Haiduks
Haiduks
participants in the struggle of the South Slavs against the Turkish conquerors in the 15th to 19th centuries. By its class character, the haiduk movement was antifeudal. The struggle of the haiduks intensified during periods of heightened national-liberation and antifeudal struggle in the Balkans; they frequently allied themselves with popular uprisings. Many haiduk detachments participated in the first Serbian Uprising (1804-13). During the Russo-Turkish War of 1877-78, they fought with Russian troops for the liberation of Bulgaria. The feats of the haiduks are a recurrent theme of folk art and of the works of many Balkan writers.