Black Hand Conspiracy

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Lore & Background

The Black Hand's roots trace to August 1901, when a group of lower officers headed by Captain Dragutin Dimitrijević ("Apis") established a conspiracy group against the Obrenović dynasty. Their first meeting was on 6 September 1901, with attendees including captains Radomir Aranđelović, Milan F. Petrović, and Dragutin Dimitrijević, as well as lieutenants Antonije Antić, Dragutin Dulić, Milan Marinković, and Nikodije Popović. On the night of 28/29 May 1903 (Old Style), this precursor group—not yet the Black Hand—carried out the murder of King Alexander I Obrenović and Queen Draga at the Old Palace in Belgrade, along with Prime Minister Dimitrije Cincar-Marković, Minister of the Army Milovan Pavlović, and General-Adjutant Lazar Petrović. This became known as the May Coup. The society itself was established at the beginning of May 1911, with its original constitution signed on 9 May. Ljuba Čupa, Bogdan Radenković, and Vojislav Tankosić wrote the constitution, modeled after German secret nationalist associations and the Italian Carbonari. The organization was mentioned in the Serbian parliament as the "Black Hand" in late 1911. By 1911–12, Narodna Odbrana had established ties with the Black Hand, and the two became "parallel in action and overlapping in membership." The organization used the magazine Pijemont (the Serbian name for Piedmont) for disseminating their ideas, founded by Ljuba Čupa in August 1911.

In Their Own Story

By 1914, the Black Hand had hundreds of members, many of them Serbian Army officers. The goal of uniting Serb-inhabited territories was implemented by training guerilla fighters and saboteurs. The Black Hand was organized at the grassroots level in cells of three to five members, supervised by district committees and by a Central Committee in Belgrade, whose ten-member executive committee was primarily led by Colonel Dragutin Dimitrijević "Apis." To ensure secrecy, members rarely knew much more than the other members of their own cell and one superior above them. New members swore a solemn oath: "I (...), by entering into the society, do hereby swear by the Sun which shineth upon me, by the Earth which feedeth me, by God, by the blood of my forefathers, by my honour and by my life, that from this moment onward and until my death, I shall faithfully serve the task of this organisation and that I shall at all times be prepared to bear for it any sacrifice..." The Black Hand took over the terrorist actions of Narodna Odbrana and deliberately worked to obscure any distinctions between the two groups. Black Hand members held important army and government positions, and the group held influence over government appointments and policies. Friendly relations with the Serbian government had fairly well cooled by 1914; the Black Hand was displeased with Prime Minister Nikola Pašić and engaged in a bitter power struggle over issues like who would control territories annexed during the Balkan Wars. In 1914, Apis allegedly decided that Archduke Franz Ferdinand should be assassinated, as he was trying to pacify the Serbians. Three young Bosnian Serbs—Gavrilo Princip, Nedeljko Čabrinović, and Trifko Grabež—were recruited, trained in bomb throwing and marksmanship by current and former members of the Serbian military, and smuggled across the border back into Bosnia using a chain of contacts. The decision to kill the Archduke was initiated by Apis and not sanctioned by the full Executive Committee (if Apis was involved at all, a question that remains in dispute).

Reader's Guide

The Black Hand's operations were built on a cell structure of three to five members, each cell supervised by district committees and a Central Committee in Belgrade. New members swore a binding oath of secrecy and unconditional obedience. The group trained guerilla fighters and saboteurs to unite Serb-inhabited territories. They used the magazine Pijemont to spread their ideas. By 1914, the group had hundreds of members, many holding key army and government positions, allowing them to influence appointments and policies. Their most famous operation was the June 1914 assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo, carried out by members of the youth movement Young Bosnia, which precipitated the July Crisis and led to Austria-Hungary's invasion of the Kingdom of Serbia in August 1914, starting World War I. In 1938, a conspiracy group called Konspiracija was founded to overthrow the Yugoslav regency, modeled after the Black Hand, with two Black Hand members—Antonije Antić and Velimir Vemić—serving as military advisors.

Did You Know?

• The Black Hand's official name was 'Unification or Death' (Уједињење или смрт).
• Captain Dragutin Dimitrijević, known as 'Apis,' personally led the 1903 murder of King Alexander I Obrenović and Queen Draga—but this was before the Black Hand existed, carried out by a precursor group.
• The group's constitution was signed on 9 May 1911, modeled after German secret nationalist associations and the Italian Carbonari.
• The Black Hand used the magazine 'Pijemont' (the Serbian name for Piedmont) to spread its ideas, founded by Ljuba Čupa in August 1911.
• In 1938, the conspiracy group Konspiracija was modeled after the Black Hand, with two original members as military advisors.