Republic of Užice

This article is about the short-lived territory in western Serbia. For the 1974 film, see Guns of War.

The Republic of Užice (Serbo-Croatian: Užička republika / Ужичка република) was a short-lived liberated Yugoslav territory and the first liberated territory in World War II Europe, organized as a military mini-state that existed in the autumn of 1941 in occupied Yugoslavia, more specifically the western part of the Territory of the Military Commander in Serbia.^{[Note 1]} The Republic was established by the Partisan resistance movement and its administrative center was in the town of Užice.

Republic of Užice Užička republika Ужичка република
1941–1941
Flag
Anthem: Himna Užičkoj Republici;^a
Status	Partisan Liberated Territory
Capital	Užice
Common languages	Serbo-Croatian (de facto Užičan dialect)
Chairman^b
General Secretary^c
Legislature	Main National Liberation Committee for Serbia
Historical era	World War II
• Partisan arrival in Užice	28 July 1941
• Battle of Drežnik	18 August 1941
• German ultimatum	10 September 1941
• Fall of Užice	24 September 1941
• Battle of Kadinjača	29 November 1941
• Conquered	1 December 1941
Today part of	the Republic of Serbia
Hey, Slavs and other Partisan songs were unofficially used. (the song Republici is not its official anthem) Chairman of the Main Peoples Council of Serbia. General Secretary of the Communist Party of Yugoslavia and Commander in Chief of the Partisans.

Monument to fallen partisans in battle on Kadinjača Hill.

Borders

The Republic of Užice comprised a large portion of western part of the occupied territory and had a population of more than 300,000^{[citation needed]} (according to another source, nearly one million^[3]). It was located between the Valjevo–Bajina Bašta line in the north, the river Drina on the west, the river Zapadna Morava in the east, and the Raška region to the south.^{[citation needed]}

Different sources provide differing information about the size of the republic: according to some sources, it included 15,000^[3] or 20,000^[4] square kilometres.

History

The government was made of "people's councils" (odbori), and the partisans opened schools and published a newspaper, Borba (meaning "Struggle"). They even managed to run a postal system and around 145 km of railway and operated an ammunition factory from the vaults beneath the bank in Užice.^[5]

In November 1941, in the First anti-Partisan offensive, the German troops occupied this territory again, while the majority of Partisan forces escaped towards Bosnia, Sandžak and Montenegro, re-grouping at Foča in Bosnia.^[6]

End

The leftist policy then pursued by Josip Broz Tito (known later as the leftist errors) substantially contributed to the defeat of the partisans in the Republic of Užice.^[7] Because of the pro-fascist Serbian propaganda which described the partisans as being led by foreigners,^[8] the population of Serbia turned against the uprising and against the partisan insurgents. At the beginning of December 1941^[9] the partisans moved from Serbia to Bosnia (nominally part of the NDH) and joined their comrades who had already left Montenegro.^[10]

In popular culture

The 1974 Yugoslav partisan feature film The Republic of Užice covers the events surrounding the existence of the Republic of Užice.

See also

• Republic of Bihać, a similar, albeit created 1 year later, republic in Serbia.
• Former countries in Europe after 1815

References

Notes

1. Official name of the occupied territory^[1][2]

Footnotes

1. Hehn (1971), pp. 344–73
2. Pavlowitch (2002), p. 141
3. Report on World Affairs. RWA. 1985-01-01.
4. Pshennikov, S.; Nat͡sionalʹnyĭ komitet istorikov Sovetskogo Soi͡uza (1985-01-01). The Resistance movement in Europe during the Second World War: 16th International Congress of Historical Sciences, Stuttgart, August 1985. "Social Sciences Today" Editorial Board, USSR Academy of Sciences.
5. Misha Glenny, The Balkans, 1999, p. 487
6. "Užice Republic 1941". National Museum Uzice. Retrieved 2022-05-31.
7. Banac 1988, p. 81.
8. Petrović, Nenad (2009-02-09). "POLITIČKA PROPAGANDA U OKUPIRANOJ SRBIJI: Milan Nedić, Velibor Jonić i Dimitrije Ljotić". www.crvenakritika.org (in Serbo-Croatian). Retrieved 2017-01-18.
9. Jelić, Ivan; Strugar, Novak (1985). War and revolution in Yugoslavia, 1941-1945. Socialist Thought and Practice. p. 122. Partisan Detachments of Yugoslavia and the leaderships of the national liberation movement withdrew from Serbia early in December 1941
10. Pavlowitch 2002, p. 147: "When repression burst the bubble of optimism, the popular mood in Serbia also turned against the insurgency and those who wanted to carry on with revolution... The partisan crossed into nominally NDH territory, where they joined up with their comrades who had left Montenegro. "

Bibliography

• Banac, Ivo (1988). With Stalin Against Tito: Cominformist Splits in Yugoslav Communism. Cornell University Press. ISBN 0-8014-2186-1.
• Hehn, Paul N. (1971). "Serbia, Croatia and Germany 1941-1945: Civil War and Revolution in the Balkans". Canadian Slavonic Papers. University of Alberta. 13 (4): 344–373. doi:10.1080/00085006.1971.11091249. Retrieved 8 April 2012.
• Pavlowitch, Stevan K. (2002). Serbia: The History behind the Name. London: Hurst & Company. ISBN 9781850654773.

Further reading

• Venceslav Glišić, Užička republika, Belgrade, 1986.
• Jovan Radovanović, 67 dana Užičke republike (67 дана Ужичке републике), Belgrade, 1972. (1st edition, 1961.)
• Boško N. Kostić, Za istoriju naših dana, Lille, France, 1949.

External links

• Modern Serbia - Revolution and the antifascist struggle at Encyclopædia Britannica.
• Opština Užice
• National Museum Uzice