ALEKSANDAR RANKOVIĆ: OSNIVAČ OZNE – SLUŽBE BEZBEDNOSTI PARTIZANSKOG POKRETA
ALEKSANDAR RANKOVIC: THE FOUNDER OF OZNA – THE PARTISAN MOVEMENT’S SECURITY AGENCY

Summary/Abstract: The article describes the activities of Aleksandar Rankovic, on founding the security service of the Yugoslav Partisan movement. It included the political police and intelligence service activities. The service was created in May 1944, and titled Odeljenje za zastitu naroda or Department for People’s Security. It existed with its title for two years, until March 1946 when the first post-war Yugoslav constitution was announced. The article reveals the establishment of the regional OZNA departments and its further activities. This service took part in mass liquidation of the captured prisoner of war in late May and June 1945, after the Second World War was finished, under the orders of Rankovic as federal Minister of Interior. It also coordinated the OZNA activities to capture leader of the Royalist resistance, General Mihailovic, who was perceived as the pivotal enemy of the new communist authorities. Under its activities and leading of the secret police service, Rankovic became one of the most recognizable figures in collective memory in Serbia and former Yugoslavia.

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