Editing Yugoslav Partisans (section)

==Formation and early rebellion==

During the April invasion of Yugoslavia, the leadership of the Communist Party was in [[Zagreb]], together with Josip Broz Tito. After a month, they left for [[Belgrade]]. While the [[Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact]] between Germany and the Soviet Union was in effect, the communists refrained from open conflict with the new regime of the [[Independent State of Croatia]]. In these first two months of occupation, they extended their underground network and began amassing weapons.{{sfn|Goldstein|1999|p=140}} In early May 1941, a so-called [[May consultations]] of Communist Party officials from across the country, who sought to organize the resistance against the occupiers, was held in Zagreb. In June 1941, a meeting of the Central Committee of KPJ was also held, at which it was decided to start preparations for the uprising.<ref>Davor Marijan, ''The May Deliberations of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Yugoslavia'', Hrvatski institut za povijest, 2003, pp. 325–331, {{ISBN|953-6324-35-0}}</ref>

[[Operation Barbarossa]], the Axis invasion of the Soviet Union, began on 22 June 1941.<ref name= higgins>{{cite book|title=Hitler and Russia|first=Trumbull|last=Higgins|publisher=The Macmillan Company|year=1966|pages=11–59, 98–151}}</ref>

The extent of support for the Partisan movement varied according to region and nationality, reflecting the existential concerns of the local population and authorities. The first Partisan uprising occurred in Croatia on 22 June 1941, when forty Croatian communists staged an uprising in the Brezovica woods between Sisak and Zagreb, forming the [[1st Sisak Partisan Detachment]].<ref name="cohen94"/>

The first uprising led by Tito occurred two weeks later, in Serbia.<ref name="cohen94">[[#refCohen1996|Cohen 1996]], p. 94.</ref> The [[Communist Party of Yugoslavia]] formally decided to launch an armed uprising on 4 July, a date which was later marked as [[:sh:Dan borca|Fighter's Day]] – a public holiday in the [[Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia|SFR Yugoslavia]]. One [[Žikica Jovanović Španac]] shot the first bullet of the campaign on 7 July in the [[Bela Crkva incident]].

[[File:Partisan youth execution.jpg|thumb|Sixteen blindfolded Partisan youth await execution by German forces in [[Smederevska Palanka]], 20 August 1941]]

The first Zagreb-[[Sesvete]] partisan group was formed in [[Dubrava, Zagreb|Dubrava]] in July 1941. In August 1941, 7 Partisan Detachments were formed in [[Dalmatia]] with the role of spreading the uprising. On 26 August 1941, 21 members of the [[1st Split Partisan Detachment]] were executed by firing squad after being captured by Italian and Ustaše forces.{{sfn|Kovač|Vojnović|1976|pp=367–372}}{{sfn|Kvesić|1960|pp=135–145}} A number of other partisan units were formed in the summer of 1941, including in [[Moslavina]] and [[Kalnik, Koprivnica-Križevci County|Kalnik]]. An uprising occurred in Serbia during the summer, led by Tito, when the [[Republic of Užice]] was created, but it was defeated by the Axis forces by December 1941, and support for the Partisans in Serbia thereafter dropped.

It was a different story for Serbs in Axis occupied Croatia who turned to the multi-ethnic Partisans, or the Serb royalist Chetniks.<ref name="Cohen 95">[[#refCohen1996|Cohen 1996]], p. 95.</ref> The journalist [[Tim Judah]] notes that in the early stage of the war the initial preponderance of Serbs in the Partisans meant in effect a Serbian civil war had broken out.<ref>[[#refJudah2000|Judah 2000]], p. 119.</ref> A similar civil war existed within the Croatian national corpus with the competing national narratives provided by the Ustaše and Partisans.

In the territory of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the cause of Serb rebellion was the Ustaše policy of [[Genocide of Serbs in the Independent State of Croatia|genocide, deportations, forced conversions and mass killings of Serbs]],{{sfn|Tomasevich|2001|p=506}} as was the case elsewhere in the NDH.{{sfn|Tomasevich|2001|p=412}}<ref name="Alonso&Kramer">{{cite book |last1=Alonso |first1=Miguel |last2=Kramer |first2=Alan |title=Fascist Warfare, 1922–1945: Aggression, Occupation, Annihilation |date=2019 |publisher=Springer Nature |isbn=978-3-03027-648-5 |page=253 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XXfADwAAQBAJ&pg=PA253 |quote=Through ethnic cleansing, the Ustasha Corps and the irregular 'wild Ustashe' groups murdered over 100,000 Serbs in the countryside by the end of summer 1941. The pogroms of the 'wild Ustashe' were the main cause for the eruption of large-scale rebellion against the Ustasha regime.}}</ref> Resistance to communist leadership of the anti-Ustasha rebellion among the Serbs from Bosnia also developed in the form of the Chetnik movement and autonomous bands which were under command of Dragoljub Mihailović.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Hoare |first1=Marko Attila |title=The Bosnian Muslims in the Second World War |date=2013 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19936-543-2 |page=10 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=M4poAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA10}}</ref> Whereas the Partisans under Serb leadership were open to members of various nationalities, those in the Chetniks were hostile to Muslims and exclusively Serbian. The uprising in Bosnia and Herzegovina started by Serbs in many places were acts of retaliation against the Muslims, with thousands of them killed.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Redžić |first1=Enver |last2=Donia |first2=Robert |title=Bosnia and Herzegovina in the Second World War |date=2004 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=1135767351 |page=180}}</ref> A rebellion began in [[June 1941 uprising in eastern Herzegovina|June 1941 in Herzegovina]].<ref name="Alonso&Kramer" /> On 27 July 1941, a Partisan-led uprising began in the area of [[Drvar]] and [[Bosansko Grahovo]].{{sfn|Tomasevich|2001|p=506}} It was a coordinated effort from both sides of the [[Una (Sava)|Una River]] in the territory of southeastern [[Lika]] and southwestern Bosanska, and succeeded in transferring key NDH territory under rebel control.<ref name="Goldstein">{{cite book |last1=Goldstein |first1=Slavko |title=1941: The Year That Keeps Returning |date=2013 |publisher=New York Review of Books |isbn=978-1-59017-700-6 |page=158 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tPCrbVJNvWUC&pg=PA158}}</ref>

On 10 August in Stanulović, a mountain village, the Partisans formed the Kopaonik Partisan Detachment Headquarters. The area they controlled, consisting of nearby villages, was called the "Miners Republic" and lasted 42 days. The resistance fighters formally joined the ranks of the Partisans later on.

At the September 1941 [[Stolice conference]], the unified name ''partisans'' and the [[red star]] as an identification symbol were adopted for all fighters led by the Communist Party of Yugoslavia.

In 1941, Partisan forces in Serbia and Montenegro had around 55,000 fighters, but only 4,500 succeeded to escape to Bosnia.<ref name="Ramet2006">{{cite book|last=Ramet|first=Sabrina P.|title=The Three Yugoslavias: State-building and Legitimation, 1918–2005|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FTw3lEqi2-oC&pg=PA152|year=2006|publisher=Indiana University Press|isbn=978-0-253-34656-8|page=153|quote=In 1941 Partisans had some 55,000 fighters in Serbia and Montenegro, but barely 4,500 Partisans had escaped to Bosnia.}}</ref> On 21 December 1941 they formed the [[1st Proletarian Brigade|1st Proletarian Assault Brigade]] (''1. Proleterska Udarna Brigada'') – the first regular Partisan military unit, capable of operating outside its local area. In 1942 Partisan detachments officially merged into the People's Liberation Army and Partisan Detachments of Yugoslavia (NOV i POJ) with an estimated 236,000 soldiers in December 1942.<ref name=time>{{cite magazine|url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,885272,00.html|title=Foreign News: Partisan Boom|date=3 January 1944|magazine=Time|access-date=15 February 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090901165133/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,885272,00.html|archive-date=1 September 2009|url-status=dead|df=dmy-all}}</ref>

Partisan numbers from Serbia would be diminished until 1943 when the Partisan movement gained upswing by spreading the fight against the axis.<ref>{{cite web|last=Hart|first=Stephen|title=BBC History|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/history/worldwars/wwtwo/partisan_fighters_01.shtml#two|work=Partisans: War in the Balkans 1941 – 1945|publisher=BBC|access-date=12 April 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110128112138/http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/worldwars/wwtwo/partisan_fighters_01.shtml#two|archive-date=28 January 2011|url-status=live|df=dmy-all}}</ref> Increase of number of Partisans in Serbia, similarly to other republics, came partly in response to Tito's offer of amnesty to all collaborators on 17 August 1944. At that point tens of thousands of Chetniks switched sides to the Partisans.{{Citation needed|date=December 2011}} The amnesty would be offered again after German withdrawal from Belgrade on 21 November 1944 and on 15 January 1945.<ref>[[#refCohen1996|Cohen 1996]], p. 61.</ref>