ORGANIZATION OF YUGOSLAV NATIONALISTS IN SOUTHERN SERBIA (1921-1929)

Abstract

The subject of this article is the activities of the Organization of Yugoslav Nationalists (ORJUNA) in the territory of Southern Serbia in the period 1922- 1929. The paper reconstructs the process of building the organizational structure of ORJUNА in South Serbia, as well as the ideological motivation and daily political activity of its membership in this area. The central theme of the work is the relationship of ORJUNА towards terrorist organizations - the Kosovo Committee and the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization (VMRO) and the claims of neighboring countries, primarily Italy, Bulgaria and Albania, on the territory of Southern Serbia. Special attention is paid to the actions of the ORJUNA militia (the so-called Action Squads) and the conflicts of this paramilitary formation with the Albanian separatists - Kačacs and supporters of Jamiyet. We have analyzed in detail the ideological background of the propaganda work of the South Serbian ORJUNA aimed at winning VMRO activists and the Bulgarian ruling circles for the concept of uniting all South Slavs. In the final part of the article we have presented ORJUNА’s propaganda work among the Slavic-speaking population of Aegean Macedonia, as well as expansionist plans at the expense of Greece and Albania