Description
Ivan Matović’s book, Faithful to the Fatherland and the Calling, is an overdue and mature contribution to the historiographical treasury of the Second World War in Yugoslavia. Transcending both fossilised communist-era and émigré narratives, Matović’s research suggests that the National Liberation Army of Yugoslavia, commonly referred to as the Partisan Army, did not necessarily represent a revolutionary rupture with the pre-war Royal Yugoslav Army. With immense attention to detail at the individual level, reflected in 500+ short biographies of active officers, Matović’s research demonstrates that those who were later labelled “former (royal) officers” played a significant role in organising, professionalising and, indeed, leading the Partisan Army during the war.
In fact, these royal officers fought on all anti-fascist fronts: from acts of heroism during the eleven-day April War of 1941, to the Partisan Uprising in July 1941, to resistance “behind the barbed wire” of German prisoner-of-war camps; from service in the British and American armies to the experiences of those captured in battle on Soviet territory and subsequently reorganised into Yugoslav formations; and even to the many particular cases of “strange fortunes.” Wherever life took these men, thousands chose to fight as part of the Allied coalition against nazi-fascist forces.
In post-war Yugoslavia, hundreds of these officers who remained “faithful to the fatherland and the calling” received distinguished decorations and, following their professional instincts, took leading roles in organising the General Staff, establishing military schools and institutions, and writing lectures and textbooks. However, the ideological stigma and one-sided judgements of the period prevented their full recognition, subjected them to censorship, pushed them towards self-censorship and made them particularly vulnerable to recurrent political repression. Matović thus sets out to give a powerful voice to those who were silenced.