State Anti-fascist Council for the National Liberation of Bosnia and Herzegovina
provisional government in Yugoslavia
The State Anti-fascist Council for the National Liberation of Bosnia and Herzegovina (Serbo-Croatian: Zemaljsko antifašističko vijeće narodnog oslobođenja Bosne i Hercegovine, Земаљско антифашистичко виjеће народног ослобођења Босне и Херцеговине), commonly abbreviated as the ZAVNOBiH, was convened on 25 November 1943 in Mrkonjić Grad during the World War II Axis occupation of Yugoslavia. It was established as the highest representative and legislative body in the territory of Bosnia and Herzegovina under control of the Yugoslav Partisans.
Decisions of the second session of the ZAVNOBiH held in Sanski Most in 1944 established statehood of Bosnia and Herzegovina by claiming equal status with the other prospective federated republics in the planned establishment of the Democratic Federal Yugoslavia pursued by the Communist Party of Yugoslavia. The composition of the ZAVNOBiH was meant to represent as wide spectrum of the society as possible and included non-communist members but the communist leadership never relinquished control over the ZAVNOBiH or its bodies. The second session of the ZAVNOBiH adopted the Declaration on Rights of the Citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina recognising equality of Serbs and Croats of Bosnia and Herzegovina with the Muslim population of the nascent Yugoslav federal unit.
The final session of the ZAVNOBiH was held in Sarajevo in April 1945. There the ZAVNOBiH was transformed into the People's Assembly of Bosnia and Herzegovina and it established the first government of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Background
In April 1941, the Axis powers invaded and soon occupied Yugoslavia. With the Yugoslav defeat imminent, the Communist Party of Yugoslavia (Komunistička partija Jugoslavije, KPJ) instructed its 8,000 members to stockpile weapons in anticipation of armed resistance, which would spread, by the end of 1941 to all areas of the country except Macedonia. Building on its experience in clandestine operation across the country, the KPJ proceeded to organise the Yugoslav Partisans, as resistance fighters led by Josip Broz Tito.
“State Anti-fascist Council for the National Liberation of Bosnia and Herzegovina” enters the record as provisional government in Yugoslavia. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what State, Anti-fascist and Council can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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Chronology, provenance and viewpoint should be read together before a broad social or political interpretation is accepted. The source revision retrieved here is dated Apr 19, 2025. The linked authority identifier is Q795016. VIAF identifies the subject as 305689293. 2 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1943, 1944, 1945 and 1941.
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This entry incorporates text from “State Anti-fascist Council for the National Liberation of Bosnia and Herzegovina” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.