Serb Paramilitary
This is a list of Serbian paramilitary units and formations throughout history. It includes Serbian volunteer militias loyal to the Habsburg Monarchy prior to Serbian independence, and organizations loyal to Serbia since. Note that many of the organizations either started out or ended up folded into official military organizations. These are distinct from institutions with formal status and a direct leadership structure under a nation-state, examples being the World War I era First Serbian Division and the post-2006 modern Serbian Army, which do not belong on this list. Organizations created before World War I * Serbian Militia, Habsburg militia, active in the Great Turkish War (1683–1699) * Serbian Militia, Habsburg militia, active in the Kingdom of Serbia (1718–39) * Serbian Free Corps, Habsburg militia, active in the Austro-Turkish War (1787–1791) * Serbian Revolutionary Army, active in the Serbian Uprisings (1804–1817) *Komiti, anti-Ottoman rebels, active in the l ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
Serbia
Serbia (, ; Serbian language, Serbian: , , ), officially the Republic of Serbia (Serbian language, Serbian: , , ), is a landlocked country in Southeast Europe, Southeastern and Central Europe, situated at the crossroads of the Pannonian Basin and the Balkans. It shares land borders with Hungary to the north, Romania to the northeast, Bulgaria to the southeast, North Macedonia to the south, Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina to the west, and Montenegro to the southwest, and claims a border with Albania through the Political status of Kosovo, disputed territory of Kosovo. Serbia without Kosovo has about 6.7 million inhabitants, about 8.4 million if Kosvo is included. Its capital Belgrade is also the List of cities in Serbia, largest city. Continuously inhabited since the Paleolithic Age, the territory of modern-day Serbia faced Slavs#Migrations, Slavic migrations in the 6th century, establishing several regional Principality of Serbia (early medieval), states in the early Mid ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
Narodna Odbrana
Narodna Odbrana ( sr-cyr, Народна одбрана, literally, "The People's Defence" or "National Defence") was a Serbian nationalist organization established on October 8, 1908 as a reaction to the Austro-Hungarian annexation of Bosnia and Herzegovina. At the time, it was concerned with the protection of ethnic Serbs in Austria-Hungary. To achieve their goals, the Narodna Odbrana spread propaganda and organized paramilitary forces. Among the notable founders and members of the organization were Jovan Dučić and Branislav Nušić. Ideology At the beginning of the 20th century, the Serbs/Croats/Bosnians throughout the Balkans sought unification under a single state. In addition to the Kingdom of Serbia and the Principality of Montenegro, two states with predominantly ethnic Serb populations that didn't yet share a common border, many more Serbs lived within the borders of neighbouring Austria-Hungary (specifically Bosnia-Herzegovina condominium, Croatia-Slavonia, and sout ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
Serb Volunteer Guard
The Serb Volunteer Guard ( sr, Српска добровољачка гарда, СДГ / ''Srpska dobrovoljačka garda'', SDG), also known as Arkan's Tigers (or only Tigers; sr, Арканови тигрови, links=no / ''arkanovi tigrovi'', or only Тигрови / ''Tigrovi'') or Arkan's men ( sr, Аркановци, links=no / ''Arkanovci''), was a Serbian volunteer paramilitary unit founded and led by Arkan that fought in Croatia (1991–93) and Bosnia (1992–95) during the Yugoslav Wars. History and organization The Guard was created on 11 October 1990 by twenty members of the Red Star Belgrade football club Ultra group Delije Sever. The Guard was under the command of the Territorial Defense, a regular military in charge of the territories of Croatia populated predominantly by Serbs during the first half of the 1990s. Serb Volunteer Guard was organized as a gang of criminals and armed by Belgrade. The Serb Volunteer Guard set up their headquarters and training camp in ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
Dragan Vasiljković
Dragan Vasiljković ( sr-cyrl, Драган Васиљковић; born 12 December 1954), nicknamed Captain Dragan ( sr, Капетан Драган, Kapetan Dragan) is a convicted war criminal and the former commander of a Serb paramilitary unit called the '' Knindže'' or ("Knin ninjas") during the Yugoslav Wars. In 2005, prosecutors in Croatia accused him of committing war crimes during the wars. A warrant for his arrest was subsequently issued by Interpol. He was arrested in Australia in January 2006, and ordered to prison by the High Court of Australia in anticipation for extradition to Croatia to face prosecution for his alleged crimes. He was extradited to Croatia on 8 July 2015 after losing his thirteenth appeal and sentenced to 15 years in prison on 26 September 2017 by the County Court in the city of Split. He was released from prison in March 2020. Early life Dragan Vasiljković was born on 12 December 1954 in a Serbian Orthodox family in Belgrade. His father Živorad ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
Kninjas
The Kninjas ( sr, Книнџе / Knindže), also known as the Red Berets (), was a Serb paramilitary unit, a volunteer militia supporting the Army of the Republic of Serb Krajina in the Croatian War (1991–95). It was based in Knin, the capital of breakaway SAO Krajina that became the Republic of Serb Krajina (RSK). It was led by Serbian-Australian Dragan Vasiljković (born 1954), known as "Captain Dragan". It was one of several notable Serb paramilitary units, alongside the White Eagles, Arkan's Tigers, the Falcons, and others. History Vasiljković, who had served in the Australian army, had returned to Yugoslavia in 1990 during the Croatian independence movement, eventually being hired as an instructor for volunteers in the summer of 1991. At this time, Belgrade daily ''Politika'' published a comic book named ''The Demons Return'' that featured the Kninjas fighting the Croats with martial arts. The unit, deemed elite, was a special unit that answered in part to Knin police ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
Serbian Volunteer Corps (World War II)
The Serbian Volunteer Corps ( sr, Српски добровољачки корпус, ''Srpski dobrovoljački korpus'', SDK for short; german: Serbisches Freiwilligenkorps), also known as ''Ljotićevci'' ( sr, Љотићевци), was the paramilitary branch of the fascist political organisation Zbor, and collaborated with the forces of Nazi Germany in the German-occupied territory of Serbia during World War II. In July 1941, following a full-scale rebellion by communist Yugoslav Partisans and royalist Chetniks, the German military commander in Serbia pressured Milan Nedić's collaborationist government to deal with the uprisings under the threat of letting the armed forces of the Independent State of Croatia, Hungary, and Bulgaria occupy the territory and maintain peace and order in it. A paramilitary militia called the Serbian Volunteer Detachments was formed, the unit, never formally part of the German armed forces, numbered about 3,500 men, mostly Serbian but also in ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
Pećanac Chetniks
During World War II, Pećanac Chetniks, also known as the Black Chetniks, were a collaborationist Chetnik irregular military force which operated in the German-occupied territory of Serbia under the leadership of '' vojvoda'' Kosta Pećanac. They were loyal to the Government of National Salvation, the German-backed Serbian puppet government. The Yugoslav government-in-exile eventually denounced Pećanac as a traitor, and the Germans concluded that his detachments were inefficient, unreliable, and of little military value to them. The Germans and the puppet government disbanded the organisation between September 1942 and March 1943. The Serbian puppet regime interned Pećanac for some time afterwards; forces loyal to his Chetnik rival Draža Mihailović killed him in mid-1944. Background The Pećanac Chetniks were named after their commander, Kosta Pećanac, who was a fighter and later '' vojvoda'' in the Serbian Chetnik Organization who had first distinguished himself in ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
Dinara Division
The Dinara Division ( sr, Динарска дивизија / Dinarska divizija) was an irregular Chetnik formation that existed during the World War II Axis occupation of Yugoslavia that largely operated as auxiliaries of the occupying forces and fought the Yugoslav Partisans. Organized in 1942 with assistance from Ilija Trifunović-Birčanin and headed by Momčilo Đujić, the division incorporated commanders in Bosnia and Herzegovina, northern Dalmatia, and the Lika region. The division was under the control of supreme Chetnik commander Draža Mihailović and received aid from Dimitrije Ljotić, leader of the Serbian Volunteer Corps, and Milan Nedić, head of the Serbian puppet Government of National Salvation. In late 1944 the division began withdrawing towards Slovenia. Afterwards, it joined Dobroslav Jevđević's Chetniks, Ljotić's Serbian Volunteer Corps, and the remnants of Nedić's Serbian Shock Corps in forming a single unit that was under the command of Odilo Globoc ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
Lim-Sandžak Chetnik Detachment
The Lim-Sandžak Chetnik Detachment ( sr, Лимско—Санџачки Четнички Одред) was a military unit of Chetniks that was established in northern Montenegro and Sandžak at the end of June 1942, during World War II. In August 1942, it was commanded by Pavle Đurišić, and was the largest and the most elite military unit of Draža Mihailović at that time. Establishment and initial structure The Lim-Sandžak Chetnik Detachment was established by Pavle Đurišić, based on an agreement between Đorđe Lašić and Italian General Alessandro Pirzio Biroli signed on 24 July 1942 after about two months of negotiations. The agreement "legalised" the detachment with the Italian occupying forces. Chetniks that had not been "legalised" were much more numerous and important. The Italians tolerated groups of illegal Chetniks and gave them the status of a "national peasants' militia". The Lim-Sandžak Chetnik Detachment was a mobile unit consisting of four battalions, ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
Chetniks
The Chetniks ( sh-Cyrl-Latn, Четници, Četnici, ; sl, Četniki), formally the Chetnik Detachments of the Yugoslav Army, and also the Yugoslav Army in the Homeland and the Ravna Gora Movement, was a Yugoslav royalist and Serbian nationalist movement and guerrilla force in Axis-occupied Yugoslavia. Although it was not a homogeneous movement, it was led by Draža Mihailović. While it was anti-Axis in its long-term goals and engaged in marginal resistance activities for limited periods, it also engaged in tactical or selective collaboration with the occupying forces for almost all of the war. The Chetnik movement adopted a policy of collaboration with regard to the Axis, and engaged in cooperation to one degree or another by establishing '' modus vivendi'' or operating as "legalised" auxiliary forces under Axis control. Over a period of time, and in different parts of the country, the movement was progressively drawn into collaboration agreements: first with the puppet G ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
White Hand (Serbia)
The White Hand ( sr, Бела Рука / Bela Ruka) was a secret military organization in the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes (later the Kingdom of Yugoslavia). It was established in order to counter the influence of the Black Hand, and relied on the People's Radical Party. Background The May Coup (1903) which overthrew Aleksandar Obrenović was orchestrated by Dragutin Dimitrijević (called "Apis") and his group of lower officers, among whom were Petar Živković. Petar Karađorđević was crowned King of Serbia, and in contrast to the Austrophile Obrenović dynasty, Karađorđević relied on Russia and France, which provoked rising hostility from Austria-Hungary. The conspiracy group had toppled Obrenović on the pretext of pursuing the liberation and unification of Serb lands (Pan-Serbism). The retirement of some of the conspirators involved in the May Coup eventually led to the division of the conspiratory group into two quarrelling sides: the conspirators that sta ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
Young Bosnia
Young Bosnia ( sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", Mlada Bosna, Млада Босна) was a separatist and revolutionary movement active in the Condominium of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Austria-Hungary before World War I. Its members were predominantly young male students, primarily Bosnian Serbs, but it also included Bosnian Muslims and Croats. There were two key ideologies promoted amongst the members of the group—the Yugoslavist (unification into a Yugoslavia) and the Pan-Serb (unification into Serbia). Philosophically, Young Bosnia was inspired by a variety of ideas, movements, and events, such as German romanticism, anarchism, Russian revolutionary socialism, Fyodor Dostoevsky, Friedrich Nietzsche, and the Battle of Kosovo. Background The rise to power of the popular Karađorđević dynasty in Serbia in the 1900s after the May Overthrow of the Obrenović dynasty by the Serbian Army in 1903, stimulated support by both Serbs and South Slavs for their unification into a state led by ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |