– Ivan Matović –
In liberated Livno, the Chief of the Supreme Headquarters met a figure who stood out — even by wartime standards. While speaking with Ranković, he encountered a burly, bearded and heavily armed man wearing a tricolour badge on his cap, with stitched emblems on both sleeves — a portrait of King Petar on the right, and Stalin on the left. When Arso entered, Ranković said to the man: “Here’s the Chief of the Supreme Headquarters of the Proletarian Army, Cvijo — talk to him to see if someone like you can be placed under our command. Things will go as he decides.” The bearded man, around forty, jumped to his feet, stood rigid at attention and reported that he was Cvijo Oraščić, a native of the village of Sajković near Livno, and commander of the “Starac Vujadin” Battalion of 800 fighters — all insurgents “against the Ustaša criminals and all of Pavelić’s army.” He declared that he wished to fight alongside the Proletarian Army, which had so skilfully and bravely liberated Livno. Arso eyed him and smiled, offering his hand, which Cvijo grabbed and shook firmly — all while remaining at attention. Arso told him to stand “at ease,” but Cvijo didn’t comply, likely believing it his right to choose the posture from which to address the “Chief of the Supreme Headquarters,” especially someone reputed to be a “General Staff officer.” Arso, half in jest, ordered him again to relax and said that there would be no problem in fighting “against the Ustaše and all of Pavelić’s forces,” but that this fight must also include the occupiers and all their collaborators — and that they must wear standardized insignia and, certainly, shave their beards. Cvijo responded that he had “let the beard grow” after the state collapsed and had vowed — following the old Chetnik tradition — not to shave it until the king returned to the country. Arso said he knew and respected that tradition, which belonged to the true, original Chetniks, like those who had once fought in the “bloody-shirted Krajina,” but noted that some of today’s so-called Chetnik units — also bearded — were slaughtering Serbs in Serbia, Montenegro, Herzegovina and Bosnia. Cvijo listened thoughtfully, then said: “Those kinds of men have spilled blood here too, but we’ll make sure they stop. And right now, I order my unit to sew on red stars, and as for myself — I’ll shave my beard, and as punishment, I’ll do it dry!” He was offered a barber, but declined. There are still Sandžak veterans alive who recall how he “scraped himself clean,” and then — belt strapped tight, covered in ammo belts and grenades, of average height but stocky, well-built, clean-shaven and youthful-looking — he resumed his conversation with the Chief of the Supreme Headquarters, now seated and relaxed. He said he had worked as a labourer — a cobblestone layer in Belgrade — then as a small-time grocer in his village, and mostly as a horse smuggler across the old Austro-Hungarian border between Dalmatia and Bosnia, which was the most lucrative. Until July 27, 1941, the Ustaše had slaughtered what they could of the Serbian population from Sajković, Čelebić, Rujani, Lištani and other villages — “putting about 800 souls to the knife.” But from that day on, they never entered those areas again, as they were defended by the insurgents under his command. For a long time, they belonged to no formal army — they fought only to protect the Serbian people — but now they were the 5th Krajina Detachment, which had contributed even a cannon to the liberation of Livno.
Somewhat more relaxed, Cvijo told Arso that his battalion included two officers — one served as his “clerk,” and the other as a “military advisor.” They had escaped from Sinj and declared their willingness to fight the Ustaše. They had remained with him, equally brave and loyal. In further conversation, Arso learned that they were Artillery Captain First Class Branko Obradović, originally from Pljevlja, and Major Rudolf Primorac, a battalion commander during the April War, known for his resolute armed resistance to the Ustaše on the Mostar-Nevesinje axis. Arso immediately vouched for both men to Ranković, and in the case of Primorac, Velimir Jakić, political commissar of the 3rd Proletarian Brigade, also vouched for him, having fought alongside him in those battles as a reserve officer. The battalion “clerk,” dressed in a thick wool sweater and strapped with a belt from which hung a Walther pistol and a cluster of grenades, was immediately transferred to the Proletarian units and would become the first commander of the Artillery Division and head of the Artillery Section of the Supreme Headquarters. Major Primorac soon became chief of staff of the 1st Dalmatian Brigade, then of the 3rd Shock Division, later the 2nd Shock Corps and the Main Staff of Serbia. From December 1944 he was Arso’s assistant and, at the very end of the war, the head of the Yugoslav military mission in Moscow. Both would become generals during the war. Having fled Sinj, they found refuge in Livanjsko polje with Cvijo Oraščić, a Serb and the “commander of an army that belonged to no one,” but which fought fiercely against the Ustaše. Cvijo was a popular commander, a brave man and a skilled knife fighter, nicknamed the “Dinaric Budyonny.” It was said that two horses had been shot under him in battle, and songs were already being sung about him.
In Ranković’s presence, they agreed the next day that Cvijo — now, like all his men, wearing a large red felt five-pointed star — would remain commander of a battalion within the 5th Krajina Detachment, and later perhaps be integrated into one of the Proletarian Brigades. At parting, he hugged and kissed both men — after asking for permission — which was taken as a clear sign of his satisfaction with the outcome of the talks.[1]
When the 4th Krajina Brigade was formed on September 9 — made up mostly of select fighters from the former 5th Krajina Detachment — Cvijo’s battalion was incorporated into it, and he was appointed deputy commander to Milutin Morača. The brigade’s first battles were against Chetniks in the villages around Bosansko Grahovo, and in the reports from those actions, Cvijo’s name was mentioned only positively. The war went on, battles became more complex, reports to the Operational and Supreme Headquarters more frequent, and Cvijo continued to be praised in them. In the meantime, he was wounded, but remained with the brigade. Then, suddenly, brigade commissar Nikola Kotle — a hardened communist and blacksmith from Drvar — returned from a summons by the District Committee deeply saddened and revealed to Commander Morača that he had been ordered to liquidate Cvijo Oraščić as a “pro-Chetnik element.” Commander Morača, who had known Cvijo since the early days of the uprising and held him in high regard for his bravery and patriotism, refused to carry out such a sentence — issued without trial — without first having it discussed by the Brigade Staff (without Cvijo) and the Political Department (Živko Žižić, Milijan Neoričić, and Sava Radoičić Feđa). The discussion was long, open and conducted in good faith. The District Committee’s sentence was put to a vote. For this story, it no longer matters who voted how, only that the result was tied — three in favour, three against. This was formally recorded and reported “up the chain.” There was no reaction, but word of it reached Tito, via the district military and party leadership. Tito summoned Ranković and Arso and, with a reserved smile, said: “Your protégé is causing some trouble.” Once they learned what the issue was, both replied that they had not vouched for him, but had only done what they could to give him a chance. Now they agreed that any accusations should be proven publicly, adding that his liquidation would cause significant political damage — especially among the insurgents of the Livno region — all the more so if it were undeserved.[2] This conversation occurred shortly before Arso’s departure for Slovenia. For the next nine months, he would not know that Cvijo, along with 720 Krajina fighters, had joined the 2nd Proletarian Division in February 1943 and become deputy commander under Peko Dapčević — where, however, he would ultimately not escape a bullet from his fellow soldiers on distant Ozren… […]
From a report of the 2nd Proletarian Division’s Headquarters, the Chief of the Supreme Headquarters learned the sad news that his strange acquaintance from the recently liberated Livno, Cvijo Oraščić, was no longer among the living. The report was written on July 15 and reached his hands on August 10. It read: “Despite our caution, we experienced several attacks and surprises, and in one of these surprises, on the 9th of this month, Comrade Cvijo Oraščić, former deputy commander of the 4th Krajina Brigade, later at our Division’s Headquarters, was killed by an ambush from a Chetnik band.” To be precise, Pajčin — Cvijo Oraščić was not “at the Headquarters,” but, at least formally, the deputy commander of the division, which he deserved, as he led his battalion, “Starac Vujadin,” to the last fighter, and they joined the brigades of the National Liberation Army of Yugoslavia. In January 1943, he returned to his home region in the lower Livanjsko polje after leaving the deputy position under Milutin Morača, and with his influence and reputation, he gathered 720 fighters and led them into the brigades of the 2nd Proletarian Division — 421 in the 4th Brigade and 299 in the 2nd Brigade. Of those, 416 would die on the war path of the proletarians, including him — unfortunately, probably at the hands of a comrade, which could not be verified from Petrovo polje at the time. However, rumours were circulating in the Supreme Headquarters regarding this loss, suggesting that “things were not clean,” a suspicion introduced by the couriers who brought the report. These young men, none of whom could hide anything, whispered that he was liquidated by a group of comrades on Chetnik Ozren, as it was heard in the Headquarters, which was “pushing” for the division to break through to Montenegro, that Cvijo was convincing his Livno people to return to Krajina and “defend their homes from wolves and ravens,” left in great uncertainty, or to stay on Ozren for the time being. This was considered a “pro-Chetnik orientation,” and the Chetniks, both in Krajina and Montenegro, were seen as “enemy number one.” But who, in that wartime turmoil, could verify the truth of that story, and even less, who dared to investigate in the Headquarters, where Peko and Mitar were in charge!? Nevertheless, everything remained at the level of intrigues, which were occasionally fuelled among the Krajina fighters.[3]
Notes
[1] The memory of B. Gledović and M. Morača, October 1995, in Belgrade. His real name was Cvetko Pajčin, but he was called Cvijo Oraščić.
[2] From a conversation with A. Ranković, October 1973, in Belgrade.
[3] In the mid-eighties, military historian Colonel Bogdan Gledović asked General Peko Dapčević, in front of a group of Federation Council members, “How did your men liquidate Cvijo Pajčin Oraščić?” To which he replied that he had nothing to do with it, but “you should ask M. Bakić and Broz; such things were done by their line.” However, both “accused” men had long been dead (the first since 1960 and the second since 1980), so there was no one left to ask “about the outcome of the ambush at Ozren.”
(Ivan Matović, Commander with a Halo of a Martyr, Sava Press, Toronto 2025, pp. 221-23, 329-30. Photo credits: Jadovno 1941, Milan Radanović)