Chetniks

Chetnik officer

The Chetniks (Serbian četnici, четници) were a Serbian nationalist and royalist organization with origins in the 19th century Serbian movement opposing Ottoman rule. In World War II, the Yugoslav Royal Army in the Fatherland, also referred to as the Chetniks (derived from the Serbian word četa, meaning "military company"), was founded on 13th May 1941, on Ravna Gora by colonel Dragoljub "Draža" Mihajlović as a force loyal to the Yugoslav royal government in exile.

After some initial skirmishes with the occupying Axis forces, the Chetniks concentrated almost exclusively on fighting the Communist partisan resistance, often collaborating with German, Italian and even Croatian Ustaše forces. After 1942, the Allies, who had been supporting chetniks, shifted their support to the rival guerilla communist partisans. In 1944, the royal government recognized partizans as Yugoslavia's legitimate armed forces, and ordered chetniks to join the newly named Yugoslav army. Some chetniks refused and in April and May 1945, as the victorious Yugoslav army took possession of the country's territory, retreated with German forces towards Austria. Many were captured by partisans or returned to Yugoslavia by Allied forces in Austria. Some were tried for treason and either freed, sentenced to prison terms or death. Many were summarily executed, especially in the first months after the end of the war. In 1946, last chetnik units under the command of Draža Mihajlović were captured. He was tried, found guilty of treason and executed.

After the second world war, escaped chetniks and other nationalist Serbian emigrants formed nationalist clubs in countries like Germany, France and Australia and continued to glorify the chetnik ideology and iconography, which was illegal and suppressed in the new socialist Yugoslavia. In late 1980s, as Slobodan Milošević came to power in Serbia, chetniks were unofficially rehabilitated and the suppression of their literature and iconography lifted. New opposition parties openly supported the role of chetniks in the Second World War, stating that the official history was falsified. Politicians like Vuk Drašković and Vojislav Šešelj organized para-military units and demanded that Serbs use force to solve the nationalistic tensions in Yugoslavia and ensure that the territories populated by Serbs in other Yugoslav republics which planned to secede remain united with Serbia. During the the Yugoslav wars which followed, some Serb paramilitary units called themselves chetniks, and Croats and Bosniaks commonly used the word to describe any armed Serb unit, regular or paramilitary.

Origins

Chetniks originally formed as a result of the Macedonian struggle against the Ottoman Empire. Soon, other ethnic groups in the Balkans created their own chetnik detachments: Serbs, Bulgarians, Greek Andartes and Albanian kacaci. At first, the Ottoman rulers offered little resistance to them, as the various groups were primarily occupied in conflicts with each other. In Herzegovina, they fought the Turks, in northern Macedonia against Turks and pro-Turkish Albanians.

At the start of Balkan wars there were 110 IMRO, 108 Greek, 30 Serbian and 5 Vlach detachments. They fought against the Turks in the First Balkan War, while in WWI they fought against Austria-Hungary.

World War II

File:Chetniks-FD of issue.jpeg

US postage issue with Draza Mihailovic's portrait,1943

After the surrender of the Yugoslav royal army in April 1941, some of the remaining Yugoslav soldiers organized Yugoslav Royal Army in the Fatherland in the Ravna Gora district of western Serbia under Colonel Dragoljub (Draža) Mihailović to fight the German occupation. They were mostly ethnic Serbs though there were some Slovenes and Croats as well. Mihailović directed his units to arm themselves and await his orders for the final push. He avoided actions which he judged were of low strategic importance. The reason behind his resolve was the fact that he had been a World War I officer.

Between 1941 and 1943, the Chetniks had the support of the Western Allies. TIME Magazine, in 1942, featured an article which boasted of the success of Mihailović's Chetniks, and heralded him as the sole defender of freedom in Nazi-occupied Europe. However, Tito's Partisans fought the Nazis as well during this time. Both Tito and Mihailović had a bounty of 100,000 Reichsmarks offered by Germans for their heads.

Throughout World War II, the Chetniks were faced with the two main categories of enemies: the German occupiers and the Ustaše on one side, the ideologically opposed Communist Partisans on the other.

After the summer uprising during 1941, the guerilla activity of the Chetniks increased, and the forces of Nazi Germany retaliated very harshly against the civilian population. The Germans had introduced exact punitive measures against guerilla activity: 100 Serb civilians were to be executed for every killed soldier of the Wehrmacht and 50 for each wounded. The rival anti-fascist movements, Tito's Partisans and Mihailović's Chetniks, collaborated at first, but later turned against each other, and inside Serbia a bitter civil war ensued.

In late 1941, the Germans started a massive offensive on the areas of Ravna Gora and Užice. Mihailović offered a truce, but it was denied and the bulk of the Chetnik forces had to retreat for eastern Bosnia and Sandžak. There they came in direct conflict with the Ustaše, the fascist regime of Independent State of Croatia.

As the forces of Fascist Italy were latently opposed to the Communists and the Ustaša regime in their southern zone of influence, the Chetniks collaborated with the Italians to be able to engage the Ustaše and Communists. The Allies frowned upon this but kept sending support for the Chetnik forces for some time. Chetniks also cooperated with the Nedić quisling regime in Serbia. Finally, the Chetniks started concentrating on fighting the Partisan forces, even allying themselves with some German forces in Bosnia. General Draža's secondary goal was to preserve as many Serbian lives as possible, even if it meant collaborating with the enemy.

The Western Allies originally supported the Chetniks because they were a better option for them than the potentially pro-Soviet Communist Partisans. The Allies had planned an invasion of the Balkans, and so the Yugoslav resistance movements were strategically important, and there was a need to make a decision which of the two factions to support. A number of Special Operations Executive missions were sent to the Balkans to determine the facts on the ground. In the meantime, the Allies stopped planning an invasion of the Balkans and finally reverted their support from the Chetniks due to their collaboration with the Axis powers, and instead supported the Partisans. At the Teheran Conference of 1943 and the Yalta Conference of 1945, Stalin and Churchill decided to split their influence in Yugoslavia in half.

On 14 August 1944, the Tito-Šubašić agreement between Partisans and the Royal Government was signed on the island of Vis. The document called on all Slovenes, Croats, Srebs to join the partisans. Partisans were recognized by the royal government as Yugoslavia's regular Army. Mihajlović and many Chetniks refused. On 29 August king Peter II dismissed general Mihailović as a Chief-of-Staff of Yugoslav army in Homeland and on 12 September appointed Tito in his place.

By the end of the war, the Chetniks were still important in numbers. Some retreated with German forces north to surrender to Anglo-American forces; Mihailović and his few remaining followers (including the father of Radovan Karadžić) tried to fight their way back to the Ravna Gora, but he was captured by Tito's Partisans. In March 1946 Mihailović was brought to Belgrade, where he was tried and executed on charges of treason in July.

The last remaining Chetnik was captured in the Herzegovina-Montenegro border area in 1957.

Allied pilot rescues and Legion of Merit

The Chetniks rescued some 500 U.S. airmen who crashed over Yugoslavia in 1944-45. The Chetniks rescued German airmen and handed them over safely to the German armed forces

Due to the efforts of Major Richard L. Felman and his buddies President Harry S. Truman, on the recommendation of General Dwight D. Eisenhower, posthumously awarded Mihailović the "Legion of Merit", for the rescue of American Airmen by the Chetniks.

For the first time in history, this high award and the story of the rescue was classified secret by the State Department so as not to offend the communist government of Yugoslavia. Such a display of appreciation for the Chetniks would not be welcome as they switched sides to Tito's Partisans during the war.

Almost 60 years later, on 9 May 2005 Draza Mihailovic's daughter, Gordana has been presented with a decoration bestowed posthumously on Draza Mihailovic by President Truman in 1948

Chetnik ideology

Chetniks were royalists, and their salute was "За краља и отаџбину" ("Za kralja i otadžbinu") - For King and Fatherland. They held family values and private property in high esteem, and were thus ideologically opposed to Communists who opposed the monarchy.

Many Chetniks started to grow elaborate beards during the war, which is a traditional Orthodox Christian way to express sorrow. In this manner, they marked their sorrow for the occupied fatherland which was ravaged by war.

Almost all Chetniks expressed staunch Serbian nationalism, sometimes even ultra-nationalism. A Chetnik ideologue Stevan Moljević composed a memorandum called "Homogenous Serbia" that outlined a plan to solve Serbian problems by expanding the Serbian territory to all the lands where ethnic Serbs live, and subsequently remove its heterogeneous ethnic composition, revising the idea of Greater Serbia. This goal accordingly was to be achieved with ethnic cleansing of the territories that Greater Serbia was to assume.

Some ethnic Croats, Slovenians and Muslims also joined Chetniks forces. Most of them were democratically oriented Yugoslav patriots, anti-communists and anti-fascists. They didn’t fight for Greater Serbia but for liberation of their homeland, Kingdom of Yugoslavia:

General Mihailovic with Zvonko Vuckovic, comandant of 1st Chetnik Corps. Mr. Vuckovic was an ethnic Croat – loyal officer of Royal Yugoslav Army.

Mr. Mustafa Mulalic, one of Muslim officers in Chetnik’s headquarters, together with General Mihailovic and Mr. Stevan Moljevic (only three of them are in uniforms)

General Mihailovic with Muslim leaders in Bijeljina.

Collaboration and war crimes

The Chetnik collaboration with Germans and Italians did exist. In Serbia, a new pro-Nazi government was first established under the leadership of Milan Ačimovic, and later under former Minister of War, General Milan Nedić, which governed until 1944.

Nedić supported Hitler and met with him in 1943. This new government established even harsher racial laws than Prince Paul had enacted and immediately established three concentration camps for Jews, Gypsies, and others. Nedic formed his own paramilitary storm troops known as the State Guard. The Guard was comprised of former members of the Chetniks which had existed as an all-Serbian para-military police force under King Alexander and Prince Paul to enforce loyalty from non-Serbian members of the armed forces. When Yugoslavia disintegrated, one faction of Chetniks swore allegiance to the new Nazi puppet-government of Serbia. Another group remained under the pre-war leader, Kosta Pecanac, who openly collaborated with the Germans.

Still other Chetniks rallied behind Draža Mihailović, a 48 year-old Army officer who had been court-martialed by Nedić and was known to have close ties to Britain. Early in the War Mihailović offered some resistance to the German forces while collaborating with the Italians. By July 22, 1941 the Yugoslav Government-in-Exile announced that continued resistance was impossible. Although Mihailović and his exiled government would maintain a fierce propaganda campaign to convince the Allies that his Chetniks were inflicting great damage on the Axis, the Chetniks did little for the war effort and openly collaborated with the Germans and Italians while fighting Ustaše and Partizans. At its peak, Mihailović's Chetniks claimed to have three hundred thousand troops. In fact they never numbered over thirty-one thousand. Chetnik advocates argue that these were tactical collaborations on a local level, with the main aim to fight their common enemy - the Partisans. Chetniks viewed their ideological struggle against the Partisans as one more important than the fight against the Germans. However this collaboration continued until the end of WWII, and the allies withdrew support from the Chetniks in 1944. Mihailović was executed in 1946 for treason. The extent of Chetnik collaboration with the German and Italian armies as well as their vicious war against the pro-Allied Partisans is well documented in dozens of books, including "The Chetniks."

In the areas of Independent State of Croatia, which included Bosnia and Croatia, a bitter ethnic war was fought. The ruling Ustaše regime had proclaimed as its goal to exterminate one third of the Serbs, expel the other third and convert the rest to the Catholic faith. Chetniks fought both the Ustaše and Partisans in these areas, and retaliated for the crimes against Serbs in the villages populated by Bosniaks (who they saw as ones allied with the Ustashe) and Croats. The areas around Višegrad, Zvornik, Foča, Čajniče, Pljevlja were gravely impacted by this kind of ethnic cleansing until Tito's Partisans arrived at the site in large numbers in 1942. There's one report of 2,000 Bosnian Muslim men killed in Foča and Muslim women mass raped, and another report of 1,200 fighters and 8,000 civilians killed in easternmost Bosnia and Sandžak during this time.

After the victory of Tito's Communists, recognised the atrocities but also did not forget their collaboration with the German and Italian forces. After capture in 1946, Mihailović was tried, convicted of treason, which strained the Franco-Yugoslav relations at the time, and Charles de Gaulle refused to visit Yugoslavia or meet Tito.

During and after the WW2, communist regime in Yugoslavia occasionally fabricated “proofs” of chetniks’ collaboration with Axis powers. Sometimes, false pictures are very easy to spot. For example, at the front cover of the book that talks about chetniks’ collaboration, there is a picture that shows a German officer with chetniks. Check the forged picture By mistake, communist forgers haven’t recognized British and American uniforms at the picture. However, the original picture from February 1944 has survived. In the original picture, there is no German officer. In both pictures, there are British colonel William Bailey and American major Walter Mansfield. Check the original picture However there is real proof, including that of British intelligence agents in the region, that the Chetniks often collaborated with the Nazis, Italians, and even the Ustaše when battling the Partizans.[1]

Postwar era

During the Tito era, Chetnik crimes were recognised, and many say that their atrocities were equalized with the crimes of the Ustashe regime. However, Serbs consistently point out that there is a major difference in the scale of the atrocities of the two groups. Even though Chetniks were guerilla fighters with many independent cells which operated semi-independently, they did however have a single ideology and a single commander in Mihajlović. Although the number of victims was less then that of the Ustaše government which carried a well-coordinated and organized genocide of the Serbs and other unacceptable citizens, the Chetniks' force was smaller in size and more ineffectual. During the closing years of World War II, many Chetniks defected from their units in 1944 and early 1945, when there was a general amnesty granted for royalist forces. Many Chetniks took up the offer; this treatment was also received by the Domobran fighters, but it was not extended to Ustaše.

It is also worth noting that Partisans too were involved in numerous war crimes, like the executions of thousands of Ustaše and Domobran fighters in the Bleiburg massacre, as well as many others. This includes unselective execution of large groups of people in the aftermath of the War, including native Germans from Vojvodina, Italian in northern Yugoslavia, ideological and political opponents, as well as people whose collaboration with Germans was only suspected.

Contemporary period

In modern times, the Chetnik movement is largely rehabilitated in Serbia, notwithstanding the involvement in war crimes by some of the Chetniks. They are highly praised by Serbian nationalists, but all the political factions see them in a very different light from the one common in Tito's time. This is largely due to the impact of Serbian pro-monarchist politician Vuk Drašković, who was against Serbian ultranationalism and Milošević rule, while making a great effort to rehabilitate the Chetnik movement.

Many Serbians also support Chetniks due to the Yugoslav wars and a failure of the Communist idea of "brotherhood and unity of southern Slavs". On the other side, Croats and Bosnians still see Chetniks as some kind of a fascist movement, no better than the Croatian Ustaše or the Bosnian SS Handžar Division.

Vojislav Šešelj, a leader of the Serbian Radical Party, held a rank of voivoda of the Chetniks, given to him in 1989 by Momčilo Đujić, a surviving leader of the WWII Chetniks who fled to the US.

During the Yugoslav wars, several paramilitary formations, including those by Željko Ražnatović "Arkan", wanted by Interpol, boasted Chetnik insignia and some of them committed crimes against non-Serbs. This has contributed to the negative image of Chetniks in Croatia and Bosnia who brutally killed many residents in Vukovar and Srebrenica.

In late 2004, the National Assembly of Serbia passed a new law that equalized the rights of the former Chetnik members with those of the former Partisans, including the right to war pensions. Rights were granted on the basis that both were anti-fascist movements that fought occupiers, and this formulation has entered the law. The vote was 176 for, 24 against and 4 abstained. The socialist party (SPS) of Slobodan Milošević was the one against the decision.

There have been varying reactions to the law in Serbian public opinion. Many have praised it as just and long overdue, including the Aleksandar Karađorđević (son of the last Yugoslav king), as well as most political parties (with the most notable exception of SPS). Others protested the decision, including the Serbian Association of Former Partisans, the Serbian Helsinki Committee for Human Rights, the Croatian Anti-Fascist Movement, and the President and Prime Minister of Croatia.

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