The Socialist Republic of Macedonia (), or SR Macedonia, commonly referred to as Socialist Macedonia, Yugoslav Macedonia or simply Macedonia, was one of the six constituent republics of the post-World War II Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, and a

nation state A nation state, or nation-state, is a political entity in which the State (polity), state (a centralized political organization ruling over a population within a territory) and the nation (a community based on a common identity) are (broadly ...

of the Macedonians. After the transition of the political system to parliamentary democracy in 1990, the Republic changed its official name to Republic of Macedonia in 1991,''On This Day'' – Macedonian Information Agency – MIA
, see: 1991 and with the beginning of the breakup of Yugoslavia, it declared itself an independent

country A country is a distinct part of the world, such as a state, nation, or other political entity. When referring to a specific polity, the term "country" may refer to a sovereign state, state with limited recognition, constituent country, ...

and held a referendum on 8 September 1991 on which a sovereign and independent state of Macedonia, with a right to enter into any alliance with sovereign states of Yugoslavia was approved. Geographically, SR Macedonia bordered Albania to the west,

Greece Greece, officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. Located on the southern tip of the Balkan peninsula, it shares land borders with Albania to the northwest, North Macedonia and Bulgaria to the north, and Turkey to th ...

to the south and

Bulgaria Bulgaria, officially the Republic of Bulgaria, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern portion of the Balkans directly south of the Danube river and west of the Black Sea. Bulgaria is bordered by Greece and Turkey t ...

to the east. Within Yugoslavia, it bordered SR Serbia (including SAP Kosovo) to the north. It was one of the two landlocked federal republics, along with SR Serbia.

Background

The first Macedonian state was formally proclaimed under the name Democratic Federal Macedonia () at the First Plenary Session of the Anti-Fascist Assembly for the People's Liberation of Macedonia (ASNOM) during World War II. It was set up clandestinely on 2 August 1944 in the Bulgarian occupation zone in Yugoslavia (in the Prohor Pčinjski Monastery, now in

Serbia , image_flag = Flag of Serbia.svg , national_motto = , image_coat = Coat of arms of Serbia.svg , national_anthem = () , image_map = , map_caption = Location of Serbia (gree ...

). This date is now celebrated in North Macedonia as the Republic Day. It was chosen intentionally, as it was the date of the Ilinden Uprising against Ottoman rule in 1903. However, after the Bulgarian Army retreated from the region under Soviet pressure, on 8 September, right-wing Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization nationalists declared a pro-German Macedonian puppet-state. In early October, under the leadership of the new Bulgarian pro-Soviet government, the Bulgarian Army re-entered Yugoslavia to block the German forces in their withdrawal from Greece. In Macedonia the Bulgarians fought side-by-side with the fighters of the People's Liberation Army of Macedonia.''War and revolution in Yugoslavia, 1941–1945: occupation and collaboration'', Jozo Tomasevich, Stanford University Press, 2001,
p. 168
Vardar Banovina was ''de facto'' liberated from the Germans and their collaborationists in late November 1944, so the ASNOM became operational in December, shortly after the German retreat. Nevertheless, in December anti-communist Albanian nationalists in Western Macedonia tried to remain in control of the region after the Yugoslav Partisans announced victory. They aimed to resist incorporation of the area into communist Yugoslavia and it was only in early 1945 that the Yugoslav Partisans were able to establish their control over the mountainous area. The nature of the new Yugoslav state remained unclear immediately after the war. Yugoslavia was envisioned by the Partisans as a "Democratic Federation", including six federal states.Ramet, Sabrina P.; ''The Three Yugoslavias: State-building and Legitimation, 1918–2005''; Indiana University Press, 2006 When Tito's nomination as Prime Minister was accepted on 29 November 1945, the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia was declared, with its constitution coming into force in 1946. As a result, Macedonia changed its name to the People's Republic of Macedonia and was incorporated as a constituent republic in the Yugoslav

Federation A federation (also called a federal state) is an entity characterized by a political union, union of partially federated state, self-governing provinces, states, or other regions under a #Federal governments, federal government (federalism) ...

. People with various degrees of allegedly being pro-Bulgarian orientation (in the most cases they were pro-Independence and anti-Yugoslav patriotic Macedonians) were purged from their positions, then isolated, arrested and imprisoned on fabricated charges. In many cases they were executed en masse, such as during the Bloody Christmas of 1945. The number of victims remains unclear, Bulgarian academic sources claim 1,200 people were allegedly killed. Revisionist historian Zoran Todorovski estimated the number of victims during the era as 50,000, including those killed, imprisoned, deported, subject to forced labor, torture, etc. The national Macedonian language was codified in 1945 and the first publishing house "Prosvetno Delo" was established on 16 April 1945. The state was formed on the territory of Vardar Banovina, a part of the wider geographical region of Macedonia, which was divided between several countries. Some Macedonian politicians from the Republic advocated the idea of a United Macedonia, which would include Aegean Macedonia and Pirin Macedonia. The idea was somewhat supported by the federal Yugoslav authorities on some occasions, or repressed, depending on the regional and international political situation. Some people were against the federation and demanded greater independence from the federal authorities, leading to their persecution. One of the notable victims of these purges was the first president, Metodija Andonov-Čento. To wipe out the remnants of Bulgarophile sentiments, the Yugoslavian communists started a process of Macedonization and nation-building.

Constitution

Constitution of the Socialist Republic of Macedonia, 1974 – Official Gazette
The Socialist Republic of Macedonia, which was defined as a nation-state of the Macedonians and also a state of its ethnic minorities, had some powers normally associated with an independent state. The Constitution also recognized the right of

self-determination Self-determination refers to a people's right to form its own political entity, and internal self-determination is the right to representative government with full suffrage. Self-determination is a cardinal principle in modern international la ...

and

secession Secession is the formal withdrawal of a group from a Polity, political entity. The process begins once a group proclaims an act of secession (such as a declaration of independence). A secession attempt might be violent or peaceful, but the goal i ...

. The borders of the Socialist Republic of Macedonia could only be changed by decision of the republic's parliament. Its inhabitants held both Yugoslav citizenship and an internal Macedonian citizenship for state business. The Socialist Republic of Macedonia had its own constitution, presidency,

government A government is the system or group of people governing an organized community, generally a State (polity), state. In the case of its broad associative definition, government normally consists of legislature, executive (government), execu ...

parliament In modern politics and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: Representation (politics), representing the Election#Suffrage, electorate, making laws, and overseeing ...

official language An official language is defined by the Cambridge English Dictionary as, "the language or one of the languages that is accepted by a country's government, is taught in schools, used in the courts of law, etc." Depending on the decree, establishmen ...

, state symbols, Macedonian Academy of Sciences and Arts, ''Secretariat of Internal Affairs'' ( Interior ministry), ''Bureau for Foreign Relations'' (

Ministry of Foreign Affairs In many countries, the ministry of foreign affairs (abbreviated as MFA or MOFA) is the highest government department exclusively or primarily responsible for the state's foreign policy and relations, diplomacy, bilateral, and multilateral r ...

) and other state prerogatives. Also, the Socialist Republic of Macedonia had its own Territorial Defence armed forces ( Macedonian: Територијална одбрана, Teritorijalna odbrana).

System

The Socialist Republic of Macedonia was a one-party communist state, the ruling political party being the League of Communists of Macedonia (in Macedonian: ''Сојуз на Комунистите на Македонија, Sojuz na Komunistite na Makedonija'',

abbreviation An abbreviation () is a shortened form of a word or phrase, by any method including shortening (linguistics), shortening, contraction (grammar), contraction, initialism (which includes acronym), or crasis. An abbreviation may be a shortened for ...

: ''СКМ, SKM''). Being a constituent state of Yugoslavia, a leading founder of the

Non-Aligned Movement The Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) is a forum of 121 countries that Non-belligerent, are not formally aligned with or against any major power bloc. It was founded with the view to advancing interests of developing countries in the context of Cold W ...

, SR Macedonia pursued a neutral foreign policy and maintained a more liberal communist system compared to other communist states. The ruling

ideology An ideology is a set of beliefs or values attributed to a person or group of persons, especially those held for reasons that are not purely about belief in certain knowledge, in which "practical elements are as prominent as theoretical ones". Form ...

was based on Titoism and Workers' self-management (Macedonian: самоуправување, samoupravuvanje).

Minorities

While the Macedonians were the majority and were one of the constituent nations of SFR Yugoslavia (official term: ''narod'') the rights of the ethnic minorities (official term: ''narodnosti'') were guaranteed by the Constitution. The official language of SR Macedonia was Macedonian, however Macedonian Albanians and Macedonian Turks had the right to use their own languages within the school system and the media.Spasov, Ljudmil; Arizankovska, Lidija. ''Hierarhizacija jezikov v Republiki Makedoniji in Republiki Sloveniji glede na jezikovno politiko Evropske unije''
(161. – 169.)
u: Vidovič-Muha, Ada. (ur.) ''Slovenski knjižni jezik – aktualna vprašanja in zgodovinske izkušnje : ob 450-letnici izida prve slovenske knjige'', Zbirka »Obdobja – metode in zvrsti« (vol. 20, ), Center za slovenščino kot drugi/tuji jezik pri Oddelku za slovenistiko Filozofske fakultete Univerze v Ljubljani, Ljubljana, 2003.,
str. 163., 164.
The constitution of the SR Macedonia defined the state as the national state of the ethnic Macedonians, but also as the state of Albanians and Turks. From the start of Yugoslav rule in Macedonia, accusations surfaced that the new authorities were involved in retribution against people who did not support the formation of the new Macedonian national identity. The number of victims due to organized killings of

Bulgarians Bulgarians (, ) are a nation and South Slavs, South Slavic ethnic group native to Bulgaria and its neighbouring region, who share a common Bulgarian ancestry, culture, history and language. They form the majority of the population in Bulgaria, ...

is unclear. Bulgarian sources claim that thousands of people were killed after 1944 and that more than 100,000 people were put in prison under the " Law for the Protection of Macedonian National Honor". In SR Macedonia the ''Bulgarophobia'' increased to the level of State ideology.

Religion

Although the ruling communists discouraged religion, religious freedom was allowed to a certain extent. The authorities allowed the existence of the Macedonian Orthodox Church, which proclaimed autocephaly in 1967. In 1972 the construction of the largest orthodox church '' St. Clement of Ohrid'' in the capital of Skopje began.

Muslims Muslims () are people who adhere to Islam, a Monotheism, monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God ...

, Catholics, Protestants and other religious communities also could maintain their own organisations and places of worship.

Geography

The Socialist Republic of Macedonia was the 4th largest constituent country of SFR Yugoslavia both by area and population. Within Yugoslavia, it had an internal border with the Socialist Republic of Serbia to the north and its subunit the Socialist Autonomous Province of Kosovo to the northwest, and had international borders with the People's Socialist Republic of Albania to the west,

to the south, and the People's Republic of Bulgaria to the east.

History

Transition

In 1990 the form of government peacefully changed from

socialist state A socialist state, socialist republic, or socialist country is a sovereign state constitutionally dedicated to the establishment of socialism. This article is about states that refer to themselves as socialist states, and not specifically ...

to parliamentary democracy. The first pluralist elections were held on 11 November the same year. The once ruling communist party took a reformist direction and renamed itself ''League of Communists of Macedonia – Party for Democratic Change'' led by Petar Gošev. After the head of the last communist presidency Vladimir Mitkov resigned, Kiro Gligorov became the first democratically elected president of the Socialist Republic of Macedonia on 31 January 1991. On 16 April, parliament adopted a constitutional amendment removing " Socialist" from the official name of the entity, and on 7 June the new name Republic of Macedonia was officially established. After the process of dissolution of Yugoslavia began, the Republic of Macedonia issued a Sovereignty Declaration on 25 January 1991Sovereignty Declaration – Parliament of the Republic of Macedonia
/ref> and later proclaimed itself a fully independent country, following a referendum held on 8 September 1991. The Republic of North Macedonia is the legal successor to the Socialist Republic of Macedonia. It was known as the Republic of Macedonia until February 2019 when it underwent an official name change following the Prespa agreement with Greece in June 2018 which resolved a long-standing naming dispute.

Heads of institutions

Presidents of ASNOM

* Metodija Andonov-Čento * Lazar Koliševski

Presidents of Presidency of Parliament

* Lazar Koliševski * Vidoe Smilevski

Presidents of Parliament

* Dimče-Mire Stojanov * Lazar Koliševski * Ljupčo Arsov * Vidoe Smilevski * Mito Hadživasilev * Nikola Minčev

Presidents of Presidency

* Vidoe Smilevski * Ljupčo Arsov * Angel Čemerski * Blagoja Talevski * Tome Bukleski * Vančo Apostolski * Dragoljub Stavrev * Jezdimir Bogdanski * Vladimir Mitkov

Prime Ministers

* Lazar Koliševski (1945–1953) * Ljupčo Arsov (1953–1961) * Aleksandar Grličkov (1961–1965) * Nikola Minčev (1965–1968) * Ksente Bogoev (1968–1974) * Blagoja Popov (1974–1982) * Dragoljub Stavrev (1982–1986) * Gligorije Gogovski (1986–1991)

Notes

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Socialist Republic Of Macedonia * Modern history of Macedonia (region) * Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia Macedonia Macedonia Macedonia 1940s establishments in Yugoslavia 1990s disestablishments in the Republic of Macedonia 1944 establishments in Yugoslavia 1991 disestablishments in Yugoslavia Macedonia