Image of World War I in contemporary Macedonian historiography

Abstract

This article is devoted to the review of contemporary WWI Macedonian historiography. The territories of the contemporary Macedonian state were a battlefield for armies of the Entente and the Central Powers during WWI. Those lands were important for the opponents. Bulgaria, Serbia and Greece fought against Turkey to capture Macedonia and also between themselves the year before WWI. It was the Macedonian lands that became the main reason Bulgaria joined the Central Powers in 1915. And by 1918, the situation in the Balkans was very seriously changed. Contemporary WWI Macedonian historiography is basically divided into two groups. It is close to the political divide of Macedonian society (there are two parties: the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization — Democratic Party for Macedonian National Unity (VMRO-DPMNE)- central-right and the Social Democratic Union of Macedonia — central-left). In historiography, one group adheres to the pro-Bulgarian views (they generally vote for VMRO-DPMNE), while the other is pro-Serbian (and they vote for left-wing politics). There are also representatives of ethnic minorities (Albanian and Turkey) of the Republic of Macedonia. They are interested in their nations’ destiny during WWI. The image of WWI is the image of a great tragedy for a small nation-victim that ended up in the grindstone of history. The Macedonian land was a brutal war arena and was under foreign occupation, and of course civilians were seriously affected by the war, both by the actual fighting, and the subsequent consequences.