Abstract: This paper, based on previously unused archival sources from the Geneva Library, aims to reconstruct the activities of the International Anticommunist Entente, informally known as the Aubert League after its founder, in the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes. The study traces how this influential international organization, headquartered in Switzerland, sought to establish a presence within the interwar Yugoslav state and among its political elites. Furthermore, it tracks the response of the ruling regime in the Kingdom of SCS, which despite modest support, never endorsed the organization fully. As a consequence, the Yugoslav chapter was created only in 1929 under drastically different political circumstances.

Keywords: anticommunism, Aubert League, International Anticommunist Entente, Russian emigrarees, Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes/Yugoslavia

Summary: Almost since its creation, the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes was engaged in a bitter conflict with the ideology of communism and its champions. After a brief period of legality, the Communist Party of Yugoslavia was outlawed in 1920. It will remain outlawed until the demise of Yugoslavia in the Second World War 1941. Despite the fact that the numerous ruling regimes which governed the country during the first decade of its existence rarely saw eye to eye, the elites in power, and king Aleksandar Karađorđević remained profoundly anticommunist. The Geneva-based International Anticommunist Entente, founded in 1924, attempted to exploit this situation and establish contacts and cooperation with the Yugoslav government. After the initial talks, Geneva was convinced that the creation of the Yugoslav branch of the EIA was only a matter of time. Contacts between the EIA and the Yugoslavs were maintained primarily through the Yugoslav honorary consul in Geneva Nikola Petrović. Furthermore, the EIA Permanent Bureau established ties to various individuals and organizations in the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes. After the influential Yugoslav envoy to Paris, Miroslav Spalajković, endorsed the Entente, the Yugoslav government started providing the organization with annual financial support. However, despite Theodore Aubert`s enthusiasm, the contacts did not yield substantial results. The Yugoslav branch was created only in mid-1929, after almost a decade of futile talks. Much more agile than the Yugoslavs were Russian emigres in the country, which managed to organize and support the newly created Yugoslav chapter of the EIA.