Slovene Partisans

National Liberation Army and Partisan Detachments of Slovenia
Participant in the National Liberation War
The flag of the Slovene Partisans
Active	1941–1945
Ideology	Communism Socialism Republicanism Federalism
Leaders	Boris Kidrič
Headquarters	mobile, attached to the Main Operational Group
Area of operations	Axis-occupied Slovene Lands
Strength	(see below)
Part of	Yugoslav Partisans
Became	Yugoslav People's Army
Opponents	Germany, Italy, Hungary, Independent State of Croatia, Anti-Communist Volunteer Militia, Slovene Home Guard
Battles and wars	Battle of Dražgoše (1941) Battle of Nanos (1942) Battle of Janče (1942), Battle of Jelenov Žleb (1943), Battle of Kočevje (1943), Battle of Turjak Castle (1943), Raid at Ožbalt (1944), Battle of Poljana (1945)

The Slovene Partisans (formally National Liberation Army and Partisan Detachments of Slovenia) were part of Europe's most effective anti-Nazi resistance movement led by Yugoslav revolutionary communists during World War II, the Yugoslav Partisans. Since a quarter of Slovene ethnic territory and approximately 327,000 out of total population of 1.3 million Slovenes were subjected to forced Italianization since the end of the First World War, the objective of the movement was the establishment of the state of Slovenes that would include majority of Slovenes within a socialist Yugoslav federation in the post-War period.

Slovenia was during World War II in a unique situation in Europe, only Greece shared its experience of being trisected, however, Slovenia was the only one that experienced a further step — absorption and annexation into neighboring Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy, and Hungary. As the very existence of the Slovene nation was threatened, the Slovene support for the Partisan movement was much more solid than in Croatia or Serbia. An emphasis on the defence of ethnic identity was shown by naming the troops after important Slovene poets and writers, following the example of the Ivan Cankar battalion. Slovene Partisans were the armed wing of the Liberation Front of the Slovene Nation, a resistance political organization and party coalition for what the Partisans referred to as the Slovene Lands. The Liberation Front was founded and directed by the Communist Party of Yugoslavia (KPJ), more specifically its Slovene branch: the Communist Party of Slovenia.

Being the first organized military force in the history of Slovenes, the Slovene Partisans were in the beginning organized as guerrilla units, and later as an army. Their opponents were the occupiers of Slovenia, and after the summer of 1942, also anti-Communist Slovene forces. The Slovene Partisans were mostly ethnically homogenous and primarily communicated in Slovene. These two features have been considered vital for their success. Their most characteristic symbol was a triglavka. They were subordinated to the civil resistance authority. The Partisan movement in Slovenia, though a part of the wider Yugoslav Partisans, was operationally autonomous from the rest of the movement, being geographically separated, and full contact with the remainder of the Partisan army occurred after the breakthrough of Tito's forces through to Slovenia in 1944.