MUSEUM OF THE TOPLICA UPRISING

This very small museum opened in 2006 (Muzej Topličkog ustanka, Muzeu të kryengritjes në Toplicë) is located in the village of Sočanica/Soçanica (1,300 inhabitants, almost all Serbian). It is dedicated to an episode of the First World War that is little known in the West: the Serbian uprising in Toplica, in the autumn of 1917. The exhibition is mainly made up of reproductions of period photos showing in particular scenes of massacres (sensitive souls should refrain). The uprising took place in the region of Toplica, straddling southwestern Serbia and northern Kosovo, from February 21 to March 25, 1917. It was triggered by the decision to enlist Serbian men in the Bulgarian army, which had occupied the region since 1915. The villages around Leposavić/Leposaviq provided a large detachment of Chetniks (Serbian guerrillas) to the rebellion, whose command center was established in the Kopaonik Mountains. After several Serbian victories and liberations of towns and villages, Bulgarian and Austro-Hungarian troops regained control. The occupiers then organized sweeping operations with the support of Albanian nationalists that left 20,000 Serbs dead in the region, including in Mitrovica and Sočanica/Soçanica. The effect of this repression, however, was to force the Bulgarians and Austro-Hungarians to reduce their numbers on the Macedonian front, which was broken a few months later by the French Army of the East.