Venko Markovski (Bulgarian and Macedonian: Венко Марковски), born Veniyamin Milanov Toshev (Bulgarian: Вениямин Миланов Тошев, romanized: Veniyamin Milanov Toshev; Macedonian: Вениамин Миланов Тошев, romanized: Veniamin Milanov Tošev; March 5, 1915 – January 7, 1988) was a Bulgarian and Macedonian writer, poet, partisan and Communist politician.

[1] During World War II, in 1941 he was sent as a Communist activist to the concentration camp in Enikyoi by the Bulgarian police.

As he recollected many years later, he tried to include the letter yer (ъ) in the codification of the Macedonian alphabet, this letter was also used in standard Bulgarian orthography to express the mid back unrounded vowel (IPA /ɤ/) (also common in many Macedonian dialects)[citation needed], but its absent from the Serbian alphabet.

However, Blaže Koneski's point of view won, and because of that the letter yer is not present in the Macedonian orthography.

[4] In January 1956, Markovski was once again imprisoned, this time serving a five-year hard labor sentence at the notorious labor camp on the island of Goli Otok in the Adriatic Sea under the name "Veniamin Milanov Toshev" for publishing—what the authorities considered—an anti-Titoist poem "Contemporary Paradoxes" in Serbo-Croatian[5] and for his leanings towards the Soviet Union (see Informbiro).

[1] In his 1981 book Blood is Thicker than Water, he apologized for his participation in SR Macedonia and declared Bulgarian identity.

[11] After North Macedonia's independence, he was rehabilitated and historians there have stated that he had made a major contribution to the Macedonian national cause, despite his pro-Bulgarian views.