Day of the Macedonian Uprising is a public holiday in North Macedonia, commemorating the beginning of the National Liberation Struggle against fascism during World War II in Yugoslav Macedonia, on October 11, 1941.
According to the Yugoslav Marxist historiography and the Macedonian historiography, the Macedonian uprising against fascism began on this day in 1941, lasting until late 1944. It has been celebrated as a national holiday since 1945 in then-SR Macedonia as part of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (SFRY).
Although this event was proclaimed a historical turning-point in Macedonian history, its results were unfavourable.By this time, the first Macedonian partisan detachments, at Kumanovo and Prilep, had been formed under the leadership of Kolishevski’s committee. On 11 October the detachments first clashed with the occupation forces—the date is now regarded by Yugoslav Communists as a ‘historic turning-point’ in Macedonian history. The results were, however, disastrous. For more see: Elisabeth Barker, Macedonia. Its place in Balkan power politics, Greenwood Press Publishers, Westport, Connecticut 1980, p. 90. The celebration of the holiday has been criticised by the Macedonian Patriotic Organization and in Bulgaria as inciting artificial hatred against Bulgarians.
Historical background
In April 1941, during the Second World War, the Axis powers invaded the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, of which today North Macedonia was part. It encompassed most of the so-called Vardar Banovina,F. Rothenbacher, The Central and East European Population since 1850, Societies of Europe; Springer, 2016, , p. 626. because the very name Macedonia was prohibited in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia.Donald Bloxham, The Final Solution: A Genocide, OUP Oxford, 2009, , p. 65.Chris Kostov, Contested Ethnic Identity: The Case of Macedonian Immigrants in Toronto, Peter Lang, 2010, , p. 76. When Bulgarian Army entered Vardar Banovina in April 1941, the Bulgarian soldiers were greeted by the locals as liberators, while pro-Bulgarian and anti-Serbian feelings among them prevailed as a result of the previous suffering Serbianisation."Who are the Macedonians?" Hugh Poulton, Hurst & Co. Publishers, 1995, , pp. 101-102. Despite this welcome, the Macedonians did not wish to become "fully fledged Bulgarians and annexed by Bulgaria, as Sofia assumed at the time". After the Bulgarian takeover the local communists fell in the sphere of influence of the Bulgarian Communist Party. Although they defined the Bulgarian forces as bourgeois-fascist, they tended not to see them as foreign occupiers. Initially, there was no organized resistance in the area,"The Bulgarian occupation forces in the Serbian part of Macedonia were received as liberators and pro-Bulgarian feeling ran high in the early stages of the occupation. Neither the Communist position regarding a separate Macedonian nation nor the idea of a Yugoslav federation met with much response from the Slav population, which nurtured pro-Bulgarian sentiments. The local Communists, led by M. Satorov, splintered off from the Communist Party of Yugoslavia and joined the Bulgarian Labour Party (which was Communist), with the slogan "One state, one party". The subsequent dissatisfaction with the occupation authorities was due to social factors, rather than national ones. This was also why Tito's resistance movement in Yugoslav Macedonia failed to develop." For more see: Spyridon Sfetas, Autonomist Movements of the Slavophones in 1944: The Attitude of the Communist Party of Greece and the Protection of the Greek-Yugoslav Border. Balkan Studies 1995; 36 (2): pp. 297-317. however resentment towards the Bulgarian regime began within months of the occupation as result of the oppressive Bulgarianisation and centralisation policy. The Macedonian Slavs were regarded by the authorities then as Bulgarians, and it is questionable to which extent they had any nationality."It seemed, however, that there was no contradiction between British political considerations and their actual views on the nationality of the Macedonians. For the Foreign Office, the Macedonians had no national affiliations whatsoever, nor would they be able to choose one, even if asked to do so. 'The majority of the Slavs do not care to what nationality they belong', read a memorandum of 1925, adding that 'it is incorrect to refer to them as other than Macedo-Slavs. To this extent both the Serbian claim that they are Southern Serbs and the Bulgar claim that they are Bulgars are unjustified'." For more see: The Macedonian Question: Britain and the Southern Balkans 1939-1949, Dimitris Livanios, edition: Oxford University Press, US, 2008, , p. 65.As David Fromkin (1993, p. 71) confirms: “even as late as 1945, Slavic Macedonia had no national identity of its own." Nikolaos Zahariadis (2005) Essence of Political Manipulation: Emotion, Institutions, & Greek Foreign Policy, Peter Lang, p. 85, ."All of the rest - those who considered themselves Serbs or Turks or Albanians, and especially the great majority who considered themselves Macedonians - resisted the new policies and remained passive. The latter in particular saw no difference between the wartime Bulgarian regime and the interwar Yugoslav (in fact Serbian) government: both denied them their nationality, their language, political autonomy and free development as a national unit." For more see: Jozo Tomasevich (2002). War and Revolution in Yugoslavia 1941–1945, Stanford University Press, , pp.163–165."At the end of the World War I there were very few historians or ethnographers, who claimed that a separate Macedonian nation existed... Of those Macedonian Slavs who had developed then some sense of national identity, the majority probably considered themselves to be Bulgarians, although they were aware of differences between themselves and the inhabitants of Bulgaria... The question as of whether a Macedonian nation actually existed in the 1940s when a Communist Yugoslavia decided to recognize one is difficult to answer. Some observers argue that even at this time it was doubtful whether the Slavs from Macedonia considered themselves to be a nationality separate from the Bulgarians." The Macedonian conflict: ethnic nationalism in a transnational world, Loring M. Danforth, Princeton University Press, 1997, , pp. 65–66."Most of the Slavophone inhabitants in all parts of divided Macedonia, perhaps a million and a half in all – had a Bulgarian national consciousness at the beginning of the Occupation; and most Bulgarians, whether they supported the Communists, VMRO, or the collaborating government, assumed that all Macedonia would fall to Bulgaria after the WWII. Tito was determined that this should not happen. The first Congress of AVNOJ in November 1942 had parented equal rights to all the 'peoples of Yugoslavia', and specified the Macedonians among them."The struggle for Greece, 1941–1949, Christopher Montague Woodhouse, C. Hurst & Co. Publishers, 2002, , p. 67."Yugoslav Communists recognized the existence of a Macedonian nationality during WWII to quiet fears of the Macedonian population that a communist Yugoslavia would continue to follow the former Yugoslav policy of forced Serbianization. Hence, for them to recognize the inhabitants of Macedonia as Bulgarians would be tantamount to admitting that they should be part of the Bulgarian state. For that the Yugoslav Communists were most anxious to mold Macedonian history to fit their conception of Macedonian consciousness. The treatment of Macedonian history in Communist Yugoslavia had the same primary goal as the creation of the Macedonian language: to de-Bulgarize the Macedonian Slavs and to create a separate national consciousness that would inspire identification with Yugoslavia." For more see: Stephen E. Palmer, Robert R. King, Yugoslav communism and the Macedonian question, Archon Books, 1971, , Chapter 9: The encouragement of Macedonian culture."No doubt, the vast majority of the Macedonian peasants, being neither communists nor members of IMRO (United), had not been previously affected by Macedonian national ideology. The British officials who attempted to tackle this issue in the 1940s noted the pro-Bulgarian sentiment of many peasants and pointed out that Macedonian nationhood rested ‘on rather shaky historical and philological foundations’ and, therefore, had to be constructed by the Macedonian leadership." Livanios, D. (2008), The Macedonian Question: Britain and the Southern Balkans 1939–1949.: Oxford University Press, , p. 206.
On October 11, 1941, a group of Macedonian Partisans attacked several Bulgarian administration's objects in Prilep. These were 16 men,Љубен Георгиевски - Љупта, „Тарцан: монографија за Трајко Бошкоски-Тарцан–Илинденски“, Скопје, 1994, 200 стр. who in the evening, divided into three groups, attacked as follows: the first group - the police station, the second - the prison, and the third group eavesdropped on the telephone conversations, through a device connected to the telephone line, near the police precinct. Making a quick and surprise attack around 10p.m, they opened fire on the post guard and the precinct. As a result of the attack, the watchman, who was a local staff, was killed,Македонизмът и съпротивата на Македония срещу него, Кост. Църнушанов, Унив. изд. "Св. Климент Охридски", София, 1992 г. стр. 206. and another policeman was wounded. The attackers then ran away. Immediately after the end of the attack, the town was blocked for a search for them.Поверителна информация на областния полицейски началник в Битоля до директора на полицията в София за организационни, политически, обществени и др. прояви, за противодействие срещу чуждестранни пропаганди и разузнавания за периода май – декември 1941 г. Българското управление във Вардарска Македония (1941 – 1944) – Документален сборник (63). 1941-03-08. с. 184.