# First Serbian Volunteer Division

The First Serbian Volunteer Division (Serbian: Srpski dobrovoljački korpus) or First Serbian Division, was a military formation of the First World War, created by Serbian Prime Minister Nikola Pašić, and organised in the city of Odessa in early 1916. This independent volunteer unit was primarily made up of South Slav Habsburg prisoners of war, detained in Russia, who had requested to fight alongside the Serbian Army. It also included men from South Slav diaspora communities, especially the United States.
Even though the Serbian volunteers greatly outnumbered all the other ethnic group, a large number of the division's officer corps was made of former Habsburg reserve officers of Croat and Slovene descent. In April 1917 the name of the division was changed to the Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes Volunteer Corps. The force holds a particularly significant place in World War I history due both to its intermingling of different Slavic ethnic groups as well as its role in the final military operations of the Salonika front.

## History

At the request of Serbian prisoners of war captured from the Austro-Hungarian army, Serbian consul in Russia Marko Cemović seized the opportunity to present a proposal for a Serbian volunteer corps directly to Tsar Nicholas II during a military parade in Odessa. On 7 November 1915, the Tsar approved the formation of Serbian volunteer units in Russia. The following year, a Serbian military mission arrived in Russia to organise captured Serbian prisoners of war into a fighting unit. The division's composition reflected both the broader aspirations of Slavic unity and the complexities of enlisting former Austro-Hungarian soldiers into the Serbian cause. Among the early volunteers were Croats from Dalmatia, Bosnians, and Slovenes, many of whom joined with the goal of fostering Yugoslav unity.
The division was officially established on 16 April 1916, with Colonel Stevan Hadžić assuming command. The unit was overwhelmingly Serbian, with estimates indicating that between 96% and 98% of its ranks consisted of Serbs, primarily from Bosnia and Herzegovina and Vojvodina, with a smaller contingent from Croatia. While Serbian soldiers formed the bulk of the enlisted ranks, the officer corps had a more diverse composition, with Croats and Slovenes holding a significant number of positions. Serbs made up only 45% of the officers.
Under the banner of pan-Slavic unity, the division initially comprised approximately 10,000 men. As recruitment continued, its numbers grew to nearly 18,000 by mid-August 1916. Serbian cavalry colonel Vojin Čolak-Antić was transferred from Salonika to take on a leadership role within the division. Initially, Tsar Nicholas II hesitated to establish the unit, as recruiting prisoners of war to fight against their former state was considered a war crime under the Hague Conventions. However, as historian Alfred Rieber notes, wartime pressures soon led to a shift in policy.
A number of Czechs and Poles also joined the division, serving as junior officers. When news emerged that a Czechoslovak Legion would be formed, most Czech rank-and-file soldiers departed to join their national contingent, which would later play a key role in the struggle for Czechoslovak independence. However, seventy-five Czech officers chose to remain in Odessa alongside the Serbian volunteers, a decision that earned them the deep respect of their men.

## Battles

As part of the Russian 47th Corps under the command of General Zayonchkovsky, the First Serb Division, 23,500 men strong, was sent to the Dobruja front in Romania to assist the Romanian army fighting Bulgarian forces reinforced by Turkish and German units. The Division showed high combat morale but was restrained by inadequate equipment and the campaign ended terribly with 1,939 dead and 8,000 wounded.
In April 1917 the Pašić cabinet, under pressure from former POW officers, and by the revolutionary changes happening in Russia at the time, created a second division, the two divisions became part of a new force called the "Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes Volunteer Corps" it was 42,000 men strong and included the presence of soldiers' councils. On 29 July 1917, General Mihajlo Zivković became Corps Commander. The decision to not name the corps "Yugoslav" as the POW officers had requested but "Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes" as well as what they perceived as the Serb officers treating the unit as a part of the Serbian army, led to the massive resignations of Croat and Slovene officers who chose to join Russian units instead. After the start of the February Revolution in 1917 as many as 12 735 soldiers left the Corps with some ending on opposing sides of the Russian Revolution.
In 1917, it was decided to send the Corps to the Macedonian front. The first division, 10,000 strong was able to leave Russia travelling west reaching Salonika at the end of the year. In the meantime, the Bolsheviks had seized power in Russia and decided to put every possible obstacle in the journey of the remaining 6,000 men, denying them the route to the West, forcing them to go via the Trans-Siberian to China to Japanese held Port Arthur. From there, they were sent on a ship to Hong Kong then to Egypt, and on to Salonika. The first company arrived on 29 March 1918 at the Serbian camp at Mikra after travelling 14,000 miles in eleven weeks. The two divisions were restored and rearmed by the Allied Army of the Orient under French command, a new Yugoslav unit was created on 14 January 1918 within the Serbian army, the 1st Yugoslav Division.

## Legacy

According to Rieber, while definitely playing a role in crucial fighting on the Eastern Front, the exploits of both Serbian divisions became magnified for propaganda purposes by nationalists. In retrospect, tensions both on and off the battlefield that existed not just in terms of ethnic heritage but also related to economic class and political ideology, even while fighters faced a common enemy in the Central Powers, foreshadowed conflicts in the future nation of Yugoslavia. According to Stevan Hadžić the battle of Dobruja was: "where all three brothers, Serb, Croat and Slovene, fought for the first time shoulder to shoulder for liberation and unification".

## Monument

A white pyramid memorial known as the Monument to the Heroes of the First Serbian Volunteer Division (Serbian Cyrillic: Споменик јунацима Прве српске добровољачке дивизије) is located as a part of a cemetery complex in Medgidia, a city in southeastern Romania near the Black Sea. The monument was dedicated in 1926 as a token of gratitude for the heroic struggle of all units of the First Serbian Volunteer Division. The area itself contains the remains of thousands who died in defense of Dobruja. In a 2013 ceremony, local mayor Marian Iordache remarked, "we can never forget their achievement... so it shall remain until the end of time."