|
|
On October 8, 1908, just two days after
Austria annexed Bosnia and Herzegovina, many men, some of them
ranking Serbian ministers, officials and generals, held a meeting
at City Hall in Belgrade. They founded a semi-secret society --
Narodna Odbrana (National Defense) which gave Pan-Slavism a focus
and an organization. The purpose of the group was to recruit and
train partisans for a possible war between Serbia and Austria.
They also undertook anti-Austrian propaganda and organized spies
and saboteurs to operate within the empire's provinces. Satellite
groups were formed in Slovinia, Bosnia, Herzegovina and Istria.
The Bosnian group went under the name Mlada Bosna -- Young Bosnia.
Narodna Odbrana's work had been so effective that in 1909 a furious
Austria pressured the Serbian government to put a stop to their
anti-Austrian insurrection. Russia was not ready to stand fully
behind Serbia should things come to a showdown, so Belgrade was
grudgingly forced to comply. From then on, Narodna Odbrana concentrated
on education and propaganda within Serbia, trying to fashion itself
as a cultural organization.
The Birth of the Black Hand
Many members formed a new, and again
secret, organization to continue the terrorist actions. Ten men
met on May 9, 1911 to form Ujedinjenje ili Smrt (Union or Death),
also known as The Black Hand. The seal of their group is reproduced
above.
By 1914, there were several hundred members, perhaps as many as
2500. Many members were Serbian army officers. The professed goal
of the group was the creation of a Greater Serbia, by use of violence,
if necessary. The Black Hand trained guerillas and saboteurs and
arranged political murders. The Black Hand was organized at the
grassroots level in 3 to 5-member cells. Above them were district
committees. Above them, was the Central committee in Belgrade.
At the top was the ten-member Executive Committee led, more or
less, by Colonial Dragutin Dimitrijevic, (also known as Apis ).
Members rarely knew much more than the members of their own cell
and one superior above them, to ensure that the group's leaders
would remain secret. New members swore "...before God, on
my honor and my life, that I will execute all missions and commands
without question. I swear before God, on my honor and on my life,
that I will take all the secrets of this organization into my
grave with me."
The Black Hand took over the terrorist
actions of Narodna Odbrana , and worked deliberately at obscuring
any distinctions between the two groups, trading on the prestige
and network of the older organization. Black Hand members held
important army and government positions. Crown Prince Alexander
was an enthusiastic and financial supporter. The group held influence
over government appointment and policy. The Serbian government
was fairly well informed of Black Hand activities.
Friendly relations had fairly well cooled by 1914. The Black Hand
was displeased with Prime minister Nikola Pasic. They thought
he did not act aggressively enough towards the Pan-Serb cause.
They engaged in a bitter power struggle over several issues, such
as who would control territories Serbia annexed in the Balkan
Wars. By this point, standing up and saying 'no' to the Black
Hand was a dangerous act. Political murder was one of their well
known tools.
It was also in 1914 that Apis decided
that Archduke Franz Ferdinand, the heir-apparent of Austria, should
be assassinated. Towards that end, three young Bosnian-Serbs were
recruited and trained in bomb throwing and marksmanship. Princip,
Cabrinovic' and Grabez were smuggled across the border back into
Bosnia via a chain of underground-railroad style contacts.
The decision to kill the Archduke was apparently initiated by
Apis, and not sanctioned by the full Executive Committee. Those
involved probably realized that their plot would invite war between
Austria and Serbia. They had every reason to expect that Russia
would side with Serbia. In all likelihood, they did not anticipate
that their little war would mushroom into world war.
Others in the government and some on the Black Hand Executive
Council were not as confident of Russian aid. Russia had let them
down recently. When word of the plot percolated through Black
Hand leadership and the Serbian government, Apis was told not
to proceed. He made a half-hearted attempt to intercept the young
assassins at the border, but they had already crossed. This 'recall'
appears to make Apis look like a loose cannon, and the young assassins
as independent zealots. In fact, the 'recall' took place a full
two weeks before the Archduke's visit. The assassins idled around
in Sarajevo for a month. Nothing more was done to stop them. The
extensive network of contacts that smuggled them into Sarajevo,
fed and housed them, was not utilized to stop them. This calls
into question the Black Hand's and the Serbian government's desire
that the plot truly be cancelled.
The Assassination
Of the seven young men involved, Princip
succeeded in killing the Archduke. (Read the Sarajevo, June 28,
1914 article for a fuller account of the assassination.) The careful
secrecy of the Black Hand delayed its being found out as the instigator
of the crime until many weeks later. By that time, the guilt for
the crime had settled loosely on Serbia in general. Tensions between
Serbia and Austria eventually drew in the other European powers
and escalated into world war.
Towards the end of 1916, Prime Minister Pasic decided to destroy
the leaders of the Black Hand and break up the organization. By
the spring of 1917, many Black Hand leaders, including Apis, had
been arrested.
A sham trial before a military tribunal was held in May 1917 for
Apis and others. Among the charges was that the Black Hand had
attempted to murder Prince Regent Alexander. Though the number
of witnesses against them were numerous, the evidence cited was
nearly all hearsay or outright fabrications. Apis and six others
were sentenced to death. Three obtained commutations to long prison
terms, but Apis and three comrades were executed by firing squad
on June 26, 1917.
In June 1917, the Black Hand was outlawed.
Intriguing and insurrection, by their very nature, however, are
not bothered by legalities. A new organization -- The White Hand
-- was formed from trustworthy men of Narodna Odbrana . It continued
the imperialistic work of the Black Hand, using the same techniques.
The death of Vojislav Petrovic, an ex-attache to the Yugoslav
Legation in London, was said to be the work of Narodna Odbrana
. Petrovic was preparing a book on the history of the Sarajevo
assassinations and the Black Hand.
In what became Yugoslavia after the war, the White Hand grew into
an essential piece of the state's machinery.
