Ivan Babejić

Ivan Babejić (born ; died during the night of 4–5 September 1934) was a Vlach hajduk and outlaw from Homolje, known by the nickname Mountain Tsar . He operated in Homolje, Zvižd, the Mlava and Resava regions, and Pomoravlje during the final years of the First World War and the interwar period.

He spent nearly two decades evading gendarmerie pursuits. During his lifetime, his name entered folk songs, stories and legends, although the events of his life are difficult to separate from newspaper sensationalism and later oral tradition.

The interwar press portrayed him as a dangerous bandit and attributed murders, robberies, extortion and an extensive network of helpers to him. By contrast, historian Đorđe Stanković wrote that, during Babejić's 18 years as a hajduk, it "could not be established" that he had committed any crime and that he consequently remained a "mythical hero" in popular memory.

His exact year of birth is uncertain. Marjanović and the Požarevac newspaper Građanin gave 1896, a year also used by the Radio Television of Serbia documentary Trag: Gorski car.

However, Vreme described Babejić in October 1931 as a 42-year-old man, which would indicate an earlier birth year. Because of this discrepancy, an exact year cannot be given with certainty.

He was married to Ana Babejić. On 11 October 1931, Vreme reported that Ana had initiated divorce proceedings before an ecclesiastical court and asked the Ministry of the Interior to certify that her husband was a hajduk. The newspaper did not clearly identify the person or provide evidence that Babejić had another child, and the report remains unconfirmed.

First World War

According to the RTS documentary, Babejić was mobilised into the Serbian Army at the beginning of the First World War. Bulgarian forces captured him in 1915, but he escaped and returned to Laznica. After being captured again, he was interned on Devil's Island in the Black Sea. According to the same source, he escaped from there as well and took to the forest in 1916.

According to Vreme, after the war he was sentenced to one year in prison in a case concerning the theft of two pairs of oxen. Babejić denied the charge, but the court convicted him on the basis of witness statements and a certificate issued by the municipality.

Newspaper reports from 1940 stated that Babejić and Draža Gligorijević ranged over a wide area—Homolje, Mlava, Resava and Pomoravlje—and allegedly reached Prahovo, Gradište, Kragujevac and Niš. These details came from reporting occasioned by Gligorijević's arrest and do not constitute a precisely documented itinerary.

The press occasionally claimed that Babejić crossed into Romania or hid there. After his death, Građanin wrote that he sometimes withdrew across the border, although such reports generally rested on tips, official assumptions and rumours. Dubočka Mountain was mentioned at the same trial as an area in which Babejić had hidden.

Reward for capture

The state reward for Babejić's capture increased over time. According to Građanin, it was 5,000 dinars on 2 January 1921, increased to 50,000 on 28 March 1927, and was raised to 100,000 dinars by an order of the Ministry of the Interior dated 22 December 1927.

After Babejić's death, Pravda reported on 3 October 1934 that, by a decision dated 27 September, the interior minister had authorised payment of 100,000 dinars to the peasant who had contributed to his killing. False report of death in 1929

On 13 August 1929, Vreme published an article entitled "How the notorious hajduk Babejić was captured and killed", whichdescribed in detail his alleged death during a gendarmerie pursuit near Žagubica.

The report soon proved false. On 15 August the Slovenian daily Jutro published an article entitled "Babejić straši dalje" ("Babejić continues to spread fear"), stating that his death had not been confirmed and that the gendarmerie pursuit continued. The newspaper speculated that his associates may have spread the rumour of his death to reduce the pressure of the manhunt.

The episode illustrates the extent to which reports about Babejić relied on unverified tips and how he had already become the subject of sensational stories during his lifetime. Letter to the National Museum

On 21 June 1930, Vreme reported that the National Museum in Belgrade had received an unusual letter signed with Ivan Babejić's name. The story appeared on the front page under the headline "Hajduk Babejić demands one million dinars from the National Museum?", with a subheading in which the editors questioned whether it was a bandit's message or a joke.

The letter contained a ten-Austrian heller nickel coin dated 1895, supposedly given to the museum by the sender. At the same time, the museum was instructed to prepare one million dinars by 29 June. The letter bore a Požarevac postmark and was delivered to Dr Josa Petrović of the museum's numismatic department. The newspaper presented this as Mikuljević's later statement rather than as a fact previously established in court.

Gligorijević's account

After his arrest in 1940, Draža Gligorijević made several claims about the years he spent with Babejić. According to his statement as reported by Vreme, when the two men had collected about 10,000 dinars, Babejić would say that they had enough money for the winter and should no longer go out for money. The comparison indicates that the journalist assumed Babejić's name was already familiar to readers beyond Homolje.

The extent to which his name became synonymous with a hajduk can also be seen in a 1936 Vreme court report in which the insult "your lover is hajduk Babejić" was the subject of a lawsuit. In December 1936, Vreme presented Laznica as a place known as Ivan Babejić's birthplace and described Draža Gligorijević as his former companion.

The contrast between the newspaper portrayal of Babejić as a bandit and the popular image of the "Mountain Tsar" persisted after his death. Over time, the stories came to include disguises, encounters with gendarmes, secret hideouts, lovers, buried treasure and claims that bullets could not harm him. Many of these stories belong to oral tradition and cannot be independently confirmed.

In a later popular-history article, Nikodije Spasić called him a "mountain flower of the Homolje Mountains". This was a later literary description, rather than reliable evidence that "Mountain Flower" was a contemporary nickname.

Vlach oral tradition

Babejić remained present in Vlach oral and musical tradition. Paun Es Durlić's Vlach dictionary records him as Babĭeĭ, a popular interwar outlaw from Laznica celebrated in numerous Vlach songs, and also records the dialectal form Babau.

In 2022, Radio Television of Serbia devoted an episode of the documentary series Trag to Babejić, entitled Gorski car. The programme presented the conflicting images of him as a bandit and a folk hero, describing him as both a "Dillinger and Robin Hood", a villain and a benefactor of the poor.

Stories about Babejić continued to be passed down through generations. One of the better-known songs is Sava Mošić's Vlach-language song "Knćiku 'lu Babau", which helped preserve his story in local musical tradition.

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