Independent State of Macedonia
| Independent State of Macedonia Независна република Македонија Независима република Македония |
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| Puppet state of the Axis powers | ||||
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| Capital | Skopje | |||
| Language(s) | Bulgarian | |||
| Political structure | Puppet state (republic) | |||
| Prime Minister ("President of the Administration") | ||||
| - 1944 | Spiro Kitanchev | |||
| Historical era | World War II | |||
| - Established | September 8, 1944 | |||
| - Disestablished | November 13, 1944 | |||
| Currency | Bulgarian lev | |||
The Independent State of Macedonia (Macedonian: Независна република Македонија Bulgarian: Независима република Македония; Nezavisima republika Makedoniya) was a failed project for the creation of a puppet state of the Axis powers in the region of Macedonia in September-October 1944.
Unlike the pro-Yugoslav Communist resistance the right-wing followers of the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization (IMRO) saw the solution of the Macedonian Question in creating a pro-Bulgarian greater Macedonian state. After 1941 their leader Ivan Mihailov settled in the Independent State of Croatia and refused to return to Bulgarian-occupied part of Macedonia. It was apparent also that the Germans kept him as reserve variant in case the relations with Bulgaria might worsen. On 23 August 1944, Romania quit the Axis Powers and declared war on Germany, allowing the Soviet forces to cross its territory to reach Bulgaria. On 5 September 1944, the Soviet Union declared war on Bulgaria and invaded. After the declaration of war by the Soviet Union, the Bulgarian troops in Macedonia surrounded by German forces, began to withdraw back to the old borders of Bulgaria.
At that time Ivan Mihailov arrived in German reoccupied Skopje, where the Wehrmacht hoped that he could form a Macedonian state on the base of former IMRO structures and Ohrana. Meanwhile Mihailov had visited Sofia for negotiations with the Bulgarian government. Contacts were established also with Hristo Tatarchev in Resen. He was offered to became a President of the future state.[1] Negotiations were hold also with the Macedonian partisans through the Bulgarian minister of the Internal Affairs Alexandar Stanishev.[2] On 8 September 1944, the Bulgarians changed sides and joined the Soviet Union in its war against Nazi Germany and on 9 September 1944 the Fatherland Front in Sofia made a coup d'état and deposed the old government.
Seeing that the war was lost to Germany and to avoid further bloodshed, Mihailov refused and set off to Italy.[3] Nevertheless in the anarchy, his supporter and mayor of Skopje, Spiro Kitanchev took up de facto the functions of a Premier. He coordinated the relations between the old, pro-Bulgarian authorities, the Germans Army, the Bulgarian Army and the Yugoslav Partisans during September - October 1944. Within the middle of November the communists took control over Vardar Macedonia.[4]
[edit] References
- ^ Македонската кървава Коледа. Създаване и утвърждаване на Вардарска Македония като Република в Югославска Федерация (1943-1946) Автор: Веселин Ангелов, Издател: ИК "Галик ", ISBN 9548008777, стр. 113 - 115.
- ^ Във и извън Македония - спомени на Пандо Кляшев, стр. 276, Македонска Трибуна.
- ^ Hitler's new disorder: the Second World War in Yugoslavia, Stevan K. Pavlowitch, Columbia University Press, 2008, ISBN 0231700504, pp. 238-240.
- ^ Dr. Ivan Yanev BULGARIA’S FOREIGN POLICY DURING THE SECOND WORLD WAR AS REFLECTED IN BULGARIAN HISTORIC LITERATURE 1938 - 1944 Варна, 2006 Издателство "Литернет" [1]
[edit] See also
- Macedonian Question
- Military history of Bulgaria during World War II
- Axis occupation of Greece during World War II
- Yugoslav Front (World War II)
- History of the Republic of Macedonia
