Carevna Miladinova-Aleksieva was born in Struga in 1856, among the famous Miladinovi family (her father was the revivalist Dimitar Miladinov, and her first teacher was Georgi Ikonomov ‒ father’s pupil and husband of her sister, the teacher Milica Dimitrova Ikonomova). She continued her education in Russia, thanks to the Russian consul in Bitola, Mikhail Hitrovo, who visited Struga in 1864 (including the Miladinov’s house) to check on Macedonians’ complaints against Greek bishop Meletius. She left for Kiev in 1966 and completed the Fundukley’ Classical Gymnasium (the first women’s gymnasium in Kiev and the first in the Russian Empire).
After finishing high school, Miladinova left for Bulgaria, where she taught at the Shumen women’s school (1874‒1880) and was a president of the Women’s association “Rodoljubie” in Shumen; as well as she taught in the female schools in Etropole (1881) and in Svishtov (1882). Later, Miladinova left for Macedonia and became one of the founders of the Salonika’s women’s high school “St. Annunciation”, which she headed as a principal (1883‒1884) and where she served as assistant principal and teacher (1884‒1888). She also organized a women’s school in Prilep, at the request of the Prilep church community (1889‒1891 was a principal), and later she founded an Exarchate school in Salonika. After the end of the Balkan wars in 1913, she was expelled from Salonika by the Greek authorities, after which she permanently moved to Sofia (Bulgaria) and died there in 1934.
Carevna Miladinova-Aleksieva was prominent in her life as a pedagogue and publicist. Due to the fact that women authors of travelogues were rare in this period, we emphasize her travel notes, which refer to the 19th century but were printed in the early 20th century. In the travel notes she described her traveling from Struga to Kiev and vice versa, in which descriptions of nature and cities, as well as people and customs, can be found. Her travel notes, together with some texts and letters, have been published later in the book titled Epoha, zemi҇a i hora (Sofia, 1939), after her death. She was also the author of several legal acts for schools, such as: The Rulebook for 4 Class Schools in Macedonia and the Odrin Vilayet, as well as The Rulebook for Female Schools (prepared for the school year 1890/91 in Prilep). As a publicist, she has appeared in the Zornica and Mir newspapers, and parts of her memories were published in some periodicals (Makedonii҇a, Zora, Makedonski pregled, Obzor etc.).
Photo: Carevna Miladinova-Aleksieva (Source: Carevna Miladinova-Aleksieva, Epoha, zemi҇a hora, Sofi҇a, 1939).
Author: Biljana Ristovska-Josifovska