The Miladinov brothers (, ), Dimitar Miladinov (; ; 18101862) and Konstantin Miladinov (Bulgarian and ; 18301862), were Bulgarian poets, folklorists, educators, and activists of the Bulgarian national movement in Ottoman Macedonia.In the announcement by the Miladinov Brothers about the subscription for their collection called Bulgarian Folk Songs, published in Belgrade by Konstantin Miladinov on February 7, 1861 in the Bulgarian newspaper Dunavski Lebed, issue № 20, he wrote: "We started collecting folk songs six years ago from all parts of Western Bulgaria, i.e. Macedonia... as well as from Eastern Bulgaria. These folk songs will be supplemented with traditional rites of betrothal and match-making from Struga and Kukush; proverbs, riddles, legends and about 2,000 words which have become obsolete or differ from other dialects". For more see: D. Kossev et al., Macedonia, documents and materials, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, (in English) Sofia, 1978, p. 48."On 8 January 1861, K. Miladinov wrote to the Bulgarian weakener G. Rakovski to explain his use of the term ‘‘Bulgarian’’ in the title of his and his brother’s collection of Macedonian folk songs: ‘‘In the announcement I called Macedonia West Bulgaria (as it should be called) because in Vienna the Greeks treat us like sheep. They consider Macedonia a Greek land and cannot understand that [Macedonia] is not Greek.’’ Miladinov and other educated Macedonians worried that use of the Macedonian name would imply attachment to or identification with the Greek nation." For more see: Andrew Rossos, Macedonia and the Macedonians: A History, Hoover Institution Press, 2008, , p. 84.İpek Yosmaoğlu, Blood Ties: Religion, Violence and the Politics of Nationhood in Ottoman Macedonia, 1878–1908, Cornell University Press, 2013, , pp. 72–73. They are best known for their collection of folk songs called Bulgarian Folk Songs,Nationalism, Globalization and Orthodoxy: the social origins of ethnic conflict in the Balkans, Victor Roudometof, Greenwood Publishing Group, 2001, , p. 144.Language and National Identity in Greece, 1766-1976, Peter Mackridge, Oxford University Press, 2010, , p. 189. considered a milestone in Bulgarian literature,Larry Koroloff, The Miladinov Brothers: A Miscellany, Macedonian Historical Society of Canada, 1982, pp. 4-8; 12. the greatest literary work in the history of Bulgarian folklore studies and the genesis of folklore studies during the Bulgarian National Revival.Charles A. Moser, A History of Bulgarian Literature 865–1944, Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG, 2019, , p. 85.Developing Cultural Identity in the Balkans: Convergence Vs Divergence, Raymond Detrez, Pieter Plas, Peter Lang, 2005, , p. 179. They also contributed to Bulgarian ethnography through their collection of folk material.Janette Sampimon, Becoming Bulgarian: The articulation of Bulgarian identity in the nineteenth century in its international context: An intellectual history, Pegasus, 2006, , pp. 20; 145-146. Their third brother Naum Miladinov (Bulgarian and ; 18171897) helped compile this collection too. Konstantin Miladinov is also famous for his poem Taga za Yug (Grief for the South) which he wrote during his stay in Russia.
In North Macedonia, the Miladinov brothers are regarded as Macedonians, as part of the Macedonian national awakening and literary tradition. Their original works have been unavailable to the general public and only censored versions, and redacted copies of them have been published there.
Family and background The mother of the Miladinov brothers was Sultana Miladinova. Her father was an Aromanian from Magarevo who moved to Ohrid and studied in Moscopole with Daniel Moscopolites. Sultana's mother was a native of OhridTodorovski, Gane (1990), Книга нашинска сиреч славјанска , Makedonska kniga, p. 19. and the granddaughter of sakellarios Pop Stefan, who was so fond of his pupil Dimitrius of Ioannou that he let him marry her."Izbor" - Konstantin Miladinov , Gane Todorovski, 1980, Misla Publishing, pp. 366; 395.Литературен збор , Volume 36 - 1989, p. 29. The brothers' father, Hristo Miladinov, was also from Magarevo. He was a pottery merchant, who moved to Struga in 1810.Михайлов, Крум. Родът на Братя Миладинови. В: Стари български родове. Издателство Отечествен фронт, 1989, стр. 83-133. The family had eight children, six sons and two daughters.
After the conquest of the Balkans by the Ottoman Empire, the name Macedonia disappeared as a designation for several centuries. Names such as "Lower Moesia" and "Bulgaria" were used for the northern and central parts of the modern Macedonian region.James Pettifer, The New Macedonian Question, St. Martin's Press, 1999, , p. 50. The name was revived in the early 19th century with the new Greek state and was affirmed in the modern area as a result of Hellenic religious and school propaganda.Dimitar Bechev, Historical Dictionary of the Republic of Macedonia, Scarecrow Press, 2009, , Introduction, pp. V–VIII, 149. Opposition to Hellenism and the Greek clergy became the main concern of the brothers. The Miladinov brothers deliberately avoided using the term Macedonia in reference to the region, arguing that it presents a threat to the Bulgarian people there, and proposed the name Western Bulgaria instead."Miladinov suggested that Macedonia should be called “Western Bulgaria”. Obviously, he was aware that the classical designation was received via Greek schooling and culture. As the Macedonian historian Taskovski claims, the Macedonian Slavs initially rejected the Macedonian designation as Greek." For more see: Tchavdar Marinov, Famous Macedonia, the Land of Alexander: Macedonian identity at the crossroads of Greek, Bulgarian and Serbian nationalism, p. 285; in Entangled Histories of the Balkans - Volume One: National Ideologies and Language Policies with Roumen Daskalov and Tchavdar Marinov as ed., BRILL, 2013, , pp. 273-330."Dimitar Miladinov's most famous literary achievement was the publishing of a large collection of Bulgarian folk songs in Zagreb in 1861 under the title Bulgarian Folk Songs. He published the volume with his brother Konstantin (1830-1862) and even though most of the songs were from Macedonia, the authors disliked this term as too Hellenic and preferred to refer to Macedonia as the "Western Bulgarian lands"." For more see: Chris Kostov, Contested Ethnic Identity: The Case of Macedonian Immigrants in Toronto, Peter Lang, 2010, , p. 72."The struggle over the historical legacy of the name “Macedonia” was already under way in the nineteenth century, as the Greeks contested its appropriation by the Slavs. This is reflected in a letter from Konstantin Miladinov, who published Bulgarian folk songs from Macedonia, to Rakovski, dated 31 January 1861: On my order form I have called Macedonia “Western Bulgaria”, as it should be called, because the Greeks in Vienna are ordering us around like sheep. They want Macedonia to be Greek territory and still do not realize that it cannot be Greek. But what are we to do with the more than two million Bulgarians there? Shall the Bulgarians still be sheep and a few Greeks the shepherds? Those days are gone and the Greeks shall be left with no more than their sweet dream. I believe the songs will be distributed among the Bulgarians, and have therefore set a low price for them." For more see: Spyridon Sfetas, The image of the Greeks in the work of the Bulgarian revolutionary and intellectual Georgi Rakovski. Balkan Studies, [S.l.], volume 42, issue 1, pp. 105-106, January 2001, . Miladinov worried that the use of the designation Macedonian would imply an identification with the Greek nation.
Dimitar Miladinov
Dimitar Miladinov was born around 1810 in the town of Struga in the Ottoman Empire (today North Macedonia),Blaže Ristovski, ed. Makedonska enciklopedija: M-Š , Macedonian Academy of Sciences and Arts, 2009, , pp. 948–950. in the family of a potter named Hristo Miladinov and his wife, Sultana. Dimitar was the eldest of eight children, six boys and two girls. In his youth, Dimitar received basic education at the Monastery of Saint Naum on Lake Ohrid. Afterwards, he continued his education in a school in the town of Ohrid. He studied in a Greek high school in Ioannina for three years, where he mastered the Greek language. Dimitar had worked as a teacher in Ohrid, Struga, Bitola, Prilep, Magarevo and Kukush, while also teaching in Greek.Freedom Or Death: The Life of Gotsé Delchev, Mercia MacDermott, Pluto Press, 1978, , pp. 16–17.