...On March 27, 1941, communists stood with the masses, explaining the essence of the events and leading all protests and revolts against the shameful and treacherous betrayal of the country by the pro-fascist government.
Throughout the day, communists and members of the Communist Youth League (SKOJ) conducted extensive agitation, aiming to initiate democratization and organize a protest meeting. All social organizations, schools, and the entire village were mobilized.
A hastily drafted plan was as follows:
In the evening of March 27, two processions of demonstrators would march. One would start from the former Balaž's Tavern in Beodra, and the other from the headquarters of the Cooperative Youth and Serbian Reading Room in Dragutinovo. Both groups were to meet at the livestock market, where the protest meeting would take place.
In the late afternoon, men, women, youth, and schoolchildren gathered in groups at designated meeting points. At dusk, the processions moved toward each other.
Several hundred demonstrators from Dragutinovo marched along the street passing by the municipal building. Here, a new, larger group of citizens joined them, including the president of the opposition-led municipality, officials, and police. Demonstrators from Beodra marched along the main street, led by horsemen and carrying Yugoslav flags. Near the municipal house, they were joined by President Kovačev and the municipal staff.
The streets were crowded with numerous onlookers—women and elderly residents. Revolutionary songs, such as "The East and West Are Red," echoed through the village as never before, while strong shouts of protest slogans overpowered all other noise. That evening, the air was filled with revolutionary, protest, and patriotic exclamations:
- "Down with the people's traitors!"
- "Down with Hitler and his black fascism!"
- "We demand a military pact with the Soviet Union!"
- "We want the Russian envoy here!"
- "Long live the Communist Party of Yugoslavia!"
- "Long live the Soviet Union!"
- "Long live the Alliance of Workers and Peasants!"
- "We will defend the country from fascism to the last!"
...and many others.
The processions met precisely at the livestock market. After brief speeches by the president of the Beodra municipality, Kovačev, and the Dragutinovo teacher, Sajić, addressing the betrayal of the country by the anti-people government and events across Yugoslavia, which were barely audible over the shouts of protest, the gathered villagers vented their anger in the most direct way—with powerful and prolonged exclamations:
- "Better war than the pact!"
- "We want a fight against fascism!"
- "Death to the people's traitors!"
Then, from hundreds of voices of young, revolutionary-minded citizens, a long-suppressed song erupted:
"Chains are being forged for us cursed,
A bloody war is being prepared.
But we will sooner die,
Than give away our land."
That evening, the gendarmes did not leave their barracks. No force could stand in the way of the outraged masses of workers and peasants, who justifiably demanded the defense of the country from the fascist beast. They preferred war and death over shameful slavery.
Until ten o'clock at night, the demonstrators remained in the market square and streets, singing battle and patriotic songs.
The communists were with the people. They were the first to start the songs and to shout the protest and revolutionary slogans. During these days, the courage and organizational skills of Vojica Isakova, Sreda Ćopkov, Milena and Jelka Cucić, Blagoje Popov, Miloš Varadinac, and other young communists stood out.
The events of March 27, 1941, clearly expressed the sentiments of the villagers. On this occasion, they took an unequivocal stand on the side of the people’s fight against violence, injustice, and enslavement. By declaring themselves for such a fight, they aligned themselves under the banner of the Communist Party of Yugoslavia, which at that time was the only one that remained faithful to the people's aspirations, ready and determined to lead them in a glorious and honorable fight against all hardships and injustices until complete victory.
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