The lyrics and music of the march were written by Aleksandar Morfov, a Bulgarian military composer in 1923 at a contest by the IMRO. The proposed march was presented to the leader of IMRO, Todor Alexandrov, by the composer at the home of General Kosta Nikolov in Sofia.[2] In the period before World War II, the march was performed as the official anthem of the IMRO.[3][4] The poet Kočo Racin tried to adapt the chorus of the song to the still non-standardized Macedonian language shortly before his death in 1943.[5]
On August 2, 2017, during a service commemorating the Ilinden Uprising, the monks from the Saint Jovan Bigorski Monastery in Republic of Macedonia, performed the song, expressing their approval of the friendship treaty signed with Bulgaria the day before.[11] Afterwards the song continued to be performed there on 2 August, to commemorate the Ilinden Uprising.[12]
^Михайлов, Иван. "Quo vadis, Bulgaria?", I изд. Индианаполис, Печатница “Македонска трибуна”, 1937, II изд. ИК “Витатон”, Пещера, 1996, стр. 35-44.
^Moreno-Luzón, Javier; Nagore-Ferrer, María, eds. (2023). Music, Words, and Nationalism: National Anthems and Songs in the Modern Era. Springer International Publishing. pp. 120–121. ISBN9783031416446.
^Во јуни 1943 год. маршот „Изгреј зора на слободата“ бил поместен на челното место во првата збирка „Македонски народно - ослободителни песни“, подготвена од поетот и револуционер Кочо Рацин и отпечатена во партизанската печатницата „Гоце Делчев.“ For more see: Glasnik, Том 48, Issues: 1–2, Institut za nacionalna istorija (Skopje, Macedonia), 2004, p. 30.
^ abAleksandar Pavković; Christopher Kelen (2016). Anthems and the Making of Nation States: Identity and Nationalism in the Balkans. I.B. Tauris. pp. 164–165. ISBN9781784531263.
^Иван Блажевски, "Забранетата песна ги бранува духовите. „Изгреј зора“ била бугарска и фашистичка песна", "Време", броj 310, 09. 02. 2005.
^"Символи -" (in Bulgarian). Retrieved 2022-10-16.