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Dejan Antić, PhD
University of Niš, Faculty of Philosophy
Niš, Republic of Serbia

 

THE EVACUATION OF NIŠ – THE WARTIME CAPITAL OF SERBIA – IN 1915

Vol. XXXIX, 1/2021, pp. 19–34
https://doi.org/10.29362/ist20veka.2021.1.ant.19-34

 

ABSTRACT/RESUME:

The danger of war with the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy led Regent Aleksandar Karađorđević to make a decision on July 25th, 1914 to move the state leadership of the Kingdom of Serbia, the government, the National Assembly, the state administration, and the diplomatic corps to the city of Niš. With the outbreak of World War I, Niš practically began to play the role of the wartime capital of Serbia, which would last until the autumn of 1915. With the Kingdom of Bulgaria joining the Central Powers and its entry into the war against Serbia, the position of the “wartime capital of Serbia” and its government institutions was endangered. Therefore, late September and October of 1915 saw the start of the process of the evacuation of all important government institutions from Niš. In that period, train compositions of medical supplies from the Red Cross warehouse were moved from Niš to Kruševac and Kraljevo. Foreign medical missions were evacuated as well. Intending to preserve and transport state and cultural treasures from Niš to Greece, on October 15th, Nikola Pašić issued an order to organize the complete transport of the state archives, the most valuable books and manuscripts from libraries, as well as all exhibits from existing museums, along with the evacuation of the people. As the Bulgarian troops advanced from the east, the evacuation process went under way, and on October 26th, the employees of the War Ministry as well as foreign diplomatic representatives and officials, around a thousand people, left the Red Cross Niš railway station. Despite the huge efforts of the Serbian Army in defending the country, and due to the truancy of allied forces eagerly awaited in Skopje and Niš, the German-Austro-Hungarian troops broke the Serbian resistance in the north and on November 6th Bulgarian troops advancing from the east entered the city of Niš.

 

KEYWORDS: City of Niš, War Capital, Kingdom of Serbia, Bulgaria, Evacuation, Red Cross, Central Powers

 

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