Why Chetnik Flags Should be in the Belgrade Liberation Parade
October 10, 2014
In the following essay, Strategic Culture Foundation columnist Boris Aleksić explains why it would be perfectly uncontroversial for “Chetnik” (i.e. Royal Yugoslav) flags to appear in the October 16 military parade, marking the 70th anniversary of Belgrade’s liberation by the Red Army.
General Draza Mihailovich WWII
General Draza Mihailovich WWII
The 70th anniversary of Belgrade’s liberation in WW2, will be marked by a military parade. After a 29-year hiatus, some 3,000 members of the Serbian Army will parade on October 16. Also scheduled is the appearance of the Russian acrobatics group “Strizhi”, flying the newest MiG-29 fighters.
The celebration will be graced by the presence of the Russian President Vladimir Putin, a symbol of Russia’s rebirth. Putin’s visit to Serbia is a clear signal to both Serbian citizens and the West. During their aggression against the Serbs in the 1990s, Washington and Brussels have exterminated the Serbs of Krajina and parts of Bosnia, Kosovo and Metohija. That southern Serbian province is under NATO occupation, run by a puppet Albanian regime composed of terrorists, drug-dealers and organ traders. Even the Serbian capital has been under Western occupation of sorts for years. Demands and impositions by the USA and the EU are getting more brazen and increasingly unbearable.
Putin’s arrival in Belgrade – on the day of liberation no less – represents a clear signal to both the Serbs and the world that a free and united Serbdom is possible even today. Furious at this, Washington and Brussels – falsely presenting themselves as the “international community” – say they will “watch closely” Putin’s visit to Belgrade. After all, the US and EU have invested so much effort in resurrecting fascism in Europe, from Zagreb and Priština to Kiev, to let the Russians and Serbs spoil their plans. Under the mask of democracy, Berlin has succeeded in almost entirely reversing the results of WW2 in the Balkans, fulfilling the dreams of Hitler and Pavelić; hence they and their White House mentors fear losing all that (as once before) to a Russian counterattack. That is why they are opposed to Putin’s visit.
Things have gone so far that a propaganda outfit founded by the CIA (“Radio Free Europe”) has accused the Russian president of “changing the dates of history” (?!) and the military parade of “hiding Chetnik symbols.” So, Chetniks are still a concern for the “powerful” West!
Radio Free Europe argues that Putin’s visit to Serbia is “unwise”, because “the West has imposed sanctions on Russia over the Ukrainian crisis.” [1] Yet it is in Ukraine that the US and EU are backing a junta and its Nazis sporting the occult symbols of the Third Reich and talk of “exterminating the Russians” just like Hitler. Serbian volunteers fighting on the antifascist side (i.e. Novorussia) include the Chetniks who came at the invitation of their Cossack brothers. Why shouldn’t the Serbs carry Chetnik symbols in the military parade, since they so annoy the West?
Could that offend the Russian president? Vladimir Putin recently lit candles [in church] for all the defenders of Novorussia, including the Serbian Chetniks. Besides, it is a historical fact that the WW2 Chetniks – members of the Yugoslav Army in the Homeland – were an antifascist movement. Between 1941 and the Red Army’s arrival in 1944, the Chetniks had liberated over 30 towns from the Nazis – including Loznica, Čačak, Kruševac, Leskovac, Lazarevac, Bajina Bašta, Višegrad, Zvornik, etc. Is that not enough?
If not, we ought to recall that [commander of the YAH] Draža Mihailović had been in contact with Soviet military intelligence during his diplomatic service as the military attache, and that these contacts continued during the war. It was General Mihailović that Stalin wanted to see leading the Yugoslav resistance. Tito was untrustworthy and collaborated with both the British and the Nazis; according to some sources, Stalin had dispatched NKVD Colonel Mustafa Golubić to Belgrade, with a mission to eliminate Tito. Subsequent events would prove the Soviet leader right: Tito and his followers carved up Serbia, sent the pro-Russian Communists to a gulag at Goli Otok, and signed a pact with NATO (the 1954 Bled Agreement).
Draža Mihailović as a Russian Ally
Here is how Russian historian Boris Starkov explained the cooperation between Mihailović and the Russians:
“Staff Colonel Dragoljub-Draža Mihailović was one of the most important assets of the Soviet intelligence at the time. He was not a classic spy or an agent in the normal sense of that word. Col. Draža was a great nationalist and monarchist, so his ideological views excluded the possibility of working for an intelligence service of a Communist country. However, as an experienced intelligence officer, Mihailović held that the Communist Soviet Union, ‘Red Russia’, was the only force that could oppose the German influence and aggression in the Balkans, namely in Yugoslavia…
In the autumn of 1942, J.V. Stalin was ready to aid the Chetniks of Draža Mihailović more than Tito’s Partisan movement. He made an open offer to the Yugoslav government in London, through its ambassador in the USSR Stanoje Simić, to send a mission of high-ranking officers to Mihailović’s HQ, to establish an entire squadron of aircraft in the USSR he would lend to Mihailović for use, and to organize joint radio-broadcasts of the Red Army and the Ravna Gora Chetniks.” [2]
However, then as now, the West was hostile to “Greater Serbs”, or their alliance with Moscow, so London did everything it could to thwart the emergence of a strong Serbian state.
Tito as a British Agent
Historian Dragoljub Živojinović explained that “The British promised their agent, Tito, both military and political legitimacy, with the goal of preventing the Serbs from creating a postwar order favorable to their national interests. The point of this strategy was to deny the Serbs the right to self-determination.” [3]
Dr. Živojinović continued by citing the English assessment of General Mihailović: “Head of the British mission to Tito’s HQ, Brigadier Fitzroy MacLean, concluded in a memo sent to Anthony Eden: ‘As for General Mihailovich, he is a Greater Serb and reactionary. Under those conditions, Great Britain has no further interest in backing his movement’.
Mihailović’s national program interfered with Foreign Office’s plans to establish micro-states in Yugoslavia that would later be absorbed into greater federations. Can anyone still doubt the claim by the great English historian A.J.P. Taylor that ‘building up Tito was a purely English adventure’?” Živojinović concluded.
Furthermore, Tito had offered cooperation to the Catholic Church in the “Independent State of Croatia”, which had organized a genocide of Serbs, and even offered the “genocide archbishop” Stepinac to become the “vicar-general of the Partisan forces”. [4]
Tito as Nazi Collaborator
There is also a mountain of evidence in the archives testifying to Tito’s collaboration with the Nazis. Historical records show that Draža Mihailović outright rejected any form of collaboration with the Nazis in 1941, at the village of Divci. On the other hand, in Gornji Vakuf in 1943, Tito initiated and eventually achieved a pact with the Nazis. Broz had collaborated with the Nazis in the summer of 1941, claims historian Vladislav Sotirović:
“There are even photographs documenting this, in addition to the fact that the Germans literally handed the town of Užice to Tito, including a working ammunition factory. This gave the Titoists tremendous advantage in the civil war against the Chetniks of Draža Mihailović.” [5]
Was Stalin aware of all this?
The Secret Mission of Mustafa Golubić
In May 1941, Josip Broz was hiding in Belgrade, at the Ribnikar House which had Gestapo security guards. Meanwhile, Mustafa Golubić was also in the occupied capital. Golubić was a Soviet colonel and conducted special operations for the Fourth Directorate of the NKVD.
In June 1941, the Gestapo captured him. Despite continuous torture, they only managed to ascertain his identity, but not his connections or any details of his intelligence work. Four special interrogators were dispatched from Berlin, as in addition to his work for the Comintern, Golubić had also been involved in the 1914 Sarajevo Assassination. Shortly after the German invasion of the USSR, the Gestapo had Golubić executed. He was shot in the Court Gardens (today’s Pioneer Park in Belgrade) along with the family of the county clerk Višnjevac with whom he was staying, and his associate, Technical School Professor Čeda Popović. After the liberation of Belgrade, the Red Army transferred Golubić’s remains to Moscow.
Some sources claim that Golubić was involved in a series of secret operations, including the assassination of Trotsky. In Yugoslavia, he was in charge of the “Red Chamber Orchestra”, a special (anti-fascist) organization with the Soviet Intelligence whose core in the West were the anti-fascist Germans. Some researchers have speculated that Golubić’s mission in Belgrade was to eliminate Josip Broz Tito and his agents, who were working with the Nazis and the British. Broz was alerted to the danger by Stevo Krajačić, who later worked for the CIA. Milovan Đilas and Aleksandar Ranković tipped the Gestapo off to the NKVD colonel’s whereabouts, after which Golubić was arrested, tortured and shot. Had he succeeded in eliminating Broz, the future of Serbia and the Serbs could have been far more fortunate…
As we can see, the Chetniks were an anti-fascist movement which liberated many Serbian cities from the Nazis. That is why the flags of the Yugoslav Army in the Homeland have every right to be included in the military parade celebrating Belgrade’s liberation.
Furthermore, one of the most important lessons of the 1990s was the need to unify all patriotic forces in defending the Fatherland. Serbs had successfully resisted attempts by Western services to weaken them by reviving the Chetnik-Partisan divide – and held off for a decade against the greatest war machine in history. Russia is facing a similar question today. The Serbian example offers the answer: an alliance of true patriots, both “Red” and “White”, is required for a successful defense.
References:
[1] Radio Free Europe (in Serbian), October 6, 2014
[2] Politika, Belgrade, (in Serbian) November 11, 2012
[3] Novi Standard (in Serbian), November 30, 2011
[4] Vecernje Novosti (in Serbian), December 7, 2013; this, by the way, is the same office (vicar-general of the Croatian Army) Stepinac held in the Nazi Croatian hierarchy
[5] NSPM (in Serbian), September 11, 2010
(Copyright Strategic Culture Foundation; translated by the Reiss Institute; all rights reserved – fair use only)
