Operativni rad OZN-e/UDB-e Crne Gore prema muslimanskom stanovništvu i vjerskim službenicima 1944-1947. godine

This article presents an analysis of the attitudes and perceptions of the Muslim religious officials and the general population, as reported by the Montenegrin OZN and UDB from 1944 to 1947. During this period, a state one-party system was established, which lacked and was unable to provide a political or ideological alternative. The state was rooted in Marxist-Engelsist ideology and materialistic philosophy. In 1945/46, it began promoting radical atheism and excluding religious education from the Yugoslavian school system. The agrarian reform and colonization program confiscated property belonging to religious communities, social and cultural organizations, and private individuals. This made religious communities and their clergy the primary ideological adversaries of the nascent communist system, including the Islamic (Muslim) religious community in Montenegro. During the Second World War and the parallel communist revolution, a considerable proportion of the Muslim population, along with a significant number of its clergy, did not support the NOP in Montenegro until the beginning of 1944. The Muslim population in Montenegro can be classified into two ethno-cultural groups. One was comprised of the dominant ethnic category of Slavic affiliation, while the other constituted a minority of Albanian ethnicity in the peripheral regions of Montenegro, specifically the( Plavsko-Gusinja region, enclaves around Bar, Ulcinj, and Tuzi). In Montenegro, the surviving counter-revolutionary movement continued to operate after the war, providing resistance. The new communist system impacted religious communities through the espousal of atheism, leading to the expropriation of their property. The religious officials offered resistance in a variety of ways. Dialectical materialism and Marxism were subjected to criticism from the general public, as well as from the system that expropriated the assets of religious institutions, including those of the Islamic faith Moreover, the extant system was denounced, and there was an expression of optimism regarding the involvement of Western allies, most notably the USA and Britain. The Department for the Protection of the People (OZN) was created in May 1944 as an intelligence and security organization of the NOVJ. In order to consolidate their power, the communist regime established an organisation that was based on the Soviet NKVD. In March 1946, the organization underwent a structural reorganization, resulting in two distinct entities: the Directorate of State Security UDB and the Counterintelligence Service of the Yugoslav Army KOS. The State Security Administration monitored and transferred political opponents to the jurisdiction of the competent prosecutors and courts. The objective of this article is to provide insight into the intricate operations of this service within the context of Montenegro. The article addresses the specific reports compiled by this organization (service) based on intelligence information It concerns the Muslim religious officials and the general population's views on the issues. Reports were used to assess how to neutralize opponents of the system. They show the socio-political context of Montenegrin and Yugoslav societies at the time.