The Italian governorate of Montenegro () existed from October 1941 to September 1943 as an occupied territory under military government of the Kingdom of Italy during World War II. Although the Italians had intended to establish a quasi-independent Montenegrin kingdom, these plans were permanently shelved after a popular uprising in July 1941. Following the Italian surrender in September 1943, the territory of Montenegro was occupied by German forces which withdrew in December 1944.
Background Prior to the creation of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (KSCS, later renamed the Kingdom of Yugoslavia), Montenegro had been recognised as an independent state for forty years. Immediately prior to the creation of the KSCS in December 1918, the Kingdom of Montenegro was unified with the Kingdom of Serbia and ceased to exist as an independent state. From 1922 onward, as part of the KSCS and then Yugoslavia, Montenegro was not a subdivision of the state. A period of agrarian reform immediately after the First World War resulted in some transfer of population from mountainous areas of Montenegro to other areas of Yugoslavia, including the Macedonian and KosovoPars pro toto regions. This population movement also achieved a political goal of increasing the Serb population in those areas.
After 1929, the Zeta Banovina (province) of Yugoslavia included all of modern-day Montenegro, as well as adjacent parts of modern-day Serbia, Kosovo, Croatia, and Bosnia and Herzegovina. The capital of the Zeta Banovina was Cetinje. In August 1939, ethnic Croat areas of the Zeta Banovina from the Bay of Kotor to Pelješac including Dubrovnik were merged with a new Banovina of Croatia. The last Ban of Zeta Banovina was Blažo Đukanović, a former brigadier general in the Royal Yugoslav Army. In May 1940, as a means of opposing the government, the Montenegrin branch of the Communist Party of Yugoslavia (, KPJ) advocated that Royal Yugoslav Army reservists demobilise, refuse military discipline, and even desert. In October of that year, the KPJ national conference heavily criticised this action by the Montenegrin branch of the party, and re-oriented the KPJ toward defending the country against "imperialist attackers".
History
Invasion
In April 1941, as part of the German-led Axis invasion of Yugoslavia, the Zeta Banovina was attacked, by Germans coming from Bosnia and Herzegovina and Italians from Albania. The Italians moved through on 16 April on their way to Dalmatia. The Germans later withdrew, leaving the Italians to occupy the area. The occupation forces initially consisted of the 18th Infantry Division Messina, which was part of the Italian XVII Corps of the 9th Army, which had its headquarters in Albania. The 9th Army was also responsible for those parts of Kosovo and western Macedonia annexed to Albania.
Initial occupation On 17 April, the commander of the XVII Corps, Generale di Corpo d'Armata (Lieutenant General) Giuseppe Pafundi received a message from the Italian viceroy in Albania, Francesco Jacomoni, authorising him to set up a new government in Cetinje. The following day he received a further message advising him that a "Committee for the Liberation of Montenegro" had been formed in the Albanian capital, Tirana, and would be basis of a provisional government of Montenegro. On 28 April, Count Serafino Mazzolini was appointed the civil commissioner for Montenegro, but subordinated to the High Command of the Italian Armed Forces in Albania (known as Superalba). Elsewhere in Italian-occupied territories, the installation of a civilian commissioner would usually have been a prelude to annexation, and some laws enacted by the Italians indicate that Montenegro was close to becoming an Italian province. Italian flags were distributed and flown, photographs of Benito Mussolini and the King of Italy were displayed in public offices, and the Fascist Roman salute was made compulsory. Arrangements were made to form Fascist Party organisations, and strict censorship was imposed. Italian bureaucrats were tasked to supervise the finances of public bodies, insurance companies and banks, and all schools were ordered closed until the end of 1941.
On their arrival in Cetinje, the Italian forces had been met by the group of separatists known as "Greens" (), who called themselves the "Committee for the Liberation of Montenegro". This group was encouraged by the Italians to form a council to advise the occupation authorities, which was established by Mazzolini on 18 May. The "Interim Advisory Committee" was "symbolically vested with civil powers", but the Italian military remained the real decision-makers. The committee was to work alongside the Italian military authorities, who replaced the Zeta Banovina government, but appointed committees for various towns and re-activated the pre-existing bureaucracy. The Committee really only drew support from the "Greens", who overestimated what the Italians were offering for their collaboration. On 22 May, the "Interim Advisory Committee" was dissolved, but the former Yugoslav civil service authorities remained at their posts after they swore an oath of allegiance to Italy. On 19 June, Mazzolini was appointed as "High Commissioner", responsible to the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs for matters of civil administration in the occupied territory.
The Italians were "friendly and lenient" towards the Montenegrins.
Initially, the Italians intended that Montenegro would become an "independent" state closely allied with Italy, reinforced through the strong dynastic links between Italy and Montenegro, as Queen Elena of Italy was a daughter of the last Montenegrin monarch Nicholas I and was born in Cetinje. Benito Mussolini, after he occupied Montenegro, annexed to the Kingdom of Italy the area of Kotor (), where there was a small population of Dalmatian Italians, creating the Province of Cattaro inside the Governorate of Dalmatia.
The English historian Denis Mack Smith wrote that the Queen of Italy (considered the most influential Montenegrin woman in history) convinced her husband the King of Italy Victor Emmanuel III to impose on Mussolini the creation of an independent Montenegro, against the wishes of the fascist Croats and Albanians (who wanted to enlarge their countries with the Montenegrin territories). Her nephew Prince Michael of Montenegro never accepted the offered crown, pledging loyalty to his nephew King Peter II of Yugoslavia.
The Italians were relying heavily on information provided by a group of émigré loyalists of the deposed House of Petrović-Njegoš, that had ruled Montenegro for centuries prior to the union with the Kingdom of Serbia in 1918. They also believed that all members of the "Greens" who had opposed union with Serbia in 1918 wanted full independence for Montenegro, rather than a Montenegrin unit within a federal Yugoslavia. In reality, the "Greens" consisted of two factions, one led by Krsto Popović and one by Sekula Drljević. Popović sought a fully independent Montenegro, but was willing to consider a separate entity within a federal Yugoslavia depending on the outcome of the war, and his group included some members of the Montenegrin Federalist Party. Drljević rejected the idea of the re-formation of Yugoslavia after the war, and was willing to work with the Italians to achieve independence.
Dissatisfaction The Montenegrins quickly developed grievances against the Italians. These grievances mainly related to the expulsion of Montenegrin people from the Kosovo region and Bačka and Baranya, as well as the influx of refugees from other parts of Yugoslavia and those fleeing the Ustaše terror in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The Montenegrin people also had grievances against the Italians regarding their annexation of important food-producing territory in Kosovo and a salt producing facility at Ulcinj to Albania, and the economic damage inflicted on many Montenegrins by the temporary removal from circulation of Yugoslav banknotes of 500 dinars and more. There were three reasons the Italians had to be very wary of dissatisfaction among the Montenegrin people, the large number of unsecured military weapons following the collapse of the Yugoslav Army, significant numbers of former Yugoslav Army officers and repatriated following their capture during the invasion, and the strength of the KPJ in the occupied territory. Around 400 former Yugoslav Army officers returned to Montenegro, along with many non-commissioned officers, civil administrators and communists. During the invasion, the Yugoslav Zeta Division, composed mostly of Montenegrins, had briefly counter-attacked into Albania, but had largely returned home with their weapons and equipment following the Yugoslav surrender. In early July 1941, a senior Montenegrin member of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the KPJ, Milovan Đilas, arrived in Montenegro from Belgrade to start the communist struggle against the occupying forces.
Declaration of independence Drljević and his colleagues were able to convince the Italians that if they created an independent Montenegro with Italian support, there would be little opposition. In early June 1941, Mazzolini formed a consultative council consisting of 65 Italian-paid deputies who were willing to work with the Italian authorities. In early July, the town and village committees sent their delegates to the National Assembly () in Cetinje in order to "declare the restoration of Montenegro". The declaration would abolish the November 1918 union with Serbia, Montenegro's relationship to the Serb Karađorđević dynasty, and the Yugoslav constitution of 1931. It would also proclaim that Montenegro was a sovereign and independent state ruled by a constitutional monarchy. However, the members of the National Assembly soon realized that the declaration would not result in real independence, but a personal union with the Italian monarchy. Rather than accept this, nearly all of the delegates returned to their towns and villages.
No member of the Petrović-Njegoš dynasty was willing to accept the throne, so the National Assembly decided to establish a "Regency" under the nominal rule of Italian King Victor Emmanuel III. The declaration was passed by acclamation on 12 July. Initially there were manifestations of approval in the main cities of Montenegro, but in the country's interior the feelings were different.
So, on July 12 of 1941, was officially created a "Client-State" of the kingdom of Italy and the Governorate of Montenegro was cancelled (at least temporarily).
Uprising