The People's Defence Corps of Yugoslavia or KNOJ (, , ), was a corps of the

Yugoslav Partisans The Yugoslav Partisans,Serbo-Croatian, Macedonian language, Macedonian, and Slovene language, Slovene: , officially the National Liberation Army and Partisan Detachments of Yugoslavia sh-Latn-Cyrl, Narodnooslobodilačka vojska i partizanski odr ...

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 Invasion of Yugoslavia, invaded and swiftly conquered by Axis powers, Axis forces and partitioned among Nazi Germany, Germany, Fascist Italy (1922–1943), It ...

and later the territory of

Communist Yugoslavia The Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (commonly abbreviated as SFRY or SFR Yugoslavia), known from 1945 to 1963 as the Federal People's Republic of Yugoslavia, commonly referred to as Socialist Yugoslavia or simply Yugoslavia, was a country ...

History

KNOJ was created based on a directive by

Marshal of Yugoslavia Marshal of Yugoslavia was the highest military distinction, rather than a military rank of the Yugoslav People's Army. In military hierarchy it was equivalent to Marshal#Military, Marshal (field marshal), and, simultaneously, a Socialist Federal R ...

Josip Broz Tito Josip Broz ( sh-Cyrl, Јосип Броз, ; 7 May 1892 – 4 May 1980), commonly known as Tito ( ; , ), was a Yugoslavia, Yugoslav communist revolutionary and politician who served in various positions of national leadership from 1943 unti ...

, on 15 August 1944. As liberated territories expanded, the corps was established to allow Partisan military intelligence organization (Department for People's Protection,

OZNA The Department for Protection of the People, commonly known under its Serbo-Croatian acronym as OZNA, was the secret police of Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, Communist Yugoslavia that existed between 1944 and 1946. Founding The OZNA w ...

) continued focus on core tasks. The corps comprised about 80,000 men at its peak. The first commander was

Jovan Vukotić Jovan may refer to: *Jovan (given name), a list of people with this given name *Jovan, Mawal, a village on the western coastal region of Maharashtra, India *Jōvan Musk, a cologne *Deli Jovan, a mountain in eastern Serbia *Róbert Jován (born 196 ...

(1907–1982) and the supervision lay with the political commissar

Vlado Janić Vlado Janić ''Capo'' (14 July 1904 – 4 May 1991) was a Croatian Partisan and the commander of the Sisak People's Liberation Partisan Detachment, the first Anti-fascism, anti-fascist resistance unit formed by a Resistance during World War II ...

(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 The end of World War II in Europe occurred in May 1945. Following the Death of Adolf Hitler, suicide of Adolf Hitler on 30 April, leadership of Nazi Germany passed to Grand Admiral Karl Dönitz and the Flensburg Government. Soviet Union, Soviet t ...

, 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 (JNA/; Macedonian language, Macedonian, Montenegrin language, Montenegrin and sr-Cyrl-Latn, Југословенска народна армија, Jugoslovenska narodna armija; Croatian language, Croatian and ; , J ...

(armed forces) and

Militia A militia ( ) is a military or paramilitary force that comprises civilian members, as opposed to a professional standing army of regular, full-time military personnel. Militias may be raised in times of need to support regular troops or se ...

(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

History

See also

References

Literature