 20: Macedonia Square, before and during the construction period
Realisation: O.
Véron January 2013
photos: O. Véron
A key episode in this rewriting of Macedonian history is the on-going renaming of Skopje’s streets, with hundreds of new street names proposed by the VMRO- DPMNE and approved by the City council. The latter argued that ‘many streets were named after people or events streaming from the old Communist ideology […], there is no point in honouring bureaucrats from the past regime’15. Yet, removing the name of a street is not a neutral act. Street names act as a reminder of collective memory in urban space. Removing this historical and territorial marker means removing the memory of the historical figure who gave his/her name to the place and what he/she represents – here, the socialist era in Macedonia.
What has been erased must then be filled with new signifiers. The choice of new figures after whom the streets are named is also not neutral. The new names may carry a condemnation of the previous ones and the values associated with them. In this vein, some streets in Skopje were renamed after nationalists who were denounced as reactionary servants after WWII. The insertion of a street named ‘Victims of Communism’ epitomises this rewriting process. Such urban policies do not only rewrite history; they have an important role in present politics. The main opponent of the government, the SDSM, is descended from the reformed Communist Party, as is also Gruevski’s direct adversary, Branko Crvenkovski, the SDSM’s leader and former President of the republic. Publicly condemning the past regime is also an attempt to discredit and cast doubt on the historical legitimacy of the only political party that could take the VMRO-DPMNE’s place at the head of the state.
Another aspect of this process of ‘de-socialisation’ in Skopje 2014 is the renovation of the state headquarters. In January 2012, the government used an internet poll to ask the population to choose a new facade for the modernist building erected in the 1970s, which was loosely inspired by traditional Macedonian Architecture. Among the five proposals pre-selected by the state, a design for a Baroque façade won the majority of votes. The announcement of the result sparked debate and the wrath of many architects, including that of the original architect of the building, Petar Mulickovski (figure 21).
Finally, a central element of this de-communisation undertaken by Skopje 2014 is the recently constructed Museum of Macedonian Struggle. This Museum, also
15 Balkan Insight, ‘New Street Battle Splits Macedonia’s Capital’, 08/03/2012,
http://www.balkaninsight.com/en/article/new-kind-of-street-battle-grips-macedonia-s-capital [accessed: 12/03/2012]
Source: www.build.mk
Source: www.build.mk
Realisation: O.
Véron January 2013
Figure 21: When modernism meets baroque: a controversial makeover for the government headquarters
Source: www.build.mk
a: the government’s headquarters in 2011
dubbed the Museum of the IMRO – in the name of the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organisation, an anti-Ottoman movement founded in the late 19th century to fight for a Macedonian state16 – was built on the left bank, facing the Macedonia Square, and inaugurated in September 2011. The building houses a wax statue collection meant to illustrate the Macedonians’ struggle for independence at the turn of the last century. As soon as the visitor enters the museum, the tone is set: collective guided tours are compulsory, individual visits are not allowed and neither are cameras. Given the small numbers of visitors, each person has to wait in the freshly constructed hall for a group to be constituted before starting the tour. The hall, clearly meant to be impressive, is decorated by huge neo-classical paintings depicting various moments of Macedonian history. Somewhat surprisingly, the narrative jumps from the pre-Ottoman Middle-Ages to the end of the 19th century, as if the Ottoman Empire had simply not existed.
The visit eventually starts: during a good hour and a half, the visitor will be fed a non-stop narrative of the ‘official’ history by the guide. Not only does this way of proceeding maintain visitors in a passive position, with little room for personal thought; it also prevents them from considering what is shown and, inversely, what is missing. It leaves almost no time for visitors to notice that, of a total of about forty statues, only three depict women, and just two Albanian figures – the latter being not even named by the guide, who mentions ‘an Albanian poet’ and ‘an Albanian fighter’, whereas detailed attention is paid to each ethnic Macedonian statue. This, added to the fact that explanatory signs are only written in Macedonian or English – something which runs against the legislation according to which Skopje is bilingual – gives the impression that Albanians are not welcomed in the museum, whether in the form of statues or as visitors. The explanatory texts are themselves contentious: ‘Macedonian fighters
bravely fought’ or ‘Even if the enemies were ten times more numerous, Macedonians courageously pushed them back’. These accounts are backed up by documents such as a
map of ‘ethnic Macedonia’, comparing the present state borders with the ‘reality’ of ethnography, that is to say with Macedonia extending to Agean Macedonia, in Greece, and Pirin Macedonia, in Bulgaria (figure 22) – a kind of map that appeared in the nationalistic climate of the 1990s and which can still be found in national museums and old history schoolbooks.
16 Contrary to what most nationalist leaders try to promote today, the main objective of the IMRO was not to claim a national state, but an autonomous multiethnic one. It is only later in the process of ethnogenesis that the idea of a Macedonian nation would emerge.
A: 'The Balkan Peninsula before the Balkan Wars'
Taken from a 1992 Macedonian History textbook for the 8th grade, this map is designated to create the impression that the neighbouring states were acting in concert to encircle Macedonia.
Source: E. Kofos, The Vision of 'Greater Macedonia', Thessaloniki, 1994
B: 'Foreign propaganda in Macedonia'
Taken from a 1992 Macedonian History textbook for the 9th grade, this map shows the students that a 'Great Macedonia' has suffered its neighbours' predatory intentions.