Serbian National Defense Council (SND)
Formation1914
TypeSerbian nationalism
Pan-Serbism
Anti-Globalism
Anti-Communism
Monarchism
HeadquartersChicago, Toronto, Sydney
Key people
Mihajlo Pupin
Jovan Dučić
Momčilo Đujić
Nikola Kavaja
Dragiša Kašiković
Websitewww.snd-us.com

The Serbian National Defense Council (SND) (Serbian Cyrillic: Српска Народна Одбрана) is a Serb diaspora community organization whose goal is to protect Serbs, the Serbian Orthodox Church and Serbian interests abroad.[1] It is based in Chicago (United States), and also has chapters in Toronto (Canada) and Sydney (Australia).

History

Establishment and the First World War

SND was founded by Mihajlo Pupin in 1914 in New York City, USA, in midst of anti-Serb tensions leading up to the First World War.[2] Soon after being founded, 83 branches sprung up across the United States and began aiding in the war effort. From 1914 to 1917 SND raised roughly half a million dollars for Serbs in the Balkans, and recruited 17,000 American Serb volunteers to fight on the Salonika front.[3]

World War Two

By 1941, SND headquarters were relocated to Chicago, Illinois, under the leadership of Mihailo Dučić, and the organization's activities and influence waned. With the arrival of Mihailo's brother, Jovan Dučić, an esteemed poet/diplomat, the Serbian National Defense Council was revived.[4] Throughout the Second World War, the SND was heavily engaged in collecting relief funds for Serbs and supporting the Royal Yugoslav Army which during the resistance was a Chetnik cause, of course, under the command of General Dragoljub Mihailovich, appointed by the London-based Yugoslav government-in-exile at the time.[5]

Post-World War Two

After World War II, the US government under the FARA act, began an intensive probe into all Serbian Nationalist organizations in the US, primarily SND, and continued until 1947.[5]

The SND engaged itself closely with the new Chetnik émigré groups which were forming in the United States' Midwest, and appointed Chicago-based Chetnik Voivoda Momčilo Đujić as a trustee of the organization in 1949.[6]

In 1951, chapters of the Serbian National Defense Council were established in Hamilton, Canada under the name of Serbian National Shield Society of Canada[7] and Sydney, Australia.[8]

See also

References

  1. ^ Dragnich, Alex N. (Spring 1988). "American Serbs and Old World Politics". Serbian Studies. 4: 17.
  2. ^ Alter, Peter T. (2013). "Serbs and Serbian Americans, 1940–present". In Barkan, Elliott Robert (ed.). Immigrants in American History: Arrival, Adaptation, and Integration. Santa Barbara, California: ABC-CLIO. p. 1261. ISBN 978-1-59884-220-3.
  3. ^ "Bilateral News 2008 | Embassy of the United States Serbia". serbia.usembassy.gov. Retrieved 2014-06-07.
  4. ^ Dragnich, Alex N. (Spring 1988). "American Serbs and Old World Politics". Serbian Studies. 4: 19.
  5. ^ a b Lees, Lorraine M. (2007). Yugoslav-Americans and National Security during World War II.
  6. ^ "Duke Momčilo Djujić | Pogledi". pogledi.rs. Retrieved 2014-06-08.
  7. ^ Pavlovich, Paul (1999). "Serbs". In Paul R. Magocsi (ed.). Encyclopedia of Canada's Peoples. Toronto: University of Toronto Press. p. 1147. ISBN 978-0802029386.
  8. ^ Stefanovic, D.S. (2002). "Serbs". In James Jupp (ed.). The Australian People: An Encyclopedia of the Nation, its People and their Origins. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p. 678. ISBN 978-0521807890.

External links

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