SERBIA - National review, No 55
Prologue
Spring is well on its way, and it seems we cannot shatter these dark and low clouds. We get entangled in that old ”bad infinity” as the other day before the collapse. Poor indicators, though tacit, are pounding in the heads. Promises from which many were making their living now seem hollow and eaten-up. It seems that even humor has lost its power. But there is still a slice of reality that depends on us. We can always turn to it, find salvation through it. The ”seasonal hits” serially produced to kill time will not tell us anything important about us. If we discard that noisy hollowness, we can try to see our reflection deep inside us, to search for ”distances in us”. <
CONTENTS
Prologue
OLD WANDERINGS AND NEW EXPERIENCES
Don’t Make Me Start
Vitrage
NUMBERS, EVENTS, INTERESTING THINGS
Album
EASTERN SERBIA IN THE LENS OF ŽELJKO SINOBAD
Wonders of the Ordinary
Rad Sign
IN KOŠTUNIĆI, ON SUVOBOR, THE FIRST SERBIAN MOUNTAIN BEACH
Gifts of the Earth and Sky
This is that the grain of Serbia from which everything sprouts all over again. That beautiful scenery, the healthy water and food, hardworking and noble people. Certain wisdom and effort, and investments, of course, are necessary so that all this would shine in its full and irresistible splendor. That is why people ccome here aall the way from Cacak, Milanovac, Pozega, Valjevo, but also from Sweden, France, Russia, from all over. The beauty and grace do not need to be explained, we should just let ourselves to hem
By: Miloš Lazić
Photo: Saša Savović
Pilgrimages
SLANCI MONASTERY NEAR BELGRADE, A METOCHION OF HILANDAR
Under the Third Hand of the Virgin
According to legend, this sanctuary is an endowment of King Dragutin Nemanjić. The monastery had special significance in Stefan’s despotate. Đurđe and Jerina visited often. They say that the relics of St. Stefan archdeacon and martyr, used to lie here. However, it is known for a fact that, in 1961, Patriarch German stored particles of the relics of this Saint, obtained from Russia, at the altar table. From 1969, when the monastery became an appendage of the Hilandar, a replica of the icon of the Three-Handed Virgin was also consecrated here. Prayers from Slanci are heard far and are effective
By: Danijela Knežević Stevanović
Photo: Želјko Sinobad
Encounters
SEVENTH ”ŠTRAPARIJADA” IN RUMA AND ITS ECHOES
All Horsepower
”Horses and turkeys are always in fashion”, the witty people of Srem would say. ”And logs have been are in power here for decades” In Bosnia, horses pulling logs are led by ”štrapari”. That is how they call them. It requires strength, skill and practice. When you make a competition in that, you get ”Štraparijada”. Many stories wove around it, by themselves, and many people gather. And if someone would also invite tambura players...
By: Katarina Filipović
Photo: Relјa Popović
Hook
HOW SERBIAN TV SHOW ”FISHING WORLD” HAS CONQUERED THE WORLD
Return to Nature
Author Radomir Krkić greatest owes most of his gratitude to local TV sages who had abolished the show ”Fishing World”. If they had not, he would have never knocked on the doors of big foreign TV houses. Today, his show is produced in English and broadcast in over sixty countries. It is characterized by simplicity and authenticity. Spontaneity. Nature without Photoshop, dominance of sincerity and talent over big budgets and technology. His viewers know that ”water is the best grounding”
By: Vladimir Janković
Photo: Archive of the interlocutor, Želјko Sinobad
Lighthouses
ST. SAVA IN THE RUSSIAN IMPERIAL CHRONICLE (3)
Serbian Miracle-Workers in Kremlin
Immediately after the coronation, Ivan IV the Mighty continued the construction of imperial Kremlin. The Cathedral of Archangel Michael was painted as a congregation of ancestors, on whose behalf he was ruling. All his precursors, Russian rulers, are there, in glory and vestment. Only four painted people are not Russian, only two are in monastic, not imperial robes: St. Sava and St. Simeon, ”Serbian miracle-workers”. The remaining two non-Russians: Byzantine emperor Michael VIII Palaiologos and Holy Prince Lazar of Serbia. Only one person in the Cathedral was painted twice: St. Sava of Serbia
By: Milovan Vitezović
Photo: Aleksandar Ćosić and ”National Review” Archive
Insignia
A LITTLE HERALDIC HISTORY OF BELGRADE
Under the Eagle’s Shield
Golden seal from the times of Holy Despot Stefan is the oldest surviving heraldic trace of the coat of arms of the Serbian capital. The oldest complete image of the coat of arms is in the list of coat of arms from 1555. Under the Turkish occupation, Belgrade had no coats of arms. Austrians and Hungarians brought and took away their own. The first clear regulation on the coat of arms of Belgrade is from 1914, but it was implemented only in 1931. Today’s coats of arms of Belgrade are modified version of that solution
By: Vladimir Matevski
Mark
MANAK’S HOUSE AND ITS VALUABLE ETHNOGRAPHIC COLLECTION
In Spite of Transience and Oblivion
In this house on the Sava slope, raised most probably in the early XIX century, there used to be a post office, bakery, tavern and apartment. Renewed in 1968, it became home to Hristifor Crnilović’s wonderful ethnographic collection, including folk costumes and jewelry, tools and accessories, handicrafts and weapons… It recently flashed again, after another restoration, and once more Manak’s House became an important spot in Savamala, the quarter of creativity and culture
By: Dragana Barjaktarević
Belvederes
LJUBOMIR MICIĆ, THE MAN WHO WANTED TO SAVE EUROPE WITH BALKAN VITALISM
The Zeniths of Our Premonitions
He wouldn’t leave alone puritans and upstarts, the great philistines. He persecuted conformists, war and antiwar profiteers. The thought it is better to wander away than to sink into staleness. He believed Europe will be cured with new art, commenced from the free and clean Balkan mountains. He cooperated with Malevich and Kandinsky, Blok and Ehrenburg, Marinetti and Vasari, Tolkien and Vinaver, Crnjanski and Krakov… Enemies were fewer, but more dangerous
By: Petar Milatović
Departure
PROFESSOR ŽARKO VIDOVIĆ, PHD (1921–2016), GIANT OF SERBIAN CULTURE
Witness of Golgotha, Prophet of Resurrection
He was in the train of death, used by the Croatian army in 1942 to transport Serbs from Sarajevo to ”Jasenovac” concentration camp, to a road of no return. (That is when he heard the original version of the song ”Đurđevdan”.) He finally ended in a labor camp in Norway, later escaped to Sweden and returned to Yugoslavia after the war. Studied, gained his PhD degree, gave lectures. He wrote books exceptionally important for Serbian culture and the Serbian idea. He realized early that horrible times in Serbia will continue and that there is no survival without internal renewal. For that reason, he was attacked both by Serbophobes and pseudo Serbs. We are publishing parts of his war memories, which he recently shared with us
By: Aleksa Komet, Dejan Bulajić
Photo: Dušan Jauković, ”Zenit”
Life, Novels
JOVAN ZIVLAK, POET, ABOUT THE VORTEXES BESIEGING US AND DOUBTING UTOPIAS
On the Golden Beam of Searching
The world of power is unscrupulous, elusive and demands to subdue everything. The era of great salvific and emancipating truths has ended. Man is swinging over an abyss, in a performance without a horizon. Everything reaching us is shocking and related to evil. The circle does not close with purification, reconciliation with the good forces of life. Culture and art are humiliated, trivialized, fallen into the hands of barely average spirits and turned into seasonal serial production. We are overtired, occupied and possessed. However, that in no way means that Man’s chances are null
By: Branislav Matić
Palette
THE EXHIBITION OF SERGEI APARIN IN MONTREUX, SWITZERLAND
Fortification in a Storm
This master and devotee, of Voronezh and Zemun, belongs to the circle of chosen ones, who personified tradition in the most contemporary forms. The living tradition, organic, not transmitted through philosophical treatises, but with skill, spirit of the craft, quiet fusion of work and dream. The Swiss audience has known him since the time he shined in the constellation of now late Etienne Chatton in the Gruyères castle. They understood the language of his paintings, the keys of which are not directly accessible. Now, twenty years later, Aparin returned to Romandy and brought surprises
By: Slobodan Despot
Winner
MARINA MALJKOVIĆ, COACH OF THE SERBIAN WOMEN’S BASKETBALL NATIONAL TEAM, EUROPEAN CHAMPIONS
Doing Your Best and More
She grew up in a famous coach family, lived in many countries. She was attracted by acting, photography, languages. People noticed how deep she was in basketball only after she took her Belgrade team to the First League. Later she climbed to the European throne with the Serbian women’s national team. She knows how to renew her own inner balance and invokes the best in people. She is happy to know her country and because people understand the basis of the feat of the team she is leading. She lives the spirit of kafanas and old songs. Honor is a nice term among Serbs, which describes them clearly
By: Dejan Bulajić
Connections
160th ANNIVERSARY OF THE BIRTH OF THE FAMOUS SCIENTIST
Tesla’s Time Machine
This artistic spectacle in Knez Mihailova Street was donated by the company ”Telekom Serbia” to the delighted Belgradians and guests of the capital. With image and sound, 4D technology the most important moments in life and discoveries of this great science were evoked. Virtual Nikola Tesla himself addressed the Belgradians from the wall of the Institute ”Cervantes”. This fusion of high technology and art inspire young scientists to continue following Tesla’s steps through knowledge and innovation
Slavija
THE SIXTH ”DAYS OF SLAVIC LITERACY AND CULTURE” IN RUMA
Codes of Old Intimacy
Slavs should re-strengthen the awareness of the unity of their own cultures and common cultural roots. And gatherings of this kind provide a true support for this and raise hopes for better days. The Municipality of Ruma and the local City Library ”Atanasije Stojković” will continue to provide their full contribution to this. This year, the topics were Slavic mythology, Russian avant-garde, Dragiša Vasić and ”The Brothers Karamazov”, and all this was augmented by band ”Zvonica” from Omsk, which nurtures musical traditions of Siberian Cossacks
By: Mile Vajagić
Health
NEW AMENITIES IN ”MERKUR’S” SPA CENTER ”ROMAN WELL”
The Primeval Power of Water
Hydro-massage therapy, symbolically named ”Shower 7”, is a treatment with water jets produced by the seven jets above the patient. Beneficial effects are numerous, from deep massage to improving circulation, detoxifying and skin renewal
Centers
CAMP OF THE INSTITUTE OF SPORT NEAR KLADOVO
New Upswing of ”Karataš”
It was formerly used for accommodation of the builders of Hydro Power Plant ”Đerdap I”, then as a youth volunteer brigade village. Today, under the management of the Institute for Sport and Sports Medicine of Serbia, with strong support from the government, ”Karataš” has been developing into a modern sports center, one of the leaders in the South Slavic region. In addition to what is necessary for the preparation of top athletes, it will make available everything that the users of the Institute in Belgrade have, from the sports medical examinations to psychological and motor testing
Jubilee
SIXTIETH ANNIVERSARY OF BELGRADE BUSINESS SCHOOL
Tradition that Obliges
With the ceremony that will take place on 29 June 2016, which will gather a number of reputable domestic and foreign guests, the School will celebrate its Great Jubilee. More than 120,000 students has graduated from it thus far, and are now working successfully in various sectors of the economy and the state
By: Prof. Dr. Đuro Đurović
