Introduction: Balkan Paramilitaries – Undemobilized Combatants

Abstract

Introduction provides information about the study chronological and geographical contexts; similarities and differences between broader European and Balkan phenomenon’s of paramilitarism after the First World War as well as most important features of Balkan paramilitarism in investigated period (1917-1924) such as: intensive political engagement, strong inclination towards guerrilla warfare, personal allegiances rather than organizational or institutional ones, active participation in armed conflicts, political crisis, coups, etc, arrival of ‘White’ Russians and ex Russian revolutionaries as the new bearers of paramilitarism and paramilitary violence in the Balkans, violence as an integral part of paramilitaries and reoccurring in identical or similar shapes despite the changes in ideological and political context. It also speaks of strong legacy of Balkan paramilitarism and how it continued to have strong influence in subsequent conflicts in the region—Second World War and Wars of Yugoslav Succession 1991–1999.