This is a list of
Serbian
paramilitary
A paramilitary is an organization whose structure, tactics, training, subculture, and (often) function are similar to those of a professional military, but is not part of a country's official or legitimate armed forces. Paramilitary units carr ...
units and formations throughout history. It includes Serbian volunteer militias loyal to the Habsburg Monarchy prior to Serbian independence, and organizations loyal to Serbia since. Note that many of the organizations either started out or ended up folded into official military organizations. These are distinct from institutions with formal status and a direct leadership structure under a nation-state, examples being the
World War I era
First Serbian Division
The First Serbian Volunteer Division ( sr, Srpski dobrovoljački korpus, italics=yes) 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 Odes ...
and the post-2006 modern
Serbian Army, which do not belong on this list.
Organizations created before World War I
*
Serbian Militia, Habsburg militia, active in the
Great Turkish War
The Great Turkish War (german: Großer Türkenkrieg), also called the Wars of the Holy League ( tr, Kutsal İttifak Savaşları), was a series of conflicts between the Ottoman Empire and the Holy League consisting of the Holy Roman Empire, Pola ...
(1683–1699)
*
Serbian Militia, Habsburg militia, active in the
Kingdom of Serbia (1718–39)
*
Serbian Free Corps, Habsburg militia, active in the
Austro-Turkish War (1787–1791)
*
Serbian Revolutionary Army, active in the Serbian Uprisings (1804–1817)
*
Komiti
Komitadji, Comitadjis, or Komitas (Bulgarian, Macedonian and sr, Комити, Serbian Latin: ''Komiti'', ro, Comitagiu, gr, Κομιτατζής, plural: Κομιτατζήδες, tr, Komitacı, sq, Komit) means in Turkish "committee membe ...
, anti-Ottoman rebels, active in the late 19th century
*
Serbian Chetnik Organization, anti-Ottoman rebels, active in Old Serbia and Macedonia (1903–08)
Balkan Wars and World War I
*
Serbian Chetnik Organization, put under the command of the
Royal Serbian Army in the Balkan Wars and World War I.
**
Association against Bulgarian Bandits, counter-terrorist unit in Macedonia in the Interwar period
*
Black Hand
Black Hand or The Black Hand may refer to:
Extortionists and underground groups
* Black Hand (anarchism) (''La Mano Negra''), a presumed secret, anarchist organization based in the Andalusian region of Spain during the early 1880s
* Black Hand ...
, secret society responsible for the assassination of Austrian Crownprince, the Archduke Franz Ferdinand.
**
Narodna Odbrana
Narodna Odbrana ( sr-cyr, Народна одбрана, literally, "The People's Defence" or "National Defence") was a Serbian nationalist organization established on October 8, 1908 as a reaction to the Austro-Hungarian annexation of Bosnia and ...
, militant group closely tied to the Black Hand that committed war crimes in
Macedonia
Macedonia most commonly refers to:
* North Macedonia, a country in southeastern Europe, known until 2019 as the Republic of Macedonia
* Macedonia (ancient kingdom), a kingdom in Greek antiquity
* Macedonia (Greece), a traditional geographic reg ...
during the
Balkan Wars
The Balkan Wars refers to a series of two conflicts that took place in the Balkan States in 1912 and 1913. In the First Balkan War, the four Balkan States of Greece, Serbia, Montenegro and Bulgaria declared war upon the Ottoman Empire and defe ...
[ (p. 169)]
**
Young Bosnia, militant group closely tied to the Black Hand that directly carried out the assassination
*
White Hand, a secret military organization in the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes (later the Kingdom of Yugoslavia). It was established in order to counter the influence of the Black Hand, and relied on the People's Radical Party.
World War II
*Chetnik Detachments of the Yugoslav Army (
Chetniks
The Chetniks ( sh-Cyrl-Latn, Четници, Četnici, ; sl, Četniki), formally the Chetnik Detachments of the Yugoslav Army, and also the Yugoslav Army in the Homeland and the Ravna Gora Movement, was a Yugoslav royalist and Serbian nationa ...
)
**
Lim-Sandžak Chetnik Detachment
The Lim-Sandžak Chetnik Detachment ( sr, Лимско—Санџачки Четнички Одред) was a military unit of Chetniks that was established in northern Montenegro and Sandžak at the end of June 1942, during World War II. In Augus ...
**
Dinara Division
The Dinara Division ( sr, Динарска дивизија / Dinarska divizija) was an irregular Chetnik formation that existed during the World War II Axis occupation of Yugoslavia that largely operated as auxiliaries of the occupying forces an ...
*
Pećanac Chetniks
*
Serbian Volunteer Corps
Yugoslav Wars
*
Kninjas
The Kninjas ( sr, Книнџе / Knindže), also known as the Red Berets (), was a Serb paramilitary unit, a volunteer militia supporting the Army of the Republic of Serb Krajina in the Croatian War (1991–95). It was based in Knin, the capital ...
(''Knindže''), Serbian volunteer organization commanded by
Dragan Vasiljković
Dragan Vasiljković ( sr-cyrl, Драган Васиљковић; born 12 December 1954), nicknamed Captain Dragan ( sr, Капетан Драган, Kapetan Dragan) is a convicted war criminal and the former commander of a Serb paramilitary unit ...
, active in Croatia.
*
Serb Volunteer Guard
The Serb Volunteer Guard ( sr, Српска добровољачка гарда, СДГ / ''Srpska dobrovoljačka garda'', SDG), also known as Arkan's Tigers (or only Tigers; sr, Арканови тигрови, links=no / ''arkanovi tigrovi'', ...
(''Srpska dobrovoljačka garda''), also known as "
Arkan's Tigers",
Serbian volunteer organization, active in Croatia and Bosnia.
*
Serbian Guard (''Srpska garda''), Serbian volunteer organization, armed wing of the
Serbian Renewal Movement, active in Croatia in 1991.
*
White Eagles (''Beli orlovi''), also known as "
Šešeljevci",
[The policy of ethnic cleansing (Final report of the United Nations Commission of Experts)](_blank)
Serbian volunteer organization, armed wing of the
Serbian Radical Party, active in Bosnia and Croatia.
*
Wolves of Vučjak
Wolves of Vučjak ( sr, Вукови с Вучјака, Vukovi s Vučjaka) was a paramilitary unit active in the Croatian War of Independence and the Bosnian War. It was established in Prnjavor, Bosnia and Herzegovina.
They were active in figh ...
(''Vukovi s Vučjaka''), Bosnian Serb organization, active in Bosnia and Croatia between 1991 and 1993.
*
Yellow Wasps (''Žute ose''), Bosnian Serb organization, active in
Bosnian Podrinje
Podrinje (Serbian Cyrillic: Подриње) is the Slavic name of the Drina river basin, known in English as the Drina Valley. The Drina basin is shared between Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia, with majority of its territory being located in ...
between April and October 1992.
*
Scorpions (''Škorpioni''), Serb organization, active in Croatia, Bosnia and Kosovo.
* (''Srpski sokolovi''), led by
*
Greek Volunteer Guard, Greek volunteer organization under the
Army of Republika Srpska, active in Bosnia and Croatia.
*
Jackals (''Šakali''), active in Kosovo in 1999.
Current
*
Serbian Honour
See also
*
Chetniks
The Chetniks ( sh-Cyrl-Latn, Четници, Četnici, ; sl, Četniki), formally the Chetnik Detachments of the Yugoslav Army, and also the Yugoslav Army in the Homeland and the Ravna Gora Movement, was a Yugoslav royalist and Serbian nationa ...
, a disorganized set of militant groups associated with both World Wars and later conflicts
*
Far-right politics in Serbia
Far-right politics in Serbia emerged shortly before the break-up of Yugoslavia and has been present ever since. Its manifestation mostly focuses on national and religious factors.
After the World War I, the far-right in Yugoslavia received lit ...
*
History of modern Serbia
History of modern Serbia or modern history of Serbia covers the history of Serbia since national awakening in the early 19th century from the Ottoman Empire, then Yugoslavia, to the present day Republic of Serbia. The era follows the early modern ...
*
Serbian hajduks
*
Serbian Volunteers (disambiguation)
*
Yugoslav Partisans, anti-Nazi forces including Serbs among other ethnicities
References
External links
*
Paramilitary formations
*
{{Serbia-hist-stub