Marijan Varešanin

Varešanin was born in Gunja in Slavonia region (present-day Croatia), as son of a military officer. He attended cadet school in Rijeka and later joined Theresian Military Academy in Wiener Neustadt. On 19 August 1866, he earned the rank of lieutenant of an infantry regiment. Between 1869 and 1871, he attended Kriegsschule in Vienna and graduated with honors.

On 7 March 1909, he was named the commander of the 15th Corps stationed in Sarajevo, and at the same time Governor of Bosnia and Herzegovina. On 29 July of the same year, he was named the Chief Inspector of military troops. Soon after, the command of the 15th Corps was handed over to Moritz von Auffenberg. However, Varešanin remained the governor of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and it was for this reason that he was targeted by a lone Bosnia youth after the Austro-Hungarian annexation of Bosnia. The unsuccessful assassination attempt was made on him on 10 June 1910, by Bogdan Žerajić who fired five bullets from a revolver on Varešanin and killed himself with the sixth.[2]

Žerajić's assassination attempt was a big encouragement to Gavrilo Princip. Princip visited Žerajić's grave where he promised to take a revenge, which he did by killing Archduke Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo on 28 June 1914.[3]

Even though the assassination attempt was a failure, Varešanin started to think about his retirement. On 10 May 1911, his request for dismissal as governor was accepted and he was replaced by Oskar Potiorek. On 10 July 1911, he officially entered into a retirement after 45 years of service.

Notes

Bibliography

• Albertini, Luigi (1953). Origins of the War of 1914. 2. Oxford University Press. OCLC 168712.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)