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Intimate Voices from the First World War
By Palmer, Svetlana Perennial
ISBN: 0060584203
Chapter One
The First Shots
28th June-30th July 1914
On 28th June 1914 Archduke Franz Ferdinand, the heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, and his wife, Sophie, were assassinated during a state visit to Sarajevo, capital of the Austro-Hungarian province of Bosnia-Herzegovina. The fatal shots were fired by nineteen-year-old Gavrilo Princip, a Bosnian Serb who wanted Bosnian unification with Serbia and independence from the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Franz Ferdinand, as a member of the ruling Habsburg family, was a symbol of that ancient, multi-national empire and the repression of its minorities. Unknown to his assassin the archduke, who was an advocate of political reform, had recently given an after-dinner toast: 'To peace! What would we get out of war with Serbia? We'd lose the lives of young men and we'd spend money better used elsewhere. And what would we gain, for heaven's sake? A few plum trees, some pastures full of goat droppings, and a bunch of rebellious killers.'
Now he was dead. The Austrian army's Chief of the General Staff thought differently about a war with Serbia. On 23rd July, Vienna will issue an ultimatum with demands unlikely to be met in Belgrade. Five days later Austro-Hungarian troops will invade with the backing of Germany. Two Balkan wars had gripped this unstable region in the early twentieth century. But this time what could have been thethird Balkan War will become a world war.
The youngest of the assassins involved in the plot to kill Archduke Franz Ferdinand left an account of his role in the assassination. Seventeen -year-old Vaso Cubrilovic, a Bosnian Serb from Basanska Gradiska, was educated in the Bosnian town of Tuzla, then part Of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The Habsburgs had only recently wrested control of Bosnia and Herzegovina from the Ottoman Empire, which had ruled large parts of the Balkans for four hundred years. While Bosnia exchanged one imperial rule for another, for over three decades neighbouring Serbia had been an independent kingdom. The very existence of Serbia inspired many still living under foreign rule to hope for independence. This, in turn, threatened the stability of the Habsburgs who ruled an empire of at least ten different nationalities, any one of which could have attempted to follow Serbia's example. Like his fellow assassin Gavrilo Princip, Vaso Cubrilovic was a member of Young Bosnia, an underground organisation with one main aspiration: the creation of a southern Slav state, Yugoslavia, which would unite Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, be they Orthodox, Catholic or Muslim, in a new state free from both Ottoman and Habsburg influence.
Vaso Cubrilovic is spared execution for his part in the plot, as he is under twenty. In a letter to his sisters, Vida and Staka, written while serving a sixteen-year sentence in prison, he explains how he came to participate in one of the world's most notorious assassinations.
Zenica Prison, 1918
I shall write as much as I can remember about the assassination. I first thought of it in October 1913 in Tuzla, incensed by the fights we had with our teachers, the mistreatment of Serbian students, and the general situation in Bosnia. I thought I'd rather kill the one person who'd really harmed our people than fight in another war for Serbia. All I'd achieve in a war is to kill a couple of innocent soldiers, while these gentlemen who were responsible for it would never come anywhere near the war itself.
In January 1914 I was expelled from high school in Tuzla. I wavered for a while, unsure whether to escape to Serbia or come to you in Sarajevo. Finally, I decided to come to you. It was while staying with you in Sarajevo that I was introduced to various students, mainly to those who felt the same way as I did.
And then came April. I remember clearly reading in Srpska Rec [Serbian Word] and in Pobratimstvo [Fraternity] that Ferdinand was coming to Sarajevo. I immediately began thinking about an assassination. With all the anti-Austrian feelings at college, I was convinced that someone else must be planning it too. I knew that Lazar Djukic had gone to jail in 1910 for his role in a similar plot against the emperor. He was bound to know if anyone was plotting, and I decided to find out. I would join them, or at the very least persuade Djukic to hide the weapons I planned to obtain in Tuzla. While we were out walking one day he was telling me about the emperor's visit in 1909. I casually remarked that now Ferdinand was coming. 'Yes,' answered Djukic.
I said, 'We ought to welcome him.' That was our code for assassination.
'Ahem, yes, if we can find the people to do it,' he said.
'The people are there, but they've nothing to do it with.'
'Weapons can always be found, if people really want them,' he responded.
Up until now our exchange seemed light-hearted, but at this point it got serious. I told him I was willing to do it and that my mind was made up. I just couldn't find the weapons.
Djukic introduced me to Danilo Ilic. He would also get me two bombs, a gun and some cyanide. All that Ilic told me was that there would be three others, apart from us three, and that Serbian officers were supplying the weapons. I asked if the Serbian government knew about it. He said no, in Serbia everything was being done in secret. We didn't talk about it any more.
We worried that the Sarajevan police might decide to remove us all from the city [during Ferdinand's visit]. Besides, I wanted to leave you before the assassination, to avoid causing you problems. This is why I kept nagging Staka to let me leave before the exam results came out ... Continues...
Excerpted from Intimate Voices from the First World War by Palmer, Svetlana Excerpted by permission.
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