Pavle Mladenović

Pavle Mladenović—Čiča Pavle

Pavle Mladenović
Nickname(s) Čiča Pavle
Born Jačince, Ottoman Empire (now R. Macedonia)
Died Beljakovac, Ottoman Empire (now R. Macedonia)
Allegiance
Years of service 1903–05
Rank Voivode (Vojvoda)
Battles/wars
  • Macedonian Struggle
    • Battle of Čelopek

Pavle Mladenović (Serbian Cyrillic: Павле Младеновић; d. June 16, 1905), known as Čiča Pavle (Чича Павле; "Uncle Pavle"), was a Serbian Chetnik commander active in Macedonia during the Macedonian Struggle.

Life

Mladenović was born in the village of Jačince, in the region of Ovče Polje, at the time part of the Ottoman Empire. He worked as a peasant in his village, and became an Exarchist at the end of the 19th century. When the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization (IMRO) started assassinating and murdering people who identified as Serbs in the Kumanovo region, Čiča Pavle took his sons and nephews to the woods, and joined the precursor to the Serbian Chetnik Organization. He started guerilla fighting in springtime 1903, as the first Serbian vojvoda, a year before the establishment of the Serbian Committee.[1][2] His band had strict orders of protection, and it fought until 1905 without major clashes, defending Serb villages from Bulgarian nationalist bands of the IMRO. In April 1905 he participated in the Battle of Čelopek alongside commanders Doksim Mihailović, Savatije Milošević, Lazar Kujundžić, Vojislav Tankosić, Aksentije Bacetović and Borko Paštrović. During the battle he took the Čelopek height and thus prevented the encirclement of the Serbian bands from the Albanian bashi-bozuks.[3] Shortly thereafter, he and Bacetović were surrounded by the Ottoman army near the village of Beljakovac.[4][5] Čiča Pavle, Bacetović, and everyone in their bands were killed.

After his death, his son Jaćim Pavlović-Jaćko continued in his father's footsteps, becoming a Serbian vojvoda himself.

References

  1. ↑ U. Šešum, Vojvode srpske četničke organizacije 1903-1908, Naša Prošlost br. 11, Kraljevo 2011, 136.
  2. ↑ Narodna enciklopedija srpsko hrvatsko slovenačka, Beograd 1929, 836-837
  3. ↑ S. Krakov, Plamen četništva, Beograd 1930, 216-222;
  4. ↑ Ilija Ž. Trifunović, Trnovitim stazama, Beograd 1933, 24-28.
  5. ↑ V. Ilić, Srpska četnička akcija 1903-1912, Beograd 2006, 61-64.