History of the Macedonian Tribune

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The goals of the group, which was working in behalf of the Macedonian Liberation Movement, were formulated as follows:

• To clarify the political situation in Macedonia.
• To ask if the US government would be interested in the creation of an independent Macedonian state under the protection of either the US or the UN.
• To contact and meet with Ivan Mihailoff.
• To contact the MPO of the USA and Canada.
• To plan future activities.

The Americans liked their plan, but did not want to involve the MPO because it was a legal organization.

Because of intrigues by representatives of the Bulgarian Agrarian Union within the immigration, and the work of communist agents, Mihail Gregoroff, Christo Lagadinoff, Branko Dimcheff, Smilen Grioff and Ivan Charcheff were arrested and sentenced to jail. Later all five were allowed to emigrate. Borislav also helped others to emigrate as well. Every time he had meetings with the Americans, he would mention potential emigrees.

During 1948 - 49, Borislav's group continued to try to establish contacts with Mihailoff. At the same time they decided to go back to Pirin Macedonia to help in the escape of another group of dedicated to the Macedonian Cause. Their goal was to free as many people as possible to work for Macedonia in the free world.

During the summer of 1949, Borislav's group spent more than 90 days hiding in the Pirin Mountains. They tried to establish a network of people willing to help them. However, some of their contacts were inexperienced and the communists uncovered their underground activities. Many were arrested and sentenced, others were exiled to Northern Bulgaria. Nevertheless several people were able to emigrate and the group crossed the border and returned to Greece at the end of July. During that time, the Americans contacted Assen Avramoff, an aid to Ivan Mihailoff and arranged a meeting between him and Borislav. During the summer of 1950, Borislav together with five of his friends went back to Razlog, Pirin Macedonia. They learned that many of our people were imprisoned at that time. Only two people returned to Greece with Borislav's group. Soon after their return, a final date for Borislav's meeting with Mihailoff and Avramoff was set. Nicola Politov, Mihailoff's wife Mencha Karnicheva also attended the meeting.

Later the Americans asked Borislav to work for them. He declined and finally after a lengthy process was allowed to emigrate. During this last year, Borislav worked hard to improve the living conditions and the treament of the refugees from Macedonia in the Greek camps. At the end of October, 1952 , Borislav left for Germany. He had planned to immigrate to Canada, but was invited by Ivan Mihailoff to join him in Rome. Borislav changed his plans and at the beginning of March 1953 left for Italy.

When he worked with Mihailoff, Borislav's responsibilities included: reading articles from various magazines and newspapers about Yugoslavia; reading Croatian publications from the US, South America and Europe; reading the Greek press; reading publications from Bulgaria and Bulgaran publications abroad. He presented the most important articles to Mihailoff for review. He also took dictation from Mihailoff. In addition, he read and took notes from publications ith information about Macedonia after the Balkan Wars. Later this information was used in Mihailoff's Memoirs. While the newspaper Macedonia was still in publication, Borislav edited and proofread the articles in Italian, English, German and French. Quarterly, he attended meetings of the MPO in Belgium and worked with the membership there. In 1961 Borislav went to Madrid to broadcast about Macedonia on Spanish National Radio.

In July of 1962 he came to the US. He spent some time with Spas Raikin of New York and then George Matzureff of Washington, D.C. He also contacted Luben Dimitroff who asked Borislav to come to Indianapolis and help with the TRIBUNE. Because of his illness, Luben asked Borislav if he would stay in Indianapolis and work for the paper. Upon his arrival, Borislav met with Christo Nizamoff and the two of them published the newspaper. At a Central Committee meeting held after Luben's funeral, it was decided to ask Jivko Ghelev to become editor of the paper. Borislav was to work as the MPO organizer. However, Jivko Ghelev did not accept the position. Borislav was then hired as editor and later as secretary of the Central Committee. To learn more about the conditions of the organization, he traveled often. For example, during 1962-63 he made more than 100 visits to different chapters; during 1963-64 more than 90; during 1964-65 more than 70.

His goals as editor of the MACEDONIAN TRIBUNE were to improve the quality of the paper, to increase the number of subscribers, to publish articles regularly in English, to raise funds for the paper, to buy a building for the paper, to open a publishing house, to print the TRIBUNE and send it to universities, libraries, the UN, and Congress. He also wanted to buy books for the library of the TRIBUNE. In order to know the situation in the Balkans, he subscribed to Greek, Serbian and Croatian newspapers and magazines published in this country. He tried to organize a special financial committee with the late Henry Karandjeff to improve the financial status of the paper. Some of his projects worked well, others did not.

Borislav tried to collect 20,000 - 30,000 names of people to publish in a special book to raise money for the organization. He collected about 12,000 names when the work was interrupted. He resigned in 1967. He worked for two years (1967 - 1969) in Indianapolis as a computer system analyst. In November in 1969, he and his wife Rose moved to Toronto where Borislav worked as computer system analyst until 1987 when he retired. His wife Rose (Nickoloff) was originally from Toronto. Her father was from Tursie, her mother from Bitola. Borislav served as a member of the Central Committee of the MPO in 1963 to 1967. In 1965 he was elected secretary. He again served as secretary from 1983 - 1985.