Obznana

The Obznana (Cyrillic: Обзнана; Serbo-Croatian for "Proclamation") was a government decree that was issued on 29 December 1920 in the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (Yugoslavia), which mandated closure of all organizations, trade unions and newspapers associated with the Communist Party of Yugoslavia (CPY). It also banned any kind of communist propaganda, stipulating that any person accused of "bolshevik propaganda" should be fired from a public job.

The decree came after the Communist Party's relatively strong showing in the 1920 Constitutional Assembly election, after which the regime viewed them as the main threat to the system of government. The Obznana was not adopted by the parliament, nor signed by the King, as was usual; instead, it was authored by the Minister of the Interior Milorad Drašković and signed by government ministers including the prime minister Milenko Vesnić. Although the Obznana was not an official document and was never published in the official gazette, the proclamation was printed as a poster and pasted on the streets, marking the beginning of a widespread persecution of communists in Yugoslavia.

A series of political murders followed, of both communists and regime officials alike, including Drašković's assassination in July 1921. The crisis culminated with the August 1921 adoption of the Law on the Protection of the State. The Law prescribed heavy prison sentences for any kind of communist propaganda, and led to a complete crackdown on communists in the kingdom.