The Historical Balkan Knot: The Difficult Relations of Serbs, Croats and Bosniak Muslims, the Croatian Ustasha
Adolf Hitler and Ustasha leader Ante Pavelić, dictator of the puppet Independent State of Croatia, in Berchtesgaden, July 1941
As noted in the article The Spanish "Blue Division" against Communism and the USSR, the assertion that during the Second World War the whole of Europe fought against the USSR can in no way be considered a propaganda cliché. Italy and Romania declared war on our country on June 22, 1941, Slovakia on June 24, Finland on June 26, and Hungary on the 27. On July 2, 1941, relations with the USSR were broken off, led by France.
Bulgaria was among the allies of the Third Reich. Divisions were formed in which "volunteers" from Spain, the Netherlands, Belgium, Denmark, the Czech Republic, Scandinavian countries, the Baltics and Western Ukraine fought against the USSR. The Croatian Ustasha also fought for the Third Reich. Let's talk about who they were, how they appeared and what they "became famous for" in the territory of the former Yugoslavia and on the fronts of World War II.
A divided people
The nationalist organization Ustasha emerged in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, and so first we will have to talk a little about how this state came into being, as well as about the difficult relations between the Croats and the Serbs.
First of all, it should be noted that Serbs, Croats and Bosniaks are, in general, one people, divided by religious principle: Serbs profess Orthodoxy, Croats – Catholicism, Bosniaks – Islam. And they speak practically the same language, which used to be called Serbo-Croatian, but Serbs use Cyrillic when writing, Croats and Bosniaks – Latin.
The Serbs were under Ottoman influence for a long time, which was not always negative, at one point the Turks even helped the Serbs to preserve their religion and national identity. The Croats were under the rule of the Austrians, Venetians and Hungarians. For centuries, the Serbs and Croats lived quite peacefully, and this period is often called the "Millenium of Friendship". However, already in the 19th century, both Serbian and Croatian nationalists and high-level politicians began to promote "explosive" ideas about the "racial superiority" of their people and the "inferiority" of their neighbors.
Serbia: The Path to the Kingdom of Yugoslavia
Many believe that Serbia lost its independence in 1389 after its defeat in the famous Battle of Kosovo. However, the Serbian despots then became mere vassals of the Turkish sultans – not their subjects.
At first, the Turks were distinguished by their enviable religious tolerance, and those of the foreigners who accepted Islam sometimes achieved simply fantastic career success in the Ottoman Empire. The 14th century in Turkey is called the "century of Serbian viziers", the most famous of whom was Mehmed Pasha Sokkolu (Sokolovic). He held the post of grand vizier under three sultans (Suleiman I the Magnificent, Selim II and Murad III) for 3 years, 17 months and XNUMX days - until he was killed by some dervish.
Mehmed Pasha and his brother Patriarch Makarii. Monument in Andricgrad
In 1812, under the terms of the Bucharest Peace Treaty concluded by Kutuzov, Serbia received the right to broad autonomy and self-government, but the Turks immediately violated this treaty – as soon as they learned that Napoleon’s army had crossed the Neman. In 1820, they were finally forced to recognize Serbia’s autonomy – and to confirm it in 1830.
Meanwhile, since the beginning of this century, a century-long fierce rivalry between two dynasties of Serbian princes, the Karadjordjevics and the Obrenovic family, began here. You can read about its final chord – the murder of King Alexander Obrenovic and his wife Draga – in V. Pikul’s novel “I Have the Honor”. Pikul’s sympathies were on the side of the Karadjordjevics, although both of them had their own minds, and in the Crimean War, for example, Alexander Karadjordjevic did not support Russia. And the Serbs took turns expelling either the next Karadjordjevic or one of the Obrenovic family. In the struggle for the throne, representatives of both dynasties were not shy about anything and did not limit themselves in anything. Alexander Karadjordjevic, for example, having been expelled from the country, decided to return to the throne by organizing the murder of Mihailo Obrenovic, for which he was sentenced to 20 years in prison in Serbia, but was imprisoned in Hungary for 8.
By the Treaty of San Stefano in 1878, Serbia, Montenegro and Romania gained independence. In 1882, Serbian Prince Milan Obrenovic declared himself king and began a rapprochement with the Habsburgs. Soon, the "grateful" Serbs "asked" him to abdicate in favor of his son Alexander, who was killed on June 11, 1903, by conspirators led by Dragutin Dmitrijevic, nicknamed Apis.
Cover of the Parisian edition of Le Petit Journal
Peter I Karadjordjevic ascended the throne. He had previously served in the Foreign Legion and as a volunteer in the Russo-Turkish War of 1877-1878, and in 1879 was sentenced in absentia to be hanged in Serbia on suspicion of attempting to organize a coup d'état. The secret organization "Black Hand" organized by Dragutin Dmitrievich was involved in the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand, which provoked the beginning of World War I.
Illustration from the magazine "Iskra"
After its end on December 1, 1918, the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes was formed, which would later become known as Yugoslavia.
Croatian lands before the formation of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes
Thanks to a successful marriage, the rulers of Austria acquired rights to Hungarian and part of Croatian lands back in 1526. And the Croatian coast of the Adriatic Sea (Dalmatia) was under the influence of Venice, the city of Dubrovnik (the Republic of Ragusa) belonged to the Venetians. In 1358, it fell under the power of Hungary. In 1536, Dubrovnik was conquered by the Ottomans, but retained a certain independence, limiting itself to paying tribute. But the Venetians did not leave the other side of the Adriatic Sea either: they held out until 1797, when their republic was conquered by Bonaparte.
Possessions of Venice in different years on the map
In 1578, the Military Frontier (Vojna Krajina) was organized on the borders of the Austrian Empire – a strip of land from the Adriatic Sea to Transylvania, which was under the direct control of Vienna (currently its territory is divided between Croatia, Serbia and Romania).
Military Krajina in 1750
Christians from the Ottoman Empire began to move here, at least half of whom were Orthodox Serbs. The inhabitants of Vojna Krajina were called Granicari, and many note their similarity to Russian Cossacks.
Serbian border
During the Austro-Turkish War of 1683–1699, the Habsburgs seized Croatian territory up to the Sava River, encouraging the resettlement of German colonists to these lands.
At the end of the 1809th century, Austria already controlled Istria, Dalmatia and Dubrovnik (former Ragusa). In 1813-1848, these lands were ceded to France, becoming the Illyrian provinces of that country, but then they returned to the Habsburg Empire. During the Hungarian revolution of 1867, the Croats supported the Austrians, for which they received autonomy. But after the proclamation of the "dual monarchy" (Austria-Hungary) in XNUMX, the Austrians kept Istria and Dalmatia for themselves, and transferred other Croatian lands and Slavonia to the Kingdom of Hungary.
In 1875, during the anti-Turkish uprising in Herzegovina (in which Muslim Bosniaks also took part), the old Serbian word "ustash" ("ustasha") - "rebel" - became known in Europe. Orthodox Serbian intellectuals used it in their stories and articles. But after the Berlin Congress in 1878 decided to transfer Bosnia and Herzegovina to Austria-Hungary, the valor of the Catholic Croats, who allegedly played a decisive role in the uprising against the Turks, began to be extolled here. The official propaganda transferred the name "ustash" to them.
After the annexation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Military Krajina was abolished and its lands were added to the Croatian possessions of the Austrian Crown.
And finally, after the defeat of Austria-Hungary in World War I, the question arose of who would own the Balkan possessions of the collapsed empire. On October 29, 1918, the creation of a state was proclaimed in Ljubljana, which included Croatia, Slavonia (Slovenia), Dalmatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Krajina. However, already on December 1, the "great powers" decided to transfer these lands to Serbia. Thus, the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes appeared on the political map of the world.
Croats as "spoiled Serbs"
As early as 1844, the Minister of Internal Affairs of the Serbian Prince Alexander Karadjordjevic, Ilija Garašanin (later Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs), published the program "Nachertanije". It was the first to outline the idea of Great Serbia, and the main goal of the Serbian people was declared to be the mission of uniting the southern Slavs into a single state under the rule of Serbian monarchs.
Ilya Garashanin
At the same time, Garašanin considered the Croats and Slovenes to be part of the Serbian people: "Serbs of the Catholic faith" and a lost "people without self-awareness." And the above-mentioned Dragutin Dmitrijević called the Croats "inferior Serbs, corrupted by Catholicism."
"Serbian slaves"
In 1861, Croatian nationalist Ante Starčević founded the Party of Rights. In his book The Name of the Serb, he claimed that the word comes from the Latin servus, meaning slave. Starčević still considered the Austrians to be the main enemies of the Croats. His moderate party members claimed that the Serbs were Orthodox Croats. But the radical Pravash Eugen Kvaternik and his associates declared the Serbs to be Asians, contrasting them with the "cultured" European Croats. The nationalists considered the Bosniaks to be Muslim Croats, and Catholicism and Islam were officially recognized as the traditional religions of the Croats, in contrast to the "schismatic" Orthodoxy.
Ustasha in Yugoslavia
Serbian historian S. Trifkovic wrote in his book “Ustasha – the Balkan Heart of Darkness”:
"Croatian separatism was born at the same time as Yugoslavia. As early as December 2, 1918, the Frankists began actively calling on the Croats to take part in the action against unification. And on December 5, in Zagreb, on Ban Jelačić Square, a clash occurred between opponents of unification and the forces of the People's Council. Croatian nationalists lost 13 people in this clash. This day later took an honorable place in the Ustaša calendar, becoming a state holiday in the NDH (Independent State of Croatia). Thus, one essentially intra-Croatian conflict turned into a myth about a mass popular resistance to Serbian occupation."
Let us clarify that the Frankists were members of the radical "Pure Party of Rights" founded by Josip Frank, one of whose leaders was the future Ustasha leader Ante Pavelic. The Frankists demanded the independence of Croatia, and the "Party of Rights", from which they broke away, then supported the creation of a kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes.
Fueled by nationalists on both sides, relations between Croats and Serbs became increasingly worse, and on June 19, 1928, things reached the point where Puniša Račić, a member of the People's Radical Party, opened fire on Croatian deputies right in parliament, fatally wounding the leader of the Croatian Peasant Party, Stjepan Radić.
Puniša Racic in 1926.
Croatian banknote 200 kuna with a portrait of S. Radic
King Alexander I Karadjordjevic used this terrorist act as a pretext to dissolve parliament and abolish all autonomies. The activities of the Croatian nationalist "Party of Rights" were also banned. The state was officially renamed and was now called the "Kingdom of Yugoslavia". In response, the leader of the Croatian nationalists, Ante Pavelic, created the underground organization "Domobran", on the basis of which the "Croatian Revolutionary Organization" later emerged, also known as "Ustasha". The Ustasha found support in Hungary (since in the Habsburg Empire the Croats were subjects of the Hungarian crown) and in Italy, where they were patronized by Mussolini. Ante Pavelic even ruled the Ustasha from Riekka, Italy, from 1932.
Already on March 22, 1929, the Ustasha killed the editor-in-chief of the Zagreb newspaperNews» Tony Schlegel, and then the editor of the newspaper "Unity" N. Risovich.
Interestingly, among those who attacked Schlegel were Zvonimir Pospisil and Miho Babić, who later joined the group of the Bulgarian terrorist (member of the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization) Vlado Chernozemski, who shot the King of Yugoslavia Alexander Karadjordjevic and the French Foreign Minister Louis Barthou on October 9, 1934 in Marseille.
King Alexander I of Yugoslavia and French Foreign Minister Louis Barthou, October 9, 1934.
V. Chernozemsky on the running board of a car
Colonel Piole strikes the head of the assassin of the King of Yugoslavia, Alexander I, with his saber
It should be noted that after this terrorist act, all of Europe turned away from the Ustasha; in Croatia, this period of international isolation is called the time of the "great silence". The "Poglavnik of the Ustasha" Pavelić was arrested in Italy, the investigation into his case lasted for two years, but was never completed. Pospišil, Babić and another Ustasha, Miho (Midžo) Kralj, who were arrested in France, were sentenced to life imprisonment.
Midjo Kralj, Vlado Cernozemski and Zvonimir Pospisil at the training camp in Janka Puszta, Hungary
The Vatican unexpectedly became an ally of the Croatian nationalists, and in 1936 it approached the Yugoslav government with a proposal to grant local Catholics a number of benefits and privileges. The country's authorities, of course, did not take such a step, and Cardinal Eugenio Pacelli (who would become Pope Pius XII in 1939) declared:
"The day will come when many people will bitterly regret having rejected this generous offer made from the heart to their country."
But let's return to Yugoslavia, which had lost its king. His son and heir Peter was only 11 years old, and the state was ruled by his cousin Paul, who was a supporter of rapprochement with Germany.
In August 1939, the Yugoslav authorities nevertheless tried to appease the Ustasha: according to one of the points of the Cvetkovic-Maček agreement, Croatian autonomy was restored, moreover, about 40% of the lands of Bosnia and Herzegovina were “annexed” to its territory. But this only “whet the appetites” of the nationalists.
And in 1940, after the capitulation of France, the previously mentioned Ustashe, who had taken part in the murder of Bartu and had been sentenced to life imprisonment, were released. At the same time, Babić became one of Pavelic's two deputies.
On March 25, 1941, Regent Pavel signed the protocol on Yugoslavia's accession to the Tripartite Pact and two days later was removed from power by officers led by General Simonovic. The armies of Germany and the Reich's allies attacked Yugoslavia and in a few days (from April 6 to April 11, 1941) routed its troops. The Serbs and Montenegrins began a guerrilla war, look at the territory their units controlled in September 1941:
And in September 1943:
Commander of the People's Liberation Partisan and Volunteer Army of Yugoslavia Josip Broz Tito (Croat by nationality) in a photograph from 1942.
The Croatian Ustasha and Bosnian Muslims sided with the occupiers. The above-mentioned participants in the murder of Bartu – Zvonimir Pospisilj, Miho Babić, Mijo Kralja – died in June 1941 during the suppression of the uprising of the Serbs of Eastern Herzegovina, and Ante Pavelic even declared eight days of mourning.
The Ustaše created the puppet Independent State of Croatia (NDH), which included Bosnia and Herzegovina. In the next article, we will talk about it and the racial laws adopted there. About the mass murders of Serbs, Jews and Gypsies by the Ustaše, the cynicism and cruelty of which shocked not only the Italians, but even the Germans. And also about how the Croats and Bosnian Muslims fought on the Eastern Front against the USSR and in the Balkans against the People's Liberation Army of Josip Broz Tito and other partisans.
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