Ivan Srebrenjak
Yugoslav spy for the USSR
Ivan Srebrenjak or Srebrnjak (1903 – 21 May 1942) ran a Soviet intelligence network for the NKVD in the Balkans at the beginning of Axis occupation of Yugoslavia.
Srebrenjak was born in 1903 in Slavonia and became a member of the Yugoslav Communist Party in 1928. After he killed a Yugoslav policeman in 1930 he left Yugoslavia and became a member of a group of Stalin's killers known as "liquidators" headed by Josip Broz Tito. When Axis forces occupied Yugoslavia in 1941 Srebrenjak returned to Yugoslavia and set up an NKVD centre in Zagreb, part of the Red Orchestra network. Tito considered him an enemy and requested approval from Stalin to relieve Srebrenjak of that position, which was refused by Stalin.
In 1942, Srebrenjak was informed on to the Gestapo and the Ustaše, resulting in his capture. In captivity Srebrenjak was the first person to identify Tito as leader of Communist resistance movement in Yugoslavia to German and Ustaše authorities. To minimize further damage to his position Tito ordered the murder of Srebrenjak and on 21 May 1942 Srebrenjak was killed in an Ustaše prison. This murder allowed Tito to seize and stabilize his position of leader of the Communist Party of Yugoslavia.
Early life
Srebrenjak was born in 1903 in the village of Oprisavci near Slavonski Brod, at the time in Austria-Hungary (modern day Croatia).
“Ivan Srebrenjak” enters the record as yugoslav spy for the USSR. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Ivan, Srebrenjak and Yugoslav can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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