Otpretani svedoshtva ‘Torn testimonies’: Soldier’s letters from the Great War 1914 – 1918 – a monograph, a documentary collection volume or something else?

The publication is a critical review of the book „Отпретани све- доштва. Воjнички писма од Големата воjна 1914 – 1918“ [Torn Testimonies. Soldier’s letters from the Great War 1914 – 1918], published in Skopje, 2008. 

The analysis carried out shows that it is not a monograph, as claimed by the team that worked on it, but it cannot be accepted as a scientific documentary collection either. It has been argued that the subtitle “soldier letters from the Great War 1914 – 1918” is scientifically unsustainable and does not correspond to the chronological scope and content of a significant part of the documents contained in the presented documentary collection. 

The paper reflects a number of weaknesses, inaccuracies, misread texts; the non-scientific understanding of what a document is, adopted by the publishing team, as well as the distorted anti-Bulgarian interpretation of the very first published document. Reasonable suspicion of manipulative selection was also expressed – due to lack of information – on 12 documents from the presented collection. In conclusion, it is stated that the book can be perceived as a non-scientific propaganda publication with an anti-Bulgarian bias. 

Keywords: First World War; document; solder’s letters; monograph; documentary collection volume; author; addressee, propaganda publication.