Mlada Bosna

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Mlada Bosna (Young Bosnia) was an anti-clerical, Serbian-nationalist revolutionary association, organization or movement of schoolchildren and students that was active in Bosnia-Herzegovina , annexed by Austria-Hungary , at the beginning of the 20th century .

The organization, which was founded in Mostar in 1893 , was heavily influenced by the later Serbian secret organization Black Hand (Crna ruka), which was later created and planned numerous assassinations from 1910, including the assassination of Sarajevo on the Austrian heir to the throne Franz Ferdinand. The members of the Mlada Bosna initially consisted mainly of Bosnian Serbs , but in the last few years before the war, Croats and Bosniaks from Bosnia-Herzegovina also joined. The term Mlada Bosna had been used sporadically since 1907, but it was not until 1918 that it became common as a collective term for the numerous secret circles of young Bosnians and Herzegovinians who resisted the Habsburg Monarchy.

Goals of the movement

The goals of Mlada Bosna were to strengthen the Serbian national consciousness and the revolutionary liberation of Bosnia-Herzegovina from the Austro-Hungarian occupation and the amalgamation of the South Slav provinces of Austria-Hungary with Serbia and Montenegro and the dissolution of the Ottoman Sanjak Novi Pazar and the establishment of a joint Yugoslavia . Members of Mlada Bosna criticized the conservatism and the lack of education of the population, called for resistance against the authoritarian power structure and the Jesuit school system in Austria-Hungary and advocated equal rights for women . Giuseppe Mazzini's Young Italy and Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk had a great influence on the movement , as did Russian revolutionaries such as Mikhail Alexandrowitsch Bakunin and Pyotr Alexejewitsch Kropotkin . Many members of Mlada Bosna were interested in and talented in literature. The writer and later Nobel Prize winner Ivo Andrić was a member of the Mlada Bosna and had personal contacts with Gavrilo Princip . Works by the writer Petar Kočić and the intellectual Vladimir Gaćinović were of particular importance to the movement. The term Mlada Bosna was first mentioned in a newspaper article by Petar Kočić in 1907, but did not gain acceptance until after 1918.

Historical background

After the peasant uprising against the Ottomans in 1875–1878, which culminated in the Balkan crisis, Bosnia-Herzegovina was placed under the Austro-Hungarian administration by the great powers of the Berlin Congress in 1878. In 1908 it was annexed by Emperor Franz Joseph I on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the throne and the province of Sanjak Novi Pazar was divided between Serbia and Montenegro, which triggered the Bosnian annexation crisis. The Bosnians rejected an occupation of Bosnia-Herzegovina and would have preferred a merger with the kingdoms of Serbia and Montenegro or the formation of an independent state. The retention of the exploitative Ottoman feudal system after 1878, the impossibility of participating in the political system of the monarchy and the position of Bosnia and Herzegovina as k. and k. Crown colonies contributed to the discontent of the poorer population. The provinces served Austria-Hungary primarily as a rail transit route, goods market, raw material store and supplier of cheap labor. In 1910, after around 20 years of Austro-Hungarian administration, 88% of the population of Bosnia and Herzegovina were illiterate . Due to repressive police measures, political activity aimed at reform or revolution was only possible in secret. Bosnian high school students who were politically active were threatened with expulsion from school.

The first secret circle, later called “Mlada Bosna”, was founded in 1893 by students from a middle school in Mostar .

Assassination attempt in Sarajevo

On June 28, 1914, the heir to the throne of Austria-Hungary , Archduke Franz Ferdinand , was expected by about ten members of Mlada Bosna on his announced visit to Sarajevo . After the archduke survived an initial attack unharmed, he and his wife Sophie were murdered by Gavrilo Princip . In the July crisis that this triggered , Austria-Hungary presented Serbia with an ultimatum, which Belgrade did not comply with unconditionally. The conflict triggered the First World War .

Reception in Yugoslavia

In the official commemorative politics and propaganda of Yugoslavia , Mlada Bosna was revered as an identity-building movement and promoted as progressive and exemplary, especially among schoolchildren and students. The building on the corner of which Princip had fired his shots was rededicated as a museum.

Known members

literature

  • Wayne S. Vucinich : Mlada Bosna and the First World War . In: Robert A. Kann u. a. (Ed.): The Habsburg Empire and the First World War. Essays on the Intellectual, Military, Political and Economic Aspects of the Habsburg War Effort . Boulder 1977, p. 45-70 .
  • Vladimir Dedijer : Sarajevo 1914. Prosveta, Beograd 1966 (German: Die Zeitbombe. Sarajewo 1914. Europa-Verlag, Frankfurt am Main et al. 1967).

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Dietmar Willoweit, Hans Lemberg (Ed.): Reiche und Territorien in Ostmitteleuropa. Historical relationships and political legitimation of power. (= Peoples, states and cultures in East Central Europe Volume 2) Oldenbourg Verlag, Munich 2006, ISBN 3-486-57839-1 , p. 421. Jovan Byford: Denial and Repression of Antisemitism. Post-communist Remembrance of the Serbian Bishop Nikolaj Velimirović. Central European University Press, Budapest 2008, ISBN 978-963-9776-15-9 , p. 23.
  2. ↑ Florian Bieber (ed.): Bosnia-Herzegovina and Lebanon in comparison: historical development and political system before the civil war. Pro Universitate Verlag, 1999, ISBN 3-932490-50-9 , p. 36.
  3. ↑ Bodo Harenberg (Ed.): Chronicle Library of the 20th Century. Chronik-Verlag, 1988, original from the University of Virginia, digitized 2009, p. 86.
  4. ↑ Joachim Heise (ed.): For company, God and fatherland: operational war magazines in the First World War: the example of Hanover - Volume 9 of Hanoverian studies. Hahn, 2000, ISBN 3-7752-4959-1 , p. 13.
  5. ↑ Steven W. Sowards (ed.): Modern history of the Balkans: (the Balkans in the age of nationalism). Books on Demand GmbH, Norderstedt 2004, p. 557.
  6. ^ A b Holm Sundhausen: Chances and Limits of Civil Society Change. The Balkan countries 1830–1940 as a historical laboratory. In: M. Hildermeier, J. Kocka, C. Conrad (eds.): European civil society in East and West. Concept, history, opportunities. Frankfurt am Main 2000, pp. 149–177, here p. 161.
  7. ↑ Dennison Rusinov: The Yugoslav Idea before Yugoslavia. in: Dejan Djokić (Ed.): Yugoslavism. Histories of a Failed Idea, 1918-1992. London 2003, ISBN 1-85065-663-0 , pp. 11–26, here: p. 24. Holm Sundhaussen: History of Serbia. 19. – 21. Century. Böhlau, Vienna / Cologne / Weimar 2007, ISBN 978-3-205-77660-4 , p. 222.
  8. ↑ Wolf Dietrich Behschnitt: nationalism in Serbia and Croatia from 1830 to 1914. Analysis and typology of the national ideology. Verlag Oldenbourg, Munich 1980, ISBN 3-486-49831-2 , p. 306.
  9. ↑ Mirjana Hennig (Ed.): Identity Delimitations in Bosnia and Herzegovina Book on Demand, Nordstedt 2013, ISBN 978-3-7322-5659-4 , p. 139.
  10. ↑ Book Review: The Bridge on the Drina, by Ivo Andrić. Retrieved June 26, 2014 .
  11. ^ Meeting with Gavrilo Princip in Sarajevo. Retrieved June 26, 2014 .
  12. ↑ Celia Hawkesworth: Ivo Andric: Bridge Between East and West . The Athlone Press Ltd, London 1984, p. 47 .
  13. ↑ Michael Sollars, Arbolina Llamas Jennings: The Facts on File Companion to the World Novel: 1900 to the Present . Infobase Publishing, New York 2008.
  14. ↑ Edgar Hösch , Karl Nehring, Holm Sundhaussen (ed.): Lexicon for the history of Southeast Europe (= UTB. History 8270). Böhlau, Vienna a. a. 2004, ISBN 3-205-77193-1 , pp. 326f.
  15. ^ Gordon Martel: The Month That Changed the World. July 1914. Oxford University Press 2014, ISBN 978-0-19-966538-9 , p. 57.