Vardar Macedonia was the name given to the territory of the Kingdom of Serbia (1912–1918) and Kingdom of Yugoslavia (1918–1941) roughly corresponding to today's North Macedonia. It covers the northwestern part of geographical Macedonia, whose modern borders came to be defined by the mid-19th century.
Pitu Guli was an Aromanian revolutionary in Ottoman Macedonia, a local leader of what is commonly referred to as the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization (IMRO). Nevertheless, Pitu Guli and his family were Bulgarophiles.
Vlado Chernozemski, was a Bulgarian revolutionary. Also known as "Vlado the Chauffeur", Chernozemski is considered a hero in Bulgaria today, and in his time, in Croat dissident circles and in the Macedonian Bulgarian diaspora. His contribution to the idea of Independent Macedonia has also won him a similar status in some Macedonian circles today, but the official historiography in North Macedonia still regards him a controversial Bulgarian.
Kosta Apostolov Solev, primarily known as poet Kočo Racin, was a Macedonian author and socialist activist who is considered a founder of modern Macedonian literature. Racin wrote in prose too and created some significant works with themes from history, philosophy, and literary critique. While he wrote also in standard Bulgarian language and had some clearly pro-Bulgarian views, he is regarded also a Bulgarian by some authors in Bulgaria.
Dimitrija Čupovski was a Macedonian textbook writer and lexicographer.
Blaže Koneski was a Macedonian poet, writer, literary translator, and linguistic scholar.
Metodija Andonov-Čento was a Macedonian statesman, the first president of the Anti-Fascist Assembly of the National Liberation of Macedonia and of the People's Republic of Macedonia in the Federal People's Republic of Yugoslavia after the Second World War. In Bulgaria he is often considered a Bulgarian.
Mara Buneva was a Macedonian Bulgarian revolutionary, member of the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization. She is famous for the assassination of Serbian official Velimir Prelić after which she committed suicide. Today Buneva is considered as a heroine in Bulgaria, while in North Macedonia she is regarded as a controversial Bulgarophile.
Atanas Badev was a Bulgarian composer and music teacher. Per post-WWII Macedonian historiography he was an ethnic Macedonian.
Panko Brashnarov was a revolutionary and member of the left wing of the Internal Macedonian-Adrianople Revolutionary Organization (IMARO) and IMRO (United) later. As with many other IMARO members of the time, historians from North Macedonia consider him an ethnic Macedonian, whereas historians in Bulgaria consider him a Bulgarian. However such Macedonian activists, who came from the IMARO and the IMRO (United) never managed to get rid of their strong pro-Bulgarian bias, and continued to see themselves as Bulgarians, even in Communist Yugoslavia.
World War II in Yugoslav Macedonia started with the Axis invasion of Yugoslavia in April 1941. Under the pressure of the Yugoslav Partisan movement, part of the Macedonian communists began in October 1941 a political and military campaign to resist the occupation of Vardar Macedonia. Officially, the area was called then Vardar Banovina, because the very name Macedonia was prohibited in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. It was occupied mostly by Bulgarian, but also by German, Italian, and Albanian forces.
In September 1944, Nazi Germany briefly sought to establish an independent Macedonia, a puppet state in the territory of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia that had been occupied by the Kingdom of Bulgaria following the invasion of Yugoslavia in April 1941. When Soviet Union forces approached the borders of Bulgaria near the end of August 1944, Bulgaria declared neutrality and briefly sought to negotiate with the Western Allies. As the Bulgarian government was not impeding the withdrawal of German forces from Bulgaria or Romania, the Soviet Union treated it with suspicion. On 2 September, a new pro-Western government took power in Sofia, only to be replaced a week later by a pro-Soviet government after a Fatherland Front–led revolt. However, on 5 September 1944, the Soviets declared war on Bulgaria.
Ivan Naumov, nicknamed Alyabaka or Alyabako was a Macedono-Adrianopolitan revolutionary and freedom fighter from a Bulgarian background, a member of the Internal Macedonian-Adrianople Revolutionary Organization (IMARO).
Metody Patchev was a Bulgarian teacher and revolutionary, vojvoda of the Internal Macedonian-Adrianople Revolutionary Organization. According to the post-WWII Macedonian historiography, he was an ethnic Macedonian.
Dimitar Gyuzelov was a Macedonian Bulgarian revolutionary and philosopher. He is the father of Macedonian writer Bogomil Gyuzel and artist Liljana Gyuzelova, who between 1996 and 2006 worked on an art installation titled The Perpetual Return, dedicated to her father, his murder, and the stigma that the children of prominent Bulgarians who had been persecuted by the Yugoslav authorities after 1945 had to endure.
Spiro Kitinchev was a Macedonian Bulgarian writer, activist, and politician during the Second World War in Yugoslav Macedonia.
The Regional Committee of Communists in Macedonia was the provincial communist organization in Vardar Macedonia from 1939 to 1943.
Velimir Prelić was a Chetnik leader during the Macedonian struggles (1903-1912). He was a member of the Central Committee of the Serb Democratic League in 1908. After World War I, he became a high-ranking Serbian official in the Skopje region, a contentious region that was fought over by Turkey, Bulgaria, Greece, and Serbia. He was shot in Skopje in 1928 by a Bulgarian assassin Mara Buneva on 14 January 1928 in Skopje as punishment for torturing Bulgarian students.
"Gotse Delchev" Brigade was a military unit composed of conscripts and volunteers from the region of Macedonia. The Brigade was named after the IMRO-revolutionary Gotse Delchev.
Vasil Atanasov Ivanovski also known by his pseudonym Bistrishki, was a Bulgarian communist activist, publicist, "theoretician of the Macedonian nation" within the IMRO (United). According to the historiography in North Macedonia, Ivanovski is its founder and a prominent "fighter for the affirmation of the Macedonian national identity", and according to Bulgarian historiography he is known "for his wanderings on the Macedonian question". Per the Macedonian historian Ivan Katardjiev, such activists of the IMRO (United) and the Bulgarian Communist Party never managed to break with their pro-Bulgarian aspirations.
