page_title: Uprising in Serbia (1941)
hierarchical_section_title: Uprising in Serbia (1941)
caption_attribution_description: Srpskohrvatski / српскохрватски: Ustanak u okupiranoj Jugoslaviji septembra 1941. godine. English: Uprising in occupied Yugoslavia 1941.
context_page_description: The Uprising in Serbia was initiated in July 1941 by the Communist Party of Yugoslavia against the German occupation forces and their Serbian auxiliaries in the Territory of the Military Commander in Serbia. At first the Yugoslav Partisans had mounted diversions and conducted sabotage and had attacked representatives of Aćimović's collaborationist administration. In late August some Chetniks joined the uprising and liberated Loznica. The uprising soon reached mass proportions. Partisans and Chetniks captured towns that weak German garrisons had abandoned. The armed uprising soon engulfed great parts of the occupied territory. The largest liberated territory in occupied Europe was created by the Partisans in western Serbia, and was known as the Republic of Užice. Rebels shared power on the liberated territory; the center of the Partisan liberated territory was in Užice, and Chetniks had their headquarters on Ravna Gora.
  As the uprising progressed, the ideological rift between the two factions became more and more obvious. On one side were the Chetnik detachments who considered themselves loyal to the royal government in exile and fought for the restoration of pre-war order.
context_section_description: The Uprising in Serbia was initiated in July 1941 by the Communist Party of Yugoslavia against the German occupation forces and their Serbian auxiliaries in the Territory of the Military Commander in Serbia. At first the  Yugoslav Partisans had mounted diversions and conducted sabotage and had attacked representatives of Aćimović's collaborationist administration. In late August some Chetniks joined the uprising and liberated Loznica. The uprising soon reached mass proportions. Partisans and Chetniks captured towns that weak German garrisons had abandoned. The armed uprising soon engulfed great parts of the occupied territory. The largest liberated territory in occupied Europe was created by the Partisans in western Serbia, and was known as the Republic of Užice. Rebels shared power on the liberated territory;  the center of the Partisan liberated territory was in Užice, and Chetniks had their headquarters on Ravna Gora.
  As the uprising progressed, the ideological rift between the two factions became more and more obvious. On one side were the Chetnik detachments who considered themselves loyal to the royal government in exile and fought for the restoration of pre-war order. On the other side were members of the Peoples Liberation Army of Yugoslavia who favored the introduction of socialism and the post-war reorganization of Yugoslavia on federal basis. The Chetnik leader Dragoljub Mihailović abandoned the uprising in late October and entered into negotiations with the collaborationist government and the Germans in order to destroy the rival Partisans.
  The Germans soon gathered a large force and quelled the uprising using mass terror, but the remaining Partisan forces crossed into Bosnia, where they formed the 1st Proletarian Brigade. After the collapse of the uprising, Territory of the Military Commander was largely pacified until the return of the Partisans and the Belgrade Offensive in second half of 1944. Meanwhile, the Chetniks became even more reluctant to fight against Germans, and engaged in anti-Partisan operations and open collaboration. Nevertheless, Mihailovic was able to establish himself as the sole legitimate representative of the Yugoslav government in exile, who ordered that all resistance forces should fight under his command.
caption: The uprising as of September 1941.
exif: {}