Kuzman Shapkarev

The title page of the autobiography of Shapkarev "Materials on the history of the revival of the Bulgarian national idea in Macedonia." Kuzman Anastasov Shapkarev (Bulgarian and ; 1 January 1834 – 18 March 1909) was a Bulgarian folklorist and ethnographer from the Ottoman region of Macedonia, author of textbooks and ethnographic studies, and a figure of the Bulgarian National Revival.

Life

Kuzman Shapkarev was born in Ohrid in 1834. Shapkarev initially studied under his uncle . He was a teacher in a number of Bulgarian schools in Ohrid, Bitola, Prilep, Kukush, Thessaloniki, (18541883). In these towns, he was especially active in introducing the Bulgarian language in local schools. Не initiated the establishment of two Bulgarian high schools (Bulgarian men's high school and Bulgarian girls' high school) in Thessaloniki in the 1880s.

He wrote the following textbooks: "A Bulgarian Primer" (1866), "A Big Bulgarian Reader" (1868), "Mother tongue" (1874), "Short Land description (Geography)" (1868), "Short Religion Book" (1868), which were published in Istanbul. Bulgarian philologist Marin Drinov rejected his proposal for a mixed eastern and western Bulgarian (Macedonian) basis of the Bulgarian standard language.

Shapkarev was a contributor of many Bulgarian newspapers and magazines – "Tsarigradski vestnik" (Constantinople newspaper), "Gayda" (Bagpipe), "Macedonia", "Pravo" (Justice), "Savetnik" (Adviser), "Balgarska pchela" (Bulgarian bee) and others. Shapkarev was a collaborator of the revolutionary Georgi Rakovski and in the field of ethnography, he assisted the Miladinov brothers.

He married Dimitar Miladinov's daughter but she died in 1870. After 1883 he lived in Eastern Rumelia and Bulgaria – in Plovdiv, Sliven, Stara Zagora, Vraca and Orhanie (Botevgrad). Along with his scientific and public occupation in Bulgaria, he worked as a notary and a judge.

From 1900 he was a regular member of the Bulgarian Literary Society. while the second – was a high-ranking Bulgarian Army officer. His grandson was a Bulgarian economist and chairman of the Macedonian Scientific Institute, He is an important figure in the Bulgarian and Macedonian historical narrative, with him being regarded as an ethnic Macedonian in the latter narrative.

Autobiographical books Contribution to education in Macedonia. One autobiography of Kuzman Shapkarev, Macedonian review, Sofia 1927, vol 2 "Materials for Revival of Bulgarian national spirit in Macedonia", Sofia 1984