World War II in Yugoslav Macedonia
World War II in Yugoslav Macedonia started with the Axis invasion of Yugoslavia in April 1941. Under the pressure of the Yugoslav Partisan movement, part of the Macedonian communists began in October 1941 a political and military campaign to resist the occupation of Vardar Macedonia. Officially, the area was called then Vardar Banovina, because the use of very name Macedonia was avoided in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. Most of its territory was occupied by Bulgaria, while its westernmost part was ceded to Albania, both aided by German and Italian troops. Initially, there was no organised resistance in the region because the majority of the Macedonian Slavs nurtured strong pro-Bulgarian sentiments, although this was an effect from the previous repressive
Kingdom of Yugoslavia rule which had negative impact on the majority of the population. Even the local Communists, separated from the Yugoslav and joined the Bulgarian Communist Party. However, even those Macedonians who felt that they were Bulgarians soon discovered that the Bulgarians from Bulgaria were suspicious of them and considered them "backward Bulgarians" or second-class Bulgarians. In fact, Bulgarian authorities began a process of oppressive Bulgarianization as they realised that only part of the Macedonian population felt Bulgarian or was pro-Bulgarian. The occupation troops acted just as viciously and arrogantly toward the local population as did the officials. Thus, they soon became an object of disgust from the population, especially the great majority that felt themselves Macedonians developed strong resentment towards the Bulgarian regime as it acted the same way as the Serbian one before.
The wartime national chauvinism and suffering backlash generated sizable support for the Communist Partisans, whose power started to grow only in 1943 with the capitulation of Italy and the Soviet victories over Nazi Germany, which turned the tide in the war and the partisans actions became more successful. The role of the Bulgarian communists, who avoided organizing mass armed resistance, was also a key factor, their influence over the Macedonian Committee remained dominant until 1943. Another key factor was the main goal of the Yugoslav Partisans which could not inspire and attract Macedonians who saw it as a reestablishment of Yugoslavia and the Serbian rule. This changed, when in the beginning of 1943, Tito's special emissary Svetozar Vukmanović arrived in Macedonia. Vukmanović had to activate the struggle and give a Macedonian "facade" to the form and content, as well as to the aims and aspirations of it in order to secure mass participation of Macedonians. He was supposed to set up a Macedonian Communist Party within the framework of the Yugoslav one, which would include only activists loyal to the Yugoslav agenda. They formed in 1943 the People's Liberation Army of Macedonia and the Macedonian Communist Party in the western part of the area, where the Albanian Partisans also participated in the resistance movement. The Macedonian Communist Party would lead the effort, not for the restoration of the old Yugoslavia, but above all for the liberation and unification of Macedonia and a new federal union of Yugoslav peoples with an extension of its prewar territory. This appeal attracted more and more young people to the armed resistance. All of the previous led to the rise of an younger anti-Bulgarian oriented generation of partisan leaders, who were loyal to Yugoslavia.
After Bulgaria switched sides in the war in September 1944, the Bulgarian 5th. Army stationed in Macedonia, moved back to the old borders of Bulgaria. In the early October the newly formed Bulgarian People's Army together with the Red Army reentered occupied Yugoslavia to blocking the German forces withdrawing from Greece. Yugoslav Macedonia was liberated in the end of November.
The communist resistance is called by the Macedonian historiography the National Liberation Struggle. Some of the combatants also developed aspirations for independence of the region of Macedonia, but were suppressed at the end of the war by the communist authorities. It marked the defeat of Bulgarian nationalism and the victory of the pro-Yugoslav Macedonian nationalism in the area. As result the new Communist authorities persecuted the former collaborationists with the charges of "Great Bulgarian chauvinism" and cracked down on pro-Bulgarian organisations that supported ideas of Greater Bulgaria and those which opposed the Yugoslav idea and insisted on Macedonian independence.
Background
The Balkan Wars in 1912 and 1913, and the World War I divided the region of Macedonia amongst the Kingdom of Greece, the Kingdom of Bulgaria and the Kingdom of Serbia. The territory was up until that time part of the Ottoman Empire. In those days, most of the minority Ottoman Macedonias' Slavic intelligentsia who had developed some sense of national consciousness considered themselves to be a part of the Bulgarian community. Although the affiliation of most Macedonian Slavs to different national camps was purely superficial and not ethnic, but rather political and flexible option imposed by the nationalist educational and religious propaganda or by terrorism.From 1912 until 1915 the territory of Vardar Macedonia remained within the territory of Serbia. In the parts administered by Serbia the new authorities forced out most of the Bulgarian Exarchist priests and teachers, and began implementing a forceful state-sponsored Serbianisation of Slavic-speaking Macedonians. It was occupied by Kingdom of Bulgaria during World War I between 1915 and 1918. Afterwards it was restored back to Serbia and consequently included as part of the Vardar Banovina in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. During that period, there were two main autonomist agendas.
The right-wing Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization led by Ivan Mihailov, was in favor of the creation of a pro-Bulgarian Macedonian state under German and Italian protection. By 1928, Mihailov proposed a new plan calling for unification of Macedonia region into a single state, that would be independent from Bulgaria but with prevailing ethnic Bulgarian population. However the new state would to be supranational and cantonized, something as "Switzerland on the Balkans". Nevertheless, this IMRO continued to support Bulgarian irredentism until it was dissolved in the mid of 1930s.
The leftist IMRO who was sponsored directly by the Comintern favored a creation of an independent and unified Macedonia within a Balkan Federation with a separate Macedonian nation and Macedonian language. This idea was backed up in 1934 by the resolution of the Comintern on the Macedonian question. This option was supported by Pavel Shatev, Dimitar Vlahov, Metodi Shatorov, Panko Brashnarov, and others. However, such Macedonian activists, who came from IMRO never managed to get rid of their pro-Bulgarian bias. After the organization was dissolved in the mid of 1930s, most of the members ended up joining the Bulgarian Communist Party.
During the interwar period in Vardar Macedonia, a separate Macedonian national consciousness was growing.
The government and its widespread massive Serbianisation campaign was unsuccessful in trying to eliminate the traces of an emerging Macedonian national consciousness among the local population. The failed assimilation of the region was due to Serb policies that were exploitative and colonial and not directed toward integration. Funds were controlled from Belgrade and the economy was geared toward resource extraction whose raw materials were bought by the government at low prices it determined for itself. The state controlled the local tobacco monopoly and acquired a steady and sizable amount of revenue without investing much in return to raise the living standards of the inhabitants. The government in Belgrade or the wider administration showed little concern toward conditions within the region. A high rate of turnover existed among ministers and officials who mainly showed up prior to elections or to advance their own career and often staff in the local administration from other parts of the country were incompetent and corrupt. Locals were excluded from involvement in the sociopolitical system, suppression of elites occurred and state security forces instilled an environment of fear among inhabitants. New arrivals of Serb colonists to the region were favoured over the local population regarding state employment, loans and agricultural reform and both groups continued to be separate from each other.
Nevertheless, the existence of considerable Macedonian national consciousness prior to the middle of the 1940s is disputed. At the beginning of the occupation anti-Serbian and pro-Bulgarian feelings among the local population prevailed.
Occupation of Macedonia
Invasion of Yugoslavia
Fearing an invasion by the Axis powers, Regent Prince Paul of Yugoslavia signed the Tripartite Pact on 25 March 1941, pledging cooperation with the Axis.On 27 March, the regime of Prince Paul was overthrown by a military coup d'état with British support. The 17-year-old Peter II of Yugoslavia was declared to be of age and placed in power. General Dušan Simović became his Prime Minister. The Kingdom of Yugoslavia withdrew its support for the Axis de facto without formally renouncing the Pact. On 6 April 1941, the German armed forces, along with the armed forces of Italy and Hungary, launched the invasion of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia and quickly conquered it. The country was subsequently divided between the Germans, Italians, Hungarians and Bulgarians, who took most of Macedonia. When the Bulgarians entered Yugoslav Macedonia, the people greeted them with high enthusiasm. Crowds in Skopje flew banners that greeted the unification of Macedonia and Bulgaria. The warm welcome was largely an effect of the almost three decades long, suffering and despised Serbian dominance.