Žikica Jovanović Španac
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Žikica Jovanović Španac
Živorad "Žikica" Jovanović ( sr-cyr, Живорад „Жикица" Јовановић; 17 March 1914 – 13 March 1942), nicknamed Španac (, "The Spaniard") was a Yugoslav partisan, Spanish-trained commando and republican volunteer in the Spanish Civil War and is credited for initiating the anti-fascist struggle in Yugoslavia during World War II. He was a skilled guerrilla fighter and organizer of guerrilla units in Serbia, largely tied to his intense Spanish Civil War activities. He enjoyed enormous prestige in Yugoslav communist ranks, and in 1941 he even disobeyed direct orders of Josip Broz Tito to leave from Serbia to Bosnia with his units. There are controversies about his death, tightly related to his conflict with the Supreme Command during the war. Biography Before World War II Jovanović was born in 1914 in Valjevo, Central Serbia, related to an extended family of landowners and merchants. He graduated from the high school there, and later enrolled the Faculty ...
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Catalonia Offensive
The Catalonia Offensive (, ) was part of the Spanish Civil War. The Nationalist Army started the offensive on 23 December 1938 and rapidly conquered Republican-held Catalonia with Barcelona (the Republic's capital city from October 1937). Barcelona was captured on 26 January 1939. The Republican government headed for the French border. Thousands of people fleeing the Nationalists also crossed the frontier in the following month, to be placed in internment camps. Franco closed the border with France by 10 February 1939. Background After its defeat at the Battle of the Ebro the Republican Army was broken and would never recover. The Republicans had lost most of their armament and experienced units. Furthermore, in October 1938 the Republican government agreed to withdraw the volunteers of the International Brigades. On the other hand, the Nationalists received new supplies of ammunition, weapons and aircraft from Germany. Furthermore, after the Munich Agreement, the hope of a ...
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Serbian State Guard
The Serbian State Guard (, SDS; sr-Cyrl, Српска државна стража; ), also known as the Nedićevci, was a collaborationist paramilitary force used to impose law and order within the German occupied territory of Serbia during World War II. It was formed from two former Yugoslav gendarmerie regiments, was created with the approval of the German military authorities, and for a long period was controlled by the Higher SS and Police Leader in the occupied territory. It assisted the Germans in imposing one of the most brutal occupation regimes in occupied Europe and helped guard and execute prisoners at the Banjica concentration camp in Belgrade. Its leaders and much of the rank and file were sympathetic to the Chetnik movement of Draža Mihailović, and it was purged by the Germans on several occasions for that reason. In October 1944, as the Soviet Red Army closed on Belgrade, the SDS was transferred to Mihailović's control by a member of the fleeing Nedić adm ...
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Bela Crkva Incident
The Bela Crkva incident was an event that took place on 7 July 1941 in the village of Bela Crkva near Krupanj, when a group of Yugoslav Partisans led by Žikica Jovanović Španac killed two gendarmes who were enforcing a ban on political rallies after the German occupation of Serbia. The event was later taken as the beginning of the uprising in Serbia led by the Communist Party of Yugoslavia against the Axis occupiers and their collaborators. Background After quickly being overrun by Germany and its allies in the April 1941 invasion of Yugoslavia, the country was dismembered. Serbia proper was organized in the occupation zone called the Territory of the Military Commander in Serbia. The Germans also set up Milan Aćimović's puppet Commissar Government and kept the pre-war gendarmerie in order to maintain order. The Germans also banned all political activities in their occupation zone. Outlawed in the interwar period, the Communist Party of Yugoslavia (CPY) began its prep ...
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Fascist
Fascism ( ) is a far-right, authoritarian, and ultranationalist political ideology and movement. It is characterized by a dictatorial leader, centralized autocracy, militarism, forcible suppression of opposition, belief in a natural social hierarchy, subordination of individual interests for the perceived interest of the nation or race, and strong regimentation of society and the economy. Opposed to communism, democracy, liberalism, pluralism, and socialism, fascism is at the far right of the traditional left–right spectrum.; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; Fascism rose to prominence in early-20th-century Europe. The first fascist movements emerged in Italy during World War I, before spreading to other European countries, most notably Germany. Fascism also had adherents outside of Europe. Fascists saw World War I as a revolution that brought massive changes to the nature of war, society, the state, and technology. The advent of total war and the mass mobilization of so ...
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Partisans (Yugoslavia)
The Yugoslav Partisans,Serbo-Croatian, Macedonian, and Slovene: , officially the National Liberation Army and Partisan Detachments of Yugoslavia sh-Latn-Cyrl, Narodnooslobodilačka vojska i partizanski odredi Jugoslavije (NOV i POJ), Народноослободилачка војска и партизански одреди Југославије (НОВ и ПОЈ); ; (often shortened as the National Liberation Army sh-Latn-Cyrl, Narodnooslobodilačka vojska (NOV), Народноослободилачка војска (НОВ); ; ) was the communist-led anti-fascist resistance to the Axis powers (chiefly Nazi Germany) in occupied Yugoslavia during World War II. Led by Josip Broz Tito, the Partisans are considered to be Europe's most effective anti- Axis resistance movement during World War II. Primarily a guerrilla force at its inception, the Partisans developed into a large fighting force engaging in conventional warfare later in the war, numbering around 650,000 in lat ...
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Prince Pavle
Prince Paul of Yugoslavia, also known as Paul Karađorđević (, English transliteration: ''Paul Karageorgevich''; 27 April 1893 – 14 September 1976), was prince regent of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia during the minority of King Peter II of Yugoslavia, Peter II. Paul was a first cousin of Peter's father, Alexander I of Yugoslavia, Alexander I. Early life Prince Paul of Yugoslavia was the only son of Prince Arsen Karađorđević, Prince of Serbia, Arsen of Serbia, younger brother of King Peter I of Serbia, Peter I, and of Princess and Countess Aurora Pavlovna Demidova, a granddaughter on one side of the Swedish speaking Finnish philanthropist Aurora Karamzin and her Russian husband Prince and Count Pavel Nikolaievich Demidov and on the other of the Russian Prince Peter Troubetzkoy and his wife, Elizabeth Trubetskaya, Elisabeth Esperovna, by birth a Princess Belosselsky-Belozersky family, Belosselsky-Belozersky. The House of Karađorđević was in exile with Kingdom of Serbia, Ser ...
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Alexander I Of Yugoslavia
Alexander I Karađorđević (, ; – 9 October 1934), also known as Alexander the Unifier ( / ), was King of the Serbs, Croats and Slovenes from 16 August 1921 to 3 October 1929 and King of Yugoslavia from 3 October 1929 until his assassination in 1934. His reign of 13 years is the longest of the three monarchs of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. Born in Cetinje, Montenegro, Alexander was the second son of Peter and Zorka Karađorđević. The House of Karađorđević had been removed from power in Serbia 30 years prior, and Alexander spent his early life in exile with his father in Montenegro and then Switzerland. Afterwards he moved to Russia and enrolled in the imperial Page Corps. Following a coup d'état and the murder of King Alexander I Obrenović in 1903, his father became King of Serbia. In 1909, Alexander's elder brother, George, renounced his claim to the throne, making Alexander heir apparent. Alexander distinguished himself as a commander during the Balkan Wars, l ...
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Battle Of Greece
The German invasion of Greece or Operation Marita (), were the attacks on Greece by Italy and Germany during World War II. The Italian invasion in October 1940, which is usually known as the Greco-Italian War, was followed by the German invasion in April 1941. German landings on the island of Crete (May 1941) came after Allied forces had been defeated in mainland Greece. These battles were part of the greater Balkans Campaign of the Axis powers and their associates. Following the Italian invasion on 28 October 1940, Greece, with British air and material support, repelled the initial Italian attack and a counter-attack in March 1941. When the German invasion, known as Operation Marita, began on 6 April, the bulk of the Greek Army was on the Greek border with Albania, then a vassal of Italy, from which the Italian troops had attacked. German troops invaded from Bulgaria, creating a second front. Greece received a small reinforcement from British, Australian and New Zealand fo ...
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Axis Invasion Of Yugoslavia
The invasion of Yugoslavia, also known as the April War or Operation 25, was a German-led attack on the Kingdom of Yugoslavia by the Axis powers which began on 6 April 1941 during World War II. The order for the invasion was put forward in "Führer Directive No. 25", which Adolf Hitler issued on 27 March 1941, following a Yugoslav coup d'état that overthrew the pro-Axis government. The invasion commenced with an overwhelming air attack on Belgrade and facilities of the Royal Yugoslav Air Force (VVKJ) by the Luftwaffe (German Air Force) and attacks by German land forces from southwestern Bulgaria. These attacks were followed by German thrusts from Romania, Hungary and the Ostmark (modern-day Austria, then part of Germany). Italian forces were limited to air and artillery attacks until 11 April, when the Italian Army attacked towards Ljubljana (in modern-day Slovenia) and through Istria and Lika and down the Dalmatian coast. On the same day, Hungarian forces entered Yugosla ...
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Spanish People
Spaniards, or Spanish people, are a Romance languages, Romance-speaking Ethnicity, ethnic group native to the Iberian Peninsula, primarily associated with the modern Nation state, nation-state of Spain. Genetics, Genetically and Ethnolinguistic group, ethnolinguistically, Spaniards belong to the broader Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western European populations, exhibiting a high degree of continuity with other Indo-European languages, Indo-European-derived ethnic groups in the region. Spain is also home to a diverse array of National and regional identity in Spain, national and regional identities, shaped by its complex History of Spain, history. These include various Languages of Spain, languages and dialects, many of which are direct descendants of Latin, the language imposed during Hispania, Roman rule. Among them, Spanish language, Spanish (also known as Castilian) is the most widely spoken and the only official language across the entire country. Commonly ...
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Marseille
Marseille (; ; see #Name, below) is a city in southern France, the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Departments of France, department of Bouches-du-Rhône and of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur Regions of France, region. Situated in the Provence region, it is located on the coast of the Mediterranean Sea, near the mouth of the Rhône river. Marseille is the List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, second-most populous city proper in France, after Paris, with 873,076 inhabitants in 2021. Marseille with its suburbs and exurbs create the Aix-Marseille-Provence Metropolis, with a population of 1,911,311 at the 2021 census. Founded by Greek settlers from Phocaea, Marseille is the oldest city in France, as well as one of Europe's List of oldest continuously inhabited cities, oldest continuously inhabited settlements. It was known to the ancient Greeks as ''Massalia'' and to ancient Romans, Romans as ''Massilia''. Marseille has been a trading port since ancient ...
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