The Betrayal of Yugoslavia

More than one Balkan monarchy was treated with great injustice during World War II. However, the betrayal of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia stands out because of the extent to which the Allied powers were involved in both the start of the expansion of the war into that country and then its abandonment to the forces of revolutionary communism. The story that most people have heard about Yugoslavia in World War II is that Germany invaded the country so that Hitler could rush to the aid of his partner Mussolini whose rash invasion of Greece had ended in disaster. This is what most people have been told. Mussolini ordered an invasion of Greece, for no better reason than to keep pace with Hitler’s conquests, the Italians were beaten and, in danger of collapse, Hitler had to invade Yugoslavia in order to rush to the aid of Mussolini, crushing Greece and so securing his southern flank in preparation for the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union. That is the story but it is almost entirely untrue. There was no urgent need for German involvement in Greece but, rather, British actions in Yugoslavia prompted the Axis invasion of that country.

Prince Paul with Adolf Hitler

Hitler had absolutely no interest in intervening in the Balkans until British agents arranged the overthrow of the Prince-Regent Paul, replacing him with the young King Peter II who would take Yugoslavia into the Allied camp. It was the removal of Prince Paul that prompted Germany (and Italy and Hungary) to invade Yugoslavia. Prior to this, every other power in the Balkans was either aligned with the Axis or at least desired to stay out of the war. That was all Hitler cared about; that they would not join with his enemies or endanger his expansion to the east. Prince Paul of Yugoslavia had taken his country into the Axis camp and when he was overthrown by a group of pro-Allied officers, supported by Britain, and replaced by King Peter II the German dictator took immediate action. Because of this, no Yugoslav royal has suffered such undue criticism as Prince Paul. That is a gross injustice that should be addressed at the outset. Despite how he was later portrayed by the Allies, Prince Paul was not some sort of Nazi sympathizer. His actions in joining the Axis camp have to be seen in context. He did it to specifically avoid conflict for his country and not because of any ideological admiration.

Prince Paul was actually much more pro-democracy than the previous monarch, King Alexander I, had been. When World War II broke out, he declared Yugoslavia to be firmly neutral and he took Yugoslavia into the Axis but he did so on three specific conditions, all aimed to keep Yugoslavia from actually playing any part in the war. When seen in context, these conditions and his actions in joining the Axis all make perfect sense. It must be remembered that there were numerous neighboring countries who had designs on Yugoslav territory (an unavoidable consequence of the way it was cobbled together after World War I). In the south were lands Bulgaria thought should belong to them, the same for Hungary in the northeast. Historically Italian areas in the west were also a potential cause of trouble. Prior to the conflict, the Italian military had most expected the next war Italy fought would be against Yugoslavia and Mussolini had given support to the Catholic Croatians who wanted to declare independence from Yugoslavia.

Prince Paul of Yugoslavia

To block the Hungarians from trying to reclaim lost territory and prevent a restoration of the Hapsburgs, Yugoslavia had formed the “Little Entente” alongside Romania and Czechoslovakia, backed up by the French Republic. However, by the outbreak of World War II, Czechoslovakia was gone and France was soon defeated as well and thus in no position to provide any assistance to these Balkan countries. As such, the only option Prince Paul had was to come to terms with Germany so as to prevent Hungary or Italy from taking any action against Yugoslavia. So, Prince Paul agreed to join the Axis on three conditions which reveal exactly what his priorities were. Those three conditions were that the Axis guarantee to respect the current Yugoslavian borders, that Yugoslavia not be called on to render any military assistance to the other Axis countries and that no Axis military forces could be transported across Yugoslavian soil. Obviously, this was an agreement to “join” the Axis that would effectively guarantee that Yugoslavia stayed out of the Axis war effort entirely while preserving their territory and independence. What is more, Prince Paul was obviously more pro-Allied than he was pro-Axis. He continued to be supportive of the French (as long as they lasted) and when Italy invaded Greece he actually sent aid to the Greeks.

Nothing could be more obvious than that Prince Paul was no Nazi or Fascist sympathizer. He wanted to stay out of the war and preserve his country the way it was. However, not all of the Serbian military agreed and the British were quick to encourage them. They did not want Yugoslavia to sit out the war but to join it on the Allied side. This was really quite a despicable thing for the British government to do since there was no realistic way they could support Yugoslavia in the war. Nazi Germany blocked any assistance from coming across the continent and, after the Italian occupation of Albania, Mussolini controlled the entrance to the Adriatic and so could block any help from the sea. The military may have pulled off the coup in any event but what the British were thinking in encouraging and supporting it is hard to fathom. It was the same sort of thinking that led to the humiliating fall of the Kingdom of Norway as but one example. Nonetheless, it happened on March 27, 1941 when a group of air force officers led by General Dusan Simovic forced Prince Paul to resign and go into exile in Greece. There was jubilation in some quarters and Churchill was certainly pleased but this was the start of a long period of suffering for all of the peoples of Yugoslavia and, effectively, the end of the Serbian monarchy.

King Peter II of Yugoslavia

At the time of the coup, the slogan that war was preferable to the Axis pact was not uncommon. Preferable or not, war is what Yugoslavia would have and an infuriated Hitler immediately ordered his military to take action. Belgrade was bombed and young King Peter II left the city and prepared to leave the country. No one with any grasp at all of military matters thought Yugoslavia could survive. German troops poured in from almost every neighboring country, two Italian armies committed forces to the operation, driving down the coast and, after a week, the Third Hungarian Army moved in to re-take the lands that had been part of Hungary before World War I. Britain tried to assist but it was a hopeless cause and as soon as the invasion began, ethnic uprisings began to break out, particularly in Croatian areas which had never been happy about being included in Yugoslavia in the first place. In short, the Royal Yugoslav military was beset from all sides, front and rear with almost no help and no means of retreat. It was a complete and utter disaster. Hundreds of thousands were taken prisoner by the Germans, almost the entire navy was capture by the Italians and on April 14 the Yugoslav high command realized the game was up. On April 17 the unconditional surrender was signed. Yugoslavia had been conquered in eleven days. The suffering would go on for much longer.

The unfortunate Prince Paul was taken into custody by the British and held in house arrest in British East Africa (Kenya) for the remainder of the war. King Peter II went eventually to London (via Greece, Palestine and Egypt) where he finished his studies and joined the British Royal Air Force as well as serving as titular head of the Yugoslavian government-in-exile. At home, Yugoslavia was divided among the Axis forces. Macedonia went to Bulgaria, formerly Hungarian lands were annexed by that country, coastal areas were occupied by Italy, Serbia was occupied by Germany and the Independent State of Croatia was proclaimed by Ante Pavelic. Some supported the Axis forces and others carried on armed resistance. The two primary resistance groups were the royalist Chetniks who continued to fight for King Peter II and the communist partisans led by Tito. In addition to fighting the occupying forces these two groups carried on a bitter civil war within the World War against each other. This is something which has attracted some criticism (invariably aimed at the Chetniks and never the communists) but it was, from a purely Yugoslavian point of view, the conflict that should have had priority. After all, no matter how successful they were, they were not going to win the war against the Axis powers all by themselves. That was up to the Allies. However, the outcome of the civil war would determine if Yugoslavia would survive, whether the former kingdom would continue or whether a Marxist dictatorship were established.

Chetniks flag

The guerilla war between the occupation forces and the resistance as well as the civil war between the communists and royalists was intensely vicious. It was a brutal, confused, bloody situation with numerous factions and numerous agendas at work. However, ultimately, the Allies decided to sell-out the royalist Chetniks of Yugoslavia in favor of the communists. Prime Minister Churchill and U.S. President Roosevelt agreed that Eastern Europe would be the domain of the Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin. Of course, there were promises that national sovereignty would be maintained and democracy would be assured but it would all be done under the supervision of the Soviet Red Army so there should not have been any doubts about what the future of these countries would be and that included Yugoslavia. Young King Peter II was effectively abandoned by his own allies and was himself, in turn, forced to abandon the hard-fighting royalist Chetniks who had been carrying on the war, fighting in his name, against the occupation forces. The Soviets, of course, had been supporting the communist partisans all along but after this agreement the Anglo-Americans shifted their support to the reds as well, giving them every advantage over their royalist adversaries. (Feel free to read past articles about the Chetniks and their commander)

This also coincided with a new strategic plan for the Allies. Consideration had been given to a more massive Allied invasion of southern Europe but Stalin objected to the plan. He wanted it all left to his forces and preferred for the British and Americans to invade Western Europe, opening a new front there to draw German forces away from his advancing Red Army. The Allies abandoned Yugoslavia, along with the other Balkan countries (save Greece which Britain had an interest in) and Eastern Europe as a whole to the monstrous Soviet regime. They abandoned the Chetniks who they had originally supported and who had fought for years, including launching very successful raids against Axis forces on their behalf. It is little wonder, given the situation, that some Chetniks (though not all) decided to join with the Germans and Italians who would at least help them resist the communist partisans. Their reputation has never recovered from this, and it is unfortunate but it should be remembered that it was the decision of the Allies which made the Axis powers the only option left for the Chetniks.

King Peter II in the RAF

King Peter II himself was forced to sell-out his most ardent supporters and give rank to Tito and his communists, though naturally they declared him deposed as soon as the war was over to create their socialist republic in Yugoslavia. It is no wonder that King Peter II had such a sorrow-filled life. Forced into the war by pro-Allied officers, Yugoslavia was swiftly conquered, occupied and dismembered by the Axis powers only to have the loyal, royalist troops still carrying on the struggle betrayed by the Allies who effectively handed over the country to the communists. As it turned out, they were communists who refused to be subservient to Stalin but their regime was no different from any other Bolshevik tyranny in its horror and ineptitude. King Peter II, understandably extremely bitter about how the Allies had treated his country -particularly the other monarchies of the Allied nations- later moved to the United States and tried to drown his sorrows. He died of liver problems in Denver, Colorado in 1970. The first royal victim of betrayal, Prince Paul, suffered as well. The communists declared him an enemy of the state, confiscated all his property and wanted to put him on trial as a “war criminal” (really absurd considering he played no part in the war and was overthrown because he wanted to stay out of the war). He avoided that fate but spent the rest of his life in exile, unjustly maligned and unfairly portrayed as some sort of Nazi-sympathizer until he died in Paris in 1976.

Looking back, it is easy to be critical of what the Allies did. We are not in the middle of a world war. However, some criticism is justified. Britain and France, as it turns out, entered into a war with Nazi Germany that they could not win on their own. That was their choice. To involve Stalin in the war as a member of the Allied nations, however, was not their choice. That choice was made by one Adolf Hitler when he invaded the Soviet Union in 1941. From that point on, Stalin was going to have some part to play in Eastern Europe whether his other Allies liked it or not, providing the Axis forces were defeated of course (which they were). Even so, what happened to Yugoslavia was a betrayal. Some have tended to exaggerate the role of Britain in the coup that brought down Prince Paul. It was an entirely Yugoslavian affair, however, Britain supported it and perhaps the YRAF officers would not have been so keen on the idea if Britain had not been or had been more realistic about what tangible assistance they could offer when German, Italian and Hungarian troops came surging across their borders. Even so, what happened to Yugoslavia was a betrayal. Finally, the agreement that consigned Eastern Europe to Stalin was not supposed to include the establishment of puppet dictators in every country. Even so, Churchill and FDR should have known better than to think that Stalin would allow other peoples privileges he refused to his own.

A King betrayed

Unlike other countries in the region, the Allies supported Yugoslavian royalists getting into the war, supported them actively during the war only to withdraw that support in the midst of the conflict, transfer it to their enemies and then consigned them to the communist sphere of influence when it was over. None of these things had to happen. If there had been no coup, Yugoslavia might have remained a nominal member of the Axis but effectively neutral and untouched for the duration of the conflict. There likely would have been some problems but it is at least possible. The Allies could have also taken a tougher stance on Soviet involvement in the region. They had a powerful bargaining chip in the form of the vast amount of (mostly American) supplies, weapons and equipment going to the USSR to sustain the Russian war effort. They could have easily told Stalin that if he had such surplus material to send aid to the communist partisans, he must not need so much from Britain and the United States and by that means curtailed the help going to the reds and ensured that only the royalist resistance fighters were supported. Of course, there are always circumstances and problems. War is ugly business and everyone understands that but the fact remains that the Kingdom of Yugoslavia and the hard fighting royalists of that country who were carrying on the fight were betrayed by the Allies, by their allies, and that fact, as well as the fate that befell the tragic King Peter II, is something everyone should recognize as shameful.

Favorite Royal Images: Romanian Princess

HRH Princess Marie of Romania

later Queen consort of Yugoslavia

Story of Monarchy: Serbia

The history of the Serbs is an extremely long one, going all the way back to the “Dark Ages”. For a while, in the Middle Ages, Serbia got to be a pretty big deal by gobbling up Byzantine territory when the East Roman Empire was occupied fighting the Turks or each other -so there was plenty of opportunities for Serb expansion. Eventually though the place was conquered by the Ottoman Turks and we can see the beginning of the history of Serbia as we know it today. In the early 19th Century the Serbs began a series of rebellions against the Turks, fighting first for autonomy within the Ottoman Empire and later for complete independence. Two leaders emerged during these independence wars; Milos Obrenovic and George Petrovic, better known as “Black George” or Karageorgevich. The two families would dominate the early history of modern Serbia all while fighting each other for power and basically doing their best to wipe each other out. For example, the Obrenovic were early leaders in rebellions against the Turks, gaining some autonomy and a place of importance. When Karageorgevich led another rebellion and set up a government of his own, the Obrenovic had him assassinated. This left them in the best position to oversee Serbian independence but it also left the Karageorgevich family hungry for revenge. The fighting between the Serbs and Turks eventually got the attention of the other Great Powers for Europe who “encouraged” Turkey to back off.

King Milan I

1867 was the big year for Serbia with the last Turkish troops pulling out and the local government asserting total independence from the Ottoman Empire. All of this came about under the reign of the Obrenovic family which ruled in Serbia, for the most part, since 1815. Originally it was the Principality of Serbia and, in 1867, the reigning monarch was Prince Mihailo III, a very forward-thinking ruler who had the support of the Austrian and Russian Empires and who hoped to organize a Slavic federation across the Balkans aimed at rolling back Turkish power in the region. However, he was not an independent ruler for long before Mihailo III was assassinated, by members of the Karageorgevich family the Obrenovic have always claimed. He was succeeded by Prince Milan who leaned more toward friendship with Austria rather than Russia and who finally obtained Ottoman recognition of Serbian independence. This resulted from the Treaty of Berlin by which Serbian independence was recognized so long as the Serbs drop their claim to the political hot spot of Bosnia which would remain Ottoman territory in name while in fact being occupied by the Austrian Empire. In 1882 the prince got a promotion when he was named King Milan I of Serbia. However, things were never calm or tranquil in Serbia or in the royal household. King Milan I and his wife did not get along, being very different in their values and opinions, she favoring a closer friendship with Russia and he preferring to stay on good terms with Austria-Hungary.

At one point Milan I abdicated in favor of his son, King Alexander I, but later returned and led the Serbian army quite capably. King Alexander I was something of a reactionary, abolishing the more liberal constitution of his father in favor of one that gave the King greater power. However, he later moved back in a more liberal direction, enacting another constitution and giving Serbia a bicameral legislature for the first time. It didn’t quite work out for him though as his efforts to maintain royal authority over the upper house earned him some powerful enemies and in 1903 the King and Queen were murdered by a group of army officers intent on replacing the House of Obrenovic with the House of Karageorgevich on the Serbian throne. There were also wider, international aspects to the regicide. The main ringleader was in the pay of the Russian government which wanted to see Serbia move in a direction that was friendlier to Russia and more hostile to Austria-Hungary. The secret society known as “The Black Hand” was also involved and, likewise, wanted to end the period of relative friendship that has existed with Austria-Hungary in favor of a nationalist agenda at Austro-Hungarian expense. The change in royal dynasties also factored into this as the Obrenovic had been known for good relations with Austria-Hungary whereas it was no secret that the Karageorgevich intended to move Serbia into the Russian sphere of influence and had an openly antagonistic attitude toward Austria-Hungary.

King Peter I

So the House of Obrenovic was out and the House of Karageorgevich was in with the leader of the dynasty becoming King Peter I of Serbia on June 15, 1903. The conspirators had named him king immediately but it took a few weeks for the Serbian parliament to formally vote him into office as it were. A new constitution was enacted (yes, another one) based on the Belgian model and King Peter I wasted no time in making it clear that Serbia was the friend of the Russian Empire and the French Republic and no longer the friend of the “Dual-Monarchy” of Austria-Hungary. King Peter I was pretty widely popular. Democracy and parliamentary monarchy were firmly entrenched, the Balkan Wars ended with Serbia gaining Kosovo and other territories from a rapidly crumbling Ottoman Empire and there was much joy and merry-making as they say. Pan-Slavic nationalism was also on the rise, spurred on no doubt by the victories over the Turks, as was a desire for expansion and the creation of a “Greater Serbia”. The problem with the “Greater Serbia” idea was that it demanded a great deal of territory then being held by other countries that they would probably insist on fighting for. But there were those who said, ‘let it come’ and proclaimed it their duty to liberate their Serb brethren living under Hapsburg rule in Austria-Hungary, particularly Bosnia which the Austro-Hungarians annexed outright in 1908 after diplomatically outmaneuvering Russia.

Everyone knows what happened next. In 1914 the heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne and his wife were assassinated in Bosnia, Austria-Hungary sent an ultimatum to Serbia which, backed up by Russia, the Serbs rejected and the First World War was off and running. King Peter I reigned over a country of determined people and an army of tough veterans of the Balkan Wars. When Austro-Hungarian forces first invaded Serbia, the Serbs sent them packing in quick order with a bloody nose. Eventually, however, Austria-Hungary, backed up by Germany and later Bulgaria and the Ottoman Empire, conquered Serbia, pushing the Serb army out until it was rescued on the coast by the Italian navy. The Serbs reestablished themselves on a new front and fought on to the final Allied victory in 1918. Serbia did extremely well in the settlement after the war and the long-held dream of the “Greater Serbia” seemed to be an accomplished fact. King Peter I, by then acted for by his son and regent, was proclaimed King of the Serbs, Croats and Slovenes to account for all of the territory formerly part of Austria-Hungary that was given to Serbia. This later became the less wordy Kingdom of Yugoslavia, reigned over by King Alexander after the death of Peter I in 1921.

Prince Regent Paul and that other guy

So, things are going pretty great for Serbia. Right? Well, not exactly. Not everyone was happy about being part of Yugoslavia, especially the Croats and Slovenes and King Alexander had a hard time keeping everyone on side. Politics was an often chaotic and even bloody business and finally King Alexander took total control in his own hands and tried to make Yugoslavia a more firmly united country, a country of “Yugoslavs” rather than Serbs, Croats and Slovenes. There was also other minority groups (Italian, Hungarian etc) who wanted no part of the new country at all. To a degree, the Serbian Royal Family was suffering many of the same problems the House of Hapsburg had dealt with. In 1934 King Alexander was assassinated and succeeded by his son, King Peter II, acted for by the Prince-Regent Paul. The country was in a precarious situation, most friends being far away and with many neighboring countries nursing grudges for the territory they had lost to Serbia in the First World War. Prince Paul tried to mitigate these problems by reversing the previous policy of centralization and allowing for more regional autonomy. He also tried to end foreign support for dissident elements by embracing their backers in Germany and Italy.

It was with this in mind that, in 1941, Prince Paul signed up to the Tripartite Pact, making Yugoslavia a (very lukewarm) member of the Axis powers. This has to be seen in context. France (a traditional ally) had already been defeated and Britain looked to be going down too and it seemed that Yugoslavia would have little chance for survival unless they came to terms with Germany and Italy. However, that was not to be as Prince Paul was quickly ousted from power in a British-backed military coup that quickly took Yugoslavia out of the Axis and into the Allied camp with King Peter II being declared of age and assuming his full powers. It was this which prompted the German intervention in the Balkans with Yugoslavia quickly being conquered and divided into German and Italian occupation zones. King Peter II had to flee to the United Kingdom where he finished his education and joined the Royal Air Force while in Yugoslavia communist and royalist factions fought the occupying forces and each other. A key moment came in 1943 when the Allies, having agreed that Eastern Europe would fall under the influence of the Soviet Union after the war, dropped their support for the royalists and backed only the communist partisans. The young King Peter II was pressed to do the same and to name the communist leader “Tito” the commander of the army and prime minister.

King Peter II

This amounted to the signing of the death warrant for the Kingdom of Yugoslavia as there was no way that the communists were going to allow the old regime of constitutional monarchy to be restored. As expected, at the end of the war in 1945 the communists, who had taken control of the country with Soviet support, declared King Peter II deposed. Tito became dictator of what was in 1946 renamed the Federal People’s Republic of Yugoslavia (later the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia). At first there was also talk of merging Yugoslavia and Bulgaria but the Soviet dictator Stalin put a stop to that idea. Some have tried to romanticize post-war Yugoslavia as the “good” communist dictatorship that refused to be dominated by Soviet Russia. Rest assured, it was nothing of the sort and was just as repressive, brutal and criminally inept as every other communist dictatorship the world has ever seen. Ethnic tensions were suppressed but never eradicated, the economy varied only from poor to disastrous and eventually the communist regime fell and Yugoslavia broke apart completely with vicious fighting and charges of ethnic cleansing leaving scars that are still sensitive today. Slovenia, Croatia and later Bosnia broke away leaving only Serbia and Montenegro until 2006 when Montenegro became independent, leaving only the Republic of Serbia.

However, the bad news did not end there for Serbia with the Kosovo region declaring independence in 2008. Serbia has, of course, refused to recognize this but many in the European Union have and the dispute has still not been settled. King Peter II died in exile in 1970 at which point the leadership of the Serbian Royal Family passed to his son Crown Prince Alexander (who should be King Alexander II), a very successful royal who has been forced to live most of his life in exile. It was a happy occasion then when Crown Prince Alexander was first able to return to Serbia in 1991. He moved there permanently after the downfall of the last communist dictator in 2000. The citizenship of the Karageorgevich family was restored as was the use of their property (actual ownership remains ‘up in the air’) and Crown Prince Alexander quickly became a respected figure in Serbian national life. In a way that should be an example to royal exiles everywhere, Crown Prince Alexander has supported worthy social causes while all the while making the case for the restoration of the monarchy and arguing for the superiority of constitutional monarchy as a system of government. The Serbian Orthodox Church has backed a restoration of the monarchy and support for the Royal Family has been growing steadily. It is unfortunate that the political power holders in Belgrade have, so far, refused to take action to restore the Serbian monarchy but, especially compared to many other countries, there remains considerable room for hope and reason for optimism when it comes to the cause of monarchy in Serbia.

Crown Prince Alexander

In conclusion, the fall of the monarchy in Serbia was really an act of treachery and it would be hard to see how any royal figure could have done anything differently to have avoided it. The Serbs fought hard for years to break away from the Ottoman Empire, bedeviled by infighting every step of the way. The First World War was a traumatic event but it ended greatly to the benefit of Serbia. However, that victory brought about a new political entity, Yugoslavia, that suffered many side-effects of its own success. The patriotic nationalism that had driven Serbia in the past became rather unhelpful all of a sudden and Yugoslavia inherited many of the same problems with ethnic tensions that Austria-Hungary had suffered. Given the situation today, it is hard to see how the Kingdom of Yugoslavia could have long survived, however, the crime that brought it down must be emphasized. The Kingdom of Yugoslavia, and thus the Serbian monarchy, was lost almost entirely due to the duplicity of the Allied powers. King Peter II was betrayed as were all of the heroic royalist Chetniks who were carrying on a desperate struggle in his absence against the most inveterate enemies of the kingdom. The monarchy was not brought down by a revolution or an uprising of the public or a democratic referendum but simply by the poor faith of the Allies. It is a dark page in Serbian history and a shameful one for the Allied nations.

A World Without the Hapsburgs, Part II

Continued from Part I

Much the same could be said for Croatia, Slovenia and Bosnia which were all more or less ceded to Serbia after World War I to create what eventually became the Kingdom of Yugoslavia but which was effectively the “Greater Serbia” that Serb nationalists had been longing for. In some ways things were better, but in others ways Yugoslavia was even more problematic than Czechoslovakia. One benefit was that the new created state was a monarchy, and even during the darkest days of World War II the monarchy was still able to unite many people, but it was the Serbian monarchy and an Orthodox monarchy and so was not as liable to be accepted by the great number of people who were not Serbian or Orthodox. True, the Hapsburg empire contained people of many different religious beliefs with Catholics, Protestants, Orthodox, Jews and Muslims but, outside of Bosnia perhaps, the largest majority of people in Bohemia, Moravia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Croatia, Austria and Hungary were Catholic just like their Imperial-Royal Family. And again, before, during and after World War I there was a renewed emphasis on nationalism and even without the religious differences there were bound to be problems between Serbs, Bosnians, Croats and Slovenes as well as other minority groups in Yugoslavia.

King Alexander I of Yugoslavia did his best to hold things together, outlawing political parties, regional distinctions (flags and such symbols), renaming things and centralizing power. How that may have worked in the long-run we will never know but in the short term it only embittered the nationalities further, though the King did have the good sense to ban the communist party which is always a smart move. The King was finally assassinated by a Bulgarian terrorist from a group that opposed Macedonia being part of Yugoslavia. He was succeeded by the young King Peter II, acted for by Prince-Regent Paul who was eventually forced into cooperating with the Rome-Berlin Axis. Ironically, the leaders of Yugoslavia, just like the last Emperor of Austria-Hungary, finally determined that the only solution would be to federalize their country but they were prevented by the outbreak of World War II. Prince Paul was overthrown in a coup, King Peter II broke with the Axis and embraced the Allies which prompted the German and Italian invasion of Yugoslavia. The country was divided up again and there was horrific violence and cruelty as a civil war was basically fought throughout Yugoslavia in conjunction with World War II. The bitterness and desire for revenge would last for many decades to come.

In the end, as with most of the other successor-states of Austria-Hungary, it was the communists who emerged as the victors and Yugoslavia was forcibly put back together under the dictatorship of “Tito” and was even almost merged with Bulgaria in what would have been an even bigger witch’s supper but Stalin nixed that idea. For some reason which eludes me, some people romanticize Tito’s dictatorship but, while certainly not as bad as Albania or Cambodia, it was a communist tyranny with all of the injustice, cruelty and suffering that goes with that. Today, amazingly, many people view Tito as some sort of romantic, revolutionary figure or the “good” communist dictator, for seemingly no other reason than that he wanted to be a dictator and not simply the stooge of Stalin in Moscow. This is a dangerous mistake. Just because Communist Yugoslavia was not as bad as Pol Pot’s Cambodia does not mean it was a picnic and the member states have still not recovered from the impact of communist rule even today. Additionally, as we all know, when Tito died in 1980 the country began to fragment in the absence of the dictator and within ten years bitter and brutal civil war engulfed the region as the former Yugoslavia broke up.

The break-up of Austria-Hungary was certainly traumatic but it was nothing compared to the horror of the conflict that accompanied the break-up of Yugoslavia with massacres, reprisals and accusations of ethnic cleansing from both sides. This revealed that the unity of the old Yugoslavia had always been a complete fabrication and as soon as the iron grip of tyranny slipped for an instant the long-smoldering rage between the member ethnicities erupted into a conflagration which finally took outside intervention to restore some semblance of peace and order. The immediate question, of course, is whether the Hapsburg monarchy could have made any difference in preventing this tragedy. No one can ever say definitively what ‘might have been’ but the most probably answer is clearly “yes”. Much of the conflict (certainly not all) was between Croats and Serbs and with Croatia inside Austria-Hungary and Serbia outside of it, these two could have brought their full force to bear against each other. Further, we have the historical record to show that in all the years of Hapsburg rule such a bloodletting never took place. It may not satisfy idealists, but one practical reason for this was that minorities were sufficiently divided between the Austrian and Hungarian halves of the Dual-Monarchy that no one group could come together in sufficient strength to cause much trouble.

It is also worth noting that most of the bitterness seen in the civil wars can be traced back to some extent with the creation of Yugoslavia itself but even more so events in World War II rather than to Austria-Hungary. After World War I there was some, for lack of a better word, “bullying” by the victors against their defeated foes. This was not uncommon; the Poles were sometimes unkind toward the Germans in their country, though in light of subsequent events they attract little sympathy. Then, during World War II, the tables were turned and horrible reprisals were meted out, often with the backing of the Axis powers, and then after the Axis defeat there were reprisals of the reprisals and hatred grew and grew. It is beyond the realm of possibility that this could have happened under Emperor Charles I or a potential “Emperor Otto”. A Hapsburg Emperor, and this is certainly in keeping with the character of Archduke Otto, would have discouraged nationalism and ethnic hatred and with his combined forces could have restrained such radicals were that to become necessary.

Concluded in Part III

Favorite Royal Images: A Romanian Princess

HRH Princess Marie of Romania, future Queen consort of Yugoslavia

Yugoslav Prince Honors Italian Queen

Recently, on the feast day of St Helena (Roman Empress and mother of Constantine the Great) HRH Prince Sergius of Yugoslavia (son of Princess Maria-Pia of Bourbon-Parma and Prince Alexander of Yugoslavia) was in Valdieri, Italy to remember Elena of Montenegro, Queen of Italy, consort of King Vittorio Emanuele III and the Prince’s great-grandmother. He was also there to express his support and appreciation for the Queen Elena Foundation which endeavors to carry on the charitable work that the late Queen was famous for. Queen Elena gained a great deal of popularity in her time for the many hospitals she founded, her relief work after the tragic earthquake in Messina numerous other activities to benefit the most vulnerable in society. HH Pope Pius XI recognized her good work by presenting her with the Golden Rose, the last to be given to a Queen and in Italy, where almost every royal had a nickname, she was known as the “Queen of Charity”.

The Queen Elena Foundation was established in 1985 to support humanitarian and spiritual causes and has helped many throughout Italy and in troubled spots around the world from Kosovo and central Africa to Iraq and Afghanistan. Several of the international projects were undertaken in cooperation with the Sovereign Military Order of Malta. The Foundation also helps fund the restoration of churches, monuments and scholarships. Prince Serge was very proud to talk about his Italian great-grandmother and her many good deeds, which have not been forgotten and indeed are even being continued. It does make me rather exasperated with those who dismiss all the good work royals do around the world, considering how many are helped even by those who have gone on to their reward. It was also noted that such love for the late Queen of Italy remains, because of all of those she helped in her life, that the preliminary steps have to taken toward opening a possible cause for her beatification. Another cause I would whole-heartedly support.

A special thanks to Monarchici in Rete for bringing this to my attention.

Monarchist Profile: Draža Mihailović

Dragoljub Mihailovic, better known as “Draza” Mihailovic, was one of the great monarchists of the Second World War yet also one of the most maligned and ill-treated by history. As leader of the Chetniks in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia he courageously led a hard and bitter fight for his King and country against overwhelming odds and ultimately betrayal by those who should have been his allies. This great patriot, loyal defender of his King and as proud a Serbian warrior as any could be was fated to end his life labeled as a “collaborator” and shot by his own countrymen on the preposterous charge of “treason”. For loyal Serbians he is a legendary hero but “Draza” Mihailovic is not much known outside of Eastern Europe and that certainly needs to change, both because of the inspirational nature of his life as well as the betrayal that brought him down on the part of the western democracies. It may not be pleasant to hear but the story should be told.

Dragoljub Mihailovic was born on April 27, 1893 in Serbia but as his parents died when he was still young he was raised by his uncle, Major Vladimir Mihailovic, in Belgrade after 1901. He later attended military academy and as a young cadet fought in the First Balkan War against the Turks and later in the Second Balkan War against Bulgaria. With this service under his belt he graduated fourth in his class and joined the ranks of the Serbian officer corps. In World War I he showed great courage in numerous battles against the Austrians, demonstrating great tenacity even in the midst of disastrous defeats. For his service he earned the Gold Medal for Bravery. Throughout the war his skill was continuously displayed, earning him the Order of the White Eagle, the British Military Cross and numerous other awards. At the end of the war Serbia was triumphant, becoming in time the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, and Mihailovic was posted to the Royal Guards. However, his involvement in a fight in 1920 saw him posted to the Albanian frontier. However, he also married that same year and started a family and was later promoted to captain. He showed so much promise that he was among a select group of Serbian officers sent to France for special training in Paris.

In 1930 came promotion to lieutenant colonel. After a posting to Bulgaria he was promoted to colonel in 1935. He served again in the Royal Guard and later as an instructor at the military academy. In 1941 he fought against impossible odds when Yugoslavia was invaded by the Axis forces of Germany, Italy, Hungary and Bulgaria. As Yugoslavia was overrun and divided by the Axis forces Mihailovic organized his troops into an effective royalist irregular army to continue the fight in the name of their King. These were the Chetniks, though that name is often applied to a wide array of irregular forces, not all of whom were under the command of Mihailovic though he was certainly the most famous and preeminent Chetnik leader of all. The situation was made even more difficult and complicated by the emergence of Soviet-backed communist partisans who were just as intent as anyone on destroying the Kingdom of Yugoslavia as it had been. Wishing to dominate post-war Serbia and appear as the only opposition force the communists took special aim at Mihailovic and his “Yugoslav Army of the Fatherland”. As a result Draza and his Chetniks were forced to spend most of their time fighting the partisans, fighting for the very soul of Serbia while a larger war raged around them.

Mihailovic and his Chetniks were, of course, on the side of the Allies against the Axis invaders. He fully cooperated with the Allies in a planned invasion of Yugoslavia and the Yugoslav government-in-exile promoted him to General of the Army. However, the Soviet dictator Stalin vetoed this plan, pushing instead for an invasion of Western Europe so that his communists would have a free hand in dominating the east. Churchill and Roosevelt agreed and totally sold out the royalist Chetniks and all of Eastern Europe so Soviet domination. It was then, and only then, that some elements of the Chetniks began cooperating with the Germans as the only ally left to them in their war against the communist partisans. It is still fiercely debated whether or not Draza himself ever cooperated with the Germans at all but no doubt some did. However, the Germans also continued to target both the Chetniks and the partisans when either stood in their way and the Chetniks continued to rescue Allied pilots shot down over their area of operations.

It is worth keeping in mind as well, though it is not “politically correct” to do so, that the communist partisans were a direct threat, not only to the existence of “Greater Serbia” but the very soul of Serbia and Yugoslavia. The Germans, on the other hand, had originally had no interest in the region at all and became involved only in order to aid the Italians who were fighting the Greeks. Yugoslavia had, very briefly, been a member of the Axis under Prince-Regent Paul. The Italians were slightly different as they had long regarded Yugoslavia as an enemy and had sponsored the creation of an independent kingdom for the Croatians under an Italian monarch. However, even then, Serbia itself would still have something left. The communists, on the other hand, were the avowed enemies of the very existence of Serbia in every way that mattered in their anti-royalist and anti-Christian platform. However, choosing between the Axis and the communists would never have been necessary had not the western allies sold out Eastern Europe to Stalin and Yugoslavia to the communist partisans under “Tito” who Stalin (at that time) supported.

This confused situation prevailed throughout the final years of the Second World War with bloody and bitter fighting by all involved as the Soviet Red Army marched ever closer. Finally, in the most bitter betrayal of all, Churchill prevailed upon the young King Peter II of Yugoslavia to announce from London that the Chetniks were to put themselves under the command of the communist partisans of “Tito” according to the agreement made between the Western allies and Stalin. Draza Mihailovic was relieved of command and the top position given to “Tito”. However, the old warrior refused to give up, knowing far more about the reality of the situation on the ground than anyone in far away London and refusing to abandon his country to the godless Bolsheviks. He fought on as Soviet forces invaded Yugoslavia, refusing an American offer to smuggle him out of the country before he was captured by the communists. The old general said, “I prefer to lose my life in his country, than to live as an outcast in a strange land. I’ll stay with my soldiers and people to the end, in order to fulfill the duty to the King that he left me. For King and Fatherland - Freedom or Death!”

The Chetniks were soon all but wiped out the Red Army, many being massacred. Draza and some remnants tried to fight their way north but were finally captured. “Tito” telephoned Stalin personally to tell him the good news. The communists subjected Mihailovic to a show trial for “treason” from June 10 to July 15, 1946. Only two days after the inevitable guilty verdict he was taken out and shot by a communist firing squad on July 17, 1946 and buried in an unknown grave. Against impossible odds, in the most difficult situation imaginable, Draza Mihailovic had fought for his king and country regardless of the circumstances. Betrayed by his allies and handed over to the most bitter enemies of his country he faced his death with great nobility, willing to give his life for the Crown and cause he had so long served and fought for.

Monarchist Military: The Chetniks

One of the monarchist organizations I have the greatest respect for were the Chetniks of Serbia. Unfortunately, to many today that is, itself, a controversial statement. The Chetniks, after all, were Axis collaborators who cooperated with the Nazi and fascist occupiers of the Balkans we are constantly told. Let me say up front that it is a fact which I will in no way dispute that Chetniks cooperated with the Axis forces. However, I detest the fact that this is all many people seem to remember about them and, as with virtually any issue involving the Balkans, the situation was not so simple as many make it out to be. To a large extent the Chetniks who fought with the Axis were forced to do so by circumstances imposed by others. It was not a choice they made freely or out of any conviction to what the Axis was fighting for. The same could be said about many countries and peoples who found themselves on the same “side” as the Axis powers from Finland to Inner Mongolia.

The organization most think of when they refer to the Chetniks was the “Yugoslav Army in the Fatherland”. The image many have of them is grossly inaccurate with many seeing them as villainous, bearded bandits fighting for whatever side served their current interest. This is absolutely false. The Chetniks were a disciplined, highly dedicated fighting force determined to restore the former Yugoslavia and their beloved ideal of a “Greater Serbia”. They were also staunchly royalist and the beards many wore was a traditional sign of mourning in the Orthodox Church and they were mourning for the loss of their king. “For King and Fatherland” was their battle cry and that was the only thing they were fighting for, plain and simple, and having nothing whatever to do with the war aims of the Axis. This is proved by the fact that all the way up to 1943 the Chetniks fought the Germans and Italians who were occupying the carved up remnants of the former Yugoslavia. It was the desire of the Chetniks to restore the Kingdom of Yugoslavia and to resist any power which occupied any part of Yugoslav territory.

However, Serbians also had an internal conflict to deal with. Quite apart from the various ethnic groups that had been lumped together by the Allies after World War I into Yugoslavia who were only too willing to cooperate with anyone for the chance of their own independence, amongst the Serbs themselves there was a division of the fighting forces between the royalist Chetniks, loyal to their King and country, and the communist Partisans of Josef Broz (aka Tito) who reprehensibly took advantage of the downfall of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia to the Axis forces to assert their own control of the country to turn it into a communist dictatorship. Because of this they were obviously strongly supported by the Soviet Union from the very beginning and the Partisans were fanatical in their opposition to the Chetniks as well as to the Axis who were also the sworn enemies of the success of communism. Even while the Chetniks were still fighting the Axis forces they came to regard the communists as possibly a greater threat to what they stood for simply because no foreign occupation was bound to last for very long whereas the communists were a home-grown threat. It should also be noted that whereas the vast majority of Chetniks were Serbs and Orthodox they were not completely uniform and other nationalities including Catholic Croats and Muslim Bosnians who favored the restoration of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia also fought as Chetniks.

The key factor in keeping the Chetniks fighting the Axis and the communists simultaneously was the support they received from the western Allied powers. In the United States and the British Empire the Chetniks were originally applauded for their heroism and tenacity as the most active and well organized guerillas in occupied Europe fighting for freedom. The Chetniks received money and supplies from the Allies during these years while the Nazis exacted brutal retaliation for their attacks and offered huge sums of money as rewards for Chetnik leaders. The Chetniks carried out a number of spectacularly successful raids on both the Axis forces and the communists but of course they also shed no tears when the Germans attacked the communist Partisans. Some cooperated in these offensives, others did not but it was finally the Allied powers which forced most Chetniks into the Axis camp. Allied leaders agreed that Eastern Europe would be under the control of the Soviet Union after the war and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill made the decision to stop supporting the royalist Chetniks and shift all Allied assistance to the communist Partisans. That was really the key factor.

The Soviets had always supported their fellow communists, when the western democracies dropped the Chetniks and supported the reds as well the royalist Serbs were left with no other choice but to turn to the Axis for help in carrying on their fight to salvage something of their long-cherished dream of a Greater Serbian kingdom. It was then that the Chetniks joined the Axis in fighting the communists (and only the communists) and this was only after the western Allies had betrayed them and left them to their fate. With no other option, no other friends, their only possible choice for survival was to make common cause with the Axis. This is important to remember because it was a matter of necessity, forced upon them and not any sort of political sympathy that drove the Chetniks into the Nazi camp. Churchill also pushed for the monstrously absurd Treaty of Vis between the Serb royal government-in-exile and the communist partisans which effectively killed any hope that a Serbian or Yugoslav kingdom would be restored after the war in the event of an Allied victory and placed all power in communist hands.

In the summer of 1944 the most bitter blow of all came when the dedicated Chetnik leader, General “Draza” Mihailovic was dismissed by King Peter II as chief-of-staff of the Yugoslav army and replaced by the communist Marshal “Tito”. The Chetniks had officially been abandoned by everyone. It is to their credit, and very telling of their character and true motives, that even after this time, up until the very end of the war, the Chetniks continued to rescue Allied (mostly American) pilots who were shot down over Serbian territory. Of course, after being betrayed by the Allies the Chetniks were doomed. Aid to the Partisans only increased while the sole source of aid to the Chetniks, the Germans, dwindled away as the Axis went down in defeat and by 1945 the Chetniks were wiped out by the communist Partisans and their Soviet allies. Scattered groups continued to resist communist domination but they were eliminated one by one and their leaders executed, aided by the fact that their own government-in-exile had turned against them so that the communists could hit them with a double charge of “treason” against both their government and the royal government they had been fighting for.

This is why I am, and will remain, and ardent defender of the Chetniks. There is no denying that they made alliances with unsavory characters, but such moves were forced on them by circumstances beyond their control. There were many sad events that occurred, unfortunate and even scandalous actions. Accusations abound of massacres and ethnic cleansing and, in all honesty, some have merit. It was a very confused situation and a very brutal war with little mercy shown or expected by any of the forces on either side. However, the bottom line is that the Chetniks were fighting for the very soul of their nation against the worst enemy imaginable and in such circumstances no one should expect soft behavior. They were in the right, fighting for righteous principles and the real scandal is how they were stabbed in the back by their original allies. Which is also all the more reason why their sacrifices should be honored, their memory preserved and their legacy defended.

За краља и отаџбину!