SERBIA - National review, No 87
Prologue
It flashes sometimes or passes imperceptibly. Lights up and straightens up. A word, a memory, a book read, a grafted fruit tree, paid old debt, enticed smile on a dear face. A crumb of meaning, touch of eternity, the silent co-service to the Creator.
The announcements are not good, but we are still full of plans of all kinds. Perhaps that is why we remembered the words of Edmund Burke: ”In my life, I knew great people and worked with them. I have never seen a plan that has not been improved by the remarks of those who are much less knowledgeable than the person who led them.” Maybe it is time for us to stop and ask about ourselves. Unplanned. <
CONTENTS
Introduction
Responsibility
Vitrage
NUMBERS, EVENTS, INTERESTING THINGS
Album
PAVEL SUROVI, ART PHOTOGRAPHER FROM KISAČ
Interpreter of Archetypes
Destinations
VRDNIK, AT THE FOOT OF FRUŠKA GORA, FULL OF OINTMENTS AND MEMORIES
Even the View Heals Here
For us, it is a sanctuary and a healing place, a place of renewal inside and out. And it seemed to be a part of the Roman Limes, and Probus’ imperial wineries, and certainly a Serbian refuge after the Great Migration in the 17th century. The relics of the Holy Prince were also kept here, hidden from before the Turks, Hungarians and Croats. Coal was extracted here for a long time, thus hot healing water sprouted from the mines. New modern tourist facilities, perhaps, open a completely different development era
Text and Photo: Miodrag Grubački
Roads
ON DEVICA, INSUFFICIENTLY KNOWN BOULDER IN EASTERN SERBIA
Our Lady’s Mountain
Legend has it that she is the protector of the Sokobanja valley. It has its own mysterious buildings, fire-birds, mythical heroes, medicinal waters and herbs, colonies of peonies. It has canyons, caves, developed hiking trails. It touches Ozren in height, on the Vlasina pass. It does not long for tourists, it is more comfortable in the shade and solitude, but there is every chance that they will soon long for it. We passed its paths and villages, its little-known corners. You will see what we have brought
Text and Photo: Dragan Bosnić
Confessions
HARUTYUN LEVONYAN, ARMENIAN ASSASSINATOR OF TURKISH AMBASSADOR IN BELGRADE 1983
A Shot into the World’s Deafness
”In front of us and the truth, there was a wall of silence. We had to tear it down. In the Turkish genocide against my people, terrible and unspoken, a million and a half people were brutally killed. At that time, it was three quarters of the total number of Armenians. We did not want innocent victims, we shot at the representatives of the state that committed that horror and at the indifference of the world. (...)Serbs are freedom loving people, very close to us. They understood that we are not criminals but fighters for our people and a just idea”
By: Mišo Vujović
Distances
NOTESD ON OLD-TIME TRAVEL, WITH A SIGH AND NOSTALGIA
The World Is an Open Book
In the 19th century, traveling was more difficult and with wider stretched wings. It was slower, but fuller and more experienced. People used to travel to see, taste, learn, bring back home as a cutting. ”Our people like to read when someone writes something from a far”, says in 1850 Bogoboj Atanacković from his travels around Europe. Mateja and Ljubomir Nenadović write from Germany, Switzerland, Italy, and an unusual traveler, Dr Milan Jovanović Morski, reached as far as Alexabndria, India, China, Singapore... And then, in 1919, the first tourist agency was opened in Belgrade, a branch office of the Belgian ”Wagon Lits Cook”, and everything became different. Easier, in larger numbers and emptier
By: Tatjana Marković
Reminder
ALEXANDER GILFERDING (1831–1872), AN IMPORTANT XIX CENTURY TRAVELOGUE WRITER, THROUGH SERBIAN LANDS
With an Eye of an Expert and Brother
He was a historian, philologist, ethnologist, diplomat. Already in 1853, he published a scientific paper about Slavonic-Sanskrit linguistic relations. Traveling through Serbian lands under Turkish occupation, he collected and published valuable material and testimonies. Ekmečić writes that he was welcomed in Herzegovina as a herald of great hope. He attempted to establish foundations and patters of Slavonic cultural unity, something to continue building on. He did a lot. He was elected member of the Serbian Educational Society in 1857. His life lasted only forty years
By: Ivana Stojanović Šešlak
Voices
MILENA JOVOVIĆ (1931–2021), POETESS FROM GRUŽA, RELATED TO THE ENTIRE SERBIAN POETRY
Fairy from Dobrača
She belonged to the Raskovnik ”rural poets”, her poems came ”as something primordial, deep and unremovable”. From the deepest Serbian heartbeats. Crnjanski came to congratulate her in Kolarac, her book in ”Prosveta” was edited by Raičković, and the revisers were Pavlović and Pavić… She felt the seal of young Gojko’s wife within her, she called Njegoš her brother and saw him as a fresco, she had never ended her crusade to Kosovo. She watched both the earth and heavens with the eyes of hope and love, knowing that gifts arrive both from below and from above
By: Dragan Lakićević
The Forgotten Ones
DRAGUTIN CIGARČIĆ (1922–1985), THE LAST BYZANTINE OF SERBIAN MODERN ART
Meditation of a Master
Unjustly marginalized, he painted looking up to medieval icon painters. His color seems to have matured for hundreds of years, the color of the old wall, warm and washed out, fumigated, lean, in collusion with personal and esthetic asceticism. He established a connection between the Middle Ages and high modernism, in the spirit of the Mediterranean legacy of the Balkan culture. He is one of those who returned Serbian visual arts in the fifties and sixties to European streams, after the interruption made by socialist censorship
By: Dejan Đorić
Arena
SLOBODAN KOVAČ, SELECTOR OF THE NATIONAL VOLLEYBALL TEAM OF SERBIA
Maturity and Traps
We have players in their best years, leaders in the strongest clubs, and the staff to fight for the top in big competitions. But the younger selections do not have such results and there are many reasons to worry, as in many of our other sports. Sports in our country are no longer available to everyone, the number of families who can bear the costs of children’s training is significantly reduced. Parents and society educate young people in such a way that they associate sports with money and fame in advance, so they only push them into sports where they think those can be found. That is not a good road and it will not bring good results to anyone. The state must think about it now
By: Dejan Bulajić
Examples
BUDIMIR MALEŠIĆ, WAR HERO FROM OZREN, CHAMPION AMONG ATHLETES WITH DISABILITIES
Always Hear the Higher Word
He had a black belt in karate and open roads. Behind the hill there was a rumble, the earth was crumbling apart, evil was coming. He refused to leave. ”Who will protect these children? What will happen, and what will be left of us, if we all leave?” One December morning in a hidden minefield, he lost both his legs. Then he stepped on a completely different path, which is still ongoing and not for the weak. In table tennis, one of his areas of self-preservation, he won over a hundred medals and fifty trophies
By: Aleksa Komet
Buildings
RECONSTRUCTION OF THE FORMER ARMY HOUSE IN RUMA
New Era of the Old House
After long negotiations, the municipality managed to buy the facility from the Serbian Army. It is now investing its own funds in its thorough renovation, which will be completed by the end of the year. It will again be one of the architectural symbols of Ruma and an important cultural center
Guide
ANOTHER SUCCESSFUL TOURIST SUMMER IN VRNJAČKA BANJA
Answers to Temptations
In the epicenters, at the main events, it boils. In a few carnival days, they say that over 300,000 people visited Banja. Everyone talks about the concerts. From the RTS Symphony Orchestra and the military orchestra ”Stanislav Binički”, through the International Festival of Classical Music, to popular folk performers. New high-class hotels have also opened their doors, gardens, swimming pools, wellness and spa centers. Close cooperation is being established with the famous French spa Vichy. The Moravian Corridor, a new impetus for development, is awaited
By: Violeta Kostić
Cooperation
”MERKUR” IN EGYPT
Transfer of Know-How
The memorandum of understanding, signed on July 27 in Belgrade with the Egyptian consortium ”Misr Italia”, enables ”Merkur’s” achievements in spa treatment, medicine and tourism to be applied in ”Moussa Coast” complex on the Red Sea. The document was signed by Hani Al Asal and Dr. Dejan Stanojević. ”Merkur’s” team will go to ”Moussa Coast” and Sharm el-Sheikh in October
Seed
”FIELD DAY” AND NEW AWARDS TO THE NOVI SAD INSTITUTE OF FIELD AND VEGETABLE CROPS
Confirmation of Strategic Importance
The June gathering in Rimski Šančevi near Novi Sad was an opportunity to present a new and earlier assortment to farmers and the professionals. To see experimental fields and give expert advice on cultivation technology. Scientific research and breeding at the Institute continues. In anticipation of the autumn International Agricultural Fair, the Institute was crowned with new awards and recognitions
