The Independent State of Macedonia was a proposed puppet state of Nazi Germany during the Second World War in the territory of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia that had been occupied by the Tsardom 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 coup. However, on 5 September 1944, the Soviets declared war on Bulgaria.

The Germans turned to Ivan Mihailov to implement the scheme. Mihailov was a Bulgarophile right-wing politician and former leader of the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization (IMRO) who had been engaged in terrorist activity in Yugoslav and Greek Macedonia. Mihailov had become leader of IMRO in 1927 and under his leadership the organisation had joined forces with the Croatian Ustaše in 1929. The two organisations had planned and executed the assassination of King Alexander of Yugoslavia in 1934. After the Bulgarian military coup d'état in the same year, IMRO was banned by the Bulgarian authorities. Mihailov fled to Turkey and then Italy, where most of the Ustaše were also in exile. After the invasion of Yugoslavia in 1941, Mihailov had moved to Zagreb where he had acted as an advisor to Ante Pavelić. In January 1944 he had successfully lobbied the Germans to arm some Ohrana supporters and have them placed under Schutzstaffel (SS) command in Greek Macedonia, which had also been in part annexed by Bulgaria in 1941.

In 1928, Mihailov proposed a plan calling for the unification of the region of Macedonia into a single state, that would be autonomous from Bulgaria."Collective Memory, National Identity, and Ethnic Conflict: Greece, Bulgaria, and the Macedonian Question, Victor Roudometof, Greenwood Publishing Group, 2002, , p. 99. He was a proponent of a pro-Bulgarian United Macedonian multi-ethnic state, calling it: "Switzerland of the Balkans". During the last phase of the Second World War he tried to realise his plan with German political collaboration; however, he abandoned the implementation of this idea due to the lack of real military support. Despite this, an independent state was declared by Macedonian nationalists on 8 September 1944. Without the means to make the state a reality, this pretence dissolved as soon as the Yugoslav Partisans asserted their control following the withdrawal of German troops from the area by mid-November. This event marked the defeat of the Bulgarian nationalism and the victory of the Macedonism in the area.Macedonia and the Macedonians: A History, Andrew Rossos, Hoover Press, 2008, , p. 189.

Background Bulgaria joined the Axis powers on 1 March 1941, but remained passive during the invasion of Yugoslavia and most of the invasion of Greece. Yugoslavia surrendered on 17 April and Greece on 30 April. On 20 April, the Bulgarian army entered Greece and Yugoslavia with the aim of gaining access to the Aegean Sea in Thrace and eastern Macedonia. During the Second World War, Bulgaria occupied much of what is now North Macedonia, as well as parts of southern Serbia and northern Greece. The western part of present-day North Macedonia was occupied by Italy. Unlike Germany and Italy, on 14 May, Bulgaria annexed the occupied areas, which had long been the target of Bulgarian nationalism.Bulgaria During the Second World War, Marshall Lee Miller, Stanford University Press, 1975, , p. 128. Germany, however, considered the annexation inconclusive and imposed limited Bulgarian sovereignty over the occupied territories.Balkan Studies: Biannual Publication of the Institute for Balkan Studies, Hidryma Meletōn Chersonēsou tou Haimou (Thessalonikē, Greece), the Institute, 1994, p. 83. The Bulgarians were initially welcomed by the locals as liberators, since pro-Bulgarian sentiments were prevalent among the local population."At the end of the WWI there were very few historians or ethnographers, who claimed that a separate Macedonian nation existed.... Of those Slavs who had developed some sense of national identity, the majority probably considered themselves to be Bulgarians, although they were aware of differences between themselves and the inhabitants of Bulgaria.... The question as of whether a Macedonian nation actually existed in the 1940s when a Communist Yugoslavia decided to recognize one is difficult to answer. Some observers argue that even at this time it was doubtful whether the Slavs from Macedonia considered themselves to be a nationality separate from the Bulgarians.The Macedonian conflict: ethnic nationalism in a transnational world, Loring M. Danforth, Princeton University Press, 1997, , pp. 65-66."Most of the Slavophone inhabitants in all parts of divided Macedonia, perhaps a million and a half in all – had a Bulgarian national consciousness at the beginning of the Occupation; and most Bulgarians, whether they supported the Communists, VMRO, or the collaborating government, assumed that all Macedonia would fall to Bulgaria after the WWII. Tito was determined that this should not happen. The first Congress of AVNOJ in November 1942 had paranteed equal rights to all the 'peoples of Yugoslavia', and specified the Macedonians among them...The Communist Party of Macedonia, which had passed through a troubled time, first under a pro-Bulgarian leadership and then under pro-Yugoslav Macedonians, was taken in hand early in 1943 by Tempo, who formed a new Central Committee and informed it that it was now an integral part of the Yugoslav CP. "The struggle for Greece, 1941-1949, Christopher Montague Woodhouse, C. Hurst & Co. Publishers, 2002, , p. 67."Despite the slight change of the younger generation in the 1930s, reflected in the slogan "Macedonia for the Macedonians", anti-Serbian and pro-Bulgarian sentiment still prevailed. Even "Macedonia for the Macedonians" signalled in many ways an acceptance of the state of Yugoslavia and an attempt to gain autonomy within it. The collapse of Yugoslavia changed all this. There is a little doubt that the initial reaction among large sections of the population of Vardar Macedonia who had suffered so much under the Serbian repression was to greet the Bulgarians as liberators." Who are the Macedonians? Hugh Poulton, Hurst & Co. Publishers, 1995, , p. 101. In Vardar Macedonia, a powerful Yugoslav partisan movement did not develop until the autumn of 1943.Bulgaria During the Second World War, Marshall Lee Miller, Stanford University Press, 1975, , pp. 132–133.Historical Dictionary of the Republic of Macedonia, Dimitar Bechev, Scarecrow Press, 2009, , introduction IXIII.

According to the Bulgarian historian Dobrin Michev, Mihailov, who lived in Zagreb during the war, traveled in disguise to Germany around 1 August 1943, where in the Führer Headquarters and in the premises of the Reich Security Main Office, he met with Hitler, Heinrich Himmler and other senior German officials, with whom, according to scant information, it was agreed that he would raise two or three volunteer battalions, armed with German arms and ammunition, to operate under the operational command and disposition of Reichsführer-SS Himmler. According to Michev, at the same time, talks were also held in Sofia between high-ranking Schutzstaffel officials and the members of the Central Committee of IMRO Vladimir Kurtev, Zhoro Nastev and Dimitar Tsilev.Around August 1, 1943, incognito Iv. Mihailov left Zagreb for Germany, where he visited Hitler's Headquarters and Reich Security Headquarters, where he spoke with Hitler, Himmler and other top German leaders. From the scant German information we know of these conversations, we learn that he was agreed to raise 2-3 battalions of volunteers, armed with German arms and ammunition, under the operational command and disposition of the Reichsführer of the SS, viz. of Himmler. In addition, talks were held in Sofia between high-ranking functionaries of the SS and the members of the Central Committee of the VMRO - Vl. Kurtev, Zh. Nastev and D. Tsylev, who maintained the organization's ties with the Germans. For more see: Добрин Мичев, Националноосвободителното движение на македонските българи (19 май 1934 - 1941 г.) сп. Македонски преглед, Македонски научен институт, София, 1996 г. бр. 2, стр. 27-68.

On 14 August 1943, a few days before his death, the Bulgarian king Boris III met with Adolf Hitler in Germany. During the talks, Hitler advocated the creation of an autonomous Macedonia within the borders of Bulgaria, with Mihailov as its head.Янко Янков-Вельовски, Кутията на Пандора, "Янус", 2007, , стр.485-497. Boris agreed to this proposal. Hitler was also determined to convince him to declare war on the Soviet Union and transfer most of the Bulgarian Army to the Eastern Front and the Italian Front. As a result, the IMRO militias were to take over the functions of the Bulgarian Army in the so-called "newly liberated territories" in Greece and Yugoslavia. After Boris' subsequent death, this plan failed. However, it became apparent that Mihailov had broader plans, which included the establishment of an independent Macedonian state under German control. The IMRO also began to actively organize pro-Bulgarian militias in the former Italian and German occupied zones in Greece. Bulgaria watched these activities of Mihailov with concern, fearing that his plan to establish an "Independent Macedonia" might succeed. In an attempt to bring him under its control, Bulgaria lifted his death sentence and offered him to return to the country and take up a leading position in Vardar Macedonia, but he rejected this proposal.Щефан Трьобст, „Ванче Михайлов – терористът бюрократ“, в. „Култура“, брой 4 (2576), 5 февруари 2010.

Meanwhile, the Bulgarians, who staffed the new provinces with corrupted officials from Bulgaria proper began to lose the public confidence. This process accelerated after the King's dead which concurred with the capitulation of Italy and the Soviet victories over the Nazi Germany in the summer of 1943. On this basis, the Yugoslav communists, who supported the recognition of a separate Macedonian nation, managed to organize an earnest armed resistance against the Bulgarian forces in the autumn of 1943.Historical Dictionary of the Republic of Macedonia, Dimitar Bechev, Scarecrow Press, 2009, , p. 240. Many former IMRO right-wing activists assisted the authorities in fighting Tito's partizans.

In the August 1944, the Soviet Army was approaching the Balkans. On the other hand, at the same time, the Yugoslav Partisans, who "articulated the slogan of Macedonian unification", increased their activities in Macedonia. As result, the Anti-fascist Assembly for the National Liberation of Macedonia (ASNOM) declared the foundation of the Macedonian state on 2 August 1944. The state was proclaimed in the Bulgarian occupation zone of Yugoslavia.Historical Dictionary of the Republic of Macedonia, Dimitar Bechev, Scarecrow Press, 2009, , p. 240. On 23 August, Romania left the Axis Powers, declared war on Germany, and allowed Soviet forces to cross its territory to reach Bulgaria. At that time, Bulgaria made a drive to find separate peace, repudiating any alliance with Nazi Germany, and declared neutrality on 26 August. However, its secret negotiations with the Allies in Cairo, to allow it to retain the annexed areas in Greece and Yugoslavia failed, because Bulgaria was "not in a position to argue".

Proposed state