Zapomenutý boj - Srbští dobrovolníci v Rusku 1914-1918 – Micić Milan (2020)

This book recalls the fate of Serbian volunteers in Russia between 1914 and 1918. Their emergence during the First World War led from Austro-Hungarian soldiers and Russian prisoners of war to the formation of a Serbian volunteer army whose members sought to unite their regions with the Kingdom of Serbia. They faced repression and distrust from the Austro-Hungarian authorities, who blamed the Serbian nation for the Sarajevo assassination. Driven by Serbian national fervour, Serbs from Austria-Hungary joined the Serbian volunteers in large numbers and, as members of the 1st Serbian Volunteer Division, took part in the fighting on the Dobruja Front in autumn 1916 as part of Romanian-Russian combat units. At the same time, the 2nd Serbian Volunteer Division began to form from forcibly mobilised Austro-Hungarian prisoners of war—Croats, Serbs and Slovenes—who were to be pushed towards a South Slav character for the volunteer movement. The South Slav idea encountered the powerful pro-Austrian position of the Croats and Slovenes, leading to the disintegration of the volunteer formation, which was also affected by the Russian Revolution of 1917. In order to preserve the Serbian volunteer units from Russia for further fighting, the Serbian government evacuated 12,500 Serbian volunteers to the Salonika Front.