Tatic, Danijel Field Marshal Svetozar Borojevic

A century after his death, Svetozar Borojevic remains one of the most interesting yet misunderstood figures of the First World War. His successes on the Eastern Front in 1914 and the Isonzo Front from 1915 onwards made him the Habsburg Empires most popular wartime military leader, but his legacy came crashing down in 1918, together with the Empire to whom he was completely devoted. Thus, in a curious twist of fate, he has been largely omitted from the European collective memory of the war. This book describes the life and times of Svetozar Borojevic, a career army officer who was in many ways a typical representative of the Austro-Hungarian military system with all its virtues and flaws, and the only Slav in the Habsburg Empire who had ever reached the rank of field marshal. It also describes Borojevics personal side, examining his life from his birth in a hamlet in present-day Croatia, the early childhood years spent far away from his parental home, his education and life of service throughout the Empire, his hopes, thoughts, ambitions, character, and, above all, the ways in which he tirelessly climbed the social, political, and military hierarchies of his time, reaching the top in face of tremendous adversity. And finally, this book explores the reasons why, despite playing a prominent role in the events of 1914 to 1918, he was destined to fall together with the Empire, consumed by the whirlwind of politics and ideology in the turmoil of post-war Europe.

The book also describes Borojevic's personal side, his life from his birth in a hamlet in what is now Croatia, his early childhood years away from home, his education and military service life throughout the Habsburg Empire, his hopes, thoughts and ambitions, character and, above all, the way he tirelessly climbed the social, political and military hierarchies of his time, eventually reaching the top position of field marshal in the face of enormous adversity. And finally, this book examines the reasons why, despite playing a prominent role in the events of 1914 to 1918, he was destined to perish with the empire he had served so faithfully and for so long in the post-war turmoil of ideological and political struggles.