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. 35 The latter were not difficult to identify since from the very beginning Yugoslavia was faced with harsh opposition and even violent upheavals. thirty-six 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 main of one’s Standard Team, the fresh new popular Vojvoda Misic yourself checked the issue inside Croatia and you will provided a depressing declaration in the Belgrade. In the look at the state with Croats was impossible and he advised a solution – to go out of Croats to secede and to mark new ‘just’ borders between them says collectively ethnic and ‘historical’ conditions. Naturally he previously in mind the project out-of a greater Serbia as opposed to Great Yugoslavia which would have been attending provide the Serbs army quality. Although Queen Aleksandar refuted new suggestion the fresh behavior of your own army on the ‘new territories’ received they a bad term. The newest tortures and you will harsh reprisals of one’s civil population worse the new whole venture of the new state-building and ruined the new organization authenticity of your ‘new’ armed forces definitively:
To start with, the newest officials of Slovene, Croat and you will Montenegrin resource was required to apply for entry on military, whilst it was not necessary about Serb officials
This was a blatant misappropriation of authority, quite contrary to the realities that led to the unification, 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
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The new Croat and Slovene officials sensed superior inside the instructional and top-notch words, if you’re ignorant Serbian officials had marvelous war details
There can be an enormous pit within officials raised inside different army cultural surroundings, along with a different sort of military ethos, cultural resource and you will, first off, battle sense. This new Serbian military choose to go because of a bona-fide Golgotha when you look at the conflict in which all 2nd male don’t survive. The very first postings from inside the army hierarchy had come occupied by conflict heroes who were not to ever surrender costly achieved ranks. Serbian officers detected the new inclusion of one’s officials regarding the (former) opponent army either given that an insult on the courageous opposition or while the a sign of generosity and you can forgiveness towards the enemy’s combat sins. The latest peasant-instance troops and you will officials got a keen inferiority complex regarding your ‘noble’ and well-educated Austria-Hungarian officers. A number of them was indeed improperly harm, seeing the battle units’ flags becoming changed from the Yugoslav about three-colored banner. Petar Jovic, a beneficial fighter regarding the Salonica Front side and chairman of one’s Organization of your own 1912-1918 Volunteers told you: