The Ba Congress , also known as the Saint Sava Congress ( Serbian : Светосавски конгрес , romanized : Svetosavski kongres ) or Great People's Congress , was a meeting of representatives of Draža Mihailović 's Chetnik movement held between 25 and 28 January 1944 in the village of Ba in the German-occupied territory of Serbia during World War II . It sought to provide a political alternative to the plans for post-war Yugoslavia set out by the Chetniks' rivals, the communist -led Yugoslav Partisans , and attempted to reverse the decision of the major Allied powers to provide their exclusive support to the Yugoslav Partisans while withdrawing their support of the Chetniks.
179-655: The Partisan plan had been set out in the November 1943 Second Session of the communist -led Anti-Fascist Council for the National Liberation of Yugoslavia (AVNOJ). While the Chetnik movement and Mihailović had been working towards a return to the Serb-dominated, monarchist Yugoslavia of the interwar period, AVNOJ had resolved that post-war Yugoslavia would be a federal republic with six equal, constituent republics, and denied
358-508: A detailed account of it to the Higher SS and Police Leader in the German-occupied territory of Serbia, SS- Gruppenführer and Generalleutnant der Polizei , August Meyszner . These reports mentioned the frequent anti-German outbursts that had occurred. The Germans were concerned about the outcomes of the congress, and they may have had some limited consequences in military terms, as
537-639: A federalisation of the state, while the others pushed for limited regional autonomy only. The leftists prevailed at the January 1924 Third Land Conference held covertly in Belgrade where the KPJ proclaimed the right of each nation to secede and form its national state. In June, the Comintern instructed the KPJ that self-determination should take shape of independent Slovenian, Croatian, and Macedonian republics. The stance taken by
716-583: A fourth federal unit, but this was opposed by Vasić and Moljević, because they saw the Bosnian Krajina as forming an integral part of the Serbian federal unit. According to the historians Radovan Samardžić and Milan Duškov, the main principle of the programme of the Ba Congress was social-democratic Yugoslavism. They claim the resolutions of the Ba Congress were "better founded, culturally and historically" than
895-547: A makeshift KPJ training school as the prison allowed grouping of political prisoners. On instructions from the Comintern, non- Serb members of the KPJ were to advocate breakup of Yugoslavia as a construct of the Western Powers. However at the time, most of their efforts were invested in struggle against the JSDS and debating revolutionary merits of literature written by Miroslav Krleža . By 1932, membership dwindled to less than 500,
1074-695: A means of changing the minds of the Allies – but particularly the US – about the decisions of the Tehran Conference that withdrew support for the Chetnik movement. The congress opened on 25 January 1944, with the pre-war leader of the small Socialist Party , Živko Topalović , as its chairman. The congress denounced the AVNOJ as "the work of the Ustasha -Communist minority", continuing an existing propaganda campaign which claimed that
1253-703: A minister in the government in June. When he was dismissed as chief of staff of the Supreme Command in August, he also did not accept this, and continued to refer to the Chetniks as the "Yugoslav Army in the Homeland", with himself as its chief. The central committee only met twice more between July 1944 and March 1945. In August, several members of the central committee, including Pribićević, Vladimir Belajčić and Ivan Kovač , along with
1432-663: A political confrontation with the USSR. The clash culminated in the Tito–Stalin split and the KPJ was expelled from the Cominform in 1948. For political reasons, the rift was presented as ideological rather than geopolitical one. The KPJ initially reacted to Stalin's criticism by adopting corrective measures in the field of collectivisation described as more Stalinist than those employed by Stalin himself. The KPJ saw purges of real or perceived Stalin supporters and other political opponents of
1611-793: A popular referendum to determine the future of his rule. The Western Allies expressed no opposition to the resolutions of AVNOJ, and at the Tehran Conference of 28 November to 1 December, the Allies had agreed to throw their support behind the Partisans. The second threat to the Chetniks and their political allies was the fact that from mid-1943, the British, who had primacy regarding Allied policy in Yugoslavia, had begun to doubt their decision to support Mihailović. By December they had concluded that Mihailović's Chetniks were more interested in collaborating with
1790-458: A reaffirmation of the Yugoslav idea , a parliamentary system and social reforms, a federally organised country, improved relationships with the British, and a new attempt at reconciliation with the Partisans, preferably with the help of the Allies. Some of Mihailović's followers were against agreeing to the politicians' demands. Nevertheless, the Chetnik leader accepted them, but with the proviso that
1969-487: A result of protest votes against the regime on account of past or expected actions coming from unemployed urban voters and from voters in regions having no other attractive national or regional opposition parties found in the Slovene lands, Croatia-Slavonia , and Bosnia and Herzegovina. In light of difficult economic and social circumstances, the regime viewed the KPJ as the main threat to the system of government. In response to
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#17328560091952148-551: A return to pre-war Serb hegemony and a Greater Serbia. Tomasevich observes that in asserting the need to gather all Serbs into a single entity, The Serbian Goals of the Ravna Gora Movement was reminiscent of Homogeneous Serbia , written by Moljević several years earlier, which advocated a Greater Serbia. He also notes that the congress did not recognise Macedonia and Montenegro as separate nations, and also implied that Croatia and Slovenia would effectively be appendages to
2327-501: A senior Chetnik commander, Major Zvonimir Vučković , were sent to join Topalović in Italy. Their pleas for a change of policy towards the Chetniks were in vain. Mihailović disestablished the central committee just before he was forced to withdraw from Serbia to northeast Bosnia in mid-September 1944, as he considered that he could only take fighting men with him. Regardless, most of the members of
2506-470: A setback for the Greater Serbia extremists such as Vasić and Moljević, who had dominated the Chetnik political program up to this point. Views on the character of the congress varied between those with long-standing ties to the Chetnik movement, and those pre-war politicians that had only recently come to support it. Both groups believed they had an equal stake in the future of Yugoslavia. The Chetniks saw
2685-416: A social revolution in a multi-ethnic but communist-dominated Yugoslavia. During the early years of the war, the Chetniks failed to articulate or promote a strong political agenda. According to the historian and political scientist Kirk Ford, it is possible that Mihailović believed that he did not need to do so, as he had been a representative of the government-in-exile since January 1942. In different parts of
2864-593: A special-purpose prison camp built on the uninhabited Adriatic islands of Goli Otok and Sveti Grgur in 1949. In view of the circumstances and the ideological aspect of the Yugoslav–Soviet split, the KPJ found it necessary to differentiate the Yugoslav political system from the Soviet one. Since the KPJ labelled the USSR undemocratic, it was necessary to devise and highlight KPJ's innovative approach to communist rule. This
3043-697: A waiting tactic. In February 1942, the KPH leadership under Hebrang saw this as an opportunity for the Croatian Partisans to wrest the position of the central patriotic force among Croats from the HSS. In effect, Hebrang thus pursued a policy close to the wartime Soviet coalitionist views, supporting a certain level of involvement of the former members of the HSS, and the Independent Democratic Party , as well as representatives of associations and trade unions in
3222-408: Is a state that is de jure independent but de facto completely dependent upon an outside power and subject to its orders. Puppet states have nominal sovereignty , except that a foreign power effectively exercises control through economic or military support. By leaving a local government in existence the outside power evades all responsibility, while at the same time successfully paralysing
3401-584: The Axis invasion of the country , Tito was in Zagreb. Two days after outbreak of hostilities, the KPJ and the KPH requested arms from the 4th Army headquarters to help defend the city, but they were denied. With the Yugoslav defeat imminent, the KPJ instructed its 8,000 members to stockpile weapons in anticipation of armed resistance, which would spread, by the end of 1941 to all areas of the country except Macedonia. Building on its experience in clandestine operation across
3580-521: The Bihać Republic . In the town, a pan-Yugoslav assembly – the Anti-Fascist Council for the National Liberation of Yugoslavia ( Antifašističko vijeće narodnog oslobođenja Jugoslavije , AVNOJ) – was established in the town at the initiative of Tito and the KPJ later that month. At its founding meeting, the AVNOJ adopted the principle of federal state as the solution for future. In the wake of
3759-529: The Communist Party of Yugoslavia , was the founding and ruling party of SFR Yugoslavia . It was formed in 1919 as the main communist opposition party in the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes and after its initial successes in the elections , it was proscribed by the royal government and was at times harshly and violently suppressed. It remained an illegal underground group until World War II when, after
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#17328560091953938-723: The Democratic Party , the Independent Democratic Party, the Agrarian Party , the Socialist Party and the Republican Party . According to Karchmar, claims by Chetnik adherents that this aspect of the Ba Congress demonstrated "overwhelming popular support" for Mihailović are seriously flawed, as they fail to recognise that the pre-war Yugoslav political parties were not mass-membership organisations, and support from
4117-681: The German defeat at Moscow in late 1941, the KPJ leadership thought that the war was nearly over and went to ensure full control by the KPJ in the country. In the period until spring of 1942, this policy was generally confined to Montenegro and eastern Herzegovina , and in a lesser draconian form to the area of present-day Vojvodina and Slovenia . It largely consisted of killing of class enemies where individual Partisan units were given quotas of required executions. It also meant forced labour for peasants deemed idle or even untidy. The targeted populations were driven to support Chetniks or other Axis forces, and
4296-712: The Independent State of Croatia ( Nezavisna Država Hrvatska , NDH). In Macedonia, the regional organisation led by Metodi Shatorov switched allegiance from the KPJ to the Bulgarian Communist Party , practically recognising Bulgarian annexation of the area. Collapse of Užice Republic , a Partisan-controlled territory in occupied Serbia in 1941 during a German and Chetnik offensive was, in part, helped by views of local peasants who viewed Chetnik propaganda more favourably than communist social radicalism in light of preservation of their property. Following
4475-534: The League of Communists of Croatia ( Savez komunista Hrvatske , SKH) and the League of Communists of Macedonia ( Сојуз на комунистите на Македонија , SKM). They were joined in an informal national-reformist coalition by the League of Communists of Slovenia ( Zveza komunistov Slovenije , ZKS) and, in a less prominent role, by the leadership of Vojvodina . In early 1963, Tito was compelled to publicly warn about chauvinism and reassure non-Serbs that merger of nations
4654-711: The Netherlands under French revolutionary protection. In Italy, the French First Republic encouraged a proliferation of small republics in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, known as sister republics . In Eastern Europe, Napoleon 's First French Empire established the Polish client state of the Duchy of Warsaw . In 1896, Britain established a state in Zanzibar . During Japan's imperial period , and particularly during
4833-531: The Odendaal Commission . Three of them were granted self-rule. These Bantustans were replaced with separate ethnicity-based governments in 1980. The Republic of Kuwait was a short-lived pro-Iraqi state in the Persian Gulf that only existed three weeks before it was annexed by Iraq in 1990. The Republic of Serbian Krajina was a self-proclaimed territory ethnically cleansed by Serbian forces during
5012-602: The Pacific War (parts of which are considered the Pacific theatre of World War II ), the Imperial Japanese government established a number of dependent states. Several European governments under the domination of Germany and Italy during World War II have been described as "puppet régimes". The formal means of control in occupied Europe varied greatly. These states fall into several categories. The Axis demand for oil and
5191-646: The Social Democratic Party of Croatia and Slavonia (SDPCS) came into existence in 1894, two years before the Yugoslav Social-Democratic Party ( Jugoslovanska socialdemokratska stranka , JSDS) was set up in Slovene lands . The Serbian Social Democratic Party (SSDP) was founded in 1903. In Bosnia and Herzegovina , the Social Democratic Party of Bosnia and Herzegovina (SDPBH) was established in 1909. The SSDP deemed it natural to serve, as
5370-807: The Yugoslav Republican Party , the Independent Democratic Party, the Agriculturalist's Union, the Socialist Party , the JSDS, the Croatian Republican Peasant Party ( Hrvatska republikanska seljačka stranka , HRSS), and a group of politicians organised as the Forward ( Napred ) group. While non-communist parties in the NFJ hoped for equality, Tito primary saw the NFJ as a tool for neutralization of political opposition by allying them with
5549-653: The Yugoslav Wars and breakup of Yugoslavia . The party, which was led by Josip Broz Tito from 1937 to 1980, was the first communist party in power in the history of the Eastern Bloc that openly opposed the Soviet Union and thus was expelled from the Cominform in 1948 in what is known as the Tito–Stalin split . After internal purges of pro-Soviet members, the party renamed itself the League of Communists in 1952 and adopted
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5728-700: The Yugoslav government-in-exile and forbade the King Peter II return to the country. A month before the Jajce meeting, the central committee of the KPJ created the National Committee for the Liberation of Yugoslavia as the new Yugoslav government, and the AVNOJ confirmed its composition – including Tito as its president. Tito's position was reinforced through the Tito–Šubašić Agreements he concluded with
5907-461: The invasion of Yugoslavia in 1941, the military arm of the party, the Yugoslav Partisans , became embroiled in a bloody civil war and defeated the Axis powers and their local auxiliaries. After the liberation from foreign occupation in 1945, the party consolidated its power and established a one-party state , which existed in that form of government until 1990, a year prior to the start of
6086-489: The royal army and restrictions on communist propaganda . The violence served as a pretext for prosecution of the KPJ. On 30 December, the government issued a Proclamation ( Obznana ) outlawing the KPJ. A faction of the KPJ named Red Justice ( Crvena pravda ) attempted to assassinate the Regent Alexander on 28 June, and then killed former Interior Minister Milorad Drašković on 21 July. This led to proclamation of
6265-417: The 1946 Yugoslav constitution followed the model of the Soviet federation in which the federal parliament legislates laws applicable to the federal units and has the power to overrule the units' legislation. In 1952, Kardelj drafted constitutional amendments to reflect the reality of the reforms of 1950–1951. This led to codification of the reforms as 1953 Yugoslav constitutional amendments seeking to reflect
6444-580: The 1970s and 1980s, four ethnic Bantustans - some of which were extremely fragmented - called "homelands" by the government of the time, were carved out of South Africa and given nominal sovereignty . Mostly Xhosa people resided in the Ciskei and Transkei , Tswana people in Bophuthatswana , and Venda people in the Venda . The principal purpose of these states was to remove South African citizenship from
6623-800: The Action Committee of the Left ( Akcioni odbor ljevice ) and opted for the unified social-democratic party with the SSDP and the SDPBH. Soon afterwards, the Vojvodina social-democrats reversed their decision. The Unification congress of the Socialist Labor Party of Yugoslavia ( Communists ) ( Socijalistička radnička partija Jugoslavije (komunista) , SRPJ(k)) was held in Belgrade on 20–23 April 1919 as consolidation on
6802-409: The Allied decision to abandon the Chetniks. This effort was abortive, as the British did not allow him to leave Italy and would not reconsider their policy of supporting Tito and the Partisans. Topalović was replaced as chairman of the Central National Committee by Mihailo Kujundžić, who had a heart attack and died soon after. He was replaced by Moljević. The new chairman had never reconciled himself with
6981-431: The Axis against the Partisans than in fighting the Axis. On 8 December 1943, in the wake of the Tehran Conference decision, the British Commander-in-Chief of the Middle East, General Henry Maitland Wilson , had sent a message to Mihailović asking him to attack two specific bridges on the Belgrade to Salonika railway line. This message was a test formulated by the British to assess Mihailović's intentions regarding resisting
7160-410: The Bihać meeting, there were land councils established as political bodies representative of individual parts of the future federation. The AVNOJ convened for the second time in Jajce in November 1943, declaring itself as the future parliament of the new Yugoslav state, affirmed commitment to forming a democratic federation without specifying any details of such federation. It also denied authority of
7339-399: The Bosnian town of Jajce in November 1943, which decided to create a federal Yugoslavia, based on six constituent republics with equal rights, Bosnia and Herzegovina , Croatia , Macedonia , Montenegro , Serbia , and Slovenia . Along with this resolution, AVNOJ asserted that it was the sole legitimate government of Yugoslavia, and denied the right of King Peter to return from exile before
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7518-404: The Chetnik cause at the beginning, such as Vasić and Moljević, representatives of old Serb political parties who had decided to join with the Chetniks later on and others. The politicians included Topalović and Pribićević. Virtually all of the pre-war political parties were represented in some way, excluding the communists and fascist-aligned groups. The congress was unique during the war, in that it
7697-408: The Chetnik ideologue Stevan Moljević , had been replaced with a commitment to democracy. The politicians responded to Mihailović's approach positively as they were concerned about the outcome of the war, and neither a communist nor Chetnik military dictatorship appealed to them. According to the historian Lucien Karchmar, the politician that appears to have taken the primary role in these negotiations
7876-486: The Chetnik movement and the collaborationist formations of the Government of National Salvation in occupied Serbia, led by Milan Nedić . The Yugoslav government-in-exile reported at the beginning of March 1944 that in response to the congress, the Gestapo and Serbian puppet government arrested 798 people in Belgrade and held them in prison as hostages, threatening to shoot 100 of them for each German soldier killed in Serbia. A number of Mihailović supporters, including some of
8055-537: The Chetnik movement overseas, including Konstantin Fotić in the United States, Jovan Đonović in Algiers, Bogoljub Jevtić in the UK, General Petar Živković in Italy, and Mladen Žujović in Egypt. Within the German-occupied territory of Serbia at least, the Chetnik movement took action to implement the resolutions of the congress. Corps commanders were ordered to modify the administrative arrangements in their areas of responsibility, and new "Ravna Gora committees" were established in each district and village to replace
8234-402: The Chetnik side, Moljević and his supporters suggested that the politicians join the Chetnik movement, which they considered apolitical, but the politicians refused to be absorbed in this way. Instead, they demanded a new political grouping be formed, of which the Chetnik movement would be just one part, and that this new grouping would lay out a new program for the future. Further demands were for
8413-452: The Chetnik situation continued to deteriorate, with their continuing tentative collaboration with the Germans playing into the hands of Partisans. In April 1941, the Kingdom of Yugoslavia was drawn into World War II when Germany and its allies invaded and occupied the country, which was then partitioned. Some Yugoslav territory was annexed by its Axis neighbours: Hungary , Bulgaria and Italy . The Germans engineered and supported
8592-489: The Chetniks, and once they arrived at Chetnik headquarters, Musulin contacted OSS Cairo to obtain approval to enlist Chetnik assistance to evacuate them from occupied territory. On 6 March, he received approval to take this action. Musulin was supposed to depart on the flight that extracted the aircrew, but delayed his departure due to illness, but also because he wished to stay with the Chetniks and gather intelligence. On 20 May, he asked approval from OSS Cairo to remain, but this
8771-413: The Chetniks, but, by December 1943, had concluded that the Chetniks were more interested in collaborating with the Axis against the Partisans than in fighting the Axis. As a test, they asked Mihailović to attack two specific bridges on the Belgrade-to-Salonika railway line, which never happened. At the Tehran Conference of November – December 1943, the major Allies agreed to change support to
8950-500: The Cominform was influenced by Moscow visit by Stjepan Radić , the leader of the Croatian Peasant Party ( Hrvatska seljačka stranka , HSS) when Radić added the HSS to the Peasant International (Krestintern) – itself an agency of the Cominform. Furthermore, the Comintern criticised the factional clashes in the KPJ over the national question in its 1924 Resolution of National Question which linked social emancipation to national one in strategic considerations. In response, Milojković
9129-718: The Comintern for guidance. By 1924, the KPJ membership was reduced to 688. Additionally, some members emigrated abroad – most to Moscow , but also to Vienna , Prague , and Paris . Indeed, the KPJ held a land conference in Vienna in 1922, where the party leadership moved the year before. In the early 1920s, KPJ saw more factional struggle between its right wing led by Marković and Belgrade-based trade union leaders Lazar Stefanović and Života Milojković advocating work through legal means to regain government approval, and leftists, including Đuro Cvijić, Vladimir Ćopić , Triša Kaclerović, Rajko Jovanović, and Kosta Novaković , favouring Leninist undercover struggle. The leftists also supported
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#17328560091959308-543: The Comintern mandate to lead the KPJ in 1939. Miletić was released from prison that year and sought to replace Tito. Months later he disappeared after he was summoned to Moscow and arrested by the NKVD as a victim of a series of purges in the KPJ in 1937–1940 which strengthened Tito's position. In 1940, the KPJ successfully completed the campaign to diminish influence of Krleža and his literary adherents who were advocating Marxist ideas and opposed Stalinisation fearing totalitarianism . Also, Tito removed Kraš and Žaja from
9487-436: The Comintern. Filip Filipović and Sima Marković , both former SSDP activists, were elected to lead the KPJ. By May 1920, the KPJ had about 50,000 members, and numerous sympathisers largely drawn from among 300,000 members of trade unions and youth organisations. In the 1920 Constitutional Assembly election , the KPJ won 58 out of 419 seats. The best results were achieved in large cities, in Montenegro and Macedonia as
9666-435: The Croatian federal unit which would ensure their political representation and preservation of their culture. Nonetheless, the increased Croatian character of the KPH caused anxiety among the Serbs. The independent policy pursued by the KPH brought Tito and Hebrang into conflict with pursuit of nationalist policy as the principal charge against the KPH. Due Hebrang's popularity, the KPJ wanted to avoid antagonising Croats during
9845-409: The Germans directly. On 29 October 1943, Adolf Hitler authorised German headquarters to utilise "national anti-Communist forces" to fight insurgencies in southeastern Europe. By the end of the year, due to a drift towards collaboration, the Government of National Salvation and the Germans were at least as influential over the Chetnik movement in the German-occupied territory of Serbia as Mihailović, who
10024-427: The Germans, and was done with the expectation that he would continue his inactivity against the Germans and not comply. The chief of the British Special Operations Executive (SOE) mission to the Chetniks, Brigadier Charles Armstrong , followed this up with written orders on 16 December, directing Mihailović to carry out the sabotage on the two bridges by 29 December. The attacks were never carried out. In late 1943,
10203-416: The HRSS was aligned with the KPJ (81%), followed by Slovenia (78%) despite non-participation by the pre-war parties in the NFJ slate there, and the lowest support in Serbia (67%). This result is attributed to monarchism and the boycott. Ultimately, 88,43% of the electorate voted, and the NFJ was supported by 88,69% of the votes cast. The suffrage was universal for everyone over the age of 18 (including women for
10382-430: The JDNZ as the expanded political wing of Mihailović's movement, with Mihailović to retain all military and political power, whereas Topalović saw the Chetniks as the military arm under the primacy of the new party. It quickly became clear that the two sides could not easily agree on even procedural matters, let alone on final resolutions. Moljević was also opposed to the creation of the JDNZ, and only wanted an expansion of
10561-462: The KPJ at odds with the Comintern which continued to advocate breakup of Yugoslavia until signing of the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact in August 1939. Still, Gorkić largely stayed out of Yugoslavia. In 1934, he appointed Tito, just released from jail, to organise secret KPJ congress in Ljubljana later that year. Gorkić was appointed the general secretary of the KPJ in 1936, with Sreten Žujović and Rodoljub Čolaković as central committee members. Tito
10740-409: The KPJ maintained its leadership divided in at least two locations at all times in 1928–1935, including at least one abroad in Moscow, Prague, Vienna, or Paris. Also acting on Comintern July 1932 instructions to promote and aid national revolt in Croatia, Slovenia, Montenegro, and Macedonia, the KPJ sought to establish ties with the Bulgaria -based Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization , but
10919-421: The KPJ of creating its own army. In response, Slovene Partisan commissars' caps were adorned with red stars defaced with letters "OF" instead. By 1942, typically 30–50 percent of Partisan unit personnel declared themselves as communists. Selection of personnel deemed the best for 14 Proletarian Brigades increased this share in those units – to more than 60 percent in some instances. According to Yugoslav sources,
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#173285600919511098-411: The KPJ of elitism and enjoying privileges. In response, Đilas was removed from the KPJ central committee in January 1954 and soon he left the party altogether. In a subsequent The New York Times interview, he called for a multi-party system in Yugoslavia – and this led to his imprisonment. Đilas was pardoned in 1966. At the 7th Congress of the SKJ held in 1958, the party became more centralised. This
11277-512: The KPJ was suspended. The move left Tito in de facto control of the KPJ as his position was ranked second only to the one held by Gorkić. Tito spent 1937 and early 1938 in Yugoslavia organising the KPJ there as a disciplined covert organisation drawing new members loyal to the communist ideas and Tito personally from all nations within Yugoslavia, except Macedonians . During this period, Tito intervened in conflict among groups of KPJ members incarcerated in Sremska Mitrovica. The conflict centred on
11456-502: The KPJ's electoral success at the local and regional level including Belgrade and Zagreb earlier that year in March–August, and at the national level the Democratic Party and the People's Radical Party advocated prohibition of communist activity. The regime saw the KPJ as the greatest impediment to realisation of views held by King Peter I on resolution of Serbian national question . In December 1920, KPJ-led miner strikes in Slovenia and Bosnia and Herzegovina led to suppression by
11635-425: The KPJ. Due to weakness of the non-communist parties in the NFJ, the KPJ dominated the group. In preparation of the 1945 elections, the AVNOJ was expanded by addition of pre-war members of parliament deemed not compromised by cooperation with the Axis powers. In effect, this meant the addition of liberal and left-leaning politicians who could not be accused of collaborating with the Axis. Civil rights were curbed in
11814-441: The KPJ. This was later the precedent for establishment of communist parties in other parts of Yugoslavia. Still the KPH leadership headed by Kraš and Žaja came into conflict with Tito in 1938 when the KPH supported the HSS instead of the Party of the Working People as the KPJ front founded for participation in 1938 parliamentary elections . The temporary leadership put together by Tito remained largely unchanged when Tito received
11993-429: The Law on the Protection of the Realm turning the KPJ ban into legislation on 2 August, annulment of the KPJ seats in the national assembly two days later, and numerous covert police agents infiltrating the KPJ. Despite the electoral success, the ban and KPJ's consequent move to covert operation took a heavy toll on the party in the next decade and a half when, faced with factional struggle, it would increasingly look to
12172-435: The Partisan forces grew to 800,000 by 1945 through volunteers, conscription of men aged 17–50, and defections of enemy troops promised amnesty. KPJ's strategic approach was complex because of pressures from the Comintern prioritising social struggle competing with the national liberation in substantially regionally uneven circumstances resulting from Axis partitioning of Yugoslavia, especially from creation of Axis-satellite of
12351-443: The Partisans and Ustashas had united to exterminate the Serbs. It also provided its full support to King Peter II and the Yugoslav government-in-exile , and re-asserted the Chetnik movement's opposition to the Germans and their allies. It further resolved to mobilise all anti-communist Serbs to fight for the survival of Serbdom . It founded a new political party, the Yugoslav Democratic National Union (JDNZ), in an effort to unite all
12530-455: The Partisans and the Ustashas had united to exterminate Serbs. It also provided its full support to the Yugoslav government-in-exile, the Chetniks, and Mihailović's military leadership, claiming that Mihailović's Chetniks were a truly national army. It re-asserted the Chetnik movement's opposition to Germany and its allies, and resolved to mobilise all anti-communist Serbs to fight for the survival of Serbdom . Lastly, it proposed its own vision for
12709-440: The Partisans relied on those among its ranks who had completed the mandatory national service in the Royal Yugoslav Army or fought in the Spanish Civil War . Many KPJ members were veterans of that conflict, and would go on to assume commanding positions in the Partisan ranks. In addition to military training, political training was given increasing importance as the war progressed. It was provided by political commissars based on
12888-517: The Partisans was appealing to the Western Allies, and Mihailović was concerned that the support he was receiving would shift to them. In order to widen the base of the Chetnik movement, Mihailović contacted representatives of the pre-war political parties living in Belgrade . He assured them that the former illiberal approach of the movement, as advocated by his close political advisers, the former republican and Black Hand adherent Dragiša Vasić and
13067-636: The Partisans, who had enjoyed considerable success in the rest of Yugoslavia in the wake of the September capitulation of the Italians, had been stymied in an attempt to break into the German-occupied territory of Serbia from the neighbouring occupied territories of Montenegro , Sandžak and eastern Bosnia. The German-led operation that stopped the Partisan incursion, Operation Kugelblitz , included Bulgarian and collaborating Chetnik units. While unsuccessful in destroying
13246-461: The Partisans. However, the Partisans had not gained entry to the German-occupied territory of Serbia, and combined with a November armistice the Chetniks had with the Germans (and likely with their tacit support for the congress), the Chetniks planned the Ba Congress as a political gesture aimed at addressing the resolutions of AVNOJ, providing an alternative political vision for post-war Yugoslavia, and as
13425-461: The SOE contact Musulin and ask for a report. Having received it, the British were hesitant to accept the new political program on its face value. Assessing that Mihailović's situation was increasingly desperate, they were not keen to enable a late attempt to save what they already thought was a lost cause. Topalović later acknowledged that the congress was not as "imposing nor as grand as its own propaganda and
13604-454: The Serbian entity. The net effect of this, according to Tomasevich, was that the country would not only return to the same Serb-dominated state it had been in during the interwar period, but would be worse than that, particularly for the Croats. He concludes that this outcome was to be expected given the overwhelmingly Serb makeup of the congress. Hoare agrees that despite its superficial Yugoslavism,
13783-470: The Soviet Union, but Yugoslavia retained autonomy within its own borders. After the Tito–Stalin split in 1948, the relationship between the two countries deteriorated significantly. Yugoslavia was expelled from the international organisations of the Eastern Bloc . After Stalin's death and a period of de-Stalinization by Nikita Khrushchev , peace was restored, but the relationship between the two countries
13962-469: The Soviet economy, military, science, and technology. After the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, most of its former satellites moved towards democratisation. Only China, Cuba, Laos , and Vietnam remain one-party communist states. In 1992, all references to Marxism–Leninism in the constitution of North Korea were dropped by the Supreme People's Assembly and replaced with Juche . In 2009,
14141-549: The Soviet foreign policy gradually brought the USSR in conflict with the KPJ. Their relationship was complicated as the KPJ led armed resistance against the Axis while the Soviet foreign relations were initially constrained by provisions of the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, and then with alliance with the Western Allies who supported the Yugoslav government-in exile until shortly after the initial Tito–Šubašić Agreement. As Yugoslavia
14320-563: The Soviet model. The commissaries were a part of the detachment staff, units originally ranging in size from 50 to 500 or even 1,000. A commissar's cap badge was made distinct from other Partisans. Namely, the red star on their cap was defaced with the hammer and sickle . The move drew criticism from the Liberation Front of the Slovene Nation ( Osvobodilna fronta slovenskega naroda , OF) civil resistance organisation – which accused
14499-407: The USSR, Đilas feared Yugoslavia would switch to full control of the society by the central government. He thought that was possible due to influence of Ranković–the Đilas's primary competitor as a potential successor to Tito. Đilas wrote a series of articles for Borba criticising bureaucratism and Communist exclusive claim to power. He took the criticism further in a compilation of essays, accusing
14678-474: The Western Allies arrived in Yugoslavia, thereby limiting losses in military and civilian personnel alike until the final phase of the war. On the other hand, the Partisans were implacably opposed to the Axis occupation and resisted consistently from the beginning. The Chetnik political agenda was a return to the Serb-dominated Yugoslavia of the interwar period , whereas the Partisans strove to create
14857-537: The Western Allies. Mihailović himself was tricked by the Partisans into thinking an uprising against them was underway in Partisan-held Serbia, and when he tried to return to join it he was captured in early 1946. Interrogated and tried for high treason and war crimes by the new Yugoslav authorities, he was found guilty and executed on 17 July of that year. Communist Party of Yugoslavia The League of Communists of Yugoslavia , known until 1952 as
15036-530: The Xhosa, Tswana, and Venda peoples, and so provide grounds for denying them their democratic rights. All four Bantustans were reincorporated into a democratic South Africa on 27 April 1994, under a new constitution . The South African authorities established ten Bantustans in South West Africa (present-day Namibia ), then illegally occupied by South Africa, in the late 1960s and early 1970s in accordance with
15215-406: The almost exclusively ethnic Serb and monarchist Chetniks , led by Draža Mihailović ; and the multi-ethnic and communist -led Partisans , under Josip Broz Tito . The approaches of the two resistance movements differed in important respects from the beginning. The Chetniks under Mihailović advocated a "wait-and-see" strategy of building up an organisation for a struggle which was to commence when
15394-466: The anniversary of the founding of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (Kingdom of Yugoslavia since 1929) in 1918, but the politicians delayed the preparations as they continued to negotiate and hesitate. When it was finally held, the Ba Congress, also known as the Saint Sava Congress or Great People's Congress, was conducted in the shadow of two threats, which affected both the Chetniks and
15573-518: The armed clash between the KPJ and the far-right Yugoslav National Movement in October leaving five dead and 120 wounded. The structural changes of the KPJ, strategic use of the national question and social emancipation to mobilise supporters made the party ideologically and operationally ready for armed resistance in the approaching war. During brief resistance of the Royal Yugoslav Army against
15752-492: The bulk of contact with them was limited to contact with fellow prison inmates trying to engage them over the shared goal of breakup of Yugoslavia. The "ultra-leftist" line pursued since 1928 was abandoned in 1933 when Adolf Hitler came to power in Germany . Instead, the KPJ turned the idea of forming a popular front together with other anti-fascist organisations . The strategy aimed to attract broad coalition of allies since it
15931-461: The central committee accompanied him. Eventually, Mihailović and Moljević fell out over the relationship of the Chetnik movement with the Germans, and Moljević resigned and was not replaced. This was the end of the Chetnik political organisation given form at Ba. Despite being planned well before the Second Session of AVNOJ was held, the Ba Congress was widely seen as a response to it. The congress
16110-637: The concern of the Allies that Germany would look to the oil-rich Middle East for a solution, caused the invasion of Iraq by the United Kingdom and the invasion of Iran by the UK and the Soviet Union. Pro-Axis governments in both Iraq and Iran were removed and replaced with Allied-dominated governments. As Soviet forces prevailed over the German Army on the Eastern Front during World War II, the Soviet Union supported
16289-415: The congress because of the Chetnik failure to carry out the sabotage operations ordered by Wilson and himself. British Prime Minister Winston Churchill used Mihailović's refusal as an opportunity to tell King Peter about the Tehran Conference decision that the Allies would be backing Tito exclusively, and that Mihailović might have to be dismissed as a minister in the government-in-exile. The night before
16468-403: The congress had clear Greater Serbia inclinations, and the historian Lucien Karchmar concludes that the usage of the term "Saint Sava Congress" reinforced the impression that it was focussed on the aspirations of Serbs rather than Yugoslavs in general. In terms of the socio-economic future of Yugoslavia, the congress expressed an interest in reforming the economic, social, and cultural position of
16647-483: The congress resulted in a short period of reduced collaboration with the Germans and the forces of the puppet Government of National Salvation in the German-occupied territory of Serbia, at this stage of the war, and with the change in Allied policy towards the Chetniks, there was nothing that could be done to improve the position of the movement. Mihailović was dropped as a minister of the government-in-exile soon after, and
16826-478: The congress, Moljević and the long-term Chetnik supporters verbally clashed with Topalović and the politicians, but Mihailović decided in favour of the latter. Mihailović made a personal address to the congress, pledging his loyalty to the king, to the rule of law and to Yugoslavia, and repeatedly denied he had any tendencies towards dictatorship. He also rejected the idea of taking collective revenge against any nationality or political faction for crimes committed during
17005-451: The congress, because he and Vasić were now regularly on opposing sides in discussions. Vasić was only included at Topalović's urging. A significant number of the younger Chetnik leaders considered the pre-war politicians to be of poor quality and character, and obstacles to political, social and economic reforms after the war. Given that the Germans could easily have prevented it from occurring or disrupted it once underway, it has been argued by
17184-485: The constitution was quietly amended to not only remove all Marxist–Leninist references from the first draft, but also drop all references to communism . In some cases, the process of decolonisation has been managed by the decolonising power to create a neo-colony , that is a nominally independent state whose economy and politics permits continued foreign domination. Neo-colonies are not normally considered puppet states. The Netherlands formed several puppet states in
17363-616: The country the Chetnik movement was progressively drawn into collaboration agreements. First, with the forces of the puppet Government of National Salvation in the German-occupied territory of Serbia , then with the Italians in occupied Dalmatia and Montenegro , next with some of the Ustasha forces in the northern Bosnia region of the NDH, and, after the Italian capitulation in September 1943, with
17542-421: The country, particularly regarding democratic ideals. This was a significant departure from previous Chetnik goals expressed earlier in the war, especially in terms of promoting democratic principles with some socialist features. Tomasevich observes that these new goals were probably more related to achieving propaganda objectives than reflecting actual intentions, given that there was no real interest in considering
17721-581: The country, the KPJ proceeded to organise the Yugoslav Partisans , as resistance fighters led by Tito. The KPJ assessed that the German invasion of the Soviet Union had created favourable conditions for an uprising and its politburo founded the Supreme Headquarters of the National Liberation Army of Yugoslavia ( Narodonooslobodilačka vojska Jugoslavije ) with Tito as commander in chief on 27 June 1941. In terms of military training,
17900-523: The creation of communist governments throughout Eastern Europe. Specifically, the People's Republics in Poland , Romania , Czechoslovakia , Bulgaria , Hungary , and Albania were dominated by the Soviet Union . While all of these People's Republics did not "officially" take power until after WWII ended, they all have roots in pro-communist wartime governments. Yugoslavia was a communist state closely linked to
18079-621: The creation of the Independent State of Croatia ( Croatian : Nezavisna Država Hrvatska , NDH), a puppet state led by the fascist Ustaša – Croatian Revolutionary Movement . The NDH comprised all of modern-day Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina and some adjacent territory. Before the defeat, King Peter II and his government went into exile, reforming in June as the Western Allied -recognised Yugoslav government-in-exile in London. Two resistance movements soon emerged in occupied Yugoslavia:
18258-486: The economic power of each constituent republic, while ensuring equal representation of each federal unit in the assembly to counterbalance this. The KPJ proclaimed shift from party monopolising power to the ideological leader of the society, decentralised its structure, and rebranded itself (and correspondingly its republican organisations) as the League of Communists of Yugoslavia ( Savez komunista Jugoslavije , SKJ) at its sixth congress held in Zagreb in 1952 . The name
18437-555: The elements of the Chetnik movement. Lastly, it proposed its own vision for the political and socio-economic future of Yugoslavia. This political framework included a Serb sovereign and a tripartite federal state, with entities for the Serbs, Croats and Slovenes only, with the Serb unit being dominant, much in the style of the Serbian nationalist and irredentist idea of Greater Serbia . However, while
18616-453: The existing Chetnik Central Committee, of which he was a long-standing member. During the congress, the assembled representatives sent a message of solidarity to the Soviet Union and Joseph Stalin . Despite the close relationship between the Partisans and the Soviets, this message is explained by the fact that neither the Chetniks nor the government-in-exile had taken an anti-Soviet stance during
18795-584: The existing administration. New district commanders were appointed, assisted by treasurers and quartermasters. The decrees of the expanded Central National Committee were made binding on all Ravna Gora committees and Chetnik district commanders, and they were only to take orders from the Executive Committee of the Central National Committee, which was also responsible for all propaganda. The Chetniks took over large parts of occupied Serbia outside
18974-532: The existing situation into resolution of the conflict, persuaded the delegates to conference of the Zagreb KPJ organisation to adopt a resolution seeking the Comintern to intervene and end the factional struggle in the KPJ entirely. The KPJ also led some of street protests in Croatia over assassination of Radić later that year. The Comintern Sixth World Congress held that year sought to increase revolutionary struggle and
19153-423: The federal arrangement, based on the solidarity between all Serb regions of Yugoslavia, under a unicameral parliament. The congress also resolved that Yugoslavia should be a constitutional monarchy headed by a Serb sovereign. Further, the congress resolved that it would not form a government as AVNOJ had done, and called upon the Partisans to follow a democratic process. Topalović had proposed that Bosnia should be
19332-574: The field to join Mihailović. The central committee of the JDNZ had been selected by June, consisting of six members, one each for foreign affairs, legislative affairs, economic and fiscal affairs, nationality questions and propaganda, social affairs, and economic construction. The central committee condemned the new government-in-exile led by Ivan Šubašić , calling its members communist sympathisers and Croat separatists. It also appointed special representatives for
19511-552: The final days of the war in May 1945, the KPJ founded the Communist Party of Serbia ( Komunistička partija Srbije , Комунистичка партија Србије ). By the end of the war, the KPJ's membership reached just over 141,000. In 1945, the KPJ worked to broaden its support, and discredit its political opponents. Since the politicians included in the government-in-exile only returned to Yugoslavia in March 1945, and Vladko Maček remained abroad, there
19690-404: The first time), except those charged with Axis collaboration. Former Partisans could vote even if under 18. The KPJ received 404 representatives of 524 (77%) in the bicameral Constituent Assembly. According to Đilas and Vladimir Velebit , the KPJ expected to win a majority of 60–65% even if the election were to guarantee fair competition. They based the opinion on the belief that the KPJ offered
19869-404: The formal armistice agreements between the Germans and Chetniks ended soon after the congress. In practical terms, despite Mihailović's opposition to the slide towards collaboration, co-operation still continued, forced by the deteriorating situation for the Germans and their collaborators in the occupied territory. The congress was followed by a significant deterioration in the relationships between
20048-581: The former Dutch East Indies as part of its effort to quell the Indonesian National Revolution . Following the Belgian Congo 's independence as Congo-Leopoldville in 1960, Belgian interests supported the short-lived breakaway State of Katanga (1960–1963). Indonesia established a Provisional Government of East Timor following its invasion of East Timor in December 1975. During
20227-414: The framework proposed by AVNOJ. The congress marked a change in the Chetnik main political objective; instead of their earlier aim to restore the centralised pre-war kingdom, they changed their approach towards a federal state structure with a dominant Serb federal unit. By agreeing to the resolutions of the congress, the Chetnik leadership sought to undermine Partisan accusations that they were dedicated to
20406-407: The government-in-exile in London. The political parties agreed that they would negotiate with Mihailović as a group. Each party nominated two delegates to a coordinating council, and the council selected four negotiators, led by Topalović, who were to work out the details of an agreement with the Chetnik leader. These negotiations dragged on, and there was one break of two months between discussions. On
20585-642: The government-in-exile in the second half of 1944 and early 1945. On the basis of those agreements, the government-in-exile was replaced with the Provisional Government of the Democratic Federal Yugoslavia with Tito as the Prime Minister on 7 March 1945. During the war, the KPJ added new organisations based on foreseen federal units. In 1943, it established the Communist Party of Macedonia ( Комунистичка партија на Македонија ) and, in
20764-553: The hands of the Partisans from a propaganda standpoint, and undermined morale within Chetniks ranks as they came to the realisation that the Germans would lose the war. In late 1944, the Partisans, along with the Red Army, entered the occupied territory of Serbia, forcing the Chetniks to withdraw into the Sandžak then the NDH alongside German troops. Finally, many Chetniks retreated towards the western borders of Yugoslavia, hoping to surrender to
20943-481: The historians Jozo Tomasevich and Marko Attila Hoare that the congress was held with the tacit approval of the Germans. The congress was also attended by Lieutenant George Musulin , one of the American Office of Strategic Services (OSS) officers attached to the British mission to Mihailović, largely at his own initiative. He was the only Allied representative who attended. Armstrong refused to participate in
21122-454: The largest social-democratic party in the new state, to unify like-minded political groups in the country. The SDPBH formally proposed a merger of such parties, but the SDPCS, the JSDS, and Serbian– Bunjevac social-democrats from Vojvodina declined. In turn, only the SSDP and the SDPBH formally agreed to a merger by January 1919. A minority group on the left wing of the SDPCS split from the party as
21301-643: The latter favouring pursuit of reforms through a parliamentary system. The leftist faction prevailed at the second congress held in Vukovar on 20–24 June 1920 and adopted a new statute. That aligned the party entirely with the Communist International (Comintern), implementing all instructions received from the Comintern. Furthermore, the party was renamed the Communist Party of Yugoslavia ( Komunistička partija Jugoslavije , KPJ) to allow its membership in
21480-424: The latter's failure to resist the Germans, the congress did nothing to improve the position of the Chetnik movement. During the balance of 1944, the Chetnik position throughout occupied Yugoslavia continued to deteriorate, as the Germans did not trust them, and tentative agreements between the two provided only limited help against their common enemy, the Partisans. The continued Chetnik collaboration also played into
21659-547: The latter. In 1963, Serbia and Montenegro concluded several agreements on strengthening economic and cultural ties, including construction of the Belgrade–Bar railway . The campaign was publicly criticised through an exchange of letters published in Borba . The proponents of the campaign, largely ethnic Serbs, were accused of scheming to abolish republics and resurrect Greater Serbian chauvinism . Particular opposition came from
21838-513: The leaders in no way assured support from those that voted for the various parties in the most recent election in 1938 . The participants also hoped that the resolutions would restore the Chetnik relationship with the Western Allies, particularly the Churchill government and British public. Having not attended the congress, the British had no first-hand intelligence about the discussions. Only in April did
22017-522: The leaders of the political parties in pre-war Yugoslavia who now supported them. The first of these was that the Partisans had widened their appeal by advancing the idea of unity among Yugoslav peoples as free and equal members of the country. This had attracted many people to their cause. This approach was formalised by the resolution of the Second Session of the Anti-Fascist Council for the National Liberation of Yugoslavia ( Serbo-Croatian : Antifašističko vijeće narodnog oslobođenja Jugoslavije , AVNOJ) in
22196-473: The leading positions in the KPH and replaced them by Rade Končar . In October 1940, the Fifth Land Conference of the KPJ was held covertly in Zagreb, as the final act of Tito's campaign to assume full control of the party. The conference represented a full takeover of now organisationally stronger, centralized, disciplined, and bolshevized , but politically isolated KPJ by Tito in full alignment with
22375-483: The left of the political spectrum. The new party was joined by the SSDP en masse, and by independent leftists who splintered away from various nationalist youth organisations and social democratic parties. The Labour Socialist Party of Slovenia ( Delavska socialistična stranka za Slovenijo ) split from the JSDS and joined the SRPJ(k) on 13 April 1920. Clashes continued within the party between leftists and centrists –
22554-474: The leftist line pursued by the Comintern at the time. The national question was placed at the centre of the KPJ policy at the conference where Tito criticised long gone Marković and Gorkić for lack of understanding of the issue. As Tito consolidated his control, the KPJ membership grew to 6,000 in 1939 and to 8,000 by 1941, with many more other supporters. The final months of 1940 were marked by militarisation of politics in Yugoslavia leading to incidents such as
22733-532: The local government they tolerate. Puppet states differ from allies , who choose their actions of their own initiative or in accordance with treaties they have voluntarily entered. Puppet states are forced into legally endorsing actions already taken by a foreign power. Puppet states are "endowed with the outward symbols of authority", such as a name, flag , anthem , constitution , law codes , motto , and government, but in reality are appendages of another state which creates, sponsors or otherwise controls
22912-406: The multi-party system of government, justifying suppression of political opposition parties in the post-war context–calling the multi-party system incompatible with the socialist order and unnecessary. In October 1948, the four existing republican communist parties were complemented by two more: the Communist Party of Bosnia and Herzegovina , and the Communist Party of Montenegro . Objectives of
23091-433: The needs of the non-Serb peoples of Yugoslavia. It seems unlikely that the Chetnik movement was fully aware of the radicalised mood amongst the general population. The most important practical outcome of the congress was the creation of the JDNZ, because all of the representatives present agreed to avoid independent political action until conditions in Yugoslavia were normalised. The existing Chetnik Central National Committee
23270-480: The new KPJ leadership put the Comintern's call to violence into practice, but instead of all-out revolt, the efforts were consisted of leaflets and several shoot-outs with the police. KPJ losses were heavy and included death of several significant leaders including Đaković and imprisonment of its most active members by specially convened antisubversive tribunals. In turn, the Sremska Mitrovica Prison became
23449-490: The new party included a large number of Serbs and Montenegrins, as well as three Croats – Vladimir Predavec, Đuro Vilović , and Niko Bartulović . It also included a Slovenian refugee, Anton Krejći, and a Bosnian Muslim, Mustafa Mulalić. Among the non-Serbs, only Mulalić was a pre-war politician, from the Yugoslav National Party . Topalović's election was a victory for the moderates among the delegates, and constituted
23628-450: The new political structure, and railed against it, especially as it failed to garner results for the Chetnik movement. There remained a significant gap between those who had embraced the new political structure and those that adhered to the original Chetnik ideology, and this divide was carried over into the post-war émigré diaspora . Regardless of the return of Moljević to the fold, the pre-war politicians remained in evidence, and came into
23807-425: The opportunity to live in peace, an agrarian reform, and on post-war euphoria. In 1946, the parliament adopted a new Constitution implementing the ethnic federalism as the KPJ's solution for the national question, modelled on the Soviet Union. By 1947, the KPJ declared that its programme was the NFJ's programme and that the KPJ is in the forefront of the NFJ. Tito linked the collapse of the pre-war Yugoslavia with
23986-531: The organisation was suffering from its internal weaknesses and suppressed by 1934. There were also overtures towards Italian -based Ustaše as a Croatian secessionist organisation. KPJ leaders praised the Ustaše-initiated Lika uprising in 1932, hoping to steer Ustaše to the political left. Even though support for Ustaše efforts in Lika and Dalmatia was declared through Proleter newspapers in December 1932,
24165-619: The period of royal dictatorship from 1929, the congress formed a new political party, the Yugoslav Democratic National Union (Serbo-Croatian: Jugoslavenska demokratska narodna zajednica , JDNZ), and Topalović was appointed as its chairman. Despite the very small size of the Socialist Party before the war, Topalović was apparently chosen due to his links with two Labour Party members of the Churchill war ministry , Clement Attlee and Ernest Bevin . The committee established for
24344-459: The policy thus undermined the overall struggle – in turn causing the KPJ to criticise the perpetrators ignoring the role of its Central Committee in formulation of the policy. Similarly, the KPJ penalised Petar Drapšin and Miro Popara as proponents of the policy, but ignored similar roles played by Đilas, Ivan Milutinović , and Boris Kidrič . In spring of 1942, the policy known as the Leftist errors
24523-527: The political and socio-economic future of Yugoslavia. The congress denounced AVNOJ's change to the constitutional organization of Yugoslavia, called on the Partisans to abandon political actions until the end of the war, and adopted a high-minded but somewhat imprecise resolution known as the Ba Resolution (Serbo-Croatian: Baška rezolucija ). The principal document was called The Goals of the Ravna Gora Movement and came in two parts. "Ravna Gora Movement" in
24702-519: The political life as a form of a "mass movement", including in the work of the State Anti-fascist Council for the National Liberation of Croatia as the top tier political body intended to grow into the future People's Parliament of Croatia . Furthermore, Hebrang declared support for more moderate social policies, and advocated Croatia's autonomy within the Yugoslav federation. He argued that Serbs of Croatia should be primarily loyal to
24881-401: The politicians firmly commit to the agreement. The politicians were loath to do this, as if they signed any document it could be used against them by the Germans, forcing them to leave Belgrade and join Mihailović in the field. The next step was a proposal to convoke a congress to ratify the new political structure and announce the new program. Mihailović advanced the date of 1 December, which was
25060-474: The politicians, were rounded up by the Germans as part of this sweep, and at least one politician was executed. A number of the politicians who had accepted positions on the new Central National Committee were forced to flee and seek Mihailović's protection. During the congress, Mihailović mentioned to Musulin that Chetniks had picked up some American aircrew who had crashed near Niš in southeastern Serbia. Musulin saw this as an opportunity to extend his stay with
25239-456: The politics of workers' self-management and an independent path to achieving socialism, known as Titoism . The Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (later renamed Yugoslavia) was established in late 1918 at the end of the World War I . Socialist movement in the territory of the new state reflected political divisions existing before the war. For example, in what was then Austria-Hungary ,
25418-405: The popular front strategy advocated by Hebrang and supported by Moša Pijade , Josip Kraš , and Đuro Pucar and denounced by Petko Miletić backed by Milovan Đilas and Aleksandar Ranković – the latter labelled Wahhabites by Pijade because of their radicalism. The conflict escalated to an attempt to kill Hebrang. Tito worked with Pijade to arrange a compromise by including Đilas and Ranković in
25597-409: The publicity given to it by its friends made it appear to be". In May, the British mission to Mihailović was withdrawn. The following month, Mihailović was dropped as a minister in the Yugoslav government-in-exile, removing his legitimacy. From this point, he treated the government-in-exile as his enemy, and had to go on alone. The Germans were very interested in the congress, and German agents provided
25776-559: The puppet government. International law does not recognise occupied puppet states as legitimate . Puppet states can cease to be puppets through: The term is a metaphor which compares a state or government to a puppet controlled by a puppeteer with strings. The first recorded use of the term "puppet government" was in 1884, in reference to the Khedivate of Egypt . In the Middle Ages , vassal states existed based on delegation of
25955-474: The regime. In 1948–1951 period, more than 50,000 KPJ members (nearly 20% of its membership) were registered as political opponents and ejected, but the party expanded its ranks by more than half a million members in the same time frame. Virtually all parties within the NFJ or otherwise were dismantled following the Stalin letters in which the Soviet leader accused the KPJ of being diluted by the NFJ. The only exception
26134-645: The republics. The 8th Congress thus abandoned Yugoslavism in favour of decentralisation. The SKJ promoted the notion of "Yugoslav socialist patriotism". The concept was described by its advocates as the feeling or awareness and love of the socialist self-management community. According to the SKJ, the concept was unrelated to nationalism and ethnicity. The notion was also claimed to support values and traditions of ethnic groups living in Yugoslavia. Puppet state List of forms of government A puppet state , puppet régime , puppet government or dummy government
26313-423: The right of King Peter II to return from exile before a popular referendum to determine the future of his rule. AVNOJ had further asserted that it was the sole legitimate government of Yugoslavia. By the time of the Ba Congress, large parts of the Chetnik movement had been drawn into collaboration with the occupying forces. The British, who had primacy regarding Allied policy in Yugoslavia, had originally supported
26492-461: The rule of a country by a king to noble men of lower rank. Since the Peace of Westphalia of 1648, the concept of a nation came into existence where sovereignty was connected more to the people who inhabited the land than to the nobility who owned the land. An earlier similar concept is suzerainty , the control of the external affairs of one state by another. The Batavian Republic was established in
26671-470: The régime-sponsored 1954 Novi Sad Agreement on the single Serbo-Croatian language. Thus launched Yugoslavism campaign sought to replace federalism with unitarism. Ranković became the most prominent advocate of the campaign. He sought support from the League of Communists of Bosnia and Herzegovina ( Savez komunista Bosne i Hercegovine , SKBiH) and from the League of Communists of Montenegro ( Savez komunista Crne Gore , SKCG) – with some success in
26850-504: The strategy was accepted by the KPJ at its Fourth Congress held in Dresden in October 1928. The appeal made at the initiative of Tito and Hebrang was accepted: Marković was expelled and his allies demoted, while new leadership was installed. Tito and Hebrang were bypassed because they were just imprisoned in Yugoslavia, and Đuro Salaj , Žika Pecarski, and Đuro Đaković were appointed instead as entirely Comintern-trained leadership. In 1929,
27029-483: The summer of 1945 when new legislation on crimes against the people and the state, curtailing the rights of assembly and freedom of the press. Middle and lower levels of bureaucracy were filled with the ranks of former Partisans. Following a boycott proclamation by the Grol's Democrats, the elections were carried out like a referendum–voting for the NFJ and against it. The NFJ slate received the highest approval in Croatia where
27208-455: The targeted Partisan formations, it did delay their entry into Serbian territory. The Chetniks took advantage of this respite, bolstered by the relative protection afforded by armistice agreements they had made with the Germans in November. This situation allowed the Chetniks to convoke the Ba Congress as a striking political gesture aimed at addressing the resolutions of AVNOJ and providing an alternative political vision for post-war Yugoslavia. It
27387-441: The temporary KPJ leadership along with Croatian moderate popular front supporters Kraš and Andrija Žaja as well as Soviet-educated Slovene Edvard Kardelj . In 1937, the Comintern compelled the KPJ to formally establish the Communist Party of Croatia ( Komunistička partija Hrvatske , KPH) and the Communist Party of Slovenia ( Komunistična partija Slovenije ). The two parties were nominally independent, but actually within
27566-404: The title referred to Ravna Gora , the place where Mihailović's Chetniks first established themselves after the invasion, and is an alternative name for Mihailović's Chetnik movement. The first part, The Yugoslav Goals of the Ravna Gora Movement stated that: The second part, The Serbian Goals of the Ravna Gora Movement stated that all Serbian provinces would be united in the Serbian unit within
27745-492: The towns, pushing the administration of the Nedić government into the margins. The central committee met again over the period 20–23 July, stating that it considered the Šubašić government incapable of protecting the interests of Yugoslavia and the king, and reserving the right to take whatever actions it considered necessary to look after Yugoslavia's interests. It was clear that Mihailović did not accept his removal from his position as
27924-412: The underdeveloped nations, the clash between strict centralisation and decentralisation appeared as a conflict between political principle and economic priorities. In 1950, Yugoslav authorities sought to combat unsustainable labour practices and improve production efficiency through introduction of workers' councils and the system which later became known as " socialist self-management ". However,
28103-493: The war, and Mihailović also thought that the approaching Red Army would appreciate assistance from the Chetniks in forcing the Germans from the occupied territory of Serbia. After three days of debate, the congress made resolutions regarding both military and political matters. Firstly, it denounced the decisions of AVNOJ as "the work of the Ustasha-Communist minority", in accordance with the existing Chetnik propaganda that
28282-498: The war. He forcefully refused to join the drift into collaboration with the Germans affecting much of the Chetnik movement at the time of the congress, but his repeated denials about plans for a military dictatorship indicate an understandable lack of confidence from the politicians in this regard. Mihailović was not overtly involved in the following discussions. During the congress there were frequent anti-German outbursts from congress participants. In common with political practice under
28461-451: The wartime struggle and instead, just two weeks before the Red Army and the Partisans took the capital from Germans , reassigned Hebrang to Belgrade to become the minister of industry and filled the leading role in the KPH with Vladimir Bakarić . In November 1942, the Partisans captured the town of Bihać and secured control over a large part of western Bosnia, Dalmatia and Lika they named
28640-624: Was abandoned. Policies employed by the NDH, enforced by the Ustaše against Serbs and ceding of Dalmatia to Italy through the Treaties of Rome created a natural base for Partisan recruitment among the Serbs, and Croats (particularly in Dalmatia) respectively. Furthermore, establishment of the NDH fractured the HSS into three groups – one supporting the armed resistance, another supporting the NDH, and an indecisive group around HSS leader Vladko Maček employing
28819-450: Was achieved by largely revoking decision-making powers previously given to republican branches of the SKJ. The party programme published at the Congress praised emerging Yugoslav consciousness and a series of articles was published advocating creation of unified Yugoslav culture. This decision built on introduction of the option of declaring one's ethnicity as Yugoslav in the 1953 census, and
28998-408: Was also conceived as a means of changing the minds of the Allies – but particularly the US – about the decisions of the Tehran Conference that withdrew support for the Chetnik movement. Another aim was to broaden political support for the movement through a program that, while remaining fiercely anti-communist, had enough democratic elements to have widespread support among the population. The congress
29177-577: Was appointed by the Comintern as the organisational secretary of the KPJ in Moscow in September of the same year and he moved to Vienna a month later. In July 1937, Gorkić was summoned from his Paris base to Moscow where he was arrested. In addition to him, there were about 900 communists of Yugoslav origin or their supporters in the Soviet Union who fell victim to the Stalin's Great Purge as did 50 other KPJ officials posted in Moscow including Cvijić, Ćopić, Filipović, Marković, and Novaković. The Soviet subsidy to
29356-489: Was becoming increasingly isolated. By mid-1943, Mihailović had realised that he needed to broaden the political appeal of the Chetnik movement. Reverses in Montenegro and Herzegovina had shown that the Chetnik political ideology was producing unsatisfactory results with the populace, and the Western Allies were concerned that the Chetnik movement was anti-democratic, or possibly even fascist . The veneer of democracy advanced by
29535-400: Was by far the most important political event for Mihailović's Chetniks during the war. Regardless of the internal changes wrought by the congress, it did not prevent the Western Allies from breaking off contact with the Chetnik movement, and there was no rapprochement with the Partisans. Given the situation in Yugoslavia in early 1944, combined with the split between the British and Chetniks over
29714-503: Was denied, and he was extracted to Italy on 28 May with the rest of the British mission to the Chetniks. A new OSS mission, Operation Halyard , arrived in August to utilise Chetnik assistance in evacuating downed fliers from occupied Serbia. Musulin was initially the leader of the Operation Halyard team. When he departed in May, Musulin was accompanied by Topalović, who led a diplomatic mission on behalf of Mihailović to try to reverse
29893-579: Was expelled, but Marković remained a part of KPJ leadership. This changed in 1925 when he was denounced by the leader of the Soviet Union Joseph Stalin personally before Yugoslav commission of the Comintern insisting that the KPJ must harness national movements for revolutionary aims. Regardless, the factional struggle continued. In 1927, the seat of the KPJ central committee in Yugoslavia was moved from Belgrade to Zagreb. In February 1928, Josip Broz Tito and Andrija Hebrang , seeking to stir
30072-418: Was inspired by the 1847–1852 Communist League founded by Marx , Engels and Schapper . The constitutional amendments, adopted in January 1953, were only the second step in a series of five constitutional reforms reflecting the social development of Communist-ruled Yugoslavia, but the principles introduced in 1953 were retained in all subsequent Yugoslav constitutions. After the Yugoslav rapprochement with
30251-584: Was never completely mended. Yugoslavia continued to pursue independent policies and became the founding member of the Non-Aligned Movement . The Soviet Union continued to exert some influence over the People's Republic of China before the Sino-Soviet split in 1961. Some other countries which once were Soviet puppet governments included Mongolia , North Korea , North Vietnam , the reunified Vietnam and Cuba , all of which had substantial dependence on
30430-688: Was no longer thought feasible to achieve quick introduction of communist rule. The popular front strategy coincided with assignment of Milan Gorkić to the KPJ leadership from his posting at the Comintern in 1932. Gorkić set about to introduce discipline to the KPJ top ranks and establish ties with the JSDS, the HSS, the Montenegrin Federalist Party , the Slovene Christian Socialists, and pro-Russian right wing organisations in Serbia with Moscow now advocating Yugoslav unity. This placed
30609-418: Was no well-organised political opposition to the KPJ. The People's Front of Yugoslavia ( Narodni front Jugoslavije , NFJ) was established in autumn of 1945, nominally a coalition of nearly all political parties in the country. A notable exception was Milan Grol 's Democratic Party which was charged with the Serbian nationalism . Besides the KPJ, the NFJ included weak and poorly organised bourgeois parties:
30788-477: Was not contemplated while defending the concept of Yugoslavism. Finally, at the 8th Congress of the SKJ held in 1964, Tito and Kardelj gave speeches criticising those thinking about merging nations of Yugoslavia as proponents of bureaucratic centralisation, unitarism and hegemony. There was no further mention of Yugoslavism at the Congress and the republican branches of the SKJ were given back their decision-making powers to reflect specificities and national character of
30967-423: Was not fully in the Soviet post-war sphere of influence, Tito pursued a foreign policy course seeking to integrate Albania into the Yugoslav federation, support the Greek communist guerrillas , and broaden ties between Yugoslavia and Bulgaria –potentially unifying the countries. Conclusion of the 1947 Bled Agreement seeking closer ties with Bulgaria, and imminent deployment of Yugoslav Army to Albania prompted
31146-553: Was organised by Mihailović and occurred between 25 and 28 January 1944 in the village of Ba , near Valjevo in the German-occupied territory of Serbia. Approximately 300 civilians participated, almost all of whom were Serbs from Serbia, Montenegro and Bosnia together with two or three Croats, one Slovene and one Bosnian Muslim. The non-Serb representation was effectively tokenistic. Delegates from Herzegovina and Dalmatia were unable to attend in time. The delegates attending included principal Chetnik commanders, politicians who had joined
31325-471: Was pursued through workers' self-management legislation introduced in 1950, as well as through opposition to Stalinism and inter-war Yugoslav unitarism . The approach led to a period of ideological revisionism in which established doctrines could be questioned. Even though Soviet and Cominform propaganda drew attention to inequalities in the economic development of various parts of Yugoslavia, alleging restoration of capitalism, and national oppression of
31504-443: Was the HRSS, which was temporarily allowed to continue operating. The exact number of those arrested remains uncertain, but in 1983, Radovan Radonjić stated that 16,288 were arrested and convicted, including 2,616 belonging to various levels of the KPJ leadership. According to Ranković, 51,000 people were killed, imprisoned or sentence to forced labour, a majority of them without trial. Prisoners were held at numerous sites, including
31683-425: Was the leader of the small pre-war Socialist Party , Živko Topalović . Topalović contacted members of the pre-war United Opposition , such as the leader of the Independent Democratic Party , Adam Pribićević , and the leader of the People's Radical Party , Aca Stanojević . Both Pribićević and Stanojević were only the nominal leaders of their respective parties, as the real decision-makers in their parties were with
31862-413: Was the only gathering which included the main Chetnik commanders and closely aligned politicians as well as Chetnik supporters among the pre-war political parties. The Chetnik old guard were originally opposed to the involvement of the recently aligned pre-war politicians, and according to Mihailović they were only included at his insistence. Mihailović was also opposed to Vasić having a significant role in
32041-404: Was to be expanded to include representatives of all those that participated in the congress. The selection of the new Central National Committee members was delegated to an "organisational committee of three", comprising Topalović, Vasić and Moljević, who were to consult with the various leaders. The outcomes of the congress meant that Mihailović now had the endorsement of the People's Radical Party,
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