Uroš Drenović
Vojvoda Uroš Drenović | |
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Condominium of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Austria-Hungary | |
Died | 29 May 1944 (aged 33) Banja Luka, Independent State of Croatia |
Place of burial | Klisina, Stričići |
Allegiance |
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Commands held |
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Battles/wars | Order of Karađorđe's Star |
Uroš Drenović (
against them.Following the German-led
Despite his extensive collaboration with the Axis, a Banja Luka street is named after him, and within Republika Srpska, the Serb-majority entity of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the actions of his Chetniks are celebrated and equated with those of the Partisans. The celebration and rehabilitation of Chetniks such as Drenović has been criticised by the civil society organisation the Helsinki Committee for Human Rights as reflecting a “deeply ill society”.
Early life
Uroš Drenović was born in 1911 in
World War II
Bosanska Krajina uprising
After their
On 4 July, in the wake of the Axis invasion of the Soviet Union, the Communist Party of Yugoslavia (Serbo-Croatian: Komunistička partija Jugoslavije, KPJ) decided to launch a general uprising against the occupying forces across Yugoslavia, in solidarity with the Soviets, and a full-scale rebellion broke out in Bosnia on 27 July.[8] This included local uprisings in the Bosanska Krajina, which spread across the NDH, but the KPJ organisation was initially swept along in the popular uprisings rather than leading the rebellion.[9]
On 29 August, Drenović distinguished himself by planning and leading the capture of Mrkonjić Grad by the rebels, but when the town was recaptured by NDH forces four days later, the KPJ blamed him and his troops, citing their poor discipline and anti-
On 26 September 1941 at the
On 26 November 1941, at a meeting of the leadership of the 3rd Krajina Detachment, Drenović advocated collaboration with the Italian occupation forces on the basis that the Italians were protecting Serbs from the Ustaše. This was rejected by the senior KPJ members of the detachment, but they were not in a position to force him to abandon the idea. At the same meeting, Drenović refused to commit the 3rd "Petar Kočić" Battalion to fight the Italians. Under pressure, he agreed to advise neighbouring battalions if the Italians moved through his territory. In return, the leadership of the 3rd Krajina Detachment agreed that Drenović could refer to his force as a "Military-Chetnik Detachment".[10] On 10 December, the senior KPJ members of the 3rd Krajina Detachment concluded that 50 percent of their command staff did not support the leading role of the KPJ in the uprising. The Partisan leadership for Bosanska Krajina later observed that the leaders of the 3rd Krajina Detachment had made no effort to remove Chetnik elements from its ranks or stop their Serb-chauvinist agitation.[10]
In early February 1942, Drenović took a leading role in a conference intended to bring the 7th Glamoč Battalion, which had declared itself as "Chetnik", back into the Partisan structure. Drenović argued for the Chetnik side, and was expelled from the meeting along with his supporters, and the 7th Glamoč Battalion returned to the Partisan fold. On 6 February, a meeting of the leaders of the 1st, 2nd and 4th Battalions of the 3rd Krajina Detachment met and decided to bring Drenović back into the Partisan movement by organising an attack on the Italian and Ustaše garrison of Mrkonjić Grad. Under pressure from his own rank-and-file, Drenović formally participated in the attack, but he was able to prevent its success through allowing the Italians to move past his battalion and attack the Partisan rear. According to Partisan sources, he forewarned the Italians and Ustaše, and divulged the Partisan plan to them.[21]
Alliance with the NDH
In response to highly effective pro-Chetnik agitation from within, many Partisan units defected to the Chetniks.
The Ustaše–Chetnik accords were driven neither by a confluence of Serbian and Croatian national interests nor by mutual desire for acceptance and respect, but rather because each side needed to obstruct Partisan advances. The Ustaše and Chetniks, two long-time foes, sought help from one another at a time when the Ustaše were facing national political disgrace among the Croats and the Chetniks were losing the support of the Serbs.[28]
The NDH authorities considered that the alliance would also mean that the Chetniks could continue to subvert Partisan units. On 30 April, the NDH authorities recognised the rights of Drenović and his troops to remain armed in order to fight the Partisans.[23] The agreement between the NDH and Drenović's Chetniks was soon made public by the Ustaše press;[29] Serb public opinion remained divided.[30] By May, Drenović had a force of about 350 Chetniks.[31] Around mid-month, he signed an agreement with a Croatian general staff officer in Banja Luka agreeing to cooperate with the NDH in fighting the Partisans.[26]
Drenović soon emerged as one of the most important Chetnik leaders in western Bosnia.
In 1943, Drenović was awarded the
Death and legacy
On 29 May 1944, Drenović was killed in an Allied bombing raid on Banja Luka.
Despite the extensive evidence of his collaboration with the Ustaše, Italians and Germans, Drenović's actions and those of his Chetniks are celebrated in the official history of World War II used within Republika Srpska, the Serb entity within Bosnia and Herzegovina. Schools in Republika Srpska teach that the Chetniks were on the same anti-fascist footing as the Partisans. According to Branko Todorović from the Helsinki Committee for Human Rights in Republika Srpska, this is consistent with the post-communist ideology of the early 1990s which sought to rehabilitate World War II nationalist movements on all sides to justify revenge for past crimes and drive national homogeneity. Todorović opined that "if the future of the region lies in the celebration and glorification of Ustaše and Chetnik crimes and criminals then we are a really deeply ill society on a completely wrong path."[42][a]
Notes
Footnotes
- ^ Latas & Dželebdžić 1979, p. 133.
- ^ a b c 24sata.info 21 July 2009.
- ^ a b c Petrić 2004, p. 383.
- ^ G-2 (Intelligence Branch), Mediterranean Theatre 1944, p. 37.
- ^ a b Hoare 2006, p. 102.
- ^ Trikić & Repajić 1982, p. 21, note 15.
- ^ Hoare 2006, pp. 20–24, 76.
- ^ Tomasevich 1975, p. 134.
- ^ Hoare 2006, p. 76.
- ^ a b c Hoare 2006, p. 250.
- ^ Hoare 2006, pp. 76–78.
- ^ a b Hoare 2006, pp. 248–249.
- ^ Tomasevich 1975, pp. 465–471.
- ^ Prusin 2017, p. 83.
- ^ Hoare 2013, p. 8.
- ^ a b c Tomasevich 1975, p. 175.
- ^ a b Sadkovich 1998, p. 148.
- ^ Prusin 2017, pp. 82–83.
- ^ Redžić 2005, p. 152.
- ^ Hoare 2006, pp. 249–251.
- ^ Hoare 2006, pp. 252–254.
- ^ Hoare 2006, pp. 258–262.
- ^ a b Hoare 2006, pp. 261–262.
- ^ Barić 2011, p. 182.
- ^ Christia 2012, p. 206.
- ^ a b Milazzo 1975, pp. 78–79.
- ^ Christia 2012, pp. 206–207.
- ^ a b Redžić 2005, p. 88.
- ^ a b Dedijer 1990, p. 17.
- ^ Hoare 2013, p. 170.
- ^ a b Milazzo 1975, p. 80.
- ^ a b Milazzo 1975, p. 77.
- ^ Ramet 2006, p. 129.
- ^ Milazzo 1975, p. 164.
- ^ Greentree 2012, p. 17.
- ^ Redžić 2005, p. 236.
- ^ a b Tomasevich 1975, p. 354.
- ^ Dizdar 2002, p. 130.
- ^ Hoare 2013, p. 254.
- ^ BN Televizija 2014.
- ^ Alternativna TV 21 July 2017.
- ^ a b c Veselinović 27 June 2016.
- ^ Golinkin 26 January 2021.
References
Books
- Barić, Nikica (2011). "Relations between the Chetniks and the Authorities of the Independent State of Croatia, 1942–1945". In ISBN 978-0-230-27830-1.
- ISBN 978-1-107-02302-4.
- ISBN 978-0-47210-109-2.
- Dizdar, Zdravko (2002). Četnički zločini u Bosni i Hercegovini, 1941.–1945 [Chetnik Atrocities in Bosnia and Herzegovina, 1941–1945] (in Croatian). Zagreb: Croatian Institute of History. ISBN 978-9-53649-186-5.
- Greentree, David (2012). Knight's Move: The Hunt for Marshal Tito, 1944. Oxford: Osprey Publishing. ISBN 978-1-78096-461-4.
- ISBN 978-0-19-726380-8.
- Hoare, Marko Attila (2013). Bosnian Muslims in the Second World War. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-231-70394-9.
- Latas, Branko & Dželebdžić, Milovan (1979). Četnički pokret Draže Mihailovića 1941-1945 [Chetnik Movement of Draža Mihailović 1941–1945] (in Serbo-Croatian). Belgrade, Yugoslavia: Beogradski izdavačko-grafički zavod [Belgrade Publishing and Graphic Institute]. OCLC 561551923.
- Milazzo, Matteo J. (1975). The Chetnik Movement & the Yugoslav Resistance. Baltimore, Maryland: Johns Hopkins University Press. ISBN 978-0-8018-1589-8.
- Petrić, Nevenka (2004). I zvijezde smo dosezali: Revolucionarni omladinski pokret srednje Bosne: 1941–1945 [We Also Reached the Stars: The Revolutionary Youth Movement of Central Bosnia: 1941–1945] (in Serbo-Croatian). Vol. 2. Belgrade, Serbia and Montenegro: Foto Futura. ISBN 978-86-83691-07-4.
- Prusin, Alexander (2017). Serbia Under the Swastika: A World War II Occupation. Urbana: University of Illinois Press. ISBN 978-0-252-09961-8.
- ISBN 978-0-253-34656-8.
- ISBN 978-0-7146-5625-0.
- Sadkovich, James J. (1998). The U.S. Media and Yugoslavia, 1991–1995. Westport, Connecticut: Praeger. ISBN 978-0-275-95046-0.
- ISBN 978-0-8047-0857-9.
- Trikić, Savo; Repajić, Dušan (1982). Proleterski bataljon Bosanske krajine [Proletarian Battalion of Bosanska Krajina] (in Serbo-Croatian). Belgrade, Yugoslavia: Vojnoizdavački zavod. OCLC 441716267.
Documents
News
- 24sata.info (21 July 2009). "Manjača: Održan pomen četničkom vojvodi Urošu Drenoviću" [Manjača: Commemorative ceremony held for Chetnik vojvoda Uroš Drenović] (in Serbo-Croatian). Archived from the original on 30 November 2018. Retrieved 13 September 2015.
{{cite news}}
: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link) - BN Televizija (21 July 2014). "Ravnogorsko prelo na Manjači" [Ravna Gora at Manjača]. BN Televizija (in Serbo-Croatian). Retrieved 29 September 2014.
- Golinkin, Lev (26 January 2021). "Nazi collaborator monuments in Bosnia and Herzegovina". The Forward. Retrieved 25 September 2021.
- "Ravnogorci na Manjači održali sabor i pomen Urošu Drenoviću" [The Ravna Gora Movement held a Meeting and a Memorial Service for Uroš Drenović at Manjača] (in Serbo-Croatian). Alternativna TV. 21 July 2017. Retrieved 30 December 2020.
- Veselinović, Gojko (27 June 2016). "Banjaluka: Ulice četnika umjesto heroja" [Banja Luka: Streets Named After Chetniks Instead of Heroes]. Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (in Serbo-Croatian). Retrieved 27 August 2021.