/ , abbreviation = , fictional = , patch = , patchcaption = , logo = , logocaption = , badge = , badgecaption = , flag = , flagcaption = , imagesize = , motto = , mottotranslated = , formed = 1944 , preceding1 = People's Defence Corps of Yugoslavia (KNOJ) , dissolved = 1992 , superseding = , employees = , volunteers = , budget = , legalpersonality = , country = Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia , countryabbr = SFR Yugoslavia , national = yes , federal = , international = , divtype = , divname = , divdab = , subdivtype = , subdivname = , subdivdab = , map = Yugoslavia (1946-1990) location map.svg , mapcaption = Location map of SFR Yugoslavia , sizearea = 255,804 km2 (98,766 sq mi) , sizepopulation = 23,229,846 (1991 estimate) , legaljuris = , governingbody = , governingbodyscnd = , constitution1 = , police = yes , local = , military = , provost = , gendarmerie = , religious = , speciality = , secret = , overviewtype = , overviewbody = * Federal Executive Council * Republican and provincial executive councils , headquarters = Belgrade,

SR Serbia , life_span = 1944–1992 , status = Constituent state of Yugoslavia , p1 = Territory of the Military Commander in Serbia , flag_p1 = Flag of German Reich (1935–1945).svg , p2 ...

, hqlocmap = , hqlocmapwidth = , hqlocmapheight = , hqlocmapborder = , hqlocleft = , hqloctop = , hqlocmappoptitle = , sworntype = , sworn = , unsworntype = , unsworn = , multinational = , electeetype = , minister1name = , minister1pfo = , chief1name = , chief1position = , parentagency = * Federal Secretariat of Internal Affairs * Republican and provincial secretariats of internal affairs , child1agency = , unittype = , unitname = , officetype = , officename = , provideragency = , uniformedas = , stationtype = , stations = , airbases = , lockuptype = , lockups = , person1name = , person1reason = , person1type = , programme1 = , activity1name = , activitytype = , anniversary1 = Security Day, 13 May , award1 = , patronsaint = , website = , footnotes = , reference = The Militia of SFR Yugoslavia ( sh, Milicija SFR Jugoslavije / ) was a law enforcement agency of the

Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia The Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, commonly referred to as SFR Yugoslavia or simply as Yugoslavia, was a country in Central and Southeast Europe. It emerged in 1945, following World War II, and lasted until 1992, with the breakup of Yu ...

from 1944 to 1992. The Militia was subordinated to the Federal Secretariat of Internal Affairs ( sh, Savezni sekretarijat unutrašnjih poslova / ). Formed during

World War II in Yugoslavia World War II in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia began on 6 April 1941, when the country was swiftly conquered by Axis forces and partitioned between Germany, Italy, Hungary, Bulgaria and their client regimes. Shortly after Germany attacked the US ...

on territories controlled by 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� ...

, at different times it was named Partisan Guard, Peasant Guard, People's Defence etc. In 1944 it was named People's Militia, and in 1966 Militia.

Overview

The duties of the Militia included protecting the life and personal liberty of citizens, public and private property, maintaining public order and peace, public safety, preventing violations of public order, investigating criminal cases and neutralizing criminals, as well as other duties provided by Yugoslav laws. The Militia was armed with high-quality small arms and equipped with the latest technical equipment and uniforms. The organization of the Militia and the activities of its employees complied with the principles of

workers' self-management Workers' self-management, also referred to as labor management and organizational self-management, is a form of organizational management based on self-directed work processes on the part of an organization's workforce. Self-management is a def ...

. Unlike the Yugoslavia's

military A military, also known collectively as armed forces, is a heavily armed, highly organized force primarily intended for warfare. It is typically authorized and maintained by a sovereign state, with its members identifiable by their distinct ...

, the

Yugoslav People's Army The Yugoslav People's Army (abbreviated as JNA/; Macedonian and sr-Cyrl-Latn, Југословенска народна армија, Jugoslovenska narodna armija; Croatian and bs, Jugoslavenska narodna armija; sl, Jugoslovanska ljudska ar ...

(JNA), the Militia was organized in a decentralized way, on a territorial basis. The structure of the Militia formations was as follows: branch – sector – platoon – company – battalion – detachment – brigade. The Militia carried out cooperation with the JNA and its

military police Military police (MP) are law enforcement agencies connected with, or part of, the military of a state. In wartime operations, the military police may support the main fighting force with force protection, convoy security, screening, rear rec ...

; in the event of war, the Militia was part of the Territorial Defense.

History

On 13 May 1944 the Department for People's Protection ( OZNA) was established, and on 15 August 1944, the People's Defence Corps of Yugoslavia (KNOJ) was formed, which represented operational units of OZNA. Until the breakup of Yugoslavia in the early 1990s, 13 May was commemorated as the Security Day. The training of first members of the Militia began immediately after the

liberation Liberation or liberate may refer to: Film and television * ''Liberation'' (film series), a 1970–1971 series about the Great Patriotic War * "Liberation" (''The Flash''), a TV episode * "Liberation" (''K-9''), an episode Gaming * '' Liberati ...

of Belgrade: initially, the officers of the Militia patrolled the streets, served as guards and guides, and they were assigned goals and objectives by members of the KNOJ and the commanders of the Yugoslav Army. The officers of the Militia did not have their own form, the only sign of difference was a stripe in the form of the

flag of Yugoslavia The flag of Yugoslavia / ; sl, zastava Jugoslavije; mk, знаме на Југославија, translit=zname na Jugoslavija was the official flag of the Yugoslav state from 1918 to 1992. The flag's design and symbolism are derived from the ...

with the words "NM" on the red star. According to the

1946 Yugoslav Constitution The 1946 Yugoslav Constitution, officially titled as the Constitution of the Federal People's Republic of Yugoslavia ( sr, Устав Федеративне Народне Републике Југославије; hr, Ustav Federativne Narodne ...

, the Federal Ministry of the Interior was composed of the People's Militia Directorate, the People's Militia Command, the Public Security Directorate and the State Security Service. After the transfer of OZNA to the Federal Ministry of Internal Affairs, the

State Security Administration The State Security Service ( hr, Služba državne sigurnosti, sr, Служба државне безбедности; mk, Служба за државна безбедност; sl, Služba državne varnosti), also known by its original name ...

(UDBA) was formed. The military structure, uniform form and military ranks were approved. The constitutional reforms of 1953 meant the formal renaming of ministries to the secretariats, and so the Federal Secretariat of the Internal Affairs and the republic-level secretariats of the internal affairs appeared. In the course of the demilitarization of the Federal Secretariat, UDBA ceased to be a militarized unit, the operational units of the KNOJ were disbanded, and their tasks fell on the border guard units the Yugoslav People's Army and the People's Militia. In the People's Militia, the system of insignia changed, the officers were allowed to wear civilian clothes outside the service, and service numbers were depicted on a nickel-plated badge. Equipment and weapons were diverse: the officers used both captured and lend-leased equipment. In 1956, the first Law on the Organs of Internal Affairs was adopted in the framework of decentralization. A significant part of internal affairs was placed at the disposal of autonomous republics and administrative-territorial units. The

1963 Yugoslav Constitution The 1963 Yugoslav Constitution was the second constitution of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. It came into effect on April 7, 1963. The constitution was the result of beliefs of the governing structures that Yugoslav self-managemen ...

and the Basic Law on the Service for Internal Affairs of 1964 continued the process of decentralization, forming the basic organs of internal affairs at the municipal level. After the

Brijuni The Brijuni () or the Brijuni Islands (also known as the Brionian Islands; same as it, Brioni) are a group of fourteen small islands in the Croatian part of the northern Adriatic Sea, separated from the west coast of the Istrian peninsula by ...

plenum of the Central Committee of the League of Communists of Yugoslavia in 1966, at which

Aleksandar Ranković Aleksandar Ranković ( nom de guerre Marko; sr-Cyrl, Александар Ранковић Лека; 28 November 1909 – 19 August 1983) was a Yugoslav communist politician, considered to be the third most powerful man in Yugoslavia after Jo ...

( Vice President of Yugoslavia and former Federal

Minister of the Interior An interior minister (sometimes called a minister of internal affairs or minister of home affairs) is a cabinet official position that is responsible for internal affairs, such as public security, civil registration and identification, emergency ...

) was dismissed from his posts, a new Basic Law on Internal Affairs was adopted. This led to the breaking of the entire unified system of state security of SFR Yugoslavia. From then on, the Public Security Service and the State Security Service were engaged in internal affairs. The first group consisted of the People's Militia, in charge of fight against crime, traffic security and the protection of borders. The People's Militia began to be called simply the Militia, and after a series of changes in personnel and organization, the Militia became part of the Public Security Service. Stripped of its military status, European-styled police ranks were later adopted for the republican force. The first version of the ranks were corresponding to the functions and responsibilities of rank holders. 1985-03-29 46m

After the 1971 amendments to the Constitution, adoption of the

1974 Yugoslav Constitution The 1974 Yugoslav Constitution was the fourth and final constitution of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. It came into effect on 21 February 1974. With 406 original articles, the 1974 constitution was one of the longest constitutio ...

and new laws the process of decentralization of the Militia stopped. The republican and provincial secretariats were engaged in equipment and armament. The bodies of

SAP Vojvodina The Socialist Autonomous Province of Vojvodina ( sh, / ) was one of two autonomous provinces within the Socialist Republic of Serbia, in the former Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. The province is the direct predecessor to the moder ...

and

SAP Kosovo The Socialist Autonomous Province of Kosovo, sh-Latn-Cyrl, Socijalistička Autonomna Pokrajina Kosovo, Социјалистичка Аутономна Покрајина Косово, separator=" / ", sq, Krahina Socialiste Autonome e Kosovë ...

worked on the basis of provincial laws, although both regions were part of

SR Serbia , life_span = 1944–1992 , status = Constituent state of Yugoslavia , p1 = Territory of the Military Commander in Serbia , flag_p1 = Flag of German Reich (1935–1945).svg , p2 ...

. Unlike other security services, whose responsibility included only republics and provinces, the public security services acted in the concept of public self-defense and a fragmented security system. In essence, relations between the federal, republican and provincial departments of the Federal Ministry of Internal Affairs were based on the principles of agreements, assistance and cooperation in work, and not on hierarchical principles with subordination. Such a decentralized system with non-professional elements in 1972 showed all its weakness, when a CRB diversionary group (known as the Bugojno group) penetrated the Yugoslav territory. In this regard, in 1972, 1977 and 1979 laws were passed on the formation of militarized police task forces and the first special forces of the Federal Ministry of Internal Affairs. In this regard, the former rank insignia corresponding to the functions and responsibilities were replaced with a new police rank system. Differences in funding and decentralization led to large differences in the organization of the Militia and the organs of the Federal Ministry of Internal Affairs. At the federal level there was the Federal Ministry of Internal Affairs. At the republican and provincial levels there were, respectively, republican and provincial secretariats of internal affairs. At the regional level (depending on whether it was a republic or a province) there were different bodies: the Secretariat of Internal Affairs, the Joint Secretariat of Internal Affairs, the Inter-municipal Secretariat of Internal Affairs, the Center of Public Security and the Center of Security. At the municipal level, depending on the size of the municipality, there were the Department of Internal Affairs, the station of Militia, the branch of Militia, etc. As a result of the breakup of Yugoslavia in 1991–92 and the start of the

Yugoslav Wars The Yugoslav Wars were a series of separate but related Naimark (2003), p. xvii. ethnic conflicts, wars of independence, and insurgencies that took place in the SFR Yugoslavia from 1991 to 2001. The conflicts both led up to and resulted from ...

, the unified Militia of SFR Yugoslavia ceased to exist and separate police forces were established in each of the former Yugoslav republics.

Rank structure

File:Oznake činova Narodne Milicije 1946-1953.jpg, Structure in 1946–1953. File:Oznake činova Narodne Milicije 1953-1967.jpg, Structure in 1953–1967. File:Oznake funkcija Narodne Milicije 1967-1976.jpg, Structure in 1967–1976. File:Oznake zvanja i funkcija u Milicije 1976-1991.jpg, Structure in 1976–1991.

References

Bibliography

* * {{Police Defunct law enforcement agencies Law enforcement in Yugoslavia Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia 1944 establishments in Yugoslavia 1992 disestablishments in Yugoslavia Government agencies established in 1944 Government agencies disestablished in 1992

Yugoslavia Yugoslavia (; sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", Jugoslavija, Југославија ; sl, Jugoslavija ; mk, Југославија ;; rup, Iugoslavia; hu, Jugoszlávia; rue, label=Pannonian Rusyn, Югославия, translit=Juhoslavija ...

Overview

History

Rank structure

See also

References

Bibliography