Chetniks
The Chetniks (Serbo-Croatian: Четници, Četnici, pronounced [tʃɛ̂tniːtsi]; Slovene: Četniki), formally the Chetnik Detachments of the Yugoslav Army, and also the Yugoslav Army in the Homeland (Serbo-Croatian: Југословенска војска у отаџбини, Jugoslovenska vojska u otadžbini; Slovene: Jugoslovanska vojska v domovini) and the Ravna Gora Movement, was a Yugoslav royalist and Serbian nationalist movement and guerrilla force[2][3][4] in Axis-occupied Yugoslavia. Although it was not a homogeneous movement,[5] 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,[6] it also engaged in tactical or selective collaboration with Axis forces for almost all of the war.[7] The Chetnik movement[8] adopted a policy of collaboration[9] with regard to the Axis, and engaged in cooperation to one degree or another by both establishing a modus vivendi and operating as "legalised" auxiliary forces under Axis control.[10] Over a period of time, and in different parts of the country, the movement was progressively[11] drawn into collaboration agreements: first with the puppet Government of National Salvation in the German-occupied territory of Serbia,[12] then with the Italians in occupied Dalmatia and Montenegro, with some of the Ustaše forces in northern Bosnia, and, after the Italian capitulation in September 1943, with the Germans directly.[13]
This article is about the World War II movement led by Draža Mihailović. For other uses of this and similar terms, see Chetniks (disambiguation).Chetniks
1941–1945
Yugoslav government-in-exile (until August 1944)
Ravna Gora near Suvobor
Occupied Yugoslavia
See Ideology section
- United States (1941–44)
- United Kingdom (1941–44)
- Yugoslav government-in-exile (until August 1944)
- Partisans (July–October 1941)
- Germany (from 1942)
- Government of National Salvation (1941–1944)[1]
- Serbian Volunteer Corps (1944–45)
- Serbian State Guard (1944–45)
- Yugoslav National Movement (1944–45)
- Independent State of Croatia (1942–45)
- Hungary
- Pećanac Chetniks
- Italy (1941–43)
- Slovene Home Guard
- Russian Protective Corps (1941–44)
Partisans (October 1941 – May 1945)
- Germany (1941–43)
- Government of National Salvation
- Serbian Volunteer Corps (1941–44)
- Serbian State Guard (1941–44)
- Albania (1943–44)
- Independent State of Croatia (1941–42; 1945)
- Hungary
- Italy (1941)
- Albania (1941–43)
- Bulgaria
- Slovene Home Guard
- Sandžak Muslim militia
- Russian Protective Corps (1944)
- Balli Kombëtar
- 1941:
Uprising in Serbia- Drvar uprising
- Battle of Loznica
- Capture of Banja Koviljača
- Attack on Šabac
- Attack on Kruševac
- Mačva operation
- Operation Uzice
- Siege of Kraljevo
- Uprising in Montenegro
Srb uprising
Siege of Rogatica
Capture of Olovo
Battle for Novi Pazar
Operation Mihailovic
War in Eastern Kosovo
1942:
Operation Trio
Chetnik sabotage of Axis communication lines
Montenegro offensive
Kozara Offensive
Operation Alfa
Operation Kopaonik
1943:
Case White
Operation Kugelblitz
Battle of Grčarice
Siege of Turjak
Battle of Višegrad
1944:
Massacre of villages under Kamešnica
Operation Rösselsprung
Operation Halyard
Battle of Knin
1945:
Mostar Operation
Sarajevo Operation
Battle of Lijevče Field
Trieste operation
Battle of Zelengora
Battle of Poljana
The Chetniks were active in the uprising in the German-occupied territory of Serbia from July to December 1941. Following the initial success of the uprising, the German occupiers enacted Adolf Hitler's formula for suppressing anti-Nazi resistance in Eastern Europe, a ratio of 100 hostages executed for every German soldier killed and 50 hostages executed for every soldier wounded. In October 1941, German soldiers and Serbian collaborators perpetrated two massacres against civilians in Kraljevo and Kragujevac, with a combined death toll reaching over 4,500 civilians, most of whom were Serbs. This convinced Mihailović that killing German troops would only result in further unnecessary deaths of tens of thousands of Serbs. As a result, he decided to scale back Chetnik guerrilla attacks and wait for an Allied landing in the Balkans.[14] While Chetnik collaboration reached "extensive and systematic" proportions,[15] the Chetniks themselves referred to their policy of collaboration[9] as "using the enemy".[13] The political scientist Sabrina Ramet has observed, "Both the Chetniks' political program and the extent of their collaboration have been amply, even voluminously, documented; it is more than a bit disappointing, thus, that people can still be found who believe that the Chetniks were doing anything besides attempting to realize a vision of an ethnically homogeneous Greater Serbian state, which they intended to advance, in the short run, by a policy of collaboration with the Axis forces".[9]
The Chetniks were partners in the pattern of terror and counter-terror that developed in Yugoslavia during World War II. They used terror tactics against Croats in areas where Serbs and Croats were intermixed, against the Muslim population in Bosnia, Herzegovina and Sandžak, and against the Communist-led Yugoslav Partisans and their supporters in all areas. These tactics included the killing of civilians, burning of villages, assassinations and destruction of property, and exacerbating existing ethnic tensions between Croats and Serbs.[16] The terror tactics against the non-Serb population in the NDH were, at least to an extent, a reaction to the massacres of Serbs carried out by the Ustaše,[17] however the largest Chetnik massacres took place in eastern Bosnia where they preceded any significant Ustaše operations.[18] Croats and Bosniaks living in areas intended to be part of Greater Serbia were to be cleansed of non-Serbs regardless, in accordance with Mihailović's directive of 20 December 1941.[19] The terror against the communist Partisans and their supporters was ideologically driven.[20] Several historians regard Chetnik actions during this period as constituting genocide.[21][22][23] Estimates of the number of deaths caused by the Chetniks in Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina range from 50,000 to 68,000, while more than 5,000 victims are registered in the region of Sandžak alone. About 300 villages and small towns were destroyed, along with a large number of mosques and Catholic churches.
Etymology[edit]
The etymology of the word Chetnik is obscure. Some believe it to have developed from the Turkish word çete 'to plunder and burn down',[24] while another view is it was inherited from the Proto-Slavic, meaning member of a company.[25] The word may also derive from the Latin word coetus 'coming together, assembly'.[26] The suffix -nik is a Slavic common personal suffix meaning 'person or thing associated with or involved in'.[27]
The first use of Chetnik to describe members of army and police units appeared around the mid-18th century. Matija Ban used the word Chetnik in 1848 in terms of the need to establish armed units outside the Principality of Serbia to act in opposition to Ottoman rule. At end of the 19th century, the term was extended to members of military or paramilitary organizations with Serb ethnonationalist aims.[28] Dating from 1904, the Serbian word četnik was commonly used to describe a member of a Balkan guerrilla force called a cheta (četa/чета), meaning 'band' or 'troop'.[29] Today, the word Chetnik is used to refer to members of any group that follows "the hegemonic and expansionist politics driven by Greater Serbia ideology".[28]
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