11.12.2017.
Minister Vulin: Toplica Uprising - politics disputed it, history justified it
Minister of Defence Aleksandar Vulin has attended the memorial ceremony "Honouring Field Marshal Kosta Vojinović" which has been held within the "Week of Toplica" event, at the Ceremonial Hall of the Orthodox Theological Faculty in Belgrade, tonight.
This evening's ceremony was attended by Patriarch Irinej of Serbia, Archpriest of the Russian Orthodox Church in Belgrade Vitaly Tarasov, Bishop Arsenije of Niš, Bishop Vasilije of Srem, representatives of the Ministry of Defence, Orthodox Theological Faculty and others.
According to Minister Vulin, Toplica Uprising is one of the most controversial and most underestimated revolts in our history.- I had the honour, as the Minister of Labour, to introduce the marking of the Toplica Uprising in the official state calendar. This is for the first time that the Serbian state has begun to mark the Toplica Uprising. Toplica Uprising has been underestimated because our historiography, more often driven by politics rather than history, presented the Toplica Uprising as an adventurous hike of juvenile people conducted without the consent of the Supreme Command, at wrong time, without good reason, good preparation. Our historiography is more often driven by politics rather than by the historical truth about the Toplica Uprising. Even after the First and the Second World War, the Toplica Uprising and its martyrs were victims of politics, not history; including Kosta Vojinović, Minister Vulin said.
He added that there was intention to bury it in deliberate oblivion, to forget what actually happened.
- But find any Serbian uprising that was not underestimated, which was not said to be unnecessary, too short, too expensive, wrong. It has always been talked about every Serbian uprising, just like about every Serbian war, that it could or should have been avoided. It is as if the Serbian people have an alternative to life in freedom. The Serbian people is tolerant, it is hard for them to make a decision. But when they make a decision, they do it because there is no other choice, Minister Vulin explains.
He asks the question and explains why the Toplica Uprising broke out.
- It broke out because it was no longer enough for the Bulgarian occupier to control the space, to take supplies, to take hostages, occasionally shoot. Now they asked for tribute in blood, to collect all militarily capable men, all children, and take them to Thessaloniki front, to Kajmakčalan, to stand in front of their fathers, brothers and uncles. Would there be breakthrough of Kajmakčalan as it was if the members of the Drina division of the second call and the Iron Regiment knew that somewhere over there, in the trenches, stand their sons, terrified, unsure of what would happen to them tomorrow, whether they would live tomorrow. Would the Serbian artillery fire at Kajmakčalan in a two-day preparation as it did if the Bulgarian occupiers filled the trenches with Serbian children from Prokuplje. I do not believe. And if they did not, the First World War would last for a long time, the Minister of Defence said.
Toplica Uprising broke out because of necessity, Minister Vulin explains, and not out of head of Kosta Vojinović, reserve officer, a man without great military knowledge and education, but with a sincere desire to fight.
- If there was no Toplica Uprising, you would have an unseen thing in the history of the Serbian people, that the Serbian children and Serbian sons stand before the guns recognizing their fathers. There was simply no choice. To send the children to die from the fire of their fathers or to rise up in rebellion. The First World War is not a war of mass crimes, it is a war of the armies. The armies die, uniforms die. Not like in the Second World War. But in the First World War it was so everywhere except in our Serbia. And everywhere except for the Serbs. Since the very first day of the assassination of Gavrilo Princip, the hotel Europe in Sarajevo was burnt, all Serbian property in Sarajevo was burnt. Mass hangings, executions in Herzegovina started. Hostages were taken to Arad. The first concentration camp in Europe was located in Arad where Serb hostages were taken and thousands of which never returned. Mass shootings, mass hangings in Mačva and Posavina areas, incredible crimes against people and nations, states that should be considered as an example of civilization and respect for at least the Geneva Convention. Archibald Reiss, however, witnessed this. Watching Serbian suffering and Serbian anguish he became a sincere admirer of the Serbian people, Minister Vulin said.
According to him, during the entire First World War, the Serbian people was facing with unprecedented reprisals of the history of the world until then.
- Toplica Uprising was the need of the people. Kosta Pećanac had nothing to do there. His authority, regardless of the fact that he came with the authority of the Supreme Command, could not be measured against the need of the people to live, and against the feeling of freedom that a person when once feel it could not go back, the defence minister says.
According to Minister Vulin, the first and only uprising in occupied Europe during the First World War is Toplica Uprising.
- Only the Serbs felt the need to be free without asking for the price. The Serbs and nobody else. And it is interesting that the uprising was led by a reserve officer. If he only were a lieutenant or captain, at least. That tells you that no one was left. Everybody who had that rank, everybody who was capable of fighting went to war. Nobody was left. Everybody who was able set off with the army and the people, and went away not to surrender. We should be proud of that. President of the Red Crosss as the highest state official in Serbia during the First World War waited for the occupier. Nobody else. It would be interesting to look at some other nations suffering occupation and who was waiting, and whether they understood in general whether they were occupied or not, Minister Vulin said.
He says that Toplica Uprising broke out because it had to be conducted and it was led by the man chosen by the fate.
- He did not choose the uprising. Kosta Vojinović was not prepared for a military career. He was not preparing for an uprising, but the uprising chose him. A territory that had nearly a million inhabitants opened. The Austro-Hungarian and Bulgarian occupiers were broken, they attracted forces which were more organized and stronger, they sought German support. Toplica Uprising was developing, growing. The liberators were recognized, welcomed. And then, our discord – Kosta Vojinović and Kosta Pećanac. One leads the uprising, the other wants the uprising to be suppressed. Unconscious that they cannot keep the people with orders from wherever they come, and that they have to follow the people, Kosta Pećanac and those who were with him, saw the main and only problem in Kosta Vojinović, and he was not the leader of the uprising - the uprising led him. He was there just because somebody had to be. And he was a poet, he wrote drama plays, his plays were performed before the refugees in confusion, and he would not go back. He would not retreat, the Minister of Defence says.According to Minister Vulin, when the uprising breakdown occured, the rebels have already been torn down by inner disagreements and conflicts.
- Some say, may they be the sinful souls that I convey it, it has never been proven that the death of Kosta Vojinović would not have occurred if there were no Serbs. And that his death was the fruit of betrayal. Let history be wrong, let me not be right, I would like that, but Kosta Vojinović died bravely and heroically. Without hesitation and retreat. The crimes that occured in Toplica have been talked about to this day. Even today, when you talk to the elderly, they say through their teeth the stories from battles. Even today in Toplica there is an expression of "bojne rote" (“stories from battles”), and today in Toplica, it is known which villages are repressed, which have never recovered, and it is known in the Second World War, who passed, where they were massacred, shot, expelled. Do not forget, Toplica Uprising was created because children in Toplica were thought and forbidden to speak the Serbian language to write their script. Officially, they must cease to be called the Serbs and the people have to accept that they have become Bulgarians. You have official orders from the Bulgarian military and civil authorities where it is said that it is forbidden to mention the Serbian name, and the one who mentions the Serbian name must be punished by deportation and sometimes by shooting, Minister Vulin says.
According to him, we should not forget that the Bulgarian occupier had been working on permanent assimilation for years, and in order to be able to do that, he had first to destroy what was unpopular, what was the intelligence of a nation.
- Clerics, educated people and schoars, teachers, doctors, they are killed or taken to captivity, from where most of them did not return. Toplica Uprisingi wa the end, and it was not caused because it had to be something else. It broke out because there was no other way. Everything was passed over, but there was no way out. There is no uprising in Serbian history that was raised and that after that there was no way out. And they will always tell us, as they always tell us, that each of our wars was too expensive, that each our rebellions was too expensive and that there could always be some kind of other way that we would not have had to fight. No one has yet told us what was that way. And nobody has yet shown us how to avoid revolt against the dahies, how to avoid the Toplica Uprising, what to do not to have Toplica Uprising. Nobody told us that yet, Minister of Defence said.
According to him, they spoke and are speaking to us, and younger generations will see that as well, that every fight for Serbian freedom is actually too expensive.- And that the struggle for Serbian freedom could have been avoided, as if there was a higher value than freedom. It is not like that. That is why Kosta Vojinović and the heroes of Toplica Uprising are heroes. The heroes are tragic just as that time was, sufferers like those who died around them, people who did not have a second choice or had no choice. Just as the entire history of the Serbian people did not have other choice or a choice at all, no matter how they declared it wrong, and every resistance of ours too expensive. The Serbian people could not understand this and will never understand a different concept of the world, apart from the concept of the world in which freedom is the highest value. Oblivon to which the heroes of Toplica Uprising were deliberately exposed, is the sacrifice of the Toplica region and a great sin. And we started to correct that, and I hope that we will be so brave enough in all parts of our history to look at ourselves and our neighbors in the eyes, history in the eyes, and to say what is true. The truth is healing, it will save us. No silent crime or horror when you were silent and tried to forget it did not disappear. It found a way to get back. Toplica heroes were not adventurers who wanted the conflict and war, as others presented it for decades. They were ordinary people who did not want to die in Bulgarian trenches from Serb shells. And they were right, Minister Vulin said.
Patriarch Irinej said that we should never forget their process of creating our people, and our country must do a lot to keep this people.
- Unfortunately, not only in the Toplica region, but throughout Serbia. Very few peoples have what Serbia has. It has everything that a single people needs to develop and succeed in each and every region, and we must do everything to revive it all in a way. There are ways. It is hard. Unfortunately, our youth creates a plan to go and work in other countries, but not many peoples have what Serbia has and we will not allow it to become property of the other people one day. Unfortunately, there are many of us in the world and it is a great concern of the state and all of us how to keep those who are here, but also to bring back those who had to go away because of the circumstances, Patriarch Irinej said, adding that the Serbs have respect for many values, but freedom is on the first place.
- Freedom for which they fought and that is the honour and virtue which is worth fighting and even sacrificing. We have deep respect for this freedom, Patriarch Irinej said.
The ceremony was completed with an exhibition on the "Suffering in Toplica Uprising".
The organizers of "Toplica Week", which will last until 15th December 2017, are Toplica Citizens Association in Belgrade, Association of War Volunteers 1912-1918 their descendants and admirers Belgrade and the Serbian Hosts Association.
