It has been celebrated as a national holiday since 1945 in then-SR Macedonia as part of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (SFRY).

The celebration of the holiday has been criticized by the Macedonian Patriotic Organization and in Bulgaria, while whether these events were the beginning of an effective uprising, was disputed even in SFR Yugoslavia.

In April 1941, during the Second World War, the Axis powers invaded the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, of which today North Macedonia was part.

[26] After World War II, the Yugoslav Marxist historiography[27][28] adopted the day as the beginning of the Macedonian uprising against fascism.

According to the MPO, the leaders of the so-called "Macedonian state", which has been actually an enslaved Tito's banovina, renounced their native Bulgarian name on October 11.

Mihailov claimed that the Marxists, supported by their pro-Serbian anti-Bulgarian drive, have decided to blind spiritually one million Bulgarians in Macedonia by tampering with their past.

[33] Whether the events that occurred on this date were the beginning of an effective uprising, was disputed even by some circles in Communist Yugoslavia.

[36] Bulgarian journalists and politicians claimed that the holiday is a celebration of hatred against Bulgaria itself, inherited from the times of Yugoslav communism.

[43] One month later, on November 17, 2020, Bulgaria effectively blocked the official beginning of EU accession talks with North Macedonia.

[44] Several days later, in an interview with Bulgarian media, the Macedonian PM Zaev stated that Bulgaria was not a fascist occupier during WWII and that it was later involved in the liberation of present-day North Macedonia, as part of the anti-fascist front.

[47][48] The Macedonian journalist Dejan Azeski has confirmed that Zaev's interview was a political mistake, although it revealed the historical truth.

The Bulgarian military also took part in the liberation of present-day North Macedonia in the autumn of 1944, and these are the most difficult facts to be accepted by the Macedonian society today.