ČLANCI Prof. dr TETSUYA SAHARA Meiji University Tokio, 1 Chome 1 Canda Surugadal UDK 323.1(497)"1903/1913"
[email protected] 061-021.453(497.11)"1903/1913" 94(497.11)"1903/1913" originalan naučni rad primljeno: 9. oktobar 2015. prihvaćeno: 4. novembar 2015. THE MAKING OF „BLACK HAND“ RECONSIDERED ABSTRACT: This study assesses the effects of Serbian „Macedonian Struggle“ over the making of the secret society, popularly known as „Black Hand.“ Building on the existent literature, by using memoires, court records and sources from diplomatic correspondence, the articles traces a decade of met- amorphosis of secret society of officers from the 1903 May coup until the end of Balkan wars 1913, emphasizing the previously neglected Macedonian aspect, deemed here crucial for understanding the functioning of the society and its re- lation to the Serbian state. KEYWORDS: Black Hand, IMRO, terrorism, World War I, Commi- ttee of Union and Progress Ujedinjenje ili smrt (Unification or Death) was a secret society whose alleged commitment to the Sarajevo assassination often made it the major topic of discussion among the historians researching outbreak of the First World War, particularly the ones emphasizing the Serbian share of responsibility. Popularly known as the „Black Hand,“ the society is usually considered as a conspiratorial group made up of Serbian army officers gathered around Colonel Dragutin Dimitrijević-Apis. According to the widespread but simplified view, the society was formed with the aim of uniting all regions inhabited by the Serbs with the Serbian Kingdom. One reads that its bellicose approach to the national question was incompatible with the prudent foreign policy of Nikola Pašić, and made it inevitable for the „Black Hand“ to pursue its goals clandestinely, independent from the government of his Radical Party.