YUGOSLAVIA 1918-1958

Axis Powers Invade The Kingdom of Yugoslavia

Regent Prince Paul Tries to Remain Neutral

With an invasion by the Axis powers looming, Prince Paul agreed to join the Tripartite Pact alliance with the Axis powers on March 25th, 1941 while attempting to stay out of the conflict and remain neutral in the war. Two days later, pro-Allied Royal Yugoslav Army generals staged a bloodless coup and designated King Peter II of age at seventeen. As King, Peter II had wide support, but it would be a short-lived celebration.

Ten days later, on Orthodox Easter Sunday of April 6th, Nazi Germany attacked the Kingdom of Yugoslavia and King Peter II fled to Greece and then on to British-ruled Jerusalem, eventually landing at Allied headquarters in Cairo, Egypt. Within the week, Germany, Hungary, Bulgaria and Italy had all invaded the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. On April 17th, King Peter II's military surrendered and the Axis powers divided up the country.

Resistance and Civil War

Resistance to Axis occupation came from former Royal Army forces throughout the mountainous country supported by the Allies and young King Peter II and his government in exile in Great Britian. The two main resistance guerrilla fighting forces were the Chetniks led by Draža Mihailović, supported by the Yugoslav Crown and the British, and the Partisans led by Josip Broz Tito, supported by Russia.

Germany installed The Government of National Salvation in occupied Serbia while Italy installed the Independent State of Croatia in occupied Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina. Civil war raged as a wide spectrum of groups including the Serbian government Chetniks, the Serbian State Guard, the Serbian Volunteer Corps, the Slovene Home Guard, the Croatian government Home Guard, the Croatian Ustaše, Mihailović's British-backed Chetniks and Tito's Russian-backed Partisans made and broke alliances as strategy and fortunes changed.

Mihailović's Chetniks, officially the Yugoslav Army in the Fatherland, were fighting and collaborating with both sides, getting support from the British to fight the Germans while also collaborating with Germans to fight the Partisans in hopes of controlling post-war Yugoslavia and re-establishing the monarchy of King Peter II. This went on until British intelligence services caught on in 1943 and by the end of the year, Winston Churchill officially switched support to Tito's Partisans.

By June 1944, the Partisans had grown into the largest resistance force in Europe. Tito formed a new government and King Peter's government-in-exile signed a coalition agreement, but he would never return, and the Partisan army grew even larger in the merger. Beginning in September, a subsequent purge of Royalists and Axis collaborators ensued in what became known as the Bloody Autumn of 1944. In October, the Soviet and Bulgarian armies entered Yugoslavia and within three weeks the Partisans controlled Belgrade.

After Tito took control of the government and the purges began, Mihailović aligned with the United States and rescued hundreds of Allied airmen until the end of 1944 in hopes of getting support for his war against the Partisans. But by May of 1945, his forces were defeated and he went into hiding until he was captured in March of 1946. After a public trial in June, he was executed along with other German collaborators in July, 1946. The United States did, however, award him a Legion of Merit by President Harry Truman for his service, posthumously.

Federal People's Republic of Yugoslavia

A fiercely independent state straddles East and West

Josip Broz Tito had served as the youngest Sergeant Major in the Austro-Hungarian Army for the Central Powers in World War I and had been captured by the Soviets. When he returned home after the war, he joined the Communist Party of Yugoslavia and led the Partisans fight along with the Allies against the Axis Powers in World War II. When the war ended, he assumed leadership as President, Prime Minister and Marshal, equivalent to Commander-In-Chief of the armed forces, of the new Federal People's Republic of Yugoslavia.

As a war hero and benevolent dictator, he was not about to take orders from Joseph Stalin or the Soviets. He ruthlessly purged his communist party of Soviet supporters and put down skirmishes and border conflicts, then facing a potential war with Russia, turned to the Allies for economic and military assistance and signed a defense treaty with NATO countries Greece and Turkey, which provided an opportunity for the United States to have some leverage and influence.

After Stalin died in 1953, relations with the Soviet Union thawed and Tito used the leverage of the Cold War between East and West to achieve his own goals. Firmly committed to Yugoslavian independence, he initiated a Non-Aligned Movement for countries that were not aligned in NATO or the Warsaw Pact. Tito also had his own ideas about how socialism should work. Yugoslavia pioneered a form of market socialism and workers' self-management where workers, not the state, collectively owned, organized and managed their companies. These successful economic policies along with reasonably fair political representation from Slovenia to Macedonia strengthened Tito's position and popularity throughout the country.

Despite relations with the West, citizens could not simply leave the country in the 1950s. But the influx of western culture in the form of 1950s pop music, movies, books, blue jeans, cigarettes and fashions ignited the fancy of teens and college students who had been too young for the war. The economy was beginning to grow, but many imagined a better life in the west. They too were part of the Silent Generation.