Ratni dnevnik poraženog. O čemu govore slike i zapisi češkog oficira austrougarske vojske sa balkanskog ratišta?
| Title in English | The War Diary of the Defeated. What Speaks Photos and Notes of a Czech Officer from the Austro-Hungarian Army from the Balkan Battlefield? |
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| Authors | |
| Year of publication | 2020 |
| Type | Article in Proceedings |
| Conference | Veliki rat 1914-1918. u memoarima i ratnim dnevnicima |
| MU Faculty or unit | |
| Citation | |
| Keywords | Great War; Diary; the Austro-Hungarian Army; Balkan Campaign; Serbia; Montenegro; Albania |
| Description | The memoirs of participants in the First World War, in particular relating to the battles fought by the various units of the Czechoslovak Legion, were very common after the First World War. However, many of the original war diaries, which were written by their authors directly in the trenches or during a campaign often did not survive. This related in particular to those who remained 'loyal to the emperor' throughout the war, even though they had their own ideas about the war. One good example of this is the diary of Hynek Doležal, a lieutenant in the 20th mountain brigade of the 3rd Austro-Hungarian army. As it is made up mainly of photographic material, his diary is naturally quite unique. This diary, therefore, comprehensively documents the field campaigns which the brigade began in the winter months of 1914 in Bosnia, continuing into Serbia in 1915 and then the next year into Montenegro, Albania and Macedonia, from where in 1918, following the breakthrough at the Salonica Front, the brigade retreated back to the disintegrating monarchy. Despite the fact that Doležal was in the Austrian army, his Czechness is evident from the descriptions accompanying his photographs as well as his sympathy for the 'Serb and Montenegrin enemy'. Therefore, the diary is not only a record of military operations, but also an important ethnographic source and document of the ideas of a highly placed Czech officer in the Austro-Hungarian army. |