Kingdom of Yugoslavia
- Peter II was the last King of Yugoslavia reigning from 1934 till 1945. An opponent of Nazi Germany, he participated in a British-supported coup d'état opposing the pro-fascist Prince Paul. Peter was forced to leave the country following the Axis invasion. In 1944, he signed the Treaty of Vis which was an agreement to share power with Josip Broz Tito. But, after the war, Peter was deposed in a referendum held by the communist government.
- Josip Broz Tito was a leader of Yugoslav Partisans resistance movement, which was the largest in Europe. Communist by political orientation, Tito was nevertheless able to gather nation-wide support for anti-fascist cause, and to persuade Allied governments that only his forces were mounting credible resistance to Axis powers in Yugoslavia. By the end of war, occupied Yugoslavia had drawn attention of no less than 20 German divisions alone, prompting several major operations in the 1942–1944 period, which were futile. Finally, with help from advancing Soviet forces, the Partisans liberated Yugoslavia, reaching at the final days of operations a respectable size of 800,000 soldiers.
- Draža Mihailović was the leader of the so called Chetniks, the monarchic resistance movement, supported by the exiled royal government. After being initially engadged in fighting the occupying Axis forces and their internal allies, his forces ended up engaged also in fighting the Partisans. Mihailović was decorated with highest war medals by France and the USA (Legion of Merit). After the war, he was executed by the newly formed communist government of Josip Broz Tito in 1945 for high treason, war crimes and crimes against humanity. In 2004, Chetniks were rehabilitated by the democratic National Assembly of Serbia.
- Slobodan Jovanović was the Prime Minister of the Yugoslav government in exile during World War II from January 11, 1942, to June 26, 1943.
- Ivan Šubašić was the Prime Minister of the Yugoslav government in exile when the Treaty of Vis (or Tito-Šubašić Agreement) was signed on June 14, 1944.
Read more about this topic: Allied Leaders Of World War II
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“He put before them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed that someone took and sowed in his field; it is the smallest of all the seeds, but when it has grown it is the greatest of shrubs and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and make nests in its branches.””
—Bible: New Testament, Matthew 13:31,32.
“I’ll give my jewels for a set of beads,
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And my large kingdom for a little grave,
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—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
“International relations is security, it’s trade relations, it’s power games. It’s not good-and-bad. But what I saw in Yugoslavia was pure evil. Not ethnic hatred—that’s only like a label. I really had a feeling there that I am observing unleashed human evil ...”
—Natasha Dudinska (b. c. 1967)