After the partition of Macedonia in 1913, the Vardar part with 800.000 inhabitants on 25.713 km² territory was included in the Kingdom of SHS (since 1929 the Kingdom of Yugoslavia). Following the First World War, Serbian authorities executed measures on denationalization and assimilation of the Macedonian population naming the Macedonians "Southern Serbs", and Macedonia - "Southern Serbia". In Macedonia the Serbian language was introduced into the administration. It meant that the entire officials and the clergy were appointed from outside. The national and political rights of the Macedonians were negated, concerning the policy, civil service and the educational system. At the least appearance of disloyalty towards the regime, the prisons were filled with political convicts, especially with those advocating autonomy of Macedonia and the achievement of the communist ideas. The Great Serbian policy was performed by means of colonization of 4.200 Serbian families in Macedonia - mainly pro-regime elements. This policy was sustained by the enormous administrative, cultural, educational, military and police repressive machinery. The Macedonian language was officially forbidden. The policy of denationalization was carried out by means of printed propaganda materials and educational institutions. Within the frames of elementary schools, high schools and at the Faculty of Philosophy just founded in Skopje, the educational programme was performed in Serbian considering the idea of Great Serbian policy.

In 1925 the VMRO (United) was founded in Vienna which overgrew into international and national organization with regional committees, in the three parts of Macedonia. The programme goal of the Organization was "the achievement of free and independent Macedonia within the frame of her geographic borders, as an equal member of the prospective Balkan Federation". The VMRO (United) suffered terrible strokes after the mass breaking-in into the Organization in the Vardar and the Pirin part of Macedonia. Under the influence of the communist parties of Yugoslavia, Bulgaria and Greece VMRO (United) was discharged at the Seventh Congress of the Comintern (1935). Separate activists such as Metodiya Shatorov, Vasil Ivanovski, Pavel Shatev etc. came into prominence in the defense of the uniqueness of the Macedonian nation and language.

The important national and cultural activities were developed by progressive Macedonian forces . Many informative organs were active together with the significant autors in the fields of literature, music and fine arts during this period. The VMRO (United) organs were "Makedonsko delo" ("The Macedonian Deed") and "Balkanska federatsia" ("The Balkan Federation"). The organs "Socijalistichka zora" ("The Socialist Dawn") and "Nasha rech" ("Our Address") were legally published by leaders of the Communist Party of Yugoslavia in Macedonia, while "Iskra" ("Sparkle") and "Bilten" ("Bulletin") were illegally published.

The appearance of the poets writing in Macedonian was evident. The most important among them was Kocho Ratsin with the verse collection "Beli Mugri" ("White Dawns") from 1939 with an emphasized social theme and highly aesthetic achievement. Kole Nedelkovski published the verse collections "M’skavici" ("Lightening") and "Pesh po svetot" ("On Foot Around the World"). Venko Markovski published 7 verse collections and poems.

In the field of drama, the first authors and dramas written in Macedonian appeared: Vasil Iljoski with "Begalka" (The Eloping Girl") and "Chorbadji Teodos" ("The Master Teodos"), Anton Panov with "Pechalbari" (The Migrant Workers") and Risto Krle with "Parite se otepuvachka" ("Money is Cursed")."

During this period the contemporary Macedonian composers appeared, such as: Stefan Gaydov, Trayko Prokopiev, Todor Skalovski, Petar Bogdanov-Kochko and Toma Proshev. Besides the old Macedonian zografs (decorators) - Dimitar A. Papradishki and Gjorgji J.Zografski - the group of founders of the contemporary Macedonian painting (Dimitar Avramovski-Pandilov, Lazar Lichenoski, Nikola Martinovski, Vangel Kodjoman etc.) appeared in the field of the art of painting.