Miladinov brothers
The Miladinov Brothers (Братя Миладинови, Браќа Миладиновци), Dimitar Miladinov (1810-1862) and Konstantin Miladinov (1830-1862), were Bulgarian/Macedonian poets and folklorists, authors of the most important collection of Bulgarian folk songs in the 19th century, Bulgarian Folk Songs (1861). The collection includes a total of 665 songs and 23,559 verses.
Although the Miladinov Brothers always called the language in which they wrote Bulgarian, since the establishment of the Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia they have been regarded by nationalist linguists as Macedonian Slavs fighting for the development of the Macedonian language. Bulgarian Folk Songs has been re-issued in the Republic of Macedonia under an edited name, Collection; the references to Macedonia in the foreword as "Western Bulgaria" have been erased, and other references to "Bulgaria" and "Bulgarian language" have been replaced with "Macedonia" and "Macedonian language."
In the 1980s, the original edition of the book was subjected to systematic acts of vandalism in Western libraries, often carried by Yugoslav expatriates and usually resulting in the tearing of the front cover. For this reason, the book may be borrowed only as a photocopy nowadays.
Text of the front cover
"Bulgarian Folk Songs collected by the Miladinov Brothers Dimitar and Konstantin and published by Konstantin in Zagreb at the printing house of A. Jakic, 1861"