Risto
Stefov October 27, 2011
I
was born on March 12th, 1938 in the village Kladorobi, Lerin Region, Aegean
(Greek occupied) Macedonia. I lived in turbulent times and poverty through the
Second World War and through the Greek Civil War and spent my childhood in my
native village until I left for Australia at age 17.
The Greek fascist terror
in Greek occupied Macedonia forced many Macedonian families to leave their
native homes and find shelter and peace abroad. My family was one of those
families at the forefront of Greek terror.
Because of war and because of
political turmoil in the region, my father fled the village in 1946 and crossed
the border to Yugoslavia. Even though he was never involved with the Partisans
and was not a fighter, he was still sentenced to death in absentia for fleeing.
Greek fascism had no limit to how far it extended its terror on innocent
families, even to family members who had done nothing wrong. First the Greeks
arrested my mother, leaving her six children alone to the mercy of fate. If
that was not punishment enough for our family, the Greek state ordered the
houses of all families that had family members who had fled to Yugoslavia or
had family members fighting on the Partisan side to be burned down.
When the
soldiers came to burn down our house, they were told that the same house also
belonged to my uncles, separate families who had done nothing wrong. So rather
than burning the entire house, the soldiers decided to burn the barn attached
to the house in which my family kept some goats. There was systematic intimidation
by the Greek state against families which had family members fighting on the
Partisan side.
The Greeks continuously put pressure on these families by
threatening to exile them from their own country. After the Greek Civil War was
over, there was no longer a place to live in our birthplace or a future for my
family or for many other Macedonian families which were in the same position.
The abuse was too great to bear so in 1948 one of my older brothers left our
hometown and went to Australia to join one of our uncles who had gone to
Australia in 1936. Shortly afterwards, in 1951, another brother left for
Australia. Then they were joined by my father in 1953, who up to this time was
living in the Republic of Macedonia, then part of the Yugoslav Federation. My
mother and I left our beloved village last and went to Australia in 1955 to
join the rest of our family. At age 17 I was neither young enough to go to
school nor old enough to go to work but I managed to do both.
I enrolled myself
in evening courses to learn English at night and worked in a low paying job
during the day. I was a minor and because of that I could only find work that
paid half the wages of an adult. After landing in Australia I began to search
for Macedonian clubs and associations in the vicinity of where I lived in hopes
of learning more about Macedonia and the Macedonian people. In the Fitzroy
settlement in Melbourne, I found Macedonians who had started a Macedonian
organization called "Macedonian-Australian People's Union". They
gathered in a building known as the Dalmatian Club located at 52-54 Young
Street, a building that I would visit often and talk to all kinds of people
including some who were much older than me. I saw a Macedonian newspaper there
for the first time. It was printed in the Macedonian language but with Latin
letters.
The newspaper was published by the "Macedonian-Australian
People's Union" (MANS) and was called "Makedonska Iskra"
(Macedonian Spark). In addition to the newspaper I also discovered a Macedonian
magazine available and sold there called "Makedonija" published by
the "Matitsa na Isilenitsite" (authority of the House of Immigrants)
in Macedonia. I very much wanted to read the magazine, but unfortunately I was
not familiar with the Macedonian script. I desperately wanted to read the
magazine and other Macedonian printed matter so I sought help from my new
friends the so-called "Refugee Children from the Aegean part of
Macedonia" who came to Australia from the Republic of Macedonia and from other
parts of Yugoslavia where they had learned to read and write in the Macedonian
language. With their help I quickly learned the Macedonian alphabet and
immediately began to read. I then subscribed to "Makedonija" and
continued to receive it until it went out of print in 2001.
I had a great
desire to visit all of Macedonia ever since I thought of visiting the Republic
of Macedonia in 1958. But because I had come to Australia as a Greek citizen
with a Greek passport and was not yet an Australian citizen, I needed travel
approval from the Greek state or from its agencies abroad. My requests
unfortunately were ignored by the Greek Consul in Melbourne and I had to wait 5
years, until 1960, after which I became an Australian citizen and obtained an
Australian passport. After the Melbourne based Macedonian Organization MANS was
closed down in 1957, its members and activists incorporated a new Organization
called "Macedonian Orthodox council for Melbourne and Victoria,"
which was also based at 52-54 Young Street. Later the coporation bought a
building which it planned to demolish and build a church in its place. The
church foundation was laid on August 2nd, 1959 and as it turned out, this was
the first Macedonian church to be built in the diaspora. The church was named "St.
George" and was consecrated on August 2nd, 1960 by His Eminence
Zletovsko-Strumichki Metropolitan Naum who arrived from the Republic of
Macedonia accompanied by the secretary of the Macedonian Orthodox Church,
Archpriest-stavrofor Nestor Popovski. At that time I too was involved with the
group responsible for building the church.
Having
received my Australian citizenship in June 1960, I immediately took steps to
restore my proper Macedonian family name, after which I applied for my
Australian passport. When I informed the managers of St. George that I was
going to Macedonia, they asked me to take with me the various photoalbums of
the church´s conscration and deliver them to specific people in Skopje, which I
did. I left Australia early in November 1960 for a long journey that lasted 18
months. My first destination was Egypt, where I stayed for a month. Then I
traveled to the Republic of Macedonia and from there to Bulgaria, Russia,
Czechoslovakia, Turkey and back again to Macedonia. During the month of November
1961 I met and developed a relationship with Milka Shekjeroska from Varosh,
Prilep, which in time led to our marriage. Then in May 1962, my wife and I left
Macedonia on a one-month tour of Italy and after that we returned to my second
homeland, Australia. Upon my return to Australia I joined the Macedonian Church
and National Movement in which I am still active to this day.
In my younger
years I served in the St. George administration and committees in Melbourne and
participated as a delegate in the First National Clergy Conference of
Macedonians from Australia, held in Melbourne in January 1971, which
established the diocesan Executive Board of the Macedonian Orthodox Diocese of
Australia. I was also a delegate at the Macedonian Municipalities Conference in
Australia, held in Melbourne in 1977, the diocesan assemblies and the
Australian-New Zealand Macedonian Orthodox Diocese. I took several trips to
Macedonia and to the neighbouring countries, whose borders are part of our
partitioned Macedonia, during which I learned much about the overall situation
in Macedonia and of the Macedonian people living there.
In Australia I have
been active in the Macedonian movements and have paid attention to the missions
of the Macedonian Orthodox Church saints. I have also learned much about the
current Macedonian Orthodox mission in Australia which, at times, is full of
intrigues. My motivation to write my book "Istoria na Izmameni
Vernitsi" came from this knowledge. Dime (Jim) Merakovski, Melbourne,
Australia Jim´s autobiography was taken from his self-published book entitled
"Istoria na Izmameni Vernitsi", Melbourne, 2007. p. 371-375.
Translated and edited by
Risto Stefov.
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