State Anti-Fascist Council for the National Liberation of Croatia
The State Anti-Fascist Council for the National Liberation of Croatia, commonly abbreviated ZAVNOH, was first convened on 13–14 June 1943 in Otočac and Plitvice as the chief political representative body in World War II Axis-occupied Croatia. It was dominated by the Communist Party of Croatia, a nominally-independent political party active in the territory largely corresponding to present-day Croatia. Despite its nominal independence, the party was a de facto branch of the Josip Broz Tito-led Communist Party of Yugoslavia. ZAVNOH also included representatives or former members of peasant organisations, trade unions, the Croatian Peasant Party, and the Independent Democratic Party.
In addition to performing day-to-day regulatory and government tasks in the territory held by Yugoslav Partisans within Croatia under the leadership of Andrija Hebrang, ZAVNOH sought to broaden the appeal of partisan resistance to the Croatian population by presenting it as not entirely communist. It also tried to reconcile Croat and Serb equality with the promotion of Croatia's interests, sometimes marginalising the Serbs and triggering conflict with Tito. At its third session, in Topusko, ZAVNOH upheld the decisions on federal post-war Yugoslavia adopted by the Anti-Fascist Council for the National Liberation of Yugoslavia. In 1945, ZAVNOH was renamed the People's Sabor of Croatia.
Its work, ideas and decisions contributed to the leadership programme of the League of Communists of Croatia, culminating in the 1971 Croatian Spring. ZAVNOH's decisions were then used to justify newly introduced policies seeking to reform the Yugoslav federation and promote Croatian interests. The 1990 Constitution of Croatia, adopted shortly before the declaration of Croatian independence, cites ZAVNOH in its preamble as a foundation of Croatian statehood.
Background
Axis invasion of Yugoslavia
Seeking retribution for their withdrawal from the Tripartite Pact after the March 1941 Yugoslav coup d'état, Adolf Hitler sought to destroy the Kingdom of Yugoslavia by dismembering it for annexation by Nazi Germany and its allies. The move was supported by Italian leader Benito Mussolini, who believed that it would help Fascist Italy expand their territory by absorbing former Yugoslav territories. German plans for the breakup of Yugoslavia also envisaged some form of autonomy for the Croats, exploiting Croatian dissatisfaction with the Yugoslav regime. Hitler offered Hungary the opportunity to absorb Croatia on 27 March 1941, but Regent Miklós Horthy declined his offer. Only days later, Germany determined to establish a Croatian puppet state.The Nazis turned to the Croatian Peasant Party, the most popular Croatian political party at the time, to set up the state. They offered party leader Vladko Maček the opportunity to govern it, but Maček declined. Its rule was then reluctantly offered to the Italian-based Ustaše and their leader, Ante Pavelić. Mussolini sought to capitalise on the promises made in a 1927 memorandum submitted by Pavelić and Ivo Frank, promising territorial concessions to Italy. The Independent State of Croatia was declared on 10 April, as the Wehrmacht was approaching Zagreb. The declaration was made by Slavko Kvaternik at the urging of, and with support from, SS Colonel Edmund Veesenmayer of the Dienststelle Ribbentrop. Pavelić and the Ustaše were only permitted to leave Italy and Italian-occupied territory in Yugoslavia after Mussolini extracted a written confirmation of the 1927 pledge, allowing him to reach Zagreb in the early morning of 15 April with 195 Ustašas. Yugoslavia surrendered shortly thereafter, on 17 April 1941, with King Peter II and the government fleeing the country. The decision to abandon armed resistance to the Axis powers so early placed the Yugoslav government-in-exile in a poor position, further weakened by quarreling ministers who appeared united only in their opposition to communism.
Partisan resistance
With defeat imminent, the Communist Party of Yugoslavia instructed its 8,000 members to stockpile weapons in anticipation of armed resistance. Building on its experience in nationwide clandestine operation, the KPJ organised the Partisans into a resistance force led by Josip Broz Tito. The KPJ concluded that the German invasion of the Soviet Union had created favourable conditions for an uprising, and its politburo established the Supreme Headquarters of the National Liberation Army of Yugoslavia on 27 June 1941. In the territory largely corresponding to present-day Croatia, the Communist Party of Croatia operated as a nominally-independent party but was a de facto KPJ branch; at the beginning of the war, it had 4,000 members.The Serb population living in the NDH was eager to join the Partisan struggle, due to their severe persecution by the Ustaše regime. The KPJ competed for Serb loyalty with the Chetniks: nationalist Serb guerrillas who fought the Partisans and the NDH, backed by Fascist Italy and organised as the Anti-Communist Volunteer Militia. A major contributor to Croat Partisan recruitment was the transfer of a large portion of the Adriatic coast to Italy through the Treaties of Rome as fulfilment of Pavelić's promise to Mussolini. By late 1943, Croatia's contribution to the Yugoslav Partisan resistance was disproportionately large: 38 of its 97 brigades.
Establishment of the AVNOJ
In November 1942, the Partisans captured the town of Bihać and secured a large part of western Bosnia, Dalmatia and Lika. On 26 and 27 November, the pan-Yugoslav Anti-Fascist Council for the National Liberation of Yugoslavia was established in Bihać at the urging of Tito and the KPJ. At its first session, the AVNOJ adopted a multi-ethnic federal state as the basis for the country's future government but did not determine the post-war system of government. The number of future federal units and their equality were ambiguous.The AVNOJ elected Ivan Ribar president; Ribar, the first president of the Constitutional Assembly of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, symbolised continuity with the pre-war government. The 1942 AVNOJ-established bodies were not formally considered a government, and Tito said that international relations precluded the formation of a government at that point; he described AVNOJ as a political instrument designed to mobilise. Despite ambiguity about the number and equality of future federal units, the AVNOJ urged the convening of similar assemblies in future federal units.
Sessions
First session
During the first session of the AVNOJ, Tito tasked KPH central committee member Pavle Gregorić with setting up a supreme political body of the national liberation movement in Croatia as soon as possible. A working groupAVNOJ Delegates from Croatia was set up in Slunj in early December 1942, and the State Anti-Fascist Council for the National Liberation of Croatia was expected to convene in mid-January 1943. However, the Axis Case White offensive forced the plans to be postponed. The eight-member Initiative Committee of the ZAVNOH was instead convened in the village of Ponori, near Korenica. The Initiative Committee was headed by three-member secretariat consisting of Gregorić, Stanko Ćanica-Opačić, and. Balen, a former HSS member who was persuaded to join the KPJ by KPH central-committee secretary Andrija Hebrang, later headed the ZAVNOH propaganda department. Another former HSS activist, Nikola Rubčić, was brought in as the editor of Vjesnik.On 17 March 1943, the committee declared that it was assuming all popular authority in Croatia until the ZAVNOH was convened. A 26 May declaration emphasised that the national liberation movement in Croatia was part of the Yugoslav national liberation movement; Croats and Serbs would independently decide on internal matters and relations with other peoples after the country's liberation.
After the successful spring 1943 offensive and recapture of most of the Banija, Kordun, and Lika regions by the 1st Corps, the ZAVNOH first convened in Otočac and Plitvice as Croatia's supreme representative political body on 13–14 June. The session consisted of 112 members, with an eleven-member executive committee led by president Vladimir Nazor and three vice-presidents. It adopted the Plivice Resolution, detailing the history of the Croatian people and their struggle for freedom, the backward nature of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, the reign of terror of the NDH and the Chetniks, and the betrayal of the royal government in exile. The resolution called for the recovery of Croatian lands seized by foreigners and "full and true democratic freedom and equality of Croats and Serbs".
The first ZAVNOH session recognised a "free Bosnia and Herzegovina", relinquishing control of Livno. In return, it received Dvor and the coast between the Neretva River and the Bay of Kotor originally assigned to the Bosnian or Herzegovinan Partisans.
Second session
Between the ZAVNOH's first and the second sessions, the national liberation movement in Croatia grew from 25,000 to 100,000 fighters and increased its control – particularly on the coast, after the surrender of Italy. On 20 September 1943, the ZAVNOH executive committee decided to add Istria, Rijeka, Zadar and other Croatian lands previously annexed by Italy to Croatia. The AVNOJ confirmed the decision on 30 September. Tito criticised the ZAVNOH for assuming sovereignty in place of Yugoslavia, seeing the decision as an example of latent nationalism in the KPH leadership.The ZAVNOH's second session was held in Plaški from 12 to 15 October 1943. It expanded by 66 members, largely drawn from the HSS. The HSS splintered early in the war. Vladko Maček led the party's most influential faction, adopting a policy of waiting for liberation by the Allies. Another group, which included former Ban of Croatia Ivan Šubašić, fled the country to join the royal government in exile. A third group joined the Ustaše; a fourth group, led by Božidar Magovac, joined the KPH-dominated national liberation movement. Magovac saw his HSS faction and the KPH as a coalition of equals. Although some Partisan fighters resented the acceptance of HSS members, the official KPH position was that the newcomers were welcome and free to maintain their political views. This position was taken in the belief that a greater involvement of HSS members would lead to broader Croat participation in the Partisan struggle. A group of Independent Democratic Party leaders also agreed to cooperate with the movement. Peasant organisations and trade unions sent representatives to the ZAVNOH, which sought to represent as broad a segment of the population as possible. Participation of the organisations depended on their acceptance of the KPH's lead.
The second session appointed a 15-member executive committee to discharge political functions, and a six-member secretariat selected from the executive committee members as a de facto Croatian government to perform day-to-day tasks. The secretariat retained its function until the People's Government was appointed in Split on 14 April 1945.
In his speech to the second session, Hebrang urged the KPH to accept the popular "mass movement" instead of pursuing a leftist agenda. He urged the party to ensure that the Partisan struggle was not perceived as exclusively communist, condemning "fanatics flying only the red flag" and extremism in the KPJ. The ZAVNOH replied that it did not intend to radically change social life, and recognised the status of private property.
On 12 January 1944, the Serbian Club of ZAVNOH Members was established in Otočac. It was chaired by Rade Pribičević, a member of the pre-war SDS' Main Committee. Despite Pribičević's assertion that Croatian Serbs would pursue Croatia's interests in Yugoslavia, there was some resentment of their actual, perceived or expected position. The principal complaints were that the Serbs were marginalised in Croatia, Ustaše atrocities were overlooked, Serbs were underrepresented in the ZAVNOH, and their Cyrillic script was discouraged. Although Hebrang insisted on teaching the Cyrillic script in all schools, he also said that Croatia Serbs had to accept their a minority status in a Croatian state. Hebrang's efforts to emphasise Croat contribution to the Partisan struggle contributed to perceived Croatian Serb marginalisation. As a result of this, four ethnic-Serb Partisan commanders and about 90 subordinates defected to Germany in the Kordun region in 1944. Hebrang's policies also increased KPJ leadership concern about his effects on Serb Partisan support.