Publication details
Slike sa balkanskog ratišta. Ratni dnevnik češkog oficira Hineka Doležala
| Title in English | Pictures from the Balkan Battlefield: the Wartime Diary of the Czech Officer Hynek Doležal |
|---|---|
| Authors | |
| Year of publication | 2019 |
| Type | Monograph |
| MU Faculty or unit | |
| Citation | |
| Attached files | |
| Description | The book is an photographic testimony of the Balkan theatre of the Great War from the diary of a Czech officer in the Austro-Hungarian army. Photographs and postcards taken, developer or collected by Hynek Doležal (30 July 1880 – 13 June 1938), lieutenant commander in the 20th Mountain Brigade of the Austro-Hungarian army, while advancing with his unit through Herzegovina, Bosnia, Serbia, Albania and Macedonia, make up a remarkably original, rare and valuable body of photographic evidence from the Balkan theatre of the Great War. In a book which uses photographs to present the path of a Czech member of the Austro-Hungarian army in the Great War. In the interest of impartiality a historian is obliged to begin by emphasizing that there was a not insignificant number of other Czech soldiers and officers who left their unwilling service to the Habsburg emperor and fervently fought against the Austro-Hungarian army. The introductory study therefore represents not only the war path of Hinek Dolezal's unit, but also the fate of Czech volunteers in the Serbian army - both on the Serbian and later Salonica fronts, as well as on the Dobrudzha front, where Czech volunteers fought within the Serbian Volunteer Division. Although he was a member of the Austro-Hungarian army, Doležal’s accompanying comments and photograph captions reveal his Czech origin and his sympathies for the ‘Serbian and Montenegrin enemy’. In addition to his own photos, his diary also includes postcards of towns and cities he visited during his military service. Also he incorporated into his diary photographs about the life of the Serbian, Montenegrin, Albanian, and Macedonian rural population .Finally, Doležal’s diary is not just a testimony of war operations but also an important ethnographical source, whose contents reflect the views and opinions of a Czech officer in the Austro-Hungarian army. At the same time, it serves as a pictorial counterpart of the Czech activity in the Serbian army. |