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Supreme Leader Karadjordje

The founder of the Karadjordjevic dynasty Djordje Petrovic - Karadjordje (Black George) was born on 15 November 1752, in the village of Visnjevac in Lepenica district. His parents were Peter and Marica Zivkovic. In 1786 he married Jelena Jovanovic from Maslоsevo. Seven children were born in that marriage – daughters Sava, Sara, Poleksija and Stamenka, and sons Sima (died after birth), Aleksa (died when he was 29 in Kisinjev, Russia) and Alexander.

Soon after starting a family he went to Syrmia, where he took part as a volunteer in the Austro-Turkish war 1787-1791, under the command of Radic Petrovic. He was awarded the gold medal for courage and became a non commissioned officer.

Upon returning to Serbia, Karadjordje joined the outlaws (“hajduks”), at first the bands of Lazar Dobric and Stanoje Glavas, and later he became a leader of a band of rebels himself. The establishment of limited autonomy in the Belgrade region (“pashalik”) enabled Karadjordje to go back to farming and trade and to settle in his estate in Topola.

The fragile peace in Serbia ended in 1801, by the janissary reign of terror. The Serbian people were reduced to a state of slavery and suffering under humiliation and torment unprecedented since the fall under the Ottomans. The janissary repression culminated in the slaughter of prominent Serbs – “hacking of the headmen”.

At the rally in Orasac on 14 February 1804 the gathered rebels chose Karadjordje Petrovic as the leader of the uprising against the janissary chieftains – “dahis”. From that moment his life became inseparably connected with the destiny of the First Serbian Uprising. He became the central figure and driving force of the national liberation movement. He was the Supreme Leader, Lord of the Serbs, state builder, commander in chief and diplomat.

After the execution of dahis, the uprisers opposed the Sultan’s army. Serbian victories followed one after the other in the battles of Misar, Ivankovac (1805), and Deligrad (1806). By the end of 1806 year the uprisers liberated Belgrade. In 1807 were no Ottoman fortifications in Serbia. Those victories and the beginning of Russian-Turkish war near the end of 1806, forced Turkey to negotiate. According to the so called “Ickov’s peace” Serbia should have become a vassal Turkish principality, but Karadjordje’s ambitions were for full independence and liberation of all Serbs under Ottoman rule. After making an alliance with Russia in spring of 1807, the war against the Ottoman’s continued. Southern Serbia was liberated and Serbian troops penetrated into Raska region and established a connection with Montenegro. After defeat in Cegar, the Serbs withdrew to the Morava, continuing fights in the regions of Timok and Podrinje.

The Serbian state and position of the Supreme Leader were strengthened alongside of liberation of territories. Executive Council, courts, post offices and a regular army were established, and the Great School (future University) of Belgrade and elementary schools in all towns in Serbia were founded. Karadjordje’s laws and constitutional reforms turned Serbia into a country ruled by law. At the end of 1808 he was proclaimed hereditary Supreme Leader of the Serbs, and under the constitutional reform of 1811, he strengthened his position as the leader of Uprising and the country.

Because of Napoleon’s campaign, Russia signed a peace treaty with Turkey in 1812, and left Serbia to face incomparably bigger and better equipped Ottoman army all alone. After refusing of the Bucharest peace treaty and failed negotiations, the Ottoman’s launched a big campaign in 1813. Almost a decade long warfare had weakened the Serbian army, and the First Serbian Uprising was crushed in bloody repression. Karadjordje with his family and the most prominent chieftains left the country, initially for Austria, and later for Besarabia (Russia). After his attempts to persuade the Russian Tsar to go to war against Turkey had failed, Karadjordje made contacts with the Greek organization “Heteria”, whose aim was the allied uprising of the Greeks, Serbs and Bulgarians and the establishment of a great Balkan state. With the intention to start the struggle Karadjordje secretly came to Serbia. Under the orders of the Turkish vizier and chieftain Milos Obrenovic he was assassinated in Radovanjski Lug near Smederevo, on the night between 24 and 25 July 1817. His body was buried in the Memorial Church of St. George in Oplenac, built by King Peter I.

Karadjordje’s popularity grew in time into a legend and beyond Serbia’s borders. The Christians saw God’s messenger in him, the Serbs from Austria thought of him as their emperor who would free them from the oppressors, and the Archbishop of Montenegro called him the Unifier of the Serbian people. For the contemporary generation of the Serbs, Karadjordje is a synonym for people’s leader, an idol and inspiration.

Prince Alexander

The youngest son of Karadjordje and Jelena was born in Topola on 11 October 1806. He was educated in Hotin, Besarabia (Russia), under the patronage of the Russian Tsar. In 1830 he married Persida, daughter of vojvoda (chieftain) Jevrem Nenadovic. They had nine children: daughters Poleksija, Kleopatra, Jelena and Jelisaveta and sons Aleksij, Svetozar, (both died as young children), Andrej, Peter and Arsen.

After the Sultan’s decree acknowledging the title of Prince Mihailo Obrenovic at the end of 1839, the family returned to Serbia. Alexander joined the Headquarters of the Serbian Army, and was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant and appointed as adjutant to Prince Mihailo.

After the political conflicts caused by disrespect of the so called “Turkish constitution”, and Milos’s and then Mihajlo Obrenovic’s abdications, Alexander Karadjordjevic was elected the Prince of Serbia at the National Assembly in Vracar on 14 September 1842. Having had his title acknowledged by Russia and Turkey, Prince Alexander started the reforms and founded a number of new institutions in order to improve the progress of the Serbian state. He implemented the code of civil rights, introduced the regular Army, built a canon foundry, improved the existing schools and founded new ones, National Library and National Museum.

During the Hungarian revolution in Vojvodina in 1848, Prince Alexander Karadjordjevic sent Serbian volunteers under the command of Stevan Knicanin to help the Serbs’ struggle for autonomy. As a follow-up of the national-political movement in 1848, the pan-slavistic idea of a Yugoslav Monarchy emerged, and with the “Nacertanije” (the “Draft”) document, written as a Serbian political program by Ilija Garasanin four years earlier, it made the mission of liberating all Southern Slavs from Austrian and Turkish domination become the stand point of Serbian foreign policy.

In internal policy Prince Alexander came into conflict with the members of the Council, which culminated in the convocation of the national assembly on St. Andrew’s day in December 1858, which forced him to abdicate.

After his abdication, Prince Alexander withdrew to his property near Temisoara (Romania). His peaceful life was agitated by the accusation of providing the weapons and money for the conspiracy in Prince Mihajlo’s assassination. He was deeply hurt by the verdict for a deed he had never committed. Dynastic struggles became more severe and it was only then that Prince Alexander took part in them. He detested the thought of the hideous deed that was imputed to him by his opponents and fought with all his strength to bring another Karadjordjevic to the throne. Prince Alexander died in Temisoara on 3 May 1885. He was buried in Vienna, and his earthly remains were moved in 1912 to the Memorial Church of St. George built by King Peter I in Oplenac.

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