Chetniks

(Russian, chetniki; Serbo-Croatian, četnici), in the Balkans:

(1) From the 15th to the 19th century, participants (mainly haiduks) in the armed struggle waged by partisan detachments for national liberation from the Ottoman yoke. Prominent members of the Chetnik movement in Bulgaria in the 1860’s included G. S. Rakovski, P. Khitov, F. Tofo, S. T. Karadzha, and Khadzhi Dimitur.

(2) Members of a reactionary organization, participants in the nationalistic Greater Serbia movement (headed by General D. Mihajlovic) and other antinationalist groups in Yugoslavia that fought against the forces of people’s liberation during World War II.