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Year X • N o 54, 2016 • price 390 RSD 

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Slavic Spring 

Studies 

GUNPOINT 

OF GOODIES

INSTITUTION STUDENTS’ 

RESORT “BELGRADE” 

Business Unit “Ratko Mitrović” on Zlatibor 

It includes several high category facilities, built in the 1980’s and 1990’s. 

They were rebuilt and refurbished in accordance with modern standards. They 

are only a half kilometer away from the center of Zlatibor, in beautiful pinetree 

forest, and they offer exceptional conditions for rest and recreation. There 

is great interest among students for staying here. They also offer services to 

external customers. 

The complex consists of four facilities: 

Villa “Srbija”, 

On a surface area of 2.015 square meters, with 39 beds. It has a restaurant 

with 250 seats (four stars), seminar room with 50 seats, and summer garden 

with 150 seats. 

Villa “Lovćen”, 

On a surface area of 3.238 square meters, with 141 beds. 

Villa “Zlatibor”, 

On a surface area of 1.276 square meters, with 88 beds, with sports fitness club. 

Villa “Romanija”, 

Congress center, with two rooms with 250 seats each, surface area of 1.920 

square meters, and with 58 beds. 

Ulica sportova bb, 31315 Zlatibor 

031 841 369 • 031 841 791 • recepcija.zlatibor@usob.rs • www.usob.rs

A collage TV show about Serbia, 

its landscapes and people, cities 

and customs, cultural and historical 

heritage and economic and tourist 

potentials. Travel writings, portraits, 

lectures, melodies. 

The most beautiful from Serbia, 

knowingly and with love! 

> First Channel of Radio Television of 

Serbia (RTS 1), Tuesdays from 14:30 

Cetinjska 6, 11000 Belgrade 

+381 11 322 16 92 • www.nacionalnarevija.com

РАДИО 

P R O L O G U E 

Publisher 

“Princip Pres” 

Cetinjska 6, 11000 Belgrade 

Tel.: +381 (11) 322 70 34, 322 16 92 

www.nacionalnarevija.com 

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Director and Editor-in-Chief 

Mišo Vujović 

Editor 

Branislav Matić 

Technical Editor 

Aleksandar Ćosić 

Photography Editor 

Dragan Bosnić 

Header and cover design 

Jovan Željko Rajačić 

Associates 

Milovan Vitezović, jerej Jovan Plamenac, 

Bojan Mandić, Dragan Lakićević, Nebojša 

Jevrić, Olga Vukadinović, Jovo Bajić, Dejan 

Bulajić, Petar Milatović, Vlada Arsić, Dejan 

Đorić, Đorđe Srbulović, Mihail Kulačić, 

Milena Z. Bogavac, Rozana Sazdić, Vojislav 

Filipović, Saša Šarković, Zoran Plavšić, 

Hristina Plamenac, Dragana Barjaktarević 

Translated by 

Sandra Gagić & “Globe Translations“ 

Marketing 

Mirko Vujović 

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Dragana Dimitrijević, 

Milenko Vasilić 

Print 

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Office for Australia 

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12/24 Loch Street, 3182 St Kilda West, VIC 

Cover page: 

St. George Slaying 

the Dragon, 

a detail from 

Moscow 

(Photo: Aleksandar 

Ćosić. Design: 

J. Ž. Rajačić) 

Magazine registered in the Register of Public Media 

of the Republic Serbia, no. NV000385 

ISSN 1452-8371 = Serbia - National Review 

COBISS.SR-ID 139201804 

“NATIONAL REVIEW” SETTLES THE FIRST DECADE 

Ten 

According to all traditions, ten is a very important number in the 

world hierarchy. The perfect number, the return to unity and origin. 

Completeness and the foundation of all counting. The sum of the 

first four numbers, from which everything else is derived. The votive 

pillar (one) and circle around it (zero). You need both hands to show 

ten. It is also the numerical value of the eternal word, the first letter 

of the name of God. There are ten names of God and Ten Commandments. 

Odysseus returned to Ithaca on the tenth year. 

This is the first edition of National Review with designation on its 

cover: Year X. 

In the temporary situation that surrounds us, where it appears that 

temporariness is the only permanent thing, it has become the fashion 

that as soon as something enters the second or third year of existence, 

it is being declared a tradition. We will explain the distance travelled 

to our readers and partners, our loyal companions. Its weight, importance 

and beauty. They are witnesses of the miracle called National 

Review and medicinal swimming upstream as much as we are. “If a 

man is a gentleman, he knows enough. If he is not a gentleman, then 

everything he knows detrimental for him.” We repeat this, because we 

should not forget. 

We started the tenth year by marking a centennial of the Battle of 

Mojkovac, one of the most important battles ever waged by the Serbs. 

We hung out with the hunters in Dragačevo, consecrated vineyards 

around Smederevo, repaired clocks on towers in Srem. We made a 

guide through Savamala, the art district of Belgrade, spoke with the 

writer Milovan Danojlić, said goodbye to the actor Dragan Nikolić, 

the old maestro. 

Our suitcase is full again. We will share this with you, because 

have no one closer in the world than you, our readers. s 

MUNICIPALITY 

OF РУМА 

RTS - PUBLIC 

SERVICE OF SERBIA 

VRNJAČKA 

BANJA 

Partners of the Publication: 

THE BELGRADE 

BUSINESS SCHOOL 

Media partners: 

ТЕЛЕВИЗИЈА 

ВОЈВОДИНЕ 

RTV VOJVODINA 

- PUBLIC SERVICE 

NEWSPAPER - 

SERBIAN PATRIARCHY 

INSTITUTION OF 

STUDENTS VACATION 

BELGRADE 

THIS MAGAZINE IS PRINTED WITH SUPPORT FROM THE MINISTRY OF CULTURE 

04 SRBIJA • BROJ 54 • 2016.

CONTENTS 

Panorama 

04 PRO LOGUE 

06 CHRONICLE 

Road Sign 

10 ALBUM: REFLECTIONS OF BELGRADE 

16 GUIDE: SAVAMALA 

24 ROADS: HUNT IN DRAGAČEVO 

30 VISIT: IN SMEDEREVO VINEYARDS 

36 CLOCK HANDS: WATCHES ON TOWERS 

Chrestomathy 

40 MOJKOVAC: SERBIAN CHEEK OF MONTENEGRO 

46 CENTURY: ACCORDING TO VOW OF KOSOVO 

48 LIGHTHOUSES: SERBS IN RUSSIAN CHRONICLE (2) 

Culture 

56 PALLET: DIMITRIJE AVRAMOVIĆ (1815-1855) 

62 EXAMPLES: DRAGAN NIKOLIĆ (1943-2016) 

72 OUTLOOKS: MILOVAN DANOJLIĆ 

80 STAGE: JADRANKA JOVANOVIĆ 

86 CENTERS: “KARADŽIĆ”, LOZNICA 

92 FAIRYTALE: WEDDING OF GOLDY THE TOMCAT 

Around the Town 

108 ARENA: WOMEN’S BOXING IN RUMA 

113 RECOMMENDATION: HOTELS IN VRNJAČKA BANJA 

Introducing 

94 THE WINNER: ZORAN TERZIĆ 

100 JUBILEE: INSTITUTE OF SPORT 

104 UPSWING: ATHLETIC ASSOCIATION OF SERBIA 

110 CONNECTIONS: PUPIN AND “TELEKOM SRBIJA” 

116 HEALTH: “ROMAN SPRING” IN “MERKUR” 

SERBIA • N O 54 • 2016 

05

P A N O R A M A 

News Stream 

>> When the bells fall silent. Valjevo 

1915, the novel by writer and journalist 

Vlada Arsić, permanent associate 

of the National Review, was 

recently published by the RTS and 

“Dorotej”. It focuses on the dramatic 

events during the typhus epidemic 

in the second year of World War 

One, and the first wave of communist 

terror after World War Two 

(1945-1950). Consulting editors are 

Radovan Beli Marković and Vladimir 

Krivošijev, and the editor is 

Dragan Inđić. 

>> With her appearance in the Belgrade 

National Theatre, “with her students 

and students of her students”, operatic 

diva Radmila Bakočević marked 

in early March sixty years of her artistic 

and forty years of pedagogical 

work. She ended her rich singing career 

in 2004. 

>> Serbia was the guest of honor at the 

“Francophone Days” in Lyon in mid- 

March. The International Organization 

of La Francophonie brings together 

75 countries with about 890 

million people who “are connected 

not only by the language but also 

common values and solidarity”. Serbia 

joined in 2006, and this year it 

presented itself with a four-day program, 

which was marked by the celebration 

of 765 years of diplomatic 

relations with France, recollections 

of Queen Helen of Anjou and exhibition 

of art photography Serbia in 

the Mirror by Vukica Mikača. 

From Book to 

Restoration 

Cities and Palaces in Medieval 

Serbia, the book of 

records by Milan Kašanin 

on this topic, was published 

recently by the National 

Museum in Belgrade (editor 

Branka Ivanović). Kašanin, 

one of the most important 

Serbian art historian 

and writer in the 20 th 

century, gathered this 

material over a period 

of about fifty years, in 

an attempt to bring it 

together in a comprehensive 

monographic 

study. 

The exemplary effort 

of this giant still 

reminds us that many 

of these cities and castles 

could be renewed in their authentic 

form, which would not only mean revival of important cultural 

and historical heritage but also its lucrative economic 

and tourist valorization. 

Homage to the Ancestors in the Great War 

Exhibition South Serbia in the Great War 1915-1918, a 

joint project of museums in Leskovac, Niš, Vranje, Pirot and 

Prokuplje, is homage to the Serbian ancestors who died heroically 

in the defense and liberation wars in the second 

decade of the 20 th century. The exhibition will be open at 

the RTS Gallery until 25 April, and was organized by Mira 

Ninošević and Veroljub Trajković. The period from withdrawal 

of the Serbian army and people 1915/19116 until 

the miraculous return to their homeland and liberation is 

shown chronologically, through documents. 

>> Over two hundred publications by 

Serbian authors were exposed at the 

International Book Fair in Leipzig 

from 17 to 20 March. At this fair, 

which is known as “the most authentic 

European gathering of book 


lovers, with dominant non-commercial 

approach to publishing”, 

2,250 publishers from 42 countries 

presented themselves. 

White Russia in Serbia 

Documents, photographs, newspapers, posters – a total of 

one hundred and twenty one exhibits – make up the significant 

exhibition Serbian Orthodox Church and the Russian Emigration 

(1920-1940), opened on 31 March in the House of the 

Army of Serbia in Belgrade. This testimony to the bonds of 

brotherhood and mutual assistance between the two nations 

in difficult times after the October Revolution of 1917 was 

created as a collaborative effort between the Archive of the 

SPC and Media Center “Defense”, and the exhibition was officially 

opened by His Holiness Serbian Patriarch Irinej. 

A Hundred Imperial Peonies 

>> Giordano Bruno and Communication 

– Translating Ideas, a book by 

Aleksandra Mančić, was presented 

on 16 March at the Kolarac Endowment 

in Belgrade. The book 

has been crowned with „Nikola 

Milošević” award of the Second 

Channel of Radio Belgrade, as the 

best in the field of literature and 

art theory, aesthetics and philosophy, 

in the past year. 

>> The fiftieth literary event “Bora’s 

Week” was held in late March in 

Vranje, marked by the jubilee. In 

addition to half a century of existence, 

it was one hundred and 

forty years since the birth of Bora 

Stanković, and the prize that bears 

his name was given for the twenty-fifth 

time. This year’s laureate is 

Milisav Savić for his novel La sans 

parellie. 

>> The collection of poems It is Better 

to be Minority by Đorđe Nešić was 

the recipient of this year’s “Zmaj’s 

Award” of Matica srpska. The book 

was published by Srpska književna 

zadruga and the Serbian Cultural 

Society “Prosvjeta” from Zagreb. 

The poet, the current winner of also 

“Žička hrisovulјa” and “Replies to 

Filip Višnjić” awards, is the manager 

of the Cultural and Scientific center 

“Milutin Milanković” in Dalј. 

A Hundred Peonies in the Garden of Chinese Emperors, an 

anthology of classic Chinese poetry prepared and translated 

by Hiroshi Yamasaki Vukelić, was published recently in Serbian 

by the RTS. It includes selected poets who wrote in the 

period from the 11 th century BC until the end of the 12 th AD. 

Translated from old Chinese originals (unlike earlier anthologies 

by Miloš Crnjanski 

and Dragoslav Andrić), it 

comprises of one hundred 

poems by one hundred 

forty-eight authors. The supporting 

apparatus makes it 

possible to understand their 

context and the full range of 

meanings. 

>> Within the small tour “Philharmonic 

in the South”, the Belgrade 

Philharmonic Orchestra held a 

very good concert at the Army 

House in Vranje. The backbone of 


07

P A N O R A M A 

News Stream 

the program consisted of Schubert’s 

music, and the response of the audience 

was excellent. 

>> The gallery “Atrium” of the Belgrade 

City Library, this March, exhibited 

works of Milos Šobajić created in 

the past few years. This famous Serbian 

painter and professor has had 

more than 70 solo exhibitions so far 

and participated in about 400 group 

exhibitions. Five monographs have 

been published about his work. 

>> Happiness is Danced. This was the 

motto of the thirteenth Belgrade 

Dance Festival, held in March and 

April. The festival hosted fifteen 

companies from thirteen countries, 

with over thirty dance performances. 

>> The Dream of Color, exhibition of 

works by actress Gorica Popović 

from the field of costumes, embroidery 

and patchwork, was held in 

March in the RTS Gallery in Belgrade. 

>> Legacy of Uroš Predić – the entire 

inventory of his studio in Belgrade, 

where he spent the last years of his 

life – is again accessible to the general 

public within the revamped permanent 

exhibition of the National 

Museum in Zrenjanin. 

>> Muddy Horse, a story book by Vesna 

Aleksić, and Every Friday, Tuesday on 

Wednesday, a collection of songs by 

Peđa Trajković, are the titles that received 

this year’s “Gordana Brajović” 

Award, as the best children’s books 

published in 2015. A special award 

for overall contribution to contemporary 

literature for children was 

received by Milovan Danojlić. 

The Years of Comedy 

The Patriots of the National 

Theatre from Belgrade, written 

by Jovan Sterija Popović and directed 

by Andraš Urban, was the 

best production (“Mija Aleksić” 

Award) at the forty-fifth “Days of 

Comedy”, recently completed in 

Jagodina. 

Statuette “Ćuran” (turkey cock) 

for best acting achievements went to Nebojša Glogovac, Ljubomir 

Bandović and Vladica Milosavljević. Award for the 

best directing went to Igor Vuk Torbica, the best young actors 

were Nevena Ristić and Marko Janketić, the best costume 

design signed by Jelisaveta Tatić Čuturilo, and set 

design by Branko Hojnik. According to the audience the 

funniest production was The Claustrophobic Comedy by 

Dušan Kovačević, performed by “Zvezdara Theatre” and directed 

by Darko Bajić. 

Eternities of Mika Antić 

The legendary chess 

game of Miroslav Antić, a 

poet and painter, in which 

he dominated over the 

world champion Mikhail 

Tal. Miroslav Antić as a 

boxer. Homeland in the poetry 

of Miroslav Antić. Novi 

Sad of Miroslav Antić as the 

“eternal spring”. Drawing by 

Mika Antić, a portrait created 

by Momo Kapor once at 

dawn, after an all-night long 

vigil in a tavern. 

These are just some of the 

elements of this year’s “Antić’s 

Days” organized by the Cultural Center of Novi Sad. Poet 

Kolјa Mićević, this year’s winner of the “Miroslav Antić” 

Award, was also presented. 


The Greatest 

The tennis (and 

not just tennis) 

world domination 

of the phenomenal 

Novak Đoković 

Continues. After 

the recent victory in 

Miami, the Serbian 

player now has the 

biggest number of 

masters won in the 

history of this sport 

(28). He has earned the highest income in tournaments since 

the beginnings of tennis (over 98 million USD). He has the biggest 

ever achieved advantage compared to the first runner-up 

at the ATP list (8,725 points advantage over Andy Murray). He 

has the biggest number 

of consecutively 

won tournament 

on the US Masters 

Tour (Indian 

Wells, Miami). He 

has been collecting 

records and years 

of victories, and 

behind all this is 

enormous gift and 

just as enormous 

amount of work. 

So that the Whole World Understands You 

Monica Bellucci, holding the Serbian Language Grammar 

in her hands, says: “Let us nurture Serbian language!” This 

photo on the website of the Belgrade City Library has aroused 

great public attention at the end of March. The Italian film 

diva thus supported a 

campaign for the preservation 

of Serbian 

language and alphabet, 

which is jointly implemented 

by the Secretariat 

for Culture Serbian 

capital, the Library and 

the Faculty of Philology. 

During the filming 

of On the Milky Way by 

Emir Kusturica, Monica 

Bellucci, to some extent, 

learned Serbian and on 

several occasions she 

spoke about her enthusiasm 

with Serbian 

people, their customs, 

culture and sensibility. 

>> Numerous poetry programs in 

Sremski Karlovci and Novi Sad 

marked the 192 nd anniversary of 

the birth of Branko Radičević, a 

famous Serbian poet from the 

19 th century. “Branko’s Spring 

Days of 2016” also took place 

recently in the Zemun Gymnasium. 

>> In late March, a memorial plaque 

dedicated to the great Serbian 

actress Ružica Sokić was 

mounted on the house where 

she lived in Krunska Street in 

Belgrade. 

>> Media desk was opened recen t- 

ly in the Belgrade Film Archive, 

in order to support young Serbian 

artists who apply for financial 

support from the European 

Commission within the 

program “Creative Europe”. This 

European program has a budget 

of over 800 million euros and 

supports the production, distribution 

and promotion of films 

and documentaries, television 

dramas, and works in the field of 

new media. 

>> Literary magazine and school 

periodical Danica for Youth was 

presented on 3 March in the 

House of Vuk’s Endowment, for 

the eighth consecutive year, organized 

by the Children’s Cultural 

Centre. 

>> In the shipyard in Perlez, near 

Zrenjanin, on 31 March, the largest 

ship for maritime navigation 

ever built in Serbia was launched. 

It is worth two million Euros, 

and was made for a contracting 

authority from Norway. 


09

A L B U M 

Photographs from the 

spring edition of the 

publication “Welcome to 

Belgrade”, TOB, 2016 

BELGRADE SPRING STUDIES 

Falling in Love 

10 SRBIJA • BROJ 54 • 2016. 

We have survived another winter. (And it was lethal. Many places among 

us were vacated, suddenly and forever. “The Angel of Mercy” Remember 

him?) A new cycle has begun, colors are coming back to our world. 

Belgrade is still the most visited tourist destination in Serbia. World travel 

magazines and portals are still trying to fathom the secret of Belgrade, to capture 

it with a camera or describe. “How come from time immemorial people have 

been inexplicably falling in love with this city?” “It is true that this is the only 

true metropolis in South Slavic region. It is true that all the other capitals of 

former Yugoslav republics, when compared to Belgrade, seem short-sighted and 

petty, geeky and terminally provincial. But that’s not all, there is something that 

escapes us and why we keep coming back.” “All this – you also have it elsewhere. 

But this is different somehow, more beautiful.” “I do not know why using so 

much philosophy. I feel great here, so light and normal, so natural. That is why 

I keep coming back, like for recuperation. You cannot do that with any strategy 

or money. This city and these people simply have in in them, they were born 

that way.” 

This spring, the Tourist Organization of Belgrade recommends – among 

many other things – sneakers, hands in your pockets and light step. Go out to 

the vibrant Belgrade’s green markets, the old taverns and neighborhoods, come 

down to the river banks. Come to the rich “Days of Belgrade”, the “Belgrade 

Marathon”, “Knight Fest”, “The Belgrade Manifesto”... Listen to “April in Belgrade”. 

From the spring edition of publication Welcome to Belgrade, published by the 

TOB, and produced by “Princip Press”, we will share with you a few photos, so 

typical of Belgrade. s (B. M.)


11

A L B U M 



13

А Л Б У М / А Л Ь Б О М / A L B U M 



15

В О Д И Ч / Г И Д / G U I D E 


A SKETCH FOR ART MAP OF SAVAMALA AND OTHER STIMULI 

New Belgrade 

Creativity 

Modern sensibility of the city and new artistic practice, new media and a new generations have been 

transforming the dilapidated and abandoned Sava slope, almost deserted, into the most creative 

neighborhood of the Serbian capital, and this part of Europe. Disheveled, rustic, imaginative and 

informal, Savamala excellently combines culture and entertainment, creativity and market, old and 

new. The emphasis is on expressly local artistic expression, Serbian and Balkan, which attracts to this 

“cultural district” a large number of foreigners, who desire originals and not provincial copies 

By: Dragana Barjaktarević 

Photo: 

Dragana Barjaktarević, 

Marija Piroški 


17

G U I D E 

Gallery under 

the Branko’s Bridge 

Bata Stojković, 

Serbian acting 

legend, on a mural 

in Savamala 

I 

came to Cultural Center “Grad” the 

first time in late 2009. Quite skeptically, 

convinced that I got to a wrong 

address. I came to buy tickets for the concert 

of “Nouvelle Vague” and, if that had 

not been so important to me, I probably 

would have turned around and run away 

from Savamala of that time. I was holding 

a piece of paper with the address in 

my hand, and I could not connect cultural 

center and that dilapidated neighborhood. 

The place is still quite dilapidated. But it is 

breathing. It has been reanimated by some 

creative people. 

CULTURAL CENTER “GRAD” 

When, seven years ago, they opened 

the Cultural Centre “Grad”, Ljudmila 

Stratimirović and Dejan Ubović probably 

could not imagine what kind of cultural 

wave they launched in Savamala. 

– We chose this location by chance. We 

explored many alternatives throughout 

the city and eventually found an old abandoned 

warehouse in Braće Krsmanović 

Street. The Municipality of Savski Venac 

supported our idea to open a cultural center. 

And so, by a chain of lucky events and 

the fact that someone wanted to hear us, 

we have found ourselves in this area. We 

liked the area, because it is near the center, 

yet isolated enough to let us build our 

own story with people who have similar 

energy – says Ljudmila. 

In the meantime, Savamala has 

changed a lot. Galleries have been opened, 

hubs, cafes, night clubs. However, in the 

sea of new content, “Grad” has maintained 

its authenticity. Rustic atmosphere of old 

warehouse, unusual interventions of remake 

artists, poles painted by Ema Ema 

Ema and Sretan Bor, Miona’s birdies on 

the facade, a small garden with polka-dot 

tablecloths and red and white lanterns, 

exhibitions and conferences upstairs, in 

the gallery overlooking the river, unusual 

fashion accessories in “Gradstor”, “Fashion 

to Go” on Saturday before going out, 

foreign language classes, amateur dining 

table at the “Gourmet Monday”, are just 

some of the details for which people love 

“Grad”, a program so diverse, yet perfectly 

consistent. 

– A part of the program we plan ourselves, 

but a lot is created also in collabo- 



19

G U I D E 

“Mixer Design 

Shop” 

ration with artists, organizations, teams, 

musicians. Regardless of the fame and 

genre. The only important thing is that 

they correspond to what we consider the 

image of the Cultural Center “Grad” is. 

“MIXER HOUSE” 

Blend of Old and New City 

Cultural Center “Grad” is located in an old warehouse building 

from 1884. The new owners have adapted it in the way to preserve 

the atmosphere of an old warehouse on the banks of the Sava, 

but also to achieve, with the necessary interventions, a modern 

multifunctional space. This is the first time in our country that a 

building of industrial heritage has become the center of various 

cultural events. 

Another cultural center of Savamala 

created through transformation of an old 

warehouse. “Mixer House” moved to Savamala 

neighborhood in 2012, first as a 

festival, and then as a carefully designed 

space that will become a meeting place 

for designers, musicians, creative people, 

dreamers of a better and more beautiful 

Belgrade. It includes a cafe, venue for concerts, 

lectures, workshops, performances, 

a design shop selling products made by 

designers from the Balkans – from furniture, 

toys and clothes, to wine and gourmet 

delicacies. Manager of the “Balkan 

Design Shop” Miloš Kuzmanović told us 

why she loves her job: 

– What am I doing here is communication 

with the young talents in the field 

of design, but also with some well-known 

designers from the Balkans: Dechko Tzar, 

Remake, Mooshema Studio, TEN Fingers, 

Škrabac, Over, Koba Yagi toys and others. 

Direct contact with creative people, planning, 

talks about new collections, tips 

on how to improve something, what to 

change, and enjoying mutual success in 

the end, is exactly why I love my job. 

The unique local design is one of the 

reasons why an increasing number of 

tourists are coming to Savamala. 

– Whether it concerns turbulent history 

of peoples and countries that are situated 

in such a small territory, or the fact 

that the area is traditionally a crossroads 

of trade and artistic routes, I still don’t 

know, but the quality and uniqueness 

of the local artistic expression are more 

than obvious. And this is not recognized 

only by the locals, but there are more and 

more are flowing into this creative quarter 

of Belgrade. The reactions are very 

good, so I think we are on the right track 


and that we are doing something really 

good for our art and design scene. 

“ZAVOD” CAFÉ GALLERY 

In the vicinity of “Mixer”, in Kralјevića 

Marka Street no. 1, there is Cafe-Gallery 

“Zavod” (Institute), so named because it 

overlooks the again glittering facade of 

“Geozavod”. “Zavod” is a multi-conceptual 

space. During the day that you can work 

or study without anyone even looking at 

you because you only ordered a cup of 

coffee. 

– Our customers are mostly students 

who come here to study for their exams. 

They order one drink and stay here for 

hours. It does not bother us, because we 

love to be in the company of young people 

– explains Zara Audielo, the owner of 

“Zavod”. 

In the evening, the café turns into a 

venue for educational workshops, fashion 

shows, exhibitions, promotions of young 

music label companies “and, of course, 

parties for which Belgrade is recognizable” 

– adds this Italian lady. 

– I came to Belgrade with a friend, I 

liked the energy and I decided to stay. My 

brother Lorenzo and I opened “Zavod”. He 

deals with financial management of the 

company, I am the artistic director, and 

my life companion Ljuba manages everything 

else. Since I am a curator of contemporary 

art, “Zavod” has given me the opportunity 

to do what I love, to play and 

explore the creative heritage of Belgrade 

liberated from academic clichés. 

They settled in Savamala because they 

believe that this is a cultural hub of the 

city, with good prospects for further development, 

since it has an unusual aesthetics 

full of contrasts, and because it 

brings together young people. 

“ŠTAB” GALLERY 

In addition to “Zavod”, there is another 

place in Savamala that combines 

art and a good time. It is “Štab”, beautiful 

town gallery located under the arches of 

the Branko’s Bridge. “Štab” was opened at 

the time of reactivation of the entire industrial 

neighborhood of Savamala and 

its transformation into a district culture 

and art. It is a space for the promotion of 

young, emerging authors and discovering 

talents from Serbia and neighboring 

countries who are currently hidden from 

the public eye. 

Creative 

workshop and 

lecture in “Nova 

Iskra” 


21

В О Д И Ч / Г И Д / G U I D E 


– The most important event in our 

organization is the Summer Salon of 

“Štab” Gallery. It is a group exhibition that 

brings together prominent artists of the 

younger generation. In addition to artists 

who express themselves in traditional 

media, painting and sculpture, the Summer 

Salon also present those who work 

in new media, such as audio-visual installations 

and experimental music. We are 

especially proud of the exhibitions within 

“Saturday under Brankica”, which shows 

in the best possible light our idea of a new 

way of presenting arts. The new concept 

shows that the arts and entertainment 

very much overlap and it is impossible 

not to bring them together. For people 

who come at the opening on Saturday we 

prepare good entertainment, with the best 

music from the 1970’s and 1980’s. In this 

way we try to promote love and culture, 

as well as some good old values that have 

been, unfortunately, lost in these strange 

times – they say in “Štab”. 

In addition to the Summer Salon and 

“Saturday under Brankica”, “Štab” also organizes 

“Art Dragstor”, “Industrial Design 

Weekend”, Wine “Štab”, “Night of Museums”, 

“Mixer Festival”... 

“NOVA ISKRA” 

Savamala is also home to “Nova Iskra”, 

the first coworking space in Serbia and one 

of the first in the South Slavic region. 

– Coworking is one of the major sectors 

within “Nova Iskra” and we are really 

proud of the results over the last three 

years. Our members are freelancers, designers, 

architects, entrepreneurs, consultants, 

small companies and startups. All 

members separately rent the space and it is 

primarily their working space, but we have 

many examples of cooperation, which is 

one of the benefits of working in such a 

place – they explain in “Iskra”. 

In addition to the basic mission of 

“Iskra” – offering a quality workspace for 

creative professionals – since its establishment 

in 2012, until today, more than two 

hundred educational programs have taken 

place here, aimed at young designers and 

students from different areas of design, as 

well as logistical and educational support 

from idea to realization. 

– Our main goal from the beginning 

was to strengthen this place as an 

educational and research platform. That 

is why we constantly organize lectures, 

workshops, study visits, residencies. Most 

of these programs were related to topics 

and lecturers in the field of design, architecture, 

startups, business, art direction, 

communication strategies, branding, legal 

and administrative issues, intellectual 

property rights, establishment of companies 

and other important topics. Programs 

have also been harmonized with 

topics and areas that are less or not at all 

represented in our education system, and 

this kind of lectures and workshops has 

the most numerous audience. 

This is only a fraction of what a beautiful 

Sava slope of Belgrade is hiding behind 

their fences and windows, just an 

incentive to start discovering a part of 

town that is slowly awakening, a call to 

further reconstruct it through some new 

creative stories. Because, Savamala only 

exists when there is something going on 

in it. s 

Mural by Swiss 

duo “Nevercrew” 

above “Mixer 

House” 

“Mixer Design 

Market”, up close 

An evening in 

“Zavod” 


23

R O A D S 

WITH HUNTERS OF DRAGAČEVO, IN THE MIDST OF SPRING AWAKENING 

Gunpoint 

Goodness 

of 


Already at the end of the last century, they slammed their fist on the table: no more poaching and 

neglect. We don’t want to empty, but to fill. We are not killers but collaborators with the nature. Their 

hunting grounds, larger than some countries, is now regulated and full. Deer, wild boars, pheasants, 

grouses... Even bears arrived somewhere from Tara. They tease the hunters that they are “walkers of 

rifles”, but they are unhinged. There are about five hundred and fity of them now. They know a lot 

about people and animals, brandy and hunter’s stew. Only good stories are not subject to closed season 

By: Miloš Lazić 

Photo: Želјko Sinobad and archive of 

Hunters’ Association from Dragačevo 


25

R O A D S 

Dragačevo 

hunters with 

trophies 

Guča, a little town under Jelica, up 

to which there was no decent road 

so they had to travel from Čačak to 

there for as long as they wouold travel to Belgrade, 

is the center of Dragačevo, a pretty by 

greatly neglected corner of Serbia. Malicious 

people contrived that this is a consequence 

of “taking the wrong side” during the world’s 

last slaughter, which may not be far from the 

truth. Because, when that German forse burst, 

the honest people of Dragačevo, faithful to 

tradition, immediately set off to defend the 

homeland, without waiting for the communists’ 

7 th of July. And what happened after – it 

is known: of all the stories of the Old Testament, 

that of Cain and Abel has been planted 

in our country in the most fertile soil. 

With an intent to make it right somehow, 

poet Branko V. Radičević, nicknamed 

Mačista, then a reporter of Duga, and Blaža 

Radivojević, a retired journalist of Politika, 

then editor of Čačak-based Glas, came up 

with a tough plan, although they themselves 

did not believe much in its success. Because, 

the idea to organize competition of folk brass 

bands, in the village fair grounds near the 

Church of the Holy Archangels Michael and 

Milenko 

– We could have comfortably appointed Milenko Rudinica 

immediately as the President for life, unlike the others, it would 

truly fit him – Tsar says. – And I will, therefore, serve as his vicešpresident 

until they replace me, and until they elect a new one, 

there’s no automatism here. I am convinced, just like every five 

hundred and fifty of our members, which is our current number, 

that acceptance of this duty would be a desecration of the 

memory of Milenko. We named after him our hunting lodge in 

the village of Gornji Dubac, and next to it we will soon erect a 

monument in his honor. He deserved it well. 

Gabriel of Guča, had to be approved by those 

who tended to find some hidden enemy activity 

in everything. 

According to the testimony of late Mačista, 

when they approached the Committee with 

this proposal, they were greeted by a torrent 

of suspicious questions: why the trumpet, 

why in Guča, why now, isn’t it some “Serbian 

propaganda”, and so on, until the mandatory, 

which was more conclusion than a question 

– what will They say about this (They meant 

the screen behind which the official sycophant 

and human anxiety were hiding)! This 

came even to Slobodan Penezić Krcun, but it 

seems that he had a better opinion about this 

than his subordinates. The only condition he 

had was “to watch what they were doing”, and 

there was the imposed ruled applicable for a 

long time to give the awards of the Festival 

in Dragačevo alternately to ensembles from 

Western, and those from Southeast Serbia. 

According to the famous method –layer of 

meat, layer of bacon. 

When on 14 October 1961, at the Day of 

the Intercession of the Theotokos, trumpeters 

from the surrounding villages appeared 

in the churchyard, dressed in linen clothes, 

embroidered vests, with opanci shoes and 

šajkača hats, they were welcomed by a roar 

of applause. In advance! So to say, before they 

were seen! Still, Mačista was not there! He 

lost the courage at the last moment, and the 

honor to hand out the award to the winner 

went to his colleague Mirko Bojić. 

Although Guča was first mentioned in 

some Turkish document from 1476 as the center 

of Dragačevo, word about it spread outside 

the district only when the Festival was established 

on the Day of Assumption, and more 

recently, on the eve of the pre-Assumption 


fasting, when several hundred thousand souls 

from Serbia and the world come together. 

– It’s not that we are only known for the 

Festival – Slavko Carević, called Tsar, objected. 

– Our area has primarily become famous 

for its hunting grounds and hunting association, 

which has existed since 1902. Based on 

some information, which we were not able to 

document, it was commissioned as early as in 

1884, and it turns out that it is one of the oldest 

in Serbia. But as there is no written evidence, 

with a heavy heart that we take that it 

is eighteen years younger. We also have monasteries 

Ascension, Presentation, Presentation, 

Transfiguration, Stjenik, and the one dedicated 

to the Holy Trinity. True, they belong to a 

series of other monasteries in Ovčar-Kablar 

Gorge, our Holy Mountain, but they are also 

in Dragačevo! On top of all this, the locals are 

softies. We are proud of them, of the tradition 

of our ancestors, and who could even expect 

more for such a little place? 

SILENT GUNPOWDER 

Slavko is the vice-president and a veterinary 

technician of the Hunting Association. 

In that order. A vice-president is the highest 

rank among the local hunters. 

– Since Milenko Rudinac left us on 20 

August last year, we have had no president – 

he explained. – There is hardly anyone who 

could replace him, so this position will remain 

vacant until who knows when. 

The Hunting Association is composed of 

six societies, namely Viča, Goračići, Guča, 

Kaona, Kotraža and Lučani. Those from Guča 

“line up” at the crack of dawn, in the very center 

of the town, in Ivan’s tavern “Six Lanterns”, 

which could also be called “Hunters’ Gathering” 

because of this. And Ivan is another story: 

he is probably the only innkeeper under 

the sun who handshakes with all of his guests, 

and he even kisses every other! You’d think 

that they are close family. Well, as if they are. 

Because, hunters are a strange breed anyway. 

In fact, there is no shortage of miracles. 

For example, even late Milenko or Tsar never 

killed a roe deer or doe in this hunting 

ground... although they have more than one 

thousand five hundred animals! That is why 

they were teased that they are only “taking 

rifles for a walk”. So, what kind of hunters are 

they? 

– In the late 1990’s, when Milenko took the 

helm of the Association, he found the hunting 

ground so to speak empty – Tsar tells us. 

– He slammed his fist on the table and said: 

“We have been poaching enough, from now 

on we will be the host!” And immediately he 

took upon himself the mission to populate it. 

Nothing harder. “New Youth” hunting grounds 

began after 2000, and how much Milenko 

was dedicated to this is evident in the fact 

that, right next to the house of Aunt Rose, his 

mother, he enclosed about seventeen acres for 

the receipt of new animals, the so-called big 

game, and right next to it also a smaller area 

for fawns and other cubs. Aunt Rosa could 

have chased us away any time she wanted it, 

but she also devoted herself to this Sisyphean 

work, although she was in advanced age. God 

bless her soul. Well, she is the strongest manger 

of the hunting ground! When starving 

dogs once burst in this our “shelter” and attacked 

the wild animals, Aunty Rosa jumped 

between them and chased them away, and 

that takes a male courage. Anyway, we were 

doing that up until Milenko’s premature departure, 

and that is why we did not shoot. 

Goulash in 

Hunting Lodge 


27

R O A D S 

Hideout and 

leaving food for 

animals in the 

hunting ground in 

Dragačevo 

Because, you cannot populate the hunting 

ground and empty it at the same time. 

He also said that this job of theirs is 

professionally called reintroduction, but if 

they mentioned it to someone in Guča, who 

knows what they would think. Maybe it 

would end with blood? 

– We have been building it properly, and 

the fact that we even have around a dozen 

bears is a testimony to this – Tsar bragged 

as if he had personally dragged them to 

Dragačevo. – Where did they come I do not 

know, probably from Tara, because they are 

big wanderers, and still they have settled here 

with us. Perhaps because the feeding, availability 

of food? They are still napping, otherwise 

there would be at least two or three of 

them milling around the feeding area. The 

only thing for which Aunt Rosa resented her 

son was the fact that he has brought bears 

here, that she did not like. Perhaps because 

she had her pet, a shy roe deer Petronije, 

whom she brought up herself, and he reciprocated 

by coming every day to the house 

to greet her. Once we came to the idea to 

give her the gold medal of the Hunting Association 

of Serbia, but Milenko was against 

it, and we did not do it. 

TALKING WITH YOURSELF 

AND WITH OTHERS 

The Association has several pheasant 

farms for breeding these game birds, but 

lately they have been hopelessly empty. 

– When the flock matures, we wil release 

it into the nature – explains Boban Rudinac, 

Milenko’s son, another of those who are “taking 

rifles for a walk”. – That’s our goal, and 

not to turn pheasant farms into roosts. It is 

little known that the hunters have established 

a “rank list” of the most intelligent game, and 

pheasant is on th etop of this list. It seems to 

enjoy outsmarting the hunters! We are especially 

proud of the fact that we have a forest 

grouse, because it is very rare in these areas. 

Roads, Hiding Spots, Charcoal Makers 

The hunting ground extends over an area just under forty 

thousand hectares. With one real asphalted road, it is cross-linked 

with a host of forest roads, whcih have been paved by people 

from forest estate, or walking hunters. The forest is mainly beech, 

and along the way one often encounters charcoal makers. There 

are fewer and fewer of them, but they are still there. There are 

also waiting spots: from walled ones, where one can spend the 

night, to makeshift ones, where only the most skilled can climb. 

Although it has an enviable collection of 

hunting weapons, including an old “Winchester” 

rifle, which Americans would prefer 

to see in a museum than in his hands, 

Božidar Rudinac, called Boban, often comes 

to the hunting without a gun, and dressed in 

elegant black suit. And he has done the same 

now, when he intended to show the hunting 

ground to the visitors from the capital and 

to brag about it. 

Guests, and especially the game, find the 

feeding the most interesting Food intended 

for bears can be ecognized as the remains of 

domestic animals, usually dead horses and 

oxen, while the others catch the eye from afar 

because of yellow corn. And from that which 

is intended for bears there is magnificent view 

of the undulating Serbia. If not for the spring 

mist, who knows how far one could see. 

– Since the fall, we have dropped them 

nearly two truckloads of corn – says Rašo 

Bročić, a hunter, until recently a private 

haulier, who, since he his job to his son, has 

been goofing around and presenting himself 

as a “dependent”. – I am afraid that we are 

going to miss him, and now is the most important. 

Because wild boars are starting to 

farrow, and if there is not enough food, the 

cubs wouldn’t leave here. 

When asked whether he is also “taking 

rifle for a walk”, he laughed mischievously, 

although he honestly admitted that had not 

fired a shot in a long time. Same as Branko 

Ivaneža, born of Zadar, since the breakup 

of Yugoslavia resident Ježevica village near 

Zablaće, on the old road that connects Čačak 

and Kralјevo. Although from the coast, he 

has settled in Dragačevo and become a local, 

and he got famous as the grand master of 

hunter’s stew! 

– The essence of hunting is not meat, nobody 

hunts because they are hungry – Branko 

tried to explain. – Some hunt because of the 

trophies, but most of us are dedicated to this 

sport for socializing. New times are such that 

the man has forgotten that periodically he 

must talk honestly both with others and with 

himself, and there is no better opportunity to 

do so than hunting. 

In the dusk, another important truth is 

learnbed in Dragačevo. They are friendly and 

welcoming to such an extent that it easier to 

come here than to leave, and every time we 

would reach for our wallets, the hosts would 

be terribly offended... At least when it is not 

the Festival time, bit then some other people 

are in charge. s 



29

V I S I T 


IN SMEDEREVO VINEYARDS, ON THE DAY OF SAINT TRYPHON, 

PATRON SAINT OF WINEMAKERS 

A Day Displaying 

Entire Year 

When it snows r rains on the St. Tryphon’s Day, people say that it will be a year of good harvest. 

People who live in the rhythm of a wine year are different. Patient, silent, seeing farther ahead. 

They hear how the earth breathes and the wine matures. And in Smederevo, the last capital of 

medieval Serbia, one cannot idle around without remembering the past times, better and more noble. 

For example, those when Gabriel M. Đorić, the famous winemaker from Smederevo, 

was collecting wards in Tokyo and London, Brussels and Liege 

Text: Milosav Slavko Pešić and NR Press 

St. Tryphon (14 February, according to 

Gregorian calendar), among Orthodox 

people, is the patron saint day 

of inn-keepers, hotel owners, winemakers, 

love and girls. Then winemakers prune the 

vines i and pour wine over some of them, 

symbolically, ritually, so that vineyards 

would restore their strength after winter 

sleep. In Eastern Serbia, this Patron Saint is 

also called Orezač or Zarizoj. On that day, 

a priest visits the winemakers, and together 

with the host and household members 

goes to the vineyard, to pray, burn incense, 

bless with oil and sprinkle holy water, to 

prune symbolically. In the honor of the 

vine, symbolizing the beginning of a new 

cycle of nature and man. 

People believe that the harvest will be 

good of it rains or snows on the St. Tryphon’s 

Day. If the sky is clear, the year will 

be dry and harvest poor. Vines may miss 

water, but in a dry year it gives abundant 

and good quality yield. And many other 

folk beliefs, very picturesque, with ancient 

memories embedded in them, are connected 

with this holiday. St. Tryphon is the 

baptized name of some Serbian genealogies, 

and his day was taken in some settlements 

as the Saint Patron Day of the entire 

settlement. 

The rite of 

the beginning: In 

vineyard of Dragan 

Mladenović from the 

village of Brestovik, 

near Smederevo, on 

Saint Tryphon Day 

in 2016 

Photo: 

Vladimir Gogić 


31

П О С Е Т А / П О С Е Щ Е Н И Е / V I S I T 

A vineyard 

in the region of 

Smederevo 

Holy martyr Tryphon is presented on 

icons in traditional coat, with a cloak. In one 

hand he holds a sickle and a bundle, and a 

cross and vine in the other. He is also presented 

in a suit with a cloak, surrounded by geese. 

IF IT WERE MORE HONEST, 

BUT IT ISN’T 

Recently, on the St. Tryphon’s Day, we 

found ourselves in vineyards of Smederevo, 

in the village of Brestovik, to witness the ritual 

beginning of the wine year. Beautiful undulating 

landscape, eagerly turned towards 

the sun and the Danube. Fifty-five-year old 

Dragan Mladenović, winemaker, is the fourth 

generation of the local wine growers and 

winemakers. On six acres he grows autochthonous 

species and is famous in the Serbian 

Danube region as the biggest producer of 

grapes and wine. His vineyards follow the 

coast of the Danube, and the first was planted 

even before the Great War. .. He tells us that 

the problems winemakers are big, particularly 

outside the EU, where there are no adequate 

subsidies. 

– With great effort, he can live very nicely 

and comfortably, but he must have at least a 

hundred hectares of vineyard. Let’s say, there 

is no investment in anti-hail protection and 

drip irrigation that is below 18,000 Euros per 

hectare of the vineyard. In order to cover 

this pay it off, he must harvest a lot of grapes 

– says Mladenović. 


Red grape variety is the preferred one in 

the market, and it is bought by private wineries 

from Montenegro and Raška regions. 

More than two decades ago, in that difficult 

period here, the market was occupied by 

the Macedonians, primarily with low price 

and acceptable quality. Many winemakers 

lost the race and gave up, abandoning vine 

plants and are turning to other cultures, 

mostly other fruits. 

– If there was a more honest state support, 

more systematic and considerable, 

Serbia would be famous for grapes and 

wine of the highest quality. But it is not – 

describes Mladenović, calmly and reasonably, 

without hesitation and without that 

typical whining tone. 

The winemakers of Smederevo also 

have other difficulties. One is reflected in 

the news from the end of September 2010. 

It was broadcast by “Beta” agency, and this 

chronicler wrote it. Unknown persons harvested 

about two tons of grapes from Merlot 

Vineyard of Dragan Vasić from Smederevo. 

The owner has planted the vineyard in 2007 

and it was the first harvest. He planned to 

start harvesting in October. 

– There is almost no Merlot in Smederevo. 

I planted it to represent our wine 

region as the place that produces highquality 

and serious red wine – says Vasić, 

reluctantly remembering the whole thing. 

– The harvesters almost did not leave any 

traces. Obviously, it was someone who was 


33

V I S I T 

View of the 

Danube from 

the vineyard in 

Brestovik and 

the city (in the 

distance) 

very familiar with vineyards because the 

variety Cabernet Sauvignon, then still unripe, 

was not touched. They did the whole 

thing between my two visits to the vineyard. 

I could understand if someone took a 

hundred-two hundred kilos, harvested the 

first row to improve the color and aroma 

of its wine by mixing it. But, they harvested 

and carried two tons of grapes in broad 

daylight! 

In vineyards of Smederevo Merlot 

grows only on several hectares of vineyards 

around the villa of the Obrenović Dynasty. 

After that event, in order to preserve this 

variety until ripening and harvest, Vasić had 

to hire regular guards. 

VINEYARD IS A FINE EMBROIDERY 

One cannot socialize with winemakers 

of Smederevo, without remembering the 

past times, better and more noble. In Smederevo 

we also talked with descendants of 

Gavrilo M. Đorić, formerly famous winemaker 

of Smederevo, but also an industrial, 

landowner, merchant. Nicknamed Gajiška, 

he educated his two daughters and a son 

at Sorbonne University and mostly corresponded 

with them in French, and was also 

able to do that in several other languages. 

Without hesitation he was sending letters 

to King Peter, more often and more easily 

than someone today would jump over the 

fence. On 15 May 1930, American consul 

Stewart E. McMillan writes to Gavrilo with 

utmost respect: “As your company has already 

been registered, through this consulate, 

with the Ministry of Economy of the 

USA in Washington...“ At that time, Gajiška 

had leather, paint, way and soap making 

company in America. Educated and entrepreneurial, 

he travelled “around the world”. 

He had a vision of the town of Smederevo 

On the Golden Hill 

There was wine here even before, but flourishing of the viticulture 

is linked to the period of the Roman emperor Probus 

(3 rd century AD), born in the vicinity of Sirmium. He allowed and 

encouraged the spreading of viticulture, outside the privileged 

areas and social strata. During his reign, grape was planted 

on the ova Beneficial Hill (Alma Mons), on Fruška gora, on the 

outskirts of today’s village of Šulјam. According to Probus’ decision, 

the planting of grapes also started in Smederevo, on 

the slopes of the Golden Hill (Mons Aureus), facing the Danube, 

with the maximum number of sunny days in a year and 

moderate humidity. 

Patriotism 

In the eve of World War Two, which he 

didn’t live to see, the great winemaker from 

Smederevo Gavrilo M. Đorić sent a letter to 

his son Milorad in France, where he was 

studying. “My son, a war is about to break 

out here. Come back to Serbia. If you must 

die for your country, so be it.” Of course, 

Milorad came back. As a reserve captain 

fought in the army of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, 

was captured and spent most of 

the war in German captivity. 

as the center of industry and trade +, and 

he exported goods to America and Japan. 

At that time, in the entire Serbia it was 

possible to buy stationery, actually a purchase 

order with printed address: “Vineyards 

of Gavrilo M. Đorić, Smederevo”. In Serbian 

and German. The following references were 

printed on the purchase order, also bilingually: 

“Natural white wine of Smederevo 

from the vineyard of Gavrilo M. Đorić, Smederevo, 

awarded at exhibitions: in Liege with 

the Grand Prix, in London with gold medal, 

in Brussels with gold and silver medal, at the 

Agricultural Fair in Belgrade with monetary 

award and at the World Exhibition in Tokyo 

with gold medal.” 

Pay attention: in the period between the 

two world wars, a winemaker from Smederevo 

won the first awards in Tokyo, London, 

Brussels, Liege. He had printed Lieges, 

New Year’s greeting cards to in-keepers and 

hotel owners, postcards, envelopes, labels... 

Dr. Jelena Đorić, Gavrilo’s daughter, 

was the first woman with a PhD degree 

in Serbia, an associate of Mary Curie. She 

worked at the State Chemical Laboratory 

in Belgrade. And the old Mrs. Đorić used 

to say: “Vineyard is like fine embroidery. 

It requires constant dedication and care. 

If that is missing, everything will be gone 

in the blink of an eye.” She wouldn’t let a 

single grape to go bad after Gavrilo’s death. 

At harvest time, Mrs. Đorić was already in 

the vineyards before all the workers. She 

was welcoming the harvesters and gave 

to each one of them candies wrapped in 

colorful wrapping paper. Malicious people 

say: when a harvester eats such a sweet 

candy, grapes afterwards taste sour, so they 

wouldn’t eat it during the harvest. It was 

not out of goodness of her heart, they say, 

but a calculated move. Candies have always 

been cheaper than grapes. s 



35

C L O C K H A N D S 


IN MALI RADINCI, IN SREM, THE TOWER CLOCK IS PUNCTUAL AS A STAR 

Measuring Time 

in the Plains 

Tower is always the first to be seen from a distance. As you approach, the village slowly emerges. 

The church tower remains a landmark for all. It is a clock tower. This clock in Mali Radinci works 

unmistakably. Golden Hands of Jovan Kovačević enabled the village to have what many cities do not, 

even the nearby Ruma. Parts for the clock were cast in bronze in Budapest, in the 18 th century. The 

mechanism is driven by an engine for wind wipers for Yugo, purchased at a flea market. Now everyone 

knows what time it is. And that is not little, for the beginning 

By: Katarina Filipović 

Mali Radinci, a village in the municipality 

of Ruma, has a population of not 

more than a thousand, in about two 

hundred households. It is full of great little stories 

in which the spirit of Srem is pulsating, and 

even this village in it. This is one of those stories. 

When it once happened that the clock on 

the church tower broke down, the locals did 

not want to ignore it. But the solution was not 

easy to come by. There are not many people 

today who are skilled in old crafts. Who can 

overcome the mechanism that weighs over a 

hundred kilograms, and is made up of a myriad 

of small parts? Who, other than big and 

expensive companies, which charge very high 

price even when they say “good afternoon”? 

– Jovan can – someone said. – Jovan 

Kovačević. Definitely. 

Jovan Kovačević is a native of Srem and 

Mali Radinci. His great-grandfather was from 

Krušedolski Prnjavor, and great-grandmother 

from Russia. Destiny later brought them to Mali 

Radinci, to the house where the family lives today. 

Within his house, Jovan turned one room 

into a workshop in which, one might say, important 

work are often made. It was there that 

we had a coffee with Jovan and talked about everything. 

How did get involved in such unusual 

work, and what has motivated him? 

As might be expected, Jovan only has 

knowledge and skilled hands, but also the love 

of his village and the folk tradition. That is why 

this little village has something that many cities 

do not have: a church clock that works! Even 

Ruma, the center of the municipality to which 

Little Radinci belong, has no clock that works 

on a single Christian Orthodox building. 

– Since childhood I have liked various 

mechanisms, I was quite dedicated – says Jovan. 

– That is why, when it was necessary to 

repair the clock on the village church, they remembered 

me. 

The clock on the Church of St. Nicholas in 

Mali Radinci is now working like very few on 

Jovan 

Kovačević 

and the 

church in 

Mali Radinci 

Clock on 

the Congregational 

Church 

in Belgrade 


37

C L O C K H A N D S 

Clock on the 

Petrovaradin 

Fortress 

churches in Srem. It coincided somehow 

that precisely then, when he clock started 

working, the church also came to life in 

other ways. Reconstruction of the roof was 

necessary. 

– A working clock would be in vain if 

the church roof is leaking – said Jovan and 

shrugged. – With the help from donations, 

as well as funds provided by the provincial 

government, the roof was repaired. Step by 

step, things are being solved. There is still a 

lot of work before the village church board, 

but things are now in motion and that is important. 

It will be easier now. 

WORKS ON ITS OWN, 

AS THE TIME GOES BY 

– Already in 1912, the village clock on 

the Church of St. Nicholas stopped at twenty 

minutes to twelve. It stayed there until 2001. 

The then president of the local community 

Mali Radinci, in a desire to do something 

good for his village, initiated a repair of the 

old winding mechanism. The clock worked 

for a year, but they had to hire a man to 

come by once a day to wind it. When a year 

passed, the church clock stopped again, like 

before. And then, last year, the village priest 

came to me and asked me: can we do something 

to make the clock work again, but 

without having to hire someone to wind it? 

And so it started all over again. Jovan 

repaired the old mechanism, but in such 

a manner that nobody had to come and 

wind it. However, he said, a new question 

appeared: what happens when the power 

goes out? 

– I solved this by using a battery – he 

continues. – I made the entire scheme, installed 

the adapter. The work was financed 

by the village Church Board. 

Jovan took us to the church, and showed 

how the mechanism works. He expressed 

gratitude to the young village priest, who 

has done a lot for the village in only one 

Hardworking and Honest People 

Are in Demand Again 

While showing us the mechanism in the Church of St. Nicholas, 

Jovan Kovačević gently smiled and somehow glowed. He was 

proud for having given his contribution. He worked previously as a 

bus driver, retired as an employee of “Rumekon” from Ruma, which 

is a container producer. The owner of that company still seeks advice 

from him. It may not be fashionable, but hardworking and 

honest people will again be increasingly in demand. 

year, as Jovan says. It is all in vain, he says, if 

there is no one to get things going. A good 

will and positive energy are the drivers of 

everything. 

– I am a mechanic by profession, but 

since I can remember I have loved these 

mechanisms and electronics. Engineer Aca 

Jelić from Ruma and I repair the church 

clocks together. We worked in the congregational 

churches and temples in Belgrade 

and Novi Sad, and wherever we were invited. 

When we estimate that there is no possibility 

for a quality repair, as was the case 

in Platičevo, then do not take the job, but 

we advise people to buy a new mechanism. 

In Futog we mounted scaffolding, climbed a 

lot, but we managed to do what was needed. 

We are satisfied. In Mali Radinci, it was 

possible for me to work at home. I took the 

mechanism weighing about three hundred 

kilograms apart, and brought it into my 

workshop. It is of very good quality and expensive. 

Its castings were made in Budapest 

in the 18 th century, from real bronze, and it 

was not worn at all. At that time, they really 

did not try to save money on such things. 

IT IS WORTH MUCH, 

BUT DOES NOT COST MUCH 

Jovan Kovačević has golden hands, 

skilled in old and rare craft. 

He has managed to start the old system 

of the church clock, by applying more recent 

solutions, but by keeping the authenticity. 

The story about this master is a story about 

a village in Srem that has to be imaginative 

to make things go for the better. It does not 

sit and wait for solutions to arrive from afar. 

– They asked me from the Church Board 

how much the repair of the clock would 

cost. I said that I would do it for the village, 

and it would not cost anything. According to 

my calculations, the clock was delayed twenty 

seconds on an annual basis. As the clock 

is returning, it would be reduced to ten seconds, 

which is negligible. And then it turned 

out, for the New Year’s Eve, that the clock is 

accurate in a second. Everyone called me to 

tell me that – Jovan says and smiles, almost 

boyishly. – People did not believe, but the 

truth is that the hands and the entire mechanism 

are driven by the engine that runs 

window wipers on a Yugo. I bought three in 

Ruma, for 4,500 dinars. I would have taken 

some more, but couldn’t find them. They are 

old, but they work great. s 



39

В Е К / C E N T U R Y 


METROPOLITAN AMFILOHIJE: A SERMON MARKING THE HUNDREDTH ANNIVERSARY 

OF THE BATTLE OF MOJKOVAC (1916–2016) 

For the Salvation 

of Montenegro and 

Entire Serbdom 

This is how famous sirdar Janko Vukotić called his warriors to battle, on Christmas Eve of 1916, in 

Mojkovac, saving the face of both his homeland and his king gone astray. “If you manage to keep off 

the enemy for 24 hours, you will pay your debt to Serbdom”, wrote regent Aleksandar Karađorđević to 

the sirdar a day earlier. And so it was, they sacrificed themselves to help their brothers and became an 

eternally shining immortal example. Today, at the time of a terrible disorder between Montenegro and 

Serbia, it is a spark we can all be warmed by 

When, after Holy Petar II of Lovćen 

the Oracle passed away 

(1851) and Prince Danilo Petrović 

chose the path of a secular ruler, archimandrite 

Nićifor Dučić said: “Here’s a 

new misfortune for the Serbian people.” 

Prince Danilo, accepting the role of only 

secular ruler, took a path different from the 

one down which his Petrović predecessors 

walked and led Montenegro, the supporters 

and carriers of the idea of renewing the 

“Slavic-Serbian empire”, from Metropolitan 


41

C E N T U R Y 

Crowded “Sava” 

Center in Belgrade: 

Academy marking 

the centennial 

of the Battle of 

Mojkovac 

Danilo “duke of Serbian land” to Petar II. 

The direction is clearly stated in the message 

of Petar II sent to prince Aleksandar I 

Karađorđević through Matija Ban (1848): 

“He goes to Prizren as a king, I go to Peć as 

a patriarch.” And added: “Tell him to give 

up Europe, which is holding a dead Turkish 

hand under our throat.” 

The supporter of the same idea was undoubtedly 

Danilo’s successor, great prince 

and king of Montenegro, Nikola I Petrović. 

His anthem: “There, there, behind those 

hills… to see Prizren, that is mine, I’m going 

home”; his liberation of the Vasojevići 

as “pivot of the Raška land” (as he also 

sang) and, together with his brother-inlaw, 

king Petar I Karađorđević, liberation 

of Kosovo and Metohija (1912); his 

invitation to Montenegrins (1914), after 

Austro-Hungary had declared war to Serbia, 

to follow “their two old Serbian kings” 

in defending the freedom and face of the 

Serbian nation – all that and many other 

things, show that he continued walking the 

road of his holy lineage. 

However, through him began the fulfillment 

of the bitter prophecy of Nićifor 

Dučić. At the beginning, the most important 

thing for him was liberation and unification, 

in the spirit of Dušan’s Empire, of 

enslaved brothers (his message to Prince 

Mihailo Obrenović – it is important to 

unite Serbdom, even if he had to hold the 

Serbian prince’s stirrup). However, after 

his coronation with the crown of Holy 

Stefan of Dečani (1910), and suggesting 

his Metropolitan Gavrilo Dožić, later Serbian 

patriarch, for the first Metropolitan 

of Peć (after the suspension of the Patriarchate 

of Peć in 1766), it is obvious that 

he still hoped he would be the unifier of 

Serbian lands and restorer of the Patriarchate 

of Peć. But, historical events took 

a different turn. It became clear to him already 

since the First and Second Balkan 

War, especially during World War I. So, 

near the end of his life, in order to save his 

dynasty, he found himself in a position to 

sacrifice many things he fought for his entire 

life, as well as his royal face. Secretly 

negotiating, through his sons, with Austro-Hungary 

behind the back of his allies, 

Serbia and Russia, following his personal 

and dynastic interests, probably believing 

that Serbia is doomed, probably receiving 

promises about expanding the borders of 

Montenegro, after the fall (better to say 

strange handover of Lovćen), king Nikola 

signed capitulation, ordered the dissolution 

of the Montenegrin army, and set off 

alone across the sea, down a road different 

than the one taken, over the Albanian 

Golgotha, by his brother-in-law Petar I 

and grandson, crown prince Aleksandar. 

A SAD ENDING OF THE 

“EMPEROR OF HEROES” 

It happened for the first time in his 

sixty-year reign: as if king Nikola, rightfully 

called “emperor of heroes”, renounced 

with such an act the prince and king from 


Vučji Do, Grahovac, from the time of the 

Montenegrin-Ottoman war and the Herzegovian 

uprising, the Balkan wars, beginning 

of World War I… However, his face and the 

face of Montenegro of that time was saved 

in Mojkovac, on Christmas day of 1915, by 

sirdar Janko Vukotić, chief of staff of the 

Montenegrin army Supreme Command, 

commander of the Herzegovian unit and 

Sandžak army, together with Mitar and 

Milo Martinović and other commanders. 

Following the telegram sent by the Serbian 

army commander, regent Aleksandar: “If 

you manage to keep off the enemy for 24 

hours, you will pay your debt to Serbdom”, 

sirdar Janko, during the burning of the 

Christmas oak branch, promised that, with 

the help of Almighty God, “our brave muscles 

will save Montenegro and the entire 

Serbdom”. The later words of the same regent 

testify that it did happen: “The example 

of immortal heroes, who sacrificed themselves 

in the Battle of Mojkovac in 1915, for 

the glory of Montenegro and the honor of 

our army, will glow eternally.” Thus the later 

famous saying: “If it weren’t for Christmas 

in Mojkovac, there wouldn’t have been Easter 

in Kajmakčalan.” 

And not only that: these two orientations 

– the power craving and dynastic of 


43

В Е К / C E N T U R Y 

king Nikola in the last years of his life, 

and the Mojkovac-Lazar like of Janko 

Vukotić and other knights of Mojkovac 

– leave a deep trace on the entire life of 

Montenegro (as well as Serbia), lasting to 

the present day. After the end of World 

War I, a great majority of Montenegrins 

(the separatist capitulation of king Nikola 

and his fleeing had a big contribution), 

at the Great Podgorica Assembly (1918) 

voted in favor of unification with Serbia, 

that is, Yugoslavia, while the Holy Synod 

of the Orthodox Church in the Kingdom 

of Montenegro (the first of all metropolitanates 

of the previous Patriarchate of 

Peć) voted for establishing the unity of 

the Patriarchate of Peć – on November 

16, 1918. A relatively small group of supporters 

of king Nikola, encouraged by the 

Italian army, raised the fratricidal Christmas 

Uprising (1918), exclusively for dynastic 

reasons. 

MOJKOVAC, STRONG 

SERBIAN FORTRESS 

The so-called green-white division in 

Montenegro, encouraged by the Commu- 


nist Party and revolution, later grew into 

fratricide between partisans and chetniks 

(Serbia experienced the same suffering), 

and later, after World War II, received in 

Montenegro a form of national divisions, 

spreading in time on all areas of social 

life – the separation of Serbia and Montenegro, 

the melting away of the language, 

culture, even the attempt of schism within 

the Church. The newly-born Montenegro, 

conceived and born in Broz’s Jajce, 

stopped being King Nikola’s Montenegro 

after its betrayal of Kosovo and Metohija, 

Orthodox Christianity, by abolishing 

the Cyrillic alphabet, began with the 

Austro-Hungarian and Nazi-fascistic 

occupation. 

Renouncing itself, it is now in search of 

a Duklja-Montenegrin identity, built upon 

an invented Duklja mythology and tribalatheistic 

European market economy and 

its integrations. Everything is for sale: God, 

soul, face, father, mother. Unfortunately, 

Serbia is also forgetting the Karađorđević- 

Lazar orientation, its unique feature until 

after World War I, and, after passing 

through the bolshevist-Titoistic wasteland, 

is today also flirting with the almighty fetishized 

deity of the earthly empire, called 

market economy of the “new order” of 

post-Christian Europe. (Just remember the 

Serbian minister of education, who has recently 

declared war against God, faith, religious 

education, replacing it with his fetish 

made of ignorance.) 

In renouncing their commitment to 

the Heavenly Kingdom, Serbia and Montenegro, 

already in 1946, gave birth to 

autonomous province of Kosmet, today 

grown into so-called “independent Kosova”, 

gaining more independent features 

and forms every day in Brussels, with the 

previous recognition of its independence 

by the Montenegrin authorities and with 

the approval of the present Serbian authorities. 

Those, however, who continued their 

Austro-Hungarian-German (from World 

Wars I and II) Nazi-fascistic internal and 

external occupation with their NATO 

bombing of Serbia and Montenegro, 

plucking out Kosovo and Metohija from 

the bosom of Serbia, are they not holding 

a “dead” yet iron hand of such anti-Christian 

Europe, not only under our throat, 

but under the throat of the entire world?! 

“Drink sweet sherbet from the Prophet’s 

cup or expect his axe blow between 

your ears!” 

Be as it may, Mojkovac was and will 

always be a strong fortress. The poet says, 

speaking through Janko Vukotić: “Oh, 

Lovćen, Dušan’s pride / You have been unconquered 

by now / until this bugbear of 

the world came / wrapped in thick darkness 

/ but Brskovo, Lovćen will be ours (and 

Kosovo) / the eastern (Mojkovac-Kosovo 

vow) detachment will be glorified.” 

(“Sava Centar”, Belgrade, January 18, 

2016. Equipped by: NR Press) 


45

C E N T U R Y 

THE BATTLE OF MOJKOVAC, IN THE LIGHT OF HEAVENLY AND FOLK TRUTH 

By the Holy Vow 

of Kosovo 

Just as the Lord did not go to Golgotha to be defeated but he won, and “The Empire of Glory” is 

inscribed on its cross, the heroes of Mojkovac, with their virtue and noble sacrifice overpowered the evil. 

They were led by the vow of the holy Lazar’s vow and unconditional loyalty to one’s nation. The official 

ideology in the communist Yugoslavia found this objectionable, and some still think like this today 

By: 

Archpriest 

Stavrophor 

Savo B. Jović 

At Holy Cross, on the eve of the 

Epiphany, in 2016, I attended a 

magnificent ceremony marking the 

centenary of the Battle of Mojkovac, which 

was held in “Sava” Center in Belgrade, with 

the blessing of His Holiness Serbian Patriarch 

Irinej. 

And while Patriarch Irinej and Metropolitan 

Amfilohije spoke about the importance 

of this battle, and the actors revived 

those great heroes led by Serdar Janko 

Vukotić – in short, during the course of 

this visual-musical program and while 

gusle of Boško Vujačić were s sobbing, 

with which he exclaimed the verses of Radovan 

Bećirević Trebješki on the Battle 

of Mojkovac (which I was reading about 

in my younger days which inspired me to 

become more familiar with historical facts 

about this battle) – my thoughts were wandering 

through the past. I remembered 

those people who were living in a time 

when the mere mention of this battle was 

banned. I say deliberately: I remembered 

those people, and not those times, because 

it is not the time to blame because they behaved 

inhumanly, and therefore nobody’s 

behavior could be justified with words “it 

was such a time”. St. Basil the Great warns 

us that “what distinguishes a good person 

from a bad one is exactly the fact that the 

good man will use what God has given 

him to do good, and bad man turns to the 

same good to evil”. Accordingly, the bigger 

the number of those who abused the gift 

of time and turned their backs to God, and 

face and heart to the demon, the worse and 

less bearable was the time. Those and such 

people forbade the truth about the Battle 

of Mojkovac, and they are to be blamed 

for the fact that the time the Lord had 

granted to us they used for evil rather than 

for good. It is their responsibility that this 

battle was omitted from school textbooks 


and books dedicated to the events from 

that time, and included in indictments and 

verdicts to those who were talking about it. 

FROM BROTHERLY LOVE 

The fact that Serdar Janko and his heroes 

saved the Serbian army withdrawing 

through Montenegro and Albania to 

Greece did not serve somebody’s interests, 

and it seems it is so even today. These and 

such people who are serving demons could 

not, and cannot understand Serbian determination 

and courage that adorned Janko 

Vukotić and his warriors, and even less 

could they understand that exactly God- 

Man Christ was giving strength to their 

courage, Christ who was born that Christmas 

on Mojkovac and to whom they gave 

themselves as offerings, instead of gold and 

incense. Thus empowered newborn Christ 

Child, strengthening each other’s faith, they 

went into the battle, into death, not fearing 

for a moment the fact that the enemy was 

much better armed and far more numerous. 

The goal of these brave knights was 

to save the brothers, and they succeeded, 

literally executing then on Mojkovac the 

Christ’s commandment that says: there is 

no greater love than this, than when one 

gives his life for his fellow man (v. Jn 15.13). 

Therefore, judging by the love of God and 

one’s neighbor, and not by the number of 

participants and war strategy, this battle 

was won, and is one of the largest that 

Serbs have ever waged. 

Serdar Janko Vukotić and his heroes, 

imbued with the Lazar’s holy vow on 

Kosovo, chose a sacrifice for which Heaven 

is deserved – and they deserved it. They 

opted for the Kingdom of Heaven, the 

heavenly Serbia, but not in the sense that 

is today largely misunderstood by some, 

but as a spiritual commitment to following 

Prince Lazar and other Serbian martyrs 

and saints from our lineage, headed 

by Saint Sava, who had earlier become 

citizens of the eternal Kingdom of Christ. 

On Mojkovac, they resisted the powerful 

enemy with a desire to win evil with 

good, and, like Christ accepted the cross 

and the suffering, aware that the Lord did 

not go to Golgotha to be defeated but to 

win and – he won, because of which “The 

Empire of Glory” is inscribed on its cross. 

That is why the knights of Mojkovac won 

and joined the glory of the Kingdom of 

Heaven. 

The said Academy in “Sava“Center 

pointed to the fact, and was evidence that, 

no manner how much the forces of darkness 

tried and are trying to erase this battle 

from people’s memory, it will never be 

forgotten, not only because its participants 

did not feel sorry for themselves sacrificing 

their lives for the brothers, but also because, 

and primarily because with that sacrifice 

they showed they are in Christ. And 

that is why they are alive and their deed 

will live forever, because Christ, whom 

they carried in their hearts, is always alive 

and invincible. 

I am grateful to everyone who contributed 

their work and expertise and in 

any other way for this Academy to be so 

exceptionally organized and for making 

us so proud that evening with such a rich 

program. s 

(The author is Chief Secretary of the 

Holy Synod of the Serbian Orthodox 

Church. Equipped by: NR Press) 

From the 

program of the 

Academy in “Sava” 

Center 


47

L I G H T H O U S E S 

Russian insignia on 

the building of State 

Duma in Moscow 


ST. SAVA IN THE RUSSIAN IMPERIAL CHRONICLE (2) 

Permanently Rising 

the Deeds of Ancestors 

There are several important Serbian threads embedded in the birth of the first Russian empire, from 

living blood to important laws. The Rurikovich dynasty has seeds of the Nemanjić, Dragaš, Jakšić, 

Belimužević families. Ivan III Vasilyevich built the Administrative Book of St. Sava and Dušan’s Laws 

and Regulations into the legal foundations of Russia. Ana Glinska Jakšić brought up her grandson, 

Ivan IV the Mighty, the first Emperor of Russia, on the hagiographies of St. Sava and holy Prince Lazar. 

She used the Kosovo pledge to teach him about the heavenly kingdom and vertical of holiness. The 

brotherhood of Russians and Serbs is not a mere “lucky metaphor” 

By: Milovan Vitezović 

The father of Princess Elena Glinskaya, 

future Grand Princess of Moscow, 

was Russian-Lithuanian Prince 

Vasili Glinski the Blind, and her mother 

was Ana Glinskaya, born Jakšić, daughter 

of Stefan Jakšić (one of the Jakšić brothers 

from the epic poem Sharing of Heritage 

of the Jakšić Brothers, ruler of Belgrade, 

Banat and the Danube valley), duke 

of King Matthias Corvinus, and sister of 

Serbian Despina Jelena, wife of Despot Jovan 

Branković, and Serbian duchess Irina, 

wife of Matija Balšić Kosača, herzeg of the 

Dukedom of St. Sava. 

Besides Lithuania, the Glinski Principality 

included areas of Belarus and Malorus 

(Ukraine), and was permanently threatened 

by the intrusions of Poles, Teutonians 

and Swedes. The threats increased after the 

year 1515, following the death of Prince 

Vasili the Blind, although Princess Ana, 

due to the Prince’s impaired sight, ruled the 

Principality with the help of her sons Yuri, 

Ivan and Michael, preserving the unity and 

protecting the country from invasions. 

From her Serbian roots, Ana Glinskaya 

brought great erudition and piety, since she 

came from two ducal families, Jakšić and 

Belimužević. The Jakšić family was related 

to Prince Lazar with their titles and positions 

(they participated in events creating 

the history of Prince Lazar, later becoming 

a cult), as well as to Despot Stefan and the 

Branković family. The Belimužević family 

was related to St. Sava and the Holy 

Nemanjić Family from the ancient times, 

originating from the Dukedom of St. Sava. 

Ana grew up respecting both cults, the one 

of St. Sava and of Holy Prince Lazar. She 

passed on the respect to her children (especially 

Elena, who was only seven years 

old when Prince Vasili the Blind died) 

and took care of the acceptance of 

cults of Serbian historical saints 

in the Principality of Glinski. 

Thus the names of St. 

Sava and St. Simeon appear 

here in menologes 

and are mentioned in 

gospels handwritten at 

the very end of the XV 

and in the early XVI 

century. 

The fortunes of 

war were variable for 

the family of Ana Glinskaya, 

so the entire family 

was forced to immigrate to 

Moscow after an upheaval. 

That is when a major 

part of the Grand Principality 

of Lithuania was 

incorporated into the 

Muscovite state. 

Photo: 

Aleksandar Ćosić 


49


First Russian Code 

Ivan III proclaimed the Code, first Russian code of laws, including, 

besides Byzantine laws, regulations from the Administrative 

Book of St. Sava and Dušan’s Code. Ivan III took the Byzantine 

two-headed eagle for his own and the state’s coat of arms, and 

introduced Byzantine ceremonies in the Russian palace (considered 

Sophia’s merit). He was called emperor in the ceremonies, 

but he was never crowned, regardless of the open invitation of 

Muscovite Metropolitan Zosim to be proclaimed emperor of all 

Christians. 

The Church of 

St. Basil the Blessed 

in Moscow, built 

upon the order of 

Emperor Ivan IV 

the Terrible 

1555-1561 

The marriage of Princess Elena Glinskaya 

and the Grand Prince of Moscow 

Vasili III Ivanovich, which took place in 

1526, should be observed in the light of 

the merging of two states. 

IN THE FOUNDATIONS 

OF THIRD ROME 

This was the Muscovite prince’s second 

marriage. Since he did not have any 

children in his first marriage, male offspring 

was expected from this one, to 

continue the long noble lineage of the 

Rurikovich family. Those were expectations 

of the entire Russian country, 

as well as other Slavic Orthodox nations 

conquered by the Ottomans, 

to whom a strong Russian state 

gave hope for their own fate. 

Good wishes are seen in the request 

letters of Chilandar monks 

for help – “may an heir be born 

to the prince”, and assurances that 

they are wholeheartedly praying 

to St. Sava and St. Simeon, 

Serbian miracle-workers. 

The expectations were fulfilled. 

Grand Princes Elena gave birth 

to two sons: Ivan in 1530, future Grand 

Prince and Tsar, and Georgy – Yuri in 

1533, future Prince of Uglich. Grand 

Prince Vasili died suddenly that 

same year. The new grand prince 

was three year-old Ivan IV and his 

mother was regent. Little Ivan, carrying 

the title of grand prince since 

the age of three, was taught to ascend 

the deed of his grandfather, who he 

was named after, and the deed of 

his father; to be aware of his origin 

and his historical mission. 

The origin brought him the 

historical mission of the Rurikovich 

dynasty, especially 

his grandfather and father, whose will he 

inherited with the Russian throne. 

Grand Prince of Moscow Vasili III Ivanovich 

was the son of Ivan III Vasilyevich, 

also known as Ivan the Great, who, besides 

the Grand Prince of Moscow title, also 

called himself Prince of All Russians, and 

Zoja – Sophia Palaeologos, granddaughter 

of Byzantine Emperor Manuel II and Jelena 

Dragaš, daughter of Despot Konstantin 

Dragaš (Kostadin Bey in epic poems) 

and granddaughter of Teodora Nemanjić, 

daughter of Serbian King Stefan of Dečani 

and sister of Emperor Stefan Dušan. Ivan 

III gathered several Russian principalities 

under his rule, liberating them from Tatarian 

influence and preparing Moscow 

for a historical mission, to, after the fall 

of Constantinople – the “Second Rome”, 

become the “Third Rome”, protector of all 

orthodox Christians. (Zoja’s sister Elena 

Palaeologos became a Serbian despina 

by marrying Despot Lazar Branković, the 

last defender of Smederevo). By marrying 

Princess Zoja, who was given a Russian 

name Sophia after the marriage, Ivan III 

gained the right to consider their offspring 

descendants of Byzantine emperors and 

Serbian kings and emperors. 

Looking up to Constantine’s architecture, 

he raised a city named after him, 

Ivangorod, on the opposite side of the 

Teutonic Order, and, with the support of 

Aristotele Fioravanti, famous architect 

from Bologna, began the construction of 

the magnificent Kremlin in Moscow, to 

become a foundation of “Third Rome”. 

DESCENDANTS, TEMPLE, 

CITY, EMPIRE 

Ivan’s son Vasili III not only continued, 

but also developed the Russian state 

philosophy of his father. He completely 

heeded the Byzantine symphony – the 

harmony of spiritual and state authority, 

upon which the Serbian kingdom and 

empire were based, and created conditions 

for its realization, suppressing the 

uprisings of boyars and simultaneously 

annexing the Glinski and Ryazan principality, 

fighting against Turkey and the 

Crimea and Kazan khanate. Fighting 

against the boyars, he leaned upon the 

church, giving it privileges and making 

it rich. “The Orthodox Apostle Church, 

under your powerful reign, shines with 



51


Great Moscow 

prince Ivan III 

Vasilјevič 

Jelena Glinska, 

forensic facial 

reconstruction, S. 

Nikitin, 1999 

Great Moscow 

prince Vasilije III 

Ivanovič 

Orthodox faith, up to the end of earth, 

more bright than the sun…” The church 

also wished for symphony and was grateful: 

“Hear, pious Emperor, all Christian 

kingdoms have merged in you. Two 

Romes have fallen, the third is standing, 

the fourth will never exist…” 

The first worry of Vasili III was to first 

gain offspring, and then to be crowned. 

When he finally did gain offspring – he 

died as grand prince. 

Grand Prince Vasili III Ivanovich, in 

the spacious architectural area of the imperial 

Kremlin (convinced that he should 

first erect a city and then declare the empire), 

raised the Cathedral of Archangel 

Michael as the edifice of his reign, built 

by Alviso Novi from Venice. It is a fivedome 

church dedicated to Archangel Michael, 

designed and built in the Russian 

spirit, with flamboyant, Renaissance style 

facades. Byzantine architecture thereby 

achieved the monumentality of Russian 

imperial churches, worthy of being a tomb 

for grand princes and later tsars. Making a 

plan of dignity of his ancestors, as soon as 

Krušedol and the “Wedding Vows” 

Prince Vasili Glinski and Princess Ana, upon the plea of her sister, 

Despina Jelena Branković, supported, as a “wedding vow”, the 

completion of the Krušedol Monastery, after the death of patron 

Despot Jovan (the monastery was raised by Jelena’s brother in 

law Metropolitan Maksim and his mother Angelina). They also, together 

with Grand Prince of Moscow Vasili III, supported the construction 

of a female monastery near Krušedol, whose prior was 

mother Angelina, who, with her son Maksim, entered the wreath 

of Serbian saints. 

the roof was placed on the Church, prince 

Vasili began moving sarcophagi into it. He 

left the painting of the temple, however, to 

his heir Ivan IV Vasilyevich. 

The grand plan of Grand Prince of 

Moscow Ivan III, continued by his son 

and heir of the throne Vasili III, preparing 

the realization of the historical plan 

to make the Grand Muscovite Principality, 

in continuous spreading and growing 

of power, a compact state – Russia, 

the new Christian empire after Byzantium, 

had only one more assumption – 

the final suspension of sharing supreme 

power between the grand prince and 

boyars. The next grand prince in the Rurikovich 

series – Ivan IV, was supposed 

to resolve the assumption, with the will 

of historical fate. Boyars, especially the 

most powerful ones, co-princes of principalities, 

whose power was reduced by 

Grand Prince Vasili III to the utmost 

limits of their dissatisfaction, wanted to, 

led by princes Shuyski and Belski, take 

advantage of his death and the fact that 

the heir to the throne was a three yearold 

boy, whose regent was twenty-five 

year-old Elena Vasilyevna, grand princess. 

They saw an opportunity not only 

to regain lost power, but also to achieve 

dominance. For the beginning, they proclaimed 

themselves regents to the son 

and to her, telling that they are doing so 

according to the Grand Prince’s last will, 

wishing to prevent possible dissatisfaction 

of the metropolitanate, clergy, lower 

aristocratic landowners and common 

people. They particularly attacked Grand 


Princess Elena Vasilyevna, born as princess 

Glinskaya, of Serbian origin, who 

suffered envy of most princesses, from 

co-principalities, those near Moscow and 

in Moscow, ever since her marriage. 

FIRM AS THE KREMLIN WALL 

At the moment the boyars were completely 

convinced of their success, in December 

1533, Grand Princess Elena Vasilyevna 

made an overturn and removed 

from power those who wanted to be tutors 

to little Ivan IV and regents of the 

Grand Muscovite Principality. Returning 

the last will of the deceased prince 

to power, she became a very determined 

first female ruler of already grand Muscovite 

Russia, always emphasizing that 

she is reigning on behalf of her son, displaying 

him during the bringing crucial 

decisions, requesting everyone to take a 

vow of loyalty to him. Elena accelerated 

the further construction of the Kremlin 

and its buildings, to make the successes 

of her and Ivan’s power more visible and 

more astonishing. Her reign was “like the 

wall of the then erected Kremlin”. She 

showed determination towards external 

enemies: in 1536, she forced the Polish 

king Sigismund I to sign a peace agreement, 

very favorable for Russia, and obligated 

Sweden not to support the Livonian 

Order in Lithuania. A special move in the 

reign of Grand Princess Elena Vasilyevna 

was establishing the grand prince’s right 

to mint money for all co-principalities. 

This was the biggest blow to the co-principalities, 

which pushed them into an 

even bigger conspiracy. She introduced 

a common currency, silver kopeyka, the 

so-called ivanovka (there is a page in the 

Imperial Chronicle at the end of the last 

volume, showing young Prince Ivan IV 

and his mother Princess Elena supervising 

the minting of money and checking 

the minted kopeykas). The common currency 

affirmed the economic unity of the 

Grand Muscovite Principality, as well as 

the conspiracy against the princess. After 

five years of successful governance, Elena 

Vasilyevna died at the age of thirty, under 

mysterious circumstances (according to 

present day explanations, the examination 

of her bones, requested by historians, 

discovered mercury poisoning, which 

will probably be taken into consideration 

by history, although it remains open how 

history determined for centuries can be 

re-determined, regardless of new facts). 

Born as heir to the throne, grand 

prince since the age of three, that is ever 

since he had been aware of himself, prepared 

and educated for dignity, Ivan IV 

had five happy years of “princedom” with 

his mother. After his mother’s death, it all 

inverted and turned into a nightmare. The 

Gratitude 

Portrait of 

Ivana IV the 

Terrible, first 

half of the 17 th 

centuray, tempera, 

wood 

Conquering of 

Kazan, fresco 

(Illustrations on 

pages 52 i 53: from 

the book “Saint 

Sava in Russian 

imperial chronicle”, 

Zavod za 

udžbenike, Beograd, 

2012) 

As he showed his gratitude for support and education to Princess 

Ana with defending her, Ivan IV also never forgot Fyodor 

Demid, his teacher, advisor and friend. Respecting the court decision 

on exile, one of the first regulations he brought, after gaining 

power without regents, was proclaiming the Demidovs as a 

royal family. 


53


following eight years, until his maturity, the 

battles for the regent position with Shuyski 

and Belski boyar dynasties, were, according 

to his own confession, humiliating years of 

his life. Especially in 1542, when, afraid for 

his life, he watched the robbing of the state 

treasury, plundering of golden dishes from 

the palace, triumph of the boyars, when 

Ivan Shuyski treaded on his father’s bed 

with muddy boots. His life was constantly 

endangered, but he was most often saved by 

Metropolitan Makarije, since he could not 

share the responsibility for his people and 

state with any of the boyars. Those were the 

years of his education. If his first education 

with his mother was initiated by love and 

necessity, being a grand prince, during the 

years of humiliation by the boyars, it was 

his salvation. 

SAVED FOR GREAT DEEDS 

His education was looked after by the 

one who educated his mother, infusing 

her with pride, dignity and determination, 

which she now transferred to him – 

Princess Ana Glinskaya Jakšić, his grandmother. 

She also introduced him to the 

second branch of his origins, to the Serbian 

spiritual and state heritage, with the 

spiritual and state philosophy of St. Sava, 

ascension of the holy Nemanjić family 

from Stefan Nemanja, unifier of Serbian 

lands, to Emperor Dušan the Mighty, his 

coronation in glory, his convocations and 

proclaiming of the Code, as well as the fall 

of the Serbian Empire and tragic fate of 

Prince Lazar. The book of his education 

was Teodosije’s Hagiography of St. Sava, 

brought from Chilandar by monk Isaija, 

as a gift to his father. In his older age, he 

testified about it with jubilance: “St. Sava 

left his father, mother, brothers, relatives 

and friends and, together with the entire 

empire and aristocracy, carried the cross 

of Christ and achieved such monastic 

feats! His father Nemanja, that is, Simeon, 

and his mother left their empire and 

replaced the purple with monastic robe, 

thereby receiving earthly consolation 

and joy!” 

Princess Ana Glinskaya, as the family regent, 

investing her entire family reputation, 

participated in the political life of Moscow 

and managing the entire Principality with 

her sons Michael and Yuri, ostensibly paying 

attention to all sides of the so-called 

“boyar empire”. At the time of constant battles 

between the Shuyski and Belski families 

for power and who will be the tutor to 

54 SRBIJA • BROJ 54 • 2016.

underage Ivan IV, she did everything to 

preserve the entire Grand Muscovite Principality 

with as little harm as possible, and 

to continuously strengthen the authority 

of her grandson – “he is a child, but the 

princely scepter is not a child”. She did it, 

at first not in alliance, which will happen 

later, with the support of Metropolitan 

of Moscow Makarije, because both boyar 

sides also attacked the generous privileges 

the church received from Ivan III, Vasili III 

and Elena Vasilyevna, especially the wealth 

thereby gained. 

Ana Glinskaya, upon the suggestion 

of the Metropolitan, with the approval 

of both the Shuyski and the Belski families 

(because he was a boyar, but did not 

belong to any side), provided Ivan a Russian 

teacher, Fyodor Demid Semyenchich 

Voronzov, with the title of main consultant. 

Since Voronzov was a duke and diplomat 

of Vasili III and Elena Vasilyevna, 

the Glinski family counted on his certain 

loyalty to the Rurikovich dynasty. The 

loyalty proved to be complete and Ivan 

IV not only gained a great teacher of the 

dynasty history and good adviser, but 

also a trustworthy friend, with whom his 

awareness of the state was formed, giving 

him his first feeling of power and responsibility. 

It was also the awareness that he 

reached his legal age, the age of 16 at the 

time in the Grand Principality, when he 

must take over full responsibility. When 

the rampant boyars, unsatisfied with this 

friendship, ordered beating, arresting and 

execution of Voronzov, Ivan not only 

freed him with the help of Metropolitan 

Makarije, but also placed him as head of 

government. Only a few months later, due 

to the alleged conspiracy of Voronzov 

against Ivan, he was forced by the boyars 

to sign a court decision on exile. However, 

the boyars never regained power. A year 

before Ivan reached legal age, Ana Glinskaya 

took over the reign of the Grand 

Muscovite Principality with her sons, 

on behalf of the one who will soon take 

over the entire power. Ivan IV began his 

rule as grand prince, which he immediately 

turned into autocracy, with settling 

accounts with the boyars who, united in 

hatred, killed his uncle Yuri Glinski at the 

Cathedral of the Dormition. At the same 

time, defending his grandmother, Princess 

Ana, who filled his soul with Serbian 

cults of St. Sava and Prince Lazar, he settled 

accounts with the masses incited by 

the boyars’ wildness and the great arson 

in Moscow. 

The center of 

the “Third Rome”: 

The Red Square 

in Moscow 


55

P A L E T T E 


PAINTER DIMITRIJE AVRAMOVIĆ (1815-1855) AND TREASURES OF OLD SERBIAN ART 

Glittering of 

Golden Seeds 

He was educated in Vienna, but also studied on Mt. Athos, Thessaloniki, Constantinople, Belgrade. He 

was one of the pioneers of the renewal of national self-consciousness in culture. We have the Charter 

of Chilandar today thanks to his transcript. He made important portraits, introduced the subject of 

“St. Nicholas returns sight to Stefan of Dečani” into Serbian icon painting, was founder of Serbian 

caricature. His “Apotheosis of Lukijan Mušicki” is a masterpiece. A romanticist formed on classical 

experience, close to Nazarenes and symbolists, perhaps the forerunner of surrealists. We have 

seventy-seven of his works in the Residence of Princess Ljubica in Belgrade, open until May 3 

By: Dejan Đorić 

Nikola Kusovac is an art historian, 

who not only makes a living 

from art, but also lives for it. 

He recently purchased an extraordinary 

two-meter icon painted by Dimitrije 

Avramović for a larger sum of money. It 

is now in the Ružica Church in Belgrade, 

attracting attention with its beauty. Thus 

Kusovac also attracted attention to a jubilee: 

two centuries since the birth and a 

hundred and sixty years since the death 

of Dimitrije Avramović. A large exhibition 

was opened a year after the jubilee. 

He is an almost forgotten great Serb, interesting 

more to experts than the public, 

although his short life was filled with 

spiritual feats. 

He lived only forty years. He was born 

in Šajkaš, center of the Military Border for 

several centuries, an independent Serbian 

land within the Habsburg Monarchy, as 

well as the central port of the river fleet, 

which caused great trouble to the Ottomans. 

Already in elementary school, he 

drew events and heroes from national 

history, painted small icons on glass, sold 

in villages. After studying with painters 

in Novi Sad, he enrolled in the Imperial 

Academy of Art in Vienna. His main 

role model was Friedrich von Amerling, 

whose works he liked to copy. It was a 

time of completely different views of art. 

Students had to draw several years before 

they would start painting. Avramović was 

so remarkable, that already in his first year 

of studying, he was permitted to copy old 

masters in the gallery. He learned from 

Raphael, Tintoretto, Rembrandt, Mengs, 

Greuze, Italian, Spanish and Flemish artists. 

Like Petar Kočić, who studied philosophy 

in Vienna, and many other Serbian 

students abroad, Avramović was poor 

and hungry, but he absorbed knowledge 

at his drawing and historical painting 

classes, which were then lessons on religious 

painting. 

Miodrag Kolarić says that Avramović 

was recommended to Prince Mihailo 

Obrenović by Vuk Karadžić, who was 

portrayed by the painter in 1840 in Vienna. 

That same year, he began his sketches 

for the iconostasis and wall painting for 

the Cathedral Church in Belgrade. Both 

works were completed four years later, 

and he was afterwards engaged in church 

painting in Topola and Vrdnik. This au- 

Photo: 

Željko Sinobad, 

National Museum 

Archive, “National 

Review” Archive 


57

P A L E T T E 

thor had a crucial role in the transition 

of Belgrade culture from Turkish into 

European. He married a Belgrade girl 

and painted portraits, very popular then, 

among others of Joakim Vujić (whom 

he supported at his old age) and Simo 

Milutinović Sarajlija. 

His permanent wish was to be engaged 

in historical painting, and he was 

educated in a center which mostly emphasized 

the knowledge of historical 

costume. He visited Manasija, Ravanica 

and Chilandar, hoping he would find 

presentations of “old Serbian costumes” 

and portraits of historical figures, but 

this did not help him achieve his objective. 

He published various texts in magazines, 

stories, polemics, aphorisms and 

thoughts, which he entitled “Sundries”, 

as well as translations of Winckelmann’s 

History of Ancient Art. He also began 

literary work and published books Correggio 

and Golden Seeds. His work was 

highly appreciated by the public, as he 

was considered a remarkable intellectual, 

but this separated him from painting 

and did not bring any financial means. 

He received one hundred and fifty ducats 

from the state authorities for traveling 

to Mr. Athos and studying Serbian 

antiques. 

INTERPRETATIONS 

WAITING FOR US 

On the wave of Romanticism, readily 

accepted in Serbia, following the traces 

of Vuk Karadžić, Dimitrije Avramović 

was one of the pioneers of the renewal of 

national self-consciousness. He wrote the 

first two Serbian art monographs, as a result 

of his two-month long work in Mr. 

Athos, Thessaloniki and Constantinople. 

However, similar to Uroš Predić, he also 

never fully understood Serbian medieval 

Character 

“He had a good character. He was charming and likable and 

often made jokes when with friends. Those who didn’t know 

him would say he was a silent type, with a gloomy and serious 

character. His greatest feature was mercifulness. He did good to 

everyone. He was of medium height, with dark skin. His eyes 

pierced with sharp flames and his hair was so sharp, that he 

couldn’t comb it as he wanted. It was always tousled. He didn’t 

care much about his clothes.” (Miša Dimitrijević about Dimitrije 

Avramović) 



59

P A L E T T E 

Purified Art 

“In general, Dimitrije Avramović is a particularly interesting 

artistic figure, an extraordinary phenomenon in the history 

of Serbian art, like Kornelije Stanković in Serbian church music. 

Avramović, unfortunately, did not have time to express his full 

potential, but what came out of his painting brush carried the 

seal of genuine, purified art, the move of the ancient elevation we 

meet in the faces of German classicist Anselm Feuerbach. If we 

were to determine an artistic ranking for Avramović, we would 

place him between Teodor Kračun and Đorđe Krstić.” (Božidar S. 

Nikolajević, PhD: “Memories”) 

painting. He made the best transcripts of 

twenty charters. The original of Nemanja’s 

Charter of Chilandar was later lost, so today 

we know it only from his transcript. In 

that period, he also became the founder of 

Serbian caricature. In agreement with Ilija 

Garašanin, with the approval of Prince 

Aleksandar Karađorđević, he drew and 

lithographically duplicated, often at his 

own expense, caricatures directed against 

Hungarians and their revolution in 1848. 

They were in the spirit of German caricatures, 

which spread after the fall of Napoleon. 

His successes brought him membership 

in the Society of Serbian Literacy 

in 1847, as the first Serbian artist granted 

with such honor. The authorities, however, 

never rewarded him with a permanent 

workplace. They employed others. He returned 

to Novi Sad and continued painting. 

He wanted to go to Rome and Italy, 

but soon after he passed away. According 

to the words of his sister Katarina, he came 

from a kafana one day, banged his top 

hat against the floor yelling: “Now, we’re 

doomed!” and fell down. The news about 

the death of the Russian emperor had such 

an effect on this passionate Russophile. 

Almost the entire movable painting heritage 

of this master was later moved to the 

National Museum, thus Belgrade in a way 

corrected the injustice made to him. 

Artistically, Dimitrije Avramović is 

very significant. He introduced a new 

subject into icon painting: St. Nicholas returns 

sight to Stefan of Dečani. The Portrait 

of Vuk Karadžić is crucial for that kind 

of Serbian art and more valuable than 

his frescoes in the Cathedral Church is 

the gallery-format painting Apotheosis of 

Lukijan Mušicki. He carefully prepared for 

it, by drawing studies and two versions in 

oil on canvas, and made a masterpiece in 

the third version. This painting represents 

him as a romanticist formed on classical 

experience, precisely as a Nazarene. The 

movement of returning to the masters of 

early Renaissance, renewal of Christian 

spirituality in the form of precise drawing 

and pure colors of sacral incidence, 

spreads from Nazarenes to Pre-Raphaelites 

and symbolists. Avramović, in that 

aspect, is one of the forefathers of the 

classical approach in Serbian paintings, 

as well as the forerunner of irrational and 

symbolic. Caricatures confirm him even 

more in that sense, so Dejan Medaković 

noticed well that this educated painter is 

also the forerunner of surrealists. The example 

of Dimitrije Avramović shows how 

valuable, rich, not completely interpreted, 

even misunderstood, the world of old 

Serbian art is. 



61

E X A M P L E S 

DRAGAN NIKOLIĆ (1943-2016), BELGRADE’S “LAST GREAT ONE” AND A BETTER WORLD 

THAT LEFT WITH HIM 

To Be a Light 

“Even today I don’t know what that means. What is a star? How do you become one? It’s probably in the 

awareness of other people. I’ve really never given myself the luxury to think I’m a star, that I’m the best 

or great in any way. I believe no one will be offended if I say this: I think it’s a feature of fools – believing 

you’re someone else” 

By: 

Mišo Vujović 

Photo: 

Željko Sinobad, 

Mile Jelesijević, 

“National Review” 

Archive, “Merkur” 

Archive 

All this today was unreal and far 

away. Both the war and the things 

worse than it. After the war. The 

children of the guardians of communism 

and their offspring evolved from 

red bourgeoisie into newly-born elite 

and tycoons, powerful and arrogant. Everything 

changed except UDBA and the 

syndicate. They are still “agitating”, but 

no one knows for whom?! We have never 

even thought that, stumbling on unpicked 

strawberries, we would become feather 

collectors on the dump of transition, into 

which truck drivers, singing “All I want in 

this moment...”, drive us to the gray home, 

where sad musicians with Burduš without 

a homeland greet us, while in the corner, 

the written off are thinking of a new action 

against notorious Krieger... It was a 

time of more than a game, more than a 

careless childhood, a time of small sorrows 

and great joys, a time that gave birth 

to great people in sports, music, film, theater. 

A time that had role models of the 

street, kafana, movie, ring, microphone... 

It was a time of originals, genuine idols, 

smoothies, charming “rascals” in light 

blue jeans and Beatle haircut, built-up 

bombardiers with a soft heart, attractive 

chicks with the scent of intractable life, 

curvy housewives with deep necklines in 

colored gowns; it was a surreal time of the 

pavement with street palaces of justice 

and courthouses. 

Even besides one TV station and one 

unified opinion (some murmured in low 

voice, following a directive, as bait for hidden 

enemies), we had meaningful extracurricular 

mischiefs... 

From hiding the bicycle of the fourth 

floor neighbor’s lover, to banknotes 

thrown on the pavement, tied with a thin 

fishing thread, which we pulled each time 

someone would bend down to pick them 



63

П Р И М Е Р И / П Р И М Е Р Ы / E X A M P L E S 


up. We loved to celebrate forbidden holidays 

with carbide in building lobbies, initiating 

huge detonations, tie two neighboring 

doors with a rope and then stick 

toothpicks in both doorbells, run away 

from school together when “Zvezda” was 

the guest team and to wriggle through 

the thin opening for selling tickets on 

the northern stand... And we were always 

unified and united, there were no 

snitches, although gloomy Kosta, as an 

older and more experienced man, always 

claimed that the yield of spies in our land 

was always high. 

“Better than potato and beans together”, 

he liked to say. 

But we were united – until The Written 

Off appeared. They shook our unity, 

with a few broken noses. The stumbling 

block was Prle. Tihi, whom we considered 

our Bjelopavlić, was not. Finally, 

and it has been so until this very day, my 

best man Ratko became Prle, the best of 

all of us, fighter against the kleptomaniac 

privatization, who is still, in a Don Quixote 

manner, persistently trying to defend 

the remains not eaten by the Šojićs, as Dr. 

Pavle P., the best internist in Nikšić, calls 

the wasteland behind us. 

The time of wonderful memories 

is merged in one Man – Dragan Gaga 

Nikolić. The story about Gaga Nikolić is 

a story of a time, which is, with a few remaining 

masters of life, slowly fading into 

the amnesic-transformational category 

called History. 

IF I HADN’T ENROLLED 

IN ACTING SCHOOL... 

With his masterful roles, Gaga not 

only became a pop icon of the time, as 

the press keeps stating these days, but 

much more than that. He was a rare phenomenon 

in his field: a magnificent actor, 

a modest and unimposing man, with 

a complete absence of self-marketing and 

narcissism (inseparable from his vocation), 

a great gentleman with a big heart 

and always open wallet, a refined bohemian, 

an emotional knight easily touched 

by the suffering of others, Zvezda fan, a 

boy from Crveni Krst, Belgradian, Serb 

and patriot. Gaga was an exemplar, one 

that doesn’t exist anymore. He mostly 

played the roles of urban, tough guys, heroes 

of Belgrade streets, but, essentially, as 

a man, he was completely different. 

In his private life, he was nothing like 

Prle, Jimmy Barka, Floyd, Popeye, Urke, 

Steve... The unique feature of Gaga’s acting 

transformation, as well as the mark 

of his essential being, was the fact that 

he managed to breathe soul into all those 

marginal guys, to refine and enlighten 

them by giving them a part of himself, 

thus creating characters of righteous rebels 

or proud rascals from the margins of 

life. As a fighter, who was engaged in boxing 

for a short time, he tasted the charms 

of the streets, however without delinquency 

periods, and took the best from 

everyone. The street had its own rules at 

the time – laws, principles, hierarchy... 

stronger and more effective than many 

contemporary institutions, today, unfortunately, 

deformed by the unspoken, but 

dominant side of transition. 

“I was lucky to play in the movies everything 

I’d been deprived of in life. I had 

family and civil upbringing, but I felt the 

scents of the street and early challenges. If 

I hadn’t enrolled in acting school, I would 

have gone to Paris and who knows what 

would have happened with me. I played 

the roles of urban types, desperadoes with 

a soul, yet antiheroes, except perhaps Prle, 

who could have been a bodyguard to some 

politician ater the war...” – remembered 

Gaga, making an analogy that every time 

has its heroes: 

“Even now I get goose bumps when I 

remember Joca Jovanović’s film ‘Young, 

Handsome as a Rose’, the first to speak 

about the conjunction of the police with 

criminals, when I, as a criminal, say at the 

end of the movie: ‘I’m your future’.” 

The character of this most charming 

Belgradian is illustrated by his life motto, 

written in the credits of the first movie 

he played in – for new generations, for 

the actual moment, probably absurd, only 

confirming his strong personality and 

postulates he had been brought up on: 

“Even when I’m dead and gone, I’d still 

like to be some kind of a light.” 

Urban and modern, he was deeply 

traditional, following the motto of his ancestors, 

who lived for judgment day, not 

to disgrace their predecessors and not to 

dishonor their descendants, proven by 

another one of his attitudes towards life: 


65


“Try to pass through life, if possible, 

without getting dirty. If it happens that you 

do get dirty, try not to disgrace yourself.” 

IN THE ECHO OF WARS 

Dragan Nikolić did not only become 

a light; he grew into a huge lighthouse, 

shedding enlightening rays on the more 

beautiful and more refined path of art and 

life. The path more difficult to walk on, 

but lasting longer. There is almost nothing 

more to say about him as an actor, about 

his roles. Everything has been told and 

written already during his lifetime. Both 

experts and the audience, individuals and 

institutions, known and unknown, wellintended 

and cynics, were all united in 

their opinion that he was the best among 

the best in his work. Every role was “made” 

for him. 

However, Dragan Nikolić never liked 

being in the spotlight. Even in kafanas. 

He kept his intimacy, his friends, and acquaintances 

from “Talija”, “Potkovica” and 

other Belgrade kafanas. 

I met my childhood idol for the first 

time, thanks to the doyen of Serbian photography, 

Mile Jelesijević, in the nineties, 

in Rose, where I had just arrived from 

the Herzegovinian front. Boro Glogovac, 

driver of Colonel Novica Gušić, drove me 

there, so that I could finally have a summer 

holiday with my family in Herceg Novi, 

and to drive back Mile, then stationed in 

Rose, to the Nevesinje front. I remember 

almost every detail. Gaga, tanned, in white 

Bermuda shorts and navy striped shirt, relaxed, 

with a few expressions on his face, 

carefully listened to the story about the 

preacher from the village of Dujmovići 

under Treskavica and his dedication to 

Islam, which was so strong that he even 

painted bean and tomato sticks in green, 

as well as his entire house and yard. 

“Perhaps he just marked himself so that 

Allah could see him better from above”, 

commented Gaga with a smile this picturesque 

detail about the village preacher 

and his vilayet. 

We were drinking slowly, on the seashore, 

immediately under his house. 

Mile brought some exotic Italian vodka 

with orange, which we quenched with 

beer. Gaga was drinking grape brandy 

and listened to the idle chatter of two 

war reporters inspired by the beverage. 

He carefully followed the stories from 

the war, which is still lasting somewhere 

within us, as a famous director of partisan 

movies used to say. He was mostly silent, 

lighting one after another “Milboro” 

(“Marlboro” smuggled to Italy from Zelenika 

by speedboats at night). He almost 

shyly asked what was going on in Herzegovina? 

Is it true that the gap between 

Mladić and Karadžić is so deep and unbridgeable!? 

We also mentioned the commander 

of “Tigers”, whom he appreciated 

as a patriot and brave man. 

We said goodbye to Mile, wished him 

a nice trip over Luštica to Herzegovina, 

and took a boat towards Herceg Novi, 

to attend the opening of the film festival. 

Somewhere in the middle of the bay, the 

waves rose. A seven year-old boy in the 

boat began panicking. He started crying 

and his parents unsuccessfully attempted 

to calm him down. Gaga stood up and, 



67

П Р И М Е Р И / П Р И М Е Р Ы / E X A M P L E S 


with his unique wide smile, embraced the 

little boy, who happily put his head on his 

shoulder. 

BOUND BY REFINEMENT 

Mile today remembers Gaga’s beginnings 

and one of his first interviews for 

Ilustrovana politika, the first cover page at 

the time of making When I’m Dead and 

Gone, hanging out in Ada Ciganlija, fishing 

in Rose, riding in Gaga’s speedboat on 

the Sava, long and inspiring get-togethers: 

“At the time of making When I’m Dead 

and Gone, we went to the Roma settlement 

in Karaburma. A collective hysteria 

started upon our arrival. Never in my 

life have I seen such adoration. As if the 

king of Roma came with Christmas gifts. 

A scene for Fellini! They ran to hug him, 

pulled him into their shacks. Children 

were screaming with joy, dogs jumping 

on him, licking his feet... He behaved as if 

he was born there, spontaneous, he raised 

and threw the boys into the air, caressed 

them, joked that he was one of them. And 

he really did love them.” 

Mile Jelesijević, war reporter, photo reporter, 

writer, adventurer, passionate lover 

of Belgrade kafanas, although at the end 

of his seventh decade, still continues creating 

in his studio, bringing his turbulent 

and rich life on canvas, upgraded with his 

artistic imagination. 

I was lucky to sit a few more times with 

Dragan Nikolić in “Potkovica”. He radiated 

the elegance of Alain Delon, attitude 

of Robert de Niro, informality of Pavle 

Vujisić. Still, he was also himself, special, 

in style, physically, mentally and spiritually, 

elegant. 

That morning, when Gaga was already 

in some heavenly tavern, drinking his first 

morning coffee with two people he unselfishly 

loved, his brother Miroslav and Bora 

Todorović, the famous Belgrade attorney 

Branislav Tapušković entered empty “Potkovica”. 

“Gaga was really a great gentleman. 

Cavalier, modest and unpretentious. Great 

friend. An outstanding person in every 

aspect”, clearly shaken, humble and kindhearted 

Tale remembers his friend, while 

we sip a drop of grape brandy for the soul 

of the man who loved people, ran away 

from glamour and glory, and suffered not 

only because the famous Belgrade kafanas, 

in which he grew up, were being forgotten 

and disappearing, but also because people 

were closing their hearts. Such alienation 

drove him away from Paris, where he had 

already become a film and theater star. He 

played with Maria Schneider, Erland Josephson, 

Alida Valli, Catherine Deneuve... 

In her interview to Nedeljnik, which 

dedicated the entire edition to this great 

man, Milena Dravić remembers that one 

morning, without any warning, Gaga just 

decided: 

“Let’s go back, it’s enough... And that 

‘enough’ was not related to a missed role, 

disappointment, conflict with a director or 

crew... He missed his Belgrade friends. Crveni 

Krst. ‘Atelje 212’. So we returned...” 

A little known detail, testifying about 

Gaga’s love for his city and homeland, is 

the offer of American producers to Milena 

Dravić to play in Hollywood. The amount 

offered was high, conditions fantastic, almost 

unreal for our circumstances. Milena, 

upon the suggestion of her husband, ignored 

the offer. In the next round, a green 

card for a permanent residence in America 

came with a higher offered amount. Milena 

was hesitating, but Gaga refused with such 

easiness, as if asking “three and one” late at 

night. Of course, Milena followed him. 

A MAN IS NOT A STAR 

In the last years, the favorite destination 

of Dragan Nikolić was Vrnjačka Banja. 

Four years ago, he became cover face of 

the “Merkur” Special Hospital in Vrnjačka 

Banja. The executive director of the institute, 

Dejan Stanojević, remembers the 

friendship and cooperation with the celebrated 

actor: 

“If we had to state a synonym for a 

gentleman and professional, it would certainly 

be the name of Dragan Nikolić. He 

not only captivated with his charm and 

Principles 

During the 

shooting in 

“Merkur”, whose 

“face” he has been 

in recent years 

An example of Dragan Nikolić’s patriotism is his refusing an 

offered role in an anti-Serbian high-budget movie, where he 

was supposed to play a cruel villain. Despite attractive conditions, 

despite negotiations in Skopje and Vienna and the flexibility 

of producers to win him for an “affirmative” screening of 

Balkan Indians, Dragan Nikolić remained faithful to himself and 

his postulates. 


69


Green Baize as a Polygraph 

He rarely told about the outcomes of long games at tables 

covered with green baize. The human nature cannot be hidden 

and cannot act only at kafana and gambling tables. The green 

baize is the only polygraph that cannot be deceived. Bluffs are 

working, but that is where the character fails or is confirmed. 

With Dejan responsibility, but also had much patience 

and Dragana for the mistakes and clumsiness of others. 

Stanojević on the We were shooting, for our advertisement 

Western Morava video, a collective scene with our staff 

near Vrnjačka and, of course, we had to repeat it many 

Banja 

times. It was hot, the sun was burning, and 

while others were taking their positions, 

Gaga was leisurely reading the newspaper. 

I apologized to him because my associates’ 

stage fright created such problems. He 

raised his head and, watching me through 

the glasses, said with a laugh: 

‘It’s nothing. Repeating is routine. Can 

you imagine a bridge being demolished by 

mistake, in the middle of shooting? A man 

wanted to demonstrate how it’s enough for 

him to take off his hat, wave it and – the 

bridge is gone. The miners, thinking that the 

shooting of the scene is in progress, and the 

signal was taking off the hat, blew the bridge 

up. Then we waited for a month to have a 

new bridge model made.’” 

ХТП ТРЕНД Dragan КОРАЛИ 

Nikolić was one of the last refined 

Belgrade bohemians, a quiet unpretentious 

бб, orator, witty interlocutor, patient 

Обала Ива Новаковића 

Сутоморе, Црна Гора listener; he discreetly asked about details 

30 he 37 was 37 interested 20, in or touched him 

Служба продаје : +382 

Рецепција +382 30 301 in a 900 way. 

E-mail: prodaja.trendkorali@t-com.me 

“He was really a great cavalier. While 

Web: www.trendkorali-montenegro.com 

staying here in Vrnjačka Banja, he used 

to sit in our restaurant almost every evening. 

Always gallant, unburdened with his 

greatness, completely atypical among his 

colleagues. Now these little actors shoot 

a few scenes, you reporters build them 

up and they immediately become stars. 

Gaga breathed with the greatness of a 

man leaning upon principles and character. 

He liked to gamble, and that is a huge 

passion. The passion for risk, the urge and 

adrenaline rush were brilliantly described 

by the great expert in human nature Fyodor 

Dostoyevsky. However, at one point, 

Gaga said No! And that was the end. Only 

people with a strong character are able to 

do that. He didn’t even want to enter a casino, 

let alone to gamble. It’s also incredible 

how fast he lived, what he left behind him, 

while, at the same time, knew how to enjoy 

and take pleasure in life. We often went 

to the Morava, sat for hours, drinking. He 

loved the river and showed me pictures of 

the boat he designed himself. Incredible 

construction! A boat resembling Noah’s 

Ark. Unfortunately, he left before launching 

it into the river this summer”, tells 

Dragan Stanojević, owner of restaurant 

“Sunce” in Vrnjačka Banja, also known for 

his bohemian life, about his friend, without 

hiding sorrow and sadness. 

Dragan Nikolić, like all truly great people, 

never considered himself a star: 

“Even today I don’t know what that 

means. What is a star? How do you become 

one? It’s probably in the awareness of other 

people. I’ve really never given myself the 

luxury to think I’m a star, that I’m the best 

or great in any way. I believe no one will be 

offended if I say this: I think it’s a feature of 

fools – believing you’re someone else.” 


B E L V E D E R E S 

MILOVAN DANOJLIĆ, WRITER, ABOUT THE SOIL, LANGUAGE AND WORLDS 

VISITING A POET 

Condemned to Waiting 

and Faithfulness 

The soil has nowhere to go from itself, nor do I from it. It gave me, it will take me back. The most 

difficult slavery is the one we unconsciously carry. Danger begins where the path of self-denial starts, 

the trap of the “Stockholm syndrome”. Those in power used to keep their subjects in illiteracy, while the 

present ones understood that semi-literacy gives better results. Pop culture is a spice of the consumer 

view of the world. Intellectual servants constantly rush to the one who is currently strongest. Our basis 

is beyond time, in the invisible, in the beyond-historical 

Text: 

Vesna Kapor 

and NR Press 

Serbia, real and integral, beats in his sentence. 

The warm and open one, with 

both feet on the ground, full of ancient 

images and poems, bareheaded in the wheat, 

craving for St. George’s Day rain. The one that 

studied good schools, constantly visiting the 

library, knows that Homer and gusle players 

were hammered on the same fire. And the 

oak tree one, bringing the sun in its bosom, 

looking up towards the heavens, with roots 

in its depths. Thus he can sing both a lullaby 

and a requiem, both in Poitiers and in Ivanovac 

near Ljig. 

Milovan Danojlić (Ivanovac, 1937), one 

of the most significant Serbian writers today, 

answered the questions of National Review 

with ancient solidness, as if incising his 

words in stone. 

In your poetry, the deep cosmic acts together 

with the personal, which often disintegrates 

and lives in the collective. That is your path: 

Ballad of... 

Born in Ivanovci near Ljig in 1937. Graduated from the Faculty 

of Philology, Department of Romance Languages, in 1973. 

Published more than seventy books of belletristic in Serbian, 

covering all genres, from children poetry to novels (“A Kind of a 

Circus”, “Ballad of Poverty”, “Personal Things”, “Liberators and Traitors”…). 

Winner of numerous reputable awards. Translated important 

works of Shakespeare, Baudelaire, Pound, Yeats, Cioran, 

Claudel… into Serbian. Lives in Poitiers, France since 1984, where 

he worked as lector at the University and associate at the Paris radio. 

Member of Serbian Academy of Art and Sciences since 2000. 

Regularly spends a part of the year in his native village. 

from the “cope of heaven and starry arch”, 

in a romantic manner, it descends into the 

depths of the personal and flies above the 

collective? 

Personal experience and feeling of things 

in literature is effective as far as it is able to 

be shared with others. Ever since he began 

to sing and narrate, verbally and in writing, 

a human has been asking a few existential 

questions and replying to them in different 

ways, without any final conclusion. The 

most personal things are at the same time 

expressed as universal, whilst the reader, in 

difficultly communicated secrets, recognizes 

with joy his or her own intimate states and 

feelings. There are, certainly, different levels 

of satisfying the same spiritual thirst. Some 

drown their sorrow for the irreversible transience 

of life in a kafana, listening to the 

song “Take everything life has to offer, today 

you’re a flower, tomorrow a withered rose”, 

while others do it in a concert hall, enjoying 

compositions of Tchaikovsky and Brahms. 

Homer, Ovid, Horatius, Dante, Shakespeare, 

Goethe, Pushkin and Chekhov – who 

could list them all? – are our contemporaries, 

more actual and more interesting than the 

daily newspaper bought this morning. Able to 

transfer us to faraway lands and even further 

away époques faster than any jet plane. A human 

is an ancient cosmic animal; he has seen, 

experienced and expressed all sorts of things. 

What is the kind of time when “everyone fed 

their own wolf”? 



73

В И Д И Ц И 


The wolf is, I suppose, the voracious 

everyday life, into which jaws we have to 

throw a piece of our life, in order to get permission 

to continue our journey. Time is a 

badly determined, in a certain way nonexistent 

category. With our presence and activities, 

we fill and design it, sometimes make it 

beautiful, sometimes pollute it. 

In today’s world, within which forms of art 

are multiplied and new artistic means discovered, 

what does it mean to be a Writer? 

A writer is a human being, who mediates 

between life and its possible meaning, 

an observer and a witness, a spectator who 

compensates his inability to participate in 

real events by transferring them into the 

area of imagination. Writers are neurotic, 

frustrated beings: we are all missing something, 

so we write to overpower the lack, to 

fill the fatal emptiness. The means are technical 

jests, more or less inspiring. The same 

objective is reached through very different 

paths. Everyone is the creator of their own 

values, the parent of their own readers. 

I succeed, or fail, in the degree of achieving 

my aspirations and possibilities, not 

someone else’s requests: I consider them 

only incidentally and artificially. Writers are 

badly paid, sometimes even free of charge 

filters of the spiritual and social situation of 

a land. 

THE DOOM OF INTELLECTUAL 

SERVANTS 

It seems that the neoliberal corporative 

manipulation rests on excellent knowledge 

of literature and philosophy. Most of 

those who produce mass entertainment 

programs, meaning stupefying things, are 

highly educated. What do you think about 

this paradox? 

The practice of the ruling class to keep 

their subjects in ignorance and illiteracy is 

very old. The present day rulers of the world 

saw that semi-education and semi-literacy 

give better results, while pop culture is a 

convenient spice to the consumer view of 

the world. The exploiting classes always 

have educated staff on their side, willing to 

defend and justify the enslavers. Intellectual 

servants often rush towards the strongest 

ones. So it happened that the sixty-eight 

leftists became advocates of American military, 

economic and geostrategic interests. It 

is sad, but not paradoxical. 

You never deny the personal in prose, regardless 

whether it’s labeled as pantheistic, 

evocation-lyrical, or on the border of dailyrealistic. 

How much was your life a basis 

for fiction? 

Although I have seen and experienced 

many things, my knowledge of life is restricted, 

and my will to transpose the experienced 

into fictive situations and characters 

is very weak. I feel phenomena and 

people intuitively, on a blurred, lyrical level. 

I am often astonished by the insights and 

assessments of my friends and acquaintances. 

Such things would never cross my 

mind. It’s only that I feel myself and nature 

a bit deeper and have a more trustworthy 

knowledge about them, so this is what I 

liked to write about most. Speaking about 

others, I was mainly speaking about myself. 

How Dobrislav Ran through Yugoslavia is my 

autobiography. I am in everything and the 

entire world is within me. I am no exception 

in this aspect; it’s only more visible in my 

case than with others. 

Is the so often mentioned freedom a replacement 

for the world fate, or is it only 

another word convenient for manipulation? 

My freedom is determined by the consciousness 

about general circumstances and 

own limitations, or, as Hegel said, the recognition 

of objective necessity. The most difficult 

slavery is the one we unconsciously carry. 

There is the public and there is the inner 

freedom. The latter does not need the possibility 

of holding speeches at demonstrations. 

If I cleared things inside me, I can breathe 

and think freely even though I am enslaved. 

Danger begins from the point when we start 

down the path of self-denial, when we succumb 

to pressure. There are numerous traps. 

The one featured by the “Stockholm syndrome” 

– the tendency of hostages to accept 

and defend the logics of the kidnaper – is 

especially dangerous and can be noticed in a 

part of our would-be elite, the part supporting 

our accession to NATO. 

LANGUAGE, THE LAST LINE 

OF DEFENSE 

“Even if not identical, the senselessness 

and mystery of existence are equally sublime”, 

you wrote in Snake Slough? 

I don’t remember the mood I was in when 

writing it. Senselessness covers unreachable 

With wife and 

children 


75


With poets 

Ljubivoje Ršumović 

and Moša 

Odalović, who 

have brought him a 

hazel bush seedling 

vastness of the material and spiritual worlds, 

everything that is out of reach of our sensual 

intellectual experiences. The secret of 

the transcendental horrifies, but also offers 

the possibility of dreaming. Besides the religious 

interpretation of existence, which requests 

faith, not proof, who can say that he 

found any meaning in what is surrounding 

him? We are born, we fight for survival: biological 

self-purposefulness is sufficient itself, 

it doesn’t aspire towards meaning. 

Finding a connection with the ancient 

and permanent is a necessity, inevitability. 

What is the place of our literary ancestors 

there? 

Long gone, permanent being was buried 

in the pre-conscious, pre-historical époques. 

A large part of vital energy is still flowing 

to us from that jungle. Our basis is beyond 

time, in the invisible, in the unreachable. 

With our birth, we are given once and 

for all: nothingness has thrown us into 

the world, through a volcano crater. What 

comes later is shaping within a given frame, 

with a series of additions. I have read and 

studied a lot, yet I still have more trust in 

my unknowingness. I fight to leave it and to 

return to it. It is my immovable and reliable 

stronghold. 

Everyone Has Fed His Own Wolf 

– I don’t take myself too seriously. I was a writer of proses with 

unclear genre, chronicle writer of daily events, and felt most natural 

when writing poems for children. If all that has some higher 

meaning, others should say so. I am not satisfied with what I’ve 

done, but I’m also not unsatisfied. I regret for my mistakes and 

imprudence towards others. I lived, and that is always a sin, more 

or less. 

“The nation cherishes what no one can ever 

take away from it: its language, my consolation 

and joy”, you wrote. Is it possible to 

preserve the language, cherish it as an identity, 

in such a century? 

Of course it is! The language is our powerful 

weapon, the last line of defense. It is 

the encouraging sign of healthy collective 

life. No one can take it away from us without 

our approval. It has been cherished and 

perfected for centuries, in smoky huts, by 

gusle players, narrators, weavers and spinners. 

You have taken everything away from 

us, but we won’t give our language, yelled 

Petar Kočić, defying Austro-Hungarian aggressors 

in the Congress. As long as we love 

and keep enriching it, we will be alive as a 

nation. That fortress is inaccessible. See this 

Davenport, high representative of I don’t 

know what or who, trying to speak our language, 

in order to conquer us. He learned 

it to the degree of bureaucratic correctness, 

but hasn’t entered its soul, because he does 

not wish us well. The language needs full 

freedom of development, the right to be 

wrong and, at the same time, discrete supervision 

and warnings. If it is alive and strong, 

even foreign words cannot hurt it: they are 

harmful only at the time its health is weak. 

THE COMFORTABLENESS 

OF BEING BRAINWASHED 

“The world is collapsing in the way it was 

created”, you write. Through your prose, 

you followed the disintegration of a world, 

moving of the patriarchal into the so-called 

new, communist era, and then a repeated 

harangue (from the nineties to the present 

day) of traditional values. However, in your 

poetics, humaneness was never brought 

into question? 

The understanding of some contemporary 

philosophers about the cyclic development 

of cultures and civilizations is close to 

me. Progress develops in circles, in a winding 

and unwinding spiral, in amplitudes. 

There are upward and downward phases of 

the spinning in circles. It seems that we are 

currently in the downward department, so 

we believe that this is the end of the world. 

There were many such ends of the world in 

history. The world breaks down and recovers 

in the same swing. 

“I believed that free societies exist somewhere 

in the world”, you note in Rabbit 



77



Traces. After many visits to foreign lands 

and long journeys, is it, after all, just an illusion? 

Yes and no. Living is easier in systems of 

formally based and respected civil liberties 

than under authoritarian and dictatorial 

regimes, although an easier position does 

not necessarily mean it is essentially better. 

Yes, it is more comfortable in the West, 

since we don’t have to think about certain 

things, but in the state of non-thinking, we 

are more susceptible to swallowing various 

tricks. Tyranny initiates clearer and more 

courageous thinking, while formalistic liberties 

make people grow lazy: brainwashing 

mechanisms are perfect and economic 

compulsion has the last word. At the time of 

the personality cult supremacy, we overestimated 

the advantages of western democracy, 

but they, with a grain of salt, do exist. 

Until recently, the West has maintained its 

health with the support of self-criticism; 

such awareness is declining nowadays, and 

that is not good. 

In Rabbit Traces, combining documentary 

material with your own observations, you 

perfectly told the story about the Rabbit- 

Human or about Rabbit and Human, universal 

both on personal and collective level. 

(We know, it’s no use. Still, it’s better to run 

than to be still, more interesting and more 

exciting.) What are we supposed to do in 

this moment, in such a world: be a Rabbit 

or be a Human? 

The two-legged creatures are weak, 

frightened individuals; identifying them 

with rabbits comes naturally. However, a 

clear awareness of the sources of fear partially 

liberates us from anxiety. Diving into 

fear is a form of courage, while avoiding 

confronting it is, certainly, related to cowardice. 

I am not a brave man by nature, but I 

was bold in some situations, thanks to fearless 

thinking. 

IN HIS OWN DEFENSE 

From your books we see that the society 

and state is one thing, while the world and 

life are something completely different. 

How can an ordinary human find a measure? 

It seems simple to me. If you’re not fighting 

for power, for excessive wealth, for social 

importance, you are on a way of conquering 

peace of soul, so the state also, to a certain 

extent, leaves you alone. It is important that 

everyone draws a line between oneself and 

them. Under the communist regime, apart 

from a few unpleasant situations, I was generally 

fine, exactly because I did not thrive 

for power. Those in power unmistakably feel 

it and leave alone those who don’t wish to 

replace them. However, I was privileged, due 

to the nature of my job: by waiving wealth 

and power, I was able to live decently. It’s 

much more difficult for those whose bare 

existence depends on the mood of those in 

power. They have nothing to waive. 

“The soil is condemned to waiting and 

faithfulness.” The homeland is a grain of 

salt in each of the rows you have written. 

Both a gift and a suffering. Many writers 

stay away from it. Would you write following 

the same traces again? 

The choice happened independent from 

my will. I was born in the heart of a peasant 

land, I observed the downfall of the rural 

civilization from my early age and overcame 

that process. The soil has nowhere to 

go from itself, nor do I from it. Even here, 

where I have been living for years, it is constantly 

within me. I feel it, alive, both when 

I love it and when I don’t. It gave me, it will 

take me back. It’s not a matter of choice, it 

is destiny. 

You have evaluated a turbulent century 

through your pen, left traces deep and recognizable, 

observed the world from different 

geographical points. Are there any 

answers or just repeated questions: about 

meaning, history, about God and the universe, 

about the individual and nation...? 

I don’t have an undisputed answer to 

any vitally important question. Even I don’t 

strictly adhere to the conclusions I have 

reached, so how can I recommend them to 

others? I attempted to express, sincerely and 

convincingly, what had been bothering and 

torturing me. I hope that, at the final judgment, 

my openness and intellectual honesty 

will be taken into consideration. That is all I 

can say in my defense. 

Destiny 

At the signing of 

the book “Trouble 

with Words” 

Photo: 

Guest’s Archive 

– Whether I wanted it or not, I shared the destiny of my compatriots, 

whenever and wherever they lived. Unlike romanticist 

patriotism, I am not thrilled by my connections and belonging, 

but I also don’t deny them. In situations of crises, when the community 

is in danger, I am ready for more active forms of solidarity. 


79

S C E N E 


JADRANKA JOVANOVIĆ, INTERNATIONAL OPERA DIVA, EXCLUSIVELY FOR 

“NATIONAL REVIEW” 

Divine Announcement in 

the Human Heart 

She sang in one hundred twenty prestigious world theaters, played over seventy roles in operas. She was 

partner to Placido Domingo, Jose Carreras, Jose Cura... She won numerous awards and recognitions in 

all parts of the world. However, she says she knows that the meaning of her life is to embed the gits she 

carries within into the genuine cultural advancement of Serbian people and its lands 

By: Danijela Knežević Stevanović 

Her name has been written in 

golden letters of supreme art for 

thirty-six years already. Born in 

Belgrade, she gained two university diplomas 

in her home city: department of 

theory and department of solo singing of 

the Academy of Music. She later gained 

her master degree in the same place. Her 

international career began in the Milan 

“La Scala”, in Carmen and Andrea Chénier 

operas, with conductors C. Abbado and R. 

Chailly. She played the leading role in the 

same theater in L. Rossi’s Orpheus, at this 

opera’s first international performance. 

Cooperating with great opera singers, she 

sang in 120 prestigious theaters around 

the world, and played more than 70 opera 

roles. Her voice echoed in “Carnegie Hall”, 

“Kennedy Center”, “Glenn Gould Studio”, 

“Bedzich Smetana”, “Mozarteum”, “Gulbenkian” 

halls... She was awarded with the 

Special Decree of the Russian Ministry of 

Culture for her project Pushkiniana. She 

brought many rare pieces to Belgrade and 

presented them to her people, and promoted 

Serbian music all around the world. 

You were a guest at the famous Domingo’s 

concert in Belgrade “Arena” in the previous 

season, and now you are being awarded 

with “Exceptional Vuk’s Award”, for the 

exceptional contribution to the development 

of culture in Serbian and all-Serbian 

cultural area. How do you feel about it? 

Role in opera 

“Don Carlos” 

With Carreras 

(right) and 

Domingo (let) 


81

S C E N E 

Clippings from 

world press with 

praises for Jadranka 

Jovanović 

Jadranka 

Jovanović (Photo: 

Vukica Mikača) 

Since the age of five, when I started playing 

the piano, to the present day, I have 

been giving myself to my gift. I loaded, followed, 

sharpened, discovered it more and 

more. I never chased awards, career, biography; 

I have always just followed, with 

discipline, with passion, determinedly and 

courageously, the talent written in my being. 

My job was to take care not to be in 

bad company, and everything else was “fate”, 

which I neither could nor wanted to change. 

It seems that fate was on my side and I’m 

grateful to it. I am glad about this award, although 

I believe that the biggest award in 

my life is the talent that has been given me. 

WHEN EVERYONE’S HEART TREMBLES 

One of your artistic encounters with Domingo 

was in the opera Adriana Lecouvreur 

in Barcelona. Mirella Freni also 

played a role in it. Even in such a cast, you 

succeeded in captivating both the audience 

and the critics? 

I accepted Adriana Lecouvreur, although 

convinced that the audience would 

greet me with disapproval. I thought that 

my voice, at that moment, was still green, 

while this veristic role implied dramatism, 

with a thick orchestra. Realizing that I received 

an extraordinary offer, a possible 

encounter with two greatest opera artists 

in the world, I accepted the challenge. 

Formula 

When an austere critic was asked what the “secret of Jadranka 

Jovanović’s irresistibility” was, he replied: 

– Intelligence, emotion, charisma. 

You will never guess who that critic is. 

I already knew Domingo from “La 

Scala” and Budapest, but we had never 

sung together. I offered my hand to Mirella 

Freni, she looked me up and down 

reservedly and said: “So tall!?” Then she 

turned to director Giancarlo: “Flat shoes 

for her, highest heels for me!” The rehearsals 

lasted more than a month, three times 

a day. The most fantastic work, the essence 

of art is around me. I am happy, creating, 

advancing, watching, enjoying. The premiere 

arrives and, in the second act, I enter 

the stage, unknown to the Catalonian 

audience, and sing the aria. No applause. 

Alone on the stage, in heavy silence, I say 

to myself: “There you go, Jadranka. Your 

anticipations are coming true.” Domingo 

enters during our duet, sings “Arioso” 

wonderfully, and the theater collapses. We 

continue further, Freni sings the famous 

Fedra’s monologue. We are all trembling, 

me, the chorus, the audience. Carried 

away by the greatest possible artistic sensation, 

I am completely free from fear. I’m 

thinking: even if it’s the last, it’s enough. 

We come to individual bows, and I enter 

the stage with dignity, expecting all the 

ammunition of this world to start firing at 

me. However, the entire audience begins 

yelling: “Braavaaaa, braaavaa...!” 

Even today I believe that, vocally, my 

voice was green for Princess de Bouillon, 

but my will, energy, personality, as well as 

the greatest artists around me, Domingo, 

Freni, Del Monaco, Romero, maestro Gandolfi, 

made everyone’s heart tremble to my 

interpretation. 

You were Carmen to Domingo, as well as 

to Jose Carreras, Jose Cura; you sang premieres 

of Carmen in Abu Dhabi, Tokyo, 

Nagoya, Sao Paolo, Rio de Janeiro, Rome, 

Milan, Athens... Who was the most convincing 

Don Jose? 

I experienced an absolute artistic collision 

with Placido Domingo, at our first 

joint rehearsal in the “Municipal” Theater 

in Rio de Janeiro, when he came to the beginning 

of the rehearsal straight from the 

airport. He had no need to know the direction 

for the production, because every 

direction is actually in singing, expression 

and emotions. It’s clear that Domingo is an 

artist who marked our époque, and there 

is no such artistic criterion in which someone 

else would stand before him. However, 



83

С Ц Е Н А / S C E N E 


no one has ever killed me so convincingly 

on the stage as Jose Carreras, who was my 

partner in Rome and Milan. It was a very 

realistic murder, with the strongest emotions. 

Accompanying the critique published 

in Corriere della Sera, the skilled 

photographer eternalized that dramatic 

moment. That photograph actually depicts 

my entire career. 

THICK CLUSTER OF TALENTS 

You have reached the peak of vocal 

achievements by singing Abigail from 

Nabucco, which you have been doing for a 

quarter of a century. What has it brought 

you? 

If I hadn’t sung Abigail, I would never 

have earned the respect in the musical 

environment of my home city. There are 

fascinating roles with a special treatment, 

such as Eboli, and especially Abigail. There 

are difficult roles, which don’t have the 

reputation of “razor for the voice”, such as 

Abigail is. 

When I calmly observe my talent today, 

I clearly see a big, thick cluster with 

many berries. The more I picked them, the 

more I discovered there were more, that 

the front of gifts is constantly spreading 

and moving. The more I knocked and requested 

from myself, the more new roads 

and unimagined possibilities opened. Thus 

I was able to take an unthinkable step: to 

step into the soprano dangerous Abigail 

as a mezzosoprano. It often happened that 

one day I sing one, and the other day a 

completely opposite role for my vocal and 

emotional features. There are many good 

singers who weren’t given such a possibility. 

Among the ones I was gifted with, the 

possibility to enter into Abigail has a special 

place. 

Last year was marked with the premiere 

of Serbian opera Melancholic Dreams of 

Count Sava Vladislavić, in which you play 

three roles. In one, you build your child 

into the church like damned Jerina, in 

the second, as Angel of Temptation, you 

perform choreographic escapades with 

ballet dancers, and, at the end, as a Serbian 

mother, you weep over the “unborn 

and disappeared Serbian children, over 

the fate of disappearance of the Serbian 

people”? 

“Vuk’s Award” 

The Cultural and Educational Society of Serbia granted 

Jadranka Jovanović “Exceptional Vuk’s Award” for 2015, for her 

exceptional contribution to the development of culture in the all- 

Serbian lands. The award ceremony took place in the President of 

Serbia General Secretariat building. 

There are only a few artists given a special 

honor to participate in a world premiere 

during their artistic life. I had the 

privilege to give my own personal touch 

to the extraordinary music of Svetislav 

Božić. I don’t know what was better: the 

exceptional chorus, the great cast, excellent 

choreographer, ballet, director Aleksandar 

Nikolić, who upgraded the piece dramaturgically, 

or the special audience who came 

to our performances. A story about Serbia, 

from its beginnings to the present times, its 

rises and falls, characteristics of our people, 

temptations and painful injustices, severe 

blows, contemplation on our own mistakes. 

Even during the performances, it turned 

out that some supported the piece, while 

others hid it from the eyes of the public. I 

cannot understand how such an endeavor, 

with noticeable results, could be deprived 

of the annual award of the National Theater. 

I know that this opera will shine and 

live in the future. If it were up to me, Count 

Sava, as we call this piece, would be the 

best promoter of the Serbian national being 

in the field of opera. 

Cherishing Serbian music is an important 

part of your artistic personality? 

Ever since my first solo concert entitled 

A Century and a Half of Serbian Solo 

Music, at the Kolarac Foundation in 1983, 

I have been passionately engaged in presenting 

Serbian music. From “Carnegie 

Hall” to Nizhny Novgorod, there was not 

a single concert hall in the world in which 

Serbian art music hasn’t been performed. I 

attempted to put my international reputation 

to the service of presenting the culture 

of my country. Thanks to that international 

reputation, people who came to 

my concerts, even in the smallest towns 

throughout Serbia, had a feeling they were 

attending an exceptional event. I know 

that the purpose of my life is to share gifts 

I bring within and embed them into the 

genuine cultural advancement of my nation, 

my Serbs. 

In opera 

“Melancholic 

Dreams of Count 

Sava Vladislavić” 

by Svetislav Božić, 

2015 

Photo: 

Guest’s Archive, 

Archive of the 

National Theater 

in Belgrade, 


Archive 


85

C E N T E R S 


“KARADŽIĆ” FROM LOZNICA, ONE OF THE OLDEST CULTURAL AND ARTISTIC 

SOCIETIES IN THE BALKANS 

Forever Young 

From 1850 until today, the best that Jadar has had has been woven in this village and around it. 

Vuk Karadžić himself also helped. The flag of this Society has been decorated with the Order of St. 

Sava, and it was brought before the court by Austro-Hungarians in 1915 in Banjaluka. In Vuk’s cultural 

center it is still boiling, “Karadžić” gathers around five hundred members. They perform around the 

world, brilliantly. They dance, chant, paint, write. They know that we must always return back to 

tradition in a creative way. And that we are alive as much as it is 

Text and photo: Nenad Marković 

The last winter winds were blowing 

through the alleys of Loznica in the 

mid-19 th century, when a group of 

officials of the local government and artisans 

gathered by priest Ignjat Vasić and 

prepared the first theater performance 

with them. On March 2, 1850, Srbske novine 

published the news about the formation 

of an “amateur troupe” that, “to exceptional 

delight of the audience”, performed 

the play The Battle of Kosovo and Svetislav 

and Mileva, and they also announced the 

premiere of Vladislav, the King of Bulgaria. 

This laid the foundations of one of the 

oldest cultural-artistic societies in the Balkans, 

“Karadžić” from Loznica. 

The year 2015 was marked by the celebration 

of the great jubilee, and Dragan 

Tošić, president of the society that has 

around 500 members, said that it was filled 

with programs of all sections. 

– As a part of the anniversary celebration, 

we have organized a series of programs 

entitled “Karadžić” to Its City, in 

The Pejići, 

donors of the land 

for “Vuk’s Home”. 

Archpriest Ignjat 

Vasić. News in 

“Srbske novine” 

on the first theater 

performance in 

Loznica 


87

C E N T E R S 

Appearances 

of “Karadžić” 

Dragan Tošić 

Zoran Grujić 

(with the 

Association flag) 

addition to about 150 regular annual programs. 

On the eve of the Day of Archangel 

Michael, the Patron Saint Day of Vuk 

Karadžić and the society, one section was 

being presented every day, and at the final 

ceremony we awarded recognitions 

to members and friends who support us 

– says Tošić. – At this time it is not easy to 

survive, we receive some money from the 

City, which is important because it allows 

us to work, but if we had more, we would 

be more productive. Thus, we try to ensure 

that the quality of our work is much higher 

than the amount we receive. 

The amateur group grew into the Society 

of Podrinje Accord led by priest Ignat. 

Vuk Karadžić was pleased with this, and 

he discussed with his countrymen in his 

village the significance of cultural activities, 

and was also sending books. After that 

The Flag 

Zoran Grujić, the Secretary of “Karadžić”, says that in 1897 General 

Mihajlo Bogicević, descendant of Duke Ante from Loznica, 

donated the flag to this society that was later burned by Austro- 

Hungarians. 

– It used to be carried all over Serbia and Bosnia and was decorated 

in 1908 as a symbol of enlightenment thought with the 

Order of St. Sava of the fifth row. In early 1931, “Karadžić” received 

a new flag from Borisav Ristić, a merchant from Belgrade, originally 

from Loznica, and it is still here with us – says Grujić, pointing 

to a more than eight decades old flag. 

a library was opened, and in 1869 priest 

Ignat donated the land for construction of 

a reading room. The foundation stone was 

laid by King Milan, with regent Blaznavce. 

The priest died in 1888, and four years later 

the name changed into the Singing Society 

“Karadžić”. After the changes in Serbia 

in 190, cooperation extends with educational 

and cultural workers from across 

the country, but also with societies across 

the Drina River, marking the beginning of 

a grudge toward -Hungarians in the annexed 

Bosnia. They tried to prevent guest 

performances of the society, and censored 

the programs. 

EFFORT OF MANY GENERATIONS 

When shotguns were heard in the First 

Balkan War, members of the society went 

to war, and in 1914 Loznica was under attack 

by Austro-Hungarian forces seeking 

to punish Serbia. The time came for display 

of hatred against “Karadžić”, and the 

occupier ransacked the members’ homes, 

and burned the archive and the flag of 

the society in the center of the city. At the 

high-treason process in Banjaluka in 1915, 

“Karadžić” was included in the indictment: 

“The task of the Loznica board was supported 

to a great extent by the local Cultural 

Society “Karadžić”... They traveled 

to Brčko, Sarajevo, Tuzla and Zvornik and 



89

C E N T E R S 

Birth 

house of Vuk 

Karadžić in 

Tršić 

organized events and entertainment for the 

benefit of “Prosvjet”. Documents were found 

according to which the society members 

were changing the order in case of campaign 

to Bosnia to spy on the condition of 

the army for the National Defense...” 

Many members did not return from the 

Great War, but the work was restored and 

the name is changed to Educational Society 

“Karadžić” in Loznica. In early 1933, the 

Assembly of the society adopted the work 

program which puts in the foreground the 

restoration of Vuk’s house in Tršić and establishment 

of Vuk’s Assembly. That year, 

on Sunday before the Nativity of the Virgin, 

Vuk’s house was consecrated and the first 

Assembly took place. Then preparations began 

for the building of Vuk’s cultural center 

in Loznica. It was designed by Belgrade 

architect Franjo Urban, and the land on 

which it was built was donated by Pavle and 

The Japanese 

The former choreographer of “Karadžić” Miodrag Spernjak, 

now deceased, was in 2005 in Fukuyama, Japan, where he held 

a seminar for more than 120 participants. As the first Serb who 

does this, he showed them how to play kolo dance from Jadar 

and Serbia, as well as the old town dances. This was reported in 

the local newspapers printed in millions of copies. 

Staka Pejić, merchants from Lešnica. On St. 

Demetrius Day in 1937, marking the 150 th 

anniversary of Vuk’s birth, the building was 

handed over to the society, and academician 

Aleksandar Belić emphasized the contribution 

of “Karadžić” to fostering and disseminating 

the thoughts of liberation. 

The Second World War interrupted their 

work, the German soldiers desecrated the 

temple of culture, but in September 1944 

the liberators entered the city and the society 

was once again restored. The liberation 

brings new name, Cultural-Artistic Society 

“Karadžić”, sections and programs multiply, 

and they also start going on tours abroad. 

Performances around the world come one 

after the other, warming the palms of audiences 

in Japan, Australia, Algeria and 

throughout Europe, from Portugal to Russia. 

APPROACH AND QUALITY ARE NOT 

THOSE OF AMATEURS 

After 165 years, the society is still young, 

because it was joined by a new generation. 

Tošić said that the greatest interest is in folklore 

section, but also for the group of singers 

and theater. 

– Alchemists are searching for the elixir 

of youth, and we seem to have found it. New 


generations keep coming, with new talents 

and ideas, and it is the main strength 

of “Karadžić”. We are grateful to those who 

came before us and those who will come 

and be even better. To some extent, we also 

perform educational function, because our 

young members spend their time better. It is 

great to enter Vuk’s cultural center and see 

how everything is bustling with children 

going to sections and rehearsals. I am proud 

that there is no vice among them, and that 

was proved last year when we were stopped 

by the police before Munich, travelling as 

guests of the local Cultural Society “Saint 

Sava”. They searched every pocket, every 

piece of luggage and even took off upholstery 

from the bus seats and found nothing. 

It showed what our children were like. The 

future of “Karadžić” is on them – says Tošić. 

The society consists of folklore ensemble, 

from children to veterans, theater, folk 

orchestra, a group of singers, literary club, 

art group and gusle section. They organize 

numerous events, from the Acting Festival 

to literary and gusle evenings. According to 

Tošić, “Karadžić” includes everybody who is 

engaged in culture in Loznica in a creative 

way. It is one of the few societies that have 

a folk ensemble, as well as painters, writers, 

and actors... He particularly emphasizes 

that amateur societies, in his opinion, often 

have more professional performances than 

those who do it as a job, and productions 

performed by professionals are often less 

satisfying in terms of artistic criteria. 

– We don’t make a living by doing this, 

but have a very professional attitude towards 

it. The fact that we are amateurs does 

not mean that we are amateurs also on the 

stage – says Tošić. 

Showcases of the society are filled with 

recognitions, the Medal of Merit for the People, 

the September Award of the City of Loznica 

and Vuk’s Award to plaques from foreign cities. 

The showcase also displays a Japanese traditional 

costume, obtained on tour in Japan, 

as well as numerous trophies and plaques. s 

Horse Stalls 

Cultural 

Center “Vuk 

Karadžić” in 

Loznica 

In 1941, the Germans turned Vuk’s home into stables, and 

after the liberation its original purpose was restored. At one 

point, shortly after the war, some of the representatives of the 

new authorities threatened to give it back this role. There were 

those who wanted to replace “Karadžić”, with the newly established 

society “Abrašević”, or at least to move some sections under 

its wing. On one side of the building there was an inscription 

with the name of the new society, on the other side with the 

old name, and there were disputes over the use of the premises. 

However, there were more prominent citizens in “Karadžić”and 

the society survived this temptation as well. 


91

F A I R Y T A L E 

TURBULENT EVENTS DURING A SUMMER IN ALEKSINAC 

Wedding of Goldy 

the Tomcat 

All sorts of things twisted and entwined there, one can hardly see the beginning and the end. 

Three swings on one rope, a birch resembling a green and white merry-go-round, saving a wounded 

dove. Unexpectedly, Goldy got married and his mom Kitty became mother-in-law. Then Ika 

remembered Joca the dolphin and thought of a way to save him. At least in the story. 

Perhaps fairytales exist to save us from evil fishermen? 

By: 

Nebojša Jevrić 

There is a big birch in Grandma Vida’s 

yard in Aleksinac. Three swings 

are on the birch. For Ika, Brankica 

and Nikola. 

Grandma Vida sits on a stool under the 

birch and swings all three of them at the 

same time, using three ropes. 

Watching form the side, the birch looks 

like a big, green merry-go-round. 

Grandma Vida is like doctor Yoyboli. 

Except that she doesn’t speak animal 

language. 

Sick cats and birds always come to her. 

In the morning, when she gives corn 

kernels to chicken, doves and sparrows 

also come to have breakfast with them. 

There are always a few cats in Grandma 

Vida’s yard, like in any real grandma’s 


yard. When she comes to feed them, 

stray tomcats also come. 

And they all usually get on well. 

Goldy the Tomcat and his mom Kitty 

never touch the doves. 

However, one morning, a big, largeheaded 

tomcat from the neighborhood, 

half of his ear missing, covered with 

scars, wandered into the yard. A real 

desperado and stray tomcat, always putting 

on a fight in garbage cans. When he 

saw doves eating together with Goldy 

and Kitty, pecking freely the remains 

of corn pap from the cat dish, Bighead 

thought doves might be good for eating 

as well. He jumped at one poor dove. 

Ika stepped on the tomcat’s tail, 

and Nikola and Brankica started chasing 

him and calling their grandmother. 

They chased him all the way to the gate. 

Then tomcat Bighead got a broom 

over his tail. 

“Don’t you ever show up again!” 

yelled Grandma Vida after him and 

made another attempt of hitting him 

with the broom, but tomcat Bighead ran 

away and never showed up in the yard 

again. 

Running away, he hit his head on the 

gate. Suits him well. 

The dove had a broken wing, so they 

placed it in a small cage hanging from 

the henhouse ceiling, until it recovers. 

Other doves visited it every day, 

bringing herb seeds for a quick recovery. 

When it got well, Grandma Vida let 

it out of the cage and put it on the birch. 

At its departure, the dove said: 

“Chacka!” In animal language that 

means thank you. 

Of course, only Ika understood it. 

She adores doctor Yoyboli and made 

me read a hundred times to her about 

him and monkeys, so she remembered 

that chacka in animal language means 

thank you. 

INVENTING A SALVATIONAL 

STORY 

After the dove, a terribly skinny little 

cat, whose paw was bitten off by dogs, 

came to the yard. Only watching her was 

sad enough. 

It was so at the beginning. However, 

after some time, her paw healed and the 

skinny little cat wasn’t skinny anymore. 

Her hair became shiny. Of course it 

did, since grandma’s Goldy the Tomcat 

would always leave her the best piece of 

meat from his meal. 

To be honest, everyone could see 

something serious was going on there. 

Now the completely unknown cat 

moved to Grandma Vida’s yard, straight 

into Goldy the Tomcat’s little house. 

They sleep together. 

Goldy the Tomcat got married. And 

Kitty, Goldy’s mom, is constantly snorting 

around the yard. 

She cannot stand the newcomer. 

“Grandma, is Kitty now a mother-inlaw?” 

asks Ika. 

Taking Ika to Aleksinac is easy, but 

it’s not so easy to bring her back. Unlike 

mom and dad, who don’t always do 

everything Ika orders, Grandma Vida is 

very obedient. Ika is satisfied and in no 

hurry to return home. 

I’m as angry as a wasp. 

“Ok, so what shall I write about 

when you’re not here?” I ask her over 

the phone. 

“I know, I already thought about it. 

Write how that eagle flew to his nest and 

Mandrel the Dwarf continued by boat. 

Then he saw fishermen, evil fishermen, 

catching Joca the dolphin. Mandrel 

called the eagle, who pecked the hooks 

and freed Joca the dolphin.” 

I promised I would write it down and 

here, I’m fulfilling it, remembering 

our trip back from the seaside. 

While looking at the pictures from 

our holiday, Ika started crying. 

“But, daddy, I’ve never really 

seen Joca the dolphin. And Jeca 

saw him!” 

We consoled her by promising 

that she will certainly see 

him. We didn’t know that 

Ika, while sneaking around, 

already found out that evil 

fishermen caught Joca 

the dolphin. 

So now she rememberedhow 

to save him 

with the help of 

Mandrel the dwarf, 

at least in the story. Perhaps 

fairytales exist to 

save us from evil fishermen?! 

 

Illustrated by: 

Mihail Kulačić 


93

П О Б Е Д Н И К / П О Б Е Д И Т Е Л Ь / W I N N E R 


ZORAN TERZIĆ, HEAD COACH OF THE SERBIAN FEMALE VOLLEYBALL NATIONAL TEAM 

Gazing towards 

Rio 

We have remarkable people in various areas, but the truth is that no one has contributed more to the 

affirmation of Serbia than our sportsmen. Our supreme results are oten a mystery to us as well. We 

don’t have any money, strong leagues or good infrastructure. It seems, however, that the excellent work 

of experts and sportsmen is behind it all. If we emphasize and exaggerate our shortcomings so oten, 

we must also be aware of our extraordinary virtues. We should not give up on our unique features and 

values, because that is what makes us a nation among nations 

By: Dejan Bulajić 

We found Zoran Terzić on his way 

to Bucharest, with his present 

team, Romanian “Targovishte”. 

During his prosperous career, he has been 

working with several clubs simultaneously 

with being the Serbian female national team 

head coach. The job is the same on both levels, 

but the feeling is completely different. 

– The feeling of working in the national 

team is incomparable. What we 

experience in the club is on the level of 

an ordinary job, which we try to do the 

best we can. The national team, however, is 

something else. It brings, but also requests 

much more than ordinary trainings and 

games. Each success is experienced with 

much stronger emotions, and the failures 

are more difficult to handle. At least this is 

how I feel it and express it clearly. 

He has been in female volleyball for seventeen 

years already, although, at the beginning 

of his coaching career, he never even 

thought this would be his focus. 

– I admit that I have rejected such a 

possibility at one point of time. I simply 

believed that working with ladies is more 

difficult, mainly due to their specific emotional 

set. I was convinced there were 

great differences between female and male 

volleyball, so for a long time I resisted the 

suggestion of Aleksandar Boričić to take 

over the “Zvezda” female team. However, 

only a few months later, I realized I was 

wrong. Women are able to commit to 

sports with the same passion as men, perhaps 

even bigger. They are disciplined and 

very persistent. And, what’s especially important, 

they can be very loyal to the team 

and coach. My prejudice didn’t last long, 

so this became an important life experi- 

Photo: 

Guest’s Archive, 


Archive 


95

W I N N E R 

Shadow People 

– When we speak about successes and medals, the focus 

is always on players and me. That’s probably correct, but I also 

want to highlight people who are rarely mentioned, although so 

many things depend on them. That is my coaching staff, “shadow 

people”, as many call them. Their contribution is immeasurable. I 

wouldn’t have achieved half of my plans if it weren’t for them. I’m 

very grateful to them and believe that only with them I’m complete. 

Their only satisfaction is to help the national team; it’s not 

about money or any other interest. That’s why I never forget to 

mention them. 

ence for me. So it happened that all these 

years, besides all good and bad experiences, 

successes and failures, I never thought 

about going back to male volleyball, for 

which, to be honest, I didn’t have any special 

offers. 

One of the frequent questions is whether 

the girls always understood him the right 

way and whether they gave as much as requested 

from them? 

– That is nearly impossible to achieve. 

We aspire towards the best results, but 

sometimes they cannot be realized. Only 

after a certain period of time, from a 

distance, it can be noticed that although 

the objectives were clear, the real possibilities 

were not on that level. The girls 

have been following my requests and really 

gave their best. I think they understood 

me, especially the fact that I always 

ask them for more. After all, their individual 

careers show it, everything they 

have achieved in their clubs. The fact that 

they trust me and know that I’m requesting 

only what they can achieve means 

a lot to me. 

THE MYSTERY OF GOOD RESULTS 

Still, some of the players with great possibilities 

missed the chance to, especially in 

the national team, leave a deeper trace. 

– This often happens in sports and it 

will always be so. Many other national 

teams also have similar experiences. It’s 

maybe more painful for us, since we don’t 

have so many great talents as some other 

countries, who can easily find a replacement. 

There were girls in the national 

team, who were able to do much more 

than they have done. I am sure they know 

why, but I can say that everything is actually 

the measure of real talent. Talent is 

not only readiness for a direct game, but 

also the way you behave in a community, 

the way you approach it and share with it 

everything other girls share. If you don’t 

recognize it as an essential need, you 

will hardly find a good place in any team 

sport. In that case, the only ones who lose 

are the sportsmen, who cheaply miss the 


golden period of their career, when they 

can achieve a lot as members of the national 

team. Such things, unfortunately, 

happened in female volleyball as well, but 

we managed to overcome it. 

How can we explain the good results of 

Serbian volleyball, despite the fact that we 

have low quality leagues and huge drain of 

young players? 

– That is a mystery for us in volleyball. 

We have been on top of the world 

for years, in a sport which is very popular 

worldwide. Finally, of all sports, the world 

volleyball federation has the biggest number 

of members. Our undeniable problem 

is a weak basis, because the leagues are on 

low level, consisting of young players, and 

the financial situation in the society, in all 

sports, including volleyball, is such that it 

cannot be compared with countries that 

have incomparably higher investments 

in sports. Perhaps the thing that keeps us 

on such a high level is excellent work, first 

of all of coaches, then the work in certain 

clubs and then in the federation itself. 

With the existing talents, it gives results 

for now. How long it will be so, I cannot 

even assume. 

Phenomenon of Serbian sports... 

– That’s a story difficult to explain 

even for people much more experienced 

than me. We have a habit of thoroughly 

analyzing our shortcomings. We are very 

precise in doing it and we know perfectly 

well that our basis is in a bad condition. 

Clubs, in all sports, are choking in problems, 

money is almost absent, and the 

infrastructure is on a low level. The situation 

in the society is similar. It seems that, 

in such a situation, many children, as well 

as their parents, see sports as a possibility 

to overcome the traps of an ugly time and 

direct the child to a right path in life. Not 

only to make money someday, enabling 

them to be independent, but mainly for 

the possibility to gain healthy principles 

and habits through sports, to grow as 

persons. Perhaps we are even lucky that, 

in such a time, many see sports as one of 

the rare opportunities to express themselves 

the right way. 

Beautiful and Difficult Moments 

– In sports, results determine the level of our satisfaction. It’s 

easy to assume that the most beautiful moments are related to 

medals and victories, while the most difficult ones come with 

unfulfilled expectations. As I said, only after a while, we can realistically 

interpret what we have achieved, whether some results 

were lower than expected or whether some expectations were 

insufficiently realistic. Feeling that you could’ve done better and 

more than what you have achieved is difficult. You feel as if you’ve 

betrayed yourself. Luckily, during the past ten-odd years, we had 

more reasons to be satisfied. Perhaps because we were realistic 

about our possibilities. 


97

W I N N E R 

FORCE OF CLOSENESS 

AND SOLIDARITY 

Are we aware at all of the significance of 

our sports on the world scene? 

– I’m not so sure. I don’t deny that our 

country has remarkable artists, deserving 

full attention, but I am certain that none of 

them has done so much for the affirmation 

of Serbia as the sportsmen have. You can 

go to any continent and meet people who 

know our sportsmen, although they don’t 

even know where Serbia is. Not only tennis 

players, but also water polo, basketball 

players, athletes, shooters and many others. 

It seems to me that our people easily skip 

that fact and see successes in sports more 

as entertainment than as major achievements. 

I think those results deserve more 

respect. 

How does the female volleyball national 

team coach see the core of Serbian people? 

– We have our unique features that 

should be preserved. We gained them by 

growing up on our land, and we should 

emphasize them with pride. People live 

better in some other countries and many 

things function better, but we mustn’t try 

to look like them. The way they socialize, 

work, spend their free time, is not ours and 

we don’t accept it. 

We are now very burdened with crises 

in mutual relations. We used to respect, 

support and defend each other more. It’s 

lost now, perhaps under the weight of the 

crisis that has been lasting too long. That 

is why our entire living environment is 

difficult to bear, although the solution is 

right in front of us. Not in looking at others’ 

measures and habits and their adoption. 

We can be better to ourselves if we 

don’t lose what has always been our virtue 

– closeness and solidarity. Then we’ll see 

everything with a greater will and hope. 

Many of my acquaintances from all parts 

of the world, who visited Serbia, departed 

with the most beautiful experiences and 

wish to come again. We must never forget 

that, in moments of great crises, we have a 

lot to show and many like it a lot. 

What to expect from the Olympics in Rio? 

– We are aware of our quality, as well 

as the opponents’. If we just mention Brazil, 

Russia, USA, China, you will understand 

the competition awaiting us in fighting 

for a medal. However, I’m convinced 

that we can play on equal terms with all 

those teams and win them, as we have before. 

It’s finally time for bad luck to turn 

our back on us, because we attended the 

previous two Olympics with incomplete 

teams. Some reasons were ugly – injuries, 

and some beautiful – our players were 

pregnant. Now it’s time to go to the games 

complete. In such a situation, we will not 

be afraid of any opponent and I rightfully 

underline that we are ready to fight for a 

medal. You can count that we’ll do our best. 

It remains to be seen whether it’ll be sufficient 

for a celebration. 



99

J U B I L E E 


INSTITUTE FOR SPORT AND SPORTS MEDICINE CELEBRATES 60 th ANNIVERSARY 

The Pillar 

of Serbian Sport 

One of the few such institutions in the world and the only one in the Balkans, this institution combines 

sport and medicine at the highest level, by applying the highest professional and technological standards. 

It has embedded itself in many gold medals of which we are proud. Its contribution to the mass sport, 

and therefore the health of the nation, it is also huge. The ceremony marking the jubilee was attended by 

many distinguished guests, including former and current sports champions 

When one institution exists for sixty 

years, it is worthy of respect. But, 

if after six decades it still achieves 

the results for which all relevant actors in 

society have only words of praise, then it is 

a true feat. 

The Institute of Sport and Sports Medicine 

of the Republic of Serbia is just such 

an institution: one of the few in the world 

that combines sport and medicine, setting 

the highest standards in the development 

and application of the latest technology in 

professional work, and the only of its kind 

in the Balkans. 

Founded in 1956, it has been developed 

and built for decades. Today, perhaps more 

than ever, with ever faster pace it has been 

modernizing its vocational programs and 

Academia 

in “Serbia” 

Palace 


101

J U B I L E E 

Employees of 

the Institute of 

Sport and Sports 

Medicine of Serbia 

Goran Bojović, 

Director of the 

Institute, with 

professor Heimer 

and with Ivana 

Maksimović 

Anđušić, shooting 

champion 

accommodation facilities in order to provide 

maximum to Serbian athletes and enable 

them achieve even better results at national 

and international competitions. 

– The phenomenon of our existence and 

our work is reflected in a very simple formula: 

we are a traditional house of Serbian 

sport, which operates according to the most 

modern and highest criteria, six decades in 

continuity. It is this synergy of traditional 

and modern, the outstanding balance of 

humaneness, professionalism, vocation and 

ethics that make the principles of our work 

and the basis of our success – explained 

Goran Bojović, director of the Institute for 

Sport and Sports Medicine, addressing the 

eminent guests at the ceremony in “Serbia” 

Palace, celebrating the 60 th anniversary of 

the institution. – Sport and sports medicine 

in the Institute are not two separate worlds, 

on the contrary, these are units that complement 

each other and make a good quality 

entity, recognizable in the world of sport. 

TAILORED TO THE BEST 

And Sports Legends, of Course 

Among the guests at the ceremony were also Serbian sports 

legends, as well as the current sports champions: Dragan Džajić, 

Goran Maksimović, Asmir Kolašinac, Ivana Maksimović, Bojana 

Jovanovski... 

Director Bojović thanked everyone 

who had been partners of this renowned 

institution for years, and he singled out the 

Ministry of Youth and Sports of the Republic 

of Serbia, headed by the Minister 

Vanja Udovičić. 

– Our partnership is bound by the same 

goal: to make sport in Serbia better, healthier 

and more accessible to children. Together 

we have done a lot, but I will mention 

only the reconstruction of the Sports 

and Youth Camp “Karataš”, which symbolizes 

everything that we stand for. 

In the past sixty years, the Institute, 

functionally, played a key role in the development 

of general physical culture in the 

country That is why, as it befits the best, it 

celebrated its anniversary in the company 

of sports legends and top experts in sports 

medicine. 

The academy was attended by the 

Minister of Sport Vanja Udovičić, his assistant 

Uroš Zeković, Secretary of State 

for sport Predrag Peruničić, Executive 

Director of the Olympic Committee of 

Serbia Damir Štajner, President of the 

Sports Association of Serbia Aleksandar 

Šoštar, Secretary for Sports and Youth of 

the City of Belgrade Slavko Gak, on behalf 

of Water Polo Association of Serbia 

Darko Udovičić, Secretary General of the 

Football Association of Serbia Nebojša 

Ivković, Vice President of Basketball Federation 

of Serbia Dejan Tomašević, Secretary 

General of the Volleyball Federation 

of Serbia Slobodan Milošević, Secretary 

General of the Athletic Association of 

Serbia Slobodan Branković, Director of 

the Directorate for Property of the Republic 

of Serbia Jovan Vorkapić, State Attorney 

Olivera Stanimirović, President of 

the Weightlifting Association of Serbia 

Milan Mihajlović, on behalf of the Football 

Club “Red Star” Miodrag Zečević, 

Acting President of the Football Club 

“Partizan” Ivan Ćurković, President of the 

Municipality of Čukarica Srđan Kolarić, 

Prince Aleksandar and Princess Katarina 

Karađorđević. s 



103

I N T R O D U C I N G 

Ivana Španović 

Amela Terzić 

Emir Bekrić 


SLOBODAN BRANKOVIĆ, GENERAL SECRETARY OF THE ATHLETIC ASSOCIATION OF 

SERBIA, ON GREAT UPSWING OF SERBIAN ATHLETICS 

On the Wings 

of Results 

For the breakthrough, it was necessary to reach the top results and medals at the major senior 

competitions. Ivana Španović, Emir Bekrić, Asmir Kolašinac, Amela Terzić, Mihail Dudaš, Tatjana 

Jelača... That is how attention of the state and the public was drawn, and the will collected for building 

and restoration of infrastructure. This has been recognized in the European and World Federation, 

major competitions are in sight, everything is continuing upward 

By: Aleksa Komet 

Ater the first competition held in the 

newly opened athletic hall in Belgrade, 

Slobodan Branković, Secretary 

General of the Athletic Association of 

Serbia, was gleaming with pleasure. 

– This is the crown of the hardworking 

hard five-year period, in which we 

have done great work, primarily at preparing 

the ground for realization of the 

construction of athletic building, its promotion, 

seeking understanding among 

the people in charge, making the basic 

plan, to the construction itself that began 

in 2013. For many of us, the whole 

process was both positive and unpleasant 

experience, because we were faced with 

something completely unexpected. Some 

petty souls and weak characters were trying 

to hamper and prevent us, in different 

ways, mainly for personal reasons. 

We were able to resist them, but a bitter 

taste remained due to the discovery of 

how many of us there are who are ready 

to sacrifice general interests to our own 

complexes. 

When they were elected to the Athletic 

Association, President Veselin Jevrosimović 

and General Secretary Slobodan Branković 

were faced with a deep divide in the organization. 

– We did not want to drown in discord 

and squabbles, but to work. We set clear 

goals. The first was to achieve top results as 

soon as possible, and that meant medals at 

the major senior competitions. Until that 

moment, we had sporadic good results on 

the elite scene and a large number of successful 

juniors. If someone wanted to mask 

the real state of things, they would start 

praising the juniors, deliberately keep- 


105

I N T R O D U C I N G 

Newly built 

Athletic hall in 

Belgrade 

ing silent about the fact that their results 

are primarily the result of personal talent, 

and not a serious systemic work. The real 

values are reached only in the senior competition, 

when much more than personal 

enthusiasm is sought. A comprehensive and 

responsible attitude is necessary, primarily 

of the association, toward the athletes and 

their coaches. 

We were aware: only if achieve good 

competition results, we can think of a better 

athletic infrastructure, which was our second 

goal. Namely, if there are no champions 

among the seniors, who are role models for 

younger generations, there will be no will to 

develop the infrastructure, and if that happens, 

then there will be no new talents. 

Fortunately, top results arrived quickly. 

– I will mention only the names of Ivana 

Španović, Emir Bekrić, Asmir Kolašinc, Amela 

Terzić, Mihailo Dudaš, Tatjana Jelača, and 

all those who follow sports even occasionally 

will understand what upswing the Serbian 

athletics has made in the past few years. 

The National Athletics Stadium 

– We don’t have such a facility at this time. The project has 

been launched. If we manage to build it in the near future, we 

will be able to count on the organization of big outdoor athletic 

events. Along with that, this year we will complete the athletic 

stadium in Novi Pazar, and rebuild the athletic stadium in Subotica. 

We are planning to build a stadium in Pančevo, Smederevo, 

Gornji Milanovac, Zemun. 

The third set objective logically followed 

the previous two. If we have proven champions 

and, with them, adequate infrastructure, 

the next step that we need to make is 

organize big athletic competitions. We need 

them in order to promote athletics in our 

general public, especially among the new 

generations, in which we are looking for future 

champions. 

RECOGNITIONS AND SUPPORT 

With medals that came from the biggest 

competitions, athletic stadiums were built in 

Prijepolje, Vršac, Kruševac, and in Belgrade, 

in Košutnjak. The entire stadium in Sremska 

Mitrovica was restored, as well as the one in 

Novi Sad, in which one exhibition hall, in 

winter time, was turned into a training hall. 

– As a crown of it all, the athletic hall 

in Belgrade was built, by modern standards, 

with the most advanced equipment, the 

only one of its type in this part of Europe, 

which meets all the requirements for the 

organization of top-level competitions. Already 

at this moment it is the pride of our 

athletics. We have waited for such a hall decades, 

it was, I can freely say, the dream of 

many generations who remember well what 

it is like to train outside in autumn and 

winter. I can testify myself about how one 

achieves the results by practicing in the rain 

and snow, at temperatures well below freezing, 

with icy winds. We were handicapped 


in comparison to our colleagues from the 

world, who did not have such problems and 

were able to have a smooth training process 

any time of year. 

Ater all this, it can be said that the Serbian 

athletics has gained a high rating also 

internationally. 

– The results of our athletes have shown 

that a serious work is being done in Serbia. 

The improved infrastructure has shown 

that this was a planned activity, and the European 

and World Federation were able to 

recognize and support this. They were our 

frequent guests, and we were also visited 

by the presidents of these organizations. 

We have also excelled as good organizers 

of professionals and conventions, as well 

as the European Championships in cross 

country in 2013, which was rated as the 

most successful so far. 

Of course, none of this would have been 

possible without the support of the Government 

of Serbia and the Ministry of Youth 

and Sports. The Ministry of Defense had the 

decisive contribution in the building of the 

athletic hall. If it had not been for their help, 

all this would have stopped halfway. 

TESTS FOR DARING HOPES 

All the objectives set so far have been 

achieved. However, new challenges are ahead. 

– First of all, it is our wish to popularize 

athletics and show to young people how 

attractive and diverse it is, incomparable 

with other sports. The European Championships, 

which we will organize next year 

in the new hall will probably help us with 

this. We have already invested heavily in 

this project, together with the state authorities, 

as well as great physical and creative 

efforts. It will be a real test of many of our 

ambition and daring hopes. 

We already know that we will transfer 

to Kragujevac the running track, which we 

will buy and mount in the “Arena” for the 

purpose of the championship, after its end. 

There, we will help build the athletic hall 

and so, in a short time, we will get another. 

It will be available to athletes from that part 

of Serbia. 

Because everything we have launched 

and achieved, we have entered into negotiations 

for obtaining the organization of 

the World Indoor Championships 2020. We 

sincerely hope that the relevant structures 

of the World Federation will recognize our 

energy. s 

For Some New Kids 

Athletic hall 

in Belgrade, 

inside 

Photo: Archive 

of the Athletic 

Association of 

Serbia 

– Infrastructure projects in athletics are of general national 

interest. The construction of athletic stadiums will enable the 

broadest range of young people to engage in athletics, completely 

free of charge, which is an exception to all other sports. 

Thanks to these facilities, the largest number of boys and girls 

will master the first lessons in physical culture and maybe acquire 

the first affection for the sport. 


107

A R E N A 

ECHOES OF THE FIFTH NATIONS WOMEN’S BOXING CUP, HELD IN RUMA 

Boxing Center 

of the World 

Those days, over 250 world’s best boxers from 27 national teams, from all continents gathered 

in Ruma. World boxing superpowers arrived in the strongest teams. All facilities in the town and 

surroundings were occupied. The overall winner was Russia, the best in senior competition was India. 

Besides gold of Milena Matović, Serbia won seven bronze medals. Great encouragements 

for the organizers and for competitors 

In the world of sports, Ruma’s name was 

celebrated, above all, by competitors 

in martial arts: judo, savate, karate and 

traditional boxing. That is why, this past 

winter, there was hardly a better place than 

Ruma to hold the fifth Nations Women’s 

Boxing Cup. 

This competition brought together over 

250 world’s best female boxers from 27 national 

teams, from all over. So, in January, 

Ruma was a real “world in a nutshell”. The 

competition took place at the Sports Center 

“Ruma”, one of the most beautiful sports 

halls in Serbia, with a capacity of over 2,000 

spectators. 

– In the last two years, the Municipality 

of Ruma has been in a great investment and 

economic expansion, and one of the tasks 

that the local government has set for itself 

is the development of tourism. Therefore, 

there was no dilemma whether to go into 

the organization of this great sports event – 

says Slađan Mančić, President of Ruma Municipality. 

– Sport is the best way to bring 


people together. Our city hosted representations 

from five continents and used the 

tournament to promote our tourism potential. 

In addition, significant economic benefits 

were achieved, as all accommodation 

facilities were fully occupied for almost two 

weeks. We had close to 400 guests. 

This year, the Nations Cup was ranked 

immediately behind the World Cup. Boxing 

superpowers, such as Russia and Kazakhstan, 

arrived in the strongest teams. China, 

India, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, 

France, Germany, Greece, Algeria, Morocco, 

Croatia, Dominican Republic, and others 

arrived in Srem with their A teams A. 

Ruma has many times been the host to 

demanding sporting events. Impeccable organization 

has recommended it to be the 

boxing center of the world this past winter, 

says the famous Serbian boxer Tadija Kačar, 

winner of many medals at the world’s strongest 

competitions and Director of the Boxing 

Association of Vojvodina. 

– Boxing, this noble martial art, again has 

a chance to reach its former glory – Together 

with his brother Slobodan, he was one of 

the best Serbian boxers of all time – At the 

competition in Ruma we had at least ten female 

world champions and the same number 

of continental champions. Girls who 

fought were the girls who had participated 

in the Olympics in London and who we will 

be watching in August in Rio. This is a real 

boxing promotion, a motivation for young 

people to take this road. Women’s boxing in 

our country is still developing. I hope that 

in the coming years we will be more equally 

involved in fighting for the medals, because 

Serbs are a sports nation and we definitely 

can do it. If other girls soon decide to follow 

the footsteps of Milena Matović, our country 

will have a boxing perspective. 

Milena Matović was the biggest star of 

the fifth Nations Cup. This nineteen year old 

from Žabalj won the senior competition in 

the category up to 64 kilograms. At the closing 

ceremony, Milena was declared the best 

boxer of the tournament. 

MEDALS, IMPRESSIONS, HOPES 

The new Serbian boxing set herself big 

goals. In addition to a medal at the upcoming 

World Championships in Kazakhstan, 

Milena wants to qualify for the Olympic 

Games. 

– The Olympics in Rio is my dream and I 

will give my best to be there this year, alongside 

Milica Mandić, Novak Đoković, Ivana 

Španović and our other national representatives, 

who have been representing Serbia 

in the best possible light for years – says 

this member of Boxing Club “Šajkaš” from 

Žabalj. – But, before Rio, I will practice hard 

for the upcoming World Cup, where , with 

less weight, I will be chasing qualification 

for the Olympic Games. My greatest incentive 

will be my gold medal won in Ruma, 

and the great support that I had during all 

competition days in this city. 

The overall winner of the fifth Nations 

Cup team is Russia, with 14 gold, 5 silver 

and 5 bronze medals. Russian selection was 

the best in the youth and junior competition, 

while boxers from India were the best 

in the senior competition. Besides Milena’s 

gold, Serbia also won seven bronze medals, 

three in senior and four in junior categories. 

Nikolaj Kibkalo, the leader of the Russian 

expedition, the most numerous national 

team, at the said competition, emphasizes 

the warm reception in Srem. 

– I have traveled almost the whole world 

with the boxing national team. People in 

Ruma are very friendly and hospitable, such 

a warm welcome is not easy to come across. 

I’m glad that there is a great interest in boxing 

here, because it is a sport with a millennial 

tradition – says Kibkalo. 

Compliments from the participants of 

the fifth Nations Cup confirm that the efforts 

invested in the organization of the tournament 

have been paid off, says the president 

of the Municipality of Ruma Slađan Mančić. 

– For us in Ruma it is very important 

because we have invested our best so that 

everything would go smoothly – adds 

Mančić. – Over a hundred volunteers were 

engaged for the competition, the audience 

enjoyed the high quality matches, and we 

had a number of ambassadors as guests, and 

with them we didn’t discuss sports subjects 

only. A very successful competition is behind 

us and we are excited about the new 

challenges. s 

Slađan Mančić, 

President of the 

Municipality of 

Ruma, with Tadija 

Kačar 

Serbian national 

team at the 

competition in 

Ruma 

Serbian selector 

Marko Tubić with 

Milena Matović, 

the champion 

Recommendation for the World Championship 

Supervisor Sergei from Belarus confirmed that the competition 

in Ruma met the highest sports standards of the European 

Boxing Federation: 

– Excellently organized tournament. The host made sure that 

all the teams felt comfortable in Ruma, but at the same time it 

met the high demands and criteria of the competition. I hope 

that Ruma be able to organize the World Championship for Youth, 

which I will highly recommend to the Boxing Federation. 


109

C O N N E C T I O N S 

“TELEKOM SRBIJA” SUPPORTED AN IMPORTANT EXHIBITION IN THE HISTORICAL MUSEUM 

Pupin in 

Full Light 

Exhibition “Pupin – From the Physical to 

the Spiritual Reality” has truly brought the 

abundance of its contents to the visitors, 

in a vivid and unusual manner. The visitors 

can hear Pupin, stand next to his mother 

who accompanies him on the path of 

knowledge, pass by Idvor meadow full of cattle, 

discover Pupin’s work in “augmented reality”... 

The great interest in the country and abroad 

is the logical result 


Due to great interest, the exhibition 

entitled “Pupin – From the Physical 

to the Spiritual Reality”, dedicated 

to the world-famous Serbian scientist, will 

be open until the end of June this year. Only 

during the first three months, this exhibition 

at the Historical Museum of Serbia, organized 

under the auspices of the Ministry of 

Culture and with the support of “Telekom 

Srbija”, was visited by nearly two hundred 

schools from all over Serbia and more than 

20,000 visitors. 

Dr. Dušica Bojić, Director of the Historical 

Museum of Serbia, says that this is so far 

the most visited exhibition at the Museum: 

– This is the second exhibition of its kind 

organized by the Historical Museum of Serbia. 

The method of exhibition includes the 

original museum material, accompanied by 

interaction and three-dimensional animation, 

as the most advanced form of communication 

with visitors. Of course, an exhibition 

of this kind pushes the boundaries in 

museology, bringing novelties, enables that 

the exhibition, through internet applications 

that are copied in the catalog, can be 

seen everywhere in the world regardless of 

the basic duration of the exhibition. 

She points out that the exhibition has attracted 

the audience both with its content 

and innovative abilities. 

– You can hear the voice, see Mihailo 

Pupin in natural size, the scientist speaks 

about himself and takes you through the 

segments in the exhibition. All this attracts 

great attention of visitors, who come back 

several times to see the exhibition. 

Dušica Bojić adds that visitors have a 

good prior knowledge of Pupin, but that the 

exhibition brings many details that are presented 

to the public for the first time: 

– Research by Aleksandra Ninković 

Tašić, numerous unpublished documents, 

the ship “Westphalia” in which Pupin sailed 

for America (a special experience when activating 

the animation), “Pulitzer Prize”, students 

– Nobel Laureates, innovation in the 

use of X-rays, celestial swing, coils... These 

Key Support of “Telekom Srbija” 

– The great attention and number of visitors of the exhibition 

on Mihajlo Pupin, as well as significant success of our young scientists 

and students around the world, are proof that science in 

Serbia still occupies an important place – said Marija Bošković, 

Director of PR Division of “Telekom Srbija”. – The company “Telekom 

Srbija” is pleased to have supported this exhibition, which, 

in a modern and creative way, provides an opportunity to get to 

know the work and penetrate into the many secrets of the great 

inventor. As a socially responsible company, “Telekom Srbija” will 

continue to support and implement projects that in the best way 

represent our most important scientists and their achievements. 


111

C O N N E C T I O N S 

Guided Tours 

Guided tours by the author through the exhibition “Pupin – 

From the Physical to the Spiritual Reality” are organized every 

Saturday from 13:00 and 15:00 hours, while professional guided 

tours are on Wednesdays from 17:00 hours. 

are all interesting segments that particularly 

attract attention of the audience. 

REALITY OF A LIVE MUSEUM 

The visitors have complete experience 

at this exhibition during the guided tours 

through it, every Saturday, when the Historical 

Museum of Serbia in only one day 

is visited by up to one thousand people. 

Aleksandra Ninković Tašić, the author of 

the exhibition and Vice President of Education 

and Research Society “Mihajlo Pupin”, 

explains this with the fact that the rich 

content was this time really brought close 

to visitors: 

– The exhibition does not wait for an interested 

individual to come here, ready to 

patiently read valuable information. The information 

here will come by itself. The texts 

are accompanied by dozens of sounds, the 

man runs the installation with his very presence, 

he observes, but also feels the content. 

You can hear Pupin, stand next to his mother 

sending him to the path of knowledge, 

pass by Idvor meadow with cattle, watch the 

stars, rotate the periscope, discover Pupin’s 

work in “augmented reality”. Children come 

with their school, and then they also bring 

their moms and dads, who then come with 

their friends. This is a living museum, and 

the crowd in it, children’s voices and many 

questions, make it a fantastic place. 

When asked whether the visitors are interested 

in some aspects of life and work of 

Mihajlo Pupin, which may not be covered by 

the exhibition, Aleksandra Ninković Tašić 

replies that for her it was the most difficult 

to choose from the abundance of content for 

the exhibition, although she had available 

2,000 square meters of space. Guided tours 

have introduced a new dimension to the exhibition, 

including a live word. 

– Live word is always different, with 

many anecdotes and details which were not 

included in the exhibition. With a very nice 

conversation about Pupin, visitors get a full 

portrait of the scientist, they feel his inspiration, 

his torments and successes – concludes 

the author of the exhibition. 

Satisfaction with the great success of the 

interactive exhibition on Mihajlo Pupin is 

also shared by people in the company “Telekom 

Srbija”, which has recognized the importance 

of this approach to life’s work of 

one of the greatest Serbian scientists. 

In addition to the audience in Serbia, by 

all accounts, the exhibition “Pupin – From 

the Physical to the Spiritual Reality” will also 

be seen by people abroad. This exhibition is 

designed as a traveling exhibition, although 

probably not to the same extent. According 

to the Director of the Historical Museum of 

Serbia Dr. Dušica Bojić, they have already received 

invitations from several countries that 

have great respect for Mihajlo Pupin, and 

who are familiar with the way in which this 

particularly significant exhibition has been 

organized conceptually and technically. s 


R E C O M M E N D A T I O N 

VRNЈAČKA BANЈA FOLLOWING GLOBAL TRENDS WITH ITS HOTEL OFFER 

Uncompromised 

Quality 

There is a long tradition of hospitality and hotel industry in Vrnjačka Banja. In accordance 

with the high standards in this field, the offer was supplemented with modern resorts 

with excellent facilities and service. One of these is certainly “Solaris Risort”, 

recommended by the Municipality of Vrnjačka Banja 

There are few activities, such as 

tourism, hotel management and 

hospitality, which are to such an 

extent resting on people, their knowledge 

and abilities. The ability to satisfy the desires 

and needs of the most discerning 

tourists is well known to the inhabitants 

of Vrnjačka Banja. As far back as in 1885, 

just when this spa passed into the state 

hands, the first restaurant “State Tavern” 

appeared. It belonged to the well-known 

in-keeper Kosta Petrović Rakica. In the 

“State Tavern”, which was frequented 

mostly by the elite of the society of that 

time, king Milan and queen Natalija, political 

leaders Nikola Pašić, Stojan Protić 

and others were spending their day in 

this spa resort. Following the example of 


113

R E C O M M E N D A T I O N 

Hotel 

“Solaris” in 

Vrnjačka Banja 

Kosta Rakica, new tourists facilities were 

being opened over time. Based on the 

quality of provided services, restaurants, 

villas and hotels that even now host a 

large number of tourists from Serbia and 

the world stood out: “Zvezda”, “Fontana”, 

“Breza”, “Slavija”, “Švajcarija”, “Goč”, “Kruna”, 

Vila “Savka”, “Aleksandar”, Vila “San”, 

“Šumadija”... 

In accordance with the new trends in 

the field of tourism and hotel industry, the 

tourist offer of Vrnjačka Banja was completed 

by modern facilities which, with 

their top quality service, numerous innovative 

amenities and hospitality enable 

the tourists to spend their holidays in the 

most pleasant and most comfortable way. 

LIKE IN SEYCHELLES 

The Magic of Ethnic Cuisines 

Restaurant “Biber”, located within hotel “Solaris”, has attracted 

all fans of good food. Here you can taste ethnic specialties from 

many countries of the world. In the distinctive atmosphere of 

the restaurant you may enjoy a dinner typical for Far East, Spain, 

France, Italy ... This restaurant is the first in Serbia to meet the conditions 

and standards for Halal certification. 

One of these objects that stand out for 

its content and service, attracting great 

attention of spa guests, is certainly hotel 

“Solaris Risort”. With beautiful atmosphere, 

this hotel is situated in a quiet 

part of Vrnjačka Banja, near the central 

spa promenade and important locations, 

such as bus stations. Since “Solaris” with 

its amenities is adapted to the needs of 

athletes and sports teams, it is important 

that the Sports Complex is situated in its 

vicinity. 

Already at first glance, the visitors to 

this hotel are lured by beautifully landscaped 

gardens, with specific plant species. 

Infrastructure of this hotel is also 

extraordinary, as the rooms and apartments 

are housed in nine private villas, 

within which there is a modern wellness 

center, relaxation zone and indoor swimming 

pool. 

Business offer of “Solaris” comprises 

of two fully equipped seminar rooms for 

organizing different types of conferences, 

business meetings and gatherings. 

For all those who are unable to travel 

to the distant Seychelles, “Solaris”, with its 

unique offer, captures that exotic ambiance 

with its bio-design swimming pool, 

the first in Serbia. With a sandy beach, 

palm trees and cocktails, for a moment 

you feel like you are really there. In addition, 

there is an outdoor swimming pool 

available, with a bar, open air restaurant, 

fitness club and tennis courts. 

“Solaris”, therefore, in one place, with 

its diverse content, can provide the perfect 

atmosphere for its guests. This is also 

confirmed by the fact that in only a few 

years of successful existence, it has hosted 

a large number of music stars who performed 

in Vrnjačka Banja, participants 

of the Film Screenplay Festival and “The 

Days of Danilo Bata Stojković”, the doyens 

of Serbian theater, poets, writers, 

artists, celebrated athletes and national 

teams, as well as a number of important 

names from the world of politics and diplomacy. 

Thanks to such standards of business 

and reputation, continuous investment 

and following trends, this hotel has become 

one of the jewels of Vrnjačka Banja 

tourism. This position will be even more 

strengthened by the announced new facilities, 

in line with global trends in the field 

of hotel and hospitality industry. This will, 

for sure, make Vrnjačka Banja an even 

more attractive and competitive European 

tourist destination. s 



115

H E A L T H 

SPA CENTER “ROMAN SPRING” AND OTHER IMPROVEMENTS IN “MERKUR” 

New Concept, 

Old Benefits 

All major European spa resorts have individual facilities only providing accommodation and food, while 

everything else is being implemented in the central spa facilities. “Merkur’s” Spa Center “Roman Spring” 

is based on this idea. Since last summer, it has been consolidated the former five centers and is available 

to all guests of Vrnjačka Banja 

Top medical services combined 

with treatments with mineral water 

– are the basics of a spa resort. 

Balneology therapies used in Vrnjačka 

Banja through centuries are today the 

basis of the services in “Merkur”. They 

have been successfully implemented 

thanks to the natural wealth of this area, 

mineral water, in four treatments: drinking, 

bathing, inhalation, vaginal dewing 

and enemas. However, with its good development 

strategy, “Merkur” has managed 

in the past decade to grow from a 

classical spa rehabilitation center into a 

modern medical and spa resort. Traditional 

balneology services were upgraded 

with modern diagnostic methods, 

highly specialized medical team, relax 

and spa facilities, which awaken health 

(which is “Merkur’s” slogan) in the best 

possible way. 

Accommodation facilities in all major 

European spa resorts have been abandoning 

the concept of investing in their 


own spa capacities and wellness facilities. 

Under the new concept, these facilities 

provide accommodation and food, and 

everything else is being organized in the 

central spa facilities. 

That is exactly how the Spa Center 

“Roman Spring”, opened by “Merkur” last 

summer, has been designed. 

A CENTER OF FIVE CENTERS 

“Merkur” has pleasantly surprised 

all the guests and citizens of Vrnjačka 

Banja with this new attractive content 

– exclusive Spa Center “Roman Spring”, 

“, the largest of its kind in this part of 

the Balkans. On an area of 2,200 square 

meters, “Roman Spring” has united all 

of “Merkur’s” centers in the building of 

Thermal-Mineral bath, and enabled all 

guests of Vrnjačka Banja to experience 

the true spa service. In its extensive offer, 

“Roman Spring” includes five centers: 

Centre of Medical Aesthetics, Wellness 

Center, Peloid, Center for Massage and 

Balneology Center. 

“Merkur’s” Spa Center is using thermal 

water in all segments of the spa. 

Swimming in the pools with thermalmineral 

water has many benefits compared 

to conventional swimming pool 

centers. Mineral water, which is used in 

all “Merkur’s” swimming pools, is nature’s 

cure for both health and beauty. 

“Merkur” today is a modern, wellequipped 

and internationally recognized 

health resort, where excellent doctors and 

natural healing factors work together for 

the benefit of people’s health. That is why 

they have been achieving significant results 

in diagnostics and treatment of digestive 

organs, musculoskeletal system, 

as well as in the prevention and treatment 

of diabetes. Also, “Merkur” is a great 

place for all those who are looking for 

relaxation, total relaxation and revitalization, 

or physical activities for preventive 

purposes. It is truly a place that awakens 

health, in many beneficial ways. 

“Merkur” is an interesting mosaic of 

inspiring possibilities. Everything in it has 

been adapted and subordinated to those 

who come to Vrnjačka Banja guided by 

the need to find a cure, or a desire to restore 

energy and smile. s 

The Best 

Within the “Balkan Spa Award” 2015, “Merkur’s” Spa Center 

“Roman Spring” was declared the winner in the category “Best 

Medical Spa”. “This award is recognition of the dedicated work 

and achievements in the field of medical and spa tourism, as 

well as the contribution to the development of this area”, said 

the jury. 


117

INSTITUTION STUDENTS’ 

RESORT “BELGRADE” 

Business Unit “Radojka Lakić” on Avala 

Build on the foundations of a building from the late 1930’s, it is at the 

same time the seat of the Institution of Students’ resort “Belgrade”. It 

is located on the most beautiful part of the mountain of Avala, on the 

outskirts of the capital of Serbia. After it was demolishes in 1999, during 

the aggression of the North Atlantic Pact against Serbia, the entire building 

was restored gradually. Today it is one of the most modern students’ resorts 

in this part of Europe. It provides excellent accommodation, food and the 

entire range of other services to students, as well as third party users. 

It consists of two parts: 

New building “Avala” 

On a surface area of 5.357 square meters, it has 158 beds. It has a 

restaurant with 200 seats, a conference room with 150 seats, seminar room 

with 2x30 seats, and summer garden with 200 seats. 

Annex 

Its capacity is 73 beds in double and triple rooms. It has a restaurant 

with 180 seats. 

General Ždanova 201, 11226 Belgrade 

011 3907 946 • 011 3907 947 • recepcija.avala@usob.rs • www.usob.rs

Srbija - nacionalna revija - broj 54 - engleski - niska rezolucija

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