~32,000 Bulgarian soldiers in Southern Serbia and Vardar Macedonia (May 1941 – September 1944)[6] ~300,000 (Army Group E in October 1944)[7] Uprisings 1942 1943 1944 1945 Central Europe Germany Italy Spain (Spanish Civil War) Albania Austria Baltic states Belgium Bulgaria Burma China Czechia Denmark France Germany Greece Italy Japan Jewish Luxembourg Netherlands Norway Poland Romania Slovakia Spain Soviet Union Yugoslavia Germany Italy Netherlands Portugal Spain Sweden Switzerland United Kingdom United States 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.

[19] 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.

[31] 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.

[32] 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.

He revitalized parts of his old organisation and ordered them to enter Vardar Macedonia and infiltrate the local Bulgarian administration, waiting for an opportunity to take over control and create a pro-German Macedonian state.

The idea for the formation of these units came from Stefan Simeonov, chief of the Police in Skopje district, and former Internal Dobrujan Revolutionary Organisation četnik, and was approved by minister of the interior Petur Gabrovski.

[19][63] Apparently the leaders of BCP were in a deadlock, they didn't want to return the region to Yugoslavia, but at the same time their call for a Balkan Federation and independent Macedonia was suspended by the Comintern and altered with the popular-front tactics.

After the arrest of Lazar Koliševski in November, the new executive body of the Macedonian Regional Committee shared Shatorov's views and close contact were re-established with the BCP.

[73] In September 1942 the envoy of the CC of CPY Dobrivoje Radosavljević succeed in forming a new regional committee loyal to the Yugoslav line under the leadership of Kuzman Josifovski Pitu.

Radosavljevic explained to the CPY leaders that Macedonians (except for those in parts of northern Macedonia who were pro-Serbian) were very afraid of a reintegration in Yugoslavia, even though they "already" despised the "Greater Bulgarian hegemonists" as well.

Thus Radosavljevic suggested focusing the local communist propaganda towards historical references and traditional slogans like the "unification of Macedonia" to gain support from the population.

On the other hand, the BCP's representative in the Macedonian regional committee Boyan Balgaranov, contrary to the CPY's stance of maintaining Yugoslavia, supported the idea of "independent and unified Macedonia".

Furthermore, BCP insisted a Macedonian Communist Party to be formed, in order to keep their influence in the region, the autonomist and essentially pro-Bulgarian policies of Shatorov and Andreev only confirm this possibility.

The first Central Committee (CC of the CPM) was composed of Strahil Gigov, Kuzman Josifovski Pitu, Cvetko Uzunovski, Mara Naceva and Bane Andreev.

The territory of Vardar Macedonia was divided into five operative zones, and efforts were made to make direct contact with the liberation movements in Albania, Bulgaria and Greece.

Svetozar Vukmanović put forward the idea of a joint Balkan Headquarters to exercise supreme control over the partisan movements in Yugoslavia, Albania, Bulgaria, and Greece.

Harsh rule by the occupying forces and a number of Allied victories showing that the Axis might lose the war encouraged more Macedonians to support the Communist Partisan resistance movement of Josip Broz Tito.

In the battle for the village of Sejac, the Vardar Chetnik Corps was totally destroyed, suffering 53 casualties (46 shot by partisans and 7 drowned in the river Pčinja while attempting to flee).

Because of increased partisan activity, the main supply lines for the German Army group "E" stationed in Greece and Albania were constantly ambushed and at the same time, the HQ of the MNOV was making plans to liberate western Macedonia and sent the 1st Macedonian-Kosovo Assault Brigade there.

On 2 August 1944, on the 41st anniversary of the Ilinden Uprising, the first session of the newly created Anti-Fascist Assembly of the National Liberation of Macedonia (ASNOM) was held at the St. Prohor Pčinjski monastery.

The Manifesto of ASNOM eventually became a compromise between the "maximalists" and the "minimalists" – the unification of the Macedonian people was discussed and propagandized but the decision was ultimately reached that Vardar Macedonia would become a part of the new Communist Yugoslavia.

[100] As a result, the Gotse Delchev brigade was set up and equipped in Sofia by the Bulgarian government providing the basis for the deployment of considerable Yugoslav troops in Vardar Macedonia.

On a series of maps from Army Group E, showing its withdrawal through Macedonia and Southern Serbia, as well as in the memoirs of its chief of staff, there is almost no indication of Yugoslav Partisan units, but only Bulgarian divisions.

So even older left-wing politicians, who were at some degree pro-Bulgarian oriented, were purged from their positions, then isolated, arrested and imprisoned on fabricated charges, as foreign agents, demanding greater independence, forming of conspirative political groups and the like.

At the same time sizable part of the local administration, the soldiers recruited in the Bulgarian Army and the police officers stationed in Vardar Macedonia were native from the area.

[157] Yugoslav Macedonian historians have accused the Bulgarian forces of several atrocities, most prominent among which is the massacre of 12 young civilians at the village of Vataša, but the officer commanding the operation was also a local staff.

[164][165] Per German military historian Karl Hnilicka, the Bulgarians developed their advance towards Skopje into a large-scale offensive, which gave rise to the danger for Army Group E of being cut off.

[183] According to the opinion of the former Macedonian Prime Minister Ljubčo Georgievski, these reactions are organized by the post-Yugoslav deep state, and are the result of ignorance, hypocrisy or politicking.

[184] On the other hand, another former Prime Minister Vlado Buckovski, reacted that Macedonians and Bulgarians were a single people, finally separated intentionally by the Yugoslav policy after the WWII.