Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization (United)

Ivan Katardzhiev all left-wing Macedonian revolutionaries from the period until the early 1930s declared themselves as "Bulgarians" and he asserts that the political separatism of some Macedonian revolutionaries toward official Bulgarian policy was yet only political phenomenon without ethnic character. Katardzhiev claims all those veterans from IMRO (United) and Bulgarian communist party remained only at the level of political, not of national separatism. Thus, they practically continued to feel themselves as Bulgarians, i.e. they didn't developed clear national separatist position even in Communist Yugoslavia. This will bring even one of them - Dimitar Vlahov on the session of the Politburo of the Macedonian communist party in 1948, to say that in 1932 (when left wing of IMRO issued for the first time the idea of separate Macedonian nation) a mistake was made..Katardziev also clarified "A phenomenon must be mentioned here. The division of Macedonia in 1913 played an extremely harmful role in the consciousness of Macedonians. Why? Because it interrupted normal communication - political, cultural, economic - between Macedonians. It stopped the process of creating a unique Macedonian history of the entire Macedonian area. Macedonian progressive forces tied them to the progressive forces of the countries in which they existed. They began to accept the political determination and philosophy of the countries between which Macedonia was divided. Thus, during the NOB, when the time came for connection, there was a huge gap in the consciousness of Macedonians from the three parts of the country. Everyone said they were Macedonians, but everyone gave that term a different meaning". Академик Катарџиев, Иван. Верувам во националниот имунитет на македонецот, интервју за списание "Форум", 22 jули 2000, броj 329.