League of Socialist Youth of Yugoslavia

Alliance of the Communist Youth of Yugoslavia (Serbo-Croatian: Savez komunističke omladine Jugoslavije, SKOJ), commonly known in English as the Young Communist League of Yugoslavia, or simply Communist Youth, was the youth wing of the Communist Party of Yugoslavia from 1919 to 1948. Although it was banned just two years after its establishment and at times ruthlessly prosecuted, it continued to work clandestinely and was an influential organization among revolutionary youth in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, and consequently became a major organizer of Partisan resistance to Axis occupation and local Quisling forces. After World War II, SKOJ became a part of a wider organization of Yugoslav youth, the People's Youth of Yugoslavia, which later became the League of Socialist Youth of Yugoslavia.

SKOJ was founded in Zagreb on October 10, 1919 as a political organization of revolutionary youth the youth which followed the policy of the communist Socialist Workers' Party of Yugoslavia.

Regional committees were originally established but they were abolished in 1920. In 1921, the organization was banned together with the party, which had in the meantime been renamed Communist Party of Yugoslavia. Two congresses were held clandestinely during the 1920s, the Second Congress in June 1923, and the Third Congress in June 1926. SKOJ was affiliated to the Communist Youth International. Regional committees were reestablished in 1939.

Between two world wars many of the organization's members were killed by the authorities, along with other communists. Among them were seven secretaries of SKOJ: Paja Marganović, Mijo Oreški, Janko Mišić, Pero Popović Aga, Josip Kolumbo, Josip Debeljak and Zlatko Šnajder. Other secretaries of SKOJ included Ivo Lola Ribar. Nevertheless, the organization continued to grow. Regional committees were reestablished in 1939, and by the eve of the Second World War, the organization had 30,000 members.

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