From the very beginning the military was given a privileged position in the new state both in military and in political terms. However, the institution faced in the first place immense legitimacy problems. Paradoxically the military’s (Serbian) core consisted of the officer corps with a distinguished war record. Yet the predominantly Serb army and its transformation into a Yugoslav institution met significant obstructions both with Serbs and non-Serbs. Serbs were proud of their army which had completed the historical mission and expected it to guard these achievements in peacetime. The fragile Yugoslav construction had to be protected from both external and internal enemies. thirty five The latter were not difficult to identify since from the very beginning Yugoslavia was faced with harsh opposition and even violent upheavals. thirty-six The Serbian army had acquired a rich experience in domestic intervention in the pre-war period, but now the situation seemed very simple since the ‘enemies’ could have been identified through national and alleged political criteria.
The main of one’s Standard Teams, the fresh famous Vojvoda Misic myself checked the issue when you look at the Croatia and you may provided a depressing declaration during the Belgrade. In the view the state which have Croats is hopeless and then he recommended a solution – to leave Croats so you’re able to secede and also to mark the ‘just’ boundaries between them says together cultural and you may ‘historical’ conditions. Without a doubt he had at heart your panels away from an elevated Serbia in the place of Great Yugoslavia and therefore could serwisy randkowe dla motocyklistГіw za darmo have been attending supply the Serbs armed forces quality. Even when Queen Aleksandar refused the suggestion the new behaviour of the armed forces from the ‘new territories’ generated they an adverse name. This new tortures and you may severe reprisals of the civil inhabitants worse the new entire enterprise of the fresh condition-building and you will wrecked this new organization validity of the ‘new’ army definitively:
To begin with, new officers from Slovene, Croat and you may Montenegrin resource needed to get entryway to the armed forces, although it was not required in the Serb officials
This was a blatant misappropriation of authority, quite contrary to the realities that led to the unification, and endangered great discomfiture, especially since the army applied brutal, coercive, and, as one historian dubbed them, Milos-style punishments, frequently even without the formality of a military court-ous of these was the practice of meeting out corporal punishment by blows with clubs or truncheons. 37
One of the most critical problems of the new state was institution building. While the other political institutions had to be created from scratch, the military was only to be transferred from the Serbian state. The units of the former Austria-Hungarian army were disbanded. The non-Serbs saw the military as a continuation of the Serbian army with the command language, insignia and all other details directly transferred from the Serbian Kingdom. The regime declared that it supported an open-door policy regarding the officers from the former Habsburg army. In reality, however, there were many problems to surmount, the question of loyalty having been in the background in the majority of cases. Furthermore, the position of the non-Serb officers was humiliating. They faced huge obstacles in terms of promotion, subordination, the question of rank etc. The figures show that they were also underrepresented, which does not necessarily imply that it was a result of a planned action. For instance, in 1938 only 10 per cent of the Yugoslav officers and only 31 per cent of 191 generals were Croats. 38
New Croat and Slovene officials felt premium from inside the instructional and you can elite conditions, when you are uneducated Serbian officials got glorious combat records
There’s a giant gap between your officers elevated in the other military cultural environment, with yet another armed forces ethos, cultural source and, first off, combat feel. The fresh new Serbian army had opted courtesy a genuine Golgotha when you look at the war in which all of the second men don’t endure. The initial listings inside armed forces steps had become filled of the combat heroes who have been to not stop costly achieved ranks. Serbian officials seen the inclusion of your own officers in the (former) enemy army either because a keen insult on the heroic opposition otherwise as an indication of generosity and forgiveness towards enemy’s battle sins. The fresh peasant-particularly soldiers and you may officials had an enthusiastic inferiority complex regarding your ‘noble’ and you may well-educated Austria-Hungarian officers. Many of them was in fact improperly harm, watching their conflict units’ flags getting replaced of the Yugoslav about three-coloured flag. Petar Jovic, good combatant on Salonica Front and chairman of the Association of the 1912-1918 Volunteers told you: