Danilo Sarenac

The case study about the Vido ossuary reveals all the difficulties the
Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes met in its effort to deal with the bodily remains of the fallen but also to create a unifying ideological pattern. Simultaneously, the creation of this memorial testifies about additional infrastructural problem that the new state had to solve, due to the very specific ’enlargement’ of its borders. The use of Yugoslavia’s scarce resources had to be now directed abroad as well. Some additional spaces had to be overcome and controlled. However, building an ossuary in a foreign country was also an expression of sovereignty, of power and capability. It was the showcase of the Yugoslav knowledge as well as art. In addition, it is important to stress that the entire social infrastructure of the Socialist Republic of Serbia of the late 1980s had to be set into motion. A myriad of social activities had to be launched in order to bring back the remembrance of the Vido fallen into the center of the Serbian national narrative.

The paper discusses the key problem of the Serbian artillery in 1914: the lack of ammunition. The focus of analysis has been placed on the different strategies the Serbian state used to find artillery ammunition and additional weapons. Special attention has been dedicated to the collaboration with France and its shipment of the 'wrong ammunition' in November 1914. It has been shown that the ammunition crisis was overcome by combining a multitude of resources which included abundant assistance from the Entente, Greece, and the Serbia's industrial capacities. The problem of the ammunition crisis has been treated as a global phenomenon, enabling placing Serbian theater of operations into a wider perspective.

Th is article attempts to reconstruct the key segments of the events that took place at Lake Plav on December 25th, 1915, when 21 Serbian soldiers were executed by order of Colonel Aleksandar K. Stojšić. Th e source base for this research had to rely on the memoirs and recollections of contemporaries due to the limited mention of this topic in offi cial military correspondence. Th is unprecedented event signaled the appearance of a new type of war related violence in the Serbian army. Besides the issues of desertion, violence and punishment in the armed forces, this article also discusses the notions of sovereignty and citizenship in times of extreme hardships of war during the Great Serbian Retreat. Many Serbian soldiers who left their units in late 1915 tried to defend themselves by saying that the "military oath" was invalid because Serbia was "abandoned" or "lost". Such a situation forced the military authorities to try to regain their shaken authority by "negotiating discipline" under completely new circumstances.

The anniversary has reaffirmed the belief that the First World War still has a very strong resonance in Serbian society. Numerous actors, state and private ones alike, took part in Serbia's centenary efforts. The manifestations and activities reflected Serbian politics, different approaches, expectations and evaluation of the trends in Europe. The controversies surrounding the 1990s Yugoslav Wars were easily perceptible during Serbia's commemorative activities. In the broadest sense, the centenary testified to Serbia's search for stable and positive landmarks of national identity in the post-Yugoslav context. 1 Commemorating the Balkan Wars 2 The Centenary Committee 3 Commemorations "Under Siege" 4 Serbia and the Commemorative Events in Bosnia and Herzegovina 5 Scientific Conferences and Exhibitions

The First World War presented an immense watershed for a large number of states, especially those located in Central and South East Europe. The case of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (SCS [SHS]) is an excellent case in point: the very creation of the state was one of the consequences of the war. Participation of the Kingdom of Serbia throughout the war meant huge efforts that brought Serbia to the verge of complete political, economic and demographic collapse. Serbia had already gone through two Balkan Wars in 1912/1913thus, in total there were seven years of full-scale fighting. The various consequences of this strain, such as considerable changes in demography, were visible throughout the 20 century. Many argued that Serbia had lost 1/4 of its total population. The image of an outlaw whose rage was at least partly justified fit the term haiduk for many centuries, and it may be argued that that image has survived in the Balkans even in the 21 century. In this article I deal with the veteran haiduk phenomenon, placed in the first post-Great War years, in order to explain the motives for their sudden disloyalty to the state after seven years of obedience. I believe the reasons for the rebellion can be found in the fatigue of postwar society and in insufficient state capacities to provide law and order. This paper focuses on the phenomenon within the boundaries of the former Kingdom of Serbia and its frontiers before the Balkan Wars of 1912/1913, thus the phenomenon is treated in isolation, within the Serbian ethnic community, underlining social instead of political or ethnic motives for the rebellion. The history of crime has been a largely neglected sub-field of social history. Eric Hobsbawm was the first historian to call public attention to the specific forms of crime. In his works Primitive Rebels and Bandits he coined the concept of social banditry, meaning a robber of a special kind who is not considered a plain criminal by public opinion: his protest may be primitive, but it has objective social causes. Over time, Hobsbawm's theoretical and methodological framework have been subjected to criticism. Flaws were found for instance in the vagueness of his concept of social banditry as well as in his lack of familiarity with forms of banditry developed in certain local areas. Nevertheless Hobsbawm's pioneering observations have formed the basis for further exploration in

Le Service historique de la Defense est riche d’un fonds de plus de 18 millions de documents figures constitue de photographies, d’estampes et d’œuvres peintes. Dans cet ensemble, le fonds photographique tient la plus grande place. Il s’etend tout a la fois sur une vaste periode, des debuts de la photographie a nos jours, et sur une grande variete de pays. Le SHD conserve ainsi plusieurs centaines de documents iconographiques sur l’ancien royaume de Serbie et la Yougoslavie . Ces archives, te...

Odbrana Beograda iz jeseni 1915, još za vreme rata, shvaćena je kao jedan poseban deo srpskog ratnog iskustva. Bio je to događaj sasvim novog tipa za Balkansko ratište. Fanatičan otpor branilaca, protivnička kolosalna artiljerija, urbani ambijent i masa civila zatečena na liniji fronta, predstavljaju samo ugrubo konture ovog istorijskog događaja. "Politika" je u januaru 1920. godine objavila svedočenje jednog sudskog kapetana XIII pešadijskog puka, potpisano samo inicijalima: Drag. M. St. Teško je naći slično svedočenje o Prvom svetskom ratu. Malo je autora koji su tako otvoreno pisali o strahu, o nervnoj napetosti i rastrojstvu na frontu. Njegovo svedočenje pokreće niz pitanja o posledicama rata na pojedinca. Kapetan je najverovatnije opisao situaciju na Torlaku 10. i 11. oktobra 1915. godine i borbe srpskog XIII pešadijskog puka protiv daleko brojnijeg neprijatelja. Dakle, Beograd je bio izgubljen, ali se žestok otpor nastavio na beogradskog periferiji i tako je bilo još nekoliko dana dok se dve armije nisu dovoljno udaljile jedna od druge. Dr Danilo Šarenac, Nemanja Kalezić (Oprema teksta je redakcijska) VREME 1575, 11. mart 2021. / MOZAIK Iz arhiva: Na Torlaku, ispovest jednog vojnog sudca ..."Mislio sam da o ovoj stvari nikome ne kažem ni reči, jer to što sam ja proživeo čisto je moja stvar i samo se mene tiče. Ja nisam ratnik, niti se od mene tražilo da pokazujem svoje junaštvo i hrabrost, pa se sa njim nisam nikad ni razmetao. Bio sam sudac u puku i ulazio iz rata u rat kao sudac, izbegavajući ne samo da vidim sve grozote njegove nego i da ih čujem. Slabih sam nerava i sve su me nesreće našeg puka uvek toliko uzbuđivale da sam više puta odležao ni sam ne znajući od kuda mi bolest dođe." Tako mi jedne večeri u izgnanstvu poče pričati sudac moga puka kad mu ja pomenuh strahote koje smo proživeli braneći 1915. godine Beograd. "Kao što ti rekoh, nastavio bi da sam se rešio da ćutim, ali bio menjam svoju odluku. Tumači sve to kako hoćeš, smej mi se, sada mi je sve jedno. Ja ću biti iskren, i ako što prećutim Bog me ubio." Sećam se da sam ja sa pukovskom komorom ostao kod mehane "Trešnje" na Kovioni, kad vi sa pukom iskrcani u Ripnju žurno odoste na Torlak u pomoć skoro uništenoj Beogradskoj Odbrani. Odmah sutradan po odlasku vašem naredi mi komandant pismeno da i ja dođem na Torlak. Šta ću mu tamo, nisam znao, i još manje sam znao šta je kod vas. Odmah po ručku, dignem se, strpam u džepove moje zakone i nekoliko tabaka hartije pa hajd polako ka Torlaku, drumom što vodi ispod Avale. Pažljivo koračam po blatu podštapajući se svojim štapom i nikako da se pomirim sa samim sobom. "Eto, govorim sam sebi, došao je dan da đavola tražiš. Puk ti je sto puta valjda bivao u borbi, ali se ti nisi interesovao njegovim podvizima. O tome su uvek vodili brige komandanti, ađutanti i mitralježdžije. Tvoje je bilo da sudiš i da sediš s mirom u trupnoj komori." Koračam i neprestano se ubeđujem da sam ja i danas onaj isti čovek, koji i pre, bez ikakvih novih patriotskih uzbuđenja, i da ovo danas što radim mora da je čista radoznalost, da preko brega zavirim i vidim svoj Beograd. U varoši imam malu kućicu, malu ali za mene milu što sam u njoj rođen, u njoj odrasao i proveo toliko i toliko godina. Ona se sa Torlaka dobro vidi. Ko zna? Može biti nije porušena od bombardovanja, niti da je požar zahvatio. To sam želeo znati, i to je dovoljno bilo da ne grdim sebe, čak šta više da se počnem gorditi na ovu drsku posetu. Inače da nije toga bilo, našao bih sto razloga i sto nagovora da po pozivu komandantovom ne odem. BIJU PA SATIRU Kad obiđoh Avalu, preda mnom se pojavi strahovit crn oblak na mestu gde sam trebao da ugledam Torlak. Gruvanje više nije udaljeno već mi od njega igraju bubne opne i drhti zemlja pod nogama. A kroz crni oblak sijaju munje kao u najburnijoj noći. Počinjem osećati strahotu položaja onih koji su tamo. Koračam lagano i premišljam se treba li da istrajem do kraja u svojoj nameri. Već se kolebam. "Idi natrag, čoveče, govorim sebi, tvoje mesto tamo nije." Odjednom preda me ispada gomila oficira koji žure drumom. Napred je jedan đeneral.-Kuda ćete vi, gospodine kapetane?-pita me sa neke visine, bez sumnje da mi ne bi dao da o njima razmišljam.-Idem na položaj, gospodine đenerale!-Kakav položaj? Šta ste vi?-pita me još oštrije.-Gospodine đenerale, ja sam sudac i pozvan sam od komandanta moga puka...

The Kingdom of Serbia fought in three consecutive conflicts between 1912 and 1918. These events merged into a devastating experience of an all-out war, completely reshaping all aspects of contemporary life. As the first centenary of these events has recently shown, the memories of wartime still play a very prominent role in the Serbian national narrative. By 1915 around 20% of Serbian combatants belonged to some of the country's minorities. Second class citizens on the social margins of society, the Serbian Roma constitute those whose wartime history is the least known to research and the public. However, the wartime diaries kept by Serbian soldiers are full of causal references to their Roma fellow combatants. This article provides an overview of the duties Roma soldiers played in the war, based on the perspective of Serbs who were fighting alongside them. The article tackles the general image and the position of the Roma population in the Kingdom of Serbia. In addition, the horrific challenges the war created for Serbian society are tackled from the perspective of those who were, already in peace time, in the most disadvantageous situation socially and economically. Overall, despite the unifying experience which the wartime suffering imposed on all citizens of the Kingdom, the old prejudices towards the Roma survived after 1918.

After the Great War ended, the 1912–1913 dead became part of the broader remembrance project, known in interwar Yugoslavia as " the Wars for Liberation and Unification 1912–1918 ". Thus, only a minor attention was given to the Balkan Wars. Furthermore, the fallen from the Balkan Wars were interpreted in retrospect, as part of the accomplished Yugoslav project and not as part of the Serbia's enlargement. Thus, the proper context of the wars fought against the Ottoman Empire and Bulgarian Kingdom was neglected. So far, Serbian historiography emphasized the popularity of the First Balkan War and its military operational side, but social and cultural impacts were disregarded. The study shows the losses suffered by Serbs during the Balkan Wars (1912–1913, 1913). In 1923 an army patrol of the newly formed Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, stumbled on the forgotten mass grave of the Bulgarian soldiers. This happened close to the state border with Bulgaria, in the vicinity of one of the most notorious position from the Second Balkan War, the " Govedarnik Heights ". The leader of the patrol, Lieutenant Eduard Ropić, decided to ask the local villagers for possible burial site of the Serbian war dead. To his amazement the residents showed a shallow graves where as much as 51 Serbian solider was buried. The body remains were inhumed in the grenade craters and the fallen had been covered with only a thin layer of earth. Consequently, the body parts were still observable, as in some cases, they stick out from the soil. Other details also indicated that the fallen had been buried in chaotic conditions. Namely, the soldiers were interred with all off their equipment except rifles and bayonets. Thus, there were leather belts, soldiers' bags as well as personal items. The lieutenant Ropić's men reburied the remains creating an improvised cemetery 1. Nothing was apparently done for the Bulgarian dead that were also inhumed in vicinity.

The paper examines the role of 1.500 Muslims from the "New Territories" who participated in the defense of Belgrade during October 1915. This episode has been analysed in the background of the problems Serbian army encountered while trying to find replacements for its depleted units in autumn of 1914. Special attention has been given to the remembrance problems in respect to this historical topic. This article has been published on line, at the  internet portal of the Center for Historical Studies and Dialog (CISID) from Novi Sad.
http://www.internetbilten.com/istrazivanja/item/12-muslimani-bosnjaci-u-odbrani-beograda-1915.html

Serbian officers from the First World War presented a separate entity in the military judicial system as their criminal acts and breaches of military law and discipline were dealt with by the Military Officers’ Court. Generally, the archives of the Serbian military judicial institutions are an underused resource. Still, these types of materials can provide a vivid overview of military criminal acts as well as soldiers’ daily routine. The case of Serbian officers at the Salonika front shows that the Serbian
High Command energetically striven to preserve the army’s morale, and officers played a crucial role. The research results imply that the number of judicial cases where officers were indicted rose at the Salonika front comparing to the first phase
of the war (1914–1915), when the army was still fighting within Serbia. This change can be interpreted as an increase in the number of punishable acts committed by the
officers, but can also be seen as diminished tolerance among judges of the Military Officers’ Court as fear grew stronger regarding the preservation of discipline of the Serbian army in exile.
Keywords: the First World War, Salonika front, military judicial system.

Key words: The First World War, Russian military assistance, river mines, artillery, Belgrade 1915.

The First World War meant unprecedented challenges for each of the involved states. The demands of the front exhausted the resources of many smaller and unindustrialized countries quite soon. The Serbian army entered into the war with already used and damaged equipment, thus it was already in august of 1914 dependant from the shipments of the materials sent from abroad. France and Russia were the main suppliers of ammunition, food and uniforms. They also sent some of the more modern military equipment including heavy artillery and naval mines, all accompanied by the personal necessary for the usage of these weapons. Consequently, the Russian assistance was not only significant for the pure prolongation of the Serbian war efforts, but it represented, in several aspects, the modernization of the two most technical branches of the Serbian army: artillery and engineer core. As most of the Russian specialists in Serbia were positioned at the Belgrade front, the pick of their battle experiences in the Balkans came with the attack of the Austro-Hungarian and German units in October of 1915. During the subsequent and constant clashes most of the Russian units were destroyed or severely diminished. Nevertheless, their remnants continued to support the fighting of the retreating Serbian army right until the arrival on the Albanian coast.

Author of Karantin za ideje Goran Miloradovic can be viewed as a member of the middle generation of Serbian historians: he was born in 1965 in Novi Becej (Vojvodina) and since his graduation in history in 1994, he has been working in the Institute for Contemporary ...

1Le Service historique de la Défense est riche d'un fonds de plus de 18 millions de documents figurés constitué de photographies, d'estampes et d'œuvres peintes. Dans cet ensemble, le fonds photographique tient la plus grande place. Il s'étend tout à la fois sur une vaste période, ...

The image of an outlaw whose rage was at least partly justified fit the term haiduk for many centuries, and it may be argued that that image has survived in the Balkans even in the 21st century. In this article I deal with the veteran haiduk phenomenon, placed in the first post-Great War years, in order to explain the motives for their sudden disloyalty to the state after seven years of obedience. I believe the reasons for the rebellion can be found in the fatigue of postwar society and in insufficient state capacities to provide law and order. This paper focuses on the phenomenon within the boundaries of the former Kingdom of Serbia and its frontiers before the Balkan Wars of 1912/1913, thus the phenomenon is treated in isolation, within the Serbian ethnic community, underlining social instead of political or ethnic motives for the rebellion.