In the years 1936–41, the Croatian Peasant Party, led by Vladko Maèek, operated two militias – the Croatian Peasant Defence (HSZ) in the villages and the Croatian Civil Defence in the cities. The HSZ was intended to protect Croatian peasants from attacks by Serb Chetniks as well as by communists, and was thus itself a symptom of the lawlessness prevailing in the interwar Kingdom of Yugoslavia. The HSZ also formed part of Maèek's efforts to compete with the fascistic Ustaša movement, an armed organization behind the so-called ‘Velebit uprising’ of 1932.
Ramet, Sabrina P. (2007) Vladko Maèek and the Croatian Peasant Defence in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, Contemporary European History 16 (2): 215–231.
