A Notice on the Articles of M.E. Bolaris: The Dončević/Donski Controversy
Vasko Gligorijevic
November 18, 2009
Miltiades Elias Bolaris, an amateur historian created a rather mismatched with the methodology proper historiographical criticism opus of articles dealing with exposure of each personal name claimed by FYRO "Macedonian" author Aleksandar Donski as ""Macedonian"" (in criteria of the latter, an attested Ancient "Macedonian" name which has "Slavic meaning"). While Donski's work, which is rather unknown in the conventional Pseudohistoriography of FYROM, his colleague by historiographical amateurism, Mr. Bolaris, taking Donski's inconsequential samizdats for grave and serious immediate threat to Classicist linguistic philology, undertook an enormous task of making criticism more voluminous than the work under criticism is. I shall not point neither to the general rightness in much of his deconstructive literary criticism (although I have to define them as an "overkill") nor, at least that is my perception, his emphasis on minuscule details of Classical Antiquity of interest to specialist (certified expert!) only as somehow relating to the geopolitical issues between , at minimum, Skoplje and Athens.
I will point to grave error, which the author keeps promoting in each and every article that deconstructs what we may term "Donski's" list. This is a practice in his series of long articles on linguistics united by the introductory part of the title "Macedonian names and makeDonski pseudo-linguistics", published in about dozen variants on "American Chronicle" with astonishingly dense elaborations-indeed, an equivalent of a movie critic producing a 20 cumulative hours lasting critical series about a conventional, undistinguished "b'" movie. But I leave use of Free Speech to Mr. Bolaris the way he sees fit, focusing instead of an error of his, which originates from his lack of information at best or making a malicious point at worst.
Namely, the author explicitly claims that Aleksander Donski's name is actually Alexander Donchevich, which is a non-attested name (at minimum, Donski never claimed that it is his genuine current or earlier name, or that Donchevich is his traditional ancestral surname). It is note worthy that M. E. Bolaris used a possible variant of Anglicization of a Serbian-looking surname "Donchevich" which in Serbian Cyrillic would be written "Дончевић", in "Gajevica", a variant of Latin alphabet used by Croats and unofficially by some Serbs, this alleged surname is written "Dončević", while in addition it could be mention that in FYROMian Cyrillic the surname would be "Дончевиќ".
Each and every one of the article by Mr. Bolaris contains this phrase in the introductory paragraphs:
"It is in the prolific writings of the FYROM folk personality ("I am highly educated historian and a writer from European country Republic of Macedonia") but untrained in History "historian" Aleksandar Donchevic (Donski) that Skopje's pseudo-makedonist regime has found its purest celebrity propagandist."
So what is the catch? Why the author of these lengthy amateur onomastical analysis insist, by always stating in the first paragraph of each of his "Counter-Donski" Ancient "Macedonian" name-exegesis, that Aleksandar Donski's surname is "Donchevich" and that by presumption - since the surname sounds notoriously Serbian - the author is an ethnic Serbs, or rather in the context of thug of war hobby historians among FYROMians and Greeks wage, "the author is an ethnic Serbs-theorist of the Anti-Hellenic ideology of Pseudomacedonism, as publicist, lecturer and in other manners". This could have some implication beyond stating is as a mere fact (which, however, it is not).
For a long term Bulgarian nationalist circles in the conventional forms of activism, including printed publicism but also on the Internet, launched a theory that "Serbia, which "occupied" the "pure Bulgarian lands of Vardar Macedonia" failed to Serbianize the population (due to alleged all-pervading passive and active forms to all forms of imposition of Serbian ethnic qualities upon them, which is Bulgarian propaganda, in terms that the opponents did not ever represented approximation of 100% in terms of quantity. In a matter of fact, they hardly represented even a relative majority outside Eastern FYROM from 1913 to 1941). The Bulgarian theory goes to provide "rationalization" (read: propagandist, goal-directed formulation) that "Serbs, recognizing that they are unable to Serbianize Bulgarians of Macedonia, invented a "Macedonian" nationality for them in order, if it was not possible to annex them to Serbia, at least to weaken Bulgaria.
This is of course only a naive, abstract retroactive projected draft of history which corresponds to no reality and is not acknowledged by any expert on South Slavic issues in general and for XXth century Yugoslav history from outside Balkans, which in light of the events from early 1990's lasting to day is extremely well covered by historians, anthropologist and other experts on the region. Many of them have arguably an anti-Serbian stance, but none has gone so far to claim the groundless hypothesis "Macedonism" is a Serbian project, which remains a standalaone Bulgarian claim ("Serbian conspiracy" explanation to the public in Bulgaria why there is no any instance whatsoever of massive pro-Bulgarian enthusiasm in FYROM after 1992), recently "purchased" by some Greek Internet-warriors. Not often, the latter appear as advocates for Greater Albanian and Greater Bulgarian aspirations in the Balkans, being even more productive on that line of activism rather than on the legitimate issues of Greeks in Albania and FYROM etc.
This returns us to citizen of FYROM, the pseudohistorian publicist Aleksandar Donski. Why M. E. Bolaris passionately, extensively does uses any opportunity to remind the reader of his unsourced statement (that even if it was true, and it is not - as shall be demonstrated) that Donski's family name, his surname is Donchevich and that by extension he is a "camouflaged Serb (nationalist?)". Is the Bulgarian nationalist fantastic story of paranoid qualities, briefly prominent in time of USENET grops dealing with the "Macedonian" Issue, that in FYROM there is a fair share of organized "leftovers of Serbian colonization", people who stayed after evacuation of Yugoslav Army in 1992 as Serbian "agents to "produce and export the theory that all Slavs of FYROM are "Macedonian"s-in a sense of being distinct people from Bulgarians and Greeks on the basis of their Ancient "Macedonian" heritage reflected into historically attested continuity of name, language and culture in a context of single several millennium old "Macedonian" national history".
In USENET groups in early 1990's, this accusation was raised few times by UK residing Bulgarian nationalists, which translates into fact that Aleksandar Donski is actually not just an ethnic Serbs, but a "Stay Behind" agent, part of the resident Belgrade-controlled apparatus that establishes itself as the creators of Pseudomacedonism in order to bring havoc into the minds of the ""Macedonian" Bulgarians" and prevent them to go ahead, uniting themselves with Republic of Bulgaria into a singular Bulgarian nation, purged of all Yugoslav vestiges.
Insofar Internet is considered, the striking absence of serious and in depth Serbian views on "Macedonian" Issue on one hand and enormous volume of content produced by Bulgarian nationalists (a state of affairs which rather well reflects Serbian and Bulgarian long-term rank of national priorities), brought uncritical, almost automatic acceptance by Greeks activists involved in the New "Macedonian" Issue, not limited only on Internet, of everything that is held as a consensus by Bulgarian nationalist (most of it being set of projections towards denial of Serbian presence in FYROM before 1913, in spite of overwhelming evidence, to geopolitical projection towards South-Eastern section of Republic of Serbia as "ethnic Bulgarian land, which is just like FYROM, fully inhabited by only superficially altered (on the level of national consciousness) Bulgarians".
M. E. Bolaris's "nose rubbing" of the reader that his pseudo-historian colleague surname is Donchevich, a fact that he would not mention ad nausem , if by all likelihood he does not subscribe to the Bulgarian "FYROM is saturated with Serbian colonist agents and Belgrade collaborators working on Pseudo-Macedonian Antiquization as a Serbian anti-Bulgarian theory and practice" is not a mere insignificance, reducible with regard to its importance to a level of text error. It is an act of Bulgarian nationalist, anti-Serbian industrious propaganda by a man who passes verdicts about people, ethnic groups, nations, countries and their politics about he evidently knows little to nothing which has a quality of being true and on certain level, which among other capabilities should include near-native knowledge of local Slavic languages and approximation to primary sources, rather than hobby-like compilation from online sources.
The question is: is there a Serbian surname "Donchevich"? This surname is styled in a Serbian manner ending in (v)ic, and more than 80% of Serbs who kept their ethnological qualities intact and preserved has such surnames. Indeed the extent of the patronymic (v)ic is so ubiquitous than in many places away from Serbia such specific surname strongly points and is often presumed to indicate Serb ethnicity of the bearer, although (apart from a minority of Serbs whose surnames end otherwise: -ac, -in, -ica, -ov, -ski and others) a fair share of Croats and also the recently emergent "ethnic Montenegrin" have this patronymic suffix, which - it is worth mentioning - is not pronounced (v)ich, with the voiceless postalveolar affricate"ch"(tʃ) like in "check", but with the voiceless alveolo-palatal affricate (ʨ).
Donchevich is implausible to impossibility Serbian surname since its root, "Донче" is a totally non-Serbian private name, being such not because of impossibility on behalf of the Serbs and their historical socio-linguistic circumstances to adopt it, but because it is formed by regression of Andon-(Андон), а male name from Greek origin used in this form exclusively by Bulgarians and ""Macedonian"s", but never by Serbs (with few exception related to with origin of the immediate area of contact with the Bulgarian continuum or by assimilation of Bulgarians), into Donche (Donče, Донче), most likely via "Done-Доне, "Dono-Доно" (vestigial vocative in the Bulgarian and "Macedonian" in the latter form, otherwise rarely used in those languages), also a form of the name which is never used by Serbs.
Finally, the onomastical basis "Dono" + "-che" is established via a way of forming a diminutive form according to common rule of Bulgarian and ""Macedonian"" language, which is most commonly the suffix "-che/če/че", which is never used in Serbian language.
Examples:
English: "girl"
Serbian: "devojka" d. "devojčica"
Bulgarian "devojka" d. "devojče"
"Macedonian" "devojka" d. "devojče"
English: "bridge"
Serbian: "most" d. "mostić"
Bulgarian "most" d. "movče"
"Macedonian" "most" d. "mostče"
English: "ball"
Serbian: "lopta" d. "loptica"
Bulgarian "topka" d "topče"
"Macedonian" "topka" d."topče"
English: "cloud"
Serbian: "oblak" d. "oblačić"
Bulgarian "oblak" d. "oblače"
"Macedonian" "oblak" d. "oblače"
Private names:
Serbian: "Stojan" d. "Stojančić"
Bulgarian "Stojan" d. "Stojče"
"Macedonian" "Stojan" d. "Stojče"
Serbian: "Bogdan" d. "Bogdančić"
Bulgarian "Bogdan" d. "Bogdanče"
"Macedonian" "Bogdan" d. "Bogdanče"
Serbian: "Nikola" d. "Nikolica"
Bulgarian "Nikola" d. "Nikolče"
"Macedonian" "Nikola" d. "Nikolče"
Conclusion: due to the unserbness of the root and the suffix from which the alleged "cryptosurname" of pseudohistorian publicist of FYROM, Akeksander Donski, being presented by M.E. Bolaris as "Dončević", the possibility of its genuineness and the implicit conspiratorial allegations such extensive repetition is intended to underline has been excluded.
A simple inquiry on Google for "Дончевић" (Serbian Cyrillic) or "Дончевиќ ("Macedonian") yields 8 result for Serbian variant, most of the articles referring to Croatian writer Ivan Dončević ("Dončević" is an existing surname among Croats of an entirely different etymology), while the inquiry in FYROMian carries to couple of dozen of topics in "Macedonian" and Bulgarian forums regarding the "Donski "Serbian-agent-behind-enemy-lines"conspiracy theory.
It has been demonstrated, just like Arthurpoulos or Richardidis in Greek, Kennethski, Bryanov, Trevorević in Slavic languages and Ljubomirson, Svobodington, Domromiling in English, that the form Donchevich imposed as a kind of sublime libel upon Alexandar Donski, entirely apart from obvious for all those who follow the New "Macedonian" Issue, is linguistically unnatural and implausible in both historical context and as a real-life existing example. This is a firm conclusion regardless of its being pronounceable in Serbian and other qualities which makes it a theoretical addition to a remarkably conservative corpus of ethnic surnames (like many others are) where it has no precedent in its entire written history nor among living Serbs.
I will point to grave error, which the author keeps promoting in each and every article that deconstructs what we may term "Donski's" list. This is a practice in his series of long articles on linguistics united by the introductory part of the title "Macedonian names and makeDonski pseudo-linguistics", published in about dozen variants on "American Chronicle" with astonishingly dense elaborations-indeed, an equivalent of a movie critic producing a 20 cumulative hours lasting critical series about a conventional, undistinguished "b'" movie. But I leave use of Free Speech to Mr. Bolaris the way he sees fit, focusing instead of an error of his, which originates from his lack of information at best or making a malicious point at worst.
Namely, the author explicitly claims that Aleksander Donski's name is actually Alexander Donchevich, which is a non-attested name (at minimum, Donski never claimed that it is his genuine current or earlier name, or that Donchevich is his traditional ancestral surname). It is note worthy that M. E. Bolaris used a possible variant of Anglicization of a Serbian-looking surname "Donchevich" which in Serbian Cyrillic would be written "Дончевић", in "Gajevica", a variant of Latin alphabet used by Croats and unofficially by some Serbs, this alleged surname is written "Dončević", while in addition it could be mention that in FYROMian Cyrillic the surname would be "Дончевиќ".
Each and every one of the article by Mr. Bolaris contains this phrase in the introductory paragraphs:
"It is in the prolific writings of the FYROM folk personality ("I am highly educated historian and a writer from European country Republic of Macedonia") but untrained in History "historian" Aleksandar Donchevic (Donski) that Skopje's pseudo-makedonist regime has found its purest celebrity propagandist."
So what is the catch? Why the author of these lengthy amateur onomastical analysis insist, by always stating in the first paragraph of each of his "Counter-Donski" Ancient "Macedonian" name-exegesis, that Aleksandar Donski's surname is "Donchevich" and that by presumption - since the surname sounds notoriously Serbian - the author is an ethnic Serbs, or rather in the context of thug of war hobby historians among FYROMians and Greeks wage, "the author is an ethnic Serbs-theorist of the Anti-Hellenic ideology of Pseudomacedonism, as publicist, lecturer and in other manners". This could have some implication beyond stating is as a mere fact (which, however, it is not).
For a long term Bulgarian nationalist circles in the conventional forms of activism, including printed publicism but also on the Internet, launched a theory that "Serbia, which "occupied" the "pure Bulgarian lands of Vardar Macedonia" failed to Serbianize the population (due to alleged all-pervading passive and active forms to all forms of imposition of Serbian ethnic qualities upon them, which is Bulgarian propaganda, in terms that the opponents did not ever represented approximation of 100% in terms of quantity. In a matter of fact, they hardly represented even a relative majority outside Eastern FYROM from 1913 to 1941). The Bulgarian theory goes to provide "rationalization" (read: propagandist, goal-directed formulation) that "Serbs, recognizing that they are unable to Serbianize Bulgarians of Macedonia, invented a "Macedonian" nationality for them in order, if it was not possible to annex them to Serbia, at least to weaken Bulgaria.
This is of course only a naive, abstract retroactive projected draft of history which corresponds to no reality and is not acknowledged by any expert on South Slavic issues in general and for XXth century Yugoslav history from outside Balkans, which in light of the events from early 1990's lasting to day is extremely well covered by historians, anthropologist and other experts on the region. Many of them have arguably an anti-Serbian stance, but none has gone so far to claim the groundless hypothesis "Macedonism" is a Serbian project, which remains a standalaone Bulgarian claim ("Serbian conspiracy" explanation to the public in Bulgaria why there is no any instance whatsoever of massive pro-Bulgarian enthusiasm in FYROM after 1992), recently "purchased" by some Greek Internet-warriors. Not often, the latter appear as advocates for Greater Albanian and Greater Bulgarian aspirations in the Balkans, being even more productive on that line of activism rather than on the legitimate issues of Greeks in Albania and FYROM etc.
This returns us to citizen of FYROM, the pseudohistorian publicist Aleksandar Donski. Why M. E. Bolaris passionately, extensively does uses any opportunity to remind the reader of his unsourced statement (that even if it was true, and it is not - as shall be demonstrated) that Donski's family name, his surname is Donchevich and that by extension he is a "camouflaged Serb (nationalist?)". Is the Bulgarian nationalist fantastic story of paranoid qualities, briefly prominent in time of USENET grops dealing with the "Macedonian" Issue, that in FYROM there is a fair share of organized "leftovers of Serbian colonization", people who stayed after evacuation of Yugoslav Army in 1992 as Serbian "agents to "produce and export the theory that all Slavs of FYROM are "Macedonian"s-in a sense of being distinct people from Bulgarians and Greeks on the basis of their Ancient "Macedonian" heritage reflected into historically attested continuity of name, language and culture in a context of single several millennium old "Macedonian" national history".
In USENET groups in early 1990's, this accusation was raised few times by UK residing Bulgarian nationalists, which translates into fact that Aleksandar Donski is actually not just an ethnic Serbs, but a "Stay Behind" agent, part of the resident Belgrade-controlled apparatus that establishes itself as the creators of Pseudomacedonism in order to bring havoc into the minds of the ""Macedonian" Bulgarians" and prevent them to go ahead, uniting themselves with Republic of Bulgaria into a singular Bulgarian nation, purged of all Yugoslav vestiges.
Insofar Internet is considered, the striking absence of serious and in depth Serbian views on "Macedonian" Issue on one hand and enormous volume of content produced by Bulgarian nationalists (a state of affairs which rather well reflects Serbian and Bulgarian long-term rank of national priorities), brought uncritical, almost automatic acceptance by Greeks activists involved in the New "Macedonian" Issue, not limited only on Internet, of everything that is held as a consensus by Bulgarian nationalist (most of it being set of projections towards denial of Serbian presence in FYROM before 1913, in spite of overwhelming evidence, to geopolitical projection towards South-Eastern section of Republic of Serbia as "ethnic Bulgarian land, which is just like FYROM, fully inhabited by only superficially altered (on the level of national consciousness) Bulgarians".
M. E. Bolaris's "nose rubbing" of the reader that his pseudo-historian colleague surname is Donchevich, a fact that he would not mention ad nausem , if by all likelihood he does not subscribe to the Bulgarian "FYROM is saturated with Serbian colonist agents and Belgrade collaborators working on Pseudo-Macedonian Antiquization as a Serbian anti-Bulgarian theory and practice" is not a mere insignificance, reducible with regard to its importance to a level of text error. It is an act of Bulgarian nationalist, anti-Serbian industrious propaganda by a man who passes verdicts about people, ethnic groups, nations, countries and their politics about he evidently knows little to nothing which has a quality of being true and on certain level, which among other capabilities should include near-native knowledge of local Slavic languages and approximation to primary sources, rather than hobby-like compilation from online sources.
The question is: is there a Serbian surname "Donchevich"? This surname is styled in a Serbian manner ending in (v)ic, and more than 80% of Serbs who kept their ethnological qualities intact and preserved has such surnames. Indeed the extent of the patronymic (v)ic is so ubiquitous than in many places away from Serbia such specific surname strongly points and is often presumed to indicate Serb ethnicity of the bearer, although (apart from a minority of Serbs whose surnames end otherwise: -ac, -in, -ica, -ov, -ski and others) a fair share of Croats and also the recently emergent "ethnic Montenegrin" have this patronymic suffix, which - it is worth mentioning - is not pronounced (v)ich, with the voiceless postalveolar affricate"ch"(tʃ) like in "check", but with the voiceless alveolo-palatal affricate (ʨ).
Donchevich is implausible to impossibility Serbian surname since its root, "Донче" is a totally non-Serbian private name, being such not because of impossibility on behalf of the Serbs and their historical socio-linguistic circumstances to adopt it, but because it is formed by regression of Andon-(Андон), а male name from Greek origin used in this form exclusively by Bulgarians and ""Macedonian"s", but never by Serbs (with few exception related to with origin of the immediate area of contact with the Bulgarian continuum or by assimilation of Bulgarians), into Donche (Donče, Донче), most likely via "Done-Доне, "Dono-Доно" (vestigial vocative in the Bulgarian and "Macedonian" in the latter form, otherwise rarely used in those languages), also a form of the name which is never used by Serbs.
Finally, the onomastical basis "Dono" + "-che" is established via a way of forming a diminutive form according to common rule of Bulgarian and ""Macedonian"" language, which is most commonly the suffix "-che/če/че", which is never used in Serbian language.
Examples:
English: "girl"
Serbian: "devojka" d. "devojčica"
Bulgarian "devojka" d. "devojče"
"Macedonian" "devojka" d. "devojče"
English: "bridge"
Serbian: "most" d. "mostić"
Bulgarian "most" d. "movče"
"Macedonian" "most" d. "mostče"
English: "ball"
Serbian: "lopta" d. "loptica"
Bulgarian "topka" d "topče"
"Macedonian" "topka" d."topče"
English: "cloud"
Serbian: "oblak" d. "oblačić"
Bulgarian "oblak" d. "oblače"
"Macedonian" "oblak" d. "oblače"
Private names:
Serbian: "Stojan" d. "Stojančić"
Bulgarian "Stojan" d. "Stojče"
"Macedonian" "Stojan" d. "Stojče"
Serbian: "Bogdan" d. "Bogdančić"
Bulgarian "Bogdan" d. "Bogdanče"
"Macedonian" "Bogdan" d. "Bogdanče"
Serbian: "Nikola" d. "Nikolica"
Bulgarian "Nikola" d. "Nikolče"
"Macedonian" "Nikola" d. "Nikolče"
Conclusion: due to the unserbness of the root and the suffix from which the alleged "cryptosurname" of pseudohistorian publicist of FYROM, Akeksander Donski, being presented by M.E. Bolaris as "Dončević", the possibility of its genuineness and the implicit conspiratorial allegations such extensive repetition is intended to underline has been excluded.
A simple inquiry on Google for "Дончевић" (Serbian Cyrillic) or "Дончевиќ ("Macedonian") yields 8 result for Serbian variant, most of the articles referring to Croatian writer Ivan Dončević ("Dončević" is an existing surname among Croats of an entirely different etymology), while the inquiry in FYROMian carries to couple of dozen of topics in "Macedonian" and Bulgarian forums regarding the "Donski "Serbian-agent-behind-enemy-lines"conspiracy theory.
It has been demonstrated, just like Arthurpoulos or Richardidis in Greek, Kennethski, Bryanov, Trevorević in Slavic languages and Ljubomirson, Svobodington, Domromiling in English, that the form Donchevich imposed as a kind of sublime libel upon Alexandar Donski, entirely apart from obvious for all those who follow the New "Macedonian" Issue, is linguistically unnatural and implausible in both historical context and as a real-life existing example. This is a firm conclusion regardless of its being pronounceable in Serbian and other qualities which makes it a theoretical addition to a remarkably conservative corpus of ethnic surnames (like many others are) where it has no precedent in its entire written history nor among living Serbs.
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