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The Liberation Front of the Slovene Nation ( sl, Osvobodilna fronta slovenskega naroda), or simply Liberation Front (''Osvobodilna fronta'', OF), originally called the Anti-Imperialist Front (''Protiimperialistična fronta'', PIF), was a Slovene anti-fascist political party. The Anti-Imperialist Front had ideological ties to the Soviet Union (which was at the time in a
non-aggression pact with Nazi Germany) in its fight against the imperialistic tendencies of the United States and the United Kingdom (the western powers), and it was led by the
Communist Party of Slovenia
The League of Communists of Slovenia ( sl, Zveza komunistov Slovenije, ZKS; sh, Savez komunista Slovenije) was the Slovenian branch of the League of Communists of Yugoslavia, the sole legal party of Yugoslavia from 1945 to 1989. It was establis ...
. In May 1941, weeks into the German occupation of Yugoslavia, in the first wartime issue of the illegal newspaper ''Slovenski poročevalec'' (Slovenian Reporter), members of the organization criticized the German regime and described Germans as imperialists. They started raising money for a liberation fund via the second issue of the newspaper published on 8 June 1941. When Germany attacked the Soviet Union, the Anti-Imperialist Front was formally renamed and became the main
anti-fascist
Anti-fascism is a political movement in opposition to fascist ideologies, groups and individuals. Beginning in European countries in the 1920s, it was at its most significant shortly before and during World War II, where the Axis powers were ...
Slovene civil resistance
Civil resistance is political action that relies on the use of nonviolent resistance by ordinary people to challenge a particular power, force, policy or regime. Civil resistance operates through appeals to the adversary, pressure and coercion: i ...
and political organization under the guidance and control of the Slovene communists. It was active in the
Slovene Lands during World War II. Its military arm was the
Slovene Partisans
The Slovene Partisans, formally the National Liberation Army and Partisan Detachments of Slovenia, (NOV in POS) were part of Europe's most effective anti-Nazi resistance movement Jeffreys-Jones, R. (2013): ''In Spies We Trust: The Story of Western ...
. The organisation was established in the
Province of Ljubljana The Province of Ljubljana ( it, Provincia di Lubiana, sl, Ljubljanska pokrajina, german: Provinz Laibach) was the central-southern area of Slovenia. In 1941, it was annexed by Fascist Italy, and after 1943 occupied by Nazi Germany. Created on May ...
on 26 April 1941 in the house of the literary critic
Josip Vidmar
Josip Vidmar (October 14, 1895 – April 11, 1992) was a notable Slovenian literary critic, essayist, and politician. From 1944 to 1946 he was speaker of the Slovenian People's Liberation Council (Slovenian Parliament). From 1952 to 1976 was pre ...
. Its leaders were
Boris Kidrič
Boris Kidrič (10 April 1912 – 11 April 1953) was a Slovene politician and revolutionary who was one of the chief organizers of the Slovene Partisans, the Slovene resistance against occupation by Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy after Operatio ...
and
Edvard Kardelj
Edvard Kardelj (; 27 January 1910 – 10 February 1979), also known by the pseudonyms Bevc, Sperans and Krištof, was a Yugoslav politician and economist. He was one of the leading members of the Communist Party of Slovenia before World War II. ...
.
Programme
The programme of the ''Fronta'' was outlined by the following fundamental points:
* Armed struggle
*
United Slovenia
United Slovenia ( sl, Zedinjena Slovenija or ) is the name originally given to an unrealized political programme of the Slovenes, Slovene national movement, formulated during the Spring of Nations in 1848. The programme demanded (a) unification o ...
* Continuity of
Yugoslavia
Yugoslavia (; sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", Jugoslavija, Југославија ; sl, Jugoslavija ; mk, Југославија ;; rup, Iugoslavia; hu, Jugoszlávia; rue, label=Pannonian Rusyn, Югославия, translit=Juhoslavija ...
as a Slovene state, further Slovene integration into
Yugoslav identity and closeness with the
Russian people
, native_name_lang = ru
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, population =
, popplace =
118 million Russians in the Russian Federation (2002 ''Winkler Prins'' estimate)
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* Loyalty of all factions to the Liberation Front and by extension to the
Yugoslav Partisans
The Yugoslav Partisans,Serbo-Croatian, Macedonian, Slovene: , or the National Liberation Army, sh-Latn-Cyrl, Narodnooslobodilačka vojska (NOV), Народноослободилачка војска (НОВ); mk, Народноослобод ...
* Adherence to democracy after the liberation
* Acceptance of the
Atlantic Charter
The Atlantic Charter was a statement issued on 14 August 1941 that set out American and British goals for the world after the end of World War II. The joint statement, later dubbed the Atlantic Charter, outlined the aims of the United States and ...
* Outgrowth of the Partisan Units and People’s Guards into a broader front of the National Liberation Struggle.
Internal political situation
Although the Front originally consisted of multiple political groups of left-wing orientation, including some
Christian Socialists, a dissident group of Slovene
Sokol
The Sokol movement (, ''falcon'') is an all-age gymnastics organization first founded in Prague in the Czech region of Austria-Hungary in 1862 by Miroslav Tyrš and Jindřich Fügner. It was based upon the principle of " a strong mind in a so ...
s (also known as "National Democrats"), and a group of liberal intellectuals around the journals ''
Sodobnost
''Sodobnost'' ( Slovene for ''Modernity'' or ''Contemporary Time'') is a Slovenian literary and cultural magazine, established in 1933. It is considered the oldest of currently existing literary magazines in Slovenia. Although ''Sodobnost'' has tr ...
'' and ''
Ljubljanski zvon
''Ljubljanski zvon'' (The Ljubljana Bell) was a journal published in Ljubljana in Slovene between 1881 and 1941. It was considered one of the most prestigious literary and cultural magazines in Slovenia.
Early period
The journal was founded in ...
'',
during the course of the war, the influence of the
Communist Party of Slovenia
The League of Communists of Slovenia ( sl, Zveza komunistov Slovenije, ZKS; sh, Savez komunista Slovenije) was the Slovenian branch of the League of Communists of Yugoslavia, the sole legal party of Yugoslavia from 1945 to 1989. It was establis ...
started to grow, until the founding groups signed the so-called
Dolomite Declaration (), giving the exclusive right to organize themselves as a political party only to the communists, on 1 March 1943.
On 3 October 1943, on the session, known as
Assembly of the Delegates of the Slovene Nation, which was held in
Kočevje
Kočevje (; german: Gottschee; ''Göttscheab'' or ''Gətscheab'' in the local Gottscheerish dialect; it, Cocevie) is a city in the Municipality of Kočevje in southern Slovenia. It is the seat of the municipality.
Geography
The town is loc ...
by the 572 directly elected and 78 indirectly elected members, the 120-member
plenum
Plenum may refer to:
* Plenum chamber, a chamber intended to contain air, gas, or liquid at positive pressure
* Plenism, or ''Horror vacui'' (physics) the concept that "nature abhors a vacuum"
* Plenum (meeting), a meeting of a deliberative asse ...
was constituted as the highest civil governing organ of anti-fascist movement in Slovenia during the World War II.
After the war, the Liberation Front was transformed into the
Socialist Alliance of the Working People of Slovenia
The Socialist Alliance of Working People of Yugoslavia (SSRNJ), known before 1953 as the People's Front of Yugoslavia (NFJ), was the largest and most influential mass organization in SFR Yugoslavia from August 1945 through 1990. It succeeded the Un ...
.
External political activity
On 19 February 1944, the 120-member
Črnomelj
Črnomelj (; in older sources also ''Černomelj'', german: Tschernembl''Leksikon občin kraljestev in dežel zastopanih v državnem zboru,'' vol. 6: ''Kranjsko''. 1906. Vienna: C. Kr. Dvorna in Državna Tiskarna, p. 4.) is a town in southeastern S ...
plenum of Liberation Front of the Slovenian People changed its name to
SNOS The Slovene National Liberation Committee (SNOS) ( sl, Slovenski narodnoosvobodilni svet; sh, Slovensko narodnooslobodilačko vijeće, Словеначко народноослободилачко веће) was formed as the highest governing organ ...
and proclaim itself as the temporary Slovenian parliament. One of its most important decisions was that after the end of the war Slovenia would become a state within the
Yugoslav federation.
Just before the end of the war, on May 5, 1945, the SNOS met for the last time in the town of
Ajdovščina
Ajdovščina (; it, Aidussina,trilingual name "Haidenschaft, Aidussina, Ajdovščina" inGemeindelexikon, der im Reichsrate Vertretenen Königreiche und Länder. Bearbeit auf Grund der Ergebnisse der Volkszählung vom 31. Dezember 1900. Herausgege ...
in the
Julian March
Venezia Giulia, traditionally called Julian March (Serbo-Croatian, Slovene: ''Julijska krajina'') or Julian Venetia ( it, Venezia Giulia; vec, Venesia Julia; fur, Vignesie Julie; german: Julisch Venetien) is an area of southeastern Europe wh ...
(then formally still part of the
Kingdom of Italy
The Kingdom of Italy ( it, Regno d'Italia) was a state that existed from 1861, when Victor Emmanuel II of Kingdom of Sardinia, Sardinia was proclamation of the Kingdom of Italy, proclaimed King of Italy, until 1946, when civil discontent led to ...
) and established the Slovenian government with
Boris Kidrič
Boris Kidrič (10 April 1912 – 11 April 1953) was a Slovene politician and revolutionary who was one of the chief organizers of the Slovene Partisans, the Slovene resistance against occupation by Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy after Operatio ...
as its president.
The Liberation Front led an intensive and specific propaganda system. It printed flyers, bulletins and other material to persuade people about its cause and slander the occupying fascist forces and local nazi collaborators who were supported by the Catholic Church. The Front's radio, called ''
Kričač'' (Screamer), was the only one of its kind in the occupied Europe. It emitted from various locations and occupying forces confiscated the receivers' antennas from the local population in order to prevent listening to it.
Slovene Partisans
The Slovene Partisans were the armed wing of the Liberation Front,
which fought in the beginning as a
guerilla
Guerrilla warfare is a form of irregular warfare in which small groups of combatants, such as paramilitary personnel, armed civilians, or irregulars, use military tactics including ambushes, sabotage, raids, petty warfare, hit-and-run tact ...
and later as an army. It was mostly ethnically homogenous and primarily communicated in Slovene.
These two features have been considered vital for its success.
It was the first Slovene military force.
Its most characteristic symbol was the
Triglav cap.
Contrary to elsewhere in
Yugoslavia
Yugoslavia (; sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", Jugoslavija, Југославија ; sl, Jugoslavija ; mk, Југославија ;; rup, Iugoslavia; hu, Jugoszlávia; rue, label=Pannonian Rusyn, Югославия, translit=Juhoslavija ...
, where on the freed territories the political life was organized by the
military itself, the Slovene Partisans were subordinated to the civil political authority of the Front.
The partisan activities in Slovenia were initially independent of Tito's Partisans in the south. The merger of the Slovene Partisans with Tito's forces happened in 1944.
The Front's name
It has been traditionally claimed by Slovene historians that the term ''Anti-Imperialist Front'' was the first to occur.
This may be read for example in a work by
Peter Vodopivec from 2006. In 2008, the historian
Bojan Godeša
Bojan (Serbian Cyrillic and Macedonian: Бојан; Ukrainian, Russian and Bulgarian Cyrillic: Боян, transcribed ''Boyan'') is a Slavic given name, derived from the Slavic noun ''boj'' "battle." The ending ''-an'' is a suffix frequently found ...
published a peer-reviewed discussion about the name. He mentions a leaflet from the end of April 1941 with ''liberation front'' (non-capitalised) written on it, two months before the first known mention of the ''anti-imperialist front'' (non-capitalised) on 22 June 1941.
He also mentions that
Josip Rus Josip () is a male given name found among Croats and Slovenes, a cognate of Joseph.
In Croatia, the name Josip was the second most common masculine given name in the decades up to 1959, and has stayed among the top ten most common ones throughout 2 ...
, who represented the
Slovene Sokol Society in the founding meeting of the OF, always claimed they had only discussed the organisation as the ''Liberation Front''.
That's contrary to the opinion by
Josip Vidmar
Josip Vidmar (October 14, 1895 – April 11, 1992) was a notable Slovenian literary critic, essayist, and politician. From 1944 to 1946 he was speaker of the Slovenian People's Liberation Council (Slovenian Parliament). From 1952 to 1976 was pre ...
, also a founding member, who stated that the organisation was renamed as ''Liberation Front'' only on 30 June 1941. The claims by Godeša have been cited in a seminar by
Božo Repe Božo ( sr, Божо) is a South Slavic masculine given name. Notable people with the name include:
*Božo Bakota (1950–2015), Croatian footballer
*Božo Biškupić (born 1938), Croatian politician and lawyer
* Božo Broketa (1922–1985), Yugosl ...
, another eminent historian, who added that the name ''Anti-Imperialist Front'', written with capital letters, was used particularly in the communication with the
Communists of the Soviet Union. He attributed this to the desire of the Slovene Communists to demonstrate that their work corresponded to the aims of the
Comintern
The Communist International (Comintern), also known as the Third International, was a Soviet Union, Soviet-controlled international organization founded in 1919 that advocated world communism. The Comintern resolved at its Second Congress to ...
.
See also
*
AVNOJ
*
Slovene Home Guard
The Slovene Home Guard ( sl, Slovensko domobranstvo, SD; german: Slowenische Landeswehr) was a Slovene anti- Partisan military organization that was active during the 1943–1945 German occupation of the formerly Italian-occupied Province of Lju ...
References
{{Authority control
Anti-fascism in Yugoslavia
Slovenia in World War II
Slovenia
Slovenia ( ; sl, Slovenija ), officially the Republic of Slovenia (Slovene: , abbr.: ''RS''), is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the west, Austria to the north, Hungary to the northeast, Croatia to the southeast, an ...
Communism in Slovenia
1940s establishments in Slovenia
1941 establishments in Yugoslavia
Political parties established in 1941