PISMA VOJSKOVOĐE SVETOZARA BOROEVIĆA 1912.–1920.
LETTERS WRITTEN BY MARSHAL SVETOZAR BOROEVIĆ, 1912-1920

Author(s): Danijela MARJANIĆ, Milan Pojić
Subject(s): Military history, Political history, Pre-WW I & WW I (1900 -1919), Interwar Period (1920 - 1939), Source Material
Published by: Hrvatski institut za povijest
Keywords: Svetozar Boroević; Slavko Kvaternik;
Summary/Abstract: The Croatian National Archives hold ten preserved postcards and twenty letters sent by Svetozar Boroević to Slavko and Olga Kvaternik from 1912 to 1920. Boroević wrote in the German language, in Gothic script. The German text is only occasionally peppered with an occasional Croatian word or sentence. For his part, Boroević refrains from writing in Croatian, uncertain in his knowledge, but he nevertheless expressed admiration for those who knew it. Based on their content, the letters can be divided into two groups. The first group consists of letters written from 1912 to the beginning of 1918, in which “soldierly” and political themes predominate. Boroević, as a high Austro-Hungarian officer, very freely expressed his criticism of his superiors and his political convictions, which can be characterized as “treasonous.” The second group of letters consists of those written after the fall of the Monarchy, in which Boroević’s existential problems are dominant. The famed marshal, together with his wife, was brought to a state of utter uncertainty: cheated, his status was unresolved, as he was expelled from his homeland but had non-permanent residence in Austria, living under trying financial conditions. The entire situation was additionally exacerbated by a family tragedy: the death of his only child, his son. In the new state, in which he was suspect as an imperial military leader, he vainly attempted to demonstrate his view “as a Croat and his influence to contribute to the South Slavs during the war”. Disheartened, he wrote: “I no longer yearn to return to Croatia at all […] I shall never file a request to return and I would be entirely satisfied if they were to leave me in peace to enjoy my retirement where I see fit”. In the last preserved letter dated 23 May 1920, exactly one month before his death, Boroević wrote: “[…] I wonder if Laginja is still ban. […] I will take this last step and ask Laginja, as the highest representative of my homeland, to intervene in Belgrade for my pension. If this produces no results, then I can take no responsibility for what may follow. […] I can not allow such treatment of myself to continue”.

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