Abstract: The article analyses political, religious and propaganda activity of Vasilije (Vasa) Šurlan, an orthodox priest, during the Second World War, as one of the very few documented cases of ideological collaboration between ethnic Serbs and NDH state authorities. Motivation, nature and genesis of collaboration are particularly in the focus of this paper, hence some less known and academically not used historical documents, including Šurlan’s letters from 1941, are published here.

Keywords: Vasilije Šurlan, Independent State of Croatia, Ustasha, Orthodox Christianity, Serbian Orthodox Church, Croatian Orthodox Church, collaboration