The Miladinov brothers (, ), Dimitar Miladinov (; ; 18101862) and Konstantin Miladinov (Bulgarian and ; 18301862), were Bulgarian poets, folklorists, educators, and activists of the Bulgarian national movement in Ottoman Macedonia. They are best known for their collection of folk songs called Bulgarian Folk Songs, considered a milestone in Bulgarian literature, the greatest literary work in the history of Bulgarian folklore studies and the genesis of folklore studies during the Bulgarian National Revival. They also contributed to Bulgarian ethnography through their collection of folk material. Their third brother Naum Miladinov (Bulgarian and ; 18171897) helped compile this collection too. Konstantin Miladinov is also famous for his poem Taga za Yug (Grief for the South) which he wrote during his stay in Russia.
In North Macedonia, the Miladinov brothers are regarded as Macedonians, as part of the Macedonian national awakening and literary tradition. Their original works have been unavailable to the general public and only censored versions, and redacted copies of them have been published there.
Family and background
The mother of the Miladinov brothers was Sultana Miladinova. Her father was an Aromanian from Magarevo who moved to Ohrid and studied in Moscopole with Daniel Moscopolites. Sultana's mother was a native of Ohrid and the granddaughter of sakellarios Pop Stefan, who was so fond of his pupil Dimitrius of Ioannou that he let him marry her. The brothers' father, Hristo Miladinov, was also from Magarevo. He was a pottery merchant, who moved to Struga in 1810. The family had eight children, six sons and two daughters. Names such as "Lower Moesia" and "Bulgaria" were used for the northern and central parts of the modern Macedonian region. The name was revived in the early 19th century with the new Greek state and was affirmed in the modern area as a result of Hellenic religious and school propaganda. Opposition to Hellenism and the Greek clergy became the main concern of the brothers. The Miladinov brothers deliberately avoided using the term Macedonia in reference to the region, arguing that it presents a threat to the Bulgarian people there, and proposed the name Western Bulgaria instead. Miladinov and other educated Macedonian Slavs worried that the use of the designation Macedonian would imply an identification with the Greek nation. in the family of a potter named Hristo Miladinov and his wife, Sultana. Dimitar was the eldest of eight children, six boys and two girls. In his youth, Dimitar received basic education at the Monastery of Saint Naum on Lake Ohrid. Afterwards, he continued his education in a school in the town of Ohrid. where he mastered the Greek language.
As a teacher, in the 1840s, Dimitar introduced the Bell-Lancaster method in Kukush (today in Greece) and expanded the classes. A Greek bishop opposed his activities. As his interest grew, he developed a Bulgarian national consciousness. Dimitar travelled around the Macedonian region, collecting folk material, which he informed Grigorovich about. From 1853 to 1856, he resided in Hapsburg South Slavic lands. From April to September 1860, he toured the Macedonian region to raise funds for the renovation of the Bulgarian church St. Stephen in Istanbul as a representative of the Bulgarian community. He was imprisoned in Istanbul in 1861. The Russian consul in Bitola, , in a letter to Aleksey Lobanov-Rostovsky regarding the imprisoment, wrote: "...It would be very regrettable if there turned out to be no possibility of helping him, especially since one cannot deny that this man has suffered partly because of us". Khitrovo also requested support for Miladinov's family from the ambassador in Constantinople. Dimitar was later joined by his supporting brother Konstantin. On 11 January 1862, he died in prison from typhus.
Konstantin Miladinov
Konstantin Miladinov was the youngest son in the family of the potter Hristo Miladinov. He was born in 1830 in Struga. He studied in an elementary school in Ohrid. After his graduation from the Hellenic Institute at Ioannina and the University of Athens, where he studied literature. He stayed at the Zograf Monastery along with Parteniy Zografski, where he learned Russian grammar. Afterward, he was a teacher in Magarevo in the schoolyear 1852/1853. At the initiative of his brother, Dimitar, in 1856, he went to Russia. He arrived in Odessa and because he was short of money, the Bulgarian Society in that city financed his trip to Moscow. Konstantin enrolled at the Moscow University to study Slavic philology. While at the University of Athens, he was exclusively exposed to the teachings and thinking of ancient and modern Greek scholars. In Moscow, he came in contact with prominent Slavic writers and intellectuals. While staying in Russia, he wrote his poem called Taga za Yug (Grief for the South), expressing his homesickness. Other poems he wrote include "Bisera" (Pearl), "Zhelanie" (Desire), "Kletva" (An Oath), "Dumane" (A Saying), "Na chuzhdina" (Abroad). Along with fellow Bulgarian students, he created a literary association named Fraternal Labour.
He also helped his older brother Dimitar in editing the materials for the collection of Bulgarian songs, that Dimitar had collected in his field work.
Legacy
right|thumb|230px|Bulgarian Primary School "Miladinov Brothers" in [[Cer, Kičevo|Cer, near Kičevo, then in the Ottoman Empire (1912).]]
The two brothers are honoured in the history of the Bulgarian National Revival in the 19th century. Elias Riggs, an American linguist in Constantinople, translated nine songs into English and sent them to the American Oriental Society in Princeton, New Jersey. In a letter from June 1862, Riggs wrote: "…The whole present an interesting picture of the traditions and fancies prevailing among the mass of the Bulgarian people." Dimitar's daughter Tsarevna Miladinova continued his Bulgarian nationalist efforts, co-founding the Bulgarian Girls' High School of Thessaloniki in 1882. Her son, (1884-1962) was a prominent Bulgarian jurist and historian, a professor of Bulgarian medieval law, and a specialist in Byzantine law at the Sofia University.
In post-war Yugoslav Macedonia, the Miladinov brothers were appropriated by the historians as part of the Macedonian National Revival and their original works were hidden from the general public. Their works were claimed to be Macedonian, despite them stating in their works that they were Bulgarians. All traces of pro-Bulgarian sentiment were removed from their works during the Yugoslav communist era, but such manipulations were revealed in the post-communist era. The official view in North Macedonia is that the Miladinov brothers were Macedonians who spoke Macedonian and contributed to Macedonian literature. Their ethnicity is disputed between North Macedonia and Bulgaria.
Monuments honouring the brothers are in Blagoevgrad and Pliska, Bulgaria, and Struga, North Macedonia. In North Macedonia there are also schools named after the Miladinov brothers, but the pupils there do not have the access to the works of their schools' patrons in original, while redacted copies of them have been available there, without the designation "Bulgarian" in them. Per academic Hugh Poulton, their original works have been more readily available in the post-communist era.