The State Archives, as a part of its publishing activity, has recently published the Study: Niko Zupanic and Macedonia in 1903, compiled by the Ambassador Victor Gaber. As a work which is very inviting and interesting, not only for the experts, but also for the broader public, we think that his Study is a modest, but important contribution in clarifying some dilemmas regarding the end of 19th and the beginning of the 20th century. The Slovenian born Niko Zupanic is a scientist in the field of anthropology, ethnography and history, who took his PhD in Vienna in 1903, and, among the rest, he studied the broader treatment of the subject Macedonia and the Macedonia in his era.
This is a historic period immediately before the Berlin Congress, when the political independence of several peoples of the Balkans was internationally confirmed, with the exception of the Slovenians and the Macedonians. Hence the interest of the young scientist Niko Zupanic, and the fate of the Macedonian people, for its future and perspective, which he perceived within the Slavic peoples in one country of the Southern Slavs.
It can be said that Niko Zupanic is progressive and radical in his political ideas and attitudes which he published as articles, essays, booklets or books, and for which he suffered repercussions during his times, and later. In that respect, this Study, which was previously discussed, is another proof about the national sentiment and uniqueness of the Macedonian people, and its strife for freedom and independence. Especially interesting for us is the overview and the analysis of the anthropologist Niko Zupanic about the ethnoculture of the Macedonian population at the turno of the 20th century, which he terms Macedonian Slavs, and he points out the characteristics of their language and dialects. The issue about the individuality of this population as Macedonians in the term of their ethnicity, Zupancic affirmed in the study: Macedonia and the Turkish Problem, with the title Macedonian Slavs, and he claimed that there were over million on one hundred thousand individuals.
The book can be found in the State Archives and the bookstore Literatura.mk in City Mall - Skopje.
