Toplica Uprising

Chetniks' chieftains surrendering to the Bulgarian voivode Tane Nikolov after the Toplica insurrection.

Toplica insurrection was a 1917 rebellion of Serb Chetniks in the Toplica District against the Bulgarian occupation force that had been occupying the Kingdom of Serbia's eastern part since October 1915. The rebellion lasted from February 21 to March 25, 1917.[1]

Background

In October 1915, Kingdom of Serbia, which had throughout fall 1914 managed to withstand and repel three Austro-Hungarian invasions, found itself under attack again. This time it was a joint Austro-Hungarian, German, and Bulgarian invasion from two directions that included Austro-Hungarian Third Army, German Eleventh Army, and Bulgarian First and Second armies. Outnumbered and outmatched, the Serbian Army was defeated by December 1915. However, rather than surrendering and capitulating, the Serbian military and political leaders decided on a long and arduous army retreat south towards Albania in hopes of reaching the Adriatic coast for evacuation and regrouping.[2] As a result, the invading Central Powers forces occupied the entire territory of the Kingdom of Serbia. In the immediate division of spoils, Kingdom of Bulgaria got the area of Pomoravlje, which had been a target of Bulgarian nationalism.[3]

Uprising in Toplica

Kosta Pećanac in the Toplica district.

In September 1916, the Serbian high command sent Kosta Pećanac in the Toplica District to organize a guerrilla uprising.[4] There, Pećanac contacted several groups and joined forces with local leader Kosta Vojinović and they both established headquarters on Mount Kopaonik. In January – February 1917 the Bulgarians began conscripting local Serbs for military service and a rumor was spread that the Allies has reached Skopje, so the Serbs should rise in revolt. The decision for this rebellion was taken and on February 21, near the Toplica (river) the rebellion broke out. The leaders gathered several hundreds of rebels who conquered Prokuplje and Kuršumlija. Pećanac also attempted to attract Albanians on his side, but without success. On March 12, the Bulgarian counterattack started under the command of Alexander Protogerov involving comitadjis' forces of the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organisation led by Tane Nikolov.[5] Bulgarian and Austro-Hungarian authorities worked together. In the battles, one of the leaders of the IMRO Todor Aleksandrov, serving as an officer in the Bulgarian army, commanded the most violent actions committed by Macedono-Bulgarian para-militaries. After several days of fighting, the Bulgarians entered Prokuplje on March 14 and Austro-Hungarians the Kuršumlija. As of March 25, the order there was fully restored.[6] In the battles, several thousand people were killed, including civilians. In April 1917, Pećanac with his guerrillas, attacked a railway station.[7] On May 15, Pecanac entered the old Bulgarian border and invaded Bosilegrad, which was burned. Then his cheta withdrew to Kosovo, controlled then by the Austro-Hungarians. The Allies opened a new front at Salonika in June but the Serbian Army was unable to break through the Bulgarian lines. After reemerging again for a short time, in September – October 1917 Pećanac again disappeared. In October 1917 the Austro-Hungarian command created entirely Albanian paramilitary detachments to capture the rest of the Serbian rebels into the mountains and in December 1917, Vojnović was killed.

See also

References

  1. ↑ Armies in the Balkans 1914-18, Nigel Thomas, Osprey Publishing, 2012, ISBN 1780967357, p. 12.
  2. ↑ ...The greatly outnumbered and under-equipped Serbian army, attacked from two directions, was forced to retreat to the south and then westward… The classical account of the defeat and retreat of the Serbian army for English readers is still John C. Adams. “Flight in Winter”. It vividly recounts the difficulties encountered by the Serbs as they struggled to reach the Adriatic for evacuation. This retreat was accompanied by suffering aggravated by severe weather and rugged terrain... Researching World War I: A Handbook, ABC-Clio, Robin D. S. Higham, Dennis E. Showalter, Greenwood Publishing Group, 2003, ISBN 031328850X, p. 210.
  3. ↑ Establishment of the Balkan National States: 1804-1918, Charles Jelavich, Barbara Jelavich, University of Washington Press, 1977, ISBN 0295964138, p. 289.
  4. ↑ The Chetniks: War and Revolution in Yugoslavia, 1941-1945, v.1, Jozo Tomašević, Stanford University Press, 1975, ISBN 0804708576, pp. 117-118.
  5. ↑ Historical Dictionary of the Republic of Macedonia, Dimitar Bechev, Scarecrow Press, 2009 ISBN 0810855658, p. 10.
  6. ↑ Balkan Breakthrough: The Battle of Dobro Pole 1918, Twentieth-Century Battles Series, Richard C. Hall, Indiana University Press, 2010, ISBN 0253354528,p. 82.
  7. ↑ Serbia's Great War, 1914-1918, Andrej Mitrović, Purdue University Press, 2007, ISBN 1557534764, p. 265.

External links

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