Krste Petkov Misirkov

If we talk about the  most influential people that ever lived on Macedonian soil, we have to mention the name of Krste Petkov Misirkov. He is one of the people that contributed the for the renaissance of Macedonian language and literature.
He was born on November 18, 1874 in the village of Postol, near Pella, which was a part of  Macedonia that was under Greek rule, so his first several years of education were in Greek.
Since he really loved his people he decided to invest in his education so that he could help them in the fight against Greek, Bulgarian and Serbian propaganda that was oppressing the Macedonian nation.
For a long time he studied the Macedonian language and in Sofia in 1903 the book that changed history was published. The book is called ” Za Makedonckite raboti.” The principles of the modern Macedonian language were introduced in his book. There he explained that the language should be based on dialects from the central part of Macedonia such as Veles, Prilep,  Bitola and Ohrid. He used those dialects himself, saying that they are truly Macedonian and free of influences of the neighboring languages.
This book also gives the foundation of the Macedonian language codification that happened after World War II.
Beside the book he actively taught and worked as a publisher of the magazine Vardar. Although this magazine was published only once, because of financial problems, it was highly important for the language development.
During his lifetime, this work was regarded as the greatest threat to the realization of the plans of those who aimed at keeping Macedonia under subjugation. For this very reason, he was forced to spend his life in exile, as he related in his Memories and Impressions, “a wanderer in foreign lands from where I tried to be of use to my oppressed country.”  He died in poverty in Sofia on 26th July 1926.