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	<small>From: Pozzi, Henri, <i>Black Hand Over Europe,</i> (Reprint of the 1935 edition), Croatian Information Centre, Zagreb, 1994; consisting of Pozzi, Henri: <i>War Is Coming Again,</i> (translated by Francis J. Mott), 1911.</small>		<small>From: Pozzi, Henri, <i>Black Hand Over Europe,</i> (Reprint of the 1935 edition), Croatian Information Centre, Zagreb, 1994; consisting of Pozzi, Henri: <i>War Is Coming Again,</i> (translated by Francis J. Mott), 1911.</small>
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−	<p align="right">	+	</p><p align="right"> [[Main_Page \| WWI Document Archive ]] > [[Pre - 1914 Documents]] > '''Constitution of the Black Hand'''
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	[[Image: WWILOGO.GIF]]<p>		[[Image: WWILOGO.GIF]]<p>
	<h3>The Constitution of the Ujedinjenje ili Smrt -<br><br>		<h3>The Constitution of the Ujedinjenje ili Smrt -<br><br>
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	<small>From: Pozzi, Henri, <i>Black Hand Over Europe,</i> (Reprint of the 1935 edition), Croatian Information Centre, Zagreb, 1994; consisting of Pozzi, Henri: <i>War Is Coming Again,</i> (translated by Francis J. Mott), 1911.</small>		<small>From: Pozzi, Henri, <i>Black Hand Over Europe,</i> (Reprint of the 1935 edition), Croatian Information Centre, Zagreb, 1994; consisting of Pozzi, Henri: <i>War Is Coming Again,</i> (translated by Francis J. Mott), 1911.</small>
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Hirgen at 20:28, 11 July 2007

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	<i>Unification or Death</i></h3>		<i>Unification or Death</i></h3>

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	<b>I. Purpose and Name</b><br><br>		<b>I. Purpose and Name</b><br><br>

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	<h3>The Constitution of the Ujedinjenje ili Smrt -<br><br>		<h3>The Constitution of the Ujedinjenje ili Smrt -<br><br>
	<i>Unification or Death</i></h3>		<i>Unification or Death</i></h3>

Hirgen at 23:22, 9 July 2007

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Hirgen at 23:20, 18 October 2006

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<html>
<head>

<title>Black Hand Constitution</title>
</head>
<body>
<img src="../WWILOGO.GIF">
<h3>The Constitution of the Ujedinjenje ili Smrt - 
Unification or Death</h3>

<img src="BLK-HAND.GIF" alt="--Seal of the Black Hand--">

I. Purpose and Name

Article 1. For the purpose of realising the national ideals - the 
Unification of Serbdom - an organization is hereby created, whose 
members may be any Serbian irrespective of sex, religion, place or 
birth, as well as anybody else who will sincerely serve this idea.

Article 2. The organisation gives priority to the revolutionary struggle 
rather than relies on cultural striving, therefore its institution is an 
absolutely secret one for wider circles.

Article 3. The organization bears the name: "Ujedinjenje ili Smrt".

Article 4. In order to carry into effect its task the organization will 
do the following things:

(1) Following the character of its raison d etre it will exercise its 
influence over all the official factors in Serbia - which is the Piemont 
of Serbdom - as also over all the strata of the State and over the 
entire social life in it:

(2) It will carry out a revolutionary organisation in all the 
territories where Serbians are living:

(3) Beyond the frontiers, it will fight with all means against all 
enemies of this idea:

(4) It will maintain friendly relations with all the States, nations, 
organisations, and individual persons who sympathise with Serbia 
and the Serbian race:

(5) It will give every assistance to those nations and organisations 
who are fighting for their own national liberation and unification.

II. Official Departments of the Organisation

Article 5. The supreme authority is vested in the Supreme Central 
Directorate with its headquarters at Belgrade. Its duty will be to see 
that the resolutions are carried into effect.

Article 6. The number of members of the Supreme Central Directorate is 
unlimited - but in principle it should be kept as low as possible.

Article 7. The Supreme Central Directorate shall include, in addition to 
the members from the Kingdom of Serbia, one accredited delegate from 
each of the organisations of all the Serbian regions: (1) Bosnia and 
Herzegovina, (2) Montenegro, (3) Old Serbia and Macedonia, (4) Croatia, 
Slovenia and Symria (Srem), (5) Voyvodina, (6) Sea-coasts.

Article 8. It will be the task of the Supreme Central Directorate to 
carry out the principles of the organisation within the territory of the 
Kingdom of Serbia.

Article 9. The duty of each individual Provincial Directorate will be to 
carry out the principles of the organisation within the respective 
territories of each Serbian region outside the frontiers of the Kingdom 
of Serbia. The Provincial Directorate will be the supreme authority of 
the organisation within its own territory.

Article 10. The subdivisions of the organisation into District 
Directorates and other units of authority shall be established by the 
By-Laws of the organisation which shall be laid down, and if need be, 
from time to time amended and amplified by the Supreme Central 
Directorate.

Article 11. Each Directorate shall elect, from amongst its own members, 
its President, Secretary and Treasures.

Article 12. By virtue of the nature of his work, the Secretary may act 
as a Deputy President. In order that he may devote himself entirely to 
the work of the organisation, the Secretary s salary and expenses shall 
be provided by the Supreme Central Directorate.

Article 13. The positions of President and Treasurers shall be un- 
salaried.

Article 14. All official business questions of the organisation shall be 
decided in the sessions of the Supreme Central Directorate by a majority 
of votes.

Article 15. For the execution of such decisions of the organisation, the 
absolute executive power shall be vested in the President and the 
Secretary.

Article 16. In exceptional and less important cases the President and 
the Secretary shall make the decisions and secure their execution, but 
they shall report accordingly at the next following session of the 
Supreme Central Directorate.

Article 17. For the purpose of ensuring a more efficient discharge of 
business, the Supreme Central Directorate shall be divided into 
sections, according to the nature of the work.

Article 18. The Supreme Central Directorate shall maintain its relations 
with the Provincial Directorates through the accredited delegates of the 
said provincial organisations, it being understood that such delegates 
shall be at the same time members of the Supreme Central Directorate; in 
exceptional cases, however, these relations shall be maintained through 
special delegates.

Article 19. Provincial Directorates shall have freedom of action. Only 
in cases of the execution of broader revolutionary movements will they 
depend upon the approval of the Supreme Central Directorate.

Article 20. The Supreme Central Directorate shall regulate all the signs 
and watchwords, necessary for the maintenance of secrecy in the 
organisation.

Article 21. It shall be the Supreme Central Directorate s duty 
punctually and officially to keep all the members of the organisation 
well posted about all the more important questions relative to the 
organisation.

Article 22. The Supreme Central Directorate shall from time to time 
control and inspect the work of its own departments. Analogically, the 
other Directorates shall do likewise with their own departments.


III. The Members of the Organisation

Article 23. The following rule, as a principle, shall govern all the 
detailed transactions of the organisation: All communications and 
conversations to be conducted only through specially appointed and 
authorised persons.

Article 24. It shall be the duty of every member to recruit new members, 
but it shall be understood that every introducing member shall vouch 
with his own life for all those whom he introduces into the organisation.

Article 25. The members of the organisation as amongst themselves shall 
not be known to one another. Only the members of Directorates shall be 
known personally to one another.

Article 26. In the organisation the members shall be registered and 
known by their respective numbers. But the Supreme Central Directorate 
must know them also by their respective names.

Article 27. The members of the organisation must unconditionally obey 
all the commands given by their respective Directorates, as also all the 
Directorates must obey unconditionally the commands which they receive 
direct from their superior Directorate.

Article 28. Every member shall be obliged to impart officially to the 
organisation whatever comes to his knowledge, either in his private life 
or in the discharge of his official duties, in as far as it may be of 
interest to the organisation.

Article 29. The interest of the organisation shall stand above all 
other interests.

Article 30. On entering into the organisation, every member must know 
that by joining the organisation he loses his own personality; he must 
not expect any glory for himself, nor any personal benefit, material or 
moral. Consequently the member who should dare to try to exploit the 
organisation for his personal, or class, or party interests shall be 
punished by death.

Article 31. Whosoever has once entered into the organisation can never 
by any means leave it, nor shall anybody have the authority to accept 
the resignation of a member.

Article 32. Every member shall support the organisation by his weekly 
contributions. The organisations, however, shall have the authority to 
procure money, if need be, by coercion. The permission to resort to 
these means may be given only by Supreme Central Directorate within the 
country, or by the regional Directorates within their respective region.

Article 33. In administering capital punishment the sole responsibility 
of the Supreme Central Directorate shall be to see that such punishment 
is safely and unfailingly carried into effect without any regard for the 
ways and means to be employed in the execution.



IV. The Seal and the Oath of Allegiance

Article 34. The Organisation's official seal is thus composed: In the 
centre of the seal there is a powerful arm holding in its hand an 
unfurled flag on which - as a coat of arms - there is a skull with 
crossed bones; by the side of the flag, a knife, a bomb and a phial of 
poison. Around, in a circle, there is the following inscription, reading 
from left to right: "Unification or Death", and in the base: "The 
Supreme Central Directorate".

Article 35. On entering into the organisation the joining member must 
pronounce the following oath of allegiance:

"I (the Christian name and surname of the joining member), by entering 
into the organisation "Unification or Death", do hereby swear by the Sun 
which shineth upon me, by the Earth which feedeth me, by God, by the 
blood of my forefathers, by my honour and by my life, that from this 
moment onward and until my death, I shall faithfully serve the task of 
this organisation and that I shall at all times be prepared to bear for 
it any sacrifice. I further swear by God, by my honour and by my life, 
that I shall unconditionally carry into effect all its orders and 
commands. I further swear by my God, by my honour and by my life, that I 
shall keep within myself all the secrets of this organisation and carry 
them with me into my grave. May God and my comrades in this organisation 
be my judges if at any time I should wittingly fail or break this oath!"


V. Supplementary Orders

Article 36. The present Constitution shall come into force immediately. 
Article 37. The present Constitution must not be altered.

Done at Belgrade this 9th day of May, 1911 A.D.

Signed:

Major Ilija Radivojevitch 
Vice-Consul Bogdan Radenkovitch 
Colonel Cedimilj A. Popovitch 
Lt.-Col. Velimir Vemitch 
Journalist Ljubomir S. Jovanovitch 
Col. Dragutin T. Dimitrijevitch 
Major Vojin P. Tanksoitch 
Major Milan Vasitch 
Col. Milovan Gr. Milovanovitch 

From: Pozzi, Henri, Black Hand Over Europe, (Reprint of the 1935 edition), Croatian Information Centre, Zagreb, 1994; consisting of Pozzi, Henri: War Is Coming Again, (translated by Francis J. Mott), 1911.
<hr>
<img src="endmark.gif"> -- World War I Document Archive

Constitution of the Black Hand - Revision history

Bkimberl at 00:38, 2 June 2009

Bkimberl at 00:37, 2 June 2009

Hirgen at 20:28, 11 July 2007

Hirgen at 20:13, 11 July 2007

Hirgen at 23:22, 9 July 2007

Hirgen at 23:20, 18 October 2006