Second Yugoslavia - History - World War II

World War II

On 6 April 1941, Yugoslavia was invaded by the Axis powers led by Nazi Germany; by 17 April 1941, the country was fully occupied and was soon carved up by the Axis. Yugoslav resistance was soon established in two forms, the royalist Yugoslav Army in Homeland and the People's Liberation Army and Partisan Detachments of Yugoslavia, known simply as the Partisans. The Partisan supreme commander was Josip Broz Tito (head of the KPJ), and under his command the movement soon began establishing "liberated territories" which attracted the attentions of the occupying forces.

Unlike the various nationalist militias operating in occupied Yugoslavia, the Partisans were a pan-Yugoslav movement promoting the "brotherhood and unity" of Yugoslav nations, and representing the republican, left-wing, and socialist elements of the Yugoslav political spectrum. The coalition of political parties, factions, and prominent individuals behind the movement was the People's Liberation Front (Jedinstveni narodnooslobodilački front, JNOF), led by the Communist Party of Yugoslavia (KPJ).

The Front formed a representative political body, the Anti-Fascist Council for the People's Liberation of Yugoslavia (AVNOJ, Antifašističko Vijeće Narodnog Oslobođenja Jugoslavije). The AVNOJ, which met for the first time in Partisan-liberated Bihać on 26 November 1942 (First Session of the AVNOJ), claimed the status of Yugoslavia's deliberative assembly (parliament).

During 1943, the Yugoslav Partisans began attracting serious attention from the Germans. In two major operations of Fall Weiss (January to April 1943) and Fall Schwartz (15 May to 16 June 1943), the Axis attempted to stamp-out the Yugoslav resistance once and for all. The battles, which were soon to be known as the Battle of the Neretva and the Battle of the Sutjeska respectively, saw the 20,000-strong Partisan Main Operational Group engaged by a force of around 150,000 combined Axis troops. On both occasions, despite heavy casualties the Partisan commander Josip Broz Tito succeeded in evading the trap and retreating to safety.

Following the withdrawal of the main Axis forces, the Partisans emerged stronger than before and occupied a more significant portion of Yugoslavia. The events greatly increased the standing of the Partisans, and granted them a favorable reputation among the Yugoslav populace – leading to increased recruitment. On 8 September 1943, Fascist Italy capitulated to the Allied powers, leaving their occupation zone in Yugoslavia open to the Partisans. Tito took advantage of the events by briefly liberating the Dalmatian shore and its cities. This granted the Partisans Italian weaponry and supplies, volunteers from the cities previously annexed by Italy, and Italian recruits crossing over to the Allies (the Garibaldi Division).

After the highly favorable chain of events, the AVNOJ decided to meet for the second time – now in Partisan-liberated Jajce. The Second Session of the AVNOJ lasted from 21 to 29 November 1943 (right before and during the Tehran Conference), and came to a number of significant conclusions. The most significant of these was the establishment of the Democratic Federal Yugoslavia, a state that would be a federation of six equal South Slavic republics (as opposed to the Serbian predominance in pre-war Yugoslavia). The council decided on a "neutral" name and deliberately left the question of "monarchy vs. republic" open, ruling that Peter II would only be allowed to return from exile in London upon a favorable result of a pan-Yugoslav referendum on the question.

Among other decisions, the AVNOJ decided on forming a provisional executive body, the National Committee for the Liberation of Yugoslavia (NKOJ, Nacionalni komitet oslobođenja Jugoslavije), appointing Josip Broz Tito the Prime Minister. Having achieved success in the 1943 engagements, Tito was also granted the rank of Marshal of Yugoslavia. Favorable news also came from the Tehran Conference taking place at almost the same time in Iran, the Allied powers concluded that the Partisans would be recognized as the Allied Yugoslav resistance movement and granted supplies and wartime support against the Axis occupation.

As the war turned decisively against the Axis in 1944, the Partisans continued to hold significant chunks of Yugoslav territory. With the Allies in Italy, the Yugoslav islands of the Adriatic Sea were a haven for the resistance. On 17 June 1944, the Partisan base on the island of Vis housed a conference between Josip Broz Tito, Prime Minister of the NKOJ (representing the AVNOJ), and Ivan Šubašić, Prime Minister of the royalist Yugoslav government-in-exile in London. The conclusions, known as the Tito-Šubašić Agreement, granted the King's recognition to the AVNOJ and the Democratic Federal Yugoslavia (DFY) and provided for the establishment of a joint Yugoslav coalition government headed by Tito with Šubašić as the foreign minister, with the AVNOJ confirmed as the provisional Yugoslav parliament. King Peter II's government-in-exile in London, partly due to pressure from the United Kingdom, recognized the state in the agreement, signed on 17 June 1944 between the prime minister of the government-in-exile Ivan Šubašić, and the head of the AVNOJ's executive committee, the NKOJ, Marshal Tito.

The DFY's legislature, after November 1944, was the Provisional Assembly. The Tito-Šubašić agreement of 1944 declared that the state was a pluralist democracy that guaranteed: democratic liberties; personal freedom; freedom of speech, assembly, and religion; and a free press. However by January 1945 Tito had shifted the emphasis of his government away from emphasis on pluralist democracy, claiming that though he accepted democracy, he claimed there was no "need" for multiple parties, as he claimed that multiple parties were unnecessarily divisive in the midst of Yugoslavia's war effort and that the People's Front represented all the Yugoslav people. The People's Front coalition, headed by the Communist Party of Yugoslavia and its general secretary Marshal Josip Broz Tito, was a major movement within the government. Other political movements that joined the government included the "Napred" movement represented by Milivoje Marković.

Belgrade, the capital of Yugoslavia, was liberated with the help of the Soviet Red Army in October 1944, and the formation of a new Yugoslav government was postponed until 2 November 1944, when the Belgrade Agreement was signed and the provisional government formed. The agreements also provided for the eventual post-war elections that would determine the state's future system of government and economy.

By 1945, the Partisans were mopping up Axis forces and liberating the remaining parts of occupied territory. On 20 March 1945, the Partisans launched their General Offensive in a drive to completely oust the Germans and the remaining collaborating forces. By the end of April 1945 the remaining northern parts of Yugoslavia were liberated, and chunks of southern German (Austrian) territory, and Italian territory around Trieste were occupied by Yugoslav troops.

Yugoslavia was now once more a fully intact state, and was envisioned by the Partisans as a "Democratic Federation", including six federal states: the Federal State of Bosnia and Herzegovina (FS Bosnia and Herzegovina), Federal State of Croatia (FS Croatia), Federal State of Macedonia (FS Macedonia), Federal State of Montenegro (FS Montenegro), Federal State of Serbia (FS Serbia), and Federal State of Slovenia (FS Slovenia). The nature of its government, however, remained unclear, and Tito was highly reluctant to include the exiled King Peter II in post-war Yugoslavia as demanded by Winston Churchill. In February 1945, Tito acknowledged the existence of a regency council representing the King : the first and only act of the council, however, was to proclaim on 7 March a new government under Tito's premiership. The nature of the state was not cleared immediately after the war, and on 26 June 1945, the country signed the United Nations Charter using only Yugoslavia as an official name, with no reference to either a Kingdom or a Republic,.