Sarajevo Murder: Causes, Murder and Consequences. Literary and historical notes of a young technician
home On June 28, 1914 in Sarajevo (Bosnia) he was killed Austrian Archduke
(heir to the throne) Franz Ferdinand. The attempt on his life was carried out by the Serbian youth revolutionary organization “Young Bosnia” (“Mlada Bosna”), led by Gavrila Princip and Daniil Ilic. This murder became the formal reason for the start of a major war between two coalitions of great powers.
Why did the war start? The three shots that led to the death of the heir to the Austrian throne along with his wife Sophia could not have led to such a catastrophic result as the start of a pan-European war. Great War could have started much earlier. There were two Moroccan crises (1905-1906, 1911), two Balkan wars (1912-1913). Germany openly threatened France, and the Austro-Hungarian Empire began mobilization several times. However, Russia each time took a restraining position. She was also supported by Britain, which was not yet ready for big war . As a result, the Central Powers were hesitant to go to war. Conferences of great powers were convened, conflicts were resolved through political and diplomatic means. True, from crisis to crisis, Germany and Austria-Hungary became more and more impudent. Petersburg's readiness to make concessions and seek compromises began to be perceived in Berlin as proof of Russia's weakness. In addition, the German Kaiser believed that armed forces
empires, especially the navy, are not ready for war. Germany adopted a large-scale naval program in defiance of the British. Berlin now wanted not only to defeat France, but to seize its colonies, and for this they needed a powerful fleet. They were confident of victory on the land front in Berlin. The Schlieffen Plan, based on the difference in the timing of mobilization in Germany and Russia, made it possible to defeat the French troops before the Russian armies entered the battle. Considering the highest readiness German army to the war (the fleet command asked for more time), the date for the start of the war was the summer of 1914, it was planned in advance. This date was announced at a meeting of Emperor Wilhelm II with the military leadership on December 8, 1912 (theme of the meeting: “ and the method of developing war"). The same period - the summer of 1914 - was indicated in 1912-1913. in the reports of Russian agents in Germany and Switzerland Bazarov and Gurko. German military programs, originally designed until 1916, were revised - with completion by the spring of 1914. The German leadership believed that Germany was best prepared for war.
Considerable attention was paid in the plans of Berlin and Vienna Balkan Peninsula. The Balkans were to become the main prizes of Austria-Hungary. Back in 1913, the German Kaiser, in the margins of a report on the situation in the Balkan region, noted that a “good provocation” was required. Indeed, the Balkans were a real “powder keg” of Europe (as it still is today). The reason for war was easiest to find here. Back in 1879, after Russian-Turkish war, all the prerequisites for future armed conflicts. The conflict involved the Balkan states, the Ottoman Empire, Austria-Hungary, Germany, Russia and England. In 1908, Austria-Hungary annexed Bosnia and Herzegovina, which formally belonged to Istanbul. However, Belgrade also laid claim to these lands. In 1912-1913 Two Balkan wars took place. As a result of a series of wars and conflicts, almost all countries and peoples were dissatisfied: Turkey, Bulgaria, Serbia, Greece, Montenegro, Austria-Hungary. Behind each side of the conflict were great powers. The region has become a real breeding ground for games by secret services, terrorists, revolutionaries and outright bandits. One after another, secret organizations were created - “Black Hand”, “Mlada Bosna”, “Svoboda”, etc.
Still, Berlin was only thinking about provocation; The real reason for the war for the Germans was created by the terrorist-nationalist organization “Black Hand” (“Unity or Death”). It was headed by the head of Serbian counterintelligence, Colonel Dragutin Dmitrievich (pseudonym “Apis”). The members of the organization were patriots of their homeland and enemies of Austria-Hungary and Germany, dreaming of building a “Greater Serbia”. The problem was that Dmitrijevic, Tankosic and other leaders of the Black Hand were not only Serbian officers, but also members of Masonic lodges. If Apis carried out direct planning and management of operations, then there were other leaders who remained in the shadows. Among them is the Serbian minister L. Chupa, a prominent hierarch of the “free masons”. He was associated with Belgian and French Masonic circles. It was he who stood at the origins of the organization and supervised its activities. Propaganda was carried out with purely patriotic, pan-Slavist slogans. And to achieve main goal– the creation of “Greater Serbia” was possible only through war, with the obligatory participation of Russia. It is clear that the “behind-the-scenes structures” of that time (Masonic lodges were part of them) were leading Europe to a big war, which was supposed to lead to the construction of the New World Order.
The organization had enormous influence in Serbia and created branches in Bosnia, Macedonia, and Bulgaria. King Peter I Karadjordjevic of Serbia and Prime Minister Nikola Pasic did not share the views of the Black Hand, but the organization was able to achieve great influence among the officers, she had her own people in the government, assembly and at court.
It was no coincidence that the victim of the terrorist attack was also chosen. Franz Ferdinand was a tough realist in politics. Back in 1906, he drew up a plan for transforming the dualistic monarchy. This project, if implemented, could extend the life of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, reducing the degree of interethnic contradictions. According to it, the monarchy was transformed into the United States of Greater Austria - a triune state (or Austro-Hungarian-Slavia), 12 national autonomies were established for each large nationality living in the Habsburg empire. The ruling dynasty benefited from reforming the monarchy from a dualistic to a trialistic model and Slavic peoples. The Czech people received their own autonomous state (modeled on Hungary). The heir to the Austrian throne did not like Russians, and even more so Serbs, but Franz Ferdinand was categorically against a preventive war with Serbia and a conflict with Russia. In his opinion, such a conflict was fatal for both Russia and Austria-Hungary. His removal freed the hands of the “war party.”
Another interesting fact is that before the actual assassination attempt, terrorists are brought to Belgrade, they are trained in shooting at the royal park shooting range, and they are armed with revolvers and bombs (Serbian-made) from the state arsenal. It’s as if evidence is being deliberately created that the terrorist act was organized by Serbia. July 15, 1914 as a result of the internal political crisis ( palace coup), the military forced King Peter to abdicate the throne in favor of his son, Alexander, who was young, inexperienced and, in part, under the influence of the conspirators.
Apparently, certain circles in Austria-Hungary also clashed between Belgrade and Vienna. The Serbian Prime Minister and the Russian Ambassador to Serbia Hartwig, through their agents, learned about the preparation of the assassination attempt. Both tried to prevent it and warned the Austrians. However, the Austrian government did not cancel Franz Ferdinand's visit to Sarajevo and did not take adequate measures to ensure his safety. So, on June 28, 1914, two assassination attempts occurred (the first was unsuccessful). A bomb thrown by Nedeljko Gabrinovic killed the driver and injured several people. This assassination attempt did not become a reason to strengthen security or immediately evacuate the Archduke from the city. Therefore, the terrorists received a second opportunity, which was successfully implemented.
Berlin took this murder as an excellent reason for war. The German Kaiser, having received a message about the death of the Archduke, wrote in the margin of the telegram: “Now or never.” And he ordered Moltke to begin preparations for an operation against France. England took an interesting position: while Russia and France took diplomatic steps towards a peaceful resolution of the conflict between Serbia and Austria-Hungary, the British remained evasive and aloof. London did not besiege the Germans and did not promise support to the allies. As a result, the Kaiser was of the opinion that England had decided to stay out of the fray. This was not surprising given London's traditional policy towards Europe. The German ambassador to England, Lichniewski, met with British Foreign Secretary Gray and confirmed this conclusion - Britain would not interfere. However, the British intervened, but with a serious delay. This happened on August 5, when the German corps were already crushing Belgium, and it was impossible to stop the massacre. For Berlin, Britain's entry into the war came as a surprise.
Thus began the World War, which claimed 10 million lives and reshaped political map planet and seriously changed the previous value systems. England, France and the USA received all the benefits from the start of the war. The so-called “financial international” made colossal profits during the war and destroyed the aristocratic elites of Germany, Austria-Hungary, Ottoman Empire and Russia, which were “outdated” and stood in the way of building a New World Order.
It poses a whole series of questions to us. Why did it even start?
The simplest answer lies on the surface: because on June 28, 1914, the Serbian terrorist Gavrila Princip, a member of the Mlada Bosna organization, shot the heir to the Austrian throne, Archduke Franz Ferdinand, in Sarajevo during his visit to the capital of the Austrian province, which became part of Austria-Hungary in 1908. Serbian revolutionaries sought to liberate Bosnia from Austrian rule and annex it to Serbia and, to this end, committed an act of individual terror against the Austrian heir to the throne. Austria-Hungary did not tolerate such lawlessness, put forward a number of demands to Serbia, which, in its opinion, was guilty of organizing this assassination attempt, and when it did not fulfill them, it decided to punish this state. But Russia stood up for Serbia, and Germany stood up for Austria-Hungary. In turn, France stood up for Russia, etc. The system of alliances began to work - and a war broke out, which no one expected or wanted. In a word, if not for the Sarajevo shot, peace and goodwill would have reigned on earth.
Since 1908, Europe and the world have gone through a series of political crises and military alarms. The Sarajevo assassination attempt was just one of them.
This explanation is only suitable for kindergarten. The fact is that, since 1908, Europe and the world have been going through a series of political crises and military anxieties: 1908-1909 - the Bosnian crisis, 1911 - the Agadir crisis and the Italo-Turkish war, 1912-1913 - the Balkan wars and separation of Serbia and Albania. The Sarajevo assassination attempt was just one such crisis. If he hadn't been there, something else would have happened.
Let's consider the official Austrian version of the involvement of the Serbian government in the assassination attempt on Franz Ferdinand, announced at the Sarajevo trial. According to this version, the assassination attempt was led by Colonel of the General Staff Dmitry Dimitrievich (nicknamed Apis). This version was indirectly confirmed by the Solunsky trial of 1917, when Dimitrievich admitted his involvement in the Sarajevo assassination attempt. However, in 1953, the Yugoslav court rehabilitated the participants in the Solunsky trial, recognizing that they were not convicted for the crimes they allegedly committed. Serbian Prime Minister Nikola Pasic, neither in 1914 nor later, admitted his knowledge of the assassination attempt in Sarajevo. But after 1918 - the victory of the Allies and the death of the Austrian Empire - he had nothing to fear.
In fairness, we note that Dimitrievich was involved in one obvious regicide - brutal murder King Alexander and his wife Draga in 1903, and in 1917 he appears to have actually been plotting to overthrow King Peter Karadjordjevic and his son Alexander. But this is too indirect evidence of his possible involvement in organizing the Sarajevo assassination attempt.
Of course, the minors and inexperienced members of the Mlada Bosna organization on their own could not organize for such a complex task and acquire weapons: they were clearly helped by professionals. Who were these professionals and who did they serve? Let us assume for a moment that the Serbian authorities were involved in the assassination attempt with the aim of causing a Serbian uprising in Bosnia or a military clash with Austria-Hungary. How would this look in the context of the summer of 1914?
The ruling circles of Serbia could not help but understand: confrontation with Austria-Hungary was deadly for the country.
Like suicide. Prime Minister Nikola Pasic and his government could not help but understand that if the involvement of the Serbian authorities in the assassination attempt was established, at best there would be a monstrous international scandal with negative consequences for Serbia. The Serbs already had an unkind trail of regicides following the murder of the Serbian king Alexander Obrenovic and his wife in 1903, to which all the august families of Europe reacted painfully. In the event of the murder of a representative of a foreign ruling house, the reaction of all of Europe (including Russia) could only be sharply negative. And on the part of Austria, this would be a legitimate reason for military blackmail, which it resorted to against Serbia on much less convenient occasions, for example, during the Bosnian crisis in 1908-1909 or during the Albanian-Serbian disengagement of 1913 and the Albanian attack on Serbia in the same year 1913. Each time Serbia had to retreat to military-diplomatic pressure from Austria. And it is not a fact that Russia would have stood up for her if there had really been strong evidence of the involvement of the Serbian authorities in the assassination attempt. had a very negative attitude towards political terrorism. So, when he learned that members of the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization were planning to poison the water supply systems of leading European capitals in order to thereby contribute to the liberation of Macedonia, he wrote on the report: “People with such views should be destroyed like rabid dogs.” So Serbia risked being left alone with Austria. Was she ready for this? The mobilization potential of Serbia with a population of four million was a maximum of 400,000 people (and the maximum strength of the Serbian army was 250,000 people). The mobilization capabilities of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy are 2.5 million soldiers and officers (in total, 2,300,000 people were drafted into the war). The Austrian army consisted of 3,100 light and 168 heavy guns, 65 aircraft, and the best weapons factories in Europe were located in the Czech Republic. What could Serbia alone oppose to such power? If we take into account the significant losses in the two Balkan wars, the hostility of Albania and Bulgaria, and the huge public debt, the situation appears even more hopeless. So Austria could well have put forward an ultimatum with impossible conditions, and if it was even partially rejected, it could have declared war on Serbia, crushed it and occupied it. Which, in general, is what happened later. And either an adventurer or a traitor could have undertaken such a provocation - a person who served non-Serbian interests.
There is a version, defended by Western researchers, that the Serbs were allegedly pushed to organize the assassination attempt by Russian intelligence. But this version is untenable, if only because all high-ranking Russian officers responsible for intelligence in the Balkans were on vacation or engaged in matters far from intelligence at the time of the Sarajevo assassination attempt. In addition, Russia could not help but understand that the assassination attempt ultimately meant war between Russia and Austria and, possibly, Germany. And to her Russian empire wasn't ready. The rearmament of the army and navy was to be completed by 1917. And if Russia had been the initiator of the war, the pre-mobilization state of the army and the country would have been announced much earlier than it actually happened. Finally, if Russian intelligence and the Russian General Staff were really behind the Sarajevo assassination attempt, they would have taken care of coordinating the actions of the Russian and Serbian armies in a future war. None of this was done; Russian-Serbian cooperation during the war was pure improvisation, and, unfortunately, not very successful.
It was as if the parade of Austrian troops in Sarajevo was deliberately scheduled for June 28 - St. Vitus Day, the anniversary of the Battle of Kosovo.
If we carefully analyze the events of the Sarajevo Attentate (as the assassination attempt is called in Serbian), we will see that much is unclean here. For some reason, the parade of Austrian troops in Sarajevo, which was to be hosted by Archduke Ferdinand, seemed deliberately scheduled for June 28 - St. Vitus Day, on the anniversary of the Battle of Kosovo, moreover, on the day of the round anniversary - the 525th anniversary of the fateful event associated with the loss Serbs of their statehood. It seems that the Austrian authorities did this not by accident and that the situation was escalating on purpose. Moreover, when the situation became tense, no serious measures were taken to protect Franz Ferdinand, despite the fact that the Austrian detective authorities knew about the existence of terrorist organizations and had successfully prevented them for the previous five years. Act of terrorism"Mlady Bosny": none of them ended in success. Austro-Hungarian officials were involved in the transfer of terrorists and weapons to Bosnia (this was revealed later - at the Sarajevo trial; and there is no complete confidence that all the culprits were brought to justice). Next detail: in right moment There were no police agents around the Archduke's car who could protect Franz Ferdinand and his wife from terrorist bullets.
Moreover, on the fateful day of the assassination attempt - as if on purpose - Franz Ferdinand was driven around the city along the longest route. And the question arises: wasn’t he thereby turned into a target? And he really became a target: initially a terrorist... threw a bomb at his car, which, however, did not hit the Archduke, but the escort car.
It is characteristic how the governor of Bosnia, the hater of the Serbs, Oskar Potiorek, behaved after the first unsuccessful assassination attempt, when representatives local authorities and the Archduke's retinue discussed what to do next. Baron Morsi, from Franz Ferdinand's retinue, suggested that the Archduke leave Sarajevo. In response, Potiorek said: “Do you think Sarajevo is infested with murderers?” Meanwhile, after the incident, his direct responsibility was to ensure the speedy and safe departure of Franz Ferdinand from Sarajevo.
Franz Ferdinand and his wife Sophia abandoned the further visit program and decided to visit the wounded in the hospital. On the way to the hospital they were hit by Gavrilo Princip’s bullets. It is noteworthy that at the trial, when he was asked why he shot Archduchess Sophia, he replied that he wanted to shoot not her, but Governor Potiorek. It is strange that such a well-aimed terrorist, who mortally wounded Franz Ferdinand, confused... a man with a woman. And this begs the question: wasn’t Potiorek, through his agents, turning the hand of terrorists away from himself and directing it towards Franz Ferdinand? After all, he should have been the original target of the murder, but a couple of weeks before June 28, Franz Ferdinand was chosen as the victim by the Serbian terrorists of the Black Hand organization, with which Mlada Bosna was associated. And the question arises: why him? And another related to him: who was Franz Ferdinand?
Franz Ferdinand was a supporter of the federalization of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and trialism - the unification of the Slavic lands into a single kingdom.
Contrary to the assertions of Marxist historiography, he was by no means a hater of the Slavs or Serbs; on the contrary, he was a supporter of the federalization of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and trialism - the unification of the Slavic lands of the Austrian Crown into a single kingdom. The explanation that he was killed by Serbian terrorists in order to prevent the implementation of the trialistic project, which threatened the unification of Serbian lands within the framework of the Serbian Kingdom, does not stand up to criticism: the implementation of this project was not on the agenda, since it had powerful opponents: the Chancellor of Austria, the Commander-in-Chief the Austrian army Konrad von Götzendorf, the governor of Bosnia O. Potiorek and, finally, Emperor Franz Joseph himself. Moreover, the murder of one of the representatives of the House of Habsburg, who sympathized with the Serbs, could seriously complicate their situation, which happened, since immediately after the death of Franz Ferdinand, bloody Serbian pogroms began throughout Austria-Hungary and especially in Sarajevo.
After the death of the Archduke, Austria acted out global grief, but in reality, the Austrian officials did not mourn too much. Here is just one indicative fact: when the news of the assassination of Franz Ferdinand reached the Russian embassy in Serbia, the Russian envoy Hartwig and the Austrian envoy were playing whist there. Upon learning the terrible news, Hartwig ordered the game to be stopped and mourning declared, despite the protests of the Austrian ambassador, who really wanted to win. But it was the Austrian envoy who would give Hartwig a heart attack, falsely accusing him of Russian involvement in the Sarajevo assassination attempt and support of Serbian extremism. The funeral of Franz Ferdinand and his wife was organized in a humiliatingly modest ceremony. And although most members of others royal families planned to take part in the mourning events, they were pointedly not invited. The decision was made to organize a modest funeral with the participation of only close relatives, including the three children of the Archduke and Archduchess, who were excluded from the few public ceremonies. Officer Corps It was forbidden to greet the funeral train. Franz Ferdinand and Sophia were buried not in the royal crypt, but in the family castle of Attenstadt.
Considering the tragic nature of the death of Franz Ferdinand, all this testifies to the real hatred towards him on the part of a number of representatives of the House of Habsburg and hostility on the part of the emperor. It seems that Franz Ferdinand became a victim of the rivalry of court cliques, and his death was a move in a political combination intended to solve the state problems of Austria, in particular the destruction of Serbia.
The relatively lenient sentence given to members of the Mlada Bosna organization and those involved in the assassination attempt is also indicative. At the trial in Sarajevo in October 1914, of the 25 accused, death penalty Only 4 people were sentenced and only three sentences were carried out. The rest received various prison sentences, including the murderer of Archduke Gavrilo Princip, and nine of the accused were generally acquitted. What does such a verdict mean? About many things. Including the fact that the terrorists worked into the hands of the Austrian authorities.
The death of Franz Ferdinand was used 100% to start a war against Serbia. The judicial investigation had not yet been completed, much less the trial, when on July 23 Serbia was given a humiliating ultimatum in which the Austrian government accused the Serbian authorities of involvement in the assassination of the Archduke and demanded not only to stop any anti-Austrian propaganda, but also to close all publications involved in it , dismiss from service all officials noticed or suspected of anti-Austrian views, and most importantly, allow Austrian officials to take investigative actions on Serbian territory. Such demands meant the destruction of Serbian sovereignty. Such an ultimatum could only be put forward to a defeated country. However, Serbia, on the advice of Russia, accepted almost all the demands of the Austrians, except the last one. Nevertheless, on July 25, Austria-Hungary broke with Serbia diplomatic relations, and on July 28 began military operations against her.
So, if, finding out the reasons for the Sarajevo assassination attempt, we ask the question: “Who benefited from this?”, then the answer is clear - Austria-Hungary.
Reich Chancellor of the German Empire T. Bethmann-Hollweg, one of the supporters of the war, argued in 1914: “We are now more ready than ever.”
But this is only the first level of the problem. It is clear that Russia would stand up for Serbia. Austria could not go to war without Germany's willingness to help its ally. And in the summer of 1914, militant sentiment reigned in Berlin. Chancellor T. Bethmann-Hollweg, one of the supporters of war and the seizure of living space in the East, argued: “Now we are more ready than ever.” The military party, represented in addition to him by Generals Moltke the Younger, Hindenburg, Ludendorff, warned Kaiser Wilhelm that after two or three years the advantages of Germany would come to naught thanks to the rearmament of Russia and France. Accordingly, if the Sarajevo assassination attempt was a provocation of the Austrian intelligence services, which “in the dark” used fanatical and narrow-minded Serbian revolutionaries, led by the ideals of romantic nationalism, then it would have been impossible without, at a minimum, coordination with Berlin. And Berlin was ready for war.
However, this is not the last level of the problem. At the beginning of the 20th century there was a state where the sun never set and whose word decided, if not everything, then a lot - the British Empire. It was her intervention or warnings that in previous years often stopped what was about to begin. world war. In the summer of 1914 there was no such timely warning. It sounded only on August 4, at that moment when nothing could be stopped or corrected. Why? We will look at this in the next article. Apparently, there was some kind of Big Plan to drag the states of Europe into the war, and it is possible that the intelligence service of the British Empire - the Intelligent Service - could also be involved in the Sarajevo assassination attempt and the outbreak of the First World War. We will talk about this Big Plan in the next article.
Sarajevo murder or the murder in Sarajevo - one of the most notorious murders of the 20th century, standing almost alongside the assassination of US President J. Kennedy. The murder took place on June 28, 1914 in the city of Sarajevo (now the capital of Bosnia and Herzegovina). The victim of the murder was the heir to the Austrian throne, Franz Ferdinand, and his wife Countess Sophia of Hohenberg was killed along with him.
The murder was carried out by a group of six terrorists, but only one person fired the shots - Gavrilo Princip.
Reasons for the assassination of Franz Ferdinand
Many historians still debate the purpose of killing the heir to the Austrian throne, but most agree that the political purpose of the murder was the liberation of the South Slavic lands from the rule of the Austro-Ugric Empire.Franz Ferdinand, according to historians, wanted to annex forever Slavic lands to the empire, a series of reforms. As the killer, Gavrilo Princip, would later say, one of the reasons for the murder was precisely the prevention of these reforms.
Planning a murder
A certain Serbian nationalist organization called the “Black Hand” developed the murder plan. Members of the organization were looking for ways to revive the revolutionary spirit of the Serbs; they also spent a long time looking for who among the Austro-Ugric elite should become a victim and a way to achieve this goal. The list of targets included Franz Ferdinand, as well as the governor of Bosnia, Oskar Potiorek, great commander Austro-Ugric Empire.At first it was planned that a certain Muhammad Mehmedbašić should carry out this murder. The assassination attempt on Potiorek ended in failure and he was ordered to kill another man, Franz Ferdinand.
Almost everything was ready to kill the Archduke, except weapons, which the terrorists had been waiting for a whole month. To ensure that the young group of students did everything right, they were given a pistol to practice with. At the end of May, the terrorists received several pistols, six grenades, maps with escape routes, gendarme movements, and even poison pills.
The weapons were distributed to the terrorist group on June 27. The very next morning, terrorists were placed along the route of Franz Ferdinand's motorcade. The head of the Black Hand, Ilic, told his people before the murder to be brave and do what they must do for the sake of the country.
Murder
Franz Ferdinand arrived in Sarajevo by train in the morning and was met at the station by Oskar Pitiorek. Franz Ferdinand, his wife and Pitiorek got into the third car (the motorcade consisted of six cars), and it was completely open. First, the Archduke inspected the barracks, and then headed along the embankment, where the murder took place.The first of the terrorists was Muhammad Mehmedbašić, and he was armed with a grenade, but his attack on Franz Ferdinand failed. The second was the terrorist Churbilovich, he was already armed with a grenade and a pistol, but he was unsuccessful. The third terrorist was Čabrinović, armed with a grenade.
At 10:10 Čabrinović threw a grenade at the Archduke's car, but it bounced off and exploded on the road. The explosion injured about 20 people. Immediately after this, Chabrinovic swallowed a capsule of poison and threw it into the river. But he started vomiting and the poison did not work, and the river itself turned out to be too shallow, and the police caught him without difficulty, beat him and then arrested him.
The Sarajevo assassination seemed to have failed as the motorcade sped past the rest of the terrorists. The Archduke then went to the Town Hall. There they tried to calm him down, but he was too excited, he did not understand and constantly insisted that he had arrived on a friendly visit, and a bomb was thrown at him.
Then his wife calmed Franz Ferdinand and he gave a speech. Soon it was decided to interrupt the planned program, and the Archduke decided to visit the wounded in the hospital. Already at 10:45 they were back in the car. The car headed towards the hospital along Franz Joseph Street.
Princip learned that the assassination attempt had ended in complete failure and decided to change his location, settling near the Moritz Schiller Delicatessen store, through which the Archduke’s return route passed.
When the Archduke's car caught up with the killer, he suddenly jumped out and fired two shots at a distance of several steps. One hit the Archduke in the neck and pierced the jugular vein, the second shot hit the Archduke's wife in the stomach. The killer was arrested at the same moment. As he later said in court, he did not want to kill Franz Ferdinand’s wife, and this bullet was intended for Pitiorek.
The wounded Archduke and his wife did not die immediately; immediately after the assassination attempt they were taken to the hospital to receive assistance. The Duke, being conscious, begged his wife not to die, to which she constantly replied: “It’s normal.” Referring to the wound, she consoled him as if everything was fine with her. And immediately after that she died. The Archduke himself died ten minutes later. The Sarajevo murder was thus crowned with success.
Consequences of the murder
After their deaths, the bodies of Sophia and Franz Ferdinand were sent to Vienna, where they were buried in a modest ceremony, which greatly angered the new heir to the Austrian throne.A few hours later, pogroms began in Sarajevo, during which everyone who loved the Archduke brutally dealt with all Serbs, the police did not react to this. A huge number of Serbs were brutally beaten and wounded, some were killed, and also suffered great amount buildings, they were destroyed and looted.
Very soon all the Sarajevo murderers were arrested, and then the Austro-Hungarian military were also arrested, who handed over the weapons to the murderers. The verdict was passed on September 28, 1914; everyone was sentenced to death for high treason.
However, not all participants in the conspiracy were adults under Serbian law. Therefore, ten participants, including the murderer Gavrilo Princip himself, were sentenced to 20 years in a maximum security prison. Five people were executed by hanging, one was imprisoned for life and another nine were acquitted. Princip himself died in 1918 in prison from tuberculosis.
The murder of the heir to the Austrian throne shocked almost all of Europe; many countries took the side of Austria. Immediately after the murder, the government of the Austro-Ugric Empire sent a number of demands to Serbia, among which was the extradition of all those who had a hand in this murder.
Serbia immediately mobilized its army and was supported by Russia. Serbia refused some important demands for Austria, after which on July 25, Austria broke off diplomatic relations with Serbia.
A month later, Austria declared war and began mobilizing its forces. In response to this, Russia, France, and England came out for Serbia, which served as the beginning of the First World War. Soon all the great countries of Europe had chosen sides.
Germany, the Ottoman Empire took the side of Austria, and later Bulgaria joined. Thus, two huge alliances were formed in Europe: the Entente (Serbia, Russia, England, France and several dozen other states that made only a small contribution to the course of the First World War) and the Triple Alliance of Germany, Austria and Belgium (the Ottoman Empire soon joined them). empire).
Thus, the Sarajevo murder became the reason for the outbreak of the First World War. There were more than enough reasons for its beginning, but the reason turned out to be just that. The fields that Gavrilo Princip fired from his pistol are called “the bullet that started the First World War.”
I wonder what's in the museum military history in the city of Vienna, everyone can look at the car in which the Archduke was riding, at his uniform with traces of the blood of Franz Ferdinand, at the pistol itself that started the war. And the bullet is kept in the small Czech castle of Konopiste.
Sarajevo murder
| Sarajevo murder | |
|---|---|
| Location of attack | Sarajevo, Austria-Hungary |
| Target of attack | Assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand |
| date | June 27, 1914 |
| Method of attack | Gun shots |
| Weapon | Browning |
| Dead | Archduke Franz Ferdinand, Sophia Chotek |
| Number of terrorists | 1 |
| Terrorists | Gavrila Princip |
| Organizers | Black hand |
Memorial plaque at the murder site
Sarajevo murder- the June 28 assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, and his wife Duchess Sophia of Hohenberg in Sarajevo by Serbian high school student Gavrilo Princip, a member of the Serbian terrorist organization Mlada Bosna. Princip was part of a group of 5 terrorists coordinated by Danila Ilic.
In Serbia there were a number of nationalist organizations that aimed to unite the South Slavs and create a “Greater Serbia”. Among the officers of the Serbian army there was a secret organization called “Black Hand”. Its goal was the liberation of the Serbs who were under the rule of Austria-Hungary. The leader of the “Black Hand” was Colonel Dragutin Dmitrievich, nicknamed “Apis”, head of Serbian counterintelligence. The Pašić government was afraid of him. The Serbian government guessed about the conspiracy and did not approve of it, but did not interfere with the Black Hand.
The murder became the reason for the outbreak of the First World War.
Background
The 1878 Treaty of Berlin gave Austria-Hungary a mandate to occupy and administer Bosnia and Herzegovina, while maintaining the formal sovereignty of the Ottoman Empire. These territories were subsequently annexed by Austria-Hungary. Some of the South Slavs who lived in these lands did not want to live in Austria-Hungary and sought to annex these lands to neighboring Serbia, which had recently gained independence. A secret society was formed " Black Hand”, which sought to unite the southern Slavs and its Bosnian branch “Mlada Bosna”.
At the end of June 1914, Franz Ferdinand visited Bosnia to observe military maneuvers and open a museum in Sarajevo. He was traveling with his wife, Sofia Khotek. Franz Ferdinand was considered a supporter of trialism - the idea of transforming the dual Austro-Hungarian monarchy into a triple Austro-Hungarian-Slavic one. Mlada Bosna decided to kill Franz Ferdinand. The murder was entrusted to a group of six conspirators, and at least three of them, including Princip, were sick with tuberculosis - at that time an incurable fatal disease.
Murder
Categories:
- Events of June 28
- World War I
- History of Bosnia and Herzegovina
- History of Serbia
- Austria-Hungary
- Sarajevo
- Political assassinations
- Conflicts of 1914
- June 1914
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The murder of the heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, Franz Ferdinand, and his wife, carried out on June 28, 1914 (new style) by the Young Bosnia conspiracy group (G. Princip and others) in Sarajevo. It was used by Austria-Hungary and Germany as... ... Big Encyclopedic Dictionary
The murder of the heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, Franz Ferdinand, and his wife, carried out on June 28, 1914 (new style) by the Young Bosnia conspiracy group (G. Princip and others) in the city of Sarajevo. It was used by the Austro-German side... Historical Dictionary
Murder of the Austrian heir to the throne Archduke Franz Ferdinand, which occurred on June 28, 1914 in the capital of Bosnia, Sarajevo (Austria-Hungary). The organizers of the murder took advantage of the intended Austrians. command on June 28 (anniversary of the defeat of Serbia... ... Soviet historical encyclopedia
The murder of the heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, Franz Ferdinand, and his wife, carried out on June 28, 1914 (new style) by the Young Bosnia conspiracy group (G. Princip and others) in Sarajevo. It was used by Austria-Hungary and Germany as... ... Political science. Dictionary.
The murder of the heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, Franz Ferdinand, and his wife, carried out on June 28, 1914 by the Young Bosnia conspiracy group (G. Princip and others) in Sarajevo. It was used by Austria-Hungary and Germany as a pretext for... ... encyclopedic Dictionary
If Ferdinand and his wife had been immediately taken to the clinic, they could have been saved. But the courtiers close to the royals behaved extremely ridiculously and decided to take the wounded to the residence. Franz Ferdinand and his wife died along the way from loss of blood. All the rebels who participated in the murder were detained and convicted (the main organizers were executed, the rest received long prison sentences).
After the assassination of the Archduke, anti-Serbian pogroms began in the city. The city authorities did not oppose this in any way. Many civilians were injured. Austria-Hungary understood the true meaning of the assassination attempt. This was the “final warning” of Serbia, which was striving for independence (although the country’s official authorities did not take responsibility for the murder in Sarajevo).
Austria-Hungary even received warnings about the impending assassination attempt, but chose to ignore them. There is also evidence that not only Black Hand nationalists were involved in the assassination attempt, but also military intelligence Serbia. The operation was led by Colonel Rade Malobabic. Moreover, the investigation revealed evidence that the Black Hand was directly subordinate to Serbian military intelligence.
After the assassination of the Archduke, a scandal erupted in Europe. Austria-Hungary demanded that Serbia thoroughly investigate the crime, but the Serbian government stubbornly rejected any suspicion of participation in a conspiracy against the Austro-Hungarian heir. Such actions led to the recall of the Austro-Hungarian ambassador from the embassy in Serbia, after which both countries began to prepare for war.