The Chetniks of WW2 Yugoslavia - Resistance or Axis Collaborators?

Were the Chetniks Axis collaborators? Or did they resist the Axis during WW2? Time to explore this debate by exploring the situation in Yugoslavia during the war, and examining the Yugoslavian resistance, with a focus on Mihailović's Chetniks. We can compare them to other Chetnik movements as well as to Tito's Communist 'Partisans' and see if we can figure out what the historical truth really is.
Today's question was asked by Habrsoa. To ask your own question, please consider supporting me on either Patreon or SubscribeStar and help make more videos like this possible. For $5 or more you can ask questions which I will answer in future Q&A videos. Thank you to my current Patrons! You're AWESOME! / tikhistory or www.subscribes...
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📚 BIBLIOGRAPHY / SOURCES 📚
Hale, C. “Hitler’s Foreign Executioners: Europe’s Dirty Secret.” History Press, 2011 Kindle.
Milazzo, M. “The Chetnik Movement and the Yugoslav Resistance.” Johns Hopkins University Press, Kindle 2019. (Originally 1975.)
Pavlowitch, S. "Hitler's New Disorder: The Second World War in Yugoslavia." Columbia University Press, 2008.
Roberts, W. “Tito, Mihailović, and the Allies, 1941-1945.” Duke University Press, 1987.
Full list of all my WW2 and related sources - docs.google.co...
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ABOUT TIK 📝
History isn’t as boring as some people think, and my goal is to get people talking about it. I also want to dispel the myths and distortions that ruin our perception of the past by asking a simple question - “But is this really the case?”. I have a 2:1 Degree in History and a passion for early 20th Century conflicts (mainly WW2). I’m therefore approaching this like I would an academic essay. Lots of sources, quotes, references and so on. Only the truth will do.
This video is discussing events or concepts that are academic, educational and historical in nature. This video is for informational purposes and was created so we may better understand the past and learn from the mistakes others have made.

[@teru797]

This is the worst case of "damned if you do, damned if you don't" that I've ever seen.

[@PolakInHolland]

Try the Home Army during the Warsaw Uprising. Rock and a hard place.

[@nicholasconder4703]

In a sense it was a bit of a "Catch 22" situation of his own, and the Yugoslavian government-in-exile's making. Mihailovic and the Yugoslavian government wanted to protect the civilians, so didn't fight. But to get arms, he needed to have active resistance, which would have resulted in civilian casualties. Had Mihailovic chosen to "bite the bullet" and accepted the civilian losses, he might have garnered the Allied support and weapons he needed, garnered civilian support (as happened in France) and may even have been able to build a stronger position with the other forces. Of course, this is all speculation, and as we saw when Yugoslavia disintegrated in 1991-1992 (as well as watching the TimeGhost episodes on Yugoslavia during the 1920s and 1930s), there are a lot of very strong ethnic feelings in the area. And very long memories. So, it is also possible that anything Mihailovic tried would have been doomed from the very start as, unlike the Communists under Tito, they didn't have a philosophical or ideological "glue" to get them all fighting for a common cause against a common enemy.

[@belacheat8833]

Nicholas Conder Load of rubbish Coming from deranged brain

[@eldragon4076]

@@nicholasconder4703 they didn't receive any directions from the government in exile. They were in a really precarious situation as you stated

[@nicholasconder4703]

@@eldragon4076 Yes, between that and trying to herd cats (i.e. trying to coordinate the various other disparate resistance groups), it was a very difficult row to hoe. Tito's biggest advantage was being able to gain control of and coordinate the activities of all the communist groups in Yugoslavia. Because of this, and the fact that the Chetniks were receiving weapons from, and sometimes working with, the Axis powers alienated them from the Allies and ruined any chance the Chetniks could form what the Allies would have considered to be a legitimate resistance movement worth supporting.

[@lusitancenturion]

"So I've decided to do what I do best - laying criticism at all sides and unite the balkans in their hatred of me" - Love it XD

[@DaveSCameron]

BALLACKS to you. Xx

[@totallynotalpharius2283]

The hero we need

[@DaveSCameron]

@@totallynotalpharius2283 Hear hear, a most refreshing standpoint... ;-}

[@OGazdicO]

Pretty good idea

[@user-ry8im8dl5t]

You need correct Fact don't spread misinformation and lies

[@nikolasimic2232]

I get it why it isn't convenient to call them "The Partisans", but calling them "Tito's communists" is also kinda wrong. Not all of them were communists, a lot of the people in Tito's movement didn't care about communism or any other political idea, and were just people who wished to oppose the occupation.

[@Svemirsky]

This is true and it's quite tragic.

[@serpens8]

I know it is painful your most effective resistance force was Sovjet Moscows arm, but it is true, regardless of some individual low ranking soldiers were or were not Communists, or political in nature.

[@serdradion4010]

Tito je 1937. postavljen na mesto sekretara KPJ licno od Staljina kao covek od poverenja. Usaglaseno je glediste sa Staljinom da KJ ne moze dugo da opstane, zbog etnickih problema,pa Tito po povratku u KJ osniva KP Slovenije i KP Hrvatske unutar KPJ. Ceo rat u grupi Vrhovnog staba oko Tita, bili su komunisti iz ostatka KPJ, a stabovi i CK KPS i KPH su bili posebno i odvojeni. Istorija koju smo ucili od Dedijera , Petranovica,Klaric, i drugih tog vremena je izkonstruisana da sakrije prava dogadjanja i uloge.

[@jamesburke9865]

@@Svemirsky Why is it tragic? Under Tito the people of Yugoslavia saw the most peaceful, prosperous and prestigious periods in their entire history.

[@lukabajic9729]

@@jamesburke9865 people still cope about the king lmao. It is good they got rid of those aristocrats

[@hermitoldguy6312]

If history teaches us anything, it's that whatever happens, it's Britain's fault.

[@matthewsteele99]

Or France

[@jussim.konttinen4981]

@Lovecraft Or even when they're Germans they are still British, in the style of Schindler's List

[@ArcticTemper]

The Britons really are a unsung hero of history. Media always tries to paint them as bad guys, but opposite is almost always the true. God to save the Queen!

[@jussim.konttinen4981]

@@ArcticTemper Swedes are pretty awesome overlords of Finland. However, it is easy to raise your hands in front of the Russians, leaving the Swedes played out of power. I mean no one wants some colonial Lord in their home. Tourism is a different matter.

[@ivanrenic4243]

@@ArcticTemper sure they are...

[@Nerve_Check]

Trying to decipher politics in Yugoslavia... "It's complicated" Best summary I have seen to date. Thank you for answering this question!

[@TheImperatorKnight]

Yep, that word is very appropriate here!

[@henleinkosh2613]

It's not complicated... Complicated can be understood if you apply enough brainpower, Yugoslavia is way beyond that.

[@billbolton]

Lindybeige, the KZbin entertainer, recently did an hour long video on Yugoslavia and the resistance, he said it was complicated.

[@Nerve_Check]

@@henleinkosh2613 what's interesting is he answered a question I hadn't even thought of asking!

[@thegloriouspyrocheems2277]

@@billbolton I watched that video and that is only scratching the surface (this comes from a Bosnian-Herzegovinian from one of the most complicated cities in former Yugoslavia)

[@skueazzy3917]

My great grandfather was Chetnik. He once said to my father: "The teachers in school have only read about this, I have lived through it"

[@lifeasadreamrecords4479]

the commies rewrote history...

[@marijataradi6659]

ali ne vidiš da je mapa kriva.ja sam iz međimurja...mi smo pod mađarima bili a po njegovom smo pod njemcima bili.moj deda je partizan bil ali je rekel da do 1943g i četnici i partizani su se borili protiv švaba........engleska je odabrala tita i tada je draža dok so 1943g talijani kapitulirali počel za švabe da se bori ne:(((((

[@lifeasadreamrecords4479]

@@marijataradi6659 ma nisu se nasi borili za svabe pobogu dijete

[@danielaramburo7648]

Did he fight the Nazis on behalf of Tito?

[@jediroko6946]

Tvoj deda nije imao izbora

[@warrenlehmkuhleii8472]

“Uniting the Balkans in hatred of me” ‘ Well, as long is it is for peace.

[@infernosgaming8942]

TIK did the impossible, unified the Balkans in totality xD

[@maxkennedy8075]

Any conflict in the Balkans inevitably becomes 4D chess at the highest level

[@Forevertrue-z2w]

It comes from Vatican, Germany or England.

[@vladocuro6570]

TIK, a medal for courage definitely, but you should have avoided this one. Firstly, it is too complicated for 30 minutes video, secondly it is still not sufficiently examined, thirdly it is hotly contested topic, not only between nations (CRO vs SER) but within nations (Serbs vs Serbs). And it's no wonder that you made several mistakes, but we cannot take it against you, one needs to be from around here (Balkans) to understand it all. - "Partisans" or "Communists". It's a mistake to call Yugoslav partisans communists. You should have just used the local word "partizan" (without attaching the meaning of the word 'partisan' to it) as you used local words for 'Chetniks' or 'Ustashe'. Or simply call them by their official name National Liberation Army (NLA), or by their local acronym NOV The NLA was far from being communists force. The communist party provided organizational structure, but they were just the most organized group in the movement. Majority of the people simply did not understand the ideology. They just fought against the invaders. My grandfather fought in partizans, but he had no particular inclination for communists. He just hated Germans and Italians. He might have well joined Chetniks for the matter of ideology. He chose side not based on ideology, but based on who is effectively fighting against the occupants. And it was the NLA In my native Montenegro, the nation wide rebellion against Italians started on 13.July 1941, sparked by revolt against Italian proclamation of puppet state of Montenegro a day before. The rebellion spread like a wildfire, within 3 days Italians controlled less than 20% of the territory. It would be stupid to assume that 80% of population of the country were communists. - Partizans being supplied by Moscow. Absolutelly off the mark. Yugoslav partizans did not get any supplies from Soviet Union before autumn of 1944, by which time NLA was already relatively well equipped and well supplied force, and had already clearly won the civil war in Yugoslavia I mean, how could Soviets supply Yugoslav partizans even if they had wanted so? By sea? By air? It was neither physically nor logistically possible. The Partizans were supplied initially by the remains of the Yugoslav Royal Army stock (which were abundant), then by their own production (when they held Uzice republic territory, but later too), then by stripping the German and Italian units, (Especially after the capitulation of Italy, when huge stacks of Italian equipment were captured by Partizans), and in the later part of the war (44 onwards) by British. This is confirmed by the equipment NLA used: most used rifle Belgian M24, (leftover from YRA), and Carcano ('gifts' from Italians), machine gun ZB27 (YRA leftover), etc. No PPSh, no DP. Only in Montenegro some Mossin Nagan rifles could be found, but even these were not of Soviet origins. "Moskovka" (as Mossin Nagan rifle was called locally) was a standard rifle of the Royal Army of Montenegro during WWI. So, it was a leftovers from previous war. Only in late 1944 when the Red Army entered Yugoslavia and made physical link with the Partizans they they supplied some of the equipment to NLA. And after that one could see a NLA officer having a PPSh or TT pistol. - While formally being a leader of Communist party of Yugoslavia, Tito was not that much of a staunch communist either. He was rather opportunistic than ideological. His love for Stalin did not last (and events in 1947-48 showed), if he ever had it. During the war he was trying to keep the middle ground between the Soviets and British. The later history of Yugoslavia confirms this. - Partisan non-agression pact with Germans. Even if it had existed (which I seriously doubt, not on ideological grounds though, but rather on German view of NLA) it was menttioned at completely wrong place, in the context of operation Weiss, as if it was the arrangement to protect the back of partizans while they deal with Chetniks. If there was such an agreement between NLA and Wehrmacht during operation Weiss, then someone forgot to notify German and NLA units fighting around Prozor, where they had some of the fiercest clashes of the war. During the operation Weiss there was certainly no such arrangement, since the goal of the operation was to crush the resistance and to get rid of NLA once and for all. Actually, the Germans were putting up their utmost to achieve this goal, by pressing the NLA from the northwest into the shrinking pocket against Neretva river. And this is where you made another mistake: the number of chetniks. Chetniks had around 15k (20+k according to official post war history) on the eastern bank of Neretva. Their task was to serve as the cap to the cauldron. But they utterly failed at it. NLA managed to force Neretva and crushed the Chetnik force in Jablanica. It was a blow from which they never recovered. It was the last time Chetniks force was used in such large formations. -Chetniks never operated in Croatia proper. They operated only in parts of Bosnia and Herzegovina, (which were part of NDH - Independent State Of Croatia, but not Croatia itself). They needed supply and logistical support by local population to be able to operate, and this was possible only in Herzegovina and parts of Bosnia were there was at least some Serbian population. Serbs more further west (In Croatia proper) were mostly Partizan supporters because they saw them as protection against the Croatian NDH and it's genocidal agenda of ethnically cleansing Serbs from Croatia. Chetniks, who cooperated with Germans and Ustashe, could not find much love among that population of Serbs. - Mihailovic did not operate from nor in Montenegro. In Montenegro the leader of Chetnik movement was Pavle Djurisic, and he had love-hate relationship with Mihailovic. But that is a whole another story. - Where you place Mihailovic in northern Montenegro is actually a start of operation Schwartz, at which point it was controlled by NLA, and the whole point of the Schwartz was to eliminate that liberated territory and to get rid of NLA (again). (I think that thousands of Yugoslav partizans would have liked to see you shot for placing the Mihailovic icon at the place and time of their units were at the time. The Battle of Sutjeska was a pivotal moment for NLA and you had just did the equivalent of blasphemy). - The number of NLA is greatly played down. At any given time since second half of 1941 the movements strength did not fall below 100k combatants, and it linearly grew during the war, nearing million at the war end. - The Germans never left Yugoslavia. At any given time there were always at least few German divisions in the area, and after the capitulation of Italy, even more. There were few more mistakes. But this comment is too long already. The Balkans is never easy.

[@Blazo_Djurovic]

This comment deserves more up votes.

[@damyr]

The most informative comment here. I have no idea how TIK could make such a mistake when he said Tito's partisans were supplied by Stalin. I mean, how? Maybe before Barbarossa, USSR did helped Tito and his communist groups with some supplies and light weaponry, but definitely not after Hitler's invasion in 1941. Btw when he said Tito's partisans were 25k strong, I believe TIK counted only the group in Bosnia, which was with Tito at the moment. He maybe isn't aware that partisan guerilla movements were scattered all over Yugoslavia, firstly independent, then later in war gradually joined under Tito's command.

[@careline23]

Nice post but you too made a few errors. For example though inferior to the partisans there were in fact Chetnik formations in Croatia. Just google Momčilo Đujić or the Dinara Division.

[@vladocuro6570]

@@careline23 Yes. That is right. But that was Djuic, not Mihailovic. And they did not 'move into Croatia' as video says. Djuic chetniks did not move from anywhere, they were recruited among the local Serbs around Knin as a response to Ustashe massacres in the area.

[@Swift-mr5zi]

the brain is big

[@Beogrrr]

I would like to share some of the real stories from my family, regarding Chetniks vs Partisans - After the destruction of Yugoslav army common people in Serbia wanted to fight the Germans, but there were no real, honourable options for that, so most of them avoided getting into the "wood-people" as they would call guerrilla units in the area I grew up. After Partisans and Chetniks units were formed, they would usually drafting young people into their ranks, just as they passed through some village, regardless of what those young guys wanted. My grandfather was drafted in Chetniks but when he realised that most of the fight was against Partisans, he deserted and hid in a watermill as a worker. Each time some unit went through the village, he would spray some flour on his beard, making himself look much older - so they left him alone. At the end of the war he joined the Partisans just so he could say he was on the right side. Most of the people in our village fled in front of the drafting units. They had a sign - when some unit was spot, they sent a kid to the hill to call for the pigs and that was the sign for hiding. I remember this one old guy from the village, when war in Croatia started ('90s), he said: "If it was the Germans, I would took my rifle right away and go to war, but how to fight against brothers Croatians?" - And he was the biggest deserter of them all in WWII :) During the war, Chetniks put telephone operator in our house, under the threat that they will kill all members of the family and burn the house if anybody complains (we still keep the written order, with the threat, typed and stamped). Later when Chetniks left, Partisans came and they wanted to execute my grandfather for collaboration with Chetniks and they performed a "pretend" execution, where they shot some rounds around my grandfather to try to break him. Partisans also executed one young Chetnik in front of our house. He was just a boy, maybe 18, crying and begging for his life. During the "trial" in our house, he asked my grandmother to bake him some bread. She asked the commissar and he said: "No reason for that, he will be shot!" However, the boy swore her on the lives of her children and since she lost two in labour, she just had to do it. He ate the bread and the Partisans shot him soon after, not paying attention to his cries and begging. The hole they dug up for him was too small, so they cut his legs with shovel to be able to put his body in. His father came after the war and took his body. Those were some terrible times... And at the end, a nice story - One German soldier saved my grandfather's life. There was a German unit going through the village, gathering men for forced labour in Germany or for hostages in case they would need to execute some. They sent one soldier to our house. The German soldier entered the house and saw my grandparents baby daughter who was 2 at the time and he probably felt sorry for them all. My grandfather told me that this German was just looking at the baby and smiling. So, the soldier got out, put his foot on the doorstep, untied his shoe and then started to tie it again slowly. The Germans from the unit couldn't see my grandfather who was standing in the doorway, only the soldier. While he was pretending to tie his shoelaces, the German soldier secretly gave my grandfather a sign to run away. He understood and started to run. After the distance was big enough, soldier started to yell "Halt, halt!" and started to shoot at him, all in pretend that my grandfather got away. Other Germans didn't want to chase him, so they just let him go. Edited just to correct typos and grammar.

[@menschmaschine-2483]

Very nice story. Best regards from Germany. Nie wieder Bruderkrieg!

[@Beogrrr]

@@menschmaschine-2483 Thanks! My grandfather's story about the good German soldier is the mayor reason I always avoided generalisations and I believed that people can be good and unselfish even at the risk for their own lives, even in those dark days, even to complete strangers in a strange country. Having that experience in the closest family marks you to always hope for good.

[@menschmaschine-2483]

@@Beogrrr A serbian friend of mine was told by his grandparents that it were hard times. Then the red army came to free Serbia (so they believed) but first they raped their women. My father grew up in eastern Europe (as he was part of the German minority in Balkan) and told me communism is a big mess. It's never just black and white.

[@wendigo017]

Same story about me, most of my family members were drafted into Chetniks but eventually changed sides in 1944 when king ordered them to do so. Although my own great grandfather was a Montenegrin Partisan since the beginning of that movement.

[@Marko-od7eb]

My grandad fought in Partizans but he was (listen to this) a royalist. The only reason he didn't joined Chetniks (using his words) is because they were mostly killing civilians of other ethnicities in the name of king and because they collaborated with nazis. After war he left his position in high command (he was radio code officer) even though he was decorated war hero and was offered a huge house and piece of land in Ruma. He left the Communist Party because after the war he saw bunch of ex Ustasha and ex Chetniks joining Communist party for their own interest. He was disgusted with them and accused them publicly which resulted in him being kicked out of party. They said he was a mad drunk talkig bullshit because he developed alcohol problem as consequence of PTSD. Later in 70's and 80's turns out he was right. Those same men he accused were kicked out of party and convicted becuse evidence of their war crimes emerged.

[@deandzebic8631]

Advice of history nerd from Balkan: JUST DON'T TRY TO UNDERSTAND WW2 IN BALKANS!

[@TheImperatorKnight]

That's probably the safest approach

[@deandzebic8631]

@@TheImperatorKnight Also I would like to share some new info about ww2 in Balkan with you TiK. Becous I am from Balkan and nerd lover of ww2. Greetings from front!

[@charlesphillips4575]

Don't try to understand the Balkans FULL STOP. There are almost as many groups as there are people, and they are all ready to kill one another. The only way to gain any understanding is to consume large quantities of Slivovitz.

[@deandzebic8631]

@@charlesphillips4575 you're close to truth

[@yuslaven89]

Actually, although complex, history of Balkan is not that complicated to understand. People living at Balkan is other story tho.

[@thegloriouspyrocheems2277]

Oh God no...don't go there TIK... "Unite the hatred of Balkans against me" - OH BOY THIS IS GONNA BE GOOD

[@TheWilferch]

These 30 minutes were about the best "one-stop" explanation given on the Yugoslav situation in WWII. The careful monologue with animated maps helped a GREAT deal. The various Yugo factions....essentially fighting a multi-faceted ( 3 or 4 way) civil war....WHILE....WWII was raging, made various other attempts to describe this, as almost impossible to follow. Thumbs up !....for a great video.

[@wudzah]

As a Serb, amazing video. Well done. One of the best channels on youtube.

[@Cardan011]

Did you watch his ustasha videos where he gushes about Croats....

[@wudzah]

@@Cardan011 I did, I saw a lot of Croats thanking him for saying the ustashe were fierce in combat in Stalingrad.

[@foreverhungry7777]

@@Cardan011 Let's be honest - most of the leadership of the Ustase were Herzegovni, not Croats. There is a joke in Zagreb that goes "Hercegovni think they are more Croatian than the Croats, bigger Catholics than the Pope and some pride themselves on being bigger fascists than Hitler!" Just like Princip, Mladic and his ilk were all born and raised in Bosnia with Biljana Plavšić herself also stating that the "Bosnian Serbs" were more "Serb than Serbs". Ultranationalism is a living hallucination, lol.

[@Forevertrue-z2w]

​@@wudzahhe favourises ustashas because it is well known that both SHS and Yugoslavia were bring created for UK purposes. And the ustashas were being protected by Churchill as are now.

[@anaveragechannel468]

I thought that Tito got most of his supplies from the british instead of the soviets, especially in '41 to '43.

[@azanjac]

Not most, but all of the Brit supplies earmarked for Yugoslavia. He still received supplies from Moscow which was greater overall, but in those years most of his stuff was British. He was deamed as the better German killer by the alies.

[@aleksaradojicic8114]

From second half of 1944, most and maybe even all divisions formed in Serbia and Macedonia were equiped by USSR.

[@PsihoKekec]

British started supplying partisans after they landed in Italy in 1943, while Soviets started supplying them after they took Romania in 1944.

[@MarkVrem]

You missed the beginning of that sentence.. Where he say's "Tito's communists were able to capture arms manufacturing facilities, and then LATER received aid from the Soviets"... So their primary early war guns and ammo were home-built. In the mountains/wilderness of Bosnia, something the Chetniks could not do.

[@aleksaradojicic8114]

@@MarkVrem No, he think and he wrote in comments that Yugoslavs partisans got most weapons from Soviet airdrops.

[@MrKersey]

Very interesting topic! Together with some of my friends who are also military history aficionados, we distinguished 20 various military organizations that operated on teritory of Yugoslavia: 1. Wehrmacht 2. Waffen-SS 3. Italian troops 4. Hungarian troops 5. Yugoslav Army in Fatherland (Mihailovic's chetniks) 6. Croatian Ustashe 7. 13th Waffen SS Division Handschar (Bosnian Croats and Muslims) 8. Serbian Guard of Milan Nedic 9. Chetniks of Kosta Milovanovic Pecanac 10. Tito's partisans (communists) 11. Slovenian chetniks 12. Slovenian White Guard 13. Russian White Russians / Russian Protection Corps 14. Various armed troops that presented themselves as "Chetniks" 15. Dimitrije Ljotic's Serbian Voluntary Corps 16. Russian Liberation Army 17. MVAC (Italian Volunteer Anti Communist Militia consisted of local auxilary troops ) 18. Muslim Legion of Muhamed Hadziefendic 19. Bulgarian troops 20. Albanian fascist Balli Kombëtar I am sure we missed some. Now imagine the absolute hell among people of Yugoslavia and the beligerents who were opposed not only by their allegiance to Germany or Allies, but nationality and religion as well. Everyone was against everyone and every fraction collaborated with its enemy at some point, but ordinary civilians were the one to bear the brunt of the war.

[@jussim.konttinen4981]

Well done. I like the Italian/yugo uniforms of Ljotic's troops. Also, I noticed that they drink raki, which can be a problem.

[@gorantrifunovic4615]

Well some are the same like Wermacht and Waffen SS. You forget Montenegro Federalist, Montenegro Green or (Zelenaši) than you had Domobrani ( regular Croatian army)

[@tommy-er6hh]

What about the Italian occupation troops in Yugoslavia after Italy changed sides and became partisans also?

[@mythbuster860]

@@tommy-er6hh No they run back to Italy.

[@Blazo_Djurovic]

@@tommy-er6hh There were some who joined up with partisans, probably those who had communist leanings, but majority suddenly found themselves no longer solders with everyone wanting them gone and no protection from anyone. Villagers in some places were literally taking them captive and putting them to work under threat of arms... How things changed in 3 years...

[@PremierHistory]

TIK walks into a book store: “I’ll have every book you have on Stalingrad”.

[@mhorram]

Yah, but the store owner will tell him, _"We don't carry any! There never was a Stalingrad. Some clever publisher came up with the idea of inventing Stalingrad so he could sell a ton of books on it to some guy named TIK."_ Then the crying (or shooting) begins! Little does TIK know the same publisher lobbied Russia to rename Stalingrad to Volgograd so now TIK is morally obligated to buy those books all over again under the name _The Siege of Volgograd_ . Ya gotta love free market capitalism. It just keeps the money flowing and flowing and flowing. If TIK were really good, he would lobby Russia to rename Stalingrad/Volgograd to TIKograd and be done with it. Shouldn't be too hard. Shouldn't cost more than a few hundred billion dollars. Perfect for a GOFUNDME project.

[@FifinatorKlon]

"Some even joined the communists" Pro-Communist royalists? That's such a Balkan thing to say.

[@alleks1989]

There were even priests that were helping/fighting in Tito's army. Balkan is a place devoid of all logic and reason.

[@FifinatorKlon]

@@alleks1989 The Chaos Wastes of the Real World

[@996vlada]

Priest Vlada Zecevic is an interesting figure.

[@Blazo_Djurovic]

@@alleks1989 Well the logic goes like this. They might be godless communists (majority of fighters weren't ardent communists), but they are OUR godless communists. On the other hands these Germans are Turks all over again, and we have traditions on how we deal with occupiers that involves pits and tossing stuff into them. And traditions need to be upheld. Also fighting FOR the partisans makes it a bit less likely someone might decide you are an anti-revolutionary element in league with the fascist invader so a triad should be sent to pay you a "visit".

[@kalifumestokalifa211]

yugo communism is very hard to perceive, especially regarding stereotypes that exist in the west

[@ltcitadel]

Our lord has returned to the shadow realm

[@TheImperatorKnight]

Shadow-ban realm 😉

[@ltcitadel]

Demonization cannot stop the neutral war machine

[@SnakeP1tPoetry]

There are also countless stories about literal brothers from the same family,same blood,one in the Chetniks and one in the Partisan Commies,and sometimes they saved each others lives,sometimes they killed each other in the name of their ideologies.

[@foreverhungry7777]

@@juremustac3063 Rubbish. It has nothing to with "survival strategies". These men acted on impulse or were forcibly recruited. I know of many Serbs whose families were on bad terms due to some being pro-Tito Partisans and other pro-fascist Chetniks. I have also met Croats who had family members who were Usta, Domobran and Partisans. It really all depended on the experiences. A woman raped by fascists, it makes sense she will want to work with Partisans for revenge. Ditto if a boy saw a woman raped by Partisans, he will want to fight with fascists. Most civilians had no desire or love for either, but they were forced to endure a war they never asked for coming to their door. Than things happen, and people make choices and learn to live with the consequences of those choices.

[@noahmihic1486]

Same with Croatian Homeguard and Tito's Partisans My grandma's father was drafted into the Homeguard (Domovrani) and his brother joined the Partisans

[@jimland4359]

Lindybeige posted a 90 minute video on this subject and Tito a month or so ago. I highly recommend it.

[@toastytoast9800]

Yeah, he explained titos supply situation pretty well

[@yuslaven89]

I concur!

[@billbolton]

Lindybeige is entertaining.

[@miroslavtordaji1675]

Lindy is entertainig, but he made that video with too broad brush strokes

[@billbolton]

@@miroslavtordaji1675 actually its more complicated than that...is what he said throughout.

[@mrfugazi6713]

A very good friend of mine was a Chetnik his family came from Yugoslavia, and he lived in Newport, South Wales , he was definitely one of the most genuine people I’ve ever met in my life. I’m in England but I often think about Mr Chetnik like I said in my eyes he was one of the most honest and genuine person I’ve ever had the pleasure of meeting .

[@shoootme]

"The enemy of my enemy is my enemy's enemy. No more. No less" The Seventy Maxims of Maximally Effective Mercenaries No29.

[@marinvarivoda9646]

Oh boy... Bracing in for the angry comments

[@TheImperatorKnight]

Already got one!

[@robert48044]

Yugoslavia is always a hot topic. Tito is always worth views just by himself.

[@guestimator121]

As a Serb: Fourth Balkan War Incoming in the KZbin Comments section

[@maks3964]

@@TheImperatorKnight Ustaše are generally called fascist in a broader sense. It is because of their ultra nationalism, militarism, glorification of violence, anti intellectualism, cult of masculinity and strict gender roles. Hello from Croatia. I am glad we can both agree to support Liberland.

[@belacheat8833]

maks zakošek Croatia is so beautiful Has a climate thats always warm The people are all good looking Serbs live in the past They also worship mother Russian Men in Croatia all pump weights look like they are on Steroids They have a tough guy culture And now Croatia is part of the EU and NATO ...... Tito was Croatian kept Yugoslavia Afloat till his death 1980

[@1979vojo]

Yugoslavian king ordered in September 12. 1944. that all Mihailovich forces to join partizans under titos command and defeat enemy and called all people to rise against enemy.

[@tomgu2285]

That's because the brits forced him to order it.

[@cdcdrr]

Churchill: Fight for Yugoslavia, not Moscow. Mihailovich: I will fight for Yugoslavia by not fighting for Yugoslavia. But against the communists. Chetniks: We will fight for Yugoslavia by fighting all Yugoslavs who are not Serbian. Mikhailovich: Can I get weapons to fight the communists? Churchill: No, you are not fighting for Yugoslavia. Stalin: No, you are fighting the communists. Hitler: Of course. Take as much as you like, and kill communists. Tito: You are taking weapons from the Nazis! Mikhailovich: But I will use these weapons to fight the Nazis! Eventually. Churchill: You are working with the Nazis. No more weapons for you. Stalin: Adding your names to The List. Mussolini: Come and conspire with me against our own puppets and our Axis partners. Hitler: Come and conspire with me against our own puppets and our Axis partners. Chetniks: We are killing all Yugoslavs who are not Serbian. Mikhailovich: No, we should be struggling together! Chetniks: We ARE struggling together. Churchill: You are all mad. I hope the communists kill you all. Roosevelt: Who are these people!? Stalin: Soon, no one will even remember.

[@Saeronor]

Basically, a Benny Hill closing chase, only with six Bennies chasing each other, while Benny Churchill watches from a balcony.

[@craigbiggam2111]

@@Saeronor the Churchill Bennie just eventually kneels over and dies.

[@roybabich738]

This was brilliant! Most of my family that remained in Yugoslavia during WW2 had fought for the Chetniks . I learned many new things and some of this I have heard from my family. Thank you for the great work .

[@vazdavazda1644]

☦️☦️☦️☦️🏴‍☠️🇷🇸

[@markokartalovic6910]

For king and fatherland , Freedom or Death !

[@kalifumestokalifa211]

Hi TIK, I am a Serb nationalist and I must say that I have never seen a video so well done about that, Great job. Keep it up :)

[@Natogoon]

Why are you a Serb nationalist? What makes Serbia better than someone or something else?

[@kalifumestokalifa211]

@@Natogoon Before I continue, please research the word nationalist in a dictionary. Thank you

[@utvara1]

@@Natogoon I am a Croat nationalist and your question is idiotic. It is normal to assume your group is the best regardless if you are from a backward tribe or most advanced civilization. However wrong I consider Serb Religious nationalists, they lead their life based on more adaptive idias then secular hedonistic cosmopolitans. Nationalists have kids while the cosmopolitans don't.

[@Natogoon]

@@kalifumestokalifa211 Not an argument.

[@kalifumestokalifa211]

@@Natogoon When you grow a brain, we shall talk, untill then ta -ta

[@johnmorgan4124]

there is no way that Royalist, right wing Chetniks were supporting policies that helped the poor, civilian population. Tito and his party held Yugoslavia together until well after Tito's death. It was nationalists who collapsed Yugoslavia in the 1990s. I know... I was there.

[@surda2870]

I think that the best time of our united country was under socialism,but it had not collapsed cause of nationalism,but the interests of global capitalism and it not being able to let any socialist state survive or be successful. We are not here cause we are lazy nationalist idiots,but cause it was in the wests interest to destroy our join state

[@vassilizaitzev1]

Finally caught up on your work. Nice work with Stalingrad. Received the first two volumes of Stalingrad by David Glantz. They truly are doorstoppers. I do wonder how Glantz is able to write so much. It takes me a couple of months to write a 3000 word article. I appreciate the work you are doing with the occupation side of the war. Hunger is a terrible way to die, but must be taught. I'm going to try to get into some of the books I picked up for the Holocaust, starting with Raul Hilberg's work.

[@TheImperatorKnight]

It can take time to write a lot of words. How long per day or week do you spend writing?

[@vassilizaitzev1]

@@TheImperatorKnight It depends. It is for work, so normally a few hours per day. I end up write three to four sentences, then triple citing everything as I go along. Also trying not to make it too dry. How often do you work on your scripts?

[@TheImperatorKnight]

Hard to say how often because I'm doing editing as well, but what I normally do is dedicate each day to one thing - scripting or research or editing etc. Then I'll do 5-6 hours on it (with a lunch break about 4 hours in). Can't put a word count something on it, but on certain topics I can easily do a few thousand words a day, especially when I'm inspired. But it really does depend on the subject.

[@TheImperatorKnight]

Also I should say, I usually go over the 6 hours. I aim for 6 hours as a minimum. But usually by that point I'm done in and get headaches for concentrating too long

[@vassilizaitzev1]

@@TheImperatorKnight Sounds about right. 8 hours seems to be my limit for history focused work before my brain is fried.

[@360Nomad]

The only thing that could unite Serbs and Croats is their mutual hatred of Bosnians The only thing that could unite Bosnians and Croats is their mutual hatred of Serbs The only thing that could unite Serbs and Bosnians is their mutual hatred of Croats The only thing that could unite Serbs, Croats, and Bosnians is their mutual hatred of TIK

[@schwarzerhaufen1727]

same thing with Korea China and Japan

[@predragstrbac737]

I would love to see evidence of USSR helping with weapons Yugoslav partisans in period 1941-43.

[@milostomic8539]

It became clear in 1941 in Serbia that Germany will loose another World War, especially after USSR and USA joined the WW2. The question was what will happen with Yugoslavia?Remain a monarchy or become a one party communist dictatorship? That is the reason why one of bloodiest civil wars began. Three of my great grandfathers were members of Mihailovic's Chetniks.

[@vogonjelc]

Well surprisingly balanced video. My grandmother and grandfather were communist before wwII and were part of resistance smuggling information inside city of occupied Serbia. They always differentiated Chetniks and Ljotics forces. There could be days that one day you would first chetniks coming into village the germans after them searching for chetniks and next day partisans searching for germans. It's never a clean cut situation in Balkans as people might think.

[@ivanbajlo8453]

So many errors, for one Tito didn't get any aid from Moscow well until 1944 when he was already getting tons of supplies from Allies in Italy. Tito was begging Moscow for aid via radio far into 1942 and when nothing come he was pretty pissed because he didn't expect to be forced to fight entire Axis without any help from outside. Ljotić was never consider part of Chetnik movement he belongs to prewar Serbian fascist organization ZBOR. There was no German-Tito deal, this is pure post war Chetnik revisionist fantasies, there were negotiations initiated by Tito by using a captured German major Arthur Strecker, commander of the 3rd Battalion of the 738th Grenadier Regiment of the 718th Infantry Division, who was captured in Prozor counterattack and mining engineering group from Organization Todt which was captured earlier... Tito wanted temporary truce and recognition as warring faction in order to start prisoner exchanges instead of his captured Partisans being usually shot on the spot ("lucky" one got sent as forced labor to the Reich), Moscow sent a radio message complaining about Tito negotiation with Germans to which Tito responded to piss off since they have yet to send him any kind of aid. 7th SS Division was in no position to attack Tito while he was fighting Chetniks since it was in the wrong place, searching some mountain west of them which had no Partisans on it, it had to be then rushed east for the next part of the show... While Germans pretend to negotiate they were in fact redeploying their forces to finish Tito off while main body of Partisans were attempting to advance into Montenegro so whole negotiations thing backfired on Tito catching of guard resulting in Operation Schwarz in which Tito main force almost got annihilated... initially it was planed as operation to disarm Chetniks (which were entirely part of Italian MVAC) but with destruction most of Chetniks by Partisans operation goal was changed. German report for operation Schwarz from 20 June 1943 states that only 17 Chetniks were killed while 3764 were captured! Not much resisting... Tito's Partisans in post war bodycount of their own losses reached a figure of 6391 partisans killed. Same German report lists German losses as 583 killed, 1760 wounded and 425 missing while Croatian losses 40 killed, 166 wounded, 205 missing. Italians reported 290 killed, 541 wounded, 1502 missing. Oh yeah in order to fight communist and ustasha ideology, Chetnik movement adopt Greater Serbia ideology starting ethnic cleansing campaign against Muslims in Bosnia and Sandžak... Probably best book on Chetniks was written by Jozo Tomasevich, (1975). War and Revolution in Yugoslavia, 1941-1945: The Chetniks. Stanford University Press. Also in John Cripps: Action This Day there is a chapter "Mihailović or Tito? How the Codebreakers Helped Churchill Choose" on how Ultra intercepted tons of Axis communications so Churchill had better knowledge on conditions in Balkans then anyone.

[@mythbuster860]

Tito got a lot of weapons from Ustashe to fight against Chetniks during 1941 and 1942 until supplies started to come from British in 1942 and Soviets in 1944.

[@ivanbajlo8453]

​@@mythbuster860 Oh look informbiro is back... why don't you mention how Tito was actually Gestapo agent who worked for Hitler, how he deliberately started ill prepared uprising in '41 to get as many communists killed as possibles since after the war he recruited bunch of former nazis into his ranks... :-p There was no significant arms shipments form British until after operation Audrey was carried out by OSS from 15 October 1943 to early 1944. Before that from July to September 1943 only 190 tons were air dropped 107 to Mihailović and 82,5 tons to Tito. Oh look at that Dragoljub got more supplies by air then Tito! If only he actually did something with it could have might kept that "commie lover" Churchill on his side. :-p The fact that Dragoljub was sitting on his ass and failed to capture significant booty from Italians after their capitulation and failed to secure any area along Adriatic coast through which supplies from Italy could be easily landed only secured his doom.

[@LavrencicUrban]

GOOD OBSERVATIONS.

[@lucas82]

Damn, the Balkans were one confusing shit storm during WW2. I only knew one thing for sure before I started watching this video and that is that the Italians would find a way to weasel themselves out of fighting any major battles.

[@Latro84]

Hell yeah .. most of us from Serbia have family on both četnik and Communist side .. really sad

[@foreverhungry7777]

The Italians literally recruited Chetniks like Dujic to massacre my ancestral village/s. So your comment elicited a quiet laugh as even when they are attacking, they recruit someone to do the killing for them, lol. With that said, I bear no animosity towards Italians or Serbs unless they are ultranationalists. The average Italian or Serb is just a person who played no part in this insanity and is taken as the individual they are.

[@portoroko611]

1.In 1944 many chetniks became partisans. It doubled partisans number. Communist in Serbia were in hundreds before the arrival of soviets 2. Explore the 19th century term Greater Serbia. That is the ultimate goal of all chetnik factions. It is 20th century Serbian doctrine.

[@carelesslad9931]

Sure, many Chetniks became communists as this became the more formidable force. and Nope, Mihalovic literally fought for the kingdom of Yugoslavia (as presented correctly by TIK), took their orders when they were in London. The "Greater Serbia" was a hoax purported by the communists since the 4th communist congress in Dresden. Why wasn't it ever created? Serbs had all of the political power in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia yet gifted Croatia with Dubrovnik along with the rest of Dalmatia. "Greater Serbia" is not the topic at hand and the statements you make about it have no basis in facts. Greater Serbia is a hypothesis (never materialized or seriously acted upon) at best while NDH was the greater Croatia incarnate and a true evil enterprise.

[@portoroko611]

@@carelesslad9931 wrong, greater serbia was official Serbian Kingdom policy. From nacretanje(midlle 19th century) to sanu memorandum(late 20th century) the goal was allways the same, all serbs in one country

[@carelesslad9931]

@@portoroko611 You know that that memorandum was never made official, it was a draft that never passed? Either way, "all Serbs in a single country" was a war cry for liberation from Turks, that struggle started with the first uprising (1804) and ended with the first Balkan war (1912). In contrast "greater Serbian oppression" was a communist concoction of the KPJ. "All Serbs in one country" is also a bit counter to a Greater Serbia, since in order to achieve ASI1C a Yugoslavia had to be created which was never a Kingdom of Serbia, where a true greater Serbia was passed up as an option by the Karadjordjevic dynasty. Right upon seizing power communists acted on the Great Serbian Oppression hoax and partitioned Serbia under the pretext of the "great Serbian oppression". Yugoslavia only ever cost Serbs territory to the benefit of all others. Either way I appreciate your input.

[@KuroiReaper]

@@portoroko611 If your statements about Great Serbia conspiracy was true, then after ww1 Serbia could just opted for Greater Serbia instead of Yugoslavia. So obviously what you are saying isn't true.

[@portoroko611]

@@KuroiReaper you know they tried but there wasnt other way to do it. Nikola Pasic was the prime minister and he was a great serb. All of radical party was allways great serb, thats a fact!

[@sadslavboy]

The Chetniks certainly were not all collaborators, but no matter what they were still an overall detriment to the effective resistance in the Balkans. Chetniks varied between collaboration and resistance but they did so along the ethnic lines that separated the Balkans. This was the Nazi intention. The Nazi strategy in the Balkans did not care about who collaborated or who resisted. What solely mattered was that those actions happened exclusively within the ethnic lines that divided the region for centuries because this guaranteed that resistance could not ever grow strong enough to challenge their war machine. Their strategy was based on the idea that the Balkan Slavs would succumb to their ancient, irrational hatred and that would do most of the work. "Brotherhood and Unity" was the only way the Balkans would have found victory and a level of independence from great powers the region has experienced for centuries. Živio Tito!

[@sergiojuanmembiela6223]

How was Moscow supplying Tito with weapons? Remember that Barbarossa would start in a month, and the SU did not have anything to spare and certainly no way of delivering anything to Tito. Did they use UPS or Fedex?

[@thorstenmanfred6622]

Good point. I dwell into Yugoslavia's history a lot but I did not come across any serious mention of Soviet military aid before 1944. TIK??? Sources for this???

[@shakalpb1164]

Thats what I thought too, British supplies and Personel were dropped from Planes, but how did the Soviets do it?

[@oneb14]

They used Churchill.

[@michellesheppard9253]

Soviets didn't supply until later half of 1944. Yugoslav partizans used captured weapons from Germans and Italians.

[@michaelnomnomandryuk]

Giving a source to what folks are saying: Fitroy Maclean's The Heretic indicates that Tito received no Soviet supplies despite dozens of requests for support 1941-1944. In 1941-1942 the Chetniks under Mihalovic received British supplies, even while British intelligence began to suspect the collaboration. Eventually, Britain switch to sending supplies to the Tito's forces because they were viewed as the more effective anti-fascist fighting force. This probably doesn't detract from TIK's overall conclusion that the Chetniks were ineffective fighting forces that collaborated waaaaaay too often.

[@dickmijatovich9229]

No mention as to WHY the British stopped supplying Mihailovich except that he wasn't as aggressive against the Germans as the British wanted. For example, there's no mention of Communist moles in British Intelligence. The names of William Deakin, James Klugmann and Brigadier Fitzroy McClean, all branded as Communist sympathizers, made sure the communists would have the upper hand in the battle for Yugoslavia. This all came to light after the declassification of WW2 documents. Klugmann was an avowed Socialist before the war. Deakin and McClean came to favor the communists during the war. Had they played an even hand (supplying the non-communist forces as well), Yugoslavia may not have become communist and, in all likelihood, would not have degenerated into more ethnic warfare after Tito's death. - Don't believe me? Read the history and the bios yourself.

[@darcgibson5099]

Your characterisation of the Partisans is absolutely nonsense, sorry to say it.

[@ivankaivanovich244]

Chetniks were chetniks..they are pro big serbia..not yugoslavia...and you forgot to mention..Tito is a Croat....Croat!!

[@leonmihalic4938]

Ustaše considered Bosnian Muslims to be Muslim Croats, so in their eyes Independent State of Croatia was mostly populated by Croats. You did a great job but I think this is a important detail.

[@matthewsteele99]

Also the existence of muslim Bosniak chetnik unit under Popovac

[@igordragicevic8835]

What about the orthodox in bosnia were they croatian too

[@leonmihalic4938]

@@igordragicevic8835 in 1942 Croatian Orthodox Church was created and some Serbs joined Croatian army (domobrani) but this was just for propaganda purposes. Croats were also considered to be descendants of Goths (Germanic people) and Serbs of Slavs. Muslims Croats were considered to be more pure blood Croats than Catholic Croats.

[@igordragicevic8835]

@@leonmihalic4938 lol yea but the Serbian Orthodox Church has been in bosnia for 1000 years before that. And if the muslims were croatians y did they have Slava and orthodox icons. What they converted from islam to orthodoxy under the otomans 🤣🤣🤣 the ottomans showed them the divinity of christ

[@igordragicevic8835]

@@leonmihalic4938 y do some muslims still celebrate durdjevdan on the orthodox calander. The most numerous Slava of the Serbs. Because they were Orthodox Croatian created in 1942 🤣🤣🤣 ante pavelic show them divinity of Christ

[@truthoverfacts2579]

Wow, I have no idea how you did it, but I think you haven't made a single mistake. Excellent job!!! Serbian girl and a Patron of yours.

[@belacheat8833]

Dobar dan honey:)

[@brunovrancic8330]

Your explenations of operation Schwarz, discredit every single thing that You said about the topic. Please read W. Deakin: The Embatled mountain. Chetniks served germans at the end of the battle as a butchers of wounded people and civilians. Germans hadn't trust in them from the beginning because they proved to be covards, but they were good butchers of those who couldn't defend themselves. Operation Schwarz was battle compared to Stalingrad battle, but on Balkan scales. Read about it, it is very interesting, and one of the greatest examples of human self-sacrifice. Chetniks for sure never were prepared to sacrifice, they were gangs of genocide butchers, serving to whatever master. Read about Tito and learn something, read it from western authors who lived in his age, and saw who he was. Than You'll never say that on Sutjeska Chetnics were chased by Germans.

[@brunovrancic8330]

@Dddd Zzzz Croat ustasha were even worse butchers, it is not about Croat or Serbs, they were fascist colaborators. Croat and Serbs as antifascist showed greatest self sacrifice.

[@lastmanstanding5423]

I came back here after 4 months to check the comment section. And it's surprisingly clean considering the topic. xD TIK made such a good job of it that not even Balkans had too much to complain about. Amazing.

[@allanhouston22]

Cetniks killing civilians en mas instead if fighting partisans or axis... same as in 90's, point the guns and knifes against civilians... Serbian pride at its best!

[@allanhouston22]

@I hate you I think you didn't hear clearly that it was cetniks agenda and not done in a rage. aka plan to kill and exterminate civilians for genocidal perposes

[@alleks1989]

Great video. The only issue I see is with defining the "chetnik movement". Chetnik was the word that meant "Guerilla fighter" in the 19th and the first half of the 20th century. So any movement that was using guerilla warfare called themselves chetniks. Pećanac and his lot didn't have anything to do with Mihajlović, and Pećanac was assassinated by Mihajlović forces. Ljotić movement referred to themselves as ZBOR or chetniks, but was not part of Mihajlović's movement. All of these movements were independent from each other and on an off referring to themselves as chetniks. So to summarise you were talking about Mihajlović "Serbian army in the fatherland". Mihajlović also had very loose control of his commanders in the field such as Đujić in Dalmatia and Đurišić in Montenegro, which were able to decide on their current allegiance as the situation in the field would require. Some commanders were enacting reprisal against Ustasha crimes by attacking random Croatian and Bosnak villages (an eye for an eye sort of thing). It might be interesting to analyze Croatian genocide against Serbian population during the war.

[@Falcon-nj6kr]

Chetnik word doesnt mean guerill fighter it means members of companies/unit Cete means unit and nik short of member so member of unit...

[@alleks1989]

@@Falcon-nj6kr Name was present in the Serbian language since the middle ages. "Četovanje" was guerilla fighting against the Turkish invaders. Matija Ban wrote a book "Pravila o cetnickoj vojni" in 1848.

[@foreverhungry7777]

Let's not pretend that many Serbians were not - and remain - Royalist fascists. Dujic was an avid anti-Croat, anti-Muslim and anti-Jewish bigot. Though I despise both Usta and Chetniks, let's not forget that the assassination of Croatian politicians like Stjepan Radic by Serb-Montenegrin politicians who were given the lenient verdict of "house arrest in 1928 for their crimes did not set in motion the existence of the Ustase. Ultranationalist Serbs have and will always remain their own worst enemy, no matter how much they claim to be the innocent victim "who did nothing!". They cannot consistently fight among themselves, and start problems with others than act horrified when the history they set in motion turns around and bites them in the ass. Now, does this excuse crimes against innocent persons? Never, not for a day. Let's not pretend the Ustase did not murder thousands of Croats, or that the Chetnik/Axis collaborations also did not murder numerous Croats in retaliation for them resisting Axis occupation which many Usta nostalgists do, for the record. But let's also not pretend who planted the seed of much insanity in the region. Ultranationalists, with ultranationalist Serbs (not including Bosnian Orthodox like Princip, Mladic etc) leading the way. F**k the Chetniks and the Usta sympathisers.

[@siux94]

Chetniks wanted to save lives? In what parallel universe do you live? Chetniks burned villages od other Montengrins who didn't support them directly!

[@byzantinehoney3384]

Based

[@robrob9050]

Ironically, Serbia was bigger in size during German occupation compared to size in 1974 Constitution, no wonder Serbian nationalism became nasty one.

[@johngurlides9157]

Translation: Everyone was fighting everyone else with ceasefires and alliances made and broken in every combination imaginable.

[@matthewfederici9821]

What a great video,as expected from TIK. The armchair historians video on the Yugoslavian resistance primarily talks about how great Tito and his communists were at "liberating" Yugoslavia while lumping all of the chetniks into one group led by Mihailovic and saying that they *ALL* collaborated with the Axis(not entirely true), while making no mention of Tito making deals with the Germans.

[@alexeyvlasenko6622]

How exactly did Stalin manage to supply the Partizans? Until nearly the end of the war, the logistics must have been pretty difficult, considering the position of the front line.

[@BokicaK1]

He didn't. Soviet aid only came after liberation of Belgrade, near the end of 1944. USSR gave some 100 T-34s, dozen Yaks and lot of PPSh-41s. British also suplied partisans with M3 Stewarts, food, uniforms, shoes, mortars, mortars... Partisans upgraded Stewarts with captured German Paks. Also, partisans with flyiing skills would join RAF and formed two squadrons

[@bulldrumm]

Ljotic was NOT chetnik. A clean fascist.

[@dietrashman]

My grandfather actually worked with Mihailovic’s chetniks and helped a number of times rescue shot down allied airmen. He was captured after the collapse of the group but survived the war, came to America, and was able to meet with at least one of the airmen he had helped rescue during the war about 50 years later. He really looked up to Mihailovic

[@belacheat8833]

How many women and children did grandpa rape kill cook and eat ?

[@Courageous39]

Great job man, so precise. Greetings from Belgrade, cheers ✊🏻

[@creatoruser736]

You make it sound like Tito was immoral for attacking the Axis because that would lead to reprisals against civilians. Collective punishment against a local population for guerilla actions is a war crime, so the people committing the war crime are at fault. If your country is invaded it's not wrong to resist, especially if they're going to murder some of your people anyway. A "just sit back and take it or them massacring people is your fault" attitude is a weird one to take. The Greek partisans also actively attacked the Axis which led to harsh reprisals, but I doubt many people would say that was the fault of the Greeks.

[@serbianhistorygames]

Well, Tito WAS immoral, and not only for invoking reprisals - he did far worse. Regarding reprisals, even Germans caught up to the fact that the communists did not have support in Serbia, so they reduced reprisals in case the action couldn't be attributed to DM Organization (Chetniks / Yugoslav Home Army)

[@danilodjurdjevic7436]

Of course he was immoral.You see Tito was Croatian and came in Serbia in 1941 to start his revolution.BUT.After almost whole Serbia was liberated by chetnik-partisan colaboration in autumn 1941 Germans began counterofensive and represals.You didnt say what those represals were.For every killed German they would kill 100 serbian civilians and for every injured 50.So they killed more than 50 thousand serbian civilians in autumn/winter 1941,even schoolchildren like in Kragujevac massacre look it up.Then Mihailovic and chetniks realised Serbs would be destroyed if they continue this type of full front open revolt but Tito didnt care,he continued because after all it was not his people that were bieng massacred by the Germans,it was the Serbs.

[@creatoruser736]

@@danilodjurdjevic7436 Again, you blame the conquered for the crimes of the conqueror. You wouldn't tell anyone else in that situation "just sit through it or else the bad stuff is on you." You don't blame Poles or Greeks for German reprisal killings against them. This is just about not liking Tito's ideology so anything he does is automatically bad, even if it's resisting fascist domination.

[@belacheat8833]

Good point so this video is horse shit

[@danilodjurdjevic7436]

My repply was deleted.I dont blame the victims for gods sake my great grandfather was innocent civilian victim of german represals in Serbia in 1941.I just said that Chetniks strategy was better than Titos because chetniks actually cared about preservation of serbian people unlike Tito whos goal was communist revolution at all cost.This video doesnt really show how large actually was serbian uprising in comparison with laughable resistance movements across western Europe.More than milion Serbs died in ww2,that should tell you everything about our fight against nazis and their allies.Why am i piece of shit by the way?

[@johnmorgan4124]

the Ustashe were definitely fascist. The Vatican cooperated with the fascist powers. Spain was under Franco's fascism and the catholic church was part of that state. That being said being catholic does not make you fascist of course. You can be fascist and the religion does not matter.

[@idkhistory5850]

The God Emperor has blessed us again.

[@TheImperatorKnight]

Know no fear

[@DaveSCameron]

Are you homosexual?

[@Wonomyrus]

Thank you for another great video! Congratulations on keeping an honest and realistic narrative without any ideological prejudices still dominating our school books written by the leading post-communist historians from this region. I hope you will make even more videos covering 1941-1945 period in Yugoslavia. Keep the good work!

[@VOJISLAVzvaniGAVRA]

To clarify your uncertainty about the Ustasha ideology - its typical clero-fascism. Otherwise an impressive video! The only thing it maybe lacks to explain in further detail in order to make matters more clear is the scope of genocide against Serbs in Independent State of Croatia.

[@JebacPresretac101]

So, typical TIK ringwinging, to not say something worse, but some factual mistakes in the video and some notes instead: 1) Operation Wiess (Battle of Neretva river) was a battle of all collaborators & axis against the Tito's Partisan movement, as you correctly noticed 2) Fall Schwarz (Battle of Sutyeska river) was ALSO a battle against Yugoslav Partisans by all collaborators & axis, and NOT a fight against Chetniks. It's true that the useless Chetnik's would get disarmed after both engagements, but that's what they were, useful idiots anyway. So, most of information around 23:08 is a huge omission, as Case Black was an anti-partisan operation. 3) Soviet's DID NOT arm The Partisans until 1944, which is the time they entered Romania and Serbia in the North. If you want proof, just ask yourself a simple "how did Soviets manage to airlift that through 2-3000 miles of German occupied territory or the German sea (Mediteranian and Black seas)". So this is just TIK's rightwinging clouding his judgement of facts. More than two years of fighting *alone* by the Partisans, with not much more than occasional special operations soldiers acting as radioman for both Chetniks and Partisans to the Brits. And that's about it. 4) Mihailovic was called "the pie man" (Gibanichar) by peasants for his sitting in the mountain villages while doing nothing (and eating pie), waiting for that Alied victory. In any case, he did not start with just 27 men like you said in the video. He started with a massive pile of money given to him to start the movement by the escaping government in exile. The same government that would denounce him in 1943 but that's another story. 5) While Mihailovic was probably concerned by German retaliation against civilians, you had the Croats genocide the whole Serbian population in their territories while Chetnik's collaborated with both Germans, Italians and Croats... So maybe he wasn't as concerned, there was no other way than to fight them... But you did correctly state several times that the people did support Tito's Partisans, and here is why: because they would liberate all villages/towns without murdering the population (be it Muslim, Croat or Serb), and this is the actual reason why Partisan's got support from the population, the rest were raging murderers/maniacs/collaborators, Chetnik's included. So, props for correctly noticing that.

[@AlbeitBasilisk]

This

[@elmedintrumic4651]

2) Not really. In preparation of case black, germans attacked Kolasin and captured and interned probably the best chetnik unit under Pavle Djurisic, while they disarmed many others in Herzegovina and east Bosnia.

[@miloskocic1759]

Let's not forget how commies and such betrayed the chetniks when jovan deroko called for both chetniks and communists to work together against nazis We all know how it turned out

[@Alekx445]

@@miloskocic1759 the chetniks broke the agreement not the "commies"

[@eldragon4076]

Hey ANTIFA trash, read Milovan Djilas "Wartime" it will collaborate TIK. Unless you consider Milovan Djilas ...as 'something worse". What can be worse than a Communist like you?

[@JoeMun]

Hey TIK, found your channel about a month ago. I really enjoy the content! I’m studying history and German rn and the information contained in your videos really makes me wonder if I am as knowledgeable as I think I am 😂 well done!

[@TheImperatorKnight]

Knowledge is gained by hard work and study. Do a little each day, and specialize on a particular subject, and you'll be there in no time

[@JoeMun]

TIK German history is certainly my cup of tea. Doing my best sir! Thank you for the reply :)

[@lastmanstanding5423]

Balkanian here... I'm with you TIK... all the way... This was great... some things I knew.... some I didn't... but thank you for unbiased and balanced view of the situation... This video and lindybeige's recent video on the topic are awesome...

[@crstewart3705]

Now that I've watched this video, I understand why I've never been able to understand any of the wars in the Balkans and why I probably never will.

[@despotstefanvisoki631]

Thank God that the British from the time of WW2 to this days are no longer our Allies. As a Serb, I can say that General Draza Mihailovic and the Chetniks are the greatest heroes of WW2. This is a funny and naive historical lesson that has been heard for a long time. Today, the British can enjoy with their new friends and allies, the Germans and the Croats.

[@Beogrrr]

Excellent, TIK, just excellent! I see no comment war happening! There are so many more details to this story, but you captured the essence. BTW, people in Serbia are more focused on Chetniks vs Partisans story, so sometimes we don't count in the Ustashas vs Chetniks or Chetniks vs Muslim and Croatian civilians stories. Since we usually only remember terrible Ustasha atrocities against Serbian civilians, we defend Chetnik atrocities as a revenge, but... Is that really the case? I would really like go through nationalistic fog of half-truths and analyse did Chetniks had any plans for ethic cleansing before Ustasha crimes, did they used it as an excuse or was it really just a revenge after realisation that life together is not possible anymore. This bothers me since it is hard to find any unbiased source.

[@TheImperatorKnight]

Well, if the comment war doesn't happen, then great! I'll somehow have dodged a bullet 🙂 but as far as the "who started it" thing is concerned, I don't know the answer to that.

[@TheImperatorKnight]

I can understand Serbians focusing on the elements that hurt Serbians the most, and neglecting the other parts. And I'm sure others will be doing the same with their nationalities. This is why tribalism is bad for an individual. It just warps your perspective.

[@DaveSCameron]

Were you there? How can you post such bollox? Are you gay, Nazi, Dutch??

[@Beogrrr]

@@TheImperatorKnight I noticed that comment wars in the last months regarding former Yugoslav nationalities died out... Maybe it is because of coronavirus, since we all realised that there are some bigger threats in life than our neighbours :). Maybe it is because we realised that these narratives are mostly used by our politicians and nobody has any trust in them any more... well see will it hold. Anyway, I hope some day we could discuss all these things and questions in details as it is very interesting... the more we discuss it the more we lose our biases (we shouldn't lose our feelings of course, we can't deny bad thigs happened on all sides, which influence us greatly) I wanted to emphasise one more thing - When Tito's partisans liberated any area, first thing they would do (as from fall 1941) they would burn down all documents and archives from municipalities. That was their way of saying they want a new state just for themselves - which pushed Chetniks away from any joined actions. Chetniks were so frustrated with Communists - once they sold for money around 200 Partisan POW to Germans, who executed them, of course - That was very dishonourable, and people from the Valjevo area still remember that.

[@Beogrrr]

@@DaveSCameron What? Where? I am not sure what are you referring to?!

[@user-zq2vs7ig9s]

Only one fact from the beginning of your video, is that Germans captured 370 thousand soldiers of Kingdom of Yugoslavia. That actually captured more than half a million, but only Serbs were transported in German pow camps, while Croatians, Slovenes, Albanians, Bosnian Muslims and others were all set free. Actually even before the war there were mass desertion of mostly Croats and they were involved in sabotages and opened attacks on Yugoslav army from inside the country. That army didn't have any chance as Serbian soldiers who were trying to return to their homes and escape german camps were killed in croatian and muslim town and villages (Serbs and Montenegrins).

[@carlustin4034]

And all Northmacedonians conscripts were freed as Bulgarians. Later Bulgarian troops in Northmacedonia were 70% of local recruits and officers .100% of administration(all mayors born in NM) and police were 90% locals.

[@CagedBoy]

Ok so a few things. Mihailovic was the supreme commander of army in the fatherland as given to him by the king so the cetniks were a single thing. Yes there was separate commanders but he was the head of it. So yes they were collaborators with the germans, Italians and even in some instances the ustasa. There is documented proof in a Washington DC archive of this. Secondly they were the only Partizans. They weren't 100% communist. That was why people liked them so much. They had priests and non communists in their ranks but they did something the cetniks wouldnt, fight the occupiers. Tito wasnt following Moscow orders. He wanted to free his country and people into a single free country. Also seeing as he was the only one to snub his nose at stalin that should show his feelings towards Moscow. Mihaijlovic was a traitor who instead of trying to free his country, he thought it better to kill them. My family has many stories of the cetniks murdering members of it.

[@Tommy-5684]

from what i have read on the Ustasha they are often considered as Clerical-Fascist much like the Romanian Irion Guard or the Slovak fascists of Josif Tiso. where as religion was ostensibly antithetical fascism in central Europe (Italy and Germany) it became a core part of the movment in Eastern Europe especially in Croatia as Religion became one of the only ways to define ethnic differences between Serbs and Croats atlest such is the argumant of Paul Mojzes in his books "Balkan Genocide" and "Yugoslavian Inferno"

[@Blazo_Djurovic]

Religion is pretty much the only real differentiating things between a Serb a Croat and a Serbo-Croat speaking Muslim. What makes this more of a problem is that religion informs their customs and celebrations. Without the communist holidays, there aren't really many if at all celebrations of customs that aren't influenced by religion and thus not shared in the same way with other groups. Hence there is a limited number of common cultural things between groups to unify them. This is despite them all speaking mostly the same language with dialectal differences (mostly stemming from from which occupier did they borrow most words for things that poor peasants might not have) and looking pretty much the same. Hence the whole race angle had to be cast along the actual dividing line, religion. And in this case it tended to be less about actual religious beliefs and more about removing those that are alien.

[@Tommy-5684]

@@Blazo_Djurovic i mean this is essentially the argument made by Mojzes he infact uses the term Ethno-religion or Ethno-religious to describe how intertwined ethnicity and religion are in the region though his books have seen criticism from both Serbs and Croats generally for being to lenient to the other side so to speak.

[@Blazo_Djurovic]

@@Tommy-5684 Of course they are. Everyone's losses hurt them most. The whataboutism is pretty much no1 reason any discussion of what really happened is impossible. Both sides will strive at any cost to prove they suffered most. It should also be mentioned again that it often wasn't out of religious grounds. Most people, especially in the cities were leaning to atheism or not going to church that often. They cared about religion just enough to perform the usual customs that made them part of a nationality. So ti would be prefectly possible to be a hard line atheist nationalist. The religious bits would be "nice national customs".

[@MrDeicide1]

Where did you get the idea that "religion was ostensibly antithetical to fascism" ... anywhere in Europe. That's a nonsensical statement. There is NO fascism without religion. Ask any European. That's why the term clero-fascism is often used. You're wearing american glasses. In Europe - churches gape empty.

[@mooniescreamer]

Great video, great work! Now I would like to add some details... In autumn '41 Partisans and Chetniks did have some joint operations in Central Serbia. Germans ordered reprisals: The number of hostages to be shot was calculated as a ratio of 100 hostages executed for every German soldier killed and 50 hostages executed for every German soldier wounded, a formula devised by Adolf Hitler. Germans shot 3000 citizens of Kragujevac for example, among them 300 of elementary and high school students. Mihajlović said that price is way too high for active resistance. After all, in WW1 we lost more than a quarter of our population. This war was simply too much for Serbs. Tito as a Croat and Communist didn't pay much attention to civilian casualties. Partisans and Germans have had cease-fire negotiations in '43, and the delegation was: Milovan Đilas, Vladimir Velebit and Svetozar Vukomanović "Tempo". After 6 months Hitler dismissed any kind of agreement with communists. It was Đilas, later dissident who revealed this. Today's ˝Titoists˝ usually go berserk when you mention Đilas, saying "He was reactionary, malicious˝ or whatever. Many people would like Tito's regime back constantly forgetting that ˝Revolution always eats its own children˝. This video illustrates their mindset, especially when you come up with some fact that doesn't fit their narrative kzbin.info/www/bejne/b3TMpZmOgMR1rLs&ab_channel=afroknot You forgot Đujić Chetniks in Dalmacija (Southern Croatia). Collaboration with Italians was necessary because Serbs over there was stuck between a rock and a hard place. There were no forests suitable for guerilla warfare like Bosnia, and Croats started with literal extermination of Serbs. No Serbs from that area joined Partisans because - Oh Suprise! - commanders was Croats. After the war communists simply pushed under the carpet all ethnic tensions, thinking that their ideology will be enough to solve all problems, or god knows what were they thinking of. Later, in new Yugoslavia, the secret police UDBA was watching constantly anything that can be able to disrupt their forced harmony and only city pigeons was not working as their informants. Of course, that kind of oppression didn't last forever, unsolved national questions came back like a boomerang in the nineties. Thank you TIK, all the best.

[@lukabajic9729]

Đilas was a reactionary, that is not even the question, as for reason for fighting it is not true that Tito didn't care if civilians die, but partisans were populated mostly from people from NDH after Srb uprising, who would be killed regardless of Hitler's formula because ustasha goal was extermination of Serbs.

[@foreverhungry7777]

My villages in Dalmatia were massacred by Dujic. I have lost count how many Serbian historians revise history and falsely claim he collaborated to save Serbs. He was a known anti-Croat, anti-Muslim and anti-Jewish bigot. A fascist through and through until the day he died peacefully as an old man in San Diego. My great-grandfather in central Croatia was nearly murdered because local German Axis decreed if 1 German solider died 50 Croat civilians were executed. He was selected for extermination despite being an elder with no attraction to fascism or communism. He survived by pure chance.

[@zoranpaulic3525]

Partisans were equiped more from the british than from the moscow

[@mythbuster860]

They were equiped from Ustashe in 1941 and 1942 to fight against Chetniks and later in 1942 from British. Soviets equiped them in second half of 1944.

[@konstantincvetanovic5357]

@@mythbuster860 At no point whatsoever they were equipped by Ustazhi. Actually the main goal of Ustazhi was to fight partisans. There are milions of photos of Ustazhi and Chetniks fighting together against partisans

[@unethicalgoose]

@@konstantincvetanovic5357 many of those were falsified. Actually, many cetnik victories in dalmatia abd lika were swept under the rug and the partizani would force the victorious cetniks to join them

[@stevearathoon2826]

The Forgotten 500 Hundred is worth reading to add to the complication that is this area and era!

[@BokicaK1]

Or Fitzroy McLeans "Eastern Aproaches"

[@jimwegerer5988]

The more controversial a topic is, the more it needs to be discussed, and discussed honestly, well done.

[@azanjac]

Wow. Excellent. This is as spot on as it can be in 30 minutes. I knew some old real Chetniks (with Mihajlović) that emigrated to Canada via Italy, which lends credence to the Italian involvement part. One understated part was the viciousness of the Ustaša regime, but I doubt that people following this channel will be not informed about it. Hats off to you TIK, you did the impossible and explained this military and strategic cacophony as well and probably better than anyone else could. Bravo to you.

[@robrob9050]

12:54 But "official history" was that London supported Chetnik forces until 1943 and then switched support to Tito, because either Mihailovic was collaborating with Axis or being too passive in his resistance?

[@tomgu2285]

Nope brits were always anti serbia so they supported the partisans.

[@SamuelJamesNary]

You have an error on Tito's motivations regarding his his rebellion against Axis forces. I would agree that his strategy of open rebellion would bring about hardship and retaliation, but it was something that came about as a direct result Axis invasion in the first place. Had the Axis never have invaded... it's unlikely that Tito would have gotten much attention and with Yugoslavia then governed by their own government... uprisings against that government would not have effected the war on the Eastern Front even if Stalin ordered Tito to fight with the King of Yugoslavia (assuming Germany doesn't invade in 1941). It would only mean a bloody side war that likely would have concerned the Germans very little... at least in 1941. And this then leads into a more complicated issue over "Communists seek to destroy the economy to gain power." While various extremist parties have taken advantage of bad economic times... and Tito would be no different. I don't think that he would ideologically seek to destroy the countries economy just to get power. And in his own case, one could make the case that by the time that Tito's partisans began launching their uprisings, it would be likely that Germany or Italy would begin dismantling and destroying Yugoslavia's economy in order to enrich Germany and/or Italy. Thus, Yugoslavia might well have faced trouble regardless of what Tito did. And thus Tito figured to rebel and try to get the occupiers out of "his" country and promise to make Yugoslavia better once in power... Whether or not Tito actually did so after coming to power is a different issue... but I'd argue that the failures of parties that go extremes is more a result of their lack of experience in a democratic government and/or their lack of understanding on economic practices beyond that of a common worker that isn't running the business or responding to what is in "demand." Thus they respond to things they see as unfair and then try to bully their way through to get what they want, consequences be damned. Thus they end up causing as much damage as they wish to fix as a result because politically they don't support moderation and economically they aren't fully aware on how the system as a whole works.

[@aidankerrigan6371]

Thank again TIK, great video. How you managed to summarize such a complex and contentious issue is incredible. No wonder you didn't rush this. ;) I've just become a subscriber, after watching loads of your videos, including Operation Crusader and the Stalingrad ones. Will become one of your Patreons.

[@billd.iniowa2263]

HUH? I'm more confused than a person tuning into a reality show mid-season. lol -- Not that I watch that B.S. , but what a soap opera! Thankyou for sorting that all out for us TIK. Nice job.

[@herzog1857]

I think one important detail has been forgotten. Hitler issued a proclamation that for every German killed, 100 Serb civilians were killed, for every wounded 50 Serb civilians, and for every damage done to the Wehrmacht, 25 killed civilians. Of all the occupied countries in Europe, only Serbia was under such repression. One of the main reasons why the greater enemies of the Chetniks were the Communists than the Germans

[@tony16546]

Mihailovic's situation really sounds like a modern marriage.

[@zalozbaignis2229]

1) The Mihailovic cetniks (Yugoslav army in the fatherland) have never collaborated with the occupier; but as much as Nedic is concerned, Mihailovic permitted the "legalization" of some cetniks, to get the arms, illegaly, from Nedic. 2) There were groups that defined themselves as cetniks, but were not part of the Yugoslav army. That's important when talking about the "collaboration" of the cetniks - the cetniks of Draza Mihailovic never collaborated; 3) There were proposals of agreement on collaborations given by Tito to the germans in 1943, but the collaboration was on from 1941, the Germans even brought the "spanish fighters", the members of the international communist brigades in Spain, to Yugoslavia to start revolution. In Slovenia the Germans even made a contract on collaboration with the partisans in the Littoral in july 1944, which is known from the Foreign office documents and also from some communist testimony from the 1980. The partizans were collaborators with the axis; 4) We know of no partizan offensive action against occupier in Slovenia, in Croatia they were agreed between cetniks and ustasha, to get the arms from the ustasha, but in fact there were no efficient anti-axis actions even there, and in Serbia there were no partizans at all after 1941. 5) You quoted MIhailovic as saywing that the main enemies of the cetniks were the ustasha and the muslims - Mihailovic never said it, but it's documented that Tito communicated to the germans that their common enemy are the cetniks, adn that they only have the interest to fight the cetniks. That's documented, while you can not quote a source for your "quotation" of Mihailovic. THe problem with your presentation is as follows: it tries to understand the fight of the cetniks, but uses pre 1990 british sources, and does not know the newest historiography, the documents that came out in the last decenies, and the western and serbian historiographic works published after 1990. Why did you not tell that Truman, posthumously, awarded Mihailovic with Legion of Merit? Why did you not tell that Gen. DeGaulle did not want to meet with Tito because of the murder of Mihailovic? You defend the british betrayal of the King and of gen. Mihailovic - even if maybe you don't know it. And you show you speak about a topic you don't really know.

[@zalozbaignis2229]

4) We know of no partizan offensive action against the occupier in Slovenia, in Croatia PARTISANS and Ustasha COLLABORATED, which permitted the partisans to get the arms from the Ustasha, and, in fact, there were no efficient anti-axis actions even there

[@elmedintrumic4651]

TIK, you made a few mistakes. Number 1, Tito didn't recive help from the Soviets until early 1944, because it was impossible for them to send aircraft to fly to Yugoslavia and back at that time. Number 2, Ljotic was not a chetnik, he was something like a national socialist, he even helped germans to kill serbian civilians in Kraljevo and Kragujevac in 1941. Number 3, you should have mentioned two important events: 1. Mihajlovic meeting the german delegation in the village Divci in november 1941, offering them colaboration, and 2. pertizan-german "march talks" in 1943. Not a bad video overall. Cheers from Bosnia

[@khsjj556]

15:30 he mentioned meeting in Divci.

[@khsjj556]

22:12 he also mentioned the March talks.

[@bljet4388]

The hypocricy of communist propaganda. Accusing someone of collaborating with axis and executing because of that, and yet they are the only ones that signed official pact with them, heads being Popovic, Djilas and Velebit. And later on they went to crush chetniks from the back as they launched offensive towards Sarajevo to capture it from germans

[@doggo1605]

I guess now's a bad time to have a German Last name

[@destubae3271]

They call the Ustashe "clerical fascists" if that helps.

[@george11111]

There are several important mistakes and misconceptions about Chetniks in this video. First, the statement that the Chetniks protected civilians is incorrect. They protected (ethnic) Serbs, them exclusively. For this reason, they acted against the Ustasha government. What is not mentioned are Chetnik crimes committed against the civilian population of Croatian nationality, of the Catholic faith. Especially in the region of Lika and Western Bosnia. (google; Momcilo Dujic chetnicks, or e.g. en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chetnik_war_crimes_in_World_War_II). Secondly, the Chetniks cooperated with the Italian fascists in the territory under Ustasha control, and later during the war with the Ustashas against Tito's communists. Third, regarding the support of Churchill and Western powers; since the Tehran conference in 1943, Titos' communists / partisans have been the only recognized ally in the Balkans by the Allies. There's a quote by one the most prominent Croatian/Yugoslav historians Dusan Bilandzic which could give you a new perspective on Draza Mihailovic, Bilandzic said; Mihailovic maybe didn't enter the war as a fascist, but he definitely ended it as one. If you disagree with part of my opinion, let me know. Kind regards

[@george11111]

And I'll just add this, regarding the nature of Tito's communists/partisans. Although the leading figures of Tito's movement were all communists, partisans in general were not. Partisans (until the end of the war, or at least 1944) were; Croatian antifascists, Serbs who lived on the territory of NDH (Ustasha state), former members of Croatian peasant party (led by Vladko Macek, who was offered the role of NDH leader by Hitler). So, in summa; partisans reflected the will of Croatian people who in general didn't like the Ustasha government and started to fight against it as early as the summer of 1941

[@TheImperatorKnight]

"First, the statement that the Chetniks protected civilians is incorrect. They protected (ethnic) Serbs, them exclusively." That's what I said that in the video. When I first mentioned it, I didn't want to give away that they were going to only protect Serbians, but later on, I made it clear that that was what they were doing, and said so at the end. "What is not mentioned are Chetnik crimes committed against the civilian population of Croatian nationality, of the Catholic faith." Again, I mentioned crimes committed by the Chetniks against the Croatian population in the video. "Secondly, the Chetniks cooperated with the Italian fascists in the territory under Ustasha control, and later during the war with the Ustashas against Tito's communists." Yes, as I mentioned in the video. "Third, regarding the support of Churchill and Western powers; since the Tehran conference in 1943, Titos' communists / partisans have been the only recognized ally in the Balkans by the Allies" Yes, as I mentioned in the video. "Mihailovic maybe didn't enter the war as a fascist, but he definitely ended it as one." I would agree with that statement. "Although the leading figures of Tito's movement were all communists, partisans in general were not." That's exactly why I decided to call Tito's force Communists rather than 'Partisans', so as not to confuse things.

[@azanjac]

@@george11111 wow, delusional at best. The uprising in Croatia started in the village called "Srb", that's a bit indicative of who rebelled. No, the partisan and antifascist movements were not a part of the Croatian ethos, it happened in spite of the overwhelming Croatian popular support of fascist ideology. Zagreb welcomed Nazis with flowers, Belgrade was bombed. Croatias only win was that Tito (a communist Serb hating Croat) came out victorious. There were two anti fascists movements in Yugo and both were Serbian, Croats instead of repenting for their betrayal and genocide got Tito as president and with it territorial concessions.

[@MajorVanBloodnok]

Much like all of TIK's channel, it's a shame he makes a lot of unforced errors. He spoils it all with a heavy and very obvious ideological bias against anything remotely left wing, and weirdly is always trying to link National-Socialism with Socialism which, if he knows even a little bit, is precisely what Hitler consciously intended in order to piggy-back off workers movements. In case there's any confusion, the two ideas are exact opposites. Socialism is based on worker's controlling the state, Nazism is based on the state controlling the workers. Stalin did the same - in the name of Socialism. Totalitarianism is a parasite that needs a host ideology, otherwise nobody would willingly accept it. Liberalism for example is currently being used by the Identity politics community, with it's own Orwellian language, show trials, denunciations, re-education, cancellations.. they do so in the name of diversity, equality. TIK casually says that _"religion.. fundamentally goes against the principles of Fascism and National Socialism"_ And also says WIkipedia is unreliable..

[@brunorudan7905]

@@MajorVanBloodnok Socialism is a state of affairs without a market. The only way to establish it is through state control of the means of production. And a strong state to enforce the laws that essentially ban the market(price controls,quotas,restrictions...). By its very inception the workers are no longer in control. You can claim to seize the means of production for any number of groups.

[@Davidh41690]

TiK: 'Look at this landmine of a history debate!' *rolls up sleeves* 'Let's get into it!'

[@matematic4837]

Hi TIK, im great fan but lets say former yugoslavia ww2 situation si too complicated to be explain in short video. It wasnt just communist vs monarchist because it make wrong picture that chetnicks are some kind of pro western thing. They weren't, and their main preocupation is fighting for serbian domination in yugoslavia. Thats why they failed, because their support is driven from just one nationality of multiethnical yugoslavia while communist play cunning game of multiethnical good guys (well most of people in former yugoslavia at that time are simple peasants and they really dont understand whats is communism). Sooo etnical fighting is more important than ideological one. Chetnincks spent most of time "fighting" against croatian and muslim civilians. So they didnt stand a chance getting popularity in non serbian people of former yugoslavia.

[@mythbuster860]

Their main activities were to protect Serbian civilians from croatian genocide. Unfortunately they weren't successful beceause over a million of them died in genocide did by croats.

[@matematic4837]

@@mythbuster860 interesting way of "protecting" by killing civilians hundred kilometers away. And tale of milions is not supported with simple mathematics, although they were mass murder no doubt.

[@Bogdan36933]

*Hey TIK, My Great Grandfather was one of the main Chetnik commadants of South Yugoslavia Region, he was a commadant in a Royal's army too (King Alexander Karadjordjevic, before he was killed by Croatian ,,Ustasha" resistance members led by Ante Pavelić, a croatian war criminal. My Great Grandfather fought the communists and Germans too and he said that ,,Every communist is more dangerous than any german for our people and nation's future"*

[@ericc9321]

Crazy how he sort of took up the role of Mao in the resistance, consolidating power and fighting his rival instead of concentrating on the enemy. Of course this strategy didn't pay off because of the post-war Soviet influence, but it was worth a try.

[@hopfinatorischerkuchenkrieger]

Well, he was no backstabbing rat like Mao was to the nationalist army in the end so.

[@robertortiz-wilson1588]

Pretty interesting comparison!

[@lewisbean4250]

Both would later go against the Soviets as well

[@gsacelm7753]

I like how this and Lindybeige's video came out within a month of each other. Amazing content!

[@grchina]

United Balkans, not a good idea we tried that already didn't end well, anyway props to you for even trying to figure out something that even we who live here still have different opinions

[@dpejanic]

Thanks 42 for asking and even more TIK for answering. Very difficult topic and you did a great job on it. Been watching for years, keep it up please!

[@bodicwow]

Great video, TIC. If you ever decide to expand upon the themes resistance and collaboration in your work, I would definitely recommend a comparative approach. There are many parallels to be drawn, for example, between the Chetniks and the Ustasha, and the Polish Home Army and the Ukrainian Insurgent Army respectively. I'll leave you to sort out the details, but it suffices to say that in contrast to the Allies, the Nazis and Bolsheviks looked out for their friends. Anyways, keep em coming man, all the best!

[@randomtanker4355]

22:52 WHAT did I just saw.... aa certain Četnik group and Ustaše together, interesting

[@liamfoley9614]

The name Chetnik, has been sullied somewhat by the 1990's iteration.

[@TheImperatorKnight]

Well, they weren't very nice back in WW2

[@user-oo7uk2tu2d]

@@TheImperatorKnight I would say the true Chetniks were ones prior and during ww1. I would recommend reading a bit about fighting for Macedonia in the early 1900s. Its where the first Chetniks appeared and how they got their name. The whole conflict there is rather interesting since it was an all out civil war inside an guerrilla war inside of another country.

[@jussim.konttinen4981]

However, they had merged into Serbs by 1990. Socialist Slobodan Milošević supported Radovan Karadžić, whose father had been a Chetnik. Ratko Mladić's father was a member of the Yugoslav Partisans.

[@yuslaven89]

@@TheImperatorKnight Chetniks were some kind of komandos. They were used for special tasks (or terrorist tasks depend from which side you look on it) in Ottoman Empire in territories which later will become part of Serbia after Balkan wars in 1912/1913. Name came from Serbian word for smaller army unit "četa" (company).

[@unethicalgoose]

@@TheImperatorKnight Nor were the other two groups.

[@BokicaK1]

You missed the point about care for civilians: You can't say that communist didn't care for civilians. They have mothers, fathers, children, wives among civilians. But when the uprising begun, they couldn't disband themselves and wait for Germans to came and found them. Germans and collaborators were killing civilians even before the uprising begun. Partisans weren't supplied from Moscow until 1944, and Mihailovic by then was already defeated. Ljotic's men didn't call themselves Chetniks, they were Serbian Volunteer Corps and they are undoubtedly pro-Nazis (and Mihailovic Chetniks would occasionally fight and killed them, but eventually Mihailovic's, Nedic's and Ljotic's men would unite against partisans.

[@BokicaK1]

You missed the point about care for civilians: You can't say that communist didn't care for civilians. They have mothers, fathers, children, wives among civilians. But when the uprising begun, they couldn't disband themselves and wait for Germans to came and found them. Germans and collaborators were killing civilians even before the uprising begun. Partisans weren't supplied from Moscow until 1944, and Mihailovic by then was already defeated. Ljotic's men didn't call themselves Chetniks, they were Serbian Volunteer Corps and they are undoubtedly pro-Nazis (and Mihailovic Chetniks would occasionally fight and killed them, but eventually Mihailovic's, Nedic's and Ljotic's men would unite against partisans.

[@BokicaK1]

While numbers for Nedic's, Ljotic's and Pecanac's forces might be true, both Tito and Mihailovic had many, many times more men. Germans never left Yugoslavia - as main battles partisans waged in Croatia, Germans transferred their divisions there. They even raised a SS division from Germans living in Yugoslavia. Bulgarians replaced Germans as main occupation force in Serbia

[@BokicaK1]

Funny fact that mentioned Petar Bacovic was someone who was supplied by Italians as he became very important in battles against Partisans. And Italians didn't leave Yugoslavia. They decide that have no manpower to occupy mountainous terrain and retreated to larger towns, so they left Ustache and Chetniks to deal with partisans. British didn't urge Mihailovic to fight partisans, but Germans and Italians and their minions. Sorry, dude, although you have some good points, you have to re-do this video, many events were taken out from chronology

[@roflol100]

All great but TIk seriously, "socialist policies are designed to destroy economy". Is that a quote from objective historian? Or "Tito did not care about civilians". Those both statements sound pretty amateurish to me. Real reason why Tito had more succes is that Communist movment was movment of all people of yugoslavia,unlike chetniks or ustashe that were nationalist movments. Brotherhood and unity was main creed of Tito partisans

[@thorstenmanfred6622]

Truth you speak, Duh...

[@TheImperatorKnight]

@ Duhduhduh Buhbuhbuh "All great but TIk seriously, "socialist policies are designed to destroy economy". Is that a quote from objective historian?" Yes, this is actually very objective. If I'd said 'socialist policies are to help the economy', you'd know I was lying and pushing a socialist agenda. A statement of fact is being objective, especially when the evidence is clear, like the fact that minimum wage causes unemployment kzbin.info/www/bejne/ZpfWh3xpetKIpLM - "Or "Tito did not care about civilians". Those both statements sound pretty amateurish to me." Oh okay. Maybe a quote from a historian will help you change your mind - “Tito began with a small popular base, and his basic strategy was to remove the party underground from the cities to the poorly supervised rural areas, seek support in the villages and among the roving groups of refugee Serbs, and create enough disorder to stimulate German reprisal actions, which would further radicalize the civilians and create more recruits for the Partisans.” - Milazzo, “The Chetnik Movement and the Yugoslav Resistance,” Kindle Chapter 2. - "Real reason why Tito had more succes is that Communist movment was movment of all people of yugoslavia,unlike chetniks or ustashe that were nationalist movments. Brotherhood and unity was main creed of Tito partisans" Except, of course, all the people who fought against him and his international movement, which included all the nationalist movements.

[@carelesslad9931]

Tito would fight the Germans to the last Serb. Serbs, being the freedom loving people they are, gravitated to whoever had the best anti occupation propaganda. Early on it was the Chetniks, later the communists. Tito demonstrably didn't care about civilians, all he cared about was getting power and the communist ideals.

[@roflol100]

@@TheImperatorKnight Minimum wage is deigned so that when you get paid you can eat and pay for essential needs, its pretty much pointless to have full employment if you cant live 1 week from wage you recive. Tito did not have to radicalize anyone, most of serbs join Tito to escape from croatian nationalists and most of croats join Tito to escape from chetniks slaughtering them, also croats from dalmatia joined because they didnt want to acept that half of croatian coast was now Italian. He did not have to destroy economy because economy was non existant anyway. Lot of history revisionists here im afraid

[@jussim.konttinen4981]

@@roflol100 I would say socialist policies are prone to corruption, which can lead to bloodshed. I mean the people must have a Japanese mentality, otherwise it is doomed.