Orthodox metropolitan proclaimed Serbian patriarch at the May Assembly of 1848, who led Serbian Vojvodina on the Habsburg side
Born in 1785 at Lučani in Lika, he left his studies to join the Austrian army in 1809, during the War of the Fifth Coalition. In 1810 he became a monk of the Serbian Orthodox Church at Gomirje Monastery; he was made Eparch of Dalmatia in 1829 and of Vršac in 1833, and Metropolitan of Karlovci in 1842. At the May Assembly of Serbs in Sremski Karlovci in 1848 he was proclaimed Patriarch of the Serbs, and as administrator of Serbian Vojvodina he headed its new Serb government and shared the political and military leadership of the Serbs in the war. Promised autonomy, he allied with the House of Habsburg against the Hungarian revolution, and after the Hungarians were defeated the Austrian Empire made him civil commissioner of Vojvodina. He died in 1861.
Career timeline
- 1842Metropolitan of Karlovci
- 1848–1861Serbian Patriarch
- 1848–1849Provisional administrator of Serbian Vojvodina
- 1849Civil commissioner of Vojvodina
Radical prime minister who built the Balkan League and nearly doubled Serbia in the Balkan Wars
Born in Zaječar, he studied engineering in Zürich, where he joined Svetozar Marković's circle of socialist and radical students, and went on to lead the People's Radical Party. Sentenced to death after the Timok Rebellion, he escaped into exile in Bulgaria. He was prime minister of Serbia several times from 1904, and after forming a new cabinet in September 1912 led the country through the Balkan League and both Balkan Wars, heading the Serbian delegation at Bucharest. During the First World War he led the government in exile on Corfu, and after 1918 served as prime minister of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes until shortly before his death in Belgrade in 1926.
Career timeline
- 1878Deputy in the National Assembly (People's Radical Party)
- 1891–1892Prime minister of Serbia
- 1912–1918Prime minister of Serbia (Balkan Wars and First World War)
- 1913Serbian delegate at the Bucharest peace conference
- 1921–1926Prime minister of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes
Serbia's first field marshal, victor of Kumanovo and Bregalnica, who threw back the Austro-Hungarian invasions of 1914
Born in Kragujevac, the son of a teacher, he graduated from the Artillery School in Belgrade, fought in the wars against the Ottomans of 1876–78 and in the Serbo-Bulgarian War of 1885, taught at the Military Academy and became deputy chief of the General Staff, but was forced to retire in 1895 amid allegations of Radical sympathies. Rehabilitated after the 1903 coup, he became Chief of the General Staff under Peter I and three times Minister of the Army, reorganising the army. In 1912 he won at Kumanovo and Monastir and was made field marshal; in 1913 he beat the surprise Bulgarian attack at Bregalnica. In 1914 he defeated the Austro-Hungarian offensives at Cer and Kolubara, and in 1915 directed the retreat across the Albanian mountains, carried in a sedan chair. Dismissed in January 1916, he went to Nice and died there in 1917.
Career timeline
- 1876–1878Artillery officer in the wars against the Ottomans
- 1886–1895Professor at the Military Academy; deputy chief of the General Staff
- 1903–1916Chief of the General Staff of the Serbian army
- 1912Victories at Kumanovo and Monastir; field marshal
- 1913Victory at Bregalnica
- 1914Victories at Cer and Kolubara
- 1915Directed the retreat through Albania
Serbian Social Democratic leader who won international renown by voting against war budgets before the Balkan Wars
Born in Užice, he worked in a bakery and a mechanic shop and as a municipal clerk while teaching himself socialism. Influenced by Svetozar Marković, he followed Kautsky, and in 1903 founded the Serbian Social Democratic Party with Dimitrije Tucović. As a deputy in the Skupština in 1905–1908 and 1912–1919 he voted against war budgets before the Balkan Wars and the First World War and advocated a Balkan federation. Inside the party he took centrist positions against Tucović's left wing. After 1919 he opposed the Bolsheviks and affiliation to the Comintern, was expelled from the Yugoslav communist party in 1920, founded a reformist Socialist Party and then left politics to write the history of the Serbian labour movement.
Career timeline
- 1903Co-founded the Serbian Social Democratic Party
- 1905–1908Deputy in the Serbian Skupština
- 1912–1919Deputy in the Skupština; voted against war budgets
- 1920Expelled from the Yugoslav communist party
- 1921Co-founded the reformist Socialist Party of Yugoslavia
