The Recall of Wrangel’s Troops from the Border Service and Its Implications in Slovenia in 1922

Abstract

A part of the defeated anti revolutionary army of General Pyotr Nikolaevich Wrangel, which retreated from Russia in 1920, settled in the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes in June 1921. These so called Wrangel’s troops served in the Yugoslav border guard. In Slovenia they had a poor reputation, as they treated the border population roughly and in several cases even criminally. Another source of discontent was the monetary resources allocated to these troops by the state, while both the populace and politicians resented the troops wearing Russian uniforms, military insignia and tsarist decorations, as well as carrying weapons in public. Therefore the Slovenian territory witnessed increasing complaints that Wrangel’s troops represented a state within a state, and that they should be recalled from the border service, disarmed and exiled from the state. This standpoint was shared by all political camps. When the National Assembly of the Kingdom of SCS decided to recall Wrangel’s troops from the Yugoslav border units, the Slovenian territory, where the presence of those units was more pronounced due to its frontier location, welcomed their departure with relief. With their intimidating behaviour, Wrangel’s troops had harassed the population and disturbed the development of the peacetime spirit restored in the Slovenian society after World War I.