Dragutin Dimitrijević Apis as a symbol of the Serbian strategic culture

Abstract

The paper is the analysis of the life and achievements of Colonel Dragutin Dimitrijević Apis, an army and intelligence officer, who significantly influenced the history of Serbs at the beginning of the 20th century. The turbulent, almost adventurous, life of Colonel Apis ended with the rigged trial in Thessaloniki in 1917. From then until the present day, Apis is used as a symbol of the Serbian strategic culture for the military involvement in politics, but also as a patriotic and self-sacrificing officer dependent on the needs of the ruling elite and the facts which subculture analysts belong to. The aim of this paper is to analyze the achievements of Colonel Apis in an analytical and objective way, to describe different strategic subcultures in Serbia on the example of the attitude towards the symbol of Apis and to remove certain misconceptions about the (mis)use of Colonel Apis and his legacy.