Lenka, Serbian heroine

Sunshine25

17.11.2020.

The company was crossing over Tara, and Lenka was shot and unexpected situations forced him to practice handling a rifle and learn to shoot. She began to take part in the fights against the Swabians, showing courage and resourcefulness. Then she dropped bombs. In the spring of 1917, there were about thirty of them in the company. It soon became known about Lenka, a wolf girl, a wolf from Tara. The word about her was spread when she managed to capture two occupying soldiers during the midnight attack on Kaludjerski Bare. Her comrades captured nine more.

Among Serbian heroines of the Great War, Lenka Pjević Rabasović, a native of the Užice village of Bioska, occupies an important place. As a young girl, fearless, proud, freedom-loving under occupation, and after the war in freedom, a caring mother of seven children - five daughters and two sons.

An interesting reminder of Lenka was published in the Kosjerić magazine "Naš trag", a list for preserving and nurturing the tradition of the liberation wars of Serbia, published by the Municipal Association of the Descendants of Warriors 1804–1920. "Ljubomir Maric". The text about Lenka under the title "Woman of Courage" was written by the young Marija Joksimović, a third grade student at the Technical School from Kosjerić, with suggestions from Serbian language teacher Slavica Jovanović.

Marija writes that the Great War interrupted many dreams of a peaceful life, happiness, family, and even the young Lenka Pjević from Bioska:

"Although she was already ready for marriage, in 1916 she wore a comitatus suit instead of a wedding dress. Only the elderly, the sick, the exhausted and those who did not want to or could not leave their homeland remained in Serbia. There is not enough food, he is often starving. The worst was in the mountains. There, even in the midst of peace, one could barely survive. The village of Bioska pod Tarom was just such an area. The Austrians are ruthlessly stealing food, torturing the local population. "

Lenka Pjević, who had four brothers, did not want to suffer that. She made the decision what to do when her brother Cvijo, together with a group of villagers, defected to the forest. He once opposed the occupier and wounded an Austrian non-commissioned officer. Then the Austrians stormed the village, looking for Zivoj's sister Lenka. Instead of a cowardly surrender, with the blessing of her father Jevrem, she put on a uniform and took a rifle. She followed her brother, retreated into the woods. At first, Cvijo did not want to accept her, they were not a forest or a war for women, he thought, leaving Lenka in a hut by the shelters. But the girl was persistent, she managed to escape the enemy who was on her heels in that hut, so her brother had nowhere to go, he accepted her into his company.

The company was crossing over Tara, and Lenka was shot and unexpected situations forced him to practice handling a rifle and learn to shoot. She began to take part in the fights against the Swabians, showing courage and resourcefulness. Then she dropped bombs. In the spring of 1917, there were about thirty of them in the company. It soon became known about Lenka, a wolf girl, a wolf from Tara. The word about her was spread when she managed to capture two occupying soldiers during the midnight attack on Kaludjerski Bare. Her comrades captured nine more.

"They did not know what to do with the captured soldiers. There were suggestions to let them go or to kill them, some suggested to take them with them. Unable to reach an agreement, they decided that Lenka, as the only woman in the company, should judge the enemy soldiers. After a few minutes of thinking, Lenka raised her head and said, ‘Untie them!’ But that was not her final decision, she ordered them to take off their uniforms and tie them again, with a horse rope. In the end, he addressed the Swabians: ‘Go to your command and say that Lenka gave you life! Tell your officers what happened on Tara and tell them to get out of this country. 'When the soldiers left ashamed, Lenka's company started laughing, and someone from behind said:"Poor… What will he tell them in the headquarters when they see that the imperial soldiers, frightened by a girl, fled in their underpants."

Lenka continued the wars on Tara, it was rumored that she and the wolves ruled that mountain. But it had its company and losses, there were dead and wounded. Her brother Cvijo died in a bloody fight against the occupiers on August 9, 1917. "She managed to reach her brother who was dead. As she said, she did not shed a tear, but grabbed the bombs and started throwing them. Cvija was buried the next day by a girl from a nearby village. "

They spent that winter in dugouts, and in the spring of the last war year, the group headed towards Valjevo. They fought shorter battles, captured several soldiers, took some food. But on their return to Tara, they ambushed near Ražana. They did not have enough strength to fight, so they fled. Then Lenka was wounded in the leg. She was lucky, because two more bullets went into her: one tore a button off her coat, the other took her hat off her head. Somehow she managed to reach the dugout on Tara and did not leave for two months.

"When her wound healed, she went down to Kreman to see what was happening. Along the way, she met villagers from Bioska who are happily returning from Užice. He replied that the Swabians were retreating and fleeing. Ours are coming! She cried as a child after two years of war. Those were really the last days of the occupation ", writes student Marija Joksimović.

When freedom came, Lenka began her new life. She married Mališa Rabasović from Mokra Gora, and had seven children with him. Of these, 14 grandchildren and 10 great-grandchildren. Until the end of her life, she lived with her son in Macvanski Prnjavor. Lenka's girl's dream came true then, she found happiness.

I hope you liked my first article and that you learned more about the Serbian heroine Lenka.

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