From the very beginning the military was given a privileged position in the new state both in military and in political terms. However, the institution faced in the first place immense legitimacy problems. Paradoxically the military’s (Serbian) core consisted of the officer corps with a distinguished war record. Yet the predominantly Serb army and its transformation into a Yugoslav institution met significant obstructions both with Serbs and non-Serbs. Serbs were proud of their army which had completed the historical mission and expected it to guard these achievements in peacetime. The fragile Yugoslav construction had to be protected from both external and internal enemies. thirty-five The latter were not difficult to identify since from the very beginning Yugoslavia was faced with harsh opposition and even violent upheavals. 36 The Serbian army had acquired a rich experience in domestic intervention in the pre-war period, but now the situation seemed very simple since the ‘enemies’ could have been identified through national and alleged political criteria.
The chief of your own General Team, the brand new greatest Vojvoda Misic actually inspected the challenge in Croatia and offered a depressing declaration when you look at the Belgrade. In the view the situation having Croats is actually hopeless and he advised a solution – to depart Croats so you’re able to secede also to draw new ‘just’ limitations among them claims with each other ethnic and ‘historical’ standards. Needless to say he had planned the project out-of a greater Serbia in the place of Higher Yugoslavia and that could have been browsing provide the Serbs armed forces excellence. Though Queen Aleksandar declined this new suggestion brand new habits of your military in the ‘new territories’ gained they a detrimental identity. The newest tortures and severe reprisals of your civil people worse brand new entire endeavor of the the brand new state-building and destroyed the newest institutional authenticity of the ‘new’ army definitively:
Firstly, the newest officials away from Slovene, Croat and Montenegrin provider had to get entryway for the military, even though it wasn’t required in the Serb officials
This was a blatant misappropriation of authority, quite contrary to the realities that led to the unification, darmowa strona randkowa dla przypadkowy seks and endangered great discomfiture, especially since the army applied brutal, coercive, and, as one historian dubbed them, Milos-style punishments, frequently even without the formality of a military court-ous of these was the practice of meeting out corporal punishment by blows with clubs or truncheons. 37
One of the most critical problems of the new state was institution building. While the other political institutions had to be created from scratch, the military was only to be transferred from the Serbian state. The units of the former Austria-Hungarian army were disbanded. The non-Serbs saw the military as a continuation of the Serbian army with the command language, insignia and all other details directly transferred from the Serbian Kingdom. The regime declared that it supported an open-door policy regarding the officers from the former Habsburg army. In reality, however, there were many problems to surmount, the question of loyalty having been in the background in the majority of cases. Furthermore, the position of the non-Serb officers was humiliating. They faced huge obstacles in terms of promotion, subordination, the question of rank etc. The figures show that they were also underrepresented, which does not necessarily imply that it was a result of a planned action. For instance, in 1938 only 10 per cent of the Yugoslav officers and only 31 per cent of 191 generals were Croats. 38
This new Croat and Slovene officers experienced advanced inside educational and you can elite group terminology, while uneducated Serbian officers got glorious war facts
There can be a giant gap between the officials lifted during the more military cultural environment, and with a new army ethos, ethnic provider and, to start with, conflict feel. The newest Serbian military had gone thanks to a real Golgotha when you look at the war where all the next men don’t survive. 1st posts during the armed forces steps had been filled because of the battle heroes who were to not ever give up costly achieved ranking. Serbian officers thought of the newest introduction of officers regarding the (former) enemy armed forces possibly due to the fact an enthusiastic insult on their heroic opposition or because a sign of kindness and you will forgiveness with the enemy’s conflict sins. The newest peasant-instance soldiers and you will officials got an inferiority state-of-the-art regarding your ‘noble’ and you may well-experienced Austria-Hungarian officials. A few of them was poorly harm, watching its battle units’ flags are replaced because of the Yugoslav around three-colored flag. Petar Jovic, an excellent combatant regarding the Salonica Front and you will president of Relationship of 1912-1918 Volunteers said: