BURIED WITHOUT STATE AND MILITARY HONORS: What role the communists played in the death of the great duke Bojović!

The story that Vojvoda Petar Bojović was a victim of torture by the new communist authorities towards the end of his life is quite widespread and often appears in domestic media, especially around the anniversary of the vojvoda’s death. However, is there any evidence to support it? And what is the background to the whole story?

Petar Bojović was many things – a soldier who did not want to be involved in politics, a military commander who did not abandon his soldiers, a man devoted to his family, strict towards everyone, especially himself, a forgotten hero… In a series of only four Serbian generals who were given the rank of vojvoda, he was the last to be awarded this honor and the youngest.

However, in recent years, the vojvoda is most often mentioned concerning the circumstances of his death. According to the story published for years by domestic online media, Petar Bojović became a victim of the new communist authorities and died from the consequences of the physical and psychological torture he suffered after being imprisoned.

Is there any truth to this? What do the evidence and the background to the whole story say?

Voluntary Self-Isolation

“For us today, the most valuable and authentic historical source regarding the events surrounding Vojvoda Petar Bojović during the Second World War, as well as the circumstances of his death and burial, is the exceptionally valuable and detailed video testimony of Kosta Rakić, a longtime servant in the Bojović home and later a family friend, which was created on January 24, 2018,” says Serbian historian Dejan Ristić, adding that this valuable testimony, lasting about 60 minutes, represents an exceptional and first-rate historical source that eliminates possible dilemmas regarding the vojvoda and the relationship that the German occupiers, and then the new Yugoslav authorities, had towards him.

Thanks to Rakić’s story, we know today that Vojvoda Bojović spent the entire Second World War in his house in Trnska Street in Vračar, in a kind of voluntary self-isolation.

Namely, after refusing to publicly support the occupying authorities, a kind of “agreement” was made between him and the Germans – no German soldier would ever cross the threshold of Bojović’s home, as long as the vojvoda kept to the promise of not leaving his house and garden throughout the occupation.

“The vojvoda himself opted for a kind of voluntary house arrest, or self-isolation, wishing to thereby unequivocally avoid any possible, even the slightest, danger of coming into contact with members of the Nazi German occupation and Serbian quisling authorities,” emphasizes Ristić, who is also the author of the book “Myths of Serbian History” in which he also dealt with the story of the death of Vojvoda Bojović.

Vojvoda Bojović was indeed called to give a statement, but…

Petar Bojović welcomed the liberation of Belgrade on October 20, 1944, and the arrival of new authorities in his home. Shortly after that, he was called to give a statement and that procedure lasted a full three days.

“That act, completely inappropriate and unacceptable when it comes to a truly great man and patriot like Vojvoda Bojović, was a humiliating and shameful procedure fur the old, triumphant, and glorious military commander who was then fully 87 years old. However, according to the testimony of Kosta Rakić, ‘Vojvoda Bojović was interrogated for three days, but no one beat him’. Moreover, Rakić clearly and unequivocally rejects even the slightest thought of any physical or psychological abuse of Bojović during the three-day interrogation and emphasizes that there were no visible signs of any beating on the vojvoda and that he did not, until his death, on any occasion say that he had been subjected to any form of bad and inappropriate treatment that would include violence against him,” explains Ristić, recalling that a full two months passed between the interrogation and the day of Petar Bojović’s death and that these two events cannot be directly linked.

But what actually happened then?

After the interrogation was over, the vojvoda returned to his home. According to the testimony of Kosta Rakić, an unpleasant incident did occur in those months – two members of the People’s Liberation Army of Yugoslavia entered Bojović’s house, one of whom had officer’s insignia.

After finding the old vojvoda, they insulted him, humiliated him, and finally stole the saber from which the old man had never parted.

“At one point, the officer reached for the vojvoda’s saber, grabbed it, and quickly walked towards the exit of that room. Seeing this, the vojvoda’s son, Dobrica, reacted quickly, catching up with the intruder on the stairs and delivering a strong blow to his face, which caused him to fall and tumble down the stairs. As soon as he somehow got to his feet, he ran towards the exit of the house. Seeing all this, the soldier who was with that officer also quickly left the Bojović family home,” says historian Dejan Ristić.

On that same occasion, his cap was also apparently taken in addition to the vojvoda’s saber. Both objects are now missing from the complete set of Petar Bojović’s personal uniform, which is kept in the National Museum in Čačak and are considered lost.

How did Vojvoda Bojović actually die?

Vojvoda Petar Bojović died in his home in Belgrade on January 19, 1945. The cause of death, which is stated in the register of deaths at the Church of Saint Sava in Vračar, was “bilateral pneumonia”. He was 86 years old.

“What Kosta Rakić emphasized in his testimony refers to the consequences of the intrusion of two members of the People’s Liberation Army of Yugoslavia into Bojović’s home, which subsequently caused visible trembling of the vojvoda’s hands, a very bad mood, and an increasingly frequent refusal to take food. According to Rakić himself, such a psycho-physical state of health of Vojvoda Petar Bojović caused inflammation of both lungs in the following weeks, which, unfortunately, also led to the death of the last Serbian and Yugoslav vojvoda,” emphasizes Ristić.

Petar Bojović was buried in the family tomb at Novo groblje in Belgrade on January 21 in the presence of an Orthodox priest, surrounded by his closest family and friends. The funeral was watched from a safe distance by two men dressed in dark leather coats who everyone present assumed were members of the OZNA.

No newspapers, nor the then Radio Belgrade, reported the death of the celebrated fighter.

“Based on this kind of silence of the media at the time, it could be concluded that the new Yugoslav communist authorities did everything to keep the funeral of Vojvoda Bojović, as much as possible, out of the public eye,” believes historian Dejan Ristić.

A funeral without military honors

What is an undeniable fact and a deep injustice in this whole story is that Petar Bojović, the last vojvoda from the First World War, was buried without state and military honors.

The answer to the question of how this happened should be sought at the time when the celebrated warrior died.

“It is completely understandable why the funeral of Vojvoda Bojović, unfortunately, had to be held without state and military honors, and that is because it was a period of a kind of interregnum between the Kingdom and subsequent socialist Yugoslavia, both in the state and in the context of the official armed forces. Simply put, in the days of the vojvoda’s death and funeral, there was, unfortunately, no longer a state to which he remained loyal until his last day (the Kingdom of Yugoslavia), nor the official armed forces of that country to which he had belonged for decades (the Army of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia),” Ristić believes.

As for Kosta Rakić, the man based on whose memories we know today what the last days of Vojvoda Petar Bojović looked like, he died on May 30, 2019, in Belgrade. With his death, the last living witness of that turbulent time also left.