The Partisans and Politics

This book explores the military events and diplomatic games in the later years of the Second World War through which Josip Broz Tito’s Yugoslav Partisans resistance movement gained the support of the Allies and, eventually, control over Yugoslavia itself.

Based on research by the author in Yugoslav, German, British, American, Italian, and Russian archives and libraries, including the unpublished war memoirs of Josip Broz Tito, the volume follows Winston Churchill’s 1943 strategic decision to shift Allied support from Draza Mihailovic’s Chetniks, who sought the restoration of Peter II to the Yugoslav throne, to Tito and his Communist Party. Tito and Churchill continued to face conflict over concessions regarding the monarchy, as well as the growing influence of Joseph Stalin, who began sending the Partisans large arms supplies. Pirjevec’s narrative of these tensions sheds new light on the dynamics of the wartime events leading to the start of the Cold War and the emergence of new nationalist movements in the region in the second half of the 20th century. The book celebrates Tito and his Partisans for their fight against Nazi-fascism without, however, ignoring their atrocities.

This volume will appeal to readers interested in the lesser-known chapters of the Second World War and the history of Yugoslavia.

Joze Pirjevec is Scientific Counselor at the Science and Research Centre Koper and a Slovenian Academy of Sciences Fellow. His research interests regard Central European and Balkan History in the 20th Century. His books include The Yugoslav Wars: 1991-1999 and Tito and His Comrades.