THE FORGOTTEN MEMORY OF MILOŠ SAMARDŽIJA

Abstract

The history of Serbs in Bosnia and Herzegovina contains a large number of names of people who fought in different ways, at different times, and had different successes in the creation of national, social, or political goals. Many names are accidentally or intentionally forgotten. One of those names is the name of Miloš Samardžija, a farmer from the village of Bukovača near Bosanski Petrovac. The authors, through a short text, present the memory of Miloš Samardžija, a man whose memory of his participation in the First World War and October Revolution was “closed” in an old box under a dusty beam in his parents’ house for more than half a century. Thanks to Zdravko Samardžija, the grandson of Miloš’s brother Ilija, his (Miloš’) memory written in the fifties of the last century has survived all the misfortunes that followed his indirect descendants until today and lived to register its author in the history of the Serbs who participated in the First World War and the October Revolution in Russia. Although short, written on only two pages, it is sufficient to show the journey of over 13,000 kilometers that this farmer traveled in the period from 1917, when he was mobilized in the Austro-Hungarian army, until the end of 1921, when he returned from Russia to his native village of Bukovača.