NATIONAL HEROES OF THE PARTISAN MOVEMENT IN MACEDONIA: FIGURES, CHARACTERISTICS, AND FATES

Abstract

For a comprehensive view of World War II in Yugoslavia, new research and critical readings of old problems related to the history of the partisan movement are necessary. One of these concerns the issue of national heroes, titles and orders that were introduced into partisan units (following the example of the Soviet Union) in the war year of 1942. In the Yugoslav republics, the motives for choosing and the structure of national heroes were different, as were the dynamics of events and the mass scale of the revolution. The party leadership, however, tried not to single out Macedonia from other parts of the Yugoslav federation, so a disproportionately high number of national heroes were proclaimed in this field as well. Statistics, however, call into question some of the constitutive myths of the communist revolution. In Macedonia, a total of 66 national heroes were proclaimed, of which 60 were ethnic Macedonians; This was slightly less than 5% of the total number of national heroes in Yugoslavia. For them, the internal battlefield was crucial, since Macedonian units were not transferred to other major battlefields. This was also reflected in the enemies of the NOP in Macedonia, where 79% of Macedonian heroes died fighting against the Bulgarians. The largest number of national heroes of this republic came from the Pelagonia region, but also from the traditionally Serbophile diagonal Ohrid-Kriva Palanka. The largest number of national heroes from Macedonia was elected only in the 1950s: almost 82%. This also suggests that this title was attributed to the largest number of fighters only later, when, in the midst of the conflict between Yugoslavia and the USSR, the myth of an authentic revolution needed to be strengthened.