The State Security Service, also known by its original name as the Directorate for State Security, was the national secret police intelligence and security agency of Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (SFR Yugoslavia). It was at all times best known by the acronym UDBA, which is derived from the organization's original name in the Serbo-Croatian language: "Uprava državne bezbednosti" ("Directorate for State Security").
The acronyms SDB (Serbian) or SDS (Croatian) were used officially after the organization was renamed into "State Security Service". In its latter decades it was composed of eight semi-independent secret police organizations—one for each of the six Yugoslav federal republics and two for the autonomous provinces—coordinated by the central federal headquarters in the capital of Belgrade.
Although it operated with more restraint than secret police agencies in the communist states of Eastern Europe, the UDBA was a feared tool of control. It is alleged that the UDBA was responsible for the "eliminations" of thousands of enemies of the state within Yugoslavia and internationally (estimates about 200 assassinations and kidnappings). Eliminations vary from those during World War II of the Ustaše Croat fascist leader Vjekoslav Luburić in Spain, to Croatian emigrant writer Bruno Bušić and Serbian emigrant writer Dragiša Kašiković, although war criminals have to be distinguished from those assassinated only for dissent or political reasons.
With the breakup of Yugoslavia, the breakaway republics went on to form their own secret police agencies, while the Serbian State Security Directorate kept its UDBA-like name.
Name
The agency was founded in March 1946 as a result of the Department for Protection of the People (OZNA) splitting into two branches. The Directorate of State Security was one of them and other was the Counterintelligence Service (KOS). In Yugoslavia, its name in Serbo-Croatian was Uprava državne bezbednosti ("Управа државне безбедности" in the Serbian Cyrillic script).
From this was derived the acronym "UDB", or, less formally and accurately: UDBA. UDBA was the most common colloquial name for the organization throughout its history, including in emigrant circles, within socialist Yugoslavia and its successor states, despite it being the official name only until 1966.
In 1966, with the political downfall of its hardliner chief, Aleksandar Ranković, the organization was renamed to the "State Security Service" (Služba državne bezbednosti), with the corresponding acronym SDB.
In 1945 and 1946, for instance, the UDBA was organized into districts. In 1950, when the administrative-territorial units were abolished as authorities, the UDBA was reorganized again. During this period the intelligence and security activities concentrated less on intelligence and more on internal security. There was an emphasis on collectivism, brotherhood, social harmony, loyalty, and tolerance towards those with different views. Deviation from this set of values became an immediate issue for security services.
The Act on Internal Affairs and the Decree on Organization of State Internal Affairs Secretariat regulated the intelligence security authority as the prerogative of the State Security Directorate within the Ministry of the Interior. The following reorganization addressed issues relating to the competence of the federation (state security, cross-border traffic, foreign citizens, passports, introduction and dissemination of foreign press, and federal citizenship). Further steps were taken with the transformation of the state administration, adoption of the Federal Act on State Administration (1978), and the Republic Act (1978). The newly adopted act on internal affairs tasked the Republic Secretariat of Internal Affairs (RSUP) with state security issues, which then became RSUP issues and were no longer given special handling "at the RSUP". This resolution remained in force until the 1991 modifications of the act on internal affairs.
|-
| rowspan="2" | 1969 || || Nahid Kulenović
|-
| || Vjekoslav (Maks) Luburić
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|1977
| || Dragiša Kašiković
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| 1978 || || Bruno Bušić