Macedonian Partisans

National Liberation Army and Partisan Detachments of Macedonia
The flag of the Macedonian Partisans
Active1941[1] (1943)[2] – 1945
AllegianceCommunist Party of Macedonia
Size1,000 (1941)
8,000 (August 1944)[3][4]
66,000 (late 1944)[5]
up to 100,000 (April 1945)
Part ofDemocratic Federal Yugoslavia Yugoslav Partisans
AnniversariesAugust 18
October 11
EngagementsNational Liberation War of Macedonia
(part of World War II in Yugoslavia)
Commanders
Notable
commanders
Mirče Acev  
Mihajlo Apostolski
Metodija Andonov-Čento
Svetozar Vukmanović-Tempo

The Macedonian Partisans,[a] officially the National Liberation Army and Partisan Detachments of Macedonia,[b] was a communist and anti-fascist resistance movement formed in occupied Yugoslavia which was active in World War II in Yugoslav Macedonia. Units of the army were formed by Macedonians within the framework of the Yugoslav Partisans as well as other communist resistance organisations operating in Macedonia at the time[6] and were led by the General Staff of the National Liberation Army and Partisan Detachments of Macedonia, headed by Mihajlo Apostolski.[7]

Partisans of Stiv Naumov Battalion, set up in November 1943 in Gorna Prespa.
Formation of the 51st Division in Shirok Dol, October 1944.
  1. ^ "Вчера и денес: Македонија" Јован Павловски, Мишел Павловски. Скопје, 2000.
  2. ^ The Bulgarian occupation forces in the Yugoslav part of Macedonia were received as liberators and pro-Bulgarian feeling ran high in the early stages of the occupation. Neither the Communists’ 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 (Communists), with the slogan “One state, one party”. The subsequent dissatisfaction with the occupation authorities was due to social factors (high-handedness, heavy taxation, contempt for local sensitivities) rather than national ones. This was also why Tito’s resistance movement in Yugoslav Macedonia failed to develop till 1943. For more see: Sfetas, Spyridon. “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 35, no. 2 (1995): 297–317. (299)
  3. ^ Lee Miller 1975, p. 202.
  4. ^ Poulton 2000, p. 104.
  5. ^ Rossos & Evans 1991, p. 304.
  6. ^ Trifunovska 1994, p. 209.
  7. ^ Ministry of Defense of North Macedonia.


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