- Summary
- Paramilitarism in the Balkans analyses the origins and manifestations of paramilitary violence in three neighbouring Balkan countries - Yugoslavia, Bulgaria, and Albania - after the First World War. It shows the role of paramilitarism in internal and external policies in all three states, focusing on the main actors and perpetrators of paramilitary violence, their social backgrounds, motivations, and future career trajectories. Dmitar Tasić places the region into the broader European context of booming paramilitarism that came as the result of the first global conflict, dissolution of old empires, the creation of nation-states, and simultaneous revolutions. While paramilitarism in most post-Great War European states was the product of violence of the First World War and brutalization which societies of both victorious and defeated countries went through, paramilitarism in the Balkans was closely connected with the already existing traditions originating from the period of armed struggle against Ottoman rule, and state and nation building projects of the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries. Paramilitary traditions were so strong that in all subsequent crises and military conflicts in the Balkans the legacy of paramilitarism remained alive and present.
- Series
- The greater war, 1912-1923
Greater war.
- Format
- Online resource
- Author/Creator
- Tasić, Dmitar, author.
- Published
- Oxford : Oxford University Press, [2020]
©2020
- Locale
- Balkan Peninsula
- Edition
- First edition
- Contents
-
Introduction: Balkan Paramilitaries
Undemobilized Combatants
I. Origins
Participation of Balkan Paramilitaries in the Balkan Wars and the Great War
The Balkans after the Great War
II. Demobilization vs. Mobilization
New Colours in the Balkan Palette of Paramilitarism
Whites
Reds
III. Balkan Borderlands
Initial Usage of Paramilitaries in the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, and Controversies that Occurred
Bulgaria and Paramilitarism: Weak State vs. Strong Movements
Albania: Paramilitarism or Pre-militarism?
Chetniks in the Post-Black Hand Era
Toplica Uprising 1917: Cornerstone of Post-Great War Chetnik Identity
IV. New Context + Traditional Methods = Unexpected Outcomes
Initial Response to Paramilitary Activities in the Yugoslav South
Introduction of Extraordinary Measures
Organization against Bulgarian Bandits
V. The Age of Coups d'état
Bulgarian 1923
June Coup d'état
September Uprising or evolution?
Albanian Teeter
Zogu's Ascent to Power
Albania Under Fan Noli
VI. Individuals and Organizations
Renegades
Life Trajectories of some of the Balkans Paramilitaries
International Networks
VII. Legacies
Between World Wars
Second World War and Paramilitaries in the Balkans: Between Resistance, Collaboration, Revolutions, Counterrevolutions and Civil Wars
Paramilitaries and Paramilitarism in the Balkans after the Second World War
Inventing Traditions: Paramilitarism and the 'Wars of the Yugoslav Succession'
Conclusion: Balkan Paramilitaries
Works Cited
Index.
- Notes
-
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Introduction: Balkan Paramilitaries -- Undemobilized Combatants -- I. Origins -- Participation of Balkan Paramilitaries in the Balkan Wars and the Great War -- The Balkans after the Great War -- II. Demobilization vs. Mobilization -- New Colours in the Balkan Palette of Paramilitarism -- Whites -- Reds -- III. Balkan Borderlands -- Initial Usage of Paramilitaries in the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, and Controversies that Occurred -- Bulgaria and Paramilitarism: Weak State vs. Strong Movements -- Albania: Paramilitarism or Pre-militarism? -- Chetniks in the Post-Black Hand Era -- Toplica Uprising 1917: Cornerstone of Post-Great War Chetnik Identity -- IV. New Context + Traditional Methods = Unexpected Outcomes -- Initial Response to Paramilitary Activities in the Yugoslav South -- Introduction of Extraordinary Measures -- Organization against Bulgarian Bandits -- V. The Age of Coups d'état -- Bulgarian 1923 -- June Coup d'état -- September Uprising or evolution? -- Albanian Teeter -- Zogu's Ascent to Power -- Albania Under Fan Noli -- VI. Individuals and Organizations -- Renegades -- Life Trajectories of some of the Balkans Paramilitaries -- International Networks -- VII. Legacies -- Between World Wars -- Second World War and Paramilitaries in the Balkans: Between Resistance, Collaboration, Revolutions, Counterrevolutions and Civil Wars -- Paramilitaries and Paramilitarism in the Balkans after the Second World War -- Inventing Traditions: Paramilitarism and the 'Wars of the Yugoslav Succession' -- Conclusion: Balkan Paramilitaries -- Works Cited -- Index.
Online resource; title from PDF title page (EBSCO, viewed July 8, 2020).