title: Chetniks

text: Nedić was initially firmly opposed to Mihailović and the Chetniks. On 4 September 1941, Mihailović sent Major Aleksandar Mišić and Miodrag Pavlović to enter a meeting with Nedić and nothing was accomplished. After Mihailović shifted his policy of mild cooperation with the Partisans to becoming hostile to them and ceasing anti-German activity in late October 1941, Nedić relaxed his opposition. On 15 October, Colonel Milorad Popović, acting on behalf of Nedić, gave Mihailović about 500,000 dinars (in addition to an equal amount given on 4 October) to persuade the Chetniks to collaborate. On 26 October 1941, Popović gave an additional 2,500,000 dinars.


title: Chetniks

text: By mid-November 1941, Mihailović put 2,000 of his men under Nedić's direct command and shortly later these men joined the Germans in an anti-Partisan operation. When the Germans launched Operation Mihailović on 6–7 December 1941, with the intent of capturing Mihailović and removing his headquarters in Ravna Gora, he escaped, probably because he was warned of the attack by Aćimović on 5 December.


title: Chetniks

text: In June 1942, Mihailović left the Territory of the Military Commander in Serbia for Montenegro and was out of contact with the Nedić authorities until he returned. In September 1942, Mihailović orchestrated civil disobedience against the Nedić government via the use of leaflets and clandestine radio transmitter messages. This civil obedience may have been orchestrated in order to use as a cover to conduct sabotage operations on railway lines used to supply Axis forces in North Africa, however it has been disputed. In the fall of 1942 the Chetniks of Mihailović (and Pećanac) who had been legalized by the Nedić administration were dissolved. By 1943, Nedić feared that the Chetniks would become the primary collaborator with the Germans and after the Chetniks murdered Ceka Đorđević, deputy minister of internal affairs, in March 1944 he opted to replace him with a prominent Chetnik in the hopes of quelling the rivalry. A report prepared in April 1944 by the U.S. Office of Strategic Services commented that:


title: Chetniks

text: In mid-August 1944, Mihailović, Nedić, and Dragomir Jovanović met in the village of Ražani secretly where Nedić agreed to give one hundred million dinars for wages and to request from the Germans arms and ammunition for Mihailović. On 6 September 1944, under the authority of the Germans and formalization by Nedić, Mihailović took command over the entire military force of the Nedić administration, including the Serbian State Guard, Serbian Volunteer Corps, and the Serbian Border Guard.


title: Chetniks

text: In mid-1943, the Hungarian General Staff arranged a meeting between a Serbian officer in the Nedić regime and Mihailović. The officer was instructed to express to Mihailović Hungary's regret for the massacre at Novi Sad and to promise that those responsible would be punished. Hungary recognised Mihailović as the representative of the Yugoslav government-in-exile and asked him, in the event of an Allied landing in the Balkans, not to enter Hungary with his troops, but to leave the border question to the peace conference. After contact was established, food, medicine, munitions and horses were sent to Mihailović. During his visit to Rome in April 1943, Prime Minister Miklós Kállay talked about Italo-Hungarian cooperation with the Chetniks, but Mussolini said he favoured Tito.


title: Chetniks

text: Hungary also tried to contact Mihailović through the royal Yugoslav government's representative in Istanbul in order to cooperate against the Partisans. The Yugoslav Minister of Foreign Affairs, Momčilo Ninčić, reportedly sent a message to Istanbul asking the Hungarians to send an envoy and a Serb politician from the Hungarian-occupied territories to negotiate. Nothing came of these contacts, but Mihailović sent a representative, Čedomir Bošnjaković, to Budapest. For their part the Hungarians sent arms, medicine and released Serbian POWs willing to serve with the Chetniks down the Danube.


title: Chetniks

text: After the German occupation of Hungary in March 1944, the Chetnik relationship was one of the few foreign contacts independent of German influence that Hungary had. A Hungarian diplomat, L. Hory, formerly posted in Belgrade, twice visited Mihailović in Bosnia, and the Hungarians continued to send him munitions, even across Croatian territory. The last contact between Mihailović and Hungary occurred on 13 October 1944, shortly before the German-sponsored coup of 15 October.


title: Chetniks

text: Chetnik ideology revolved around the notion of a Greater Serbia within the borders of Yugoslavia, to be created out of all territories in which Serbs were found, even if the numbers were small. This goal had long been the foundation of the movement for a Greater Serbia. During Axis occupation the notion of clearing or "ethnically cleansing" these territories was introduced largely in response to the massacres of Serbs by the Ustashe in the Independent State of Croatia. However, the largest Chetnik massacres took place in eastern Bosnia where they preceded any significant Ustashe operations. According to Pavlowitch, terror tactics were committed by local commanders of the Chetnik organisation. Mihailović disapproved these acts of ethnic cleansing against civilians, however he failed to take action in stopping these acts of terror, given the lack of command he had over local commanders and the rudimentary methods of communication that existed in the Chetnik command structure.


title: Chetniks

text: Prior to the outbreak of World War II, use of terror tactics had a long tradition in the area as various oppressed groups sought their freedom and atrocities were committed by all parties engaged in conflict in Yugoslavia. During the early stages of the occupation, the Ustaše had also recruited a number of Muslims to aid in the persecutions of the Serbs, and even though only a relatively small number of Croats and Muslims engaged in these activities, and many opposed them, those actions initiated a cycle of violence and retribution between the Catholics, Orthodox and Muslims, as each sought to rid the others from the territories they controlled.


title: Chetniks

text: In particular, Ustaše ideologues were concerned with the large Serb minority in the NDH, and initiated acts of terror on a wide scale in May 1941. Two months later, in July, the Germans protested the brutality of these actions. Reprisals followed, as in the case of Nevesinje, where Serb peasants staged an uprising in response to the persecution, drove out the Ustaše militia, but then engaged in reprisals, killing hundreds of Muslims and some Croats, whom they associated with the Ustaše.


title: Chetniks

text: A directive dated 20 December 1941, addressed to newly appointed commanders in Montenegro, Major Đorđije Lašić and Captain Pavle Đurišić, outlined, among other things, the cleansing of non-Serb populations in order to create a Greater Serbia:


title: Chetniks

text: The authenticity of the directive is disputed. Some have attributed the directive as having come from Mihailović. Others have claimed that there is no original and that it may have been a forgery made by Đurišić to suit his purposes. Mihailović's headquarters sent further instructions to the commander of the Second Sarajevo Chetnik Brigade clarifying the goal: "It should be made clear to everyone that, after the war or when the time becomes appropriate, we will complete our task and that no one except the Serbs will be left in Serbian lands. Explain this to [our] people and ensure that they make this their priority. You cannot put this in writing or announce it publicly, because the Turks [Muslims] would hear about it too, and this must not be spread around by word of mouth."


title: Chetniks

text: The Chetniks systemically massacred Muslims in villages that they captured. In late autumn of 1941 the Italians handed over the towns of Višegrad, Goražde, Foča and the surrounding areas, in south-east Bosnia to the Chetniks to run as a puppet administration and NDH forces were compelled by the Italians to withdraw from there. After the Chetniks gained control of Goražde on 29 November 1941, they began a massacre of Home Guard prisoners and NDH officials that became a systematic massacre of the local Muslim civilian population, with several hundred murdered and their bodies left hanging in the town or thrown into the Drina river. On 5 December 1941, the Chetniks received the town of Foča from the Italians and proceeded to massacre around five hundred Muslims. In August 1942, detachments under command of Zaharije Ostojić killed at least 2,000 Muslims in Čajniče and Foča area. Since the spring of 1942 in certain military actions of Chetniks and Italians in Lika, northern Dalmatia, Gorski kotar and Kordun, killings are becoming more frequent while villages were looted and burned. The most victims were NOP activists and their families, while population of that area was intimidated, especially Serbs. Momčilo Đujić in 1942 proclamation for the population of Lika and western Bosnia ordered all Chetnik units to ""occupy all villages and towns and take all power into their hands"", threatening to ""destroy all settlements to the ground"" if they resist regardless of whether these settlements are Croatian or Serbian. Additional massacres against the Muslims in the area of Foča took place in August 1942. In total, over two thousand people were killed in Foča.


title: Chetniks

text: In early January, the Chetniks entered Srebrenica and killed around a thousand Muslim civilians in the town and in nearby villages. Around the same time the Chetniks made their way to Višegrad where deaths were reportedly in the thousands. Massacres continued in the following months in the region. In the village of Žepa alone about three hundred were killed in late 1941. In early January, Chetniks massacred fifty-four Muslims in Čelebić and burned down the village. On 3 March, a contingent of Chetniks burned forty-two Muslim villagers to death in Drakan.


title: Chetniks

text: In early January 1943 and again in early February, Montenegrin Chetnik units were ordered to carry out "cleansing actions" against Muslims, first in the Bijelo Polje county in Sandžak and then in February in the Čajniče county and part of Foča county in southeastern Bosnia, and in part of the Pljevlja county in Sandžak. On 10 January 1943, Pavle Đurišić, the Chetnik officer in charge of these operations, submitted a report to Mihailović, Chief of Staff of the Supreme Command. His report included the results of these "cleansing operations", which according to Tomasevich, were that "thirty-three Muslim villages had been burned down, and 400 Muslim fighters (members of the Muslim self-protection militia supported by the Italians) and about 1,000 women and children had been killed, as against 14 Chetnik dead and 26 wounded".


title: Chetniks

text: In another report sent by Đurišić dated 13 February 1943, he reported that: "Chetniks killed about 1,200 Muslim fighters and about 8,000 old people, women, and children; Chetnik losses in the action were 22 killed and 32 wounded". He added that "during the operation the total destruction of the Muslim inhabitants was carried out regardless of sex and age". The total number of deaths in anti-Muslim operations between January and February 1943 is estimated at 10,000. The casualty rate would have been higher had not a great number of Muslims already fled, most to Sarajevo, when the February action began.


title: Chetniks

text: According to a statement from the Chetnik Supreme Command from 24 February 1943, these were countermeasures taken against Muslim aggressive activities; however, all circumstances show that these massacres were committed in accordance with implementing the directive of 20 December 1941. In March 1943, Mihailović listed the Chetnik action in Sandžak as one of his successes noting they had "liquidated all Muslims in the villages except those in the small towns".


title: Chetniks

text: Actions against Croats were smaller in scale but similar in action. In the summer of 1941, Trubar, Bosansko Grahovo and Krnjeuša were the sites of the first massacres and other attacks against ethnic Croats in the southwestern Bosnian Krajina. Throughout August and September 1942, Chetniks, under the command of Petar Baćović, intensified their actions against local Croats across the hinterland areas of southern Dalmatia. On 29 August, Chetniks killed between 141 and 160 Croats from several villages in the Zabiokovlje, Biokovo and Cetina areas while participating in the Italian anti-Partisan "Operation Albia". From the end of August, into early September 1942, Chetniks destroyed 17 Croatian villages and killed 900 Croats around the town of Makarska.


title: Chetniks

text: In early October 1942 in the village of Gata near Split, an estimated one hundred people were killed and many homes burnt purportedly as reprisal for the destruction of some roads in the area and carried out on the Italians' account. In that same October, formations under the command of Petar Baćović and Dobroslav Jevđević, who were participating in the Italian Operation Alfa in the area of Prozor, massacred a minimum of five hundred Croats and Muslims and burnt numerous villages. Baćović noted that "Our Chetniks killed all men 15 years of age or older. ... Seventeen villages were burned to the ground." Mario Roatta, commander of the Italian Second Army, objected to these "massive slaughters" of noncombatant civilians and threatened to halt Italian aid to the Chetniks if they did not end.


title: Chetniks

text: Croatian historian Vladimir Žerjavić initially estimated the number of Muslims and Croats killed by the Chetniks as 65,000 (33,000 Muslims and 32,000 Croats; both combatants and civilians). In 1997, he revised this figure down to 47,000 dead (29,000 Muslims and 18,000 Croats). According to Vladimir Geiger of the Croatian Institute of History, Zdravko Dizdar, a historian, estimates Chetniks killed a total of 50,000 Croats and Muslims – mostly civilians – between 1941 and 1945. According to Ramet, the Chetniks completely destroyed 300 villages and small towns and a large number of mosques and Catholic churches. Some historians contend that during this period genocide was committed against Muslims and Croats.


title: Chetniks

text: The Partisans were also targets of terror tactics. In the Territory of the Military Commander in Serbia, apart from a few terrorist acts against Nedić's and Ljotić's men, and in Montenegro against separatists, terror was directed solely against the Partisans, their families and sympathizers, on ideological grounds. The goal was the complete destruction of the Partisans. The Chetniks created lists of individuals that were to be liquidated and special units known as "black trojkas" were trained to carry out these acts of terror. During the summer of 1942, using names supplied by Mihailović, lists of individual Nedić and Ljotić supporters to be assassinated or threatened were broadcast over BBC radio during news programming in Serbo-Croatian. Once the British discovered this, the broadcasts were halted, although this did not prevent the Chetniks from continuing to carry out assassinations.


title: Chetniks

text: To gather intelligence, official intelligence missions of the western Allies were sent into both the Partisans and the Chetniks. The intelligence gathered by liaisons were crucial to the success of supply missions and was the primary influence on Allied strategy in Yugoslavia. The search for intelligence ultimately resulted in the demise of the Chetniks and their eclipse by the Partisans. The head of British mission Colonel Bailey was instrumental for wrecking the position of Mihailović with British side.


title: Chetniks

text: The Germans were executing Case Black, one of a series of offensives aimed at the resistance fighters, when F.W.D. Deakin was sent by the British to gather information. His reports contained two important observations. The first was that the Partisans were courageous and aggressive in battling the German 1st Mountain and 104th Light Division, had suffered significant casualties, and required support. The second observation was that the entire German 1st Mountain Division had transited from Russia on rail lines through Chetnik-controlled territory. British intercepts of German message traffic confirmed Chetnik timidity.


title: Chetniks

text: All in all, intelligence reports resulted in increased Allied interest in Yugoslavia air operations, and a shift in policy. In September 1943, British policy dictated equal aid to the Chetniks and Partisans, but by December, relations between the Chetniks and British soured after Chetniks refused to obey orders to sabotage the Germans without the guarantee of an Allied landing in the Balkans. Over time British support moved away from the Chetniks, who refused to stop collaborating with the Italians and Germans instead of fighting them, towards the Partisans, who were eager to increase their anti-Axis activity.


title: Chetniks

text: After the Tehran Conference, the Partisans received official recognition as the legitimate national liberation force by the Allies, who subsequently set up the Balkan Air Force (under the influence and suggestion of Brigadier Fitzroy Maclean) with the aim to provide increased supplies and tactical air support for the Partisans. In February 1944, Mihailovic's Chetniks failed to fulfill British demands to demolish key bridges over the Morava and Ibar rivers, causing the British to withdraw their liaisons and halt supplying the Chetniks. Although British support for the Chetniks ceased, the Americans were less than enthusiastic about British abandonment of the anti-communist Chetniks. As support shifted towards the Partisans, Mihailović's Chetniks attempted to recommence Allied support for the Chetniks by displaying their eagerness to help the Allies. This eagerness to help was put into practice when the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) approached Mihailovic's Chetniks in mid 1944 to organise the airlift of downed US airmen. This operation known as the Halyard Mission resulted in the rescue of 417 US airmen that were previously kept safe by Mihailovic's Chetniks. Mihailović later received the Legion of Merit from US President Harry S. Truman for the rescue of Allied pilots.


title: Chetniks

text: On 14 August 1944, the Tito-Šubašić agreement between Partisans and the Government in exile was signed on the island of Vis. The document called on all Croats, Slovenes, and Serbs to join the Partisans. Mihailović and the Chetniks refused to accept the Royal Government's agreement and continued to engage the Partisans, by now the official Yugoslav Allied force. Consequently, on 29 August 1944, King Peter II dismissed Mihailović as Chief-of-Staff of the Yugoslav Army and on 12 September appointed Marshal Josip Broz Tito in his place. On 6 October 1944, the Nedić government transferred the Serbian State Guard to Mihailović's command, although cooperation proved impossible and they separated in January 1945 while in Bosnia.


title: Chetniks

text: In September 1944, the Soviets invaded and occupied Romania and Bulgaria, removing them from the war and putting Soviet forces on the borders of Yugoslavia. The Chetniks were not unprepared for this, and throughout the war their propaganda strove to harness the pro-Russian and pan-Slavic sympathies of the majority of the Serb population. The distinction between the Russian people and their communist government was belaboured, as was the supposed difference between Yugoslav Partisans, who were allegedly Trotskyists, and the Soviets, who were Stalinists.


title: Chetniks

text: On 10 September 1944, a Chetnik mission of approximately 150 men, led by Lieutenant Colonel Velimir Piletić, commander of northeastern Serbia, crossed the Danube into Romania and established contact with Soviet forces at Craiova. Their main purpose, according to the memoirs of one of them, Lt. Col. Miodrag Ratković, was to establish Soviet agreement to certain political goals: a cessation of the civil war through Soviet mediation, free elections supervised by the Allied powers and the postponement of any war-related trials until after elections. Before the mission could go on to Bucharest, where the American and British military missions were, they were denounced by one of Piletić's aides as British spies and arrested by the Soviets on 1 October.


title: Chetniks

text: Although the Chetniks believed they could fight as allies of the Soviets at the same time as they fought the Partisans, they did manage some local cooperation with the former while antagonising the Germans. In a circular of 5 October, Mihailović wrote: "We consider the Russians as our allies. The struggle against Tito's forces in Serbia will be continued." The Germans were aware of the Chetniks' disposition through radio intercepts, and their intelligence reported on 19 October that "the Chetniks have never been prepared by Draža Mihailović through appropriate propaganda for a fighting encounter with the Russians. Draža Mihailović has on the contrary upheld the fiction that the Russians as allies of the Americans and the British will never act against the interests of the Serbian nationalists."


title: Chetniks

text: The commander of a group of the Shock Corps, Lt. Col. Keserović, was the first Chetnik officer to cooperate with the Soviets. In mid-October his troops met Soviet forces advancing into central eastern Serbia from Bulgaria and together they captured the town of Kruševac, the Soviets leaving Keserović in charge of the town. Within three days, Keserović was warning his fellow commanders that the Russians were only talking with the Partisans and disarming the Chetniks. Keserović reported to Supreme Command on 19 October that his delegate to the Soviet division had returned with a message ordering his men to be disarmed and incorporated in the Partisan armed forces by 18 October.


title: Chetniks

text: Another Chetnik commander to cooperate with the Soviets was Captain Predrag Raković of the Second Ravna Gora Corps, whose men participated in the capture of Čačak, where they captured 339 soldiers of the "Russisches Schutzkorps Serbien" (whom they turned over to the Soviets). Raković apparently had a written agreement with the local Soviet commander, placing himself and his men under Soviet command in return for recognition that they were Mihailović's men. After a protest from Tito to Marshal Fyodor Tolbukhin, commander of the front, Keserović's and Raković's cooperation came to an end. By 11 November the latter had gone into hiding and his forces had fled west to avoid being disarmed and placed under Partisan control.


title: Chetniks

text: Finally, in April and May 1945, as the victorious Partisans took possession of the country's territory, many Chetniks retreated toward Italy and a smaller group toward Austria. Many were captured by the Partisans or returned to Yugoslavia by British forces while a number were killed in the Bleiburg repatriations. Some were tried for treason and were sentenced to prison terms or death. Many were summarily executed, especially in the first months after the end of the war. Mihailović and his few remaining followers tried to fight their way back to the Ravna Gora, but he was captured by Partisan forces. In March 1946, Mihailović was brought to Belgrade, where he was tried and executed on charges of treason in July. During the closing years of World War II, many Chetniks defected from their units, as the Partisan commander-in-chief, Marshal Josip Broz Tito, proclaimed a general amnesty to all defecting forces for a time. After the end of WWII Yugoslav authority undertook radical actions to destroy remaining Chetnik groups, especially in Lika area. One of the radical methods was forced displacement of Serbs from the area of Gospić, Plaški, Donji Lapac and Gračac. Chetnik attacks on villages were recorded in June 1945, as it were attack on Dobroselo. The main part of the Chetniks was located in the area of Lapac while in the winter of 1946 actions were organized against them which testifies about the seriousness of the Chetnik threat.


title: Chetniks

text: After the end of World War II, the Chetniks were banned in the new Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. On 29 November 1945, King Peter II was deposed by the Yugoslav Constituent Assembly after an overwhelming referendum result. Chetnik leaders either escaped the country or were arrested by the authorities. On 13 March 1946, Mihailović was captured by OZNA, the Yugoslav security agency. He was put on trial, found guilty of high treason against Yugoslavia, sentenced to death and then executed by firing squad on 17 July.


title: Chetniks

text: In 1947, Đujić was tried and sentenced "in absentia" for war crimes by Yugoslavia. He was declared a war criminal who as commander of the Dinara Division was responsible for organizing and carrying out a series of mass murders, massacres, tortures, rapes, robberies, and imprisonments, and collaborating with the German and Italian occupiers. He was accused of being responsible for the deaths of 1,500 people during the war.


title: Chetniks

text: Following his arrival in the United States, Đujić and his fighters played a role in the foundation of the Ravna Gora Movement of Serbian Chetniks. Other Chetniks factions found their way to the midwestern United States and to Australia.


title: Chetniks

text: According to Denis Bećirović after the war state structures of Yugoslavia, including Bosnia and Herzegovina, considered most Serbian Orthodox priests as potential or real enemies of the state. The negative attitude of the Communist Party of Yugoslavia towards the Serbian Orthodox Church was also influenced by the fact that some priests during the war supported Chetnik movement. In documents of the Commission for Religious Affairs states that ""most priests during the war supported and cooperated with Draža Mihailović's movement; that they protected and maintained contact with war criminals; and that they appointed persons in the administration of church institutions who were convicted of collaborating with the occupier"."


title: Chetniks

text: In January 1951, the Yugoslav government charged 16 individuals that were Chetnik in orientation with being part of a conspiracy that plotted to overthrow the government and reinstate King Petar with French and American military intelligence assistance. Of the charged, 15 were sentenced to long prison sentences and one was sentenced to death. On 12 January 1952, the government reported four or five Chetnik "brigades" numbering around 400 men each still existed and were at the borders of Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, and Albania, and in Montenegrin forests, attacking meetings of the communist party and police buildings. As late as November 1952, small Chetnik groups operated in mountains and forests around Kalinovik and Trnovo. Trials of wartime Chetniks carried on until 1957.


title: Chetniks

text: In 1957, Blagoje Jovović along with other former Chetniks living in Argentina received a tip off from an ex-Italian general as to the whereabouts of Ante Pavelić, former Poglavnik of the NDH who was hiding in Argentina. At the time Pavelić had escaped to Argentina with the help from members of the Catholic clergy via the escape route known as the ratlines. Jovović and other Chetniks put into action an assassination plan and on 10 April 1957, Jovović was able to track down Pavelić. Pavelić survived the assassination attempt after receiving two gunshot wounds, only to succumb to injuries and die two years later on 28 December 1959.


title: Chetniks

text: In 1975, Nikola Kavaja, a diaspora Chetnik-sympathizer living in Chicago and belonging to the Serbian National Defense Council (SNDC), was, at his own initiative, responsible for bombing a Yugoslav consul's home, the first in a series of attacks targeting the Yugoslav state in the United States and Canada. He and his co-conspirators were captured in a sting set up by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and convicted for terrorism for the incident and for planning to bomb two Yugoslav receptions on Yugoslavia's Republic Day. Later that year, during his flight to receive his sentence, he hijacked the American Airlines Flight 293 with the intention of crashing the plane into Tito's Belgrade headquarters, but was dissuaded; he ultimately received a 67-year prison sentence.


title: Chetniks

text: After Slobodan Milošević's assumption of power in 1989 various Chetnik groups made a "comeback" and his regime "made a decisive contribution to launching the Chetnik insurrection in 1990–1992 and to funding it thereafter". Chetnik ideology was influenced by the memorandum of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts. On 28 June 1989, the 600th anniversary of the Battle of Kosovo, Serbs in north Dalmatia, Knin, Obrovac, and Benkovac where there were "old Chetnik strongholds", held the first anti-Croatian government demonstrations.


title: Chetniks

text: On the same day, Momčilo Đujić declared Vojislav Šešelj "at once assumes the role of a Chetnik vojvoda" and ordered him "to expel all Croats, Albanians, and other foreign elements from holy Serbian soil", stating he would return only when Serbia was cleansed of "the last Jew, Albanian, and Croat". The Serbian Orthodox Church began the procession of the reliquary of Prince Lazar, who participated in the Battle of Kosovo and was canonized, and in the summer it reached the Zvornik-Tuzla eparchy in Bosnia and Herzegovina where there was a feeling of "historic tragedy of the Serb people, which is experiencing a new Kosovo" accompanied by nationalist declarations and Chetnik iconography.


title: Chetniks

text: Later that year, Vojislav Šešelj, Vuk Drašković, and Mirko Jović formed the Serbian National Renewal (SNO), a Chetnik party. In March 1990, Drašković and Šešelj splintered to form a separate Chetnik party, the Serbian Renewal Movement (SPO). On 18 June 1990, Šešelj organized the Serbian Chetnik Movement (SČP) though it wasn't permitted official registration due to its obvious Chetnik identification. On 23 February 1991, it merged with the National Radical Party (NRS), establishing the Serbian Radical Party (SRS) with Šešelj as president and Tomislav Nikolić as vice president. It was a Chetnik party, oriented towards neo-fascism with a striving for the territorial expansion of Serbia. In July 1991, Serb-Croat clashes broke out in Croatia and rallies were held in the Ravna Gora mountains with chants in favor of war and recollected "glories" of Chetnik massacres of Croats and Muslims during World War II. The SPO held many rallies at Ravna Gora


title: Chetniks

text: During the Yugoslav Wars, many Serb paramilitaries styled themselves as Chetniks. The SRS's military wing was known as "Chetniks" and received weaponry from the Yugoslav People's Army (JNA) and Serbian police. Šešelj personally helped arm Serbs in Croatia and recruited volunteers in Serbia and Montenegro, sending 5,000 men to Croatia and up to 30,000 to Bosnia and Herzegovina. According to Šešelj "the Chetniks never acted outside the umbrella of the Yugoslav People's Army and the Serbian police". Željko Ražnatović, a self-styled Chetnik, led a Chetnik force called the Serb Volunteer Guard (SDG), established on 11 October 1990. The SDG was connected to the Serbian Ministry of Interior, operated under JNA command, and reported directly to Milošević. It had between 1,000 and 1,500 men. Jović, at the time the Serbian Minister of the Interior, organized the youth wing of the SNO into the White Eagles, a paramilitary closely based on the World War II Chetnik movement, and called for "a Christian, Orthodox Serbia with no Muslims and no unbelievers." It came to be associated with the SRS though Šešelj denied the connection.


title: Chetniks

text: Both the White Eagles and SDG received instructions from the Yugoslav Counterintelligence Service. In September–October 1991, the Ozren Chetniks were established to "carry on the 'best' Chetnik traditions of the Second World War". A paramilitary group called the Chetnik Avengers also existed and was led by Milan Lukić who later took command of the White Eagles. A Chetnik unit led by Slavko Aleksić operated under the command of the Army of Republika Srpska. In 1991 it fought in the Krajina area of Croatia and in 1992 around Sarajevo in Bosnia and Herzegovina.


title: Chetniks

text: Milošević and Radovan Karadžić, the president of the self-proclaimed Republika Srpska, used the subordinate Chetnik forces of Šešelj and Ražnatović as part of their plan to expel non-Serbs and form a Greater Serbia through the use of ethnic cleansing, terror, and demoralization. Šešelj's and Ražnatović's formations acted as "autonomous" groups in the RAM Plan which sought to organize Serbs outside Serbia, consolidate control of the Serbian Democratic Parties (SDS), and prepare arms and ammunition in an effort to establish a country where "all Serbs with their territories would live together in the same state." According to historian Noel Malcolm the "steps taken by Karadžić and his party – [declaring Serb] "Autonomous Regions", the arming of the Serb population, minor local incidents, non-stop propaganda, the request for federal army "protection" – matched exactly what had been done in Croatia. Few observers could doubt that a single plan was in operation."


title: Chetniks

text: Chetnik units engaged in mass murders and war crimes. In 1991, the Croatian town of Erdut was forcefully taken over by the SDG and JNA and annexed to the puppet state of Republic of Serbian Krajina. Croats and other non-Serbs were either expelled or killed with Serbs repopulating empty villages in the area. On 1 April 1992, the SDG attacked Bijeljina and carried out a massacre of Muslim civilians. On 4 April, Chetnik irregulars helped the JNA in shelling Sarajevo. On 6 April, Chetniks and the JNA attacked Bijeljina, Foča, Bratunac, and Višegrad. On 9 April, the SDG and Šešelj's Chetniks aided the JNA and special units of the Serbian security force in overtaking Zvornik and ridding it of its local Muslim population.


title: Chetniks

text: Reports sent by Ražnatović to Milošević, Ratko Mladić, and Blagoje Adžić stated the plan was progressing, noting that the psychological attack on the Bosniak population in Bosnia and Herzegovina was effective and should continue. Chetnik forces also engaged in mass murder in Vukovar and Srebrenica. The White Eagles were responsible for massacres in Voćin, Višegrad, Foča, Sjeverin, and Štrpci, and for terrorizing the Muslim population in Sandžak. In September 1992, Chetniks attempted to force Sandžak Muslims in Pljevlja to flee by demolishing their stores and houses whilst shouting "Turks leave" and "this is Serbia". By mid-1993, they suffered over a hundred bombings, kidnappings, expulsions, and shootings. The SPO threatened Muslims with expulsion when reacting to requests for autonomy in Sandžak.


title: Chetniks

text: On 15 May 1993, Šešelj proclaimed eighteen Chetnik fighters as vojvodas, naming towns that were cleansed of non-Serbs in their citation, and they were blessed by an Orthodox priest afterwards. Šešelj came to be described as "a man whose killer commando units operating in Croatia and Bosnia carried on the very worst of the Chetnik tradition."


title: Chetniks

text: Later the SRS became a government coalition partner of Milosević and in 1998, Đujić publicly stated that he regretted awarding that title to Šešelj. He was quoted as saying, "I was naïve when I nominated Šešelj [as] Vojvoda; I ask my people to forgive me. The greatest gravedigger of Serbdom is Slobodan Milošević" and that he is "disappointed in Šešelj for openly collaborating with Milošević's Socialist Party, with Communists who have only changed their name. ... Šešelj has sullied the reputation of Chetniks and Serbian nationalism." In 2000, Ražnatović was assassinated before facing prosecution by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY). In 2003, Šešelj surrendered himself to the ICTY to face war crimes charges and was acquitted in 2016.


title: Chetniks

text: Nikolić, whom Šešelj had, in 1993, proclaimed vojvoda and awarded the Order of Chetnik Knights for his subordinates' "personal courage in defending the fatherland", took over the SRS. He vowed to pursue a Greater Serbia "through peaceful means". In 2008, Lukić was sentenced to life imprisonment for crimes against humanity and war crimes.


title: Chetniks

text: The British journalist Misha Glenny, author of "The Fall of Yugoslavia", stated that the revival of the Serb nationalists in Yugoslavia in the 1990s was one of the most ""hideous and frightening aspects of the fall of communism in Serbia and Yugoslavia"" and ""this breed, which finds nurture in the perpetration of unspeakable acts of brutality, encapsulates all that is irrational and unacceptable in Balkan society.""


title: Chetniks

text: In the 1980s, Serbian historians initiated the process of reexamining the narrative of how World War II was told in Yugoslavia, which was accompanied by the rehabilitation of Chetnik leader Draža Mihailović. Being preoccupied with the era, Serbian historians have looked to vindicate Chetnik history by portraying Chetniks as righteous freedom fighters battling the Nazis while removing from history books the ambiguous alliances with the Italians and Germans. Whereas the crimes committed by Chetniks against Croats and Muslims in Serbian historiography are overall "cloaked in silence".


title: Chetniks

text: In Serbia there has been a revival of Chetnik movement. Since the early 1990s, the SPO has annually held the "Ravna Gora Parliament" and in 2005 it was organized with state funding for the first time. Croatian president Stjepan Mesić later cancelled a planned visit to Serbia as it coincided with the gathering. People who attend the Parliament wear Chetnik iconography and T-shirts with the image of Mihailović or of Mladić, who is on trial at the ICTY on charges of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes. The SRS headed by Nikolić, still in favor of a Greater Serbia and rooted in the Chetnik movement, won the 2003 elections with 27.7 percent and gained 82 seats of the 250 available. In 2005, Patriarch Pavle of the Serbian Orthodox Church backed the SRS. It later won the 2007 elections with 28.7 percent of the vote. In 2008, Nikolić split with SRS over the issue of cooperation with the European Union and formed the Serbian Progressive Party.


title: Chetniks

text: Serbian textbooks have contained historical revisionism of the Chetnik role in World War II since the 1990s. Reinterpretation and revisionism has focused primarily on three areas: Chetnik-Partisan relations, Axis collaboration, and crimes against civilians. The 2002 Serbian textbook intended for the final years of high schools hailed Chetniks as national patriots, minimized the Partisan movement, and resulted in protests from historians who viewed the work as dubious. It contained no mention of Chetnik collaboration or of atrocities committed by Chetniks on non-Serbs. Chetniks that killed individuals who cooperated with communists were said to have been renegades. The Chetniks were referred to as "the core of the Serb civic resistance" and "contrary to the communists, who wanted to split up the Serb ethnic space, sought to expand Serbia by incorporating Montenegro, the whole of Bosnia-Herzegovina, part of Dalmatia including Dubrovnik and Zadar, the whole Srem, including Vukovar, Vinkovi, and Dalj, Kosovo and Metohija, and South Serbia (Macedonia)", and were portrayed as betrayed by the Western Allies. The Chetnik movement is claimed to be the sole one with "Serb national interests" and their defeat was equated with the defeat of Serbia, stating in bold that: "In the Second World War, the Serbian citizenry was destroyed, the national movement shattered, and the intelligentsia demolished." After public criticism, the 2006 textbook for the final year of elementary school mentioned collaboration, but attempted to justify it and stated all factions of the war collaborated.


title: Chetniks

text: In March 2004, the National Assembly of Serbia passed a new law that equalized the Chetniks and Partisans as equivalent anti-fascists. The vote was 176 for, 24 against and 4 abstained. Vojislav Mihailović, the Vice President of the Serbian Parliament and grandson of Draža Mihailović, stated it was "late, but it provides satisfaction to a good portion of Serbia, their descendants. They will not get financial resources, but will have the satisfaction that their grandfathers, fathers, were true fighters for a free Serbia." Partisan war veterans' associations criticized the law and stated that Serbia was "the first country in Europe to declare a quisling movement as being liberating and anti-fascist." In 2009, Serbian courts rehabilitated one of the chief Chetnik ideologues Dragiša Vasić. In September 2012, the Constitutional Court of Serbia declared the 2004 law unconstitutional stating Chetnik veterans were not permitted an allowance and medical assistance while still maintaining their rights to a pension and rehabilitation. According to Goran Marković, today's revisionists see the Chetnik movement as anti-fascist although in November 1941 this movement began collaborating with the occupiers and other quislings, it actually means that in 1941 we had an anti-fascist movement which refused to fight against fascism and collaborated with fascism.


title: Chetniks

text: The Serbian basketball player Milan Gurović has a tattoo of Mihailović on his left arm which has resulted in a ban since 2004 in playing in Croatia where it is "considered an incitement ... of racial, national or religious hatred". Later Bosnia and Herzegovina and Turkey enacted such a ban. Serbian rock musician and poet Bora Đorđević, leader of the highly popular rock band Riblja Čorba, is also a self-declared Chetnik, but calling it a "national movement that is much older than the WWII", and adding that he does not hate other nations and has never been a member of the SRS nor advocated Greater Serbia.


title: Chetniks

text: In May 2002, plans were prepared for a "Montenegrin Ravna Gora" memorial complex to be located near Berane. The complex was to be dedicated to Đurišić, who not only spent some of his youth at Berane but had also established his wartime headquarters there. In June 2003, Vesna Kilibarda, the Montenegrin Minister of Culture, banned the construction of the monument saying that the Ministry of Culture had not applied for approval to erect it.


title: Chetniks

text: The Association of War Veterans of the National Liberation Army (SUBNOR) objected to the construction of the monument saying that Đurišić was a war criminal who was responsible for the deaths of many colleagues of the veterans association and 7,000 Muslims. The association was also concerned about the organizations that backed the construction including the Serbian Orthodox Church and its Montenegrin wing which is led by Metropolitan Amfilohije. The Muslim Association of Montenegro condemned the construction and stated that "this is an attempt to rehabilitate him and it is a great insult to the children of the innocent victims and the Muslim people in Montenegro." On 4 July, the Montenegrin government forbade the unveiling of the monument stating that it "caused public concern, encouraged division among the citizens of Montenegro, and incited national and religious hatred and intolerance." A press release from the committee in charge of the construction of the monument stated that the actions taken by the government were "absolutely illegal and inappropriate". On 7 July, the stand that was prepared for the erection of the monument was removed by the police.


title: Chetniks

text: In 2011, the Montenegrin Serb political party New Serb Democracy (NOVA) renewed efforts for a monument to be built and stated that Đurišić and other royal Yugoslav officers were "leaders of the 13 July uprising" and that they "continued their struggle to liberate the country under the leadership of King Peter and the Government of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia."


title: Chetniks

text: On 22 July 1996, the Republika Srpska entity of Bosnia and Herzegovina created a veteran rights law that explicitly covered former Chetniks, but did not include former Partisans.


title: Chetniks

text: During the Bosnian War, the main traffic road in Brčko was renamed the "Boulevard of General Draža Mihailović" and on 8 September 1997 a statue of Mihailović was established in the town's center. In 2000, the street was renamed the "Boulevard of Peace" and in 2004, after lobbying by Bosniak returnees and intervention from the Office of the High Representative, the statue was moved to an Orthodox cemetery located at the outskirts of Brčko. It was removed on 20 October 2005 and on 18 August 2013 unveiled in Višegrad.


title: Chetniks

text: In May 1998, the Chetnik Ravna Gora Movement of Republika Srpska was founded and proclaimed itself the military branch of the SDS and the SRS. In April 1998, the "key date in its recent history" occurred when Šešelj had held a speech for a gathering in Brčko with representatives from the SDS, the SRS, the Serb National Alliance (SNS), the Assembly of Serb Sisters of Mother Jevrosima, the High Council of Chetnik Veterans of Republika Srpska, and the Chetnik Ravna Gora Movement of Serbia in attendance. In April 1999 it was legally registered and later renamed the Serb National Homeland Movement. Important individuals in its beginnings included: Karadžić, Mladić, Nikola Poplašen, Dragan Čavić, Mirko Banjac, Mirko Blagojević, Velibor Ostojić, Vojo Maksimović and Božidar Vučurević. It operated in fourteen regions where members work in "trojkas" and infiltrate various civilian organisations. On 5 May 2001, it disrupted cornerstone laying ceremonies for the destroyed Omer Pasha Mosque in Trebinje and on 7 May for the destroyed Ferhat Pasha Mosque in Banja Luka. The Bosnian magazine "Dani" linked to the "Oslobođenje" newspapers, claimed that the "international community" and the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe designated it a terrorist and pro-fascist organization. In 2005, United States president George W. Bush issued an executive order and its US assets were, among other organizations, frozen for obstructing the Dayton Agreement.


title: Chetniks

text: On 12 July 2007, a day after the 12th anniversary of the Srebrenica massacre and the burial of a further 465 victims, a group of men dressed in Chetnik uniforms marched the streets of Srebrenica. They all wore badges of military units which committed the massacre in July 1995. On 11 July 2009, after the burial of 543 victims in Srebrenica, members of the Ravna Gora Chetnik movement desecrated the flag of Bosnia and Herzegovina, marched in the streets wearing T-shirts with the face of Mladić and sang Chetnik songs. A group of men and women associated with the Serbian far-right group Obraz "chanted insults directed towards the victims and in support of the Chetnik movement, calling for eradication of Islam." A full report of the incident was submitted to the local District Prosecutor's Office but no one has been prosecuted. The Social Democratic Party of Bosnia and Herzegovina has been campaigning for a creation of a law that would ban the group within Bosnia.


title: Chetniks

text: Milorad Pupovac of the Independent Democratic Serb Party in Croatia (the present-day leader of Serbs of Croatia and member of the Parliament of Croatia), described the organization as "fascist collaborators".


title: Chetniks

text: Serbian-Americans set up a monument dedicated to Pavle Đurišić at the Serbian cemetery in Libertyville, Illinois. The management and players of the football club Red Star Belgrade visited it on 23 May 2010.


title: Chetniks

text: In March 2014, Serb volunteers calling themselves Chetniks, led by Serbian ultra-nationalist Bratislav Živković, travelled to Sevastopol in Crimea to support the pro-Russian side in the Crimean crisis. They spoke of "common Slavic blood and Orthodox faith", cited similarities with the Cossacks, and claimed to be returning the favour of Russian volunteers who fought on the Serbian side of the Yugoslav Wars. Participating in the ongoing fighting in eastern Ukraine since its inception in early 2014, it was reported in August 2014 that Chetniks killed 23 Ukrainian soldiers and took out a "significant amount of armored vehicles" during clashes with the Ukrainian army. Most of the sympathisers are from Serbia, Serb-inhabited areas of Montenegro and Bosnia-Herzegovina and according to Ukrainian sources, they killed hundreds of Ukrainians during the war. According to Serb paramilitary fighter in Ukraine, Milutin Malisic, who was a former fighter in Kosovo, he stated that "Serbs have a responsibility to their Orthodox Brethren."


title: Chetniks

text: According to Belgrade-based security expert Zoran Dragišić, it is indoctrination that draws young Serbian people, some of them almost children, to join the war. A 2014 law in Serbia denounces war tourism among Serb nationals as illegal and in 2018, Serb paramilitary chief Bratislav Zivkovic was arrested in Serbia for having joined the separatist movement in Ukraine. Zivkovic was banned from Romania for 15 years in 2017 after having spied on NATO-bases in 2017.


title: Chetniks

text: In June 2018, Ukraine's General Prosecutor's Office launched an investigation into 54 suspected members of a pro-Russian foreign legion. Among the suspects were six Serbs, who later fought in Syria, taking part in attacks on Ukrainian troops in the eastern part of the country in 2014. Former special police spokesperson Radomir Počuča posted regular videos, photos and Esther entries on Facebook. Ukrainian ambassador in Serbia Oleksandr Aleksandrovych stated in November 2017 that Serbia was not doing enough to stop Serb nationals from fighting in eastern Ukraine. Aleksandrovych stated that roughly 300 Serbs were operating in Ukraine, and he stated that Serb tourists would be halted at the border, and if acting suspicious, would be arrested since they were "there to kill Ukrainians". Kyiv then warned Belgrade. Serbian Foreign Minister Ivica Dačić insisted that Serbia respect Ukraine's territorial integrity.


title: Chetniks

text: The term "Chetnik" is sometimes used as a derogatory term for a Serbian nationalist or an ethnic Serb in general. According to Jasminka Udovički, during the Croatian War of Independence, the Croatian media referred to Serbs as "bearded Chetnik hordes", "terrorists and conspirators" and a "people ill inclined to democracy". Demonizing "Serbo-Chetnik terrorists" became a main preoccupation. During the Bosnian War, the term found usage in the ethnic-centered propaganda war waged by the combatants, and thus, for the Bosnian side, it was increasingly used to refer to the enemy as a villain, imagined as "primitive, untidy, long-haired and bearded".


title: Frankenstein (1931 film)

text: Frankenstein is a 1931 American pre-Code science fiction horror film directed by James Whale, produced by Carl Laemmle Jr., and adapted from a 1927 play by Peggy Webling, which in turn was based on Mary Shelley's 1818 novel "Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus". The Webling play was adapted by John L. Balderston and the screenplay written by Francis Edward Faragoh and Garrett Fort, with uncredited contributions from Robert Florey and John Russell.


title: Frankenstein (1931 film)

text: "Frankenstein" stars Colin Clive as Henry Frankenstein, an obsessed scientist who digs up corpses with his assistant in order to assemble a living being from body parts. The resulting creature, often known as Frankenstein's monster, is portrayed by Boris Karloff. The make-up for the monster was provided by Jack Pierce. Alongside Clive and Karloff, the film's cast also includes Mae Clarke, John Boles, Dwight Frye, and Edward Van Sloan.


title: Frankenstein (1931 film)

text: Produced and distributed by Universal Pictures, the film was a commercial success upon release, and was generally well received by both critics and audiences. It spawned a number of sequels and spin-offs, and has had a significant impact on popular culture: the imagery of a maniacal "mad" scientist with a subservient hunchbacked assistant and the film's depiction of Frankenstein's monster have since become iconic. In 1991, the United States Library of Congress selected "Frankenstein" for preservation in the National Film Registry as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".


title: Frankenstein (1931 film)

text: In a village of the Bavarian Alps, Henry Frankenstein and his assistant Fritz, a hunchback, piece together a human body. Some of the parts are from freshly buried bodies, and some from the bodies of recently hanged criminals. In a laboratory he's built inside a watchtower, Henry desires to create a human, giving this body life through electrical devices. He still needs a brain for his creation. At a nearby school, Henry's former teacher Dr. Waldman shows his class the brain of an average human being and the corrupted brain of a criminal for comparison. Henry sends Fritz to steal the healthy brain from Waldman's class. Fritz accidentally damages it, and so brings Henry the corrupt brain.


title: Frankenstein (1931 film)

text: Henry's fiancée Elizabeth speaks with their friend Victor about the scientist's peculiar actions and his seclusion. Elizabeth and Victor ask Waldman for help understanding Henry's behavior, and Waldman reveals he is aware Henry wishes to create life. Concerned for Henry, they arrive at the lab just as he makes his final preparations, the lifeless body on an operating table. As a storm rages, Henry invites Elizabeth and the others to watch. Henry and Fritz raise the operating table toward an opening at the top of the tower. The creature and Henry's equipment are exposed to the lightning storm and empowered, bringing the creature to life.


title: Frankenstein (1931 film)

text: Frankenstein's Monster, despite its grotesque form, seems to be an innocent, childlike creation. Henry welcomes it into his laboratory and asks it to sit, which it does. He opens up the roof, causing the Monster to reach out towards the sunlight. Fritz enters with a flaming torch, which frightens the Monster. Its fright is mistaken by Henry and Waldman for an attempt to attack them, and it is chained in the dungeon, where Fritz antagonizes it with a torch. Hearing Fritz shriek in the dungeon, Henry and Waldman run down, finding that the Monster has strangled and hanged Fritz. The Monster lunges at the two but they lock the Monster inside. Realizing the Monster must be destroyed, Henry prepares an injection of a powerful drug and the two conspire to release the Monster and inject it as it attacks. When the door is unlocked the Monster lunges at Henry as Waldman injects the drug into the Monster's back. The Monster falls to the floor unconscious.


title: Frankenstein (1931 film)

text: Henry collapses from exhaustion, and Elizabeth and Henry's father take him home. Henry is worried about the Monster, but Waldman reassures him that he will destroy it. While Henry is at home, recovered and preparing for his wedding, Waldman examines the Monster. As he prepares to vivisect it, the Monster strangles him. It escapes from the tower and wanders through the landscape, encountering a farmer's young daughter, Maria. She asks him to play a game with her in which they toss flowers onto a lake. The Monster enjoys the game, but when they run out of flowers he throws Maria into the lake, where she disappears beneath the surface. The Monster runs away.


title: Frankenstein (1931 film)

text: With preparations for the wedding completed, Henry is happy with Elizabeth. They are to marry as soon as Waldman arrives. Victor rushes in, saying that Waldman has been found strangled. Henry suspects the Monster. The Monster enters Elizabeth's room, causing her to scream. When the searchers arrive, they find Elizabeth unconscious. The Monster has escaped.


title: Frankenstein (1931 film)

text: Maria's father arrives, carrying his drowned daughter's body. He says she was murdered, and the villagers form a search party to capture the Monster. During the search, Henry is attacked by the Monster. The Monster knocks Henry unconscious and carries him to an old mill. The peasants hear his cries and find the Monster has climbed to the top, dragging Henry with him. The Monster hurls the scientist to the ground. His fall is broken by the vanes of the windmill, saving his life. Some of the villagers bring him home while the rest of the mob set the windmill ablaze, with the Monster trapped inside.


title: Frankenstein (1931 film)

text: At Castle Frankenstein, Henry's father celebrates the wedding of his recovered son with a toast to a future grandchild.


title: Frankenstein (1931 film)

text: In 1930, Universal Studios had lost $2.2 million in revenues. Within 48 hours of its opening at New York's Roxy Theatre on February 12, 1931, "Dracula" starring Bela Lugosi had sold 50,000 tickets, building a momentum that culminated in a $700,000 profit, the largest of Universal's 1931 releases. As a result, the head of production, Carl Laemmle Jr., announced immediate plans for more horror films. It purchased the film rights to John L. Balderston's planned stage adaptation of Peggy Webling's British stage adaptation of Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley's original novel.


title: Frankenstein (1931 film)

text: Immediately following his success in "Dracula", Lugosi had hoped to play Henry Frankenstein in Universal's original film concept. However, the actor was expected by producer Carl Laemmle Jr. to play the Monster (a common move for a contract player in a film studio at the time) to keep his famous name on the bill.


title: Frankenstein (1931 film)

text: Although this is often regarded as one of the worst decisions in any actor's career, in actuality, the part that Lugosi was offered was not the same character that Karloff eventually played. The initial director was Robert Florey, who had re-characterized the Monster as a simple killing machine, without a touch of human interest or pathos, unlike in the original Shelley novel. This reportedly caused Lugosi to complain, "I was a star in my country and I will not be a scarecrow over here!" Florey later wrote that "the Hungarian actor didn't show himself very enthusiastic for the role and didn't want to play it". However, the decision may not have been Lugosi's in any case, since recent evidence suggests that he was kicked off the project, along with director Robert Florey, when the newly arrived James Whale asked for the property and later cast Karloff, who resembled Whale.


title: Frankenstein (1931 film)

text: Actors who worked on the project either were, or shortly became familiar to the fans of the Universal horror films. These included Frederick Kerr as the old Baron Frankenstein, Henry's father; Lionel Belmore as Herr Vogel, the Bürgermeister; Marilyn Harris as Little Maria, the girl the Monster accidentally kills; Dwight Frye as Frankenstein's hunchbacked assistant, Fritz; and Michael Mark as Ludwig, Maria's father.


title: Frankenstein (1931 film)

text: Kenneth Strickfaden designed the electrical effects that were used in the "creation scene". They were so successful that such effects came to be considered an essential part of every subsequent Universal film involving Frankenstein's Monster. Accordingly, the equipment used to produce them has come to be referred to in fan circles as "Strickfadens". It appears that Strickfaden managed to secure the use of at least one Tesla Coil built by the inventor Nikola Tesla himself.


title: Frankenstein (1931 film)

text: The film opened in New York City at the Mayfair Theatre on December 4, 1931, and grossed $53,000 in one week.


title: Frankenstein (1931 film)

text: Florey and Lugosi were given the "Murders in the Rue Morgue" film, as a consolation. Lugosi would later go on to play Frankenstein's Monster in "Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man" a decade later, when his career was in decline (in the original shooting script the Monster spoke, cancelling Lugosi's initial objection to the part, but his filmed dialogue sequences were cut prior to release, along with the premise that the Monster was blind, which was the way Lugosi had played it).


title: Frankenstein (1931 film)

text: The scene in which the Monster throws the little girl, Maria, into the lake and accidentally drowns her has long been controversial. Upon its original 1931 release, the second part of this scene was cut by state censorship boards in Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, and New York. Those states also objected to a line they considered blasphemous that occurred during Frankenstein's exuberance when he first learns that his creature is alive. The original relevant passage was:


title: Frankenstein (1931 film)

text: Kansas requested the cutting of 32 scenes, which, if they had been removed, would have cut a literal half of the film. Jason Joy of the Studio Relations Committee sent censor representative Joseph Breen to urge them to reconsider. Eventually, an edited version was released in Kansas.


title: Frankenstein (1931 film)

text: As with many Pre-Code films that were reissued after strict enforcement of the Production Code in 1934, Universal made cuts from the original camera negative, and thus the cut footage is often lost. However, the footage of the girl Maria being thrown into the lake was rediscovered during the 1980s in the collection of the British National Film Archive, and it has been reincorporated into modern copies of the film.


title: Frankenstein (1931 film)

text: In the Irish Free State, the film was banned on February 5, 1932, for being demoralizing and unsuitable for children or "nervous people" – age-restricted certificates were not introduced in the country until 1965. The decision was overturned by the Appeal Board on March 8, and the film was passed uncut on March 9. The film was successfully banned in Northern Ireland, Quebec, Sweden, Italy, and Czechoslovakia.


title: Frankenstein (1931 film)

text: "The New York Times" film critic Mordaunt Hall gave "Frankenstein" a very positive review. He said that the film "aroused so much excitement at the Mayfair yesterday that many in the audience laughed to cover their true feelings. [T]here is no denying that it is far and away the most effective thing of its kind. Beside it "Dracula" is tame and, incidentally, "Dracula" was produced by the same firm".


title: Frankenstein (1931 film)

text: "Film Daily" also lauded the picture, calling it a "gruesome, chill-producing and exciting drama" that was "produced intelligently and lavishly and with a grade of photography that is superb".


title: Frankenstein (1931 film)

text: "Variety" reported that it "looks like a "Dracula" plus, touching a new peak in horror plays", and described Karloff's performance as "a fascinating acting bit of mesmerism". Its review also singled out the look of the film as uniquely praiseworthy, calling the photography "splendid" and the lighting "the last word in ingenuity, since much of the footage calls for dim or night effect and the manipulation of shadows to intensify the ghostly atmosphere".


title: Frankenstein (1931 film)

text: John Mosher of "The New Yorker" was less enthused, calling the film only a "moderate success" and writing that "the makeup department has a triumph to its credit in the monster and there lie the thrills of the picture, but the general fantasy lacks the vitality which that little Mrs. P.B. Shelley was able to give her book".


title: Frankenstein (1931 film)

text: The film was banned in China due to falling under the category of "superstitious films" as a result of its "strangeness" and unscientific elements.


title: Frankenstein (1931 film)

text: "Frankenstein" has continued to receive acclaim from critics and is widely regarded as one of the best films of 1931, as well as one of the greatest movies of all time. It holds a 100% "Certified Fresh" rating on the review aggregate website Rotten Tomatoes based on 51 reviews, with a weighted average of 8.80/10. The site's consensus reads: "Still unnerving to this day, "Frankenstein" adroitly explores the fine line between genius and madness, and features Boris Karloff's legendary, frightening performance as the monster". In 1991, the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry as being deemed "culturally, historically or aesthetically significant". In 2004, "The New York Times" placed the film on its "Best 1000 Movies Ever" list.


title: Frankenstein (1931 film)

text: "Frankenstein" also received recognition from the American Film Institute. It was named the 87th greatest movie of all time on "100 Years... 100 Movies". The line "It's alive! It's alive!" was ranked as the 49th greatest movie quote in American cinema. The film was on the ballot for several of AFI's "100 series" lists, including AFI's "10 Top 10" for the sci-fi category, "100 Years... 100 Movies (10th Anniversary Edition)", and twice on "100 Years... 100 Heroes and Villains" for both Henry Frankenstein and the Monster in the villains category.


title: Frankenstein (1931 film)

text: The film was ranked number 56 on AFI's "100 Years... 100 Thrills", a list of America's most heart-pounding movies. It was also ranked number 27 on Bravo's "100 Scariest Movie Moments". Additionally, the Chicago Film Critics Association named it the 14th scariest film ever made.


title: Frankenstein (1931 film)

text: The film was a commercial success. In June 1932, the film had earned reported rentals of $1.4 million. In 1943, Universal reported it had earned a profit of $708,871. By 1953, all the Frankenstein re-releases earned an estimated profit of $12 million.


title: Frankenstein (1931 film)

text: In 1986, MCA Home Video released "Frankenstein" on LaserDisc. This release restored all the cut footage, as well as most of Frankenstein's "In the name of God!" line. In the 1990s, MCA/Universal Home Video released the film on VHS as part of the "Universal Monsters Classic Collection", a series of releases of Universal Classic Monsters films.


title: Frankenstein (1931 film)

text: In 1999, Universal released "Frankenstein" on VHS and DVD as part of the "Classic Monster Collection"; this release restored the rest of the censored material. In April 2004, Universal released "Frankenstein: The Legacy Collection" on DVD as part of the "Universal Legacy Collection". This two-disc release includes "Frankenstein", "Bride of Frankenstein", "Son of Frankenstein", "The Ghost of Frankenstein" and "The House of Frankenstein". In September 2006, Universal released "Frankenstein" on DVD as a two-disc "75th Anniversary Edition", as part of the "Universal Legacy Series".


title: Frankenstein (1931 film)

text: In 2012, "Frankenstein" was released on Blu-ray as part of the "Universal Classic Monsters: The Essential Collection" box set, which also includes a total of nine films from the Universal Classic Monsters series. In September 2013, "Frankenstein" received a standalone Blu-ray release. That same year, "Frankenstein" was included as part of the six-film Blu-ray set "Universal Classic Monsters Collection", which also includes "Dracula", "The Mummy", "The Invisible Man", "Bride of Frankenstein", and "The Wolf Man". The next year, Universal released "Frankenstein: Complete Legacy Collection" on DVD. This set contains eight films: "Frankenstein", "Bride of Frankenstein", "Son of Frankenstein", "Ghost of Frankenstein", "Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man", "The House of Frankenstein", "House of Dracula", and "Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein". In 2015, the six-film "Universal Classic Monsters Collection" was released on DVD. In 2016, "Frankenstein" received a Walmart-exclusive Blu-ray release featuring a glow-in-the-dark cover. That same year, the "Complete Legacy Collection" was released on Blu-ray. In September 2017, the film received a Best Buy-exclusive steelbook Blu-ray release with cover artwork by Alex Ross.


title: Frankenstein (1931 film)

text: "Frankenstein" and its sequels were included in the "Universal Classic Monsters: Complete 30-Film Collection" Blu-ray box set in August 2018. This box set also received a DVD release. Later in October, "Frankenstein" was included as part of a limited edition Best Buy-exclusive Blu-ray set titled "Universal Classic Monsters: The Essential Collection", which features artwork by Alex Ross. Universal Pictures Home Entertainment released the film on 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray on October 5, 2021.


title: Frankenstein (1931 film)

text: "Frankenstein" was followed by a string of sequels, beginning with "Bride of Frankenstein" (1935), in which Elsa Lanchester plays the Monster's bride.


title: Frankenstein (1931 film)

text: The next sequel, "Son of Frankenstein" (1939), was made, like all those that followed, without Whale or Clive (the latter of whom had died in 1937). This film featured Karloff's last full film performance as the Monster. "Son of Frankenstein" presented Basil Rathbone as Baron Wolf von Frankenstein, Bela Lugosi as bearded hunchback Ygor, and Lionel Atwill as Inspector Krogh.


title: Frankenstein (1931 film)

text: "The Ghost of Frankenstein" was released in 1942. The film features Lon Chaney Jr. as the Monster, taking over from Boris Karloff, who played the role in the first three films of the series, and Bela Lugosi in his second appearance as the demented Ygor.


title: Frankenstein (1931 film)

text: The fifth installment, "Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man" was released in 1943, directed by Roy William Neill and starring Bela Lugosi as Frankenstein's monster. This is also the sequel to "The Wolf Man", with Lon Chaney Jr. returning as the Wolf Man.


title: Frankenstein (1931 film)

text: In the follow-up, "House of Frankenstein" (1944), Karloff returned to the series, but not to reprise his role as the monster, but as the Mad Doctor; the monster was this time portrayed by Glenn Strange. Chaney Jr. returned as the Wolf Man. Dracula was also featured in the film, played by John Carradine.


title: Frankenstein (1931 film)

text: Its sequel, "House of Dracula" (1945), featured the same three monsters, Dracula, Frankenstein's monster and the Wolf Man with the same cast in their portrayals.


title: Frankenstein (1931 film)

text: Many of the subsequent films which featured Frankenstein's monster demote the creature to a robotic henchman in someone else's plots, such as in its final Universal film appearance in the deliberately farcical "Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein" (1948) as well as the aforementioned "House of Frankenstein" and "House of Dracula".


title: Frankenstein (1931 film)

text: Although Frankenstein's hunchbacked assistant is often referred to as "Igor" in descriptions of the films, he is not so called in the earliest films. In both "Frankenstein" and "Bride of Frankenstein", Frankenstein has an assistant, who is played both times by Dwight Frye, who is disabled. In the original 1931 film the character is named "Fritz"; he is hunchbacked and walks with the aid of a small cane. Fritz did not originate from the "Frankenstein" novel, and instead originated from the earliest recorded play adaptation, "Presumption; or, the Fate of Frankenstein", where he was played by Robert Keeley.


title: Frankenstein (1931 film)

text: In "Bride of Frankenstein", Frye plays "Karl", a murderer who stands upright but has a lumbering metal brace on both legs that can be heard clicking loudly with every step. Both characters would be killed by Karloff's monster in their respective films. Frye also appears in later films in the series, such as in "Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man" (1943).


title: Frankenstein (1931 film)

text: It was not until "Son of Frankenstein" (1939) that a character called "Ygor" first appears, here played by Bela Lugosi and revived by Lugosi in "The Ghost of Frankenstein" (1942) after his apparent murder in the earlier film. This character – a deranged blacksmith whose neck was broken and twisted due to a botched hanging – befriends the monster and later helps Dr. Wolf Frankenstein, leading to the "hunchbacked assistant" called "Igor" commonly associated with "Frankenstein" in popular culture. Regarding "Son of Frankenstein", the film's director Rowland V. Lee said his crew let Lugosi "work on the characterization; the interpretation he gave us was imaginative and totally unexpected ... when we finished shooting, there was no doubt in anyone's mind that he stole the show. Karloff's monster was weak by comparison".


title: Frankenstein (1931 film)

text: Guillermo del Toro had expressed interest in directing the reboot film for Universal. Del Toro said his "Frankenstein" would be a faithful "Miltonian tragedy", citing Frank Darabont's "near perfect" script, which evolved into Kenneth Branagh's "Frankenstein". Del Toro said of his vision: "What I'm trying to do is take the myth and do something with it, but combining elements of "Frankenstein" and "Bride of Frankenstein" without making it just a classical myth of the monster. The best moments in my mind of "Frankenstein", of the novel, are yet to be filmed [...] The only guy that has ever nailed for me the emptiness, not the tragic, not the Miltonian dimension of the monster, but the emptiness is Christopher Lee in the Hammer films, where he really looks like something obscenely alive. Boris Karloff has the tragedy element nailed down but there are so many versions, including that great screenplay by Frank Darabont that was ultimately not really filmed". He has also cited Bernie Wrightson's illustrations as inspiration, and said the film will not focus on the monster's creation, but be an adventure film featuring the character. Del Toro said he would like Wrightson to design his version of the creature. The film will also focus on the religious aspects of Shelley's tale. In June 2009, del Toro stated that production on "Frankenstein" was not likely to begin for at least four years. Despite this, he has already cast frequent collaborator Doug Jones in the role of Frankenstein's monster. In an interview with Sci Fi Wire, Jones stated that he learned of the news the same day as everybody else, that "Guillermo did say to the press that he's already cast me as his monster, but we've yet to talk about it. But in his mind, if that's what he's decided, then it's done ... It would be a dream come true". The film was to be a period piece.


title: Frankenstein (1931 film)

text: In June 2017, producer/director Alex Kurtzman revealed that Universal Studios was developing a new version of "Frankenstein" as an installment in its shared universe of classic movie monsters, to be known as the "Dark Universe". Javier Bardem was cast to portray the titular character. Although the idea of a shared universe was later shelved, following the failure of 2017's "The Mummy" at the box-office, Universal continued to move forward with reboots of its classic horror films. By November 2019, James Wan was announced to serve as producer on a reboot of the "Frankenstein" film series. Jason Blum expressed interest in joining the production in a producing role. In March 2020, Robbie Thompson was hired to serve as screenwriter, with the plot revolving around a group of teenagers who discover that a neighbor is creating a monster in their basement. The project will be a joint production between Universal Pictures and Wan's Atomic Monster Productions.


title: Xuxa

text: Maria da Graça Xuxa Meneghel ( ; ; born Maria da Graça Meneghel, 27 March 1963) is a Brazilian television host, film actress, singer, model, and businesswoman. Known as "Queen of Little Ones", Xuxa built the largest Latin American children's entertainment empire. In the early 1990s, she presented television programs in Brazil, Argentina, Spain and the United States simultaneously, reaching around 100 million viewers daily.


title: Xuxa

text: She became a national superstar when she moved to TV Globo in 1986 for the "Xou da Xuxa". She was the first Brazilian to appear on "Forbes" magazine's list of richest artists in 1991, taking 37th place with an annual gross income of US$19 million.


title: Xuxa

text: Over her 30-year career, Xuxa has sold over 30 million copies of her records worldwide, which makes her the highest-selling Brazilian female singer. Her net worth was estimated at US$100 million in the early 1990s.<ref name="http://articles.baltimoresun.com"></ref> As of 2020, she continues to be among Brazil's most prominent celebrities. Also successful as a businesswoman, she has the highest net worth of any Brazilian female entertainer, estimated at US$400 million.<ref name="http://www.cmjornal.xl.pt"></ref>


title: Xuxa

text: Maria da Graça Meneghel was born in Santa Rosa, Rio Grande do Sul, to Luiz Floriano Meneghel and Alda Meneghel (née Alda Flores da Rocha). Xuxa is of Portuguese, Italian, Polish, German and Swiss descent. Her paternal great-grandfather emigrated to Brazil at the end of the 1800s from the northern Italian town of Imer, in the Autonomous Province of Trento. In 2013, Xuxa obtained Italian citizenship by descent.


title: Xuxa

text: During Xuxa's birth, her father was told that both mother and child were at risk. He opted to save his wife, and prayed to Our Lady of Graces, promising to name his daughter after the Blessed Virgin Mary if all went well. Although she was named for the Virgin as promised, Xuxa, the youngest member of the Meneghel family, received her famous nickname from her brother, Bladimir. When their mother arrived home with the baby, she said to him: "Look at the baby that I bought to play with you," he replied: "I know, it's my Xuxa." The nickname stuck, though it was not until 1988 that she officially changed her name to Maria da Graça Xuxa Meneghel.


title: Xuxa

text: Xuxa spent her early years in her hometown Santa Rosa. When she was seven, she and her family moved to Rio de Janeiro where they lived in the Bento Ribeiro neighborhood.


title: Xuxa

text: At 15 years old, she was discovered by a modeling agency, and began her professional career as a model at 16. During this time period Xuxa modeled in Brazil and the United States for both fashion and men's magazines, such as "Playboy", and began a famous love affair with Brazilian football star Pelé. In 1984, she was hired as a model by Ford Models.


title: Xuxa

text: Established as national beauty and sex symbol, Xuxa got the chance to move toward a career in television through an offer to host a small regional children's program, "Clube da Criança" for Rede Manchete. In this period, she worked as a model during the week in New York City and was taping her show during the weekend in Brazil. In 1986 this opportunity was expanded when she received an offer to host a national children's program through the multimedia conglomerate Globo.


title: Xuxa

text: On 30 June 1986, "Xou da Xuxa" debuted on TV Globo. It aired in the mornings from Monday to Saturday until its final episode on 31 December 1992, after some 2,000 episodes. Xuxa would usually enter on a pink ship, which awakened in the children the dream of flying beside her. Children from all over Brazil ran to have breakfast with the song ""Quem Qué Pão?"" She would end the show with the famous "Xuxa kiss", where she would put on bright lipstick and kiss the children onstage with her and children in the audience on the cheek, leaving a mark. In addition to entertainment, she also aired positive messages to the public, such as "Want, Power and Reach!", "Believe in Dreams", "Drugs do Bad" and many others. In Christmas 1986, Xuxa received her eighth platinum record, a prize awarded to every 250,000 copies sold. The album "Xou da Xuxa", from the record company Som Livre, had sold more than two million copies so far, achieving by then the South American record for a single album. Xuxa sold more than Brazilian singer Roberto Carlos that year. In the following years, the presenter still released six more albums of the series, such as "Xou da Xuxa 2" and "3", which established themselves as the best-selling albums in Brazil so far, with 2.7 and 3.3 million copies sold, respectively. With the recorded songs, it left in tours by Brazil that were seen by millions of people.


title: Xuxa

text: In 1987, the French newspaper "Libération" includes Xuxa in the list of 10 women of prominence on the planet, next to the British prime minister Margaret Thatcher. In the same period, Xuxa began a love relationship with the Brazilian driver Formula 1, Ayrton Senna, who died in 1994. In parallel to the "Xou da Xuxa", the presenter commanded "Bobeou Dançou", between 9 July and 31 December 1989, on Sunday afternoons of TV Globo. Initially created as "Xou of Xuxa" frame, it was so successful that the station decided to launch it as an independent program aimed at the adolescent public. The "Bobeou Dançou" was a program of rumba based on riddles with two teams formed by adolescents between 13 and 17 years disputed the first place of the competition.


title: Xuxa

text: In 1990, a new record: the film "Lua de Cristal", its biggest box office hit, sold 4,178 million tickets and ranks 21st in the ranking of most-watched national films from 1970 to 2011 according to Ancine ("Agência Nacional do Cinema"). Xuxa accumulates the highest-grossing of Brazilian cinema, more than 37 million people watched her films. Also this year by the International Academy of Television Arts and Sciences of the United States to deliver the International Emmy Awards in the category of best children's program and to present one of their songs in the awards party. In 1991, Xuxa appeared in 37th place for "Forbes" among the 40 richest celebrities of that year, with a turnover of $19 million. Xuxa was the first Brazilian to join the list. The "Paradão da Xuxa" emerged as an independent program after the success of the picture of the same name presented in "Xou of Xuxa". The program was aired between 25 April and 26 December 1992 on Saturday mornings of TV Globo, replacing "Xou of Xuxa" on that day. The attraction was three hours long, and different singers and musical groups performed on the show. The musical selection went from the samba to the rock, going through the sertanejo music. On the last Saturday of each month, "Super Paradão" (Vacation Specials) was shown, highlighting the most successful songs of the period.


title: Xuxa

text: After reaching success with her record sales in Brazil, Xuxa released her first Spanish-language album, "Xuxa 1", which performed well in the Argentine market. Xuxa widened her appeal among Spanish-speaking audiences when she recorded a program in Argentina, called "El Show de Xuxa". The "Los Angeles Times" reported in 1992 that "more than 20 million Spanish- and Portuguese-speaking children watched "El Show de Xuxa" in 16 countries of Latin America every day, as well as Univision in the United States. The first two seasons of the show, the most popular, were produced by Argentine TV channel Telefé while the third season, in 1993, was produced independently and then sold for broadcast to El Trece. Her last Spanish speaking show aired in Latin America on 31 December 1993.


title: Xuxa

text: "The New York Times" highlighted her success in Brazil and Argentina in an article by correspondent, James Brooke. The publication highlighted the record sales of albums of the singer, which in 1990 reached 12 million copies, and its success in the Hispanic market, where it reached 300,000 copies with their first album in Spanish. At the time, she was called by "New York" magazine as "Latin American Madonna". In 1992, the "Los Angeles Times" said that Xuxa was "probably better known to most Latin American pre-adolescents than Michael Jackson." Not only was she successful in America, but in Europe as well. In 1992, taping programs in Brazil and Argentina, Xuxa was invited to hosted the program "Xuxa Park", in Spain. Released by Telecinco channel, the game show was shown on Sundays, with high ratings. The show lasted two years. The theme song of the show, "Sabor de la Vida", had huge success in Spain, being among the 100 most played in the European Hot 100 Singles. Her "Xuxa Park" album also sold well for 8 weeks and was certified gold. "Billboard magazine" published in September 1992, that the album "Xuxa 2" was at the top of the Spanish charts, and appeared in position 77 of the 100 most sold albums in the world. The biggest hits on this disc were: "Loquita Por Ti" (#29 on the billboard chart), "Luna de Cristal" (#35 on the billboard chart) and "Chindolele" (#10 on the billboard chart). The album reached the fifth position in the U.S. "Billboard Top Latin Albums" of 1991. In 1992, "People" magazine chose Xuxa as one of the 50 most beautiful people in the world.


title: Xuxa

text: In 1993, Xuxa hosted an English-language series in the United States titled "Xuxa" (which was produced by MTM Enterprises). However, it did not achieve the popularity she had enjoyed throughout Brazil, Latin America and Spain, and was cancelled after one season due to low ratings. It was initially broadcast by 124 stations across the country. The shows were produced on Sound Stage 36 at CBS Television City in Los Angeles. Sixty-five episodes were taped for the first season of the show. Taping of the episodes was done in a 5-week period in the summer of 1993. The shows were broadcast Monday through Friday, generally in the early morning or mid-afternoon. All 65 episodes were broadcast during the initial 13 weeks before there was a repeat. Helping Xuxa on the show were the Pixies (three U.S. "Paquitas" plus one Brazilian Paquita), the Mellizas (uncredited), Jelly, Jam, and ten "child wranglers" for 150 kids on the set. Starting in September 1994, Xuxa began airing on The Family Channel cable network, at 8:00 am ET/PT. They reprised original episodes on a new children's block until 19 February 1996 when Xuxa stopped airing on The Family Channel. The show was sold to other countries including Japan, Israel, Russia, Australia, Romania and some Arab states. Her international ambitions apparently ended after the grueling taping schedule for her American show. She was hospitalized for several days due to exhaustion, and decided to give up her international career. In the U.S., Sony Wonder has released two of her videos and a record that includes English translations of some of her most successful songs in Portuguese and Spanish.


title: Xuxa

text: The presenter returned to her children's audience with "Xuxa Park", the Brazilian version of a project of the same name that commanded in Spain. Xuxa's triumphant entrances continued, in one of the stages, she stepped out of a pyramid. In the last segment of the program, Xuxa arrived in her iconic spaceship. The program directed by Marlene Mattos gathered pictures, jokes and musical attractions was exhibited between 4 June 1994 and 6 January 2001 on Saturday mornings of TV Globo. The attraction was canceled abruptly due to the tragic fire that occurred on 11 January 2001 in the recording of its carnival special.


title: Xuxa

text: In parallel to "Xuxa Park", Xuxa commanded "Xuxa Hits" between 8 January and 16 April 1995 on Sunday afternoons on TV Globo. The program came as a picture of "Xuxa Park", but has become an independent program due to its great success. In attraction, Xuxa received several musical attractions like bands, DJs and singers. After its end, the program returned to be only a painting of the "Xuxa Park".


title: Xuxa

text: Inspired by "Xuxa Hits", the "Planeta Xuxa" was created, which premiered on 5 April 1997 and immediately became a fever among those who grew up following Xuxa's career. Initially, "Planeta Xuxa" was shown on TV Globo's Saturday afternoons, so Xuxa presented two shows simultaneously on the same day, as Xuxa Park occupied the broadcasters' mornings. As of 19 April 1998, the program began to be presented on Sunday afternoons due to the 1998 World Cup, remaining on Sundays until its end in 2002. "Planeta Xuxa" was focused on the performances of musicians and bands. The program had the format of a discoteque, had the participation of the public and received famous guests. The attraction came to an end on 28 July 2002, due to the desire of Xuxa to return to children's television and the end of the partnership with the director Marlene Mattos.


title: Xuxa

text: As a mother, Xuxa noticed a shortage of videos for small children. In 2001, she designed the "" audiovisual and the CD and DVD set. The album "" received worldwide recognition and won the 2002 Latin Grammy Award for Best Latin Children's Album category. With the success of the Xuxa project for "Baixinhos", which was aimed at children 0–10 years old, the presenter had the desire to create a program in this educational mold, and on 28 October 2002 she debuted "Xuxa no Mundo da Imaginação". The show was broadcast on Monday mornings of TV Globo, marking the return of the presenter the broad daily of the station after the end of "Xou da Xuxa". The attraction, about 40 minutes long, was divided into four blocks and had 32 frames displayed alternately throughout the week. Through computer graphics capabilities, Xuxa appeared seated on a globe with a blue background filled with white clouds, and featured 14 pictures that blended entertainment and didactic elements. After many reformulations to reverse the low audience, the program came to an end on 31 December 2004. In 2003, Xuxa was nominated again to Grammy for "" and took the second trophy in the same category. On 30 June 2003, she inaugurated an amusement park with her name. "Mundo de Xuxa", located in São Paulo, in an area of 12,000 square meters, was the largest indoor amusement park in Latin America and has more than 18 attractions. The "Mundo do Xuxa" is part of the group of 3 amusement parks that most invoice in Brazil, together the 3 parks made about R$220 million per year. In 2004, for the third consecutive time, she competed with the video "" in the same category. The 5th edition, "", became a huge-selling success and was transformed into a show that dragged crowds into theaters. In 2005, the "", promoted a remix of old hits. The project pleased both the children and the parents who grew up following her career. In 2012, Xuxa is again present in the Latin Grammy as the only Brazilian in the Best Children's Album category, with "". This is already the fifth indication of the "Xuxa Só Para Baixinhos" series.


title: Xuxa

text: After successive audience defeats with "Xuxa no Mundo da Imaginação", TV Globo reformulated again the attraction commanded by Xuxa that changed its name and age group and on 4 April 2005, it premiered "TV Xuxa". The program had two distinct phases and the first was broadcast on Monday morning to the children's audience in a mix of play, dramaturgy, competition, cartoons and musical numbers presentation. The name of the program was an allusion to the fictional "TV Xuxa", a television station with several attractions. After many changes for not being able to keep the station in the isolated leadership, the program no longer aired on 31 December 2007. With the success of XSPB, Xuxa released in Argentina, in 2005, the Xuxa audiovisual "Solamente para Bajitos". In parallel to "TV Xuxa", the presenter commanded "Conexão Xuxa" between 2 December 2007 and 11 January 2008. The program had four teams formed by three people (one athlete, one personality and one teenager). Together, they faced various kinds of physical evidence and general knowledge in beautiful settings in the country. The program lasted three stages. The teams were divided by colors: yellow, green, blue and orange. The four teams disputed an X of gold, that was worth three points; an X of silver, worth two; or a bronze X, which was worth one point. In all, there were three stages, displayed in seven editions. The two winners of the first stage and the two winners of the second disputed the final of the program. Vencia the group that obtains more points throughout the competition. "TV Xuxa" returned to TV Globo grid on 10 May 2008, totally refurbished, aimed at the whole family. With new format and schedule, and different attractions, it became a weekly auditorium program, screened on Saturdays at 10 am. The show ceased to show cartoons, invested in jokes, and Xuxa went on to receive her guests on a stage designed for interviews and musical numbers. In 2009 Xuxa released the film "Xuxa em O Mistério de Feiurinha", telling what happens to the princesses after the "Happily Ever After". The film starred Sasha Meneghel in theaters and featured the participation of Hebe Camargo, Luciano Szafir, Luciano Huck, Angelica and others. The film took more than 1,300,000 people to the movies and was released in Brazil, the United States and Angola. In the musical career, Xuxa left to Som Livre, signing with Sony Music. It is estimated that the contract value was R$10 million. Xuxa released the 9th title of the "Xuxa Só Para Baixinhos" series, titled "" and in 2010 the tenth edition of XSPB, entitled "", the album sold, in one month, the amount necessary to become the best-selling DVD of 2010 in Brazil. In October 2010 Xuxa gave an interview explaining its break with "Free Sound" the presenter claimed that her then record company, was providing a tight budget for the size of its projects. Also in 2010, Xuxa was chosen as favourite Brazilian singer by the readers of the Argentine newspaper "Clarín".


title: Xuxa

text: In April 2011, she launched "Mundo da Xuxa" program on TV Globo Internacional. The attraction was shown to Brazilian subscribers on every continent from Monday to Friday and shows the best moments of her career on Globo, as well as clips from XSPB. With success in the mornings, the program "TV Xuxa" was transferred to the afternoons of Saturday in 2011, replacing the Session of Saturday, that suffered to leave the transmitter in the isolated leadership. "TV Xuxa" finally came to an end on 25 January 2014, due to the health problems of the presenter. In May 2014, after five years in Sony Music, Xuxa returned to Som Livre. In a press release, the label corrected one of the main mistakes in the company's history: "not to keep one of the country's greatest artists."


title: Xuxa

text: On 5 March 2015, after 29 years with TV Globo and off air for over a year with the end of "TV Xuxa", Xuxa signed on with Rede Record. Xuxa and TV Globo had amicably broken their contract in December 2014. The arrival of Xuxa in the headquarters of the station was transmitted live by the "Program of the Tarde", the station organized one of the biggest events of its history with several links with the fans in the door of its headquarters, in São Paulo, the movement of the employees and the signing of a contract with the presence of the high dome of the broadcaster and journalists of various media, at a press conference specially set up for the blonde at the Teatro Record. This was considered one of the biggest signings in the history of the transmitter, according to sites specialized in TV.


title: Xuxa

text: After much speculation as to what it would be and at what time it would be screened, the presenter premiered "Xuxa Meneghel", a show of the same name, on 17 August 2015 on RecordTV's Monday night. The program, screened directly from RecNov, was inspired by "The Ellen DeGeneres Show", and blended entertainment, fun, excitement, humor, musical attractions, interviews, games and special features. The attraction also opened space for the viewer to interact through social networks. Its last episode aired on 19 December 2016.


title: Xuxa

text: After having its release postponed several times, Som Livre launched in December 2016, the volume of "Xuxa Só Para Baixinhos". Recorded in 2014, and expected to be released in September 2016, XPSB 13 earned Xuxa a Latin Grammy nomination, but because it was released after the deadline, it was disqualified by the Latin Recording Academy.


title: Xuxa

text: On 3 April 2017, Xuxa debuted the program "Dancing Brasil", a Brazilian version of the American program Dancing with the Stars, produced by Endemol Shine and shown by RecordTV.


title: Xuxa

text: Recently, Xuxa announced the national launch of their new tour of shows, titled "XuChá", and based on the traditional tea "Chá da Alice".


title: Xuxa

text: On 6 February 2019, Xuxa also debuted the program "The Four Brasil", a Brazilian version of the American program , also produced by the Endemol Shine Group and also shown by RecordTV.


title: Xuxa

text: In 1986, the album "Xou da Xuxa", sold over two million copies, breaking the South American record for sales, earning eight platinum awards (granted every 250,000 copies sold). In the following years, Xuxa launched six discs, including "Xou da Xuxa 2" and "Xou da Xuxa 3", and recorded two LPs with the songs translated into Spanish, which sold 2.4 million copies.


title: Xuxa

text: From 1989 to 1996, Xuxa had sold 18 million albums, a record in Latin American music sales. Xuxa recorded about 915 songs, recorded 28 albums that together have sold over 45 million copies, and were awarded 400 gold records in Brazil. The album, "Xou da Xuxa 3," had more than 3,216,000 copies sold, making it the best-selling children's album, according to the Guinness Book.


title: Xuxa

text: In 2002, "Veja" magazine named Xuxa the richest artist in Brazil, with an estimated net worth of $250 million. According to the same magazine, Xuxa's earnings were comparable to Hollywood stars like Julia Roberts and Keanu Reeves. She was first in the list of artists with highest sales over the past ten years (1998–2008).


title: Xuxa

text: The music video, "Xuxa só para Baixinhos" sold over eight million copies, and won five nominations and two Latin Grammy awards for "Best Children's Album".


title: Xuxa

text: In 2012, the Associação Brasileira dos Produtores de Discos (ABPF) released the list of the best-selling DVDs in the country. According to ABPD, Xuxa had two DVDs among the top ten in 2011, XSPB Volume 1–8 (sixth place) and XSPB 11 (ninth).


title: Xuxa

text: In September 2011, Colombian singer, Shakira, and Xuxa joined forces through their respective charitable foundations to aid children younger than six years old who live in Brazil's poorest communities. The two artists, together with Brazilian government officials, signed an accord in Rio de Janeiro for a program of cooperation. In its first four years, it plans to provide better access to education to children from 100 schools in Brazil.