Historiography in North Macedonia is the methodology of historical studies developed and employed by Macedonian historians. It traces its origins to the 1940s, when SR Macedonia became part of Yugoslavia.
Although references to ethnic Macedonians do not appear in primary sources before 1870, the first generation of Macedonian historians after WWII traced Macedonian ethnogenesis to the early 19th century. However, after the Tito-Stalin split the relations between Yugoslavia and Bulgaria deteriorated, and Bulgaria vigorously began to deny the existence of a Macedonian nation and language which it had recognised in 1946. Thus an important break occurred and Macedonian historians traced the origins of a Macedonian nation and state further back in time, to the Samuel of Bulgaria and his Cometopuli dynasty medieval rule, which was appropriated as Macedonian rather than Bulgarian. After the Republic of Macedonia's independence from Yugoslavia and after the beginning of the Macedonia name dispute with Greece, Macedonian historiography carried the nation's origins back even earlier, to antiquity and to the ancient kingdom of Macedon with a particular emphasis on Alexander the Great.
In the field of historiography, communism and Macedonian nationalism are closely related. After the fall of communism, Macedonian historiography did not significantly revise its communist past, because of the key role played by communist policies in establishing a distinct Macedonian nation. The debates in North Macedonia concerning its relationships with Bulgaria and Greece have had significant impact on historiographic narrative in the country, introducing a new revisionist interpretation of the past. Macedonian historians consider as one of their main purposes is to assort the facts free from foreign manipulation and the alleged twisted views of the neighboring historiographies, and present them in a true light. Thus, Macedonian historians with the same principle as their colleagues in Bulgaria, Greece, and Serbia, make extreme efforts to present the Slavic Orthodox population of the region in the 19th and 20th century as Macedonian, regardless of what the written records say.
Via the medium of education, unsubstantiated historical claims have been transmitted to generations of students in the country, to conceal that many prominent Macedonians had viewed themselves as Bulgarians. The Skopje 2014 project, for example, promoted the idea of continuity of the Macedonian nation from antiquity until modern times. Some domestic and foreign scholars have criticized this agenda of negationist historiography, whose apparent goal is to affirm the continuous existence of a separate Macedonian nation throughout history. Diverging approaches are discouraged because of economic limitations, and researchers who express alternative views risk academic career obstacles and stigmatization as "national traitors". Typical for young historiographies like the Macedonian is to be obsessed with questions of the nation, since the formation of the national past is among the first rationales of modern historiography.
History Pre-independence
By 1893, Gjorgjija Pulevski, one of the first Macedonian national activists, largely completed a "General History of the Macedonian Slavs", although his knowledge of history may have been modest and largely influenced by pan-Slavism. Per him, there were different histories of the Balkan peoples then, but the Slavic Macedonians were always forgotten in them. Because of that he harshly criticized those historians who did not mention Macedonians, and stressed the necessity for the Macedonians to have their own written history, just as did other peoples.Ristovska-Josifovska, Biljana. A picture of the Slavic world through the prism of a 19th century Macedonian manuscript (transferring knowledge and ideas) [Картина славянского мира сквозь призму македонской рукописи XIX века (передача знаний и идей)] // Studia Slavica et Balcanica Petropolitana. 2019. № 1. С. 145-154. DOI https://doi.org/10.21638/11701/spbu19.2019.111. The Macedonian historical narrative is rooted in leftist and communist groups active during the Interwar period, especially in the 1930s, when the Comintern issued a special resolution in their support. According to activists from those groups, the Macedonian nation was forged through a differentiation from the earlier Bulgarian nation. In that framework, the Macedonian awakening in the 19th century took place as part of the Bulgarian National Revival, but managed to evolve separately from it in the early 20th century.Spyridon Sfetas, The Configuration of Slavomacedonian Identity. A Painful Evolution. Thessaloniki: Vanias, 2003. Balcanica XLVI, pp. 426-429. Reviewed by Athanasios Loupas. One of them — Vasil Ivanovski, declared for the first time that many Bulgarian historical figures were, in fact, ethnic Macedonians. It was only after the Second World War, however, that those writings were widely appreciated, as prior to the establishment of Communist Yugoslavia, the existence of a separate Macedonian nation was still not widely recognized.
A history department was established in the University of Skopje in 1946. The first national scientific institution in this field – the Institute for National History of the PR Macedonia - was established on July 20, 1948, under the Cyril Methodius University in Skopje. It had the obligation of studying the history of the Macedonian people. The role played by the Macedonian partisans and the Communist Party of Yugoslavia was emphasised by the Yugoslav Macedonian historiography. The leader of the new Socialist Republic of Macedonia – Lazar Koliševski, initially proclaimed that the Republic's history had begun with the communist struggle during the Second World War, whereas early 20th century events such as the Ilinden Uprising, or organisations such as the IMRO, were mere Bulgarian conspiracies.Мичев. Д. Македонският въпрос и българо-югославските отношения – 9 септември 1944–1949, Издателство: СУ Св. Кл. Охридски, 1992, стр. 91.Катарџиев, Иван. Васил Ивановски – живот и дело, предговор кон: Ивановски, Васил. Зошто ние Македонците сме одделна нација, Избрани дела, Скопје, 1995, стр. 25-26. At the same time, the first rector of the University of Skopje - Kiril Miljovski - admitted that early Macedonian revivalists and revolutionaries identified as Bulgarians.Милен Михов, Политика в историята! Новата българска история и македонската историография 1944 - 2005 г., УИ "Св. св. Кирил и Методий", Велико Търново, 2006, ; стр. 40 - 41. With explicit state support from the Yugoslav government, historical studies emphasizing the distinctness of Macedonian nationhood were expanded. New Macedonian historiography held, as a central principle, that Macedonian history was separate from Bulgarian history. Its primary goal was to foster an independent Macedonian national consciousness, with an "anti-Bulgarian" or "de-Bulgarizing" trend, and to sever any ties with Bulgaria. This distinct Slavic consciousness would inspire identification with Yugoslavia.
The first generation of Macedonian historians focused on the 19th and 20th centuries, claiming a Macedonian national awakening and distinguished it from the Bulgarian one. However, some people from the region who were included in the narrative had also played a significant role in the Bulgarian National Revival. This apparent problem was solved by the Communist system using censorship, control of historical information, and manipulation. Numerous prominent activists with pro-Bulgarian sentiment from the 19th and the early 20th centuries were described as (ethnic) Macedonians. Despite the fact that in many documents of that period, the local Slavic population was not referred to as "Macedonian", but rather as "Bulgarian", Macedonian historians argued that it was Macedonian anyway. They also claimed that the term "Bulgarian" did not refer to any specific ethnicity at the time, but was rather used as a synonym for "Slavic", "Christian" or "peasant". In 1874, the Orthodox population of the bishoprics of Skopje and Ohrid were given the chance by the Ottoman authorities to participate in a plebiscites, where they voted overwhelmingly in favour of joining the Bulgarian Exarchate (Skopje by 91%, Ohrid by 97%).Petŭr Petrov, Hristo Temelski (2003), Църква и църковен живот в Македония, София, Македонски научен институт.Duncan M. Perry (1998), The Politics of Terror: The Macedonian Liberation Movements, 1893–1903, Duke University Press, , p. 15. However, Macedonian historians claimed that the spread of Bulgarian national feeling in Macedonia was a result of an organized propaganda which made a breakthrough with the formation of the Bulgarian Exarchate. Per Macedonian historians the Macedonian Slavs did not joined the Exarchate because they felt themselves Bulgarian, but rather because they were Slavs who opposed Greek domination. Furthermore, they claim that the Exarchate attempted to destroy the previous self-governing activity of the Greek Patriarchate church municipalities which were run by anti-Phanariot locals, to supplant their democratic electoral system by appointing like-minded people as municipal presidents, who spread Bulgarian propaganda with the help and contact of the Bulgarian Exarchate.
After the Tito-Stalin split, in the 1950s, Macedonian historians also traced the origin of the Macedonian nation further back into the Middle Ages. Croatian historian Stjepan Antoljak gave Macedonian historians the idea to claim Samuel of Bulgaria as an ethnic Macedonian ruler. Macedonian historians declared Samuel's kingdom as a Macedonian kingdom. When historians from Skopje University published in 1985 their collection of documents on the struggle of the Macedonian people, they included into the excerpts of medieval chronicles a footnote for every use of the terms "Bulgaria" and "Bulgarian". In the 1960s, Macedonian and Serbian scholars typically referred to the ancient local tribes of the Central Balkan region as Daco-Moesian. Yugoslav Macedonian historians argued that any plausible link between ethnic Macedonians and their ancient namesakes was, at best, accidental.
Post-independence
The situation did not change significantly after the Republic of Macedonia achieved independence in the late 20th century. The reluctance towards a thorough reexamination of Yugoslav communist historiography was fueled by the fact that the Macedonian nation was a product of Yugoslav communist policies. The generation of Macedonian historians closely associated with the Yugoslav period, who were instrumental in establishing national myths, have been in charge of the institute, while the Institute monopolised the historiography. The main goal of the historiography has been to prove that the Macedonian nation existed. Bulgarian historians have continued to dispute the Macedonian interpretation of events. As a result of the Macedonia naming dispute and Greek opposition, there were efforts to include ancient Macedonians in the narrative. According to this new narrative, most of the cultural achievements of the ancient Macedonians were actually (ethnic) Macedonian. This new historical trend, called antiquisation, has depicted the Macedonian nation as being a thousand years older. In this view, ancient Macedonians were not Greeks, and a separate existence of ancient Macedonians in the Early Middle Ages is maintained, 800 years after the fall of their kingdom, as well as their admixture in the Byzantine Empire with early Slavic settlers arriving in the late 6th century. The Macedonian Academy of Sciences and Arts (MANU) was also involved in efforts of proving that ethnic Macedonians are the descendants of ancient Macedonians.