– Pero Popivoda, Major-General of the Yugoslav Army –
Published on the occasion of the author’s 109th birthday, September 12, 2025
The current fascist rulers of Yugoslavia — first and foremost their chieftain, Tito — have been bragging for many years about their supposed “contributions” during the National Liberation War in Yugoslavia against the fascist occupiers. It is now known that many individuals in the leadership of the so-called Communist Party of Yugoslavia had long been paid agents of imperialist intelligence services. The facts regarding the vile actions of the Tito-Ranković clique are further confirmed by the reality that Tito and his associates were sworn enemies of the National Liberation Movement in Yugoslavia even during the war.
Today, many facts that were once known only to Yugoslav partisans compel us to re-examine the events of the wartime period. It is now clear why the National Liberation Movement in Yugoslavia, from the very beginning of the uprising against the occupiers, repeatedly faced enormous difficulties and why partisan units suffered major losses — particularly in terms of human lives. The partisan movement went through multiple severe crises, and only emerged from the last one in 1944 thanks to the vigorous advance of the Soviet Army in the Balkans and the immediate and decisive support our National Liberation Army received from the fraternal Soviet Army.
As a member of the Communist Party of Yugoslavia, an active participant in the partisan movement and a commander of various people’s army units from the first day of the uprising until the end of the war — having operated in different regions of Yugoslavia — I had the opportunity to witness first-hand the outcomes of the criminal actions Tito and his accomplices had been secretly and systematically carrying out since 1941.
Now that Tito’s spy gang has finally been exposed for its crimes against the peoples of Yugoslavia and the peoples of other countries, it is necessary to highlight some indisputable facts from the wartime period. It is well known that the Yugoslav partisans, during the popular uprising in Montenegro which broke out in July 1941, succeeded in a short time in clearing almost all of Montenegro of the occupiers, with the exception of three cities (Cetinje, Podgorica and Nikšić), which were blockaded by partisan units. As a result, tens of thousands of soldiers and officers of the occupying army were surrounded.
The fight against the occupiers was going successfully until the end of the summer of 1941, when Milovan Đilas and Moša Pijade arrived in Montenegro as delegates of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Yugoslavia. What happened after their arrival was completely incomprehensible to the Montenegrin people. Now, with the vile actions of these hardened traitors and spies exposed, it is clear on whose behalf and under whose directives these delegates were acting in Montenegro at the time. At that time, while Moša Pijade began organizing mass executions of active partisans and sowing discord among the Montenegrins by inflaming old tribal hatreds, Đilas demanded an end to the armed resistance against the occupiers. A directive and statement from the Central Committee of the Party was delivered, signed by Đilas — claiming that a revolution had supposedly broken out in Bulgaria and that units of the Soviet Army had already entered Yugoslavia. The people rejoiced, but soon realized that Đilas’ “statements” had been deliberately and falsely fabricated in advance. As a result, the population became demoralized and distrustful of the communists.
The occupiers soon launched an offensive against the partisans, accompanied everywhere by the destruction of villages and towns, mass executions and the deportation of people to concentration camps. The “delegates” Đilas and Pijade issued a directive calling for the final liquidation of the partisan movement, in which they proposed that the partisan detachments be broken into groups of two or three men who would then hide from the occupiers. Because of this, the occupiers were able to capture, deport to camps and destroy several thousand partisan fighters. That directive led to a situation in which the people refused to shelter partisans and began calling them traitors. Despite the directive, a small number of partisan-communists broke through into Bosnia and joined with the Serbian and Croatian partisans.
These are indisputable facts, known in full detail by every Montenegrin man and woman.
In March 1943, during the fourth fascist offensive against the National Liberation Army of Yugoslavia, the Germans — much to the surprise of the partisan fighters — unexpectedly proposed ceasefire talks to our command. The nazis were well aware that the partisans were in a very difficult and complex situation. Around five thousand wounded were tying down partisan units, typhus was devastating the fighters and the Germans had caught our forces unprepared. Until the very last day, the leadership had not mentioned that the enemy was preparing an offensive. For that reason, it was strange that the Germans were the ones initiating a ceasefire. Representing the Central Committee and the Supreme Headquarters, Tito’s servant Velebit — later exposed as a British spy — went to meet with the German command somewhere in the valley of the Rama River. The Germans were “generous” and proposed a ceasefire, which Tito accepted. Some of our units deliberately violated the truce and attacked the Germans because fighters began protesting against any negotiations with the enemy. “Tito plans to trick the Germans” — this was the official explanation given to the partisans.
But very soon afterward, the partisans realized that it was not the Germans, but they themselves, who had been deceitfully misled — by Tito and his associates. As a result of the negotiations with the Germans, the bulk of the partisan forces (around 25,000 people) was encircled in the Tara and Piva river basins. During this period, the Titoists hastily sent the Chief of the Supreme Headquarters, Comrade Arso Jovanović, to lead military operations in Slovenia, and Comrade Sreten Žujović was the only member of the leadership who categorically opposed Tito’s operational plan. Žujović proposed his own plan, which was rejected by Tito, Đilas and Ranković. After that, Žujović turned to the fighters of the 1st Division and, on the very first night, managed to lead the division out of the enemy’s encirclement without any losses. Later, Žujović managed to liberate part of the partisans by attacking the enemy from the rear with the division’s forces. The Germans tightened the encirclement around the main group of partisans in the Sutjeska river valley. Panic ensued, Đilas hid himself, and the wounded began committing suicide en masse. Tito and Ranković chose the freshest units and, saving their own skins, managed to break through the encirclement.
To this day, no one knows how or where Tito managed to break through — this remains a mystery to us partisans. Abandoned by the leadership to the mercy of fate, partisan commanders led their units in charges against the fascists and almost all of them were killed. The Germans quickly crushed the partisan units and began brutally exterminating the wounded. In that area (two to three square kilometres), more than 10,000 fighters were killed, including 4,500 wounded and more than 50 People’s Heroes. That is how the negotiations between Tito and Velebit with the Germans ended. These are facts Tito cannot hide from and for which he must especially answer before the peoples of Yugoslavia.
The peoples of Yugoslavia must know that Sutjeska — and everything that happened there — was the result of the most shameful and vile betrayal during the National Liberation War, carried out directly by the Tito-Ranković gang. Sutjeska is the most serious accusation against today’s fascist leadership of Yugoslavia, headed by Tito. One can speak of glory at Sutjeska only when referring to the feats of the partisans, the heroism of the fighters, the legendary actions of Sava Kovačević and other partisan fighters and commanders.
In this context, it is also necessary to mention Tito’s connections with British General Maclean and Randolph Churchill, who now praise Tito from London, calling him “a dear and beloved comrade.” A single fact from Tito’s dealings with the imperialists clarifies that “affection” and “closeness.” In 1944, during the German airborne assault on the Supreme Headquarters in Drvar, in the midst of battle, Stojan Pribičević — a Yugoslav by origin, an American citizen and a member of the American military mission — fell into German hands, among others. Tito managed, through Randolph Churchill, to have the Germans and Ustaše return Pribičević.
to the Supreme Headquarters within a few days, even though he had already been taken to Zagreb. It is well known that during the assault, Tito did not want to break out but intended to surrender to the Germans. Sreten Žujović and Arso Jovanović, at gunpoint, forced him to leave the cave where the Supreme Headquarters was located. This is widely known among the partisans and among us it explained Tito’s hatred toward Žujović and Jovanović.
In 1941, Ranković — then known to the Belgrade police as a member of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Yugoslavia — fell into the hands of the Gestapo. At that time, while the Germans and Nedić’s forces were executing and hanging all sympathizers of the Communist Party and the National Liberation Movement, Ranković was soon after his arrest transferred to a hospital and then, under highly suspicious circumstances, suddenly found himself free. The official Titoite version fabricated for communists at the time claimed that Ranković’s “release” had been achieved by communists through an “organized escape” from the prison hospital. There is no doubt that his transfer to the hospital was, in fact, arranged by the Gestapo based on a prior agreement in order to cover up the nature of his release.
Ranković’s current criminal, Gestapo-like activity in Yugoslavia convinces all honest people that his “release” from Gestapo custody was no accident. Major-General Miladin Jovanović, who was “released” along with Ranković, told us — a few comrades from the 1st Yugoslav Proletarian Brigade — back in 1942, that they had not been freed by force but rather through an agreement with the Germans.
In the same manner, Đilas’ wife, Mitra Mitrović-Đilas, and Kidrič’s wife, Marjeta Kidrič, were released from Gestapo custody. The former was escorted by Nedić’s gendarmes to liberated territory, and the latter was driven in a Gestapo car and handed over directly to the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Slovenia.
The ties between today’s fascist leadership of Yugoslavia and the German-Italian fascist occupiers are also evident in the way that Svetozar Vukmanović-Tempo — a member of the Central Committee — conducted himself, worked and lived throughout the entire war. That man lived legally in cities under occupation, received medical treatment in hospitals and moved freely across occupied territory. Before the war, Vukmanović had been imprisoned multiple times and was well known to the old police, which was entirely in the service of the occupiers. And yet, none of that prevented him from spending several years in enemy-held territory. These facts — which are also mentioned in several books officially published by the Tito-Ranković clique — expose Tempo and those like him as long-time “friends” of the occupiers.
Who is this Vukmanović? The following facts bear witness to it. In early 1942, Vukmanović was in Sarajevo as a delegate of the Central Committee and was in charge of the party organization there. A major security breach occurred, completely destroying the party network in Sarajevo (more than 150 communists) — the only one who survived was Vukmanović! Even back then, partisans would say with irony: either Vukmanović is a magician, or he has some good connections with the enemy. It is known, for example, that in early 1942, he had no trouble sending Kardelj and Ivan Maček — now the deputy prime minister of Slovenia — by train from Sarajevo to Ljubljana. On the way, they stopped in Zagreb (!) and stayed there for about two months, “hiding” in the home of Vlatko Velebit. Later, Maček told the partisans how, using forged documents, he had signed his real last name and that the Ustaše noticed — but Velebit soon “managed” to save them!
It was precisely during this time — while Ranković was being so successfully “liberated,” along with Đilas’ and Kidrič’s wives, and while Vukmanović could move freely under the noses of the enemy and receive treatment in Ustaša hospitals — that the best Yugoslav revolutionaries and communist heroes were being eliminated in prisons: Ognjen Prica, Božidar Adžija, August Cesarec, Otokar Keršovani and many others. The Titoite leadership never found a way to free them even though they had been imprisoned since March 1941. It’s worth noting that some of these comrades, like Prica, were members of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Yugoslavia and outspoken opponents of Tito and his policies even before the war. This shows that Tito and Ranković, together with the fascists, were destroying the most loyal and proven party cadres in Yugoslavia.
There is also evidence of the Tito clique’s connections with Gestapo agents. One such example is the connection maintained throughout the war between the Central Committee of Slovenia and the Italian OVRA and the Gestapo. The extent to which the leadership of the Slovenian Central Committee — Kardelj and Kidrič — were closely linked to the occupiers is evident from the widely known reports of “assistance” to partisans by the Gestapo chief of the Slovenian Littoral, nicknamed “Jozica,” who had his residence in Bled. He established a connection with the Slovenian Central Committee through the wife of a hotel owner in Bled. Using his own car, he transported Kardelj’s couriers from Dolenjska to Gorenjska, Styria, Carinthia, the Littoral and back. The partisans were told that he was supposedly informing our units about German intentions, even though Yugoslav units in that sector were suffering horrific losses. Three partisan headquarters were wiped out one after another. There were Gestapo agents embedded in partisan units — some even served as battalion commanders. Kardelj justified this “help” from “Jozica” by claiming that he was a Pole, a member of the Social-Democratic Party, who had expressed willingness to help the partisans.
“Jozica” lived out the German capitulation peacefully in Bled — even issuing demands — relying on his connections with Kidrič and Kardelj. As soon as he started exposing the ties he had with the leadership, the Titoites quickly liquidated him right after the war…
During the war, many party leaders — including members of the Central Committee — died under mysterious circumstances. It can now be stated with certainty that there are no more secrets within our Party about the real causes of death of our best comrades. The case of Lola Ribar speaks most eloquently about this. Just before Lola Ribar was scheduled to fly abroad — something known only to Tito, Kardelj, Đilas, Ranković and their British friends from the military mission — an Ustaša plane appeared and, while on the ground, destroyed the plane Ribar was supposed to board, killing Ribar himself.
Even more puzzling is the fact that, immediately after the liberation of Belgrade, Ivan Milutinović — a member of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Yugoslavia — was killed. The Central Committee announced that Milutinović had drowned, but how, under what circumstances, where he was going and with whom — to this day remains a mystery to everyone except the Tito-Ranković clique.
These are only some of the facts that illustrate the treasonous activity of the fascist Tito-Ranković gang in the past.
In reporting these facts, I do so with full responsibility for their accuracy before my people and the international public. Let the peoples of Yugoslavia know what the intentions are and where our country is being led by the darkest enemies in the history of the Yugoslav peoples — the fascist Tito-Ranković gang.
From all of this, only one conclusion can be drawn: that Tito’s clique is an old class enemy, an imperialist agency that hid for a long time within the workers’ movement in Yugoslavia.
The Yugoslav communists and patriots are fully aware that their first and most urgent task is to overthrow and punish this criminal fascist gang that has brought us so much misfortune and disgrace. There is no doubt that the Yugoslav communists will fulfil this task. Let the friends of Yugoslavia have no doubt about that.
(Under the Banner of Internationalism, No. 11, October 15, 1949, p. 4, Organ of Yugoslav Communist Political Émigrés in the Romanian People’s Republic)