Krste Misirkov

Krste Petkov Misirkov was a philologist, slavist, historian and ethnographer. In the period between 1903 and 1907 he published a book and a scientific magazine in which he affirmed the existence of a Macedonian national identity separate from other Balkan nations, and attempted to codify a standard Macedonian language based on the Central Macedonian dialects. A survey conducted in the Republic of Macedonia found Misirkov to be the most significant Macedonian of the 20th century. For his efforts to codify a standard Macedonian language, he is often considered the founder of the modern Macedonian literary language.

Krste Petkov Misirkov was born onNovember 1874 in the village of Postol in the Salonica Vilayet of the Ottoman Empire . He started his elementary education in the local Greek school, where he was studying until the sixth grade elementary school, but the bad financial situation of his family could not support his further education at that point and he left the school. At that period Serbian propaganda began to promote its variant of Macedonism and to recruit young people in order to Serbianize them. After some period, Misirkov applied and was granted a scholarship by the Serbian association St. Sava.

Source: Wikipedia