A picture of the Slavic world through the prism of a 19th century Macedonian manuscript (transfering knowledge and ideas)

Abstract

The «Slavic-Macedonian General History», a manuscript from the end of the 19th century, is the object of our interest. The author, Ǵorǵija M. Pulevski, died in 1893 and the manuscript remained unpublished until 2003. The work is comprised of three parts: a historical text presenting events from the earliest history through the Ottoman rule, up to the foundation of the national states of the Balkan Slavic peoples; an ethnography of the Balkan population; and a section on grammar. Taking the first steps in writing historiography, the author based his work on concepts of various authors. He glorified Macedonia’s past and highlighted the Slavic element in the Macedonian ethnogenesis, but he also wrote of the Balkan peoples, especially Slavic peoples. Considering representations of the past, we take into consideration the historical circumstances, characteristics of the time, as well as the author’s personal identity and views. In this analysis we try to define the place of this manuscript among contemporary works, analyzing it as a historical display.