Konstantin "Kosta" Milovanović Pećanac (; 1879–1944) was a Serbian and Yugoslav Chetnik commander (vojvoda) during the Balkan Wars, World War I and World War II. Pećanac fought on the Serbian side in both Balkan Wars and World War I, joining the forces of Kosta Vojinović during the Toplica uprising of 1917. Between the wars he was an important leader of Chetnik veteran associations, and was known for his strong hostility to the Yugoslav Communist Party, which made him popular in conservative circles. As president of the Chetnik Association during the 1930s, he transformed it into an aggressively partisan Serb political organisation with over half a million members. During World War II, Pećanac collaborated with both the German military administration and their puppet government in the German-occupied territory of Serbia.
Just before the Axis invasion of Yugoslavia in April 1941, the Yugoslav government provided Pećanac with funds and arms to raise guerrilla units in southern Serbia, Macedonia and Kosovo. He formed a detachment of about 300 men, mostly in the Toplica river valley in southern Serbia, which avoided destruction during the invasion. In the first three months after the surrender, Pećanac gathered more troops from Serb refugees fleeing Macedonia and Kosovo. However, his Chetniks fought only Albanian groups in the region, and did not engage the Germans. Following the uprising in the occupied territory in early July 1941, Pećanac quickly resolved to abandon resistance against the occupiers, and by the end of August had concluded agreements with the German occupation forces and the puppet government of Milan Nedić to collaborate with them and fight the communist-led Partisans. In July 1942, rival Chetnik leader Draža Mihailović arranged for the Yugoslav government-in-exile to denounce Pećanac as a traitor, and his continuing collaboration with the Germans ruined what remained of the reputation he had developed in the Balkan Wars and World War I.
The Germans rapidly realised that Pećanac's Chetniks, whose numbers had grown to 8,000, were inefficient and unreliable, and even the Nedić government had no confidence in them. They were completely disbanded by March 1943. Pećanac himself was interned by the Nedić regime for some time, and was killed by agents of Mihailović in May or June 1944.
Early life
Kosta Milovanović was born in a village near Dečani in 1879, although some sources mistakenly identify the year as 1871. His father Milovan was a guardian of the Visoki Dečani monastery. Pećanac's father and his brother Milosav fought in the Russo-Turkish War of 1877–1878. In 1883, both of his parents were killed in an attack by Albanians on the monastery. After that point, Pećanac was looked after by his uncle in the village of Đurakovac near Peć for an unknown amount of time.
He arrived in Serbia in 1892 at the age of 14 and worked as a mercenary. When he was 21, he was called up for army service and served in the engineer corps, becoming a reserve officer. He later worked with the border gendarmerie near Vranje as a corporal. Pećanac was discharged at some point for reasons unknown and later joined the Chetniks. While serving with them he was given the nickname "Pećanac", derived from the name of the town in which he grew up.
Macedonia and the Balkan Wars
In 1895, war broke out in Macedonia against the Ottoman Empire. Pećanac joined the Serbian Chetnik Organization in 1903, and fought against the Ottoman army in several significant battles including that of Šuplja Stena (near Pčinja) and Čelopek (near Staro Nagoričane). The deacon of the Vladika of Žiča and commander () Jovan Grković-Gapon suggested awarding Pećanac the title of vojvoda; at a Christmas-day meeting in 1904, Pećanac received the title at the age of 25. In the period between 1905 and 1907, he led several major battles against the Ottoman army in the Skopje region. In 1908, Pećanac married Sofia Milosavljević from the town of Aleksinac. He went on to father four children with her. In 1910, as the struggles in Macedonia intensified, he left his children and pregnant wife, and returned to the battlefield.