The “Serbian Idea”

In Ottoman Macedonia, Stojan Novaković who was a Serbian politician, encouraged a separate Slavic Macedonian identity to counter the strong Bulgarian influence, to separate the local population from the rest of the Bulgarians, and to instill the "Serbian idea"

The region of present-day North Macedonia until 1912 was part of the Ottoman Empire. According to Encyclopædia Britannica 1911 Edition, at the beginning of the 20th century the Slavs constituted the majority of the population in Macedonia.

Per Britannica itself the bulk of the Slavs there were regarded as "Bulgarians".

Serbianising directly the local Slavic population through propaganda and education was difficult due to strong Bulgarian sentiments at the time in the region.

The spread and promotion of Serbian Macedonianism was seen by Serbs as the first move toward eventually Serbianing the Macedonians.

Yugoslavia aimed to incorporate Macedonia through "assimilation" and "nationalisation" through two main goals.

Firstly, to legitimate its control, the state based its claims to Macedonia as an inheritance of the medieval monarch Stefan Dušan or as a promised land given by God to the Serb people.

Secondly, the state used the modernist idea of the nation and spread it through schools. Both processes merged as myths, people, symbols and dates originating from Serbian history were also used in the endeavour.

As a counteraction to Serb efforts the paramilitary IMRO began sending armed bands into Yugoslav Macedonia to assassinate officials and stir up the spirit of the locals. After 1923 the IMRO had de facto full control of Bulgarian Macedonia and acted as a "state within a state".

It used Bulgaria as a base for terrorist attacks against Yugoslavia with the unofficial agreement of the right-wing governments.

In 1930s a more homogeneous generation was growing up in Vardar Macedonia, which resisted Serbianisation and increasingly identified itself as Macedonian, but which also made it clear that Bulgarian idea was no more the only option for them.

The government and its widespread massive Serbianisation campaign was unsuccessful in trying to eliminate the traces of an emerging Macedonian national consciousness among the local population.

The failed assimilation of the region was due to Serb policies that were exploitative and colonial and not directed toward integration.

Decision about the Macedonian Alphabet 1 May 1945. Note it is written on Bulgarian typewriter using Й and there are hand-written Ѕ, Ј and Џ, and diacritics added to create Ѓ and Ќ.

The rejection of the Ъ, together with the adoption of Ј, Џ, Љ and Њ, led some authors to consider it to be "Serbianization".

After WWII Marshal Tito formed out SR Macedonia of a part of 1929–1941 Vardar Banovina, and encouraged the development of Macedonian identity and Macedonian as a separate South Slavic language. https://books.google.com/books?id=IGeJzd6BLU4C&pg=PA43#v=onepage&q&f=false

Yugoslav Communists recognized the existence of a separate Macedonian nation to quiet the fears of the Slavic population that a new Yugoslavia would continue to follow the policies of forced serbianization.

For the Yugoslav authorities to recognize the local Slavs as Bulgarians would be to admit, they should be part of Bulgaria.

In fact, the recognition of the Macedonian language and nation aimed to de-bulgarize the local population and to create a national consciousness that would support the identification with Yugoslavia.

As result, persons continuing to declare Bulgarian identity were again imprisoned or went into exile, and so Vardar Macedonia was finally de-bulgarised.

Macedonian became a “first” official language in the newly proclaimed SR Macedonia, where Serbian was declared as “second” language, while Bulgarian was prohibited.

For Bulgarians, Macedonian nationalism represents the result of the Serbification process in the region.