Kosta Pecanac (1879 1944) was a Serbian Chetnik commander during both of the Balka

n Wars, World War I, and World War II. Pecanac (pictured, second from left) foug
ht on the Serbian side in the Balkan Wars and World War I, joining the Toplica u
prising of 1917. After the war he was an important leader of Chetnik veteran ass
ociations, known for his strong hostility to the Yugoslav Communist Party, which
made him popular with conservatives. As president of the Chetnik Association, h
e transformed the association during the 1930s into an aggressively partisan Ser
b political organisation with over half a million members. During World War II,
Pecanac collaborated with the German military administration and with their Serb
ian puppet government in the Territory of the Military Commander in Serbia. In J
uly 1942, rival Chetnik leader Dra a Mihailovic arranged for the Yugoslav governme
nt-in-exile to denounce Pecanac as a traitor, and his continuing collaboration w
ith the Germans ruined what remained of the reputation he had developed in the B
alkan Wars and World War I. By March 1943, the Germans saw Pecanac's Chetniks as
inefficient and unreliable, and disbanded them. He was interned, then killed in
May or June 1944 by agents of Mihailovic.