The struggle for liberation was also imbued with the struggle for self-determination and union of the Macedonian people. After the partition of Macedonia in 1913 and 1919 the Macedonian liberation movement was emphasizing in continuity its request for self-determination and union of Macedonia within her ethnic and geographic borders.

The vrhovistic Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization (VMRO) of T. Aleksandrov and V. Mihajlov, with "The Authonomy for Macedonia" as its motto, endeavoured the attachment of Macedonia to Bulgaria. Later, the Organization was emphasizing the slogan "Free and independent Macedonia" as its programme goal, discrediting this idea with its terrorist activity and suffering historical defeat.

In the period between the two World Wars the democratic and reformatory forces of VMRO, devoted to the ideals of the initially founded VMRO of Goce Delchev, were endeavouring the liberation, union and state establishment of Macedonia on the Balkans.

During the period of 1924 – 1935 VMRO (United) became a political subject of the democratic and reformatory forces and the factor for integration for the Macedonian people. Its programme goal was gradual liberation and union of Macedonia, considering the special conditions in every part of Macedonia under the foreign rule, and later her association as a state within the frames of the Balkan Federation.

After the fascist occupation in 1941, the National Liberation Movement (NOD) inaugurated programme goals in all parts of Macedonia, according to which the activities for liberation and union of Macedonia have been taken. It was considered that the solution of the Macedonian national question should be accomplished within the frames of Yugoslav or Balkan Federation. One of the modalities was the union of Macedonia within the frames of Federative Yugoslavia, with the Vardar part as an intermediate (the so-called minimal national programme). The modality for the united Macedonia as the independent state on the Balkans was also evident (the maximal national programme).

The programme goals of the NOD became apparent into the Manifesto of the Headquarters General (October 1943) – "the union of Macedonia with the Balkans people into a fraternal alliance". This attitude was emphasized on the I Session of ASNOM (August 1944), when ASNOM proclaimed before the world publicity its "rightful and constant desire for union of the Macedonian people based on the principles of the self-determination rights". The union should be accomplished "under the cover of Tito’s Yugoslavia" and the newly established Macedonian state should be the intermediary of the union.

During the World War II the Macedonian National Liberation Movement was performing numerous activities concerning its connection and joint activities in every part of Macedonia. The question concerning the union of the Macedonian people was actualised by the Macedonian delegation at the meeting with Tito (Vis, June 1944). It was concluded that "it was the principal question and the righf of the Macedonian people although the international circumstances should not allow for this question to be put in full action".

In 1944/45 the leaders of Yugoslavia and Bulgaria were conducting negotiations concerning the federatin between the two countries and the attachment of the Pirin part of Macedonia to the Federal Macedonia. As a result of the negative attitudes of both Great Britain and later the U.S.A., the question concerning the prospective federation, the establisment of the "Great Macedonia" and the union of the Macedonian people has lost the significance of its own, taking into consideration the protection of the Greek interests and the attitude of the USSR that this question was, at the time being, under the level of actuality.

During the period 1944 – 1947 the Bulgarian government under the leadership of Georgi Dimitrov recognized the national rights of the Macedonians from the Pirin part of Macedonia making preparation for the attachment of this part to People’s Republic of Macedonia (NRM). After 1948 Bulgaria altered her policy imposing the course of negation of the Macedonian nation and language and also of the Macedonian national minority in Bulgaria.

The Greek government, after the British intervention and the Civil War (1945 – 1949), has been carrying on the policy of negation of the status of the Macedonian national minority from the Aegean part of Macedonia conducting, at the same time, its oppression and prosecution.

In accordance with the international standards the Republic of Macedonia, as an independent state (1991 – 1996), has been permanently interested in the achievement of the national, cultural and civil rights of the Macedonians in the neighbouring countries, nourishing the spiritual links with the compatriots from the mother country.