Kozarčanka

Kozarčanka (Serbian Cyrillic: Козарчанка, meaning 'woman from Kozara') is a World War II photograph that became iconic in the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.

Shot by Yugoslav artistic photographer Žorž Skrigin in northern Bosnia during the winter of 1943–44, it shows a smiling female Partisan wearing a Titovka cap and with an MP-40 slung over her shoulder.

Kozarčanka was featured in widely circulated school textbooks, war monographs and posters, as well as on the cover of an album by a well-known Yugoslav pop band.

[1] Led by the Croatian nationalist Ustaše movement, one of the NDH's policies was to eliminate the state's ethnic Serb population with mass killings, expulsions and forced assimilation.

Headed by Josip Broz Tito, the Party decided on 4 July to launch a nationwide armed uprising and the members of the forces under its leadership became known as Partisans;[3] they were also referred to as the National Liberation Army of Yugoslavia.

[11] Skrigin put a cardigan on her, slung a captured German MP-40 over her shoulder, tilted her red star-emblazoned Titovka cap to the side of her head, smoothed her hair, and told her to smile.

Author Natascha Vittorelli describes Kozarčanka as follows:[12] The young woman wears her shoulder-length hair loose, a thick cardigan, a five-pointed [star on her] side cap—and a rifle.

The glance over her shoulder reinforces the dynamics of her gesture, the bright smile communicates confidence and optimism, even joy and enthusiasm; the dangers and exertions of war seem remote, the victory near.

[12] The official narrative of the Partisan struggle promoted by Yugoslavia's post-war government, led by Tito, served to legitimize the regime and create a common national sentiment in the multi-ethnic country.