First Serbian Volunteer Division


The First Serbian Volunteer Division or First Serbian Division, was a military formation of the First World War, created by Serbian Prime Minister Nikola Pašić, and organised in the city of Odessa in early 1916. It was primarily made up of volunteers from the Serbian diaspora and ethnic Serbian and south Slavic prisoners of war, from the Austro-Hungarian army, detained in Russia, who sought the opportunity to fight for their people.
Even though the Serbian volunteers greatly outnumbered all the other ethnic group, the force holds a particularly significant place in World War I history due both to its intermingling of different ethnicities, including Bosnians, Czechs, and Slovaks, as well as its role in the final military operations of the Salonika Front.

History

In 1916 a mission of the Serbian army went to Russia and started organising the Serbian prisoners of war captured by the Russians in their early offensives against the Austro-Hungarian army but also Croats from Dalmatia, Bosnian and Slovenes who chose to join in the spirit of Yugoslav unity.
Fighting on behalf of the Russian government's cause of pan-Slavic unity, the division started out approximately 18,000 strong. Tsar Nicholas II, while eager to use the Serbian diaspora for his own purposes, felt reluctant at first to set up the Volunteer Division given that recruiting prisoners of war to fight against their former country is considered a war crime under the Hague Conventions; soon the exigencies of war overcame his scruples. The Volunteer Division also featured a number of Czech and Slovak officers before they transferred to the Czechoslovak armed forces gathering in Russia known as the Legion.
Enlisted in the Russian 47th Corps, the Serb First Division was sent on the Dobrudja front to fight the Bulgarians as well as Turkish and German units, the Division showed high combat morale, but was restrained by inadequate equipment and the campaign ended terribly with 8,539 dead and wounded. After the start of the February Revolution as many as 12 735 soldiers left the Corps.
In April 1917 the Pašić cabinet, under pressure from former POW officers, and by the revolutionary changes happening in Russia at the time, created a second division and changed the name of the force to the "Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes Volunteer Corps". The Serb officers considering the unit as a part of the Serbian army led to the resignations of 149 Croat and Slovene officers and 12,741 men who joined Russian units instead. On 29 July 1917, General Mihajlo Zivković became Corps Commander.
In 1917, it was decided to send the Corps to the Macedonian Front. The first division, 10,000 strong was able to leave Russia travelling west reaching Salonika at the end of the year. In the meantime, the Bolsheviks had seized power and decided to put every possible obstacle in the journey of the remaining 6,000 men, denying them the route to the West, forcing them to go via the Trans-Siberian to China to Japanese held Port Arthur. From there, they were sent on a ship to Hong Kong then to Egypt, and on to Salonika. The first company arrived on 29 March 1918 at the Serbian camp at Mikra after travelling 14,000 miles in eleven weeks. The two divisions were restored and rearmed by the Allied Army of the Orient under French command, a new Yugoslav unit was created on 14 January 1918 within the Serbian army, the 1st Yugoslav Division.

Legacy

According to the American historian Alfred Rieber, while definitely playing a role in crucial fighting on the Eastern Front, the exploits of both Serbian divisions became magnified for propaganda purposes by nationalists. In retrospect, tensions both on and off the battlefield that existed not just in terms of ethnic heritage but also related to economic class and political ideology, even while fighters faced a common enemy in the Central Powers, foreshadowed conflicts in the future nation of Yugoslavia. According to Stevan Hadžić Dobruja was: "where all three brothers, Serb, Croat and Slovene, fought for the first time shoulder to shoulder for liberation and unification".

Monument

A white pyramid memorial known as the "Monument to the Heroes of the First Serbian Volunteer Division" is located as a part of a cemetery complex in Medgidia, a city in southeastern Romania near the Black Sea,. The monument was dedicated in 1926 as a token of gratitude for the heroic struggle of all units of the First Serbian volunteer division. The area itself houses the remains of thousands who died in defense of Dobruja. In a 2013 ceremony, local mayor Marian Iordache remarked, "We can never forget their achievement... so it shall remain until the end of time".