On June 28, 1914 the heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, Franz Ferdinand and his wife were assassinated in Serbia, in the city of Sarajevo. The killer was a nineteen year-old Serbian schoolboy Gavrilo Princip.

Austria-Hungary gave an ultimatum to Serbia, degrading its national dignity.

Despite this, Serbia accepted almost all the points of the ultimatum. But the Austrian government, spurred by Germany, started a war against Serbia.

Russia, being an ally of Serbia, rose to her defense and declared a general mobilization. The Germans demanded that Russia stop the mobilization, but the mobilization continued. Then, Germany declared a war on Russia. This happened on July 19, 1914.

After several days, Germany declared war against France and invaded Belgium.

Later, England joined in the war against Germany.

Thus began the First World War.

On July 20, 1914 the first mobilization occurred in Divin, in which more than a hundred people were immediately called upon. At the same time there was a mobilization of the peasants’ best horses for the needs of the army. A lot of Diviner families were deprived of their breadwinners and the farms of draft animal power. However, initially, comforting news returned from the front: the enemy was retreating deeper into its territory under the onslaught of the Russian army.

Soon, in the summer of 1915, the situation changed. The Russian army began to suffer defeat after defeat under the vigorous onslaught of the Austro-German troops. The Russians began to retreat, but the enemy’s onslaught continued. The Russian army suffered a great shortage of military equipment and ammunition, so they could not withstand the onslaught of a stronger adversary.

The enemy moved rapidly forward and soon occupied Poland, part of the Baltics, the western part of Belorussia and Ukraine.