Young Macedonian Literary Society

The Young Macedonian Literary Society was founded in 1891, in Sofia, together with its magazine Loza. The society formed primarily as a scholarly and literary organization.

After a distinct Bulgarian state was established in 1878, Macedonia remained outside its borders. In the 1880s, the Bulgarian codificators rejected the idea of a Macedono-Bulgarian linguistic compromise, and chose eastern Bulgarian dialects as a basis for standard Bulgarian. One purpose of the Young Macedonian Literary Society magazine was to defend the Macedonian dialects, and to have them more represented in the Bulgarian language. The articles were historical, cultural, and ethnographic.

An article in the official People's Liberal Party newspaper "Svoboda" blamed the organization for lack of loyalty and separatism. The Society rejected these accusations for linguistic and national separatism, and in a response to "Svoboda" claimed that their "society is far from any separatist thoughts, in which we were accused and to say that the ideal of Young Macedonian Literary Society is not separatism, but unity of the entire Bulgarian nation". Still some linguists identify this magazine as an early platform of Macedonian linguistic separatism,

The authors considered themselves Macedonian Bulgarians. As a whole, the Lozars demonstrated both Bulgarian and Macedonian loyalty, and combined their Bulgarian nationalism with Macedonian regional and cultural identity.

The society's founders included Kosta Shahov, its chairman. In May 1894, after the fall of Stambolov, the Macedonian Youth Society in Sofia revived the Young Macedonian Literary Society. The new group had a newspaper called Glas Makedonski, and opened a Reading Room Club. The group included a number of educators, revolutionaries, and public figures from Macedonia—Evtim Sprostranov, Petar Pop Arsov, Thoma Karayovov, Hristo Popkotsev, Dimitar Mirchev, Andrey Lyapchev, Naum Tyufekchiev, Georgi Balaschev, Georgi Belev, etc.—all known as the Lozars. Later, for a short time in the company were involved also Dame Gruev, Gotse Delchev, Luka Dzherov, Ivan Hadzhinikolov and Hristo Matov. These activists went on to various careers. Some became leaders in the Macedonian revolutionary movement—both the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization in 1894, and the Supreme Macedonian Committee in 1895. Others became later prominent Bulgarian intellectuals, and Andrey Lyapchev became prime minister of Bulgaria.

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