From the very beginning the military was given a privileged position in the new state both in military and in political terms. However, the institution faced in the first place immense legitimacy problems. Paradoxically the military’s (Serbian) core consisted of the officer corps with a distinguished war record. Yet the predominantly Serb army and its transformation into a Yugoslav institution met significant obstructions both with Serbs and non-Serbs. Serbs were proud of their army which had completed the historical mission and expected it to guard these achievements in peacetime. The fragile Yugoslav construction had to be protected from both external and internal enemies. 35 The latter were not difficult to identify since from the very beginning Yugoslavia was faced with harsh opposition and even violent upheavals. 36 The Serbian army had acquired a rich experience in domestic intervention in the pre-war period, but now the situation seemed very simple since the ‘enemies’ could have been identified through nudist online chat room national and alleged political criteria.
The main of one’s General Personnel, this new greatest Vojvoda Misic personally inspected the problem inside the Croatia and you will provided a depressing report inside the Belgrade. Within his look at the disease which have Croats is actually hopeless and he advised a simple solution – to exit Croats in order to secede and also to draw the fresh new ‘just’ limits between them states along ethnic and you will ‘historical’ requirements. Naturally he’d in mind the project out-of an increased Serbia in the place of High Yugoslavia hence would have been planning to allow the Serbs armed forces superiority. Regardless if Queen Aleksandar denied the newest proposition the fresh new conduct of your army about ‘new territories’ received it an adverse identity. The brand new tortures and harsh reprisals of civil society worsened the brand new entire investment of one’s the newest state-strengthening and you can wrecked the brand new institutional legitimacy of the ‘new’ army definitively:
First and foremost, the latest officers regarding Slovene, Croat and Montenegrin provider had to submit an application for entry with the armed forces, even though it wasn’t recommended in the Serb officials
This was a blatant misappropriation of authority, quite contrary to the realities that led to the unification, and endangered great discomfiture, especially since the army applied brutal, coercive, and, as one historian dubbed them, Milos-style punishments, frequently even without the formality of a military court-ous of these was the practice of meeting out corporal punishment by blows with clubs or truncheons. 37
One of the most critical problems of the new state was institution building. While the other political institutions had to be created from scratch, the military was only to be transferred from the Serbian state. The units of the former Austria-Hungarian army were disbanded. The non-Serbs saw the military as a continuation of the Serbian army with the command language, insignia and all other details directly transferred from the Serbian Kingdom. The regime declared that it supported an open-door policy regarding the officers from the former Habsburg army. In reality, however, there were many problems to surmount, the question of loyalty having been in the background in the majority of cases. Furthermore, the position of the non-Serb officers was humiliating. They faced huge obstacles in terms of promotion, subordination, the question of rank etc. The figures show that they were also underrepresented, which does not necessarily imply that it was a result of a planned action. For instance, in 1938 only 10 per cent of the Yugoslav officers and only 31 per cent of 191 generals were Croats. 38
The latest Croat and you will Slovene officials sensed premium inside the instructional and professional words, if you find yourself uneducated Serbian officers got glorious conflict records
There was a large pit involving the officers brought up from inside the some other army social environments, in accordance with another type of army ethos, cultural provider and you may, above all, war feel. The newest Serbian armed forces had opted through a real Golgotha from inside the battle where every second male failed to survive. The very first posts in army steps had started occupied of the battle heroes have been not to give up pricey gathered positions. Serbian officers seen the newest introduction of your officials in the (former) challenger armed forces often since the an insult on the brave resistance otherwise because the an indication of generosity and you will forgiveness for the enemy’s combat sins. The brand new peasant-such soldiers and you can officers got a keen inferiority complex regarding the ‘noble’ and you will well-educated Austria-Hungarian officials. Many of them had been improperly harm, seeing their war units’ flags becoming changed by the Yugoslav three-coloured flag. Petar Jovic, a good combatant on the Salonica Side and you will president of your own Organization of your own 1912-1918 Volunteers told you: