NIKOLA KALABIĆ–PRILOG ZA RAZUMEVANjE JEDNE RATNE BIOGRAFIJE

Abstract

The article is a short review of the distinguished war commander of the Yugoslav Army in Fatherland (The Chetniks, known by abbreviation JVuO) Nikola Kalabic. He was reserve officer of the Yugoslav Army, and during the Second World war one of the prominent commanders of the Royalist resistance movement since 1941 until the very end in late 1945, commanding the Guards unit of the JVuO. It was the author’s contribution on the trial where Kalabic rehabilitation was debated. The process was held during the period between 2014 and 2022 in Valjevo regional court. Parts of this article was read by the author in front of the Valjevo court in his third appearance during the part of the process where a conclusion was drawn upon the request of the defence and state attorney. The article on Kalabic was written based on the author research in the Military Archive and Archive of Yugoslavia, both in Belgrade, concerning the Kalabic’s wartime biography. The special attention was given to the accusations on Kalabic’s behaviour gathered in 1945, during the field research of the State commission that assembled the testimonies on the crimes of the occupying forces and other warring parties during the Second World War in occupied Serbia. The post – war capture of the Kalabic and his role in the capturing of General Mihailovic in spring 1946, was also described in the article, based upon the documents that were held in Serbian State Security. Author had a chance to research those documents during the 2009, as the member of the state commission which investigated fate of General Mihailovic capture, trial and execution. Those documents confirm Kalabic’s key role in the operation run by the Yugoslav security service which led to capture of the General Mihailovic in mid- March 1946.