Sekula Drljević
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Sekula Drljević (Секулa Дрљевић) (born 1884 in the village of Ravni, Kingdom of Montenegro — died late 1945 in Judenburg, Austria) was a Montenegrin politician, lawyer, and author. During World War II he became a Montenegrin separatist as well as Fascist and Ustasha collaborator.
He is still a very controversial and polarizing figure. Some describe him as a 'true Montenegrin patriot' while most others merely dismiss him as 'a Fascist'. Two verses of his adaption of the song "Oj, svijetla majska zoro" have been adopted as part of the official lyrics of the national anthem of Montenegro.
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[edit] Early life
Drljević was born in Ravni, Morača in 1884. He completed primary school in his village and then went to Sremski Karlovci, at the time in Austria-Hungary for secondary school (gymnasium) studies. He then moved on to Zagreb, at the time also a part of Austria-Hungary, where he enrolled in University of Zagreb's Faculty of Law. In addition to getting a diploma, he afterwards also obtained a doctorate from the same university.
[edit] Career in politics
[edit] Kingdom of Montenegro
Upon returning to Montenegro, Drljevic became a secretary in the Ministry of Finance. In 1909 he was named the Minister of Justice, as well as the representative of Education Ministry in the Montenegrin government. In the 1912-1913 period, he was the Minister of Finance and Construction. In 1913 he was voted in as the member of Montenegrin parliament for the first time.
During this time, he was a strong supporter of unification of Montenegro and Serbia. He's even credited as the creator of the idea for customs, military and diplomatic union between the two kingdoms.
[edit] World War I
Drljevic was arrested and taken to Karlstein prison camp where he was interned between 1917 and 1918.
[edit] Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes / Kingdom of Yugoslavia
After returning from captivity, the Yugoslav government gave him a high-ranking position in the Ministry of Justice, because he declared himself as a radical and a supporter of unification.
However, due to his opposition to centralist policies, he left his governmental job and opened a law practice in Zemun in April 1919. Known as a capable lawyer and forceful orator, Drljevic became quite well known through several cases like his defence of brigadeer Radomir Vešović.
At this time, Drljevic espoused federalist views, insisting that Yugoslavia (the land of the South Slavs) is a stately and not a national idea. In the 1920 elections, he was prevented from entering a candidate list. From the very creation of Montenegrin Federalist Party in 1922, he was one its most influential members, though he formally didn't hold a high-ranking party position.
In 1925, he was voted in as the federal member of parliament in the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes for the very first time. He opposed what he saw as centralist tendencies, and pushed for what he saw to be Montenegrin interests. He soon grew politically close to Stjepan Radić and his Croatian Peasant Party. Radic's party led the creation of a Peasant-Democratic coalition on whose list Drljević got elected to Yugoslav parliament in 1927. Montenegrin Federalist Party was a formal member of the said coalition.
Following Radić's death, Drljević became close to his successor Vladko Maček and was gradually becoming more radicalized in his opposition to all of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia ruling coalitions. In what would turn out to be his last MP mandate, Drljević was elected to parliament in 1938 on the list of United Opposition.
[edit] World War II and the fascist Italian occupation of Montenegro
During April 1941, Axis forces occupied the entire Kingdom of Yugoslavia. Montenegro fell under the control of fascist Italian regime led by Benito Mussolini.
Drljević's response was a quick gathering of a tight group of Montenegrin separatists who established the Provisional Administrative Committee of Montenegro on April 17, 1941 in the former Montenegrin capital Cetinje. His committee functioned as a collaborationist organ of the Italian fascist government, and, as a reward, Drljević became the leader of Fascist-puppet 'Independent State of Montenegro'. He spoke at the Petrovdan (St. Peter's Day) gathering on July 12, 1941 in Cetinje, which was the inauguration of the new puppet state under the auspices of Mussolini. However, Drljević's undisputed reign effectively lasted less than 24 hours as a popular anti-fascist movement and guerilla resistance war broke out the very next day.
By October 1941, Italian fascist occupational forces didn't have much practical use of Drljević, so they exiled and imprisoned him in Sanremo through a decree by Alessandro "Pirzio" Birolli, main representative of Fascist Italy in Montenegro.
[edit] Collaboration with Ante Pavelić and Ustasha regime
Drljević managed to flee Italy and reach the Belgrade suburb of Zemun, which was at the time occupied by another Nazi puppet state Independent State of Croatia run by Ante Pavelić-led Ustasha regime. Drljević was close to Pavelić, maintaining a direct communication link all throughout the war.
In the spring of 1944, Drljević moved to Zagreb, the capital of Pavelić's Nazi puppet state. Afterwards, in July 1944, Drljević formed the Montenegrin State Council within the Independent State of Croatia.
Since he was the "general without an army" Drljević looked for ways to form or take over some sort of homegrown militia force that could, along with outside Ustasha support, help him influence matters on the ground in Montenegro. The enbattled remnants of Yugoslav Royal Army's Montenegrin branch led by Pavle Đurišić became prime candidates for this. In the spring of 1945 Drljević's emissars approached the beleaguered Pavle Đurišić whose defeated Chetniks were on their last legs in full retreat through Bosnia. The deal between two men was struck on March 22, 1945 in Doboj. The terms of the agreement, strongly opposed by Đurišić's army colleague Draža Mihailović, stipulated that Đurišić recognize the Montenegrin State Council as a provisionary government, while his Chetniks are to become the new Montenegrin People's Army with Đurišić as the operational commander and Drljevic as the Supreme commander. In return, Drljević offered Đurišić and his men safe passage to Slovenian border in order to rest and regroup. From the outside, the deal looked to be a pure marriage of convenience between two men with absolutely nothing in common, and it is unclear whether any of the two had the intention of honouring his end of the bargain. Barely two weeks later, on April 8, 1945, Đurišić tried to move his troops towards Slovenia but they were intercepted and slaughtered by Pavelić's Ustaše. The captured Chetniks were divided into three brigades and put under direct Ustaše control as the Montenegrin People's Army (Crnogorska narodna vojska) and forced to fight in Karlovac vicinity.
Đurišić was on the run in Banja Luka vicinity, in an even weaker position than before. There he was tracked down by colonel Metikos whom he knew well from their time together in Royal Yugoslav Army. He relayed another offer by Drljević of negotiations in Stara Gradiska which Đurišić and his officers fatally accepted. Upon arriving to Gradiska, their weapons were taken away and they were sent to Jasenovac where they were killed by Ustaše. Drljević never even showed up for the supposed negotiation meeting.
By this time Tito's Partisans forced the Ustaše into retreat along with the remaining Chetniks who were forcedly fighting as Drljević's Montenegrin People's Army.
Drljević was already declared a war criminal by the Tito's communist established State Commission for Establishing the Crimes of the Occupiers and Their Helpers on February 24, 1945. During the chaotic retreat, Drljević and his wife had their throats slit later that year in Judenburg, Austria by surviving captured Chetniks who were forced to fight under his self-styled Montenegrin People's Army.
[edit] Political author
Several of Drljevic's books were published. He gathered his Yugoslav parliament speeches and published them as Centralizam ili federalizam (1926).
During the World War II, his book Balkanski sukobi 1905-1941 was published.
