Anti-Fascist Council for the National Liberation of Yugoslavia

Josip Broz Tito led the Yugoslav Partisans as a resistance to Axis occupation of Yugoslavia

The Kingdom of Yugoslavia acceded to the Tripartite Pact on 25 March 1941 under pressure from the Nazi Germany. The latter sought to protect its southern flank before the planned invasion of the Soviet Union, while ensuring the availability of transport routes and economic resources in the Balkans where the Greco-Italian War was in progress. In response to the pact, Royal Yugoslav Armed Forces generals staged a coup d'état deposing the government and Prince Regent Paul. Royal Yugoslav Air Force General Dušan Simović became the Prime Minister and the regency was abolished by declaring Peter II of Yugoslavia of age and thus the king even though he was only seventeen.[1]

On 6 April 1941, the Axis powers invaded and quickly occupied Yugoslavia. Parts of the country were annexed by its neighbours, and the Independent State of Croatia (Nezavisna država Hrvatska, NDH) was carved out as a Ustaše-ruled Axis puppet state. With the country's defeat imminent, the Communist Party of Yugoslavia (Komunistička partija Jugoslavije, KPJ) instructed its 8,000 members to stockpile weapons in anticipation of armed resistance.[2] By the end of 1941, the armed resistance spread to all areas of the country except Macedonia.[3] Building experience in clandestine operation across the country, the KPJ proceeded to organise the Yugoslav Partisans[4] as resistance fighters led by Josip Broz Tito.[5] The KPJ assessed the German invasion of the Soviet Union had created favourable conditions for an uprising and in response to this, the KPJ politburo founded the Supreme Headquarters of the National Liberation Army of Yugoslavia with Tito as commander-in-chief on 27 June 1941.[6] According to Yugoslav sources, the Partisan forces grew to 800,000 by 1945 through the recruitment of volunteers and defecting Axis-collaborator troops who were promised amnesty, and the conscription of men aged between 17 and 50.[7]

King Peter II of Yugoslavia (centre) with the prime minister of the government-in-exile Dušan Simović (left) and Royal Court Minister Radoje Knežević (right) in London in June 1941 shortly after fleeing Yugoslavia

King Peter II and the government fled Yugoslavia as it became apparent the royal army would not be able to defend the country. The decision to abandon organised armed resistance to the Axis powers as early as April 1941 brought the Yugoslav government-in-exile into a weak position further weakened by quarreling ministers who appeared united only in opposition to communism.[8] The government's legality was based on the 1931 Yugoslav Constitution which made the it responsible to the king. The government was an extension of the post-coup government led by Simović.[9] It lost three Croatian Peasant Party (Hrvatska seljačka stranka, HSS) ministers including the party's leader and the deputy prime minister Vladko Maček who resigned and stayed in the country. The HSS thus split and lost influence. Džafer Kulenović also resigned as the only minister drawn from the Yugoslav Muslim Organization.[10]

The government-in-exile was split along an ethnic line separating the HSS from a bloc of Serb ministers drawn from several disunited parties.[9] The divisions deepened as the HSS ministers displayed reluctance to publicly discuss and condemn Ustaše atrocities against Serbs in autumn of 1941. In January 1942, Simović was replaced by Slobodan Jovanović and his decision to support the Chetniks widened the rift with the HSS ministers.[11] Jovanović saw Chetniks as a guerrilla force promising restoration of the monarchy after the war. In combination with fear of communism, this led him to ignore information about Chetnik collaboration with the Axis powers,[12] and appoint their leader Draža Mihailović the Minister of the Army, Navy and Air Forces.[13] At the same time, the government promoted Mihailović to the rank of Army General and formally renamed the Chetniks the "Yugoslav Army in the Homeland".[14] In June 1943, Jovanović resigned unable to reunite the ministers, and his replacement Miloš Trifunović also resigned after less than two months of failing to resove the same problem. In August, Božidar Purić was appointed the prime minister of a largely administrative government mostly composed of civil servants,[15] although Mihailović retained his ministerial position.[16]

An image of the second session of the AVNOJ: Josip Broz Tito, Josip Vidmar, Edvard Kocbek, Josip Rus and Moša Pijade

Tito’s decision to convene another session of the AVNOJ was made in response to the surrender of Fascist Italy and the approach of troops of the Western Allies.[31] In the interval between sessions, the Western Allies had started to support the Partisans,[32] and Tito considered a British landing in Yugoslavia likely.[33] In October 1943, just before the second session, the KPJ central committee established the National Committee for the Liberation of Yugoslavia (Nacionalni komitet oslobođenja Jugoslavije, NKOJ), an all-Yugoslav executive body,[34] appointed to perform the role of an interim government.[35]

The AVNOJ reconvened in Jajce on 29 and 30 November 1943; Ribar chaired the meeting as the president of executive council. The KPJ originally decided the second session of the AVNOJ should be attended by 250 delegates who were elected by regional land councils. The number was subsequently increased by 53 to accommodate delegates from Macedonia and Sandžak, regions that were not originally included in the delegate count. The number was divided between the land councils; 78 delegates were to be elected in Croatia, 53 in Bosnia and Herzegovina, 53 in Serbia, 42 in Slovenia, 42 in Macedonia, 16 in Montenegro, 11 in Sandžak, and 8 in Vojvodina.[36]

Of the planned 303, only 142 delegates arrived by the start of the session; 46 from Bosnia and Herzegovina, 37 from Croatia, 24 from Serbia, 17 from Slovenia, 16 from Montenegro and 2 from Vojvodina. There were also 163 deputy delegates at the session – 67 from Croatia, 43 from Bosnia and Herzegovina, 42 from Slovenia and 11 from Montenegro. The Serbian delegates were not elected by the Main National Liberation Committee for Serbia, which was unable to carry out elections due to repressive actions taken by the Nazi German occupation forces in Serbia. Instead, the Serbian delegates were appointed by individual Partisan units that were originally drawn from Serbia. This meant the eastern parts of Yugoslavia were underrepresented in the second session of the AVNOJ.[37]

AVNOJ decision to build a new Yugoslavia as a federation to ensure equality of its nations

The AVNOJ made several decisions of the highest political and constitutional significance, declaring itself the supreme legislative body in the country and the representation of Yugoslav sovereignty.[38] The AVNOJ affirmed a commitment to forming a democratic federation. It recognised the equal standing of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia and Slovenia in the future federation. Only Sandžak was listed with other lower-ranked regional entities, even though its land council was still included among the "seven basic bodies of people’s government". Though the position of individual nations and regions were not further elaborated,[39] the second session of the AVNOJ determined the type of federal system to be introduced in Yugoslavia, modelling it on the Soviet Union.[40]

Thus Tito's views prevailed over the model adopted by the State Anti-fascist Council for the National Liberation of Croatia and the Communist Party of Croatia (Komunistička partija Hrvatske, KPH),[40] a nominally independent part of the KPJ established in Croatia.[41] The KPH leader Andrija Hebrang advocated establishment of a loose Yugoslav federation where communist parties and bodies established in federal units would be in full control of the federal units. In contrast, at least until 1945 Tito viewed the federal units as merely administrative divisions. Hebrang was replaced in late 1944 by Vladimir Bakarić. Under Bakarić, the KPH reversed its policy and aligned its views to the KPJ and the federal model favoured by Tito.[40]

The AVNOJ also denied legitimacy of the Yugoslav government-in-exile and forbade the return of King Peter II to the country until its people could decide on the future of the monarchy freely after the war. It also declared all agreements previously concluded by the government-in-exile to be subject to review and approval, renegotiation or cancellation while declaring any further agreements concluded by the government-in-exile void. Furthermore, the AVNOJ declared that Yugoslavia never accepted the 1941 partition.[38] Finally, Tito was awarded the rank of Marshal of Yugoslavia.[42]

The AVNOJ elected a new presidency consisting of sixty-three members and was chaired by Ribar.[25] Five vice-presidents were appointed: Antun Augustinčić, Moša Pijade, Josip Rus, Dimitar Vlahov, and Marko Vujačić. Radonja Golubović and Rodoljub Čolaković were appointed secretaries of the presidency.[43] Some of the AVNOJ delegates were non-Communists so the presidency included some non-Communist members of the pre-war HSS and the Independent Democratic Party. The NKOJ was confirmed in the role of the government. Tito was appointed the president of the NKOJ and had three vice-presidents.[25] Two were KPJ members Edvard Kardelj and Vladislav S. Ribnikar, and the remaining one was Božidar Magovac of the HSS.[44] Finally, the AVNOJ formally praised and thanked Tito's Supreme Headquarters, and the Partisan forces for their armed struggle.[38]

Coat of arms of the Democratic Federal Yugoslavia. The date at the bottom marks the second session of the AVNOJ.

On 15 January 1944, the AVNOJ introduced multilingualism into its official government work. In its decision, the AVNOJ determined its official work would be published in Serbian, Croatian, Slovene and Macedonian languages.[45][46] In response to Tito's request submitted on 17 February 1944,[47] the AVNOJ and the NKOJ formally adopted a new emblem of the future federation that consisted of five lit torches burning as one flame representing five united nations; this was framed by sheaves, topped by a red five-pointed star, and crossed by a blue stripe bearing the name of the country, Democratic Federal Yugoslavia.[45]

Stalin was enraged by establishment of the NKOJ as an interim government and explicit repudiation of the government-in-exile in direct contradiction to explicit Soviet advice to avoid antagonising the exiled government and Peter II. Stalin was specifically worried about Tito's assumption of the presidency of the NKOJ and found his elevation to the rank of Marshal particularly provocative. He thought that this would signal to the Western Allies that the KPJ was actually fighting for a revolution. Stalin was further angered by the fact that he received no prior notice of the decisions.[42]

To Stalin's surprise, the Western Allies did not particularly oppose the AVNOJ's decisions. The flow of British equipment and arms to the Partisans which had started in the second half of 1943 on the basis of the Churchill's Mediterranean strategy remained unbroken.[48] Only days after conclusion of the second session of the AVNOJ, the Allies recognised the Partisans as an Allied force at the Tehran Conference, and cut off further aid to the Chetniks.[49] On British Prime Minister Winston Churchill's urging, the government-in-exile led by Ivan Šubašić and the Tito-led NKOJ signed the Treaty of Vis on 16 June 1944. Through the agreement, the government-in-exile recognised the AVNOJ and pledged to support it. In return, the NKOJ agreed to postpone the decision on the constitution of Yugoslavia until after the war.[50] Tito and Šubašić concluded another agreement, this time in Belgrade on 1 November, in which Šubašić confirmed AVNOJ as Yugoslavia's legislative body and agreed to form a new 18-person government. Six of the members would come from the government-in-exile and twelve would be NKOJ members.[51] The second session of the AVNOJ also drew a response from the Chetnik leadership, who proposed an alternative solution for the post-war government at the Ba Congress held in January 1944.[52]

On 21 November 1944, the presidency of the AVNOJ declared the German minority hostile to Yugoslavia and determined they were collectively guilty for the war. Germans living in the part of the country controlled by the Partisan forces were interned. Prior to 1944, there was about half a million Germans living in Yugoslavia, about 240,000 of whom were evacuated before the arrival of the Red Army as the Belgrade Offensive progressed. Another 150,000 were later deported to the USSR to work as forced labour, 50,000 died in Yugoslav-run concentration camps and 15,000 were killed by the Partisans. Most of the others were expelled from Yugoslavia and German property was seized. By the time of 1948 census, fewer than 56,000 ethnic Germans remained in Yugoslavia.[53]