Kočo Racin

Kočo Racin ( _mk. Кочо Рацин); born Kosta Solev (Коста Солев) (22 December 1908, Veles - 13 June 1943, Lopušnik) was a Macedonian poet who is considered a founder of modern Macedonian literature.

Biography

He was born in Veles to the family of poor potter Apostol Solev. Racin could not afford to continue schooling past the age of thirteen, so he worked in his father's pottery workshop.

On observing the social injustice of work and the workplace he came to the conclusion that those who work hardest gain least. He joined the workers' movement and became a member of the Communist Party of Yugoslavia (KPJ). Before long he was one of the most prominent Communists in the Republic of Macedonia in the period between the two world wars. In 1928 Racin participated at the Fourth Congress of the KPJ in Dresden as the only delegate from Macedonia. In the second half of 1933 he became a member of the Land Committee of the Communist Party of Yugoslavia for Macedonia. In the beginning of 1934 he was captured by the police and imprisoned in Sremska Mitrovica for nearly two years.

In September 1940 Racin was expelled from the Communist Party because of his tendency to work independently of the movement. After the capitulation of Yugoslavia in 1941, Racin worked as a railroad worker in Sofia, but, after the tragic death of Kole Nedelkovski, and with the Bulgarian police looking for him, he had to come back to Skopje. In Skopje he was arrested by the police, imprisoned, and tortured in the village of Kornica, near Nevrokop.

After he was released he joined the partisans. He fought the Fascists with both gun and pen. He was working as a partisan publisher, publishing a partisan songbook and the paper "Ilindenski pat". He was killed on June 13, 1943, in a suspicious accident near Kičevo.

Works

Starting in 1928 Kočo Racin wrote songs, stories, literary-historical articles, pieces for several magazines, literary critiques, and essays. In his essay "The development of our new literature", he argued that the most correct and plausible way to develop modern literature in Macedonia is to build it from the inexhaustible riches of Macedonian folklore, combined with progressive social views. His most notable work was the small collection "White Dawns" ("Beli mugri"), which was published in Zagreb in 1939. Racin's interests lay in the plight of field and farm workers and wage earners.

An annual Balkan literary festival is held in Racin's honor in his hometown, Veles.

ee also

*"White Dawns"

External links

* [http://belimugri.macedonie.net/~belimugri/info.php?tng=1&info=data/BeliMugri.html "White Dawns" in Macedonian and partly in English]
* [http://www.marxists.org/makedonski/racin/index.htm Kočo Racin Arhive (in Macedonian)]
* [http://belimugri.digimak.org/ "White Dawns" in Macedonian]