Dragiša Vasić
Dragiša Vasić | |
---|---|
Born | Dragomir Vasić 2 September 1885 Gornji Milanovac, Serbia |
Died | 20 April 1945 (aged 59) Jasenovac, Independent State of Croatia[1] |
Occupation | Lawyer Writer Publicist Soldier |
Nationality | Serbian Yugoslav |
Alma mater | University of Belgrade |
Dragomir "Dragiša" Vasić (
Following the
Early life
Dragiša Vasić was born in
Vasić was de-mobilized at the end of the war, in November 1918, and left the army with the rank of captain. He expressed his opposition to regent Alexander by joining the Republican Party[a] and became one of the editors of the independent Serbian newspaper Progres. Authorities responded to his publications by drafting him back into the armed forces. Vasić participated in military exercises near the Albanian border and was later transferred to the 30th Infantry Regiment, which had been involved in suppressing an uprising in northern Albania.[3]
He began practicing law in Belgrade in 1921 and, in January 1922, represented a number of
Vasić left the Republican Party and, with Jovanović's encouragement, founded the nationalist
World War II
Central National Committee, Congress of Ba and Operation Halyard
Vasić aligned himself with
Vasić became one of the two principal Chetnik ideologues, alongside Moljević.[17] He began expressing vehemently anti-communist views after joining the Chetniks and opposed any collaboration with the Germans and Italians. He wrote:
I have always supported the idea of opposing the communists. This is what I have been telling the Commander [Mihailović] from the very first day. But I also advised him that their extermination should be left to the Germans and Italians. We would only need to secure the territory, which is what we did in Serbia in 1941. In no way should we fight against them with the occupying forces. The civil war, which the Commander instigated, is not popular with our people. Our people love freedom and hate anyone who tries to enslave them. For this reason, they cannot accept open collaboration of some of our commanders with the Germans and Italian troops, who have subjected them to unspeakable terror and atrocious crimes. This is what is most horrible for us and what could bring real catastrophe. I am increasingly convinced that this open collaboration of our commanders with the Italian and German troops is the main reason for our defeats in combat with the Partisans, both militarily and politically.[18]
Moljević wrote to Vasić in December 1941 and outlined his plan for the cleansing of Yugoslavia of all non-Serbian elements by Serbian refugees. He stated that Serbs should take control of "all strategic points" in Yugoslavia and claimed that a large Serbian state was what Serbs had been fighting for since the time of
Vasić stood opposed to the Ba Congress, organized by the Chetniks between 25 and 28 January 1944 in the Serbian village of Ba. He was particularly opposed to the political concepts laid out by Moljević and socialist politician Živko Topalović, stating: "I do not know why the Commander [Mihailović] needed this congress; I have to admit [it] was a circus of formality as far as I'm concerned."[23]
In July 1944, Vasić and his wife met with Richard Felman and other American pilots, whose B-24 Liberators were shot down by the Germans near the Serbian village of Pranjani. Vasić told Felman that the Chetniks would do everything in their power to protect the downed airmen and explained that the Germans had discovered the wreckage of Felman's plane. Vasić told him that they had recovered the body of a dead American pilot and assigned a young Chetnik named Miodrag Stefanović to be Felman's bodyguard.[24] Felman was one of several hundred American airmen who were rescued by the Chetniks during Operation Halyard, and he spent much of his life speaking fervently about the debt he owed to the Chetniks.[25]
Retreat and death
Vasić and many other Chetnik commanders refused to accept Mihailović's decision to withdraw all Chetniks from Serbia to the
Đurišić had arranged for
Literary works
Vasić was one of the most eminent Serbian writers of the interwar period.[33] His first book, titled Karakter i mentalitet jednog pokoljenja (The Character and Mentality of a Generation), was published in 1919, shortly after the end of World War I. A book titled Dva meseca u jugoslovenskom sibiru (Two Months in the Yugoslav Siberia) was published in 1920, shortly after he returned to Belgrade from military exercises on the Albanian border.[3] The term "Yugoslav Siberia" was coined by Vasić and referred to the region of Kosovo.[34] In 1922, Vasić published a short story collection titled Utuljena kandila (Inflamed Candles) and a novel titled Crvene magle (Red Fogs).[3] Professor Stanko Korać considers Crvene magle one of the thirty Yugoslav novels most representative of the interwar period.[35]
Vasić focused on writing over the next five years, between 1922 and 1927, and published several articles about classical Russian literature.[36] In 1924, he published a book titled Vitlo i druge priče ("Winch" and Other Stories) and in 1926 he published a novel titled Bakić Ulija. Upon returning from the Soviet Union in 1927, he wrote a book titled Utisci iz Rusije (Impressions From Russia), which was published the following the year. In 1932, he published a novel titled Pad sa građevine (Fall From a Building), after which he became less active in literary circles.[6]
Legacy
Following
Serbian authors disagree over whether Vasić was a communist agent within the Chetnik ranks. The first calls for Vasić's rehabilitation in Yugoslavia came in 1988. More than twenty years passed before he was officially fully rehabilitated by the Government of Serbia on 3 December 2009, at the request of his daughter.[5]
Citations
Notes
Footnotes
- ^ a b Velikonja 2003, p. 166.
- ^ Boško Novaković (1971). Živan Milisavac (ed.). Jugoslovenski književni leksikon [Yugoslav Literary Lexicon]. Novi Sad (SAP Vojvodina, SR Serbia: Matica srpska. p. 556.
- ^ a b c d e Milovanović 1986, p. 1.
- ^ Banac 1984, p. 195.
- ^ a b c d Politika & 21 December 2009.
- ^ a b c d Milovanović 1986, p. 2.
- ^ Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts.
- ^ a b c Tomasevich 1975, p. 126.
- ^ Prilozi. Institut za istoriju. 2001. p. 168.
Kao operativno rukovodstvo ove organizacije formiran je Izvršni odbor u kome su bili Dragiša Vasić, Mladen Žujović i Milan Nikolić.
- ^ Recueil des travaux du Musée national. Narodni Muzej Čačak. 2011. p. 126.
С друге стране, Слободан Јовановић, Драгиша Васић и Младен Жујовић били су у најужем врху илегалне организације „Конспирација, формиране у лето 1938. године, са циљем рушења режима кнеза Павла (уз подршку Велике Британије)
- ^ (Zečević 2003, p. 334):"„Конспирације", поред њега и председавајућег Слободана Јовановића,
- ^ NIN: nedeljne informativne novine. Politika. 1996. p. 53.
„Конспирација" је основана „за државни удар". а њен први састанак одржан је 8. августа 1938. у кући Младена Жујовића.
- ^ Tomasevich 1975, p. 389.
- ^ Cohen 1996, p. 44.
- ^ Pavlowitch 2007, p. 54.
- ^ a b Tomasevich 1975, p. 192.
- ^ Hoare 2007, p. 137.
- ^ Redžić 2005, pp. 159–160.
- ^ Redžić 2005, p. 132.
- ^ Malcolm 1994, pp. 178–179.
- ^ Pavlowitch 2007, pp. 182–186.
- ^ Lampe 2000, p. 206.
- ^ Redžić 2005, p. 161.
- ^ Freeman 2008, pp. 53–55.
- ^ Freeman 2008, p. 276.
- ^ Redžić 2005, p. 163.
- ^ Redžić 2005, p. 165.
- ^ a b Tomasevich 1975, p. 447.
- ^ Milazzo 1975, p. 181.
- ^ a b c Tomasevich 1975, pp. 447–448.
- ^ a b Fleming 2002, p. 147.
- ^ Pajović 1987, p. 100.
- ^ Bédé & Edgerton 1980, p. 733.
- ^ Stanovčić 2004, p. 115.
- ^ Milovanović 1986, pp. 422–423.
- ^ Milovanović 1986, pp. 1–2.
- ^ Biggins & Crayne 2000, p. 109.
- ^ Miller 2007, p. 332.
- ^ Malcolm 1994, p. 206.
References
- ISBN 978-0-8014-9493-2.
- Bédé, Jean Albert; Edgerton, William Benbow (1980). The Columbia Dictionary of Modern European Literature. ISBN 978-0-231-03717-4.
- Biggins, Michael; Crayne, Janet (2000). Publishing in Yugoslavia's Successor States. ISBN 978-0-78901-046-9.
- Cohen, Philip J. (1996). Serbia's Secret War: Propaganda and the Deceit of History. ISBN 978-0-89096-760-7.
- ISBN 978-0-9619364-9-5.
- Freeman, Gregory A. (2008). The Forgotten 500: The Untold Story of the Men Who Risked All for the Greatest Rescue Mission of World War II. ISBN 978-0-45122-495-8.
- ISBN 978-0-86356-953-1.
- ISBN 978-0-52177-401-7.
- ISBN 978-0-8147-5520-4.
- Milazzo, Matteo J. (1975). The Chetnik Movement & the Yugoslav Resistance. ISBN 978-0-8018-1589-8.
- Miller, Nick (2007). The Nonconformists: Culture, Politics, and Nationalism in a Serbian Intellectual Circle, 1944–1991. ISBN 978-9-63977-613-5.
- Milovanović, Nikola (1986). Dragiša Vasić – Od građanskog buntovnika do kontrarevolucionara (PDF). OCLC 17359655.
- Pajović, Radoje (1987). Pavle Đurišić (in Serbo-Croatian). ISBN 978-86-7125-006-1.
- ISBN 978-1-85065-895-5.
- "Enigma Dragiše Vasića". Politika (in Serbian). 21 December 2009.
- ISBN 978-0-7146-5625-0.
- "Dragomir Vasić, Dragiša" (in Serbian). Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts. Archived from the original on 2016-03-04. Retrieved 2012-09-30.
- Stanovčić, Vojislav (2004). "Civil Society and the Rule of Law in Multi-Ethnic Societies". In Gordon, Dane R.; Durst, David C. (eds.). Civil Society in Southeast Europe. ISBN 90-420-0939-X.
- ISBN 978-0-8047-0857-9.
- Velikonja, Mitja (2003). Religious Separation and Political Intolerance in Bosnia-Herzegovina. ISBN 978-1-58544-226-3.
- Zečević, Momčilo (2003). Prošlost i vreme: iz istorije Jugoslavije. Prosveta. ISBN 9788607013937.