It is against this background of mounting and mercurial discontent
that the "Black Hand" was formed. Attesting to the spreading of the
rot throughout the Karadjordjevicean state, was its cancerous
metastasis through all levels of the army and the government. Apis
the regicide was appointed chief of intelligence of the general
staff, no less. He later confessed to planning the murders of King
Nicholas of Montenegro, King Constantine of Greece, the German
Kaiser and King Ferdinand of Bulgaria. How much of it was Balkan
delusions and how much reality is still open to debate - but the man
relished death and firmly believed in its transforming and
catalysing powers. The Black Hand became a state within a state (a
feat later emulated by the IMRO). Those bureaucrats and politicians
not already members of the shady outfit, obeyed its express or
perceived wishes out of terror, more imagined than exercised. The
army was entirely in thrall. The accelerated advance of Dimitrijevic
through the ranks serves proof of the growing influence of his
cankerous outfit. He became professor of tactics at the Military
Academy where he taught subversion and terror more than military
strategy. By 1913, he was chief of intelligence, as we mentioned and
by 1916 he was attained the rank of colonel at the age of 40.
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