"What do the people in your area say about vlas" and me?

The Statehood Day of Serbia as we know it is celebrated on February 15, on the religious holiday of Sretenje, because on that day in 1835, Serbia received its first constitution, modeled after the French one. However, the constitution was only in force for 14 days because, under the pressure of the great powers (Austria, Russia and Turkey), Prince Miloš Obrenović quickly suspended it.

01-01 MilosObrenovic_1848

Although the Sretenj Constitution was the foundation of the modern Serbian state and although it was adopted at a time when neither Russia, Austria nor Turkey had constitutions, Miloš did not find it difficult that these powers were pressuring him to do away with "French seedlings on Turkish soil". On the contrary, he suspended the constitution very willingly and without resistance, because he knew very well that this document largely served to limit his arbitrariness. At that point, Miloš had already been in power for 20 years (since 1815), used to being asked about everything from foreign policy to what we would call communal issues today.

It is interesting, however, that no official scientific biography has yet been written about the founder of the modern Serbian state. Why this is so, we can only guess: either it seems to scientists that everything about Miloš is already known and taken for granted, or no one wants to do this work because the virtuous prince was a complicated phenomenon in every sense, and many details from his life are difficult to find. untangle.

For example, it is known that Miloš had sixteen children, but little is known that he often gave his illegitimate children the same names as his legitimate, married ones. At a time of high infant mortality, this was a shrewd move to provide himself with legitimate heirs (one of the two Milans would surely survive smallpox, scarlet fever, and other plagues).

UNKNOWN GRAVES

In December 2009, Zorica Janković, a historian, wrote for "Vreme" about Miloš's descendants. She says that we can claim with great certainty that of all the European rulers who ruled in the last two centuries, Serbian Prince Miloš Obrenović had the most children: a total of sixteen - eight married and eight out of wedlock.

He married only once. He married Ljubica Vukomanović, who was eight years younger, and at the invitation of Miloš's half-brother Duke Milan, the best man was Karađorđe. When he got married in the spring of 1804, Miloš was 24 years old. As he himself said, with Ljubica he fathered "eight children, that is, four male and one female": Petar, Petrija, Jelisaveta (Savka), Ana, Milan, Mihailo and Teodoro. Four of them died as children, Petrija and Mihailo outlived both their parents, and Jelisaveta outlived her mother.

Petrija and Jelisaveta got married and gave birth to five children each, Milan died unmarried and childless at the age of twenty, while Mihailo had one son (Velimir), but from an extramarital or premarital relationship.

Two of Miloš's sons were on the princely throne of Serbia: Milan in 1839 and Mihailo from 1839 to 1842 and from 1860 to 1868. When in 1830 Miloš acquired the hereditary princely dignity, then, according to the rule of primogeniture, his older son Milan became the heir to the throne (Milos' first son Petar died as a child), while he came to the throne after his father's abdication on June 1, 1839. Unfortunately, the seriously ill Milan received the news of the princely dignity in bed; he died on the twenty-sixth day of his reign without signing any official act as ruler. Miloš's second son, Mihailo, did not live to old age either; he was killed in the Topcider assassination at the age of forty-five.

Miloš had eight illegitimate children with eight wives. We do not know that he entered into extramarital affairs during the First and Second Serbian Uprisings. His first such relationship was with Petrija, the wife of Hadji-Prodan's brother Mihailo, whom he saved at the last moment from going into Turkish slavery, after the Turks captured Hadji-Prodan's entire family at the time of Hadji-Prodan's rebellion. Miloš brought Petrija to his home "to meet the princess" but, above all, to "find" him.

Thus, at the beginning of 1819, Petrija gave birth to a daughter to Miloš, whom the lovers named Velika. By the time the first illegitimate child was born, Ljubica had given birth to four children, a son, Petar, and three daughters. As Petar died as a child (1814), pressure was put on Miloš to provide an heir. It was rumored that Ljubica could no longer give birth and that Petrija could give the prince an heir. But, remaining in another state, the princess gained the confidence to end her husband's infidelity. In March of the same year, after an insolent answer from Petrija, Ljubica reached for a gun and killed her husband's lover. Miloš mourned Petrija for a long time, and he forgave Ljubica when he found out that she was carrying his child. In September, Ljubica gave birth to Milan, the later prince, but she also took care of her husband's illegitimate daughter, whose mother she killed. Unfortunately, four years later, after a smallpox epidemic, Velika died - four days before two-year-old Maria, the sixth child of Miloš and Ljubiča, would also die. Three months later, the princess will give birth to Mihailo, the future Serbian prince.

Miloš had another illegitimate child, Maria, with Stanko, who almost escaped Petrija's fate. The princess's intention to put an end to her husband's infidelity with a weapon was thwarted, after a tip-off, by the prince's boyfriends. The princess was punished with beatings, and Miloš married Stanka. After her divorce, the lovers started meeting again, and the relationship lasted even when Miloš met Jelenka, a young Turkish woman who was in Milenko Stojković's harem until 1811.

Jelenka gave birth to Miloš's son Gavrilo in 1826 and thus only strengthened her position at the duke's court, which Princess Ljubica could no longer influence. Miloš appeared in public with Jelenka, which is why she was called "little lady". The sick Gavrilo did not live long - he died in 1828 before turning two years old. Until he married her (1835), Miloš maintained an intimate relationship with Jelenka, asking about her and occasionally sending her gifts while he was in exile for two decades.

Miloš's fourth illegitimate child was his son Teodor, born most likely in Vienna in 1842. Teodoro's mother was called Danica, and Miloš himself gave her the name after he bought her as a 13 or 14-year-old girl as a slave on the Constantinople market (1835) and brought her to Serbia. Miloš entered into an intimate relationship with the young Danica around 1839, when he was already in his sixth decade, and when his legitimate son, the then eighteen-year-old Prince Mihailo, approached him about the inheritance (due to rumors that the aged Miloš would transfer his entire property little Theodore). It is also the only known case of the relationship between the prince's legitimate and illegitimate children (admittedly, in one direction). Mihailo received an assurance from his father that he was his eldest legitimate son, but also that he was obliged to take care of his father's other children. Teodor died in Vienna on May 31, 1846, Mihailo was freed from worries about inheritance, and Miloš married Danica to a Viennese merchant a year earlier with a rich dowry. He did not attend the wedding, but he arrived at the feast with his new lover, Francisca Hittenberg.

By the end of 1846, Miloš would have two more illegitimate children: son Alexander Gustav and daughter Maria. A son was born to him by the aforementioned Franciska, and a daughter by Sidonia Reichel, young girls who worked as servants in Miloš's Viennese houses. He paid off both lovers, and we don't know what happened to the children.

The following year, in 1847, Miloš did not rest either. His daughter Maria Klara was born to him in early 1848 from his relationship with Maria Graf from Bečlijk. Apart from the fact that the mother received a lump sum from Miloš for her daughter's support and education, we have no other information about the two Marias.

Miloš had his last illegitimate child in 1857, when he was already 77 years old. His son Milan was born to another Maria, a Russian woman with whom he spent the last years of his exile in Bucharest. Milan didn't live long either - he died in 1859, and Maria then moved to Serbia, where she was with Miloš until he died, on the Day of the Cross, September 26, 1860.

SMALL GRAVES

It is interesting, however, that none of the historians who dealt with Miloš Obrenović's descendants mention the two small graves that are located next to the foundation of the Old Church in Kragujevac. It is actually about tombstones that are barely distinguishable from the stone used to pave the yard. The old church was built by Miloš in 1818 and is dedicated to the descent of the Holy Spirit. It is located right next to the Old Assembly, where the Constitution of Sretenj was adopted in 1835. Children's graves can only be spotted by chance, with a good look, because you can barely see that something has been carved on them. And two names are carved - Marija and Gavrilo, the last name Obrenović is clearly visible, the birth years do not exist, but the death years are visible, from which it is clear that they are Miloš's two illegitimate children who were buried there. Unfortunately, this is not widely known in Kragujevac either, and from the state in which the tombstones are found, it is clear that they were treated just like paving stones (one is cracked). Since the tombstones are barely visible, it is not easy to remember where they are exactly, so if the reader is taken to Kragujevac, the easiest way to find them is to take a good look at each plaque that is placed next to the wall, i.e. the foundation of the church.

NOMAD...

Almost everything is known about the unquestionable historical importance of Miloš Obrenović, the important role he played in the founding of the modern Serbian state and the decisions he made in order to secure independence for the country and the people. Although, we remind you, the official scientific biography has not been written yet. However, Miloš's tendency to deal with trivial matters, and even to dictate official decisions and judgments, which we can laugh at today, is equally well-known and documented. Something from those decisions entered the popular speech, so even today in Kragujevac and Šumadija, for some complicated and unimportant situation, they say "selevka jebačine". And here is where...

Somewhere around 1820, Prince Miloš, traveling with his retinue on horses, arrived in Selevac, next to Smederevska Palanka, where he noticed several young women and girls dancing and singing in a secluded field. The legend says that the prince and his retinue dismounted and started courting the girls, "paired up", then separated in the woods, and that several unpaired girls were jealous, so they reported to the Turks that they had been attacked by bandits. More realistic, however, is the scenario according to which Miloš and his entourage really attacked the girls and tried to rape them, and they complained to the serf. The serf ran out of the house, shot three times with his rifle, the whole of Selevac gathered and beat Miloš and the team. That is why the virtuous prince did not love Selevac until the end of his life.

Almost twenty years later, it happened in Selevac that a certain Marko's uncle died, and Aunt Ružica became a young widow. It must have been that Marko approached the consolation, because Ružica, a year after her husband died, gave birth to a son. Marko did not want to recognize the child or take part in his support, so the Smederevo Court passed a corresponding verdict, which was approved by the Supreme Court of the Serbian People. The judgment has been preserved and we are transmitting the full text.

DECISION OF THE SUPREME COURT OF THE SERBIAN PEOPLE

"Let the harlot Ruzica begin. Momira Nenadović from Selevac, who gave birth to a child with her nephew Marko Jelenić by fornication, 20 lashes and Marko 25 canes and that Marko give 100 groschi for child support.

In order for this judgment to become enforceable, it was only necessary for Prince Miloš to certify it with his seal. Instead of notarization, Prince Miloš called the chat and ordered him to write on it: "So let them fuck themselves as they have fucked themselves up to now, and let us not get involved in their fucking, let us not get in the way at all, but let us rejoice that those who wanted to fix us have now become worse than us, no while also sparing his own kind."

And while he made an effort to write a verdict about Seleučan, he gave up on one edict, even though it would still be useful to us today.

Driving around Kragujevac in a cab, Miloš saw several well-fed pure-fleece sheep on the hillside next to the road. Since he was able to stop his entourage in order to talk to people who would be working by the side of the road or tending cattle, this time he also called the coachman to stop. When they got out of the carriage, Miloš and the entourage heard a shepherd who was sitting in the ravine and singing at the top of his voice, not noticing anyone. Čobanin, however, was extremely untalented, so Miloš frowned. It was obviously not his day, because later in the day he noticed that he had stepped in human excrement.

While his entourage was cleaning his boots, he called his secretary and agreed to give him an edict in the evening that forbids "those who can't sing to sing and that shit on the roads is severely punished". That evening, when the secretary mentioned the edict, the prince waved his hand: "Who will bring all the pagans on the road out of pleasure. And the others will sing even louder when they find out about the ban."

Miloš's attitude towards prohibitions is also known from another "wisdom" attributed to him. Dozens of people came to Miloš every day with complaints and requests for anything and everything. If they were nice to him, the prince would stay in a casual conversation with them and always ask: "What do the people in your area say about Vlas and me?"

Not understanding how the prince suddenly makes decisions that taxes should be increased or reduced, the director of the prince's office in Požarevac, Jakov Živanović, once dared to ask him how he knew how and when to increase or decrease taxes according to his whims. Miloš allegedly replied: "I just listen to what the people are saying." If the hair curses, I order it to be tightened, if it curses even more, I order it to be tightened even more, if it starts cursing, I order it to be tightened even more. And if he calms down, I'll send 'give in'. It doesn't work if it settles cleanly. That must not be allowed!”

If they calm down and keep quiet, Miloš believed, they are up to something. That may have been true in his time. Today, when people calm down and keep quiet, it is usually a sign that they have given up on themselves and everything around them.

12-06 Paja_Jovanović,_Takovski_uprising

Little is left of the 75-year rule of Obrenović in Serbia. As we said at the beginning of the text, Miloš outlived almost all of his male descendants. Cruel, rough and awkward, yet at the age of only 24, he knew how to climb a rock in Takovo and shout: "Here I am, here you are, war against the Turks!", but he also knew how to rise above those same Turks if he weighed himself carefully. that there is more benefit than harm. And we should never forget that he became the founder of the modern Serbian state from an illiterate cattle trader.

In Kragujevac, where the Constitution of Sretenja was adopted, apart from the Old Church and the Old Assembly, as well as the Arsenal, i.e. the heating plant built by Miloš, only Amidža's inn remains. Miloš's inn was destroyed in the German bombing of Kragujevac on April 13, 1941. Šareni, that is, Ljubiča's inn burned to the ground in a fire in 1885. Today, the City Command, a facility of the Serbian Army, is located on the site of both inns. Amidžin or Momacki konak is alive and well. It was built in the period from 1818 to 1822 for the court staff, headed by the master of the Duke's court, Sima Milosavljević Paštrmac. Miloš called him Amidža (Turkish uncle), and that's how the inn got its name. Pastrmč's family house still exists today, at Svetozara Markovića Street 3, and is one of the last buildings on that street, in the heart of the old core of the city, that did not perish in the wave of new construction. The street was called Pastrmčeva for a long time, but when the Karađorđevićs came to power, so that nothing would remind them of the Obrenovićs, it was named after the famous socialist who lived there for a while.