05.12.2016.
The book „Religious service in the Serbian Army in WWI” presented
The book “Religious service in the Serbian Army in the First World War” written by Lieutenant Colonel Miljan Milkic, PhD, edited by Media Centre Odbrana, has been presented today in the Central Military Club.
Bearing in mind the fact that the historiography of the First World War contains few published data about the way of functioning of religious service and the role of military priests in the units of the Serbian Army during 4 year-long combat, the work of the historian Lieutenant Colonel Milkic is the treasure of documented stories about people, religious servants, soldiers whose weapon - the word of God, was the strongest during the years of war.
As Colonel Stevica Karapandzin, the director of Media Centre Odbrana, pointed out, this is one more piece of work in the opus of publishing activities of this Media Centre within marking the centenary of the beginning of the First World War, which throws new light on the less known details of the military tradition of warriors from this territory.
According to Mirjana Sandic, editor of the publication, the book is a result of long-term research work of Lieutenant Colonel Milkic. The organization of religious service during the First World War is presented in the first part of the book whereas the second part is dedicated to the war biographies of 248 military priests who served in the Serbian Army in the period 1914-1918.
Speaking about scientific importance of “Religious service in the Serbian Army in the First World War”, reviewer of the book Milic Milicevic, PhD, a research associate in the History Institute, stressed that this piece of work was different from others in its personalized approach to history, which broke narrative clichés present in the books on military topics.
Reviewer Danilo Sarenac, PhD, emphasized that the book presented today in the domain of scientific thought differed greatly from other publications focused on centenary of the Great War. In this case it turned out once again that a historian and a soldier were the winning combination when it came to research of such specific segments of our history.
Aleksandar Zivotic, PhD, a historian and one of the reviewers of the book, drew special attention to the significance of the work of Lieutenant Colonel Milkic in our historiography, because research conducted so far related primarily to the operations of our Army in the Great War, and less to its functioning. He also added that this book was based on fundamental research, which offered answers to the sequence of important questions related to the place and role of clergy in the military at this territory in such important historic period.
The intention of the author of the book, Lieutenant Colonel Miljan Milkic, PhD, a research associate in the Strategic Research Institute, is to present to the readers in a comprehensive way archive data and legislation on the introduction of religious service in the Serbian Army within research work. In his work, as he stressed, he used the documents from Archives of Yugoslavia, Military Archives, Historical Archives of Sumadija in Kragujevac and many other archive materials, which gives a special value to this work and a stimulus for further work.
