Editing Yugoslavia (section)

==World War II==
{{main|World War II in Yugoslavia}}
[[File:Stjepan Stevo Filipović.jpg|thumb|right|upright=0.7|[[Yugoslav Partisans|Partisan]] [[Stjepan Filipović]] shouting "Death to fascism, freedom to the people!" shortly before his execution (1942)]]

At 5:12&nbsp;a.m. on 6 April 1941, [[Nazi Germany|German]], [[Kingdom of Italy|Italian]] and [[Kingdom of Hungary (1920–1946)|Hungarian]] forces [[Invasion of Yugoslavia|invaded Yugoslavia]].<ref>{{cite web |url =https://www.bbc.co.uk/history/worldwars/wwtwo/partisan_fighters_01.shtml |title =Partisans: War in the Balkans 1941–1945 |author =Stephen A. Hart |author2 =[[British Broadcasting Corporation]] |publisher =bbc.com |date =17 February 2011 |access-date =8 February 2014 |archive-url =https://web.archive.org/web/20111128065207/http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/worldwars/wwtwo/partisan_fighters_01.shtml |archive-date =28 November 2011 |url-status =live }}</ref> The German Air Force (''[[Luftwaffe]]'') bombed [[Belgrade]] and other major Yugoslav cities. On 17 April, representatives of Yugoslavia's various regions signed an armistice with Germany in Belgrade, ending eleven days of resistance against the invading German forces.<ref>{{cite web |url =http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/yugoslavia-surrenders |title =Apr 17, 1941: Yugoslavia surrenders |author =[[History (U.S. TV channel)|History Channel]] |publisher =history.com |year =2014 |access-date =8 February 2014 |archive-url =https://web.archive.org/web/20140221215720/http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/yugoslavia-surrenders |archive-date =21 February 2014 |url-status =live }}</ref> More than 300,000 Yugoslav officers and soldiers were taken prisoner.<ref>{{cite web |author=[[Indiana University]] |date=October 2002 |title=Chronology 1929 |url=http://www.indiana.edu/~league/1941.htm |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141027024429/http://www.indiana.edu/~league/1941.htm |archive-date=27 October 2014 |access-date=8 February 2014 |publisher=indiana.edu}}</ref>

The [[Axis Powers]] occupied Yugoslavia and split it up. The [[Independent State of Croatia]] was established as a [[Nazi]] satellite state, ruled by the fascist militia known as the [[Ustaše]] that came into existence in 1929, but was relatively limited in its activities until 1941. German troops occupied [[Bosnia (region)|Bosnia]] and [[Herzegovina]] as well as part of [[Serbia]] and [[Slovenia]], while other parts of the country were occupied by [[Bulgaria]], Hungary, and Italy. From 1941 to 1945, the Croatian [[Ustaše]] regime [[Genocide of Serbs in the Independent State of Croatia|persecuted and murdered]] around 300,000 Serbs, along with at least 30,000 Jews and Roma;<ref>{{cite book |last1=Goldberg |first1=Harold J. |title=Daily Life in Nazi-Occupied Europe |date=2019 |publisher=ABC-CLIO |isbn=9781440859120 |page=22 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=h5q1DwAAQBAJ&pg=PA22}}</ref> hundreds of thousands of Serbs were also expelled and another 200,000-300,000 were forced to convert to [[Catholicism]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Tomasevich |first1=Jozo |editor1-last=Vucinich |editor1-first=Wayne S. |title=Contemporary Yugoslavia: Twenty Years of Socialist Experiment |date=2021 |orig-year=1969 |publisher=University of California Press |isbn=9780520369894 |page=79 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1FXuDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA79 |chapter=Yugoslavia During the Second World War}}</ref>

From the start, the Yugoslav resistance forces consisted of two factions: the communist-led [[Yugoslav Partisans]] and the royalist [[Chetniks]], with the former receiving Allied recognition at the Tehran conference (1943). The heavily pro-Serbian Chetniks were led by [[Draža Mihajlović]], while the pan-Yugoslav oriented Partisans were led by [[Josip Broz Tito]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Pavlowitch |first1=Stefan |title=Hitler's New Disorder: The Second World War in Yugoslavia |date=2008 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=9780199326631 |page=285 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZK8SEAAAQBAJ&pg=PA285}}</ref>

The Partisans initiated a [[guerrilla warfare|guerrilla]] campaign that developed into the largest resistance army in occupied Western and Central Europe. The Chetniks were initially supported by the exiled royal government and the [[Allies of World War II|Allies]], but they soon focused increasingly on combating the Partisans rather than the occupying Axis forces. By the end of the war, the Chetnik movement transformed into a collaborationist Serb nationalist militia completely dependent on Axis supplies.<ref>David Martin, Ally Betrayed: The Uncensored Story of Tito and Mihailovich, (New York: Prentice Hall, 1946), 34.</ref> The Chetniks also [[Chetnik war crimes in World War II|persecuted and killed]] [[Bosniaks|Muslims]] and [[Croats]],<ref>{{cite book|last=Redžić|first=Enver|title=Bosnia and Herzegovina in the Second World War|year=2005|publisher=Tylor and Francis|location=New York|isbn=978-0-7146-5625-0|page=155|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pVCx3jerQmYC&pg=PA155|access-date=18 August 2021|archive-date=18 August 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210818050246/https://books.google.com/books?id=pVCx3jerQmYC&pg=PA155|url-status=live}}</ref> with an estimated 50,000-68,000 victims (of which 41,000 were civilians).<ref name="Geiger">{{cite journal|first=Vladimir|last=Geiger|publisher=Croatian Institute of History|title=Human Losses of the Croats in World War II and the Immediate Post-War Period Caused by the Chetniks (Yugoslav Army in the Fatherand) and the Partisans (People's Liberation Army and the Partisan Detachments of Yugoslavia/Yugoslav Army) and the Communist Authorities: Numerical Indicators |journal=Review of Croatian History |volume=VIII |issue=1 |date=2012 |url=https://hrcak.srce.hr/103223?lang=en|page=117|access-date=25 October 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151117064114/https://hrcak.srce.hr/103223?lang=en|archive-date=17 November 2015|url-status=live}}</ref> The highly mobile Partisans, however, carried on their guerrilla warfare with great success. Most notable of the victories against the occupying forces were the battles of [[Battle of Neretva|Neretva]] and [[Battle of Sutjeska|Sutjeska]].

On 25 November 1942, the [[AVNOJ|Anti-Fascist Council of National Liberation of Yugoslavia]] was convened in [[Bihać]], modern day [[Bosnia and Herzegovina]]. The council reconvened on 29 November 1943, in [[Jajce]], also in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and established the basis for post-war organisation of the country, establishing a federation (this date was celebrated as Republic Day after the war).{{Citation needed|date=October 2023}}

The [[Yugoslav Partisans]] were able to expel the Axis from Serbia in 1944 and the rest of Yugoslavia in 1945. The [[Red Army]] provided limited assistance with the liberation of [[Belgrade]] and withdrew after the war was over. In May 1945, the Partisans met with Allied forces outside former Yugoslav borders, after also taking over [[Trieste]] and parts of the southern Austrian provinces of [[Styria]] and [[Carinthia (state)|Carinthia]]. However, the Partisans withdrew from Trieste in June of the same year under heavy pressure from Stalin, who did not want a confrontation with the other Allies.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Buchanan |first1=Andrew N. |title=World War II in Global Perspective, 1931-1953: A Short History |date=2019 |publisher=John Wiley & Sons |isbn=978-1-1193-6607-2 |page=189}}</ref>

Western attempts to reunite the Partisans, who denied the supremacy of the old government of the [[Kingdom of Yugoslavia]], and the émigrés loyal to the king led to the [[Tito-Šubašić Agreement]] in June 1944; however, [[Marshal of Yugoslavia|Marshal]] Josip Broz Tito was in control and was determined to lead an independent communist state, starting as a prime minister.  He had the support of Moscow and London and led by far the strongest Partisan force with 800,000 men.<ref>Michael Lees, ''The Rape of Serbia: The British Role in Tito's Grab for Power, 1943–1944'' (1990).</ref><ref>{{cite book|author1=James R. Arnold|author2=Roberta Wiener|title=Cold War: The Essential Reference Guide|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XRd6Y-oiFPAC&pg=PA216|date=January 2012|publisher=ABC-CLIO|page=216|isbn=978-1-6106-9003-4|access-date=17 October 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160101214426/https://books.google.com/books?id=XRd6Y-oiFPAC&pg=PA216|archive-date=1 January 2016|url-status=live}}</ref>

The official Yugoslav post-war estimate of [[World War II casualties|victims]] in Yugoslavia during World War II is 1,704,000. Subsequent data gathering in the 1980s by historians [[Vladimir Žerjavić]] and [[Bogoljub Kočović]] showed that the actual number of dead was about 1 million.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Byford |first1=Jovan |title=Picturing Genocide in the Independent State of Croatia: Atrocity Images and the Contested Memory of the Second World War in the Balkans |date=2020 |publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing |isbn=978-1-3500-1597-5 |page=158 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=N8LkDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA158}}</ref>