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May 27th 1914, Belgrade, Kingdom of Serbia
“By God, by the blood of my ancestors, by my honor and my life that from this moment until my death, I shall be faithful to every law of this organization, I shall be ever-ready to sacrifice for it, to suffer for it, to die for it.”
-Excerpt of the Oath of the Black Hand
An Oath
In a dark Belgrade basement, a hooded man questioned the three young men. “Do you know why you are going to execute this mission?” The smallest of the three spoke up: “because the Archduke Franz Ferdinand is the oppressor of our people.” “Do you know when you are going to execute this mission?” “When the oppressor comes to Sarajevo,” the young man answered. “When will that be?” “On June 28th.”
Satisfied, their interrogator led the three to a candlelit room with two other hooded men. In front of them lay the altar of the Black Hand. On it rested a dagger, a revolver, a skull, and a vial of poison. The hooded men began the oath, and the young men obediently followed. Finally, the hooded men embraced their young charges and handed each a vial of cyanide. With that, Trifko Grabež, Nedeljko Čabrinović, and Gavrilo Princip walked into the night.
Gavrilo Princip
Gavrilo Princip was born in rural Bosnia in 1894. Having lost six of children in infancy, Princip’s strictly Orthodox Serb parents named him for the archangel Gabriel, who they hoped would protect their sickly boy. Princip lived, but became a frail young man, terribly insecure that “wherever [he] went people took [him] for a weakling.” However, Princip was bright and excelled in school, moving to Bosnia’s capital, Sarajevo, to continue his studies. There in this politically volatile city, Princip had his radical awakening. He learned how his Serbian people had been oppressed in Bosnia by their non-Slavic masters, first the Ottomans and now the Austro-Hungarians. He joined Young Bosnia in 1911, which was dedicated to unifying Bosnia with Serbia. In 1912, he was expelled from school following a demonstration against Austria-Hungary. After his expulsion, he walked nearly 200 miles to Belgrade. There, he offered his services to Major Tankosić, co-founder of the Black Hand. To Princip’s great shame, the major rejected him as too small and weak for service. Yet, the rejection only fueled his radicalism. He renounced smoking, drinking, and sex, focusing his whole being on the cause of Bosnian liberation. That he was suffering from tuberculosis likely added a dash of fatalism and urgency to his ambitions.
At the Golden Sturgeon café in Belgrade, Princip’s radicalized his friends Trifko Grabež and Nedeljko Čabrinović. Princip had an important question for his friends. Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, was to visit Sarajevo in June 1914 to observe military maneuvers. Would Grabež and Čabrinović help Princip kill this oppressor of the Serbs? Grabež and Čabrinović. However, the trio lacked the weapons to execute their deadly deed. For those, Princip knew where to turn: the Black Hand.
The Black Hand
The Black Hand was a shadowy Serbian ultra-nationalist organization with links to the Serbian army. Its leader, Dragutin Dimitrijević, nicknamed Apis, also headed Serbian military intelligence. Apis was fanatically devoted to the idea of Greater Serbia, an ethnic state that would include Bosnia and Herzegovina. However, Austro-Hungarian dominion over Bosnia prevented the unification of Serbs under Serbian rule. In 1903, Apis led a coup that killed the Serbian king and queen, who he believed were too friendly with Vienna. Following the murders, a new royal family took over, who realigned Serbia with Russia and France. The new king also supported Serbian nationalism in Bosnia, which soured relations with Austria-Hungary. In 1908, Serbian nationalists were outraged by Austria-Hungary’s annexation of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Although Austria-Hungary had been the de facto ruler of Bosnia for decades, the formal annexation dealt a painful blow to dreams of Greater Serbia.
Apis and the Black Hand found enemies inside Serbia as well. Chief among them was prime minister Nicola Pašić, a political master with a flowing philosopher’s beard. Pašić disavowed the violent methods of the Black Hand and their provocations against Austria-Hungary. The Black Hand considered his moderation treasonous and waged an underground campaign to overthrow him. Yet, Pašić was no traitor. He had overseen Serbia’s expansion and growth into a regional power during the successful Balkan Wars of 1912 and 1913. However, those wars also increased tensions with Austria-Hungary, who feared the influence a rising Serbia would have on their ethnic Serb subjects. Austria-Hungary rightly blamed Serbia for encouraging pan-Serb nationalism that threatened the stability of Vienna’s multiethnic empire.
For generations, issues of Serb and South Slavic nationalism simmered within the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The Hungarians, who had gained co-equal status with the Austrians in 1867, fiercely opposed diluting their influence by granting representation to the empire’s Slavic subjects. Catholic Austrians also looked dismissively on the Eastern Orthodox Slavs. However, by the 1900s, ethnic nationalism was pulling the empire apart. Archduke Franz Ferdinand, expected to soon succeed his ancient uncle Franz Josef, had a novel idea for preserving the empire. As emperor, he would grant autonomy to the South Slavs, making them co-equal with the Austrians and the Hungarians. Paradoxically, it was for this pro-Slavic proposal that Franz Ferdinand had to die.
Franz Ferdinand’s plan terrified pan-Serbians like Apis. They feared it might satisfy Serbians under Austro-Hungarian rule and render Greater Serbia impossible. If Franz Ferdinand modernized and reformed his empire, he might ensure its perpetual dominance over Bosnia. Additionally, assassinating the Archduke would bring down Austria-Hungary’s wrath on the Serbian government, which could drive moderates like Pašić from power.
Thus, the Black Hand eagerly supported the three Bosnians. In Belgrade, they had a Serbian officer take the young men to a park for target practice. There, Princip proved himself a crack shot. Next, the Black Hand arranged for a cache of weapons to be smuggled into Bosnia. Finally, agents helped arrange the journey to Sarajevo, where the assassins would reunite with the weapons and several more co-conspirators.
The Pašić government now found itself in a predicament. Though they lacked specific details, they had enough information to alert Vienna. However, if the Black Hand learned that Pašić had tipped off their enemies, the consequences could be disastrous for him. Furthermore, a direct warning about the plot would sound awfully like a threat by the Serbian government against Austria-Hungary. Pašić ultimately authorized a minister to convey “concerns” regarding Franz Ferdinand’s Sarajevo visit to the Austro-Hungarians. This vague message was poorly delivered and haughtily ignored by Austria-Hungary (after all the Archduke was merely visiting a part of his empire).
Too late, Pašić’s government ordered the three young men arrested, but they had already slipped across the border. Even the Black Hand reconsidered. After a sober assessment of the potential consequences, Black Hand leadership pressured Apis to call off the hit squad. However, by this point the assassins were deep inside Bosnia. When Grabež and Čabrinović had second thoughts, Princip steeled their nerves. To him, the time had long passed for pathetic irresolution, the young men must kill the tyrant, and die as martyrs to Greater Serbia.
Read More
As mentioned previously, Serbia and the Balkan Front, 1914 by James Lyon expertly covers the geopolitical and military situation in the Balkans in 1914. It also discusses radical Serbian nationalists and their relationship with the Serbian government. For gripping detail on the plot to kill Franz Ferdinand, read Frederic Morton’s Thunder at Twilight. Morton’s book really made this dramatic story come alive for me. Early chapters of Sean McMeekin’s July 1914: Countdown to War explore the assassins’ journey from Belgrade to Sarajevo in fascinating detail.