the Bulgarian Students Association and the Secret Macedonian-Adrianople Circle. Misirkov wrote about that part of his life in the article "School and socialism" "– In 1897 I went to Petrograd University and for five years was among the Bulgarian studentship as Bulgarian and member of the Bulgarian Student Society." Misirkov carried out here his first scholarly lecture on the ethnography and history of the Balkan Peninsula before the members of the Russian Imperial Geographical Society. On November 15, 1900, Misirkov, who was a third year student in the Faculty of History and Philosophy at the time, along with other students in Russia created a students circle in Saint Petersburg. The main objective of the circle was political autonomy of the populations of Macedonia and Thrace, declared by IMRO, and implemented and guaranteed by the Great Powers. In a letter sent to the President of the Supreme Macedonian-Adrianople Committee on 28 November of the same year, the founders of the circle stated that, "there's no Bulgarian who is not interested in the situation and fate of that part of our homeland, which continue to groan under the yoke of the tyrant." At that time, Misirkov considered the Slavic peoples of Macedonia and Thrace as Bulgarian. Later Misirkov abandoned the university and left for Ottoman Macedonia. Returning to the Ottoman Macedonia Facing financial obstacles to continue his postgraduate education, he accepted the proposal of the Bulgarian Exarchate to be appointed teacher in one of the high schools in Bitola. There he befriended the Russian consul in Bitola. He began to plan opening of local schools and publishing textbooks in Macedonian, but the Ilinden Uprising in 1903 and the assassination of the Russian Consul changed his plans and he soon returned to Russia. In Russia, Misirkov published different articles about the Ilinden Uprising and the justifications and causes as to why the Consul was assassinated. Soon afterwards, he wrote the brochure, "The Macedonian Matters" and published it in Sofia. This book, was written in the Central Macedonian dialect, and Misirkov attacked in his writings, the Bulgarian Exarchate, the Ilinden Uprising and the Internal Macedonian-Adrianople Revolutionary Organization (IMRO) as Bulgarian creations. As result, he was persecuted by IMRO, and it is believed that its members destroyed a sizable amount of copies of his book. Furthermore, he recounts that Dame Gruev, Gotse Delchev, Boris Sarafov and other IMRO members were persecuted by Bulgarian and Ottoman