| League of Socialist Youth of Yugoslavia | |
| Colorcode: | red |
| Logo2: | Post-1974 flag of the League of Socialist Youth of Yugoslavia (SSOJ).svg |
| Founded: | 10 October 1919 |
| Dissolved: | 24 February 1991 |
| Headquarters: | Belgrade, SFR Yugoslavia |
| National: | Socialist Alliance of Working People of Yugoslavia |
| International: | World Federation of Democratic Youth (until 1948) |
| Membership: | 3.6 million (1983) |
The League of Socialist Youth of Yugoslavia (SSOJ) was the youth movement, member organisation of the Socialist Alliance of Working People of Yugoslavia (SSRNJ).[1] Membership stood at more than 3.6 million individuals in 1983.[2] It was originally established as the League of Communist Youth of Yugoslavia (SKOJ) on 10 October 1919 and retained that name until 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.[3]
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 Young Communist International. Regional committees were reestablished in 1939.
Seven Secretaries of SKOJ, also known as Seven Courageous, were seven leading figures of the organization, between 1924 and 1931, who died at the hand of the government, in direct confrontation with the gendarmerie, suicide, or indirectly as a consequence of being subjugated to extremely poor conditions during imprisonment and/or torture, which lead to their death from extreme weakening and illness. The Seven were, in sequence of taking the role of a secretary of the organization:[4] [5] [6]
After Axis powers occupied Yugoslavia in 1941, SKOJ organized a united youth front with the program of struggle against fascism and war, Anti-Fascist Youth Committees which at the Congress of Anti-Fascist Youth of Yugoslavia in Bihać in 1942 united into the Unified League of Anti-Fascist Youth of Yugoslavia (Ujedinjeni savez antifašističke omladine Jugoslavije - USAOJ). SKOJ became a part of the umbrella organization, but continued to act autonomously within it.
In May 1946, USAOJ was renamed People's Youth of Yugoslavia (Narodna omladina Jugoslavije - NOJ), and in 1948 SKOJ and NOJ were united into a single organization, which continued to use the name People's Youth of Yugoslavia, and the use of the name SKOJ was discontinued.
NOJ was later reorganised into League of Socialist Youth of Yugoslavia] (SSOJ), which was founded as a merger of the League of Communist Youth of Yugoslavia and the People's Youth of Yugoslavia organizations after World War II. Membership in the organization, though not compulsory, was desirable for those wishing to pursue higher education and a career in public service, and typically began after children completed their time in the Union of Pioneers of Yugoslavia at around 14 or 15 years of age. Similarly to the party itself, the SSOJ was decentralized and each Republic of Yugoslavia had a branch of its own. It was one of the five main government sanctioned socio-political organizations of Yugoslavia and sent its own delegates to the Federal Assembly.[7]
In the 1980s, attitudes within the SSOJ began to change its structure, and by the latter half of the decade it helped facilitate a network of alternative social and political opinions within the youth sphere of Yugoslavia. The organization attempted to subvert the growing threat of nationalism while following a liberal approach to social issues. The SSOJ tried to facilitate youth culture by encouraging the promotion of the arts, including literature and popular music styles.[8] Following the dissolution of the SKJ shortly after the 14th Congress in 1990, the SSOJ was disbanded as well.