First Serbian Volunteer Division

The First Serbian Volunteer Division (also known as the First Serbian Division and Serbian First Division) was a military force created in 1916 by political figure Nikola Pašić and his associates in the city of Odessa. It was primarily made up of various Serb peoples, a great many of them former prisoners of war. It holds a particularly significant place in World War I history due both to its intermingling of different ethnicities, including Bosnians, Czechs, and Slovaks, as well as its role in opposing the Central Powers after the then regular Serbian army had suffered an immense setback.

As part of the legacy of the division, the residents of southeastern Romania established a white pyramid memorial known as the "Monument to the Heroes of the First Serbian Volunteer Division" (Serbian Cyrillic: "Споменик јунацима Прве српске добровољачке дивизије"), which is located as a part of a cemetery complex in Medgidia. In a 2013 ceremony, local Mayor Marijan Jordák stated, "We can never forget their achievement... so it shall remain until the end of time."

Distinct from the then regular Serbian army, the political background around the Volunteer Division's creation and its involvement in actual combat serves as a microcosm of the tense ethnic-related frictions taking place during the World War I era. Fighting on behalf of the Russian government's cause of pan-Slavic unity, the organization started out approximately 18,000 strong. Tsar Nicholas II, while eager to use the Serbian diaspora for his own purposes, felt initial reluctance to set up the Volunteer Division given that recruiting prisoners of war to possibly fight against their former country is a war crime under the Hague Conventions. Nonetheless, the military force ended up being thrown into combat against Bulgarian soldiers without much delay, suffering immense casualties.

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