Petar Bojović
Petar Bojovic ( Serbian - Cyrillic Петар Бојовић ; born July 4 . Jul / 16th July 1858 . Greg in Misevici , community Nova Varos , Ottoman Empire ; † 19th January 1945 in Belgrade ) was a Serbian officer, last Vojvoda , and while during the First World War temporarily Chief of Staff of the Serbian Army. Petar Bojović, along with Radomir Putnik , Živojin Mišić and Stepa Stepanović, is one of the most influential Serbian military figures who, at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century, modernized the Serbian army based on the European model in the Russian-Ottoman War, First and Second The Second Balkan War and the First World War became a key element in the political reorganization of the Balkan Peninsula. As commander of the First Army, Petar Bojović commanded it in the Battle of Kumanovo in 1912 and in the Battle of Dobro Polje in 1918.
Life
Petar Bojović was born as one of six children of a mountain farming family in a simple clapboard wooden hut (brvnara) in the Ottoman Empire. His father Peruta was from the Vasojevići region near Andrijevica in Montenegro, where a village of the same name with the name Bojović exists to this day, after Miševići between Novi Varoš and Sjenica in Sanjak. His mother Rada (1822–1904) from Lopužine was married to the unknown Peruta when she was 15 years old. The wedding took place in the highlands in the cemetery and the hut, as there was no church in the village. The mother described her wedding as a sad event, as the groom's brother courted the fourteen-year-old, took her with him from her parents' village and brought her to the more distant Miševci. Petar's childhood was marked by poverty and hunger; the wooden hut was only covered with straw and the family suffered from the rigid tax burden of the Ottoman feudal society. As a simple tenant (čivčija, Turkish farm worker), the father had to hand over everything to the Turkish Aga. Bread was only available in spring and then only made from oats, pearl barley and flour mixtures. The family ate milk and cheese, the only ones left over from the taxes. The family also fled the Ottoman Empire to Serbia in 1867 and moved to Radaljevo between Ivanjica and Arilje. In order not to be discovered, the earth was still tilled, the family hid the mobile objects with their father-in-law and in the house of a relative Popen in order to take them with them at a later opportunity. The escape was prepared for a long time and the objects to be hidden were gradually brought to the villages of Sup and Lopužine on horses. After the family had been housed with a relative after a successful escape, Rada returned to their home village to see their house and things.
Freedom but without property, Peruta struggled for the family to survive. At Rada's endeavor, her children were sent to primary school in Ivanjica for education . In Ivanjica, Petar got to know the Serbian epic chants for Gusle and asked the elderly to sing him epics and heroic stories. Through his childhood in the mountainous region of Stari Vlah, Petar was endowed with the typical characteristics of shepherds and mountain dwellers, he could think clearly and quickly, was lively and agile.
Petar attended the first grade of high school in Užice . Rada collected by selling agricultural and domestic products on the market in Novi Varoš for Petar and the elder Luka (1856–1929) money for further education in Belgrade at the 5th men's high school. She herself visited her sons in training in Belgrade more than 10 times on foot. Petar thanked his mother for his efforts in training by teaching her to read by hand at the end of her life and finally being able to read her from the Gospels with ease. An adjutant to Prince Mihailo Obrenović enabled him to continue his education in the 12th grade of the military artillery school in Belgrade on October 6, 1875. In Petars' class, he studied alongside Stepa Stepanović and Živojin Mišić. It was the first meeting of the later Vojvoden. Before he graduated from the Artillery School in Belgrade, he took part in the Serbian-Ottoman Wars from 1876 to 1878. As a young lieutenant in the cavalry, he also took part in the Serbian-Bulgarian War in 1885 and was awarded the gold medal for bravery. He then embarked on a career in the general staff and was promoted to captain in 1888 and permanently accepted into the general staff service in 1890. In Kragujevac, Petar met Mileva Jovanović (1872–1956). The couple married on June 4, 1893 in Kragujevac Cathedral. They had six children together (Bozidar, Vojislav, Radoslav, Dobroslav, Jelena, Rada). On October 17, 1896, he was transferred from Kragujevac to Zaječar as commander of the staff of the Timok division area. During his service in Zaječar, Petar Bojović was the trustee of the Srpska književna zadruga . He received the Order of St. Sava III for the support of the learned association, which had set itself the goal of editing the most important literary works to improve the education of the Serbian population. Order. He also devoted himself to the publication of military literature. During his time in Niš, he wrote four military books that were used in pedagogical training in the officers' cadre. He also translated foreign specialist literature.
After various troop and staff assignments, he was appointed as a major temporary head of the mobilization department in the Serbian general staff in 1897. This was followed by assignments as commander of various regiments, as assistant to the chief of the general staff and as brigade commander in Niš . In Niš he translated and wrote textbooks
After the coup d'état of May 1903, Bojović was appointed head of the operations department of the General Staff and, in December, the commander of the Morava division. From 1906, after Radomir Putnik's appointment as Minister of War, he acted as Chief of the General Staff. In 1909 he became commander of the cavalry division. In the First Balkan War in 1912/13 he was Chief of Staff of the 1st Army, which was commanded by Crown Prince Alexander , and played a major role in their successes in the battles of Kumanovo and Prilep . As a military expert, Bojović participated in the peace negotiations with the Ottoman Empire in London. In the Second Balkan War he was again Chief of Staff of the 1st Army. After the end of the war he became the military commander in the newly acquired areas.
During the First World War, Bojović led as commander in chief in the battle of Cer and the invasion of Syrmia . During the Battle of the Kolubara , an injury forced him to surrender the command to Živojin Mišić . In 1915 he was again in command in New Serbia and, during the Serbian campaign of the Central Powers , repelled the Bulgarian troops long enough to enable the Serbian army to retreat to Albania. In January 1916 he replaced Putnik as chief of staff. After the reorganization of the army in Corfu , Bojović oversaw its relocation to the Saloniki Front and led it during the Monastir offensive in late 1916.
In June 1918, Bojović resigned from the post of Chief of Staff after disputes with his formally superior commander in chief on the Saloniki Front, the French General Guillaumat , and took over the 1st Army again. With this he successfully took part in the Allied final offensive and received the title of Vojvoda in September 1918.
After the war, Bojović remained Commander in Chief of the 1st Army District and was again Chief of the General Staff after Mišić's death in January 1921. In December of the same year, however, he was released and largely withdrew from public life.
After the coup d'état in March 1941, he was appointed inspector general of the Yugoslav armed forces as the only Vojvoda still alive. After the German invasion he was captured and, after refusing to serve as a figurehead for the Germans of their occupation rule, was in fact placed under house arrest. After the liberation of Belgrade at the end of 1944, the aged field marshal was severely mistreated by the partisans who were drafting in and died on January 19, 1945 in his Belgrade home. He was buried in the family grave without military honors. The population was warned by radio against participation that would result in criminal prosecution. With the end of communism, a return to the Serbian national hero began, who is commemorated today with numerous monuments.
literature
- Andrej Mitrović: Serbia's Great War, 1914-1918. Purdue University Press, 2007, ISBN 978-1-55753-476-7 .
Web links
- Short biography on findagrave.com
Individual evidence
- ↑ http://www.rts.rs/page/radio/sr/story/23/Radio+Beograd+1/1826566/Kod+dva+bela+goluba.html Vojvoda Petar Bojović (Serbian, 60 min)
- ↑ http://zlatarinfo.rs/info/vojevanje-vojvode-bojovica-bekstvo-iz-besudne-zemlje Vojevanje vojvode Bojovića - Bekstvo iz besudne zemlje
- ↑ http://zlatarinfo.rs/info/vojevanje-vojvode-bojovica-iz-klupe-na-bojiste Vojevanje vojvode Bojovića - Iz klupe na bojište
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Bojović, Petar |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Бојовић, Петар (Serbian) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Serbian field marshal |
| DATE OF BIRTH | July 16, 1858 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Miševići , Principality of Serbia |
| DATE OF DEATH | January 19, 1945 |
| Place of death | Belgrade |