Insurgents Left to their Own Devices—1942

Abstract

This chapter introduces the eminent historian and constitutional lawyer, Slobodan Jovanović, who took over a reshuffled Yugoslav government in London from General Dušan Simović. Jovanović wanted to improve the position of the government by contributing Dragoljub Mihailović's resistance to the Allied cause, while helping him obtain unity among, and loyalty from, the insurgent forces. The chapter then highlights the idea of a 'Ravna Gora movement,' which would reorganise Yugoslavia into a state with social justice and without political differences, and one where Serbs would never again be trapped under the non-Serb rule. It recounts Mihailović's campaign of total civil disobedience in Serbia and the impacts of his sabotage action on Germany. The chapter also details a power-sharing arrangement between the Italian military, Montenegrin Greens, and two sets of unionist chetniks, described as an 'Italian—Chetnik condominium' and the move of Marshall Tito's Supreme Staff and of his main force from Užice to Foča, in the highlands of south-east Bosnia following the continued risings in the country. Ultimately, the chapter analyses the outcome of the expulsion of the intelligentsia, the mass enrolment of the population in official German organisations and continued reprisals for even minor offences on the resistance in northern Slovenia.