This publication (“Nekoliko stranica iz krvavog albuma Karađorđevića” / “A Few Pages from the Bloody Album of the Karađorđevićs,” 1920/1921) is a report submitted by Montenegrin insurgent leaders (from the Cetinje and Nikšić areas) to the Montenegrin government-in-exile.
It documents Serbian (Serbian army and authorities) atrocities, terror, imprisonment, plunder, and repression against Montenegrins following the 1918 occupation and forced annexation of Montenegro.
General System of Terror
Forced loyalty oaths: Montenegrins (including officials, officers, peasants, women, and widows) were pressured or forced to swear allegiance to the Serbian king. Refusal led to imprisonment, beatings, public humiliation, property confiscation, or denial of aid/food. Villages were surrounded; people were gathered at churches and forced to swear while holding hands.
Collective punishment and family reprisals: Families of insurgents (“ustashi”) faced imprisonment (including pregnant women, elderly, and children), property plunder/burning, forced labor searches for rebels, denial of medical aid or farming, and torture to extract information. Many died in custody from disease/starvation.
Plunder and economic pressure: Allied food aid was distributed only to pro-Serbian individuals. Montenegrin property (including royal assets) was looted or sold. Historical monuments, church items, and symbols were destroyed or desecrated.
Imprisonment scale: Thousands (estimates 2,000–3,000) held without trial, often since December 1918. Included former ministers, generals, officials, and protesters against annexation. Central prison in Podgorica; many in private houses/basements. Families left in poverty.
Other measures: Movement restrictions, curfews, forced relocation of populations, public humiliation parades, and desecration of Montenegrin saints/symbols to undermine identity.
Specific Accounts of Atrocities, Imprisonment, and Crimes
The report lists dozens of individual cases. Here are key examples (paraphrased/summarized for clarity from the text; names and details as given):
Desecration and attacks on symbols/church (targeting national prestige):
December 1918, Nikšić: Serbian officers (e.g., Poručnik Dušan Otašić, Mijušković, Tunguz) carried mock coffins labeled for St. Peter, St. Basil, and the Montenegrin crown through town, dug graves, held a mock funeral, and urinated on them.
Church in Ozrinići looted/burned with crosses; soldiers used church items for bedding.
Priest beaten for performing a proper burial of an insurgent.
Prominent figures and officials:
Marko Đukanović (State Council president, ex-minister): Publicly humiliated (spat on, beaten, dragged) while being taken to prison in Nikšić; held long-term in Podgorica without trial.
General Joko Adžić (65): Property looted/burned; beaten, marched to prison, further humiliated.
Mizo K. Martinović (75, retired judge): Beaten, beard/mustache ripped out; imprisoned 7 months for noting crimes.
Petrović brothers (including vojvoda Božo, ex-PM): Humiliated and imprisoned.
Others (e.g., Mojso Perović) paraded with a packsaddle.
Women and children (reprisals):
Wives of insurgents gave birth in prisons (e.g., wife of Živko Janjušević; wife of Luka Avramović).
Ilija Samobić’s wife: Abducted, robbed, found with 18 bayonet wounds.
Children died in Nikšić prison from reprisals.
Elderly mothers/wives tortured (burned feet, held over fire, beaten, forced marches) to reveal insurgents’ locations. Examples include families of commanders like Andrija Drljević, Stevan Pavlović, etc.
Rapes and sexual violence reported (e.g., against wife of N. Mumović).
Entire families (including elderly ~80 and young children) imprisoned, starved, or exposed in winter.
Killings and mass violence:
Executions without trial (e.g., two Damjanović brothers and Mitar Kraljević near Nikšić).
Bodies left unburied to terrorize population.
Mass roundups: 65+ family members (women/children) forced barefoot in winter to prison.
Child killings (e.g., 13-year-old singing Montenegrin anthem; infant beaten to death).
Village burnings/plunder as reprisals.
Other incidents: Beatings with rifle butts/chains, mock executions, looting (including of American aid contexts), and deaths from prison conditions.
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