Govor Jove Vukotića prilikom polaganja zakletve regruta Prve beogradske brigade KNOJ-a, Beograd, 24

The People’s Defence Corps of Yugoslavia or KNOJ ( sh, Korpus Narodne Odbrane Jugoslavije, mk, Корпус на народна одбрана Југославија, sl, Korpus narodne obrambe Jugoslavije), was a corps of 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� ...

in charge of internal security of liberated territories 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 ...

and later the territory of

Communist 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 Yugo ...

. KNOJ was created based on a directive by

Marshal of Yugoslavia Marshal of Yugoslavia ( sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", Maršal Jugoslavije, Маршал Југославије; sl, Maršal Jugoslavije; mk, Маршал на Југославија, Maršal na Jugoslavija) was the highest rank of the Yugosl ...

, Josip Broz Tito, on 15 August 1944. As liberated territories expanded, the corps was established to allow Partisan military intelligence organization (Department for People's Protection, OZNA) continued focus on core tasks. The corps comprised about 80,000 men at its peak. The first commander was Jovan Vukotić (1907–1982) and the supervision lay with the political commissar Vlado Janić (1904–1991). KNOJ was rarely used at the front, instead fell under the direction and supervision of OZNA. In July 1944, just before the formation of KNOJ, there were about 5,000 soldiers in defense units that dealt with security on liberated territories. At the end of World War II in Europe, in May 1945, KNOJ consisted of eight divisions. The basic tasks of the KNOJ were to cleanse the liberated territory from all kinds of enemies, to help the National Liberation Committees in organizing life in the free territory and securing the borders of Yugoslavia. After the end of the war, KNOJ, in cooperation with other security forces, was the basic factor for the security of the country's borders and the destruction of remaining quisling units. The National Defense Corps of Yugoslavia was disbanded in January 1953, and its jurisdiction was taken over by

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 ...

(armed forces) and

Militia A militia () is generally an army or some other fighting organization of non-professional soldiers, citizens of a country, or subjects of a state, who may perform military service during a time of need, as opposed to a professional force of r ...

(police forces).

References

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Literature

Corps of the Yugoslav Partisans Law enforcement in Yugoslavia Anti-fascism in Yugoslavia 1944 establishments in Yugoslavia 1953 disestablishments in Yugoslavia

See also

References

Literature