ABOUT

The village of Rudari had its name changed by the Greek government to Kalitea. It is a part of the Lerin region and is about 28 kilometres west of the town. It is on the ridge of the German Mountain in Prespa at 21 degrees 09 minutes longitude and 40 degrees 48 minutes latitude and 1,200 metres above sea level. It is about 14 kilometres squared in area.

The village borders to the northwest with the village Shtrkovo, to the southwest with P'pli, to the east with the Bela Voda Mountain and to the west with the Mala Prespa Lake.

Before the start of the Greek Civil War about 380 Macedonian residents lived in the village. They were employed in agriculture and raising livestock.

During the Greek Civil War in 1946-49, the residents actively took part in the organization of NOF and the armed forces of DAG with more than 90 active fighters. 31 gave their lives.

They were

1. Angelovski, Spiro
2. Begalchev, Mijal
3. Begalchev, Eftim
4. Bliznakov, Traiko
5. Bogoevski, Naum
6. Georgievski, Risto
7. Georgievski, Vasil
8. Georgievski, Nikola
9. Gerovski, Joshe
10. Gerovski, Vangel - two brothers
11. Dimovski, Petre
12. Dimovski, Vangel
13. Kalev, Risto
14. Kalev, Stavre
15. Karaulovsk,i Goche
16. Karafilovski, Pavle or Kosta
17. Kostovski, Kostadin
18. Kostovski, Goche
19. Mihajlovski, Pando
20. Mihajlovski, Jane - two brothers
21. Filipov, Vasil
22. Filipov, Mitre
23. Foteva, (UNK - daughter of Lazo)
24. Fotevski, Spiro
25. Fotevski, Pavle
26. Fotevski, Joshe - three brothers
27. Hristovski, Ilija
28. Hristovski, Fote
29. Hristovski, Dimitar
30. Hristovski, Jani and
31. Hristovski, Vangel - two brothers

The details of the fallen fighters were obtained from Hristovski Kosta from the same village.

Of the fighters who gave their young lives there were 30 men and one woman.

After the Greek Civil War and emigration from and forced migration to the village, the number of residents fell significantly. The 1991 census in Greece recorded 177 residents in the village.

FAMILY NAMES

Here is a list of family names which at one point lived in Rudari (although it is NEVER complete).

In the first column is the original Macedonian version of the name. In many cases individuals and families that have emigrated to other countries have had their names 'localized' to the local language (in Australia/Canada/USA they have been shorted - Ivanov to Evans, Branov to Brown). In the European countries they have adjusted to include "-ski" or "-sky" (examples are Popovski from Popov, Mangovsky from Mangos).

In the second column is how it would be written in Macedonian (NOTE: you will need to have the "MAC C Times" Truetype font installed on your system to properly read it. For more information on how to get this done please visit Biser Balkanski - How To Install Macedonian fonts on your computer .

The third column is the Hellenized (ie. "Greek") version assigned by the Greek government in the years which followed the Treaty of Bucharest in 1913. In a majority of the cases the changes did not appear until after 1920. In many cases as with the village names, an attempt was made to spell the last names in the Greek alphabet sound-for-sound but it was later decided to make them sound more "Greek" (examples were "Dimov" to "Dimopoulos", "Iliev" to "Iliadis").

For those unaware, the Treaty of Bucharest "divided the spoils" of Macedonia amongst the three neighbouring countries - Bulgaria, Greece, and Serbia. Amongst the worst of what was to follow happened in Greece - family names were given "Greek" versions, village names were renamed, churches were re-Christened under Greek saints, tombstones and epitaphs along with any visible signs of the Macedonian language were erased and re-written in Greek.

POPULATION

HISTORY

LINKS

• Google maps - Rudari
• Who Murdered Sterio From Rudari?
• Wikipedia - Rudari, Kostursko

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