Bosna i Hercegovina i konstituisanje Avnojske Jugoslavije (1943-1945)
Authors:   Institute of History, University of Sarajevo, Bandžović Safet 
Published: November 2023

Many states, like Yugoslavia, emerged from conflicting historical currents. A critical examination of the socio-historical multi-directional flows after the chaotic April War of 1941 and the rapid disintegration of monarchical Yugoslavia also encompasses rational knowledge of opposing political and national perspectives dating back to 1918 when it was established, with its problematic events between the two World Wars, their causes, and consequences. The turbulent interwar legacy and the failure to address acute problems within the state influenced the dramatic situation and conflicts in occupied Yugoslavia, leading to polarization, collaboration, and alignments. The state of war is a complex crisis situation. The breakup of Yugoslavia was met with divided opinions on whether (and if so, how and on what basis) to reestablish the state. Each Yugoslavia (the „old” and the „new”) also represented a „new constitutional concept of the relationship between its major nations/political groups” (Dejan Jović). The successful antifascist liberation struggle from 1941 to 1945 was primarily led by the partisan movement, with the dominant role of the Communist Party of Yugoslavia (CPY). Vladimir Dedijer wrote that in 1941, a revolutionary war began, and „no one dreamed what its nature would be.” It was a civil war, destroying the idea that this state could be rebuilt in the form it took in 1918. It was a complex war („a war of all against all”) with numerous burdens (national, religious, social, historical). Anti-Yugoslav forces were long more numerous than pro-Yugoslav forces, which eventually triumphed. The speech of Yugoslav antifascism is most symbolically recognizable by the phrase: „Death to fascism – freedom to the people,” and „brotherhood and unity.” By the decision on the federal organization of the state at the Second Session of the Anti-Fascist Council of National Liberation of Yugoslavia (AVNOJ) in Jajce in 1943, the foundational pillar of the previous Yugoslavia—state and national unitarism—was denied. AVNOJ's decisions were of a framework and principle nature. The federation was established, but until the end, the forms of all its units related to their borders and the structure of alliance members („unitary or complex”) were not fully defined. The emergence of the federal Bosnia and Herzegovina was accompanied by harmonization at the top of the CPY and the People's Liberation Movement. The specificity of the „AVNOJ formula” was also reflected in the fact that in 1943, a federal state was formed, and in 1944, the members of the federation (republics). At that time, their provincial antifascist councils were constituted as the highest legislative and executive representative bodies. Many accompanying issues addressed in the decisions in Jajce on the structure of Yugoslavia remained under detailed consideration and clarification by the state-party leadership and AVNOJ in 1945. These issues have continued to be the subject of more detailed review and analysis in the context of the developments in historiography and have been exposed to considerations in a broader context. They have been reinterpreted, their facts have been analyzed, and there have been „in-depth” searches for more complete, multiperspective answers. The development of historiography is „marked by controversy.” Research into the formation of the „new” Yugoslavia should not be conducted with ideological biases and prejudices but should consider new experiences present in the flow of time and in the minds of contemporaries, including historians, as „children of their time.” Relevant historical contents must be separated from „declarative proclamations, pathos statements, ceremonial-protocol stances.” In a simplified understanding of the past, „everything appears simple and linear.” It is necessary to interpret historical phenomena and processes in a multidimensional, layered, and grounded manner.