Grigor Stavrev Parlichev (; ; 18 January 1830 – 25 January 1893), also known as Grigorios Stavridis (), was a Bulgarian writer, teacher and translator. He received acclaim as a "second Homer" in Greece for his poem O Armatolos. Afterwards, he became a Bulgarian national activist. Parlichev was subject to criticism by contemporary Bulgarian figures for what they regarded as poor knowledge of Bulgarian. His other notable works include the poems Skenderbeg, 1762 leto, and his autobiographical work Autobiography. In North Macedonia and Bulgaria, he is regarded as a pioneer of national awakening, but his national identity has been also disputed between both countries.
Life
thumb|right|250px|Teachers and students from the [[Bulgarian Men's High School of Thessaloniki, 1888/1889. Parlichev is the third man with the white beard, sitting from left to right in the first row.]]
Grigor Parlichev was born on 18 January 1830 in Ohrid, Ottoman Empire (present-day North Macedonia), the fourth child of Maria Gyokova and Stavre Parlichev, a craftsman. He was six months old when his father died. His paternal grandfather, a farmer, took over the care of the family. He was taught to read Greek by his grandfather. Parlichev studied in a Greek school in Ohrid. He was taught by Dimitar Miladinov, a Bulgarian National Revival activist. In 1839 or 1840, his grandfather died. His family lived in poverty. Parlichev's mother worked as a house servant, while he also contributed to the living of his family by selling goods at the market and copying Greek handwritings. There, he experienced homesickness. He went to Athens to study medicine in 1849 but lacking money to pay for his studies, he returned to Ohrid the following year. In the 1850s, he worked as a teacher in Dolna Belica, Bitola, Prilep and Ohrid. Acclaimed as "second Homer" and given a bursary to study abroad, he gave part of it to a poor student and spent the rest of it. After the death of his teacher Dimitar Miladinov in the same year, he returned to Ohrid.
Upon his return, he became familiar with the Bulgarian language and the Cyrillic script. Parlichev was arrested and spent several months in an Ottoman jail in Debar after a complaint was sent by the Greek bishop of Ohrid Meletius due to his activities. The Parlichev family suffered from financial problems in Thessaloniki. According to historian Raymond Detrez, Parlichev often behaved like a tyrant towards his family and often resorted to fighting. in his early life Parlichev was a member of the Romaic community, a multi-ethnic proto-nation, comprising all Orthodox Christians of the Ottoman Empire. It had been under way until the 1830s, with the rise of nationalism in the Balkans. In his youth, he had no well-defined sense of national identity and developed a Greek (Rum Millet) identity (in the sense of being an Orthodox Christian), but as an adult, he adopted a Greek and later a Bulgarian national identity. In the last decade of his life, he adhered to a form of vague local Macedonian patriotism, though continued to identify himself as a Bulgarian. Thus, in the context of discussions about the existence of the Macedonian nation, his national identity became disputed between Bulgarian and Macedonian (literary) historians. However, he never identified himself as an ethnic Macedonian. As a Bulgarian national activist, he used German historian Jakob Fallmerayer's discontinuity thesis against the Greeks. In his autobiography, he wrote that the Bulgarians had been scorned and abused enough by other peoples and advised them to become aware of themselves, instead of despising themselves, to become confident of their abilities and rely on their hard work to achieve progress. In 1889, under a translation, he signed himself as "Gr. S. Părličev, killed by the Bulgarians"
(Гр. С. Пърличевъ, убитий българами). His native Ohrid dialect was different from the eastern Bulgarian dialects. Parlichev also wanted to include more Russian elements into Bulgarian. Contemporary Bulgarian writers, such as Hristo Botev and Lyuben Karavelov, mocked his translation. Botev mocked it in the satirical poem Why I'm not?, while Karavelov referred to Parlichev as "an empty pumpkin".
Legacy
thumb|right|200px|The cover of Parlichev's autobiography, published by the Bulgarian Ministry of Education in the magazine [[Folklore and Ethnography Collection, a year after his death in 1893.|link=File:Григор_Пърличев_-_Автобиография_(Григор_Прличев_-_Автобиографија).pdf]]
thumb|250px|right|The house of Grigor Prličev in [[Ohrid, North Macedonia]]
His autobiography was published posthumously in Sofia in a Bulgarian periodical called Folklore and Ethnography Collection, produced by the Bulgarian Ministry of Education, in 1894. Both North Macedonia and Bulgaria regard him as a pioneer of national awakening. A digital monument honoring him was set up in the center of Ohrid in 2022.
See also
- Miladinov Brothers
- Bulgarian Millet
- Macedonian nationalism