INTERNAL SITUATION IN YUGOSLAVIA

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP82-00457R000300790008-8
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: S
• Document Page Count: 6
• Document Creation Date: November 9, 2016
• Document Release Date: January 20, 1999
• Sequence Number: 8
• Publication Date: March 4, 1947
• Content Type: IR

AILLu?rAA 23
:-:()IiNTRY 'Yugoslavia
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TRAL INTELLIGENCE GROUP
faUGENCE REPORT
-.1BJECT Internal Situation in Yugoslavia
25X1A6a
WO. November 1946
4 Naruh 194/
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SUPPLEMENT
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1. General
afe-fellowing summary of political and economic trends is reported to be
aTplicable to all Iugoslavia as of late 1946.
7- Comannisation and collectivization of all industry, economic enterprises,
mitt banking is Proceeding at an accelerated rate.
2. A unified net of co-operatives undor state sueervision is being set up to
eebrace all peasantry, for the purpose -WCOralne "AID source-of obliging the
peasants to serve the political and economic ends of Cozemuds'm
3, All internal political opposition parties are suppressed, and their
activities rigidly forbidden.
The two principal religions, Orthodox and Catholic, are being persecuted and
deprived of any thence of carrying on their activities, ante they are regarded
by the regime as the main centers of political resistance.
5. T1301gal forces in 4.11e shape of large-scale military formations have been
elir ed.Houever, small terrorist groups continue to exist and are a cause
or constant annoyance and difficulty to the government.
6?, Under pressure and with tremendous expeediture of humareeffort? the recon-
etruction of the caantry is proceeding rapidly on a large scale. Despite all
dUficuIties, noticeable results have been achieved.
7. Popular dissatisfaction with the regime is very great, but is kept more
or less under control by reason of the terrorist methods employed by the state
in suppressing all opposition.
9- Federal elections were conducted in the same atmosphere of terror as pre-
vailed duree the November 1945 elections. Each Central UDE (formerly OM)
has A special section called "Election LIDEO responsible for intimtdation and
terrorising of the voters. During these elections no opposition ballet-boxes
were to be seen at the polling places, and the elections themselves amounted
t.o a mere registration on the electoral lists of those who had and had not
liotaA. Such Procedure had a very marked intimidating effect on the population?
who
were well aware that those who did not vote wore?automaticaliv out on ?a
black list of opponents to the regime. Aceompeneing this.Comunist agents
.f.i.ead rumors to the effect that failure to vote would result in loss of
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ration cards, ditelissal from present elaplazraerkb, and permaneht unemployment.
In other words, the population was terrified into believing that non-voters
would be doomed to lead the life of political outcasts.
9. Purchase hy the government, under compulsion, of farm products at un-
reasonabl law fixed prices, hes aroused the resentment of the peasantry.
The people were accuctemad to disposing of their produce on the free market
without restrictions, and such acqcieitive methods, carried out with the
application ce!' foree,e--e!-ezlie;eeaet of the German occupation, under which
the practice originated.
10. The campaign against the Allies is proceeding throughout the whole of
Yugoslavia both openly and through secret agents. In the daily press, at
meetings, rallies, and particularly in the Army the anti-Allied propaganda
campaigns continue branding the Allies as "imperialists, capitalists,
oppressors of small peoples, eeploiners of the working masses, centers
of reaction". Officially, the British and Americans are now referred to as
"our former allies".
2. Serbia
1. the activities of opposition political parties have been almost entirely
eliminated through threats, arrests and physical violence. With the departure
and exile of Ulan. Grol, its leader and former Vice-resident in the Tito
Government, the Democratic Party can be regarded as negligible in influence.
The leader of the Radical Party, (one of the largest in Serbia), Dr. Lamar
Markovich, was sentenced to ten years at hard labor. _Use Trifenovich, who
left London to return to Yugoslavia, was arrested some two months ago. The
leader of the Independent Democratic Party, Dr. Duda Boskovich? was accosted
and beaten following his issuance of an anti-regime manifest. The opposition
press is non-existent.
2. A new political trial is anticipated shortly to deal with Prince Paul
Karadjordjevich, now in exile, former royal,-eege7mte Dr. Ivo ?erovich and Dr.
Radenko Stankovich, and Dr. Alekeander Cincararkbilch, who has been kept
in a Belgrade UDB prison since the days of the liberation. Several other
persons will appear in the defendntst box:L) fill up the list. Everyone
of them will be charged with having collaborated with the enemy. A specific
point with which Prince Paul is likely to be charged is an allegation that,
under orders of the British Foreign Office, he negotiated an agreement with
the Germans to secure their flank for their attack on the Soviet Union.
3. Compulsory acquisition of grain by the government progressed very slow4;
especially as the people are doing their best to hide their produce by all avail-
able means, evading delivery in defiance of the drastic collecting measures
the state has inaugurated. In many villages, prominent peasants have been
arrested for non-deliveranef crepe; end in numerous places throughoat nerLia -
tibeflaround Homoljel Sabac and Ki agujevac.- guerrillas are obstructing and
iliking impossible the deliveries nreceriace by the state authorities.
I. Coercion to join the 'Popular Front" has been applied under various pre-
texts and with the use of threats. Popular resistance is noticeable and mani-
fests itself in different shapes and varying degrees of strength throughout
Seebia. Guerilla bands are numerous, and operate over the entire Serbian
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territory, terrorizing Communist henchmen and government functionaries.
In certain areas the gacrillaa appear in groups of 50 to 150 strong.
Groups of three and larger bands carry out small-scale sabotage acts,
disarm militia men, seize foodstuffs, kill prominent supporters of the
Communist regime and set fire to Commanal filea and co.-operative build-
ings. Nearly every day there are at least ten such incidents. Prominent
Communists -do not risk spending a night in a Serbian village.
Croatia
I. Croatia is still reacting from the I Tressions produced by the con-
viction of Archbishop Stepinac. The people are embittered, and priests,
defying the orders issued by the authorities, hold masses for his salvation.
Several cases of assaults made by the Communists on local priests have
occurred thus far. An appeasement line used by the Communist agents during
the meetings is that after all Stepinac does not fare so badly; he has two
rooms and a kitchenmaid at his disposal at Lepoglava (the State Prison).
Stepinac's defense speech has been circulated throughout Croatia in the
form of an illegal leaflet.
2. The activities of opposition parties in Croatia are at a standstill.
The former foreign minister Dr. Ivan Subasich is kept under house arrest.
Marsenka Radich and !lira Kosatich, who had started publishing an opposition
paper "Slobodni Dom" (Free Home), only two numbers of which appeared, were
promptly silenced by the authorities. Radich had to sign in the presence of
UDS a statement renouncing all attempts to interfere in politics in the future.
HSS (Croatian Peasant Party) leaders Engineer August Kosutich, Dr. Barisa
Smoljan, and others recently released from a eamp are uncertain of their future.
3. New trials are expected to begin shortly against:
A. Dr. Vlatke Week, Dr. Juraj Krnjevich, Dr. Josip Torbar, and other
HSS leaders in exile charged with collaboration with the Ustashi.
B. Dr. Barisa Smoljan, Engineer August Kosutich, Dr. Ivo Andres,
and other prominent HSS leaders residing in Yugoslavia, charged
with collaboration with Ustashi and the Germans. They are accused
of having negotiated in 1944 with Kronholz? who was allegedly
acting on behalf of Dr. Neubacher, Reich Southeast Plenipotentiary
Minister.
C. Ustashi leaders now in Yugoslavia who have been handed over to Tito-
by the Western Allies,
4. Pressure is being brought uporethe Croatian population by partisan
functionaries to join the "Popular Front". Communist agents have spread
-rumors that whoever does.not possess a Popular Front membership card may be
net only deprived of a ration card but possibly even deported to Russia for
labor service.
5. The, President of the Croatian Federal Government, pr. Vladimir Be%arichs
was strongly criticized at a Yugoslav C.C.C.P. meeting for eaving released
from internment and reinstated in his former position of Croatian opera
conductor, Lovro llatacich, chief Ustashi bandleader. He was also criticized
in general for displaying consideration and tolerance towards certain
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prominent Croatian personalities of the pre-liberation period. A change
my be expected in the Croatian Gevernment, and it will likely result
in a decided swing to the left from the policies o: the present officials.
6. Government purchasing commissions, in their efforts to obtain grains,
are meeting with continued peasant refusal to deliver. Acts of reprisal
on both sides are frequent. The abuses employed by minions of the government
only serve to bring about heightened activities on the part of the Crusaders
and guerrilla groups. In certain areas of Dalmatia and Hercegevina the state
authorities have been unable as yet to form communal committees because the
local inhabitants are loath to assume such unpopular functions.
7. Soecalled "precanski" Serbs - those living in Croatia - a major part of
whom joined the Partisens to escape Ustashi massacres and who appeared to
have been the main supportere of the Communist regime in Croatia since,
now feel dissatisfied. Where the Serbs are in the majority - in such areas
as Kapela-Dabar-Plitvicka Lakes, Livko Petrova Selo and Tusilovic-Vojnik-Petrizia
a "White Eagles" underground movement has sprtng up and carries out continual
acts of sabotage and terrorism. The Partisans have three times set fire to
the forests adjoing Kapela because of illegal activities alleged to have been
developing there.
4. Slovenia
1. Slovenia being a strongly Catholic regione the trial and conviction of
Archbishop Stepinac produced a political effect wholly unfavorable to the current
regime. As in Croatia, Stepinacis defense oration has been circulated through- '
out Slovenia illegally and the clergy continues to hold services praying for
his release. Franc Pieter, parish priest of Ljubljana, who has always been
known for his pro-Commmist attitude and support of the Tito covernment, as
a gesture of protest renounced and handed back to the Slovene ?:deral Government
all decorations which had been awarded to him by the Tito Government.
2. Apart from a considerable number of Catholic priests who have been murdered,
the following Catholic priests are being held in the UDB prison in Ljubljana,
without the legal processes to which they are entitled under law: Father
Martin Jurcek, Cax,..a: Dv. Joze Pogaenik, Lazarist Jacob Zacar, Lazarist Lovro
Sedej? Parish Priest Mirko Bartol, Seminary Professor Ivan Gleno, Parish
Priest Oblak, Parish Priest Darko Slepsake Parish Priest Kleeenci and, others.
This fact further increases the political resistance of the Slovene population.
3. The statement de by Togliatti following his November agreement with
Tito in Belgrade, ii severe repercussions among the Slovene population. A
Considerable number of these people were originally attracted to support the
Tito cause, because of Tito's supposedly unalterable determination to make
Trieste a Yugoslav city. The agreement, of course, indicated that this stand
had been abandoned. Reports from Ljubljana indicated that the Slovene people,
as well as certain protagonists of the Tito regime, are Profoundly shaken
arid disillusioned. For example, the Slovene, Edo Marusich, Minister of Posts
in the Central Government, expressed to his intimates his resentment, and
dissatisfaction with the Communist regime, as a result of this compromise.
4. By the end of October the Campaign waged against , ,e Anglo-American
allies reached its climax and resulted in such slogans as: Death to the
Allies", "Death to American OEM" appearing on the -lis of Ljubljana houses.
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5. Continuous small-scale resistance by illegal armed nationalist groups
takes place, especially in the mountain regions. They carry out acts of
sabotage and cause waves of unrest among the population by spreading verbal
and written propaganda. These forces are most active in the areas of
Pohorje, Crni, Vrh, and Brezovic.
6. The Slovenian workers are dissatisfied because they are obliged to
perform extra work in textile mills and see their products go to the Soviet
Union, while their own people go miserably dressed.
5. Bosnia and Hercegovina
---r?e-dri-fErre=rrra of Bosnia and Hercegovina with its mixed population
of Serbs, Croats and Moslems, the most notable efforts of the Crusaders and
other resistance groups are occurring. Continuous fighting on a considerable
scale is taking place, and the efforts here seem more smoothly coordinated
than in any other part of Yugoslavia. Illegal units repeatedly blow up
railroad tracks, halt trains and trucks, set fire to stores, and attack
isolated Partisan units. In September armed groups made a foray into Sarajevo
and set fire to three large storehouses. The railway line Sara evo--Slavonski
Brod is an object. of persistent attacks and was repeatedly ow ,during October
and November. The resistance groups twice invaded the suburbs of Br:ko and
have seeeral times attacked the supply points on the "Youth Railway" Line
Brcko--Banov/ei- There are extensive regions where Communists dare not remain
overnight, bedng obliged to stay in the larger centers with strong Partisan
garrisons.
2. Apart from the feeling of general personal and material insecurity, there
is an acute shortage of money, food, and clothing, and poverty is widespread.
The people of these regions, despite their age-long tradition of poverty,
supported, fed, and housed the Partisans throughout the duration of the war
and were promised an improvement in living conditions as a reward. The present
realities have deeply disillusioned them.
34 The Moslems, who were the chief supporters and bearers of the Partisan
regime in Bosnia, are now forming illegal units called "Green Cadre", which
specialize in passive resistance by deliberately hampering the execution of
any order or measure originating with the government. There are numerous
Moslem villages in which the Communists cannot establish local authority
organizations.
4. The real and genuine leaders of the Bosnian Moslems are former minister
Dr. Sefkija aehmen and former MP from Sarajevo, Sahin-Agich. These men are
the successors of the late Lehmed Spaho, leader of AJO (Yugoslav Moslem
Organization), Although Sahin-Agich fought with the Partisans since 1943,
he was recently expelled from their ranks, and Behmen is now living in
seclusion. A strong campaign denouncing this pair has been launched in the
local paper "Sarajevski List", as well as at public meetings. Avdo Humich?
leader of the Moslem Partisans and a minister in the Bosnia and Hercegovina
Federal Government, has denounced them as "enemies of the people". This may
be regarded as a likely overture to a new political trial of anti-Tito Moslems
to be held in Sarajevo.
Macedonia
1. Relatively more cieel freedom is enjoyed in Macedonia than elsewhere, owing,
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perhaps, to the proximity of the territory to the Bolgarian and Greek
frontiers. Octeral dissatisfaction with the regime is, however, reported
to be very great. SoUrce ,-Aimates that 25% of the population support the
regime, 25% are either pro-Serbian or pro-3ulgarian, while the remaining
50% meld favor an independent Macedonia larder Anglo-American protectorate.
2. Recently Antonov6Cento, former Chairmen of Avnoj (Yugoslav People's
, Anti...Fascist Liberation Council) and present. President of the Macedonian
Parliameutsttemnted. together with thirteen parliament members to make
his wry across the Greek border. Their capture by border guards has
apparently strengthened the already deep-seated dissatisfaction with the
Central Government in. Macedonia.
3. So far the Communists have not succeeded in gaining popular acceptance
because authority has been placed in the hands of a group of incompetent and
inexperienced nonrUacedonians who enjoy no public support or respect.
1. Early in October a political trial commenced in Skoplje. The accused are:
(L) Vija Sajkovidh, Chetnik commander of Porec; (2) Sloboian Konstantinovidh
from Shoplje; (3) Alexander Toholj, a merchant from Skoplje; (4) Miodrag
Petkovich4 an employee from Applje; (5) Predrag Tisenkovich, a member of the
Sheplje National Theatre; '(6) Spasa Spasovski; (7) lilivcje Vasidh; (8) Cana
!Casanova (female); and (9) Boris Neskobski. All of the defendnnts are charged
with having been involved in the formation of Illegal guerrilla units and with
having maintained illegal relations With the said units.
S. Illegal units are active and are being led by the son of a prominent Serbian
leader of World War I, Vesilije Trbidh. They operate on a small scale and
mainly in the region sdrrounding Sar Planina. The authorities have several
times resorted to such extreme measures as setUng forests on flre in an effort
to drive these units out into the open.
r.34 18Polorcling an assassination attempt on Tito and his suite in Juli of this
year on tiontengrin soil, the regime teak drastic steps. A number of Communist
functionaries were arrested, while KNOJ and regular army units were replaced,
the implication being that they were in some way linked up with illegal national
units.
2. Illegal groups, so-called "Zelanisi" (Green Men) led by a Montenegrin
brigadier, areta.POpovich, though not large in numbers, are active and enjoy
considerable popular support. Practically every community of any size has a
local underground organization liked with "the forests". The Communists and
their families live in great fear of these underground activities
31. In accordance with the carrying out of a "social security" scheme for
Partisan fOnslies, the authorities have been effecting a steady sizeable
transfer of these families from Montenegro to colonize the Srem and Vojvodina
provinces. The terrain, climatic and working conditions of their new places
of residence do not suit many of the families. Therefore, they have been re.
turning on their own initiative to their native country. The resulting eon-
fusion and disappointment have increased the existing resentment.
This document contains information
affecting the national defense of thc
United States within the meaning cf
the gspionage Act, 50 U.3 C. 31 and
82, as amended. IL; ansmission
or the revelation of its contents ir
any manner to an unauthorized per-
BO is prohibited by law,
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