Military of Principality/Kingdom of Serbia, from 1847 to 1920
From its foundation, Historical Section of the Chief General Staff of the Serbian Military was engaged in collecting archival material. The Section succeeded in collecting documents relating to the Serbian-Turkish wars from 1876 to 1878, and some other archival material from that period. Main part of this material was destroyed, and only a smaller part was left.
Better attention to keeping documents was paid from the beginning of the 20th century, when Main Archives of the Military Ministry was formed, while in the Chief General Staff there was a special officer appointed for managing archives as early as 1901.
After the Balkan Wars 1912-1913, Serbian Supreme Command ordered that all war archives should be arranged and kept in commands and institutions, where it was created, under the direct responsibility of persons that managed it until then, as well as to deliver the archival catalogues. Apart from that, a huge step was made in the organization of takeover and arranging of archival material, since a change in archives was introduced in the War Service, so right after the conclusion of peace, operational documents could be rewritten, and originals were delivered to the War Archives of the Chief General Staff. War archives met the beginning of the First World War in units.
With the beginning of the First World War, care of archival material and its preservation was strengthened. Archival material was always moving in it was always taken care of. During withdrawal of the Serbian army in 1915, the complete archival material, although it was a burden, was evacuated to south. During withdrawal through Kosovo and Metohija, seeing that all archival material could not be carried anymore, it was decided to burry one part of the archives, and bigger part was transferred through Skodra to Corfu, and then to Thessaloniki, when, after the liberation of the country in 1919, it was delivered to Belgrade.
Right after the First World War, a process of collection, arranging and registering archival material of the Serbian military started in the Historical Section. In order to complete the original archival material that was located in units, measures were taken to find the buried archives, as well as the archives that enemy has taken. On the routes of withdrawal of the Serbian military, special groups were sent in order to find the concealed archive, but without any success. The search was continued in Austria, Hungary and Bulgaria.
Through military delegates, return of archival material was requested that enemies had taken from the country. However, since according to then valid international conventions, there was not a possibility to return, i.e. to restitute archival material and other historical and cultural monuments, negative response was received. Later on, during concluding peace agreements with the aforementioned countries, it was also foreseen to return archives and other cultural and historical monuments. This foreseen restitution of archival material has not been completely conducted until today. In order to complete the gaps in the preserved archival material and reconstruction of the insufficiently known war events, Historical Section has also organized collection of memoir material from participants of 1912-1918 wars. Owing to that, 1341 statement were collected from officers and military servants, which significantly completed the picture on war times.
Archival material from the First World War, according to the instructions from the Ministry of Armed Forces and Navy, was divided into:
- War character material, that was considered significant for military historical research, and as such, it was kept in the Historical Section, where it was gradually arranged and registered, and
- ‘non-operative’ material, that was considered less important, since it was not related to military operations, so it was given to the Ministry of Armed Forces and Navy, and was not arranged and registered at all.
Funds of the Military of the Principality/Kingdom of Serbia are shown according to inventory books:
- inventory book 1 - contains archival material of the Military of the Kingdom of Serbia from 1817 to 1912. This inventory book contains 16 boxes in total and is completely digitalized. Within this inventory book, there are data concerning preparation for the war with Turkey in 1876 and on the Serbian military during 1876-1878 wars, as well as data on preparing war with Bulgaria in 1885 and peacetime archives of the Serbian military from 1855 to 1911.
- inventory book 2 - contains archival material of the Serbian military archives of the First and Second Balkan War in 1912 and 1913. The aforementioned inventory book contains 173 boxes of archival material in total and is completely digitalized.Within this inventory book, there are data on the work of the Chief General Staff, work of the Supreme Command with sections, army commands, divisions and division areas, as well as various detachments, collection of drafts and archives of the military leader Stepa Stepanovic.
- inventory book 3 - contains archival material of the war archive of the Serbian Supreme Command, 1914-1920, the first part. The aforementioned inventory book contains 472 boxes in total. The archival material is digitalized from box 1 to box 268, including the following boxes: 426, 427, 428, 431, 432, 433, 434, 437, 453, 456, 458, 460, 467, 472 and 473. Within this inventory book, there is material for the history of war from 1914 to 1918, personal data concerning the officer’s service in wars, data on the work of Operational Section, Intelligence Section, Air Force, Command in Thessaloniki, military attaches in France, Italy, Romania and Greece, as well as the archives bought from General Dusan Stefanovic, minister of the military and military attaché in Paris.
- inventory book 3a - contains archival material of the war archives of the Serbian Supreme Command 1914-1920, the second part. The aforementioned inventory list contains 213 boxes of archival material in total.Within this inventory book, there is material for the history of war, 1914-1918, data on the work of Operational and Traffic Section, Military-railway Inspection, Post-telegraphic subsection, Main Post, Prisoners’ Command and National Pantheon – lists of killed and deceased from the time of liberation wars in districts, 1912-1918.
- inventory book 4/1 - Inventory book of the war archive of the First Army area, from 1914 to 1920. The aforementioned inventory book contains 112 boxes in total.
- inventory book 4/2 - Inventory book of the war archive of the Second Army area, from 1914 to 1920. The aforementioned inventory book contains 99 boxes in total.
- inventory book 4/3 - Inventory book of the war archive of the Third Army area, from 1914 to 1920. The aforementioned inventory book contains 63 boxes in total.
- inventory book 4/4 - Inventory book of the war archive of the Fourth Army area, from 1914 to 1920. The aforementioned inventory book contains 1 box.
- inventory book 5 - contains archival material of the war archives of the Ministry of military, 1914 to 1923. The aforementioned inventory book contains 501 boxes of archival material in total.Within this inventory book, there is material of the Adjutant section, General Staff Section, Infantry Inspection, Court section, Supreme Command Staff, as well as the data on the Thessaloniki process.
- inventory book 6 - contains archival material of the war archives of divisions and division areas from 1914 to 1920. The aforementioned inventory book contains 720 boxes of archival material in total.Archival material of this inventory book is divided into materials of the First and Second summoning that for entering war, which were deactivated in Corfu, as well as the material of divisions that were formed on the Thessaloniki Front and which participated in liberating the country.
- inventory book 7 - contains archival material of various detachments, units and commands from 1914 to 1920. The aforementioned inventory book contains 115 boxes in total.
- inventory book 8 - contains archival material of the war archives of Cavalry Division, its units, brigades and regiments from 1916 to 1920. The aforementioned inventory book contains 99 boxes in total.
- inventory book 9 - contains archival material of infantry regiments from 1912 to 1920. The aforementioned inventory book contains 358 boxes in total. Archival material of this inventory book is divided into material of infantry regiments that entered the war, which were deactivated on Corfu, material of infantry regiments that were formed on the Thessaloniki Front, as well as the material of infantry regiments formed in 1919-1920.
- inventory book 10 - contains archival material of the war archives of the Volunteer Corps of the Serbs, Croats and Slovenes in Russia. The aforementioned inventory book contains 96 boxes in total.
- inventory book 11 - contains archival material of the archives of aero plan and panoramic recordings from 1914 to 1920. The aforementioned inventory book contains 13 boxes in total and is completely digitalized.
- inventory book 12 - contains archival material of geographic and topographic maps and sections. The aforementioned inventory book contains 71 boxes in total and is completely digitalized.
- inventory book 13 - contains archival material of the Austro-Hungarian war archives from 1908 to 1918. The aforementioned inventory book contains 38 boxes in total. This fund has not been archivally processed and catalogued and is not available to researchers
- inventory book 13a - contains transcripts from the Vienna archives: War archives of the Austro-Hungarian military from 1914 to 1918. The aforementioned inventory book contains 13 boxes in total. This fund has not been archivally processed and catalogued and is not available to researchers. The originals are in the Vienna Archives.
- inventory book 14 - contains archival material of the Military of the Kingdom of Serbia up to the Balkans Wars, 1847-1911. The aforementioned inventory book contains 24 boxes of archival material in total and is completely digitalized.
- inventory book 15 - Photo-archives. All photos were given to the Military Museum in Belgrade in 1970.
- inventory book 16 - Bought off and donated archival material from 1789 to 1945 contains 64 boxes in total.
This fund contains 3261 boxes in total.