The Law for the Protection of Macedonian National Honour was a statute passed by the government of the Socialist Republic of Macedonia (SR Macedonia) at the end of 1944. At its second session held from 28 to 31 December 1944, the Presidium of the Anti-Fascist Assembly for the National Liberation of Macedonia (ASNOM) established a special court to implement this law. The court officially came into effect on 3 January 1945, and was officially abolished on 1 July 1945.
Although some researchers believe that the law continued to be in force until 1991, it is much more likely that it was abolished in February 1948. History Background During the World War II, Bulgaria annexed the Yugoslav province called Vardar Banovina, encompassing most of modern North Macedonia. Pro-Bulgarian sentiments prevailed among the locals and the Bulgarians were greeted by most of them as liberators from Serbian rule.In Macedonia, eyewitnesses recall and newsreel footage shows that the local Macedonian population went out to greet the Bulgarian troops who had helped remove the Yugoslav yoke, and that they waved Bulgarian flags. Keith Brown, The Past in Question: Modern Macedonia and the Uncertainties of Nation, Keith Brown; Princeton University Press, 2018; , p. 134.At first, many Macedonians greeted the Bulgarians with enthusiasm. Hilde Katrine Haug, Creating a Socialist Yugoslavia: Tito, Communist Leadership and the National Question, Bloomsbury Publishing, 2012, , p. 105.Many Slavs in Macedonia, perhaps the majority, still harboured Bulgarian consciousness... The initial reaction among the population was to greet the Bulgarians as liberators. Dejan Djokić, Yugoslavism: Histories of a Failed Idea, 1918-1992, C. Hurst & Co. Publishers, 2003, , p. 119.Although a pro-Bulgarian inclination, fed by the Serbian assimilationist policy, has been always strong among the Macedonians, it reached its peak in 1941, at a time when the Bulgarian troops were welcomed as 'liberators. Dimitris Livanios, The Macedonian Question: Britain and the Southern Balkans 1939-1949, OUP Oxford, 2008, , p. 179....indeed, the incoming Bulgarian troops were hailed as liberators from Serb rule. (Miller 1975; Svolopoulos 1987a; Kotzageorgi-Zymari 2002; Crampton 2008, 258–62; Livanios 2008, 102– 27). Evanthis Hatzivassiliou and Dimitrios Triantaphyllou as ed. NATO's First Enlargement: A Reassessment, Routledge, 2017, , p. 51. However, soon after the occupation, the authorities realized that only part of the Slavic Macedonians felt Bulgarian or were pro-Bulgarian. Because of that, they initiated a program of intense Bulgarisation in Macedonia. Some researchers described this process as "re-Bulgarisation" and "de-Serbianisation". Harsh treatment by occupying Bulgarian troops reduced the pro-Bulgarian orientation of the Macedonian Slavs even more. After Bulgaria sided with the Axis powers, it lost the war and the last Bulgarian troops withdrew from the region in November 1944. At the end of the World War II in Yugoslav Macedonia the Macedonian national feelings were already ripe, although it is not clear to what extend the Macedonian Slavs considered themselves to be different from the Bulgarians."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."Yugoslav Communists recognized the existence of a Macedonian nationality during WWII to quiet fears of the Macedonian population that a communist Yugoslavia would continue to follow the former Yugoslav policy of forced Serbianization. Hence, for them to recognize the inhabitants of Macedonia as Bulgarians would be tantamount to admitting that they should be part of the Bulgarian state. For that the Yugoslav Communists were most anxious to mold Macedonian history to fit their conception of Macedonian consciousness. The treatment of Macedonian history in Communist Yugoslavia had the same primary goal as the creation of the Macedonian language: to de-Bulgarize the Macedonian Slavs and to create a separate national consciousness that would inspire identification with Yugoslavia." For more see: Stephen E. Palmer, Robert R. King, Yugoslav communism and the Macedonian question, Archon Books, 1971, , Chapter 9: The encouragement of Macedonian culture."No doubt, the vast majority of the Macedonian peasants, being neither communists nor members of IMRO (United), had not been previously affected by Macedonian national ideology. The British officials who attempted to tackle this issue in the 1940s noted the pro-Bulgarian sentiment of many peasants and pointed out that Macedonian nationhood rested on 'rather shaky historical and philological foundations' and, therefore, had to be constructed by the Macedonian leadership." Livanios, D. (2008), The Macedonian Question: Britain and the Southern Balkans 1939-1949.: Oxford University Press, , p. 206.As David Fromkin (1993, p. 71) confirms: "even as late as 1945, Slavic Macedonia had no national identity of its own." Nikolaos Zahariadis (2005) Essence of Political Manipulation: Emotion, Institutions, & Greek Foreign Policy, Peter Lang, p. 85, .Per Stefan Troebst Macedonian national language, national literature, national history and national church were not available in 1944, but they were accomplished in a short time. The south-east-Slavic regional idiom of the area of Prilep-Veles was codified as the script, normed orthographically by means of the Cyrillic Alphabet, and taken over immediately by the newly created media. And the people have been patching up the national history ever since. Thus, they are forming more of an "ethnic" than a political concept of nation. For more, see: One Macedonia With Three Faces: Domestic Debates and Nation Concepts, in Intermarium; Columbia University; Volume 4, No. 3 (2000–2001). However, the overwhelming majority of the Slavic population in Macedonia accepted the emerging Macedonian national identity without a problem. To wipe out the remaining pro-Bulgarian sentiments, the new Communist authorities took heavy measures. The task was also to break up all the organisations that opposed the idea of Yugoslavia.
Implementation and function On 3 January 1945, the newspaper Nova Makedonija published the newly adopted Law on the Trial of Crimes against Macedonian National Honour.За да се узакони извънсъдебната разправа, на 20 ноември 1946 г. комунистическият официоз „ Нова Македония " публикува приетия Закон за съдене на престъпленията против македонската национална чест. For more see: Велизар Енчев, Югославската идея: исторически, политически и международни аспекти на доктрината за национално освобождение и държавно обединение на южните славян, изд-во Захарий Стоянов, 2009, , стр. 325. The law provided for a number of sanctions: deprivation of civil rights, imprisonment with forced labour, confiscation of property, and in cases where it was deemed that the accused might be sentenced to death, it was envisaged that they would be handed over to a "competent court".Стефан Карастоянов, Балканите - политикогеографски анализи (2002) География и геополитика, Унив. изд. "Св. Кл. Охридски", , стр. 124. The tribunal was established to prosecute "collaborators of the occupiers who had undermined the Macedonian national name and Macedonian national honour." To ensure that not only pro‑Bulgarian sympathizers involved in war crimes could be held accountable, the authorities introduced a new offense: "violation of the Macedonian national honour". A special court was created specifically for this purpose. To make sure that not only those sympathizers of the Bulgarian orientation who had committed war crimes could be held responsible, the new crime of "violation of the Macedonian national honour" was introduced and a special court set up. According to a Macedonian historian: "this court... put on trial those violations of national honour which cannot be qualified as treason, or as support of the occupier in his war crimes." For more see: Stefan Troebst, Das makedonische Jahrhundert: von den Anfängen der nationalrevolutionären Bewegung zum Abkommen von Ohrid 1893-2001; ausgewählte Aufsätze; (2007) Oldenbourg, p. 255, . Per Dejan Djokić to proclaim Bulgarian identity was allowed only after 1944 in the Strumica region.However, in Macedonia today there remain those who identify themselves as Bulgarians. Hostility to them remains, even if less than in Communist Yugoslavia, where it was forbidden to proclaim Bulgarian identity with the partial exception of the Strumica region. For more see: Dejan Djokić, Yugoslavism. Histories of a Failed Idea, 1918-1992 C. Hurst & Co. Publishers, 2003, , p. 122. The area is part of the so-called Western Outlands,"Western outlands" ("Западните покрайнини" in Bulgarian) is a term used in Bulgaria for the municipalities of Dimitrovgrad and Bosilegrad in Serbia, and Strumica in Macedonia - awarded to Serbia, i.e. to the Kingdom of the Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, after World War I. For more see: Nikolai Petrović et al., Bulgarians in Serbia and Serbian-Bulgarian Relations in the Light of Serbia's European Integration. Policy Study. Belgrade, ISAC Fund, 2013. p. 6. that were part of Bulgaria until 1919.Dimitar Bechev (1919) Historical Dictionary of North Macedonia, Edition 2; Rowman & Littlefield, , p. 235. Though per Georgy Fotev only migrants from the Serbian part of the Western Outlands were allowed to declare themselves to be Bulgarians.Георги Фотев, Другият етнос (1994) Акад. изд-во "Марин Дринов", БАН, София, , стр. 130. The law also applies to territories that have been occupied by Italy and Albania. The law is a precedent in European legal history, as such legislation was not adopted in the People's Republic of Slovenia, which was subjected to forced Italianization and Germanization during the war. The Macedonian Serbs were not trialed on it either, despite some of them were cooperating with the Axis Forces. A special court was created between April and August 1945 to implement the law.
Impact The act allowed the sentencing of Yugoslav citizens from SR Macedonia for collaboration with the occupational authorities during WWII, for pro-Bulgarian leanings and for agitating against Macedonia's position in Yugoslavia.The Law for the Protection of Macedonian National Honour was passed in 1945. The act allowed the sentencing of citizens for collaboration, pro-Bulgarian sympathies, and contesting Macedonia's status within Yugoslavia. The latter charge was used to sentence Metodij Andonov-Čento who opposed the authorities' decision to join the federation without reserving the right to a secession and criticised it for not putting enough emphasis on Macedonian culture. For more see: Communist dictatorship in Macedonia. The Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (1945-1992).