War of Words: Representing Identity in the Postwar Bulgarian and Yugoslav Macedonian Provincial Press

The history of Bulgarian-Yugoslav disputes over Macedonian identity following the Second World War has been well explored by historians. The mechanisms by which state-approved identities were communicated to the inhabitants of Macedonia, however, have largely been neglected. This poster represents ongoing research on the way that the provincial press — Pirinsko Delo and Nova Makedonija — were used in each country to represent not just the dispute over ethnic identities but also the new promise of Socialism. In both cases, I argue, the way that textual and visual symbols were utilized is extremely similar, suggesting a similar ideological motivation shared by the two national governments. I test this, however, by considering as well the ways that provincial newspapers from the region from the 1930s and 1940s utilized textual and visual symbols on the same subjects; and by examining the key “national” newspapers of the early Socialist era in each state, respectively Rabotichnesko Delo and Borba. While provincial papers are distinct in the kinds of symbols they used, they shared with other Socialist papers a similar approach to using those symbols -- even while creating their own, distinct approach in reporting other elements of local news.