Metodija Andonov-Čento (; ; 17 August 1902 – 24 July 1957) was a Macedonian politician, partisan leader and the chairman of the Anti-Fascist Assembly of the National Liberation of Macedonia and first president of the presidency of the people's assembly of the People's Republic of Macedonia in the Federal People's Republic of Yugoslavia. During the interwar period, he earned a living as a merchant. After World War II, he was persecuted by the Yugoslav Macedonian authorities for his desire to establish an independent Macedonia. The persona of Čento was a taboo in Yugoslav Macedonia, but it was rehabilitated during the 1990s, after the country gained its independence. In the Bulgarian historiography he is often considered a Bulgarian.Rankovich himself opposes Cento's thesis of brotherhood with the Bulgarian people with an address to Pavel Shatev, already Minister of Justice, at a reception with Tito after the first session of the Chamber of Nations: "What are you looking for here, Bulgarian dog?" Cento witnessed this outburst. Returning from Belgrade, he declared to his friends: "Brothers, we are deceived! You know, we are Bulgarians and we thought like Macedonians to cross the bridge. Alas! There is no life with the Serbs". Коста Църнушанов, "Македонизмът и съпротивата на Македония срещу него", София, 1992 година, Унив. издателство "Св. Климент Охридски, стр 275-282."New Macedonia" under the heading "Against Cento's theses" writes: "We must fight against the Great Bulgarians, who today cannot openly say that Macedonia is a Bulgarian country and that Macedonians are Macedonian Bulgarians"... The most cruel provocation against the political understandings of Metodi Cento, which the YKP qualifies as Bulgarian, was carried out with the killing of 54 prominent Bulgarians in Veles. Славе Гоцев, Борби на българското население в Македония срещу чуждите аспирации и пропаганда 1878-1945, София, 1991 година, Унив. издателство "Св. Климент Охридски, стр. 183-187."After 45 years in the Republic of Macedonia, voices were heard for the rehabilitation of the first Speaker of the National Assembly, Metodi Andonov-Cento, but no longer as a Bulgarian, but as a "Macedonian"... Here are the reasons for the massacre of Metodi Andonov-Cento, one of the most - the bright personalities in the post-war development of Vardar Macedonia, allowed herself in those dark times of the Tito-Kolishev genocide against Bulgaria to express a different from the YKP, essentially Bulgarian-phile position. This is actually what the cational seal in Skopje is trying to hide, making timid attempts to his rehabilitation, but hiding the truth of why he was actually sentenced in such an unscrupulous manner to 11 years in prison." Веселин Ангелов, Премълчани истини: лица, събития и факти от българскарта история 1941-1989, библиотека Сите Българи заедно, Анико, 2005, стр. 42-44.
Biography
Early life Metodi Andonov was born on 17 August 1902 in Prilep, which was then part of the Manastir Vilayet of the Ottoman Empire. His father originated from Pletvar, while his mother originated from Lenište. After the Balkan Wars in 1913 the area was ceded to Serbia. During the World War I Bulgarian occupation, the authorities were popular enough there. After the war, the area was ceded to the new Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (later Yugoslavia). As a child, he worked in opium poppy fields and harvested tobacco. During his youth, he was considered to be an excellent gymnast. He graduated from trade school in Prilep and in 1926 he opened a grocery store and provided himself with a living. On 25 March 1930, in Novi Sad, he entered into a civil marriage with Vasilka Spirova Pop-Atanasova.
The politicians in Belgrade helped to strengthen the developing Macedonian identity by promoting forcible Serbianization during the interwar period. In the 1938 Yugoslav elections, he was elected as a deputy from the United Opposition, but did not become a member of parliament because of a manipulation with the electoral system. His ally was Vladko Macek, leader of the Croatian Peasant Party, who managed to have a Banovina of Croatia created in 1939 through an agreement with the Yugoslav government. In the same year, Čento called for the creation of an unified Banovina of Macedonia, but Macek did not take the claim seriously.
During World War II
He was imprisoned at Velika Kikinda for co-organizing the Ilinden demonstrations in Prilep in 1940. In the same year, he advocated for the introduction of the Macedonian language in school lectures and was therefore imprisoned at Bajina Bašta and sentenced to death by the government of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. On 15 April 1941 he was presented to a firing squad, but was pardoned just before he could be shot during the invasion of Yugoslavia by the Axis powers. After the capitulation of Yugoslavia, Čento was released from prison and came in contact with the right-wing Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization (IMRO) activists and pro-Bulgarian political forces. His friends attempted to convince him to collaborate with the Bulgarian authorities, but he stated: "I did not fight the Serbs to bring in the Bulgarians, but for the unification of Macedonia." In February 1942, he went to prison, first in Prilep. Afterwards he was transferred to Bitola, then later back to Prilep, then in Skopje, Sofia and Plovdiv, finally being incarcerated at the Bulgarian labor camp Chuchuligovo.
Upon his release, in September 1943, Čento met Kuzman Josifovski, a member of the General Staff of the Macedonian Partisans who convinced him to join them in the resistance. As a result, on 1 October 1943, Čento went to the German occupation zone of Vardar Macedonia, then part of Albania, where he joined the resistance. Although he was not a member, the Yugoslav communists gave him a position at the supreme headquarters of the Macedonian Partisans because of his popularity among the locals. However, he did not have any previous military experience and his role was purely political. He immediately tried to put Macedonian unification into the Yugoslav communists' agenda, and he managed to get it written in the General Staff Manifesto in October. He was listed as a participant, along with other people from Macedonia, in the second session of Anti-Fascist Council for the National Liberation of Yugoslavia (AVNOJ) in November 1943, although he and other Macedonians did not participate. At AVNOJ, Macedonia was recognized as one of the future six republics, which would be incorporated into communist Yugoslavia. Čento also became a member of AVNOJ. In December 1943, Čento was elected as a chairman of the Initiative committee for the organization of the Antifascist Assembly of the National Liberation of Macedonia (ASNOM). In June, Čento along with Emanuel Čučkov and Kiril Petrušev, met with Josip Broz Tito on the island of Vis for consultations due to their activity. The meeting was held on 24 June, with the Macedonian delegation raising the idea of the creation of a United Macedonia after liberation, but the Greeks rejected such a discussion. On 2 August 1944, in the first session of ASNOM, he was elected as president of the presidium of ASNOM, while Panko Brashnarov was elected as vice president. He had also invited pro-Bulgarian activists to the session, such as Yordan Chkatrov. In the second session of ASNOM, on 29–30 December 1944 in Skopje, he was re-elected as president, while the pro-Yugoslav Macedonian communist Lazar Koliševski became his first deputy because the Yugoslav communists were alarmed by Čento's anti-Serbian and irredentist views.
In late February 1945, Yugoslav leader Josip Broz Tito summoned him, Pavel Shatev, Dimitar Vlahov and Mihailo Apostolski for a meeting to try to dissuade demands for immediate action against Greece, although he also still had his own ambitions regarding northern Greece then. Čento wanted the unification of the entire Macedonian region, which would later become independent and be part of a Balkan Federation. He wanted Macedonia to be independent and unified rather than be subservient to Yugoslavia, but he thought that Yugoslavia would achieve the goal of Macedonian unification. Lazar Koliševski and Svetozar Vukmanović - Tempo disapproved of his stance for independence.
After World War II
The new communist authorities started a policy of implementing the pro-Yugoslav line and took hard measures against the opposition. Čento publicly condemned the killings carried out by the authorities in parliament and sent a protest to the Macedonian Supreme Court. He supported the Skopje soldiers' rebellion when officers from the Gotse Delchev Brigade, mutinied in the garrison stationed in Skopje Fortress, but were suppressed by an armed intervention. Čento opposed the sending of Macedonian Partisans to the Syrmian Front. Čento wanted to send them to Thessaloniki (which he perceived as the historical capital of Macedonia), then abandoned by the Germans, for the purpose of creating a United Macedonia. He also opposed the planned return of Serbian colonists, expelled by the Bulgarians.Блаже Ристовски, Ченто и македонската државност, зборник на трудовите од научниот собир по повод 100-годишнината од раѓањето на Методија Андонов-Ченто, одржан во Скопје на 16 и 17 декември 2002 година, Македонска акедемиjа на науките и уметностите, 2004 година, стр. 17. He later joined the Yugoslav Federal Assembly. Additionally, Čento did not agree to the stationing of Yugoslav troops from PR Serbia in Macedonia and proposed creating Macedonia's own telegraph agency. The new government in Macedonia was headed by Koliševski. In mid-April 1945, he became the head of the national assembly, but it was virtually a powerless position. In the same year, he also called for the formation of a separate Macedonian Orthodox Church. During the drafting of the 1946 Yugoslav Constitution, he proposed a right for all the constituent republics of Yugoslavia to secede, which was not accepted. Čento was forced to resign from all positions in March 1946. Bulgarian sources maintain Čento continued to have a Bulgarian identity then, although he planned to use the Macedonian label as a means to achieve the goals of statehood.Влязохме в разговор. Той свободно разкри своите намерения, а именно: "че трябва всички да се включим в новото движение, за да имаме утре право да защитим интересите на Македония. Ние сме българи, но сега под прикритието на "македонци" ще можем да имаме свободно думата при решаването на съдбата на Македония, защото е сигурно, че Германия ще изгуби войната и България ще бъде принудена да напусне нашия край". Коста Църнушанов. Обществено-политическата дейност на Методи Андонов—Ченто (непубликувана статия); сп. Македонски преглед, бр. 3, 2002 г. стр.101-113. According to an interview by his personal secretary at the time, Katerina Nurdzhieva, Čento's idea for the future state was to join Bulgaria.Иван Георгиев, 7 юли, 2015. Катерина Нурджиева пред Топ Преса: Знам кой е убиецът на Гоце.