Vladimir Velebit
Encyclopedia
Vladimir "Vlatko" Velebit, PhD
(1907–2004) was a communist from Yugoslavia
who joined the Partisans
in 1941. He was a former general
, lawyer
and a historian
. He had also been the Yugoslav
Ambassador to Rome
as well as to the Court of St. James's
and to the World Bank
, Major-General in the Yugoslav National Liberation Army, Deputy Minister of Foreign Trade, and UNECE Executive Secretary from 1960 to 1967.
, Austria-Hungary
to Serbian-Austrian father Ljubomir Velebit and Serbian mother Olga Drašković from Dubrovnik
, Vladimir's family had a long military tradition. His father Ljubomir was an officer in the Austro-Hungarian Army
who fought on the Russian front
during World War I
and later became brigadier-general in the Royal Yugoslav Army
, while his grandfather Dušan Velebit was a general in the Austrian Army who married Elisabeth Marno von Eichenhorst, the daughter of another Austrian general Adolf Marno von Eichenhorst. Even Vladimir's great grandfather Ilija Velebit was an officer in the Austrian army.
His male ancestors were Serbs originating from the village of Gornja Pastuša near Petrinja
in Banija
region that was part of the Austrian-created Military Frontier
. They were recruited into the Austrian army and eventually achieved high ranks.
Velebit began his formal education in Timișoara
in German language
. His family left the city just after the outbreak of World War I and went to Trieste
while his father was off in Russia fighting for the Austro-Hungarians. Young Vladimir was soon moved again, this time to Vienna
where he got enrolled in private school that held classes in French language
. Following the end of the war in 1918 and final break-up of Austria-Hungary
, the family moved to Zagreb
that was now a part of newly created Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes. At this point, 11-year-old Vladimir spoke very little Serbo-Croatian
and had to study hard in order to be able to communicate in school. Due to his father's (who was now in the Royal Yugoslav Army) job, the family then moved to Čakovec
and later to Varaždin
, which is where Vladimir graduated high school in 1925.
He started studies at the University of Zagreb
's Faculty of Law and then went to Paris for specialization
, before returning to Zagreb to graduate in 1931. He earned his PhD two years later in 1933 from the same university.
. Accused of having leftist political leanings during his student days he got transferred to Leskovac
. Once there he hooked up with Communist Party (KPJ) members (a political party that was at the time an underground organization because of the ban on its activities in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia
) and took part in starting the newspaper Leskovačke nedeljne novine that wasn't openly communist, but supported political opposition to the ruling coalition and by proxy to King Alexander I Karađorđević
. Because of this Velebit got transferred again, this time to Priština
where he was a judge in the County Court. The continual career demotion didn't deter Velebit from continuing with his leftist activity, in Priština he started a readers' group that met clandestinely in his room to read Marxist literature and discuss politics. When authoriies caught a wiff of this, the search of his room was ordered by the county sheriff, but nothing incriminating was found. Velebit then became the chief of County Court in Kičevo
, and later got transferred to Šid
where he established contact with more KPJ members among whom was Hertha Haas (at the time a student at Economics High School in Zagreb, later to become Josip Broz Tito
's wife).
By 1937 Velebit had enough of being a judge, and moved to Zagreb where he opened law practice. Already deeply involved with the communists, in parallel with his legal practice he became a courier for the underground movement. Due to the nature of his job and a considerable network of connections he was perfectly suitable for carrying messages to foreign countries. On one of those trips to Istanbul
in 1939, 32-year old Velebit met 47-year-old Josip Broz Tito who was KPJ's general secretary at the time. Being impressed with Velebit's guile, skills, and intelligence, Tito immediately offered him membership in the party. After becoming a full fledged member Velebit began working as assistant to Josip Kopinič
, Comintern
's agent in Zagreb. In 1940 Velebit obtained and set up a radio station used to establish daily contact with Moscow
- the station was never discovered and functioned all through the war.
, Velebit stayed in Zagreb (now part of newly created Nazi client, Ustaše
-run puppet state entity called Independent State of Croatia
(NDH)) as an underground collaborator of the KPJ-established People's Liberation Front
. While working underground he used the alias name Vladimir Petrović, although due to being a well known and respected lawyer before the war he experienced no trouble with NDH authorities.
During March 1942 Velebit left Zagreb and joined the Partisans who mounted a guerilla resistance to the Nazis and domestic collabrationists. Right away Tito included him in the army's Supreme Command where he mostly worked on establishing some sort of military court authority. Due to his education and knowledge of foreign languages, along with Koča Popović
and Milovan Đilas, Velebit was part of the Partisan delegation at the controversial 1943 March Negotiations with the Nazis during the months-long Battle of Neretva.
In June 1943, Velebit became the point of contact for foreign military missions in their dealings with the Partisans. Following the death of Ivo Lola Ribar
(member of Supreme Command and the chief of Partisan first military mission) on 27 November 1943, Velebit took over his duties. Following the Teheran Conference where the Allies agreed on backing the Partisan esistance exclusively over the Chetnik
one, Velebit was sent to the Near East
with lieutenant-colonel Miloje Milojević
for negotiations over the details and scope of the support. After establishing first contact with the Allies in Cairo
, he was on his way to London
for further negotiations. Once there, Velebit had meetings with British envoys Fitzroy MacLean and William Deacon over the formal recognition of the People's Liberation Front as a new state entity. In May 1944 Velebit met with Winston Churchill
and was also present in Caserta
near Naples
during Churchill's meeting with Tito on 12 August 1944.
In the Democratic Federal Yugoslavia's provisionary government that got formed on the basis of British-brokered Treaty of Vis and later the Belgrade Agreement, he was the deputy to the Foreign Affairs Minister. He then became one of the chief members of the secret Yugoslav diplomatic mission to Washington
, negotiating the terms and scope of the American help to Yugoslavia. After returning home to the country that was in the meantime re-constituated as a Stalinist communist state called Federal People's Republic of Yugoslavia, he became deputy to Foreign Affairs Minister Stanoje Simić. In that role, Velebit negotiated with the Allies during the Trieste Crisis
.
In March 1948, after Soviet accusation that he was a British spy, Velebit was forced into resigning his post at the Yugoslav Foreign Affairs Ministry and got moved to the Tourist and Service Industry Committee. During the 1948 Cominform
resolution and the fallout of subsequent Tito-Stalin split, Velebit was on more than one occasion cited by the Soviets as a spy who works for the British.
In 1951, Velebit became Yugoslav ambassador to Italy
, while a year later he got the same job in the United Kingdom
. During March 1953, he prepared Tito's first official state visit to a Western country. Tito thus became the first communist leader to visit the UK.
In 1960, on invitation from the United Nations
general-secretary Dag Hammarskjöld
, Velebit became executive secretary at the UN European Economic Commission (UNECE) in Geneva
. He performed this job up until his retirement in 1967. Known in Western circles as a skilled diplomat, his last assignment was as an emissary of the Carnegie Foundation in the Isreli-Palestinian conflict.
In the early 1990s during the Yugoslav breakup and the beginning stages of the Yugoslav Wars
, Velebit moved from London to Zagreb due to nationalist threats. Once back he divided his time between Zagreb and Mali Lošinj
.
During retirement he wrote two books 1983's Sećanja (Memories) and 2002's Tajne i zamke Drugog svetskog rata (World War II's Secrets and Traps).
He died on 29 August 2004 at the Rebro clinical center in Zagreb. He was buried at the city's Mirogoj Cemetery on 3 September 2004.
Vladimir Velebit is mentioned in the 2009 book A Rat Hole to be Watched by American historian Coleman Armstrong Mehta as the point of contact between Frank Wisner
(head of the Central Intelligence Agency
's Directorate of Plans) and Yugoslav communist government during the early 1950s
. Wisner apparently contacted Velebit because he was known to be the leading proponent of the idea that Yugoslav state should be oriented towards the West
. According to the book based upon recently declassified American intelligence documents, the contact eventually resulted in intelligence cooperation agreement between the United States
and Federal People's Republic of Yugoslavia in the wake of Tito-Stalin split
. The agreement enabled the Americans to get their hands on recently developed and deployed MiG-15 Soviet fighter plane, which was delivered to them by the Josip Broz Tito
's Yugoslav government in 1951.
. They had two sons: Vladimir Jr. and Dušan.
PHD
PHD may refer to:*Ph.D., a doctorate of philosophy*Ph.D. , a 1980s British group*PHD finger, a protein sequence*PHD Mountain Software, an outdoor clothing and equipment company*PhD Docbook renderer, an XML renderer...
(1907–2004) was a communist from Yugoslavia
Yugoslavia
Yugoslavia refers to three political entities that existed successively on the western part of the Balkans during most of the 20th century....
who joined the Partisans
Partisans (Yugoslavia)
The Yugoslav Partisans, or simply the Partisans were a Communist-led World War II anti-fascist resistance movement in Yugoslavia...
in 1941. He was a former general
General
A general officer is an officer of high military rank, usually in the army, and in some nations, the air force. The term is widely used by many nations of the world, and when a country uses a different term, there is an equivalent title given....
, lawyer
Lawyer
A lawyer, according to Black's Law Dictionary, is "a person learned in the law; as an attorney, counsel or solicitor; a person who is practicing law." Law is the system of rules of conduct established by the sovereign government of a society to correct wrongs, maintain the stability of political...
and a historian
Historian
A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the study of all history in time. If the individual is...
. He had also been the Yugoslav
Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia
The Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia was the Yugoslav state that existed from the abolition of the Yugoslav monarchy until it was dissolved in 1992 amid the Yugoslav Wars. It was a socialist state and a federation made up of six socialist republics: Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia,...
Ambassador to Rome
Rome
Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...
as well as to the Court of St. James's
Court of St. James's
The Court of St James's is the royal court of the United Kingdom. It previously had the same function in the Kingdom of England and in the Kingdom of Great Britain .-Overview:...
and to the World Bank
World Bank
The World Bank is an international financial institution that provides loans to developing countries for capital programmes.The World Bank's official goal is the reduction of poverty...
, Major-General in the Yugoslav National Liberation Army, Deputy Minister of Foreign Trade, and UNECE Executive Secretary from 1960 to 1967.
Early life and education
Born in ZadarZadar
Zadar is a city in Croatia on the Adriatic Sea. It is the centre of Zadar county and the wider northern Dalmatian region. Population of the city is 75,082 citizens...
, Austria-Hungary
Austria-Hungary
Austria-Hungary , more formally known as the Kingdoms and Lands Represented in the Imperial Council and the Lands of the Holy Hungarian Crown of Saint Stephen, was a constitutional monarchic union between the crowns of the Austrian Empire and the Kingdom of Hungary in...
to Serbian-Austrian father Ljubomir Velebit and Serbian mother Olga Drašković from Dubrovnik
Dubrovnik
Dubrovnik is a Croatian city on the Adriatic Sea coast, positioned at the terminal end of the Isthmus of Dubrovnik. It is one of the most prominent tourist destinations on the Adriatic, a seaport and the centre of Dubrovnik-Neretva county. Its total population is 42,641...
, Vladimir's family had a long military tradition. His father Ljubomir was an officer in the Austro-Hungarian Army
Austro-Hungarian Army
The Austro-Hungarian Army was the ground force of the Austro-Hungarian Dual Monarchy from 1867 to 1918. It was composed of three parts: the joint army , the Austrian Landwehr , and the Hungarian Honvédség .In the wake of fighting between the...
who fought on the Russian front
Eastern Front (World War I)
The Eastern Front was a theatre of war during World War I in Central and, primarily, Eastern Europe. The term is in contrast to the Western Front. Despite the geographical separation, the events in the two theatres strongly influenced each other...
during World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
and later became brigadier-general in the Royal Yugoslav Army
Royal Yugoslav Army
The Royal Yugoslav Army was the armed force of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes and later the Kingdom of Yugoslavia from the state's formation until the force's surrender to the Axis powers on April 17, 1941...
, while his grandfather Dušan Velebit was a general in the Austrian Army who married Elisabeth Marno von Eichenhorst, the daughter of another Austrian general Adolf Marno von Eichenhorst. Even Vladimir's great grandfather Ilija Velebit was an officer in the Austrian army.
His male ancestors were Serbs originating from the village of Gornja Pastuša near Petrinja
Petrinja
Petrinja is a city in central Croatia near Sisak in the historic region of Banovina. The city belongs to Sisak-Moslavina County .- History :The name of Petrinja has its roots in Latin petrus, meaning "stone"...
in Banija
Banija
Banovina is a geographical region in central Croatia, between the rivers Sava, Una, and Kupa. Main towns in the region include Petrinja, Glina, Kostajnica, and Dvor. The area is almost entirely located in the Sisak-Moslavina county...
region that was part of the Austrian-created Military Frontier
Military Frontier
The Military Frontier was a borderland of Habsburg Austria and later the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy, which acted as the cordon sanitaire against incursions from the Ottoman Empire...
. They were recruited into the Austrian army and eventually achieved high ranks.
Velebit began his formal education in Timișoara
Timisoara
Timișoara is the capital city of Timiș County, in western Romania. One of the largest Romanian cities, with an estimated population of 311,586 inhabitants , and considered the informal capital city of the historical region of Banat, Timișoara is the main social, economic and cultural center in the...
in German language
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
. His family left the city just after the outbreak of World War I and went to Trieste
Trieste
Trieste is a city and seaport in northeastern Italy. It is situated towards the end of a narrow strip of land lying between the Adriatic Sea and Italy's border with Slovenia, which lies almost immediately south and east of the city...
while his father was off in Russia fighting for the Austro-Hungarians. Young Vladimir was soon moved again, this time to Vienna
Vienna
Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...
where he got enrolled in private school that held classes in French language
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
. Following the end of the war in 1918 and final break-up of Austria-Hungary
Austria-Hungary
Austria-Hungary , more formally known as the Kingdoms and Lands Represented in the Imperial Council and the Lands of the Holy Hungarian Crown of Saint Stephen, was a constitutional monarchic union between the crowns of the Austrian Empire and the Kingdom of Hungary in...
, the family moved to Zagreb
Zagreb
Zagreb is the capital and the largest city of the Republic of Croatia. It is in the northwest of the country, along the Sava river, at the southern slopes of the Medvednica mountain. Zagreb lies at an elevation of approximately above sea level. According to the last official census, Zagreb's city...
that was now a part of newly created Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes. At this point, 11-year-old Vladimir spoke very little Serbo-Croatian
Serbo-Croatian language
Serbo-Croatian or Serbo-Croat, less commonly Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian , is a South Slavic language with multiple standards and the primary language of Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Montenegro...
and had to study hard in order to be able to communicate in school. Due to his father's (who was now in the Royal Yugoslav Army) job, the family then moved to Čakovec
Cakovec
Čakovec is a city in northern Croatia, located around 90 kilometres north of Zagreb, the Croatian capital. Čakovec is both the county seat and largest city of Međimurje County, the northernmost, smallest and most densely populated Croatian county.-Population:...
and later to Varaždin
Varaždin
Varaždin is a city in north Croatia, north of Zagreb on the highway A4. The total population is 47,055, with 38,746 on of the city settlement itself . The centre of Varaždin county is located near the Drava river, at...
, which is where Vladimir graduated high school in 1925.
He started studies at the University of Zagreb
University of Zagreb
The University of Zagreb is the biggest Croatian university and the oldest continuously operating university in the area covering Central Europe south of Vienna and all of Southeastern Europe...
's Faculty of Law and then went to Paris for specialization
Academic specialization
In academia, specialization may be a course of study or major at an academic institution or may refer to the field that a specialist practices in....
, before returning to Zagreb to graduate in 1931. He earned his PhD two years later in 1933 from the same university.
Legal career and communist activities on the side
After passing the lawyer's and judge's exams, Velebit began working as legal assistant at the District Court in NišNiš
Niš is the largest city of southern Serbia and third-largest city in Serbia . According to the data from 2011, the city of Niš has a population of 177,972 inhabitants, while the city municipality has a population of 257,867. The city covers an area of about 597 km2, including the urban area,...
. Accused of having leftist political leanings during his student days he got transferred to Leskovac
Leskovac
Leskovac is a city and municipality in southern Serbia. It is the administrative center of the Jablanica District of Serbia...
. Once there he hooked up with Communist Party (KPJ) members (a political party that was at the time an underground organization because of the ban on its activities in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia
Kingdom of Yugoslavia
The Kingdom of Yugoslavia was a state stretching from the Western Balkans to Central Europe which existed during the often-tumultuous interwar era of 1918–1941...
) and took part in starting the newspaper Leskovačke nedeljne novine that wasn't openly communist, but supported political opposition to the ruling coalition and by proxy to King Alexander I Karađorđević
Alexander I of Yugoslavia
Alexander I , also known as Alexander the Unifier was the first king of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia as well as the last king of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes .-Childhood:...
. Because of this Velebit got transferred again, this time to Priština
Pristina
Pristina, also spelled Prishtina and Priština is the capital and largest city of Kosovo. It is the administrative centre of the homonymous municipality and district....
where he was a judge in the County Court. The continual career demotion didn't deter Velebit from continuing with his leftist activity, in Priština he started a readers' group that met clandestinely in his room to read Marxist literature and discuss politics. When authoriies caught a wiff of this, the search of his room was ordered by the county sheriff, but nothing incriminating was found. Velebit then became the chief of County Court in Kičevo
Kicevo
Kičevo is a city in the western part of the Republic of Macedonia, located in a valley in the south-eastern slopes of Mount Bistra, between the cities of Ohrid and Gostivar. The capital Skopje is 112 km away. The city of Kičevo is the seat of Kičevo Municipality.-Population:The municipality...
, and later got transferred to Šid
Šid
Šid is a town and municipality in the Srem District of Vojvodina, Serbia. Šid town has a population of 16,301, and Šid municipality 38,921.-Name:...
where he established contact with more KPJ members among whom was Hertha Haas (at the time a student at Economics High School in Zagreb, later to become Josip Broz Tito
Josip Broz Tito
Marshal Josip Broz Tito – 4 May 1980) was a Yugoslav revolutionary and statesman. While his presidency has been criticized as authoritarian, Tito was a popular public figure both in Yugoslavia and abroad, viewed as a unifying symbol for the nations of the Yugoslav federation...
's wife).
By 1937 Velebit had enough of being a judge, and moved to Zagreb where he opened law practice. Already deeply involved with the communists, in parallel with his legal practice he became a courier for the underground movement. Due to the nature of his job and a considerable network of connections he was perfectly suitable for carrying messages to foreign countries. On one of those trips to Istanbul
Istanbul
Istanbul , historically known as Byzantium and Constantinople , is the largest city of Turkey. Istanbul metropolitan province had 13.26 million people living in it as of December, 2010, which is 18% of Turkey's population and the 3rd largest metropolitan area in Europe after London and...
in 1939, 32-year old Velebit met 47-year-old Josip Broz Tito who was KPJ's general secretary at the time. Being impressed with Velebit's guile, skills, and intelligence, Tito immediately offered him membership in the party. After becoming a full fledged member Velebit began working as assistant to Josip Kopinič
Josip Kopinic
Josip Kopinič In 1931 Kopinič joined the Communist Party of Yugoslavia , and shortly later was sent to Moscow. In 1936 he was sent by the Comintern as "military counsellor" to help the Republic as the Spanish Civil War started...
, Comintern
Comintern
The Communist International, abbreviated as Comintern, also known as the Third International, was an international communist organization initiated in Moscow during March 1919...
's agent in Zagreb. In 1940 Velebit obtained and set up a radio station used to establish daily contact with Moscow
Moscow
Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...
- the station was never discovered and functioned all through the war.
World War II
Following April 1941 Nazi invasion and dismemberment of the Yugoslav KingdomInvasion of Yugoslavia
The Invasion of Yugoslavia , also known as the April War , was the Axis Powers' attack on the Kingdom of Yugoslavia which began on 6 April 1941 during World War II...
, Velebit stayed in Zagreb (now part of newly created Nazi client, Ustaše
Ustaše
The Ustaša - Croatian Revolutionary Movement was a Croatian fascist anti-Yugoslav separatist movement. The ideology of the movement was a blend of fascism, Nazism, and Croatian nationalism. The Ustaše supported the creation of a Greater Croatia that would span to the River Drina and to the border...
-run puppet state entity called Independent State of Croatia
Independent State of Croatia
The Independent State of Croatia was a World War II puppet state of Nazi Germany, established on a part of Axis-occupied Yugoslavia. The NDH was founded on 10 April 1941, after the invasion of Yugoslavia by the Axis powers. All of Bosnia and Herzegovina was annexed to NDH, together with some parts...
(NDH)) as an underground collaborator of the KPJ-established People's Liberation Front
People's Liberation Front (Yugoslavia)
The Unitary People's Liberation Front or simply the People's Liberation Front , was a World War II political organization and movement headed by the Communist Party of Yugoslavia that united all political parties and individuals of the republican, federalist, and left-wing political spectrum in...
. While working underground he used the alias name Vladimir Petrović, although due to being a well known and respected lawyer before the war he experienced no trouble with NDH authorities.
During March 1942 Velebit left Zagreb and joined the Partisans who mounted a guerilla resistance to the Nazis and domestic collabrationists. Right away Tito included him in the army's Supreme Command where he mostly worked on establishing some sort of military court authority. Due to his education and knowledge of foreign languages, along with Koča Popović
Koca Popovic
Konstantin "Koča" Popović was a communist volunteer in the Spanish Civil War, 1937-1939 and Divisional Commander of the First Proletarian Division in Josip Broz Tito's Partisan army...
and Milovan Đilas, Velebit was part of the Partisan delegation at the controversial 1943 March Negotiations with the Nazis during the months-long Battle of Neretva.
In June 1943, Velebit became the point of contact for foreign military missions in their dealings with the Partisans. Following the death of Ivo Lola Ribar
Ivo Lola Ribar
Ivan "Ivo Lola" Ribar , was a Yugoslav communist politician of Croatian descent, who achieved National Hero status thanks to his contributions in the fight against fascism...
(member of Supreme Command and the chief of Partisan first military mission) on 27 November 1943, Velebit took over his duties. Following the Teheran Conference where the Allies agreed on backing the Partisan esistance exclusively over the Chetnik
Chetniks
Chetniks, or the Chetnik movement , were Serbian nationalist and royalist paramilitary organizations from the first half of the 20th century. The Chetniks were formed as a Serbian resistance against the Ottoman Empire in 1904, and participated in the Balkan Wars, World War I, and World War II...
one, Velebit was sent to the Near East
Near East
The Near East is a geographical term that covers different countries for geographers, archeologists, and historians, on the one hand, and for political scientists, economists, and journalists, on the other...
with lieutenant-colonel Miloje Milojević
Miloje Milojevic
Miloje Milojević was a famous Serbian composer, conductor, pianist, pedagogue, music critic, and musical writer, considered by his contemporaries as a true man of letters....
for negotiations over the details and scope of the support. After establishing first contact with the Allies in Cairo
Cairo
Cairo , is the capital of Egypt and the largest city in the Arab world and Africa, and the 16th largest metropolitan area in the world. Nicknamed "The City of a Thousand Minarets" for its preponderance of Islamic architecture, Cairo has long been a centre of the region's political and cultural life...
, he was on his way to London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
for further negotiations. Once there, Velebit had meetings with British envoys Fitzroy MacLean and William Deacon over the formal recognition of the People's Liberation Front as a new state entity. In May 1944 Velebit met with Winston Churchill
Winston Churchill
Sir Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill, was a predominantly Conservative British politician and statesman known for his leadership of the United Kingdom during the Second World War. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest wartime leaders of the century and served as Prime Minister twice...
and was also present in Caserta
Caserta
Caserta is the capital of the province of Caserta in the Campania region of Italy. It is an important agricultural, commercial and industrial comune and city. Caserta is located on the edge of the Campanian plain at the foot of the Campanian Subapennine mountain range...
near Naples
Naples
Naples is a city in Southern Italy, situated on the country's west coast by the Gulf of Naples. Lying between two notable volcanic regions, Mount Vesuvius and the Phlegraean Fields, it is the capital of the region of Campania and of the province of Naples...
during Churchill's meeting with Tito on 12 August 1944.
Post-war career
Right after the end of World War II Velebit continued his diplomatic activity.In the Democratic Federal Yugoslavia's provisionary government that got formed on the basis of British-brokered Treaty of Vis and later the Belgrade Agreement, he was the deputy to the Foreign Affairs Minister. He then became one of the chief members of the secret Yugoslav diplomatic mission to Washington
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
, negotiating the terms and scope of the American help to Yugoslavia. After returning home to the country that was in the meantime re-constituated as a Stalinist communist state called Federal People's Republic of Yugoslavia, he became deputy to Foreign Affairs Minister Stanoje Simić. In that role, Velebit negotiated with the Allies during the Trieste Crisis
Free Territory of Trieste
The Free Territory of Trieste was to be a city-state situated in Central Europe between northern Italy and Yugoslavia, created by the United Nations Security Council in the aftermath of World War II and provisionally administered by an appointed military governor commanding the peacekeeping United...
.
In March 1948, after Soviet accusation that he was a British spy, Velebit was forced into resigning his post at the Yugoslav Foreign Affairs Ministry and got moved to the Tourist and Service Industry Committee. During the 1948 Cominform
Cominform
Founded in 1947, Cominform is the common name for what was officially referred to as the Information Bureau of the Communist and Workers' Parties...
resolution and the fallout of subsequent Tito-Stalin split, Velebit was on more than one occasion cited by the Soviets as a spy who works for the British.
In 1951, Velebit became Yugoslav ambassador to Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
, while a year later he got the same job in the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
. During March 1953, he prepared Tito's first official state visit to a Western country. Tito thus became the first communist leader to visit the UK.
In 1960, on invitation from the United Nations
United Nations
The United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace...
general-secretary Dag Hammarskjöld
Dag Hammarskjöld
Dag Hjalmar Agne Carl Hammarskjöld was a Swedish diplomat, economist, and author. An early Secretary-General of the United Nations, he served from April 1953 until his death in a plane crash in September 1961. He is the only person to have been awarded a posthumous Nobel Peace Prize. Hammarskjöld...
, Velebit became executive secretary at the UN European Economic Commission (UNECE) in Geneva
Geneva
Geneva In the national languages of Switzerland the city is known as Genf , Ginevra and Genevra is the second-most-populous city in Switzerland and is the most populous city of Romandie, the French-speaking part of Switzerland...
. He performed this job up until his retirement in 1967. Known in Western circles as a skilled diplomat, his last assignment was as an emissary of the Carnegie Foundation in the Isreli-Palestinian conflict.
In the early 1990s during the Yugoslav breakup and the beginning stages of the Yugoslav Wars
Yugoslav wars
The Yugoslav Wars were a series of wars, fought throughout the former Yugoslavia between 1991 and 1995. The wars were complex: characterized by bitter ethnic conflicts among the peoples of the former Yugoslavia, mostly between Serbs on the one side and Croats and Bosniaks on the other; but also...
, Velebit moved from London to Zagreb due to nationalist threats. Once back he divided his time between Zagreb and Mali Lošinj
Mali Lošinj
-Mayors:*Hrvoje Lesic - *Mario Hofmann - *Dragan Balija - Alliance of Primorje-Gorski Kotar *Gari Capelli - Croatian Democratic Union -References:...
.
During retirement he wrote two books 1983's Sećanja (Memories) and 2002's Tajne i zamke Drugog svetskog rata (World War II's Secrets and Traps).
He died on 29 August 2004 at the Rebro clinical center in Zagreb. He was buried at the city's Mirogoj Cemetery on 3 September 2004.
Vladimir Velebit is mentioned in the 2009 book A Rat Hole to be Watched by American historian Coleman Armstrong Mehta as the point of contact between Frank Wisner
Frank Wisner
Frank Gardiner Wisner was head of Office of Strategic Services operations in southeastern Europe at the end of World War II, and the head of the Directorate of Plans of the Central Intelligence Agency during the 1950s....
(head of the Central Intelligence Agency
Central Intelligence Agency
The Central Intelligence Agency is a civilian intelligence agency of the United States government. It is an executive agency and reports directly to the Director of National Intelligence, responsible for providing national security intelligence assessment to senior United States policymakers...
's Directorate of Plans) and Yugoslav communist government during the early 1950s
1950s
The 1950s or The Fifties was the decade that began on January 1, 1950 and ended on December 31, 1959. The decade was the sixth decade of the 20th century...
. Wisner apparently contacted Velebit because he was known to be the leading proponent of the idea that Yugoslav state should be oriented towards the West
Western world
The Western world, also known as the West and the Occident , is a term referring to the countries of Western Europe , the countries of the Americas, as well all countries of Northern and Central Europe, Australia and New Zealand...
. According to the book based upon recently declassified American intelligence documents, the contact eventually resulted in intelligence cooperation agreement between the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
and Federal People's Republic of Yugoslavia in the wake of Tito-Stalin split
Tito-Stalin Split
The Tito–Stalin Split was a conflict between the leaders of Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, which resulted in Yugoslavia's expulsion from the Communist Information Bureau in 1948...
. The agreement enabled the Americans to get their hands on recently developed and deployed MiG-15 Soviet fighter plane, which was delivered to them by the Josip Broz Tito
Josip Broz Tito
Marshal Josip Broz Tito – 4 May 1980) was a Yugoslav revolutionary and statesman. While his presidency has been criticized as authoritarian, Tito was a popular public figure both in Yugoslavia and abroad, viewed as a unifying symbol for the nations of the Yugoslav federation...
's Yugoslav government in 1951.
Personal
Velebit married Vera Becić, a woman of Croatian ethnicity, the daughter of Croatian painter Vladimir BecićVladimir Becić
Vladimir Becić was a Croatian painter, best known for his early work in Munich, which had a strong influence on the direction of modern art in Croatia...
. They had two sons: Vladimir Jr. and Dušan.
See also
- Socialist Federal Republic of YugoslaviaSocialist Federal Republic of YugoslaviaThe Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia was the Yugoslav state that existed from the abolition of the Yugoslav monarchy until it was dissolved in 1992 amid the Yugoslav Wars. It was a socialist state and a federation made up of six socialist republics: Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia,...
- Yugoslav People's ArmyYugoslav People's ArmyThe Yugoslav People's Army , also referred to as the Yugoslav National Army , was the military of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.-Origins:The origins of the JNA can...
- TitoismTitoismTitoism is a variant of Marxism–Leninism named after Josip Broz Tito, leader of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, primarily used to describe the specific socialist system built in Yugoslavia after its refusal of the 1948 Resolution of the Cominform, when the Communist Party of...
- CommunismCommunismCommunism is a social, political and economic ideology that aims at the establishment of a classless, moneyless, revolutionary and stateless socialist society structured upon common ownership of the means of production...