RAT PARTIZANKI – ŽENE U ORUŽANOM OTPORU U JUGOSLAVIJI 1941-1945.
THE WOMEN PARTISANS WAR: WOMEN IN ARMED RESISTANCE, YUGOSLAVIA 1941-1945

Summary/Abstract: Based on published sources, the press of the National Liberation Movement and personal accounts of women veterans, this article discusses women’s armed resistance in occupied Yugoslavia. It explains women’s (self-)mobilisation for the National Liberation Army with reference both to individual motives and the nature of the Yugoslav liberation/ civil/revolutionary war of 1941-1945. The article also describes women’s concrete roles (doctor, nurse, fighter) in the partisan forces. The personal narratives of nurse Radmila V. and fighter/political activist Radojka K. illustrate the complexity of women partisans’ wartime experiences, which included pride of their efficiency as warriors, the solidarity of the wider population and comradeship among partisans, but also incidents of violence, gender-based discrimination and exploitation. In conclusion, the article looks at the representation of women partisans in public discourse during the socialist period. Usually, women veterans’ specific experiences were either ignored or idealized in order to corraborate the official “partisan myth“. Since the 1990s, the history of Yugoslavia’s women partisans became even more marginalized, so that even today, many questions remain open.

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