Stevan Naumov - Steve - Memorial House

The birthplace of the national hero Stevan Naumov Steve is located on st. “Peco Bozinovski” no. 11 Bitola. For the first time, the museum exhibit was opened on July 4, 1961, on the occasion of the Day of the Fighter, when the building was reconstructed and adapted for this purpose. The object was reconstructed again in 1977 and 2002, and it got its present character with the reconstruction in 2024, which enabled conditions for a new presentation of the character, life and work of Stevan Naumov Steve. The museum setting is placed on a space of about 150m2 on the ground floor and first floor.

Stevan Naumov Stiv is a prominent member of the Macedonian national liberation and communist movement and a participant in the Anti-Fascist War in the Vardar part of Macedonia. He was born on October 27, 1920, in Bitola.
His family originates from the village of Bitusha, Lerinsko, Aegean part of Macedonia.

Stiv’s father, Vasil Naumov, together with his brother Riste, moved to Bitola in 1913, in the house that is today the ” Memorial House of Stiv Naumov”. Vasil and Jana Naumovi had 4 children: Sotir born in 1909, Alexandra born in 1913, Gjorgi born in 1916 and Stevan born in 1920.

Since his early childhood, Stiv has a temperamental character, and he is distinguished by his fairness. He shows an interest in drawing and painting, which is why he becomes a friend with the famous artist Tode Ivanovski, who was also his neighborhood friend. He mostly plays the famous “International” and “Shiroká stráná moya rodnáya” (“Wide is my dear country”) on his violin. Stiv is also a great lover of nature and is a regular visitor to Pelister, hence his interest in creating a herbarium.

After finishing primary school, Stiv enrolled in the Bitola High School where he was an excellent student. Here he joined the advanced and progressive movement against the great serbian denationalizing and exploitative policy, through older students, such as Kuzman Josifoski-Pitu, Mirce Acev, Borka Taleski-Modernoto and others.

After finishing high school in Bitola, he studied at the Technical Faculty in Belgrade, where he was one of the most active members of the Macedonian group of students in the progressive movement, which is why he was accepted as a member of Union of Communist Youth of Yugoslavia and Communist Party of Yugoslavia.

Because of his revolutionary activity in Belgrade, Stiv was arrested and sentenced to 6 months in prison. After being released from prison, already as a “burnt” revolutionary, Stiv continues his activity and immediately joins the student demonstrations and participates in the strike of the workers from the “Rogozarski” factory, which is why he is imprisoned again and immediately expelled from Belgrade.

After returning to Bitola, Steve, with his energy and the revival of several party cells around the city, manages to activate the party organization of the Communist Party of Yugoslavia in Bitola, which is inactive due to a police burglary. Because of that, he was elected as the secretary of the Local Committee of the Communist Party of Yugoslavia. From that position, he develops a lively activity to attract new members, and this is especially evident in the Bitola tobacco processing enterprise known as “Monopol”.

After the April War in 1941 in which the Kingdom of Yugoslavia was defeated by the fascist army of Hitler’s Germany, the territory of Macedonia was occupied by fascist Bulgaria. At that time, Stiv, as the secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Yugoslavia, immediately began to work on collecting weapons, ammunition and other military material, as well as on organizing an armed uprising. He opposes the solution of Metodija Satorov-Sarlo to link the Macedonian party organization to the Communist Party of Bulgaria.

Very early in the occupation period, in July 1941, it became illegal. It designs and organizes the so-called Ilinden demonstration in Bitola on August 2, 1941 through which the Bulgarian fascist occupier tries to present Ilinden as a “Bulgarian” holiday with a celebration at the “At-Pazar” area in Bitola.

He organizes and directs the formation of the Bitola Partisan Detachment “Pelister” in April 1942 whose commander became precisely Stiv’s brother, Gjorgi Naumov.

On May 6, 1942 in Bitola, at the location known as the “Old Medical School”, he kills the Bulgarian police chief Aleksandar Kurkchiev. In June 1942 becomes a member and political commissar of the Operational Headquarters of the National Liberation and Partisan Detachments of Macedonia. He immediately participated in the formation of the Bitola-Prespa Partisan Detachment “Dame Gruev” on July 6, 1942 above the village Zlatari, Resen.

He led the attack of this squad on the police station in the village Kazani, Bitola, on August 18-19, 1942. He died on September 12, 1942 in the village Bolno, together with the national hero Mite Bogoevski.

He was declared a national hero of Yugoslavia on July 29, 1945 as one of the first fighters to receive this award together with Mirce Acev, Orce Nikolov, Straso Pindzur, Hristijan Todorovski-Karposh and Kuzman Josifovski-Pitu.

After the capitulation of Bulgaria on September 9, 1944, the Headquarters of the People’s Liberation Army and the Partisan detachments of Yugoslavia from Macedonia, on October 28, 1944, made a decision to liberate Bitola.

The people’s revolution has been crowned with success, which represents one of the most significant events in the history of Bitola that happened on November 4, 1944 when the units of the People’s Liberation Army and Partisan units of Macedonia triumphantly entered the city.

In addition to the many sacrifices made by the city of Bitola, besides Stiv Naumov, Vangel Todorovski-Majorot, Vangel Necevski-Tunelot, Fana Kocovska-Cvetkovic, Elpida Karamandi, Peco Bozinovski-Koco, Estreja Ovadija-Mara and Vasko Karangeleski were declared national heroes for their great courage.