Publication details
Prilog proučavanju češko-srpskih veza : Česi i Srbi iz austrougarskih zemalja u prvoj srpskoj dobrovoljačkoj diviziji na frontu u Dobrudži
| Title in English | Contribution to Research on Czech-Serbian Relations : Czechs and Serbs from Austro-Hungarian Countries in the First Serbian Volunteer Division on the Front Line in Dobruja |
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| Authors | |
| Year of publication | 2021 |
| Type | Article in Proceedings |
| Conference | Savremena srpska i češka slavistička istraživanja / Současná srbská a česká slavistická bádání |
| MU Faculty or unit | |
| Citation | |
| Keywords | Great war; prisoners of war; Czech volunteers; Serbian volunteer division; front line in Dobruja. |
| Attached files | |
| Description | The fact that Czech soldiers and especially officers participated in the combat actions of the first Serbian volunteer division on the front line in Dobruja is not well known in the Czech or Serbian public. Serbian authorities tried to set up a refugee army in Russia. The army was to be formed from the ranks of captured Serbs from the Austro-Hungarian army and would operate on the Balkans during the campaigns of the Entente Powers and whose task would be to contribute to the liberation of the occupied country. Thus, in the beginning of 1916, the formation of the Serbian volunteer division began in Odessa. To the Serbian Volunteer Division entered a large number of Czech prisoners of war, especially officers, as the Russian authorities prevented them from joining deliberately very slowly formed Czech division in Kiev. With the Serbian division they fought in Dobruja against the Bulgarian and German troops. The study is based on written memories of Czech officers and on archival sources. Both in the memoirs and in the sources we find tones of disillusionment with the conditions in the Serbian division, especially after the defeat in Dobruja. Czech volunteers complained about high-ranking Serbian officers and their mistreatment of ordinary soldiers, the forcible recruitment of Serbian but also Croatian prisoners of war from Russian prison camps, harsh physical punishment, and a lack of democratic spirit 1 in the division. These facts are not very well known in Serbian historiography. This is one of the reasons why a large part of the Czech volunteers left the Serbian division. Many of them later occupied prominent positions in Czechoslovak legions formed in Russia and retained these positions after returning to their homeland. |
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