World War II: The Communist Party of Slovenia, the Slovene Christian Socialists, the left-wing Slovene Sokols (also known as "National Democrats") and a group of progressive intellectuals establish the Liberation Front of the Slovene Nation.
The Liberation Front of the Slovene Nation (Slovene: Osvobodilna fronta slovenskega naroda), or simply Liberation Front (Osvobodilna fronta, OF), originally called the Anti-Imperialist Front (Protiimperialistična fronta, PIF), was a Slovene anti-fascist political party. The Anti-Imperialist Front had ideological ties to the Soviet Union (which was at the time in a non-aggresion pact with Nazi Germany) in its fight against the imperialistic tendencies of the United States and the United Kingdom (the western powers), and it was led by the Slovenian Communist Party. In May 1941, weeks into the German occupation of Yugoslavia, in the first inter-war issue of the illegal newspaper Slovenski poročevalec (Slovenian reporter), members of the organization criticized the German regime and described Germans as imperialists. They started raising money for a liberation fund via the second issue of the newspaper published on 8 June 1941. When Germany attacked the Soviet Union, the Anti-Imperialist Front was formally renamed and became the main anti-fascist Slovene civil resistance and political organization under the guidance and control of the Slovene communists. It was active in the Slovene Lands during World War II. Its military arm was the Slovene Partisans. The organisation was established in the Province of Ljubljana on 26 April 1941 in the house of the literary critic Josip Vidmar. Its leaders were Boris Kidrič and Edvard Kardelj.