– Josip Broz Tito –
Peoples of Yugoslavia!
Soldiers, non-commissioned officers and officers! Workers, peasants and citizens!
Today, on May 9, exactly forty-nine months and three days since the attack on Yugoslavia, the greatest aggressive force in Europe — Germany — has capitulated. On May 8 at 23:01, the German high command signed the act of capitulation in Berlin.
Forty-nine months of superhuman efforts and bloodshed by our peoples have borne fruit — they have brought about the complete victory of our peoples in alliance with the United Nations, primarily with the Soviet Union, England and America. A force that once seemed terrifying and invincible has now been crushed. The just cause of the United Nations has triumphed over those destructive powers that sought to impose a new order upon mankind — an order of slavery and suffering. This most terrible war in the history of mankind has cost tens of millions of lives across Europe. Frenzied German and Italian fascism, and their bloody collaborators present in every European country, exterminated the peaceful population behind the front lines — they exterminated all those who would not submit to the fate of Hitler’s so-called “new order” in Europe. Hundreds of camps like Majdanek and Jasenovac — camps of horror and death — will remain for all time as a dreadful warning to all nations never again to allow such a tragedy to be repeated, and to do all that is necessary to destroy its cause — fascism — at its very root.
Soldiers, non-commissioned officers and officers of the Yugoslav Army! Partisans and female partisans!
Your heroism and sacrifice from the beginning of the war in 1941 until today, under the most dreadful conditions, in battle against an enemy incomparably superior in strength, have been an example to all the oppressed peoples of Europe. Inspired by your resolve to defend your occupied homeland to the last drop of blood, and driven by deep faith in the victory of your just cause, you have, since 1941, dealt merciless and fierce blows to the common enemy of the United Nations. You have honourably fulfilled your duty to your homeland. Your immortal deeds will live forever in the hearts of our peoples and their future generations. The sites of glorious battles — at Sutjeska, Zelengora, Kozara, on the Neretva, and so on — will remain eternal monuments to your heroism and to that of our fallen comrades. They will inspire future generations of our peoples to love their fatherland and be willing to die for it. They will be monuments to our national pride in the fight for our freedom and independence.
The new Yugoslav Army — an army forged in the midst of the fiercest battles, an army made up of you, a true people’s army that has achieved such brilliant victories — must remain, and will remain, the steadfast defender of the legacy of our superhuman struggle. The peoples of Yugoslavia, and our liberated brothers in Istria, the Slovene Littoral and Carinthia, look to you with deep faith that you will know how to preserve the freedom they have won.
Peoples of Yugoslavia!
Serbs, Croats, Slovenes, Macedonians, Montenegrins, Muslims!
The long-awaited day has dawned — the day you so eagerly hoped for. The holiday has come to our streets as well. The greatest fascist power in Europe — Germany, which brought so much suffering and so many losses to our peoples — has finally been defeated. The force that sought to enslave and exterminate you has been overcome. The German and Italian fascists tried to set you against each other, to make you destroy yourselves from within. But your finest sons and daughters, inspired by love for their homeland and for you, their people, thwarted this hellish plan of the enemy. Instead of mutual divisions and enmity, today you are united in a new and happier Yugoslavia. In place of the old Yugoslavia — rotten from within with corruption and lawlessness — we now have a democratic, federal Yugoslavia of equal peoples. This is the result of the victories of our glorious Yugoslav Army. It is the result of your perseverance, your self-sacrifice and your belief in the justice of your cause.
A great day of peace and freedom has dawned. New days are coming — days of the peaceful rebuilding of our devastated country. Now we must achieve another great victory: to rebuild our ruined land and to strengthen our truly people’s government. We must further reinforce our brotherhood and unity, so that no force will ever again be able to tear it apart. This victory too will require immense effort from all the forces of the people. And to that end, all your energy and selflessness must be invested — just as your sons, brothers and sisters gave theirs on the battlefield. Only through the greatest effort will the time needed to rebuild our country be shortened.
On this day of great victory of the United Nations over the common enemy, the thoughts of all our Yugoslav peoples turn with gratitude to the glorious and invincible Red Army — our liberator — and to its brilliant leader, Stalin. Our gratitude goes to the heroic peoples of the Soviet Union, who gave the greatest sacrifices in this superhuman struggle. We express our thanks to our great allies — England and America — and their armies, who have made great sacrifices for the victory of the just cause of the United Nations. Our thoughts are also with all those peoples who fought and suffered under fascist slavery. On this great day of victory, our peoples remember our brothers-in-arms and in blood across the Balkans, who likewise endured great suffering from the same enemy and contributed to this magnificent victory.
May 9, 1945 is a day of joint victory — a shared holiday of all the United Nations. We wish this great day to be a source of inspiration and aspiration for all the United Nations, towards lasting peace and mutual understanding. I am convinced that I speak the will of all peoples when I say that the peoples of Yugoslavia would be happy if, even after this great victory on the battlefield, the same unity and mutual understanding among the United Nations prevailed in peace as it did in war.
I call upon all those who were misled and who served the occupier with arms in hand — whether they be Chetniks, Ustaše, Home Guards and so on — to lay down their arms immediately and surrender to the nearest authorities. At the same time, I declare that the peoples of Yugoslavia — the builders of a new and happier Yugoslavia — will not allow anyone to hinder them in their efforts to rebuild. Against all those who attempt this, our people and our army will act without mercy.
I order all military units, wherever they may be, to immediately disarm all armed formations that served the occupier up to now, or any that attempt to form outside the Yugoslav Army. I order that all war materiel — light and heavy weaponry, warehouses with military supplies and food, military and other facilities — be handed over at once to units of the Yugoslav Army.
Long live our great allies — the Soviet Union, England and America!
Long live the greatest joint victory of the United Nations over the common enemy!
Long live the invincible Red Army — our liberator — and its great leader Stalin!
Long live the glorious Yugoslav Army — the pride of the peoples of Yugoslavia!
Long live the brotherhood and unity of the peoples of Yugoslavia!
Glory to the fallen fighters for the liberation of our fatherland!
Death to fascism — freedom to the people!
(Translated by Sava Press from the reproduction in: Vladimir Dedijer, Novi prilozi za biografiju Josipa Broza Tita)