Krvna osveta

Krvna osveta (Serbian Cyrillic: Крвна освета, Blood feud) is a law of vendetta among South Slavic peoples in Montenegro and Herzegovina, practised by Montenegrins, Serbs and Croats (predominantly from Hercegovina) throughout history, first recorded in since medieval times. It is an oath of revenge for vendetta, meaning that the person must take revenge on whomever killed his relative by killing the murderer or one of the murderer's close relatives.^[1]

The practice started in the Balkans in the 15th century, under Ottoman rule and decreased in the 19th century, when the Balkan countries slowly got their independence from the Ottoman Empire.^[2] In pre-Ottoman Serbian principalities, blood money (vražda) was paid, one half went to the Serbian Orthodox Church, while the other to the victim's family. After Ottoman conquest of Serbia, self-governing clans often feuded with each other. Families in Serbia abandoned the tradition as the bigger threats to family integrity were posed by Albanians and Turks rather than by their own ethnic group.

When a family member has been killed, the perpetrator's family (brotherhood/clan bratstvo) has a "blood debt" (krvni dug) which can only be removed when the victim's family (an appointed member, osvetnik) has had their revenge by killing the aggressor or any member of the murderer's family (often a close male kinsman, preferably the brother, although killing of children was not encouraged). Only then has the family of the victim received peace. (However, the blood feud continues if a relative decides to revenge, regardless of who started).^[3] However, killing in one's own house is the worst action, representing unmorality, regarded a great shame in Montenegrin culture. If a criminal was murdered, it often did not result in a feud as criminality was negative in the eyes of society, but in some cases the criminal's family went on to kill serdars and other high-ranked people.

• In Montenegro, among local Slavic peoples the feuds predominantly affected Montenegrins.
• In Herzegovina (currently a region of both Montenegro and Bosnia & Herzegovina) Montenegrins had feuds with each other. A neutral region was Grahovo and Vučja Zuba (triangle of Boka Kotorska, Montenegro and Herzegovina) where blood feuds were not recorded. Though some feuds between local Croats and Serbs have been known to exist.
• In Kosovo and northern Macedonia, if a Serb had a weak family, he could be protected by an Albanian clan from other Albanians in exchange for anything from weapons to folk attire fabric.

The revenge is not limited to males; females that have their husbands or relatives killed could take on the blood debt, an instance is recorded from the Bjelopavlići clan, where a widow took out revenge for the murder of her husband.^[3]

If a clan finds and captures a thief or murderer (in connection to the clan) they could go to the person's house or relatives and tell them that their relative is a murderer or thief and end with something like "If we kill him, we are not to be held for. If the relatives answer "do what you like with him" and the clan kills the captive, they don't have a blood debt to his relatives because they settled his fate.^{[citation needed]}

The blood feuds resulted in instability in Montenegro, Kosovo and Montenegrin diaspora in later centuries.^{[citation needed]}

See also[]

• Gjakmarrja - the equivalent cultural practice among Albanians.

Notes[]

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