Macedonian Nationalism - Macedonism

Macedonism

"Macedonism" (Macedonian and Serbian: Македонизам, Makedonizam; Bulgarian: Македонизъм, Makedonizam and Greek: Μακεδονισμός, Makedonismós) is a political and historical term used in a polemic sense to refer to a set of ideas perceived as characteristic of aggressive Macedonian nationalism. Before the Balkan Wars Macedonist ideas were shared by a limited circles of intellectuals. They grew in significance during the interbellum, both in Vardar Macedonia and among the left-leaning diaspora in Bulgaria, and were endorsed by the Comintern. During the Second World War this ideas were supported by the Communist Partisans, who founded Yugoslav Macedonian Republic in 1944. Following the WWII Macedonism became the basis of the Yugoslav Macedonia's state ideology, aimed at transforming the Slavic and, to a certain extent, non-Slavic parts of its population into ethnic Macedonians. This state policy is still current in today's Republic of Macedonia, where it was developed in a several directions. One of them maintains the connection of the today ethnic Macedonians with the Ancient Macedon, rather than with the South Slavs, while another have sought to incorporate into the national pantheon the right-wing Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization (IMRO) activists, previously dismissed as Bulgarophiles.

The term is occasionally used in an apologetic sense by some Macedonian authors, but has also faced strong criticism from moderate political views in the Republic of Macedonia and international scholars.