Territorial Defense (Yugoslavia)
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Territorial Defence | |
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Територијална Oдбрана / Teritorijalna odbrana | |
Founded | 1969 |
Disbanded | 1992 |
Country | Yugoslavia |
Type | Militia |
Size | 860,000 personnel (c. 3,000,000 reserve) |
Part of | Yugoslav People's Army |
Insignia | |
Flag |
The Territorial Defense (
Background
Following the end of the Second World War, Yugoslavia became a socialist state following the success of the Yugoslav Partisans in their resistance of the Axis powers. In 1948, following the Tito–Stalin split, Yugoslavia broke ties with the Soviet Union and its allies. During the Cold War, it was one of the leading members of the Non-Aligned Movement. After the Soviet Invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968, the concerns about an eventual Soviet attack started to rise within the Yugoslav leadership.[1] The invasion of Czechoslovakia showed that the standing conventional forces of a small country could not repulse a surprise attack by a qualitatively and quantitatively superior aggressor.[2] Being strategically positioned between the two major blocs, the NATO and the Warsaw Pact, Yugoslavia had to prepare its own military doctrine for a potential Third World War mass invasion scenario.
Doctrine
With the passing of the National Defense Law of 1969, Yugoslavia adopted a
Starting from the
The most likely scenario in the doctrine of ONO was a general war between the NATO and the Warsaw Pact.[2] In such a situation, Yugoslavia would remain non-aligned, and it would not accept foreign troops of either alliance on its territory.[2] The doctrine did recognize the likelihood that one side or the other might try to seize Yugoslav territory as a forward staging area, to ensure lines of communication, or simply to deny the territory to enemy forces. Such action would be considered aggression and would be resisted.[2] Regardless of ideology, the occupiers would be considered Yugoslavia's enemy.[2]
Territorial Defense Forces
Task and formation
Under the constitution and laws of SFR Yugoslavia as the second part of armed forces, the Territorial Defense Forces were formed in 1969 as an integral part of the Yugoslav Total National Defense doctrine with the task of defending Yugoslav territory and supporting and working with JNA as one means of organized armed resistance through total war doctrine against aggressors.
The main task of the Territorial Defense Forces was the protection of independence, sovereignty, territorial integrity and social organization of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.[4]
Description and formations
They were mostly reserve forces to be used in case of war based on local population living among Yugoslav republics and municipalities. Each republic within Yugoslavia had HQ of Territorial Defense with active military personnel within HQ and most of units in reserve. They were kind of partisan forces organized to be active only during war and with limited armament compared to JNA's active structure. They were tasked with providing functioning of industries and local security and point defense specially in towns and important military installations during war while JNA provided strategic and operational forces to deal with the enemy.
The TO concept focused on small, lightly armed
They were never tested in peacetime to their maximum or trained en masse, like JNA, as it was too expensive: because most TO personnel were civilians in peacetime that were conscripted only during emergencies, requiring them to participate in field exercises would temporarily remove them from their current peacetime work. Most of reserve forces that constituted Territorial Defense were soldiers as one-time JNA
The TO forces consisted of able-bodied civilian males and females. Between 1 and 3 million Yugoslavs between the ages of 15 and 65 could fight under TO command as regular or
According to a CIA report the estimated wartime strength of the Territorial Defense forces in the various republics was as follows:[5]
- SR Serbia: 300,000
- SR Bosnia and Herzegovina: 200,000
- SR Croatia: 200,000
- SR Macedonia: 100,000
- SR Slovenia: 60,000
- SR Montenegro: 30,000
Dissolution
The possibility that each Yugoslav federal unit could have its own armed formations led to concerns that someday these separate "armies" might oppose the
See also
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Similar formations:
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Notes
a. | ^ |
b. | ^ |
References
- ^ JSTOR 45345995. Retrieved April 10, 2023.
- ^ OCLC 24792849. Archived from the original on April 8, 2023. This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.)
{{cite encyclopedia}}
: CS1 maint: postscript (link - ^ a b Rusinow, Dennison (November 1971). "The Yugoslav Concept of "All National Defense": A Deterrence to Great Powers" (PDF). Southeast Europe Series. 19 (1). American Universities Field Staff, Inc.: 1–10. Archived from the original (PDF) on March 15, 2023. Retrieved April 10, 2023.
- ^ "Ustav Socijalističke Federativne Republike Jugoslavije IZ 1974" [Constitution of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia IZ 1974] (PDF) (in Serbo-Croatian). 1974. Archived from the original (PDF) on March 26, 2023.
- CIA. 13 March 1991. Archived from the original(PDF) on October 30, 2022.