Svetozar Miletic
Encyclopedia
Svetozar Miletić was an advocate, politician, mayor of Novi Sad
, and the political leader of Serbs
in Vojvodina
. He was the oldest of seven children born to Sima and Teodosija (née Rajić) Miletić in the village of Mošorin
in Šajkaška
, the Serbian Military Frontier, on February 22, 1826. His son-in-law Jaša Tomić
, who was a publicist and leader of the Serbian radicals in Vojvodina, took up Miletić's mantle at the turn of the century.
in Novi Sad, Modra
, and Požun (Bratislava
), and defended a juristical doctorate in Vienna
in 1854, but found his real vocation
in politics, and at once constituted himself champion of the most advanced opinions. He wrote a song Već se srbska zastava vije svuda javno (The Serb flag is unfurled everywhere in public), which was sung as the anthem of Vojvodina
.
He was a political fighter for the freedom and rights of Serbs and other peoples in Austria-Hungary
. Miletić was a founder of Ujedinjena omladina srpska (United Serb Youth), and founder and leader of the Srpska narodna slobodoumna stranka (Serb National Freethinkers Party). Also, he was founder and editor of the magazine Zastava (Flag; started in 1866). He took upon himself the heavy task of reconciling the traditional hostility between Serb and Magyar
. Miletić had come to the conclusion that the Serbian movement in the Vojvodina could be brought into line with the general Serbian aims of liberty and unity, and also with the wider European movement associated with such names as Niccolo Tommaseo
, Daniele Manin
, Mazzini, Garibaldi, Gambetta
and Castelar
. To this idea he devoted all his intellectual gifts and highly combative energies. Other Serbs also became politically engaged, sympathizing with the ideas of the United Serb Youth, a movement which attracted a number of influential figures in Serbian public life in the period of 1860s and 1870s. (These include Svetozar Marković
, Milovan Janković, Jevrem Grujić, Jovan Ilić, Čedomilj Mijatović
, Jovan Đorđević, Stojan Novaković
, Vaso Pelagić, Jovan Grčić Milenko, Jaša Tomić
Jakov Ignjatović
, Vladimir Jovanović
, Milorad Popović Sapčanin, Draga Dejanović and others). Also, as a member of the Srpska Čitaonica (the Serbian Reading Room), Miletić along with a group of close associates (Jovan Đorđević, Jovan Jovanović Zmaj, Stevan Branovački and nine actors) founded the Serbian National Theatre
in Novi Sad in 1861.
In the year 1844, while at the Evangelical Lycee in Pozun (Bratislava), he made the acquaintance of the Slovak leader, Ľudovít Štúr
, and fell under his influence. Miletić begins to regard the Serbian people as a nation and refused Jan Kollar
's concept, of only four Slavic tribes—Russian, Polish, Czech and Southern Slav—and cited Vuk Stefanović Karadžić
's latest reforms based on the dialect from Eastern Herzegovina
and phonetic spelling as well as Serb sovreignty before and after the Turkish invasions. On the occasion of the first great conflict in Europe Miletić saw that his people must liberate themselves from foreign yoke, if they are to survive as a nation.
Revolutions of 1848
In 1848–1849, when revolutions and rebellions were in the air, the Hungarians began their war against Austria, the Serbs in turn rose against the Hungarians for their national and civil liberties, but on the conclusion of peace they were incorporated as part of the Habsburg without any of their rights recognized, just like the rest of the nationalities.
Pre-eminent among the Serbs at the time was Svetozar Miletić, who during his student days in Pozun (Pressburg/Bratislava
) edited a small newspaper entitled Serbski Soko, and then at Pest, in 1847, an almanach called Slavjanka, containing a collection of verses by upcoming Serbian poets. In 1848 Miletić was preparing a prose edition of Slavjanka, which was to include essays on the French revolution
and on Kościuszko. He visited Belgrade and made friends with the foremost Liberals of Serbia. On this occasion he prepared a mission statement for a newly-created student movement called simply United Youth (Ujedinjena Omladina), which was to have branches at Belgrade, Pest, Bratislava and Temesvár.
May Assembly
The proclamation in which Miletić invited all students to prepare the nation for its liberation, fell into the hands of Metternich's police, and from 1847 Miletić was under their constant observation. In April, 1848, the Hofkriegsrat
in Vienna decided that this youth of twenty must be rendered innocuous. For Miletić, when he saw the servility of the Serb delegation to the Diet at Bratislava, urged the younger generation to go among the people and rouse it to a struggle for national guarantees. He left Bratislava, went to Novi Sad, and then to the Military Frontiers, where he incited the Šajkaši
not to go to Italy and fight against Young Italy, and not go aboard ships which were to carry them as cattle to the slaughter-house, but he pleaded with them to await the National Assembly which was to convene on the 1st to the 3rd of May 1848 (better known as the May Assembly
). This assembly was formed by the young men round Miletić, but its directive was controlled by stronger forces than they—Patriarch Josif Rajačić
, Vojvoda Stevan Šupljikac
, the Austrophil Serbian Government in Belgrade, and Austrian General Ban Josip Jelačić
. This, and the chauvinism of the Magyars, gave to the Serbian movement in 1848, and still more in 1849, a tendency which Miletić could not agree with. He would always take time to point out that Serbs and the Slavs would not shake off their yoke through these struggles. His private inclination was to take advantage of all the disorder in Europe and go our own way—to complete national liberation. Miletić would have much preferred to find a modus vivendi
with the Magyars, and that the Frontiersmen (Grenzer) should have been sent, in conjunction with Alexander Karađorđević, Prince of Serbia and Petar II Petrović Njegoš of Montenegro, to liberate Bosnia, Herzegovina and Old Serbia instead. But he was alone in these aspirations (except for Petar II Petrović-Njegoš who espoused the same ideas as Miletić), unfortunately isolated and powerless, and torn between the desire to help the Serbian cause such as it was and the awareness that it was not what it ought to be. When this proved impossible, Miletić took an increasingly lukeworm attitude in the movement from then on, and in April, 1849, when the breath of reaction could already be felt, he withdrew himself altogether. Disgusted at the turn of events and the direction the national life was taking, Miletić dropped politics altogether and began to think about his interrupted schooling. He studied law in Vienna, and was granted one of the bursaries founded by Prince Mihailo (Obrenović); but he reserved to himself full liberty of political opinions and action, and for the Prince's foundation he rendered thanks to the nation!
A long period was to elapse before he could repay by his national work the debt which he owed to Rajačić (who sponsored him) and Prince Mihailo, for the reactionary Bach rėgime (named after Baron Alexander von Bach
) made all public life impossible. Miletić speedily and successfully completed his bar examination, and set up practice at Novi Sad, and about that time married. Miletić soon became famous and acquired an independent material position. It was as though he delighted in the sense of his growing powers, and yet declined to undertake any public work, so long as such conditions prevailed as permitted him from putting forth his full effort.
and Magenta
, when Franz Joseph, by the October Diploma
of 1860, found it necessary to promise the introduction of constitutional government. As one means of appeasing the Magyars, Franz Joseph ordered the speedy reincorporation of the Serbian Vojvodina
in the Kingdom of Hungary. But they were not satisfied with this concession, and insisted upon the constitution of 1848, which was only granted after Austria's fresh defeat at Königgrätz in 1866. In the six years during which this trial of strength between Austria and Hungary lasted the attitude of the Serbs and Croats, Romanians and Slovaks, assumed very considerable importance. Indeed if the nationalities had sided with Austria during this period, as they had done in 1848, Hungary would hardly have attained that complete independence from the Austrian monarchy which was embodied in the Compromise, or Ausgleich
of 1867. But the absolutist régime of Alexander von Bach had alienated the nationalities, and they flung themselves into the arms of Magyar Liberalism. The Magyars for their part at this time laid greater strees on the Liberal than upon the Magyar side of things.
And no one did more for this new policy than Svetozar Miletić, as representative of the Hungarian Serbs. He took the role of mediator graciously and the burden of reconciling the traditional animosities between two stubborn nationalities, and dissipating the doubts and suspicions which ten years of reaction had kindled. Miletić had reached the conviction that the Serbian movement in the Vojvodina could be brought into line with the general Serbian aims of liberty and unity, and also with the wider European movement. To this idea he devoted all his intellectual gifts and highly combative temperament.
For a certain time circumstances favoured him. Mihailo Obrenović III, Prince of Serbia
was in touch with Andrassy
and Ferenc Deak
, who were at the time willing to help Serbia acquire Bosnia and Herzegovina and liberate her kinsmen under the Turkish yoke; and for this Miletić was ready and eager to render them any possible service in return. The Vojvodina was reincorporated towards the end of 1860, and on January 4, 1861, Miletić published an article which was long to serve as his party's policy, and in which, while not taking exception to Hungary's acceptance of the Vojvodina at the hands of Austria, he announced to the latter that she need no longer reckon upon the Serbs in her quarrels with other nations. In the same year, at a political meeting of Hungarian Serbs, held at Sremski Karlovci
in Syrmia
, he put forward the idea of seeking guarantees for their nationality, by friendly agreement with the Magyars. In the year 1865 he was elected to the Croatian Sabor and supported a peculiar kind of Dualism under which both Austria and Hungary would be reorganized on a federal basis: he therefore joined the party club which passed as Magyarophil.
Among the older Serbian intellectuals this policy awakened but little response. But for the very reason the younger generation—intelligentsia, merchants, and artisans alike—gathered all the more eagerly around "the eagle of Novi Sad," where in 1866 they organized the "United Youth" (Ujedinjena Omladina) as the symbol of political unity. The foremost Serbian poets and writers of that time gave their support to the Omladina movement, which found alike its Achilles
Miletić and its Ajax
in Laza Kostić
, Odysseus
in Đura Jakšić, and Homer
in Jovan Jovanović Zmaj
. This new bourgeoisie was in close contact with the peasantry, and little by little, between 1861 and 1871, the whole Serbian nation in the Vojvodina gave its adherence to the national party of Miletić. When in 1872 elections were held for the autonomous Church Assembly, this party obtained 72 out of a total of 75 seats. Throughout this period all the honours which it was in the power of the Serbs to confer were lavished upon Svetozar Miletić as their recognized leader. From 1865 to 1884 he represented them in the Parliament at Budapest; in 1861 and 1867 he was Mayor of Novi Sad; in 1871 he became President of the Matica Srpska
, the oldest Serbian cultural institution. And the Omladina in its dreams accorded him the honour of Voivode in the Banat
and Bačka
and Supreme Zupan in the three counties which Deak, in 1862, had promised to delimit on a national basis.
tried to split up the party of Miletić after Prince Mihailo's murder. Andrassy even accused Miletić of complicity in the crime and suspended him from his post as Mayor of Novi Sad. This manoeuvre failed, and the ranks of the National Party closed firmly than ever around their leader. In the same way in 1870 Andrassy secured Miletić's sentence of a year's imprisonment owing to his attacks upon the corrupt anti-national regime of Baron Levin Rauch in Croatia. Both on entering and leaving prison Miletic had a triumphal reception from his compatriots in the Voyvodina, and henceforth he was uncontested master of their souls. But even in this situation he was at all times ready to come to terms with the Magyars. His conditions of peace were summed up in a single phrase: "The Balkans for the Balkan people." Roman Catholic Austria, he argued, could not satisfy her own Catholic Slavs—the Czechs, Slovaks, Slovenes and Croats—let alone hope to fulfill a mission in the Balkans.
Serbian-American inventor Michael Pupin in his highly-acclaimed, Pulitzer
prize-winning autobiography From Immigrant to Inventor, wrote on page 21:
Svetozar Miletich, the great nationalistic leader of the Serbs in Austria-Hungary, visited Panchevo
, and the people prepared a torchlight procession for him. This procession was to be a protest of Panchevo and the whole of Banat against the emperor's treachery of 1869. My father had protested long before by excluding the emperor's picture from our house. That visit of Miletich marks the beginning of a new political era in Banat, the era of nationalism. The schoolboys of Panchevo turned out in great numbers, and I was one of them, proud to become one of the torch-bearers.
and Count Andrassy, Kalman Tisza, with his accustomed brutality, and in entire disregard of parliamentary immunity, ordered the arrest of Miletić on July 5, 1876, and then began his search for incriminating evidence. In the prisons of Voyvodina he found a single witness, a decayed individual whose word no court free from political influence would have dreamt of accepting. Not knowing how long the Eastern Crisis ushered in by Serbo-Turkish War would last, Tisza postponed the trial for eighteen months. Setting his hopes on European opinion, Mihailo Polit-Desančić, Miletić's comrade-in-arms, did all he could to hasten an investigation (which would ultimately prove Miletić's innocence) by brilliantly defending him in court in Budapest, but to no avail. At the beginning of 1878 Miletić was condemned for high treason and sentenced to five years' ordinary imprisonment and a heavy fine. On November 27, 1879, when the occupation of Bosnia was already an accomplished fact, Franz Joseph pardoned the victim of his policy of Balkan expansion. Though Miletić's health was broken by his three and a half years of confinement, he still found the strength to lead his compatriots in the Voyvodina for another two years. In 1881, in face of acute pressure on the part of the administrative authorities, he secured his election to the Parliament of Budapest, and in a speech of the following year summoned the Monarchy to evacuate Bosnia and Herzegovina.
The words of Hamlet, which perhaps were more often on his lips than those of any character in literature, became an obsession with him. Hic et ubique—at every turn, on floor and roof!—he saw Kalman Tisza lurking about, pulling down the wall of his room upon him or laying weights upon his head and making it impossible for him to sleep. From 1884 to 1889, his illness was so severe that he had to be removed to an asylum. Then at last his madness left him, but, unhappy, though he lived till the year 1901, his mind never fully recovered sufficiently enough for him to resume his leadership of the Serbs of Voyvodina, now badly disunited and weakened. His disappearance from public life contributed very materially to the long period of depression through which the Serbs went, and which lasted right on till the Balkan Wars of 1912 and 1913. And even today the Serbs of Voyvodina are all too conscious of the vacuum that Miletić left. He possessed to a surprising degree the arts of the orator, combined with a magnificent and striking physical presence which today is embodied in his monument in Novi Sad
where he was the Lord Mayor.
Miletić died at Vršac
on February 4, 1901, and was buried in Novi Sad
.
Although there is a village called Srpski Miletić
in the Odžaci
municipality, it's not related to the Svetozar Miletić, since this village had name "Miletić" before Svetozar Miletić was born. The village was probably named after some other person with surname "Miletić".
Novi Sad
Novi Sad is the capital of the northern Serbian province of Vojvodina, and the administrative centre of the South Bačka District. The city is located in the southern part of Pannonian Plain on the Danube river....
, and the political leader of Serbs
Serbs
The Serbs are a South Slavic ethnic group of the Balkans and southern Central Europe. Serbs are located mainly in Serbia, Montenegro and Bosnia and Herzegovina, and form a sizable minority in Croatia, the Republic of Macedonia and Slovenia. Likewise, Serbs are an officially recognized minority in...
in Vojvodina
Vojvodina
Vojvodina, officially called Autonomous Province of Vojvodina is an autonomous province of Serbia. Its capital and largest city is Novi Sad...
. He was the oldest of seven children born to Sima and Teodosija (née Rajić) Miletić in the village of Mošorin
Mošorin
Mošorin is a village in Serbia. It is located in the Titel municipality, South Bačka District. Mošorin is situated in the Autonomous Province of Vojvodina, in the south-eastern part of Bačka, known as Šajkaška. The village has a Serb ethnic majority and its population numbering 2,763 people...
in Šajkaška
Šajkaška
Šajkaška is a geographical region in Serbia. It is southeastern part of Bačka, located in the Autonomous Province of Vojvodina. Territory of Šajkaška is divided among four municipalities: Titel, Žabalj, Novi Sad, and Srbobran. Historical center of Šajkaška is Titel.-Name:Name Šajkaška means "land...
, the Serbian Military Frontier, on February 22, 1826. His son-in-law Jaša Tomić
Jaša Tomic
Jaša Tomić was a Serbian politician, publicist, journalist and man of letters from Vojvodina, Serbia.-Biography:...
, who was a publicist and leader of the Serbian radicals in Vojvodina, took up Miletić's mantle at the turn of the century.
Education
Miletić attended GymnasiaGymnasium (school)
A gymnasium is a type of school providing secondary education in some parts of Europe, comparable to English grammar schools or sixth form colleges and U.S. college preparatory high schools. The word γυμνάσιον was used in Ancient Greece, meaning a locality for both physical and intellectual...
in Novi Sad, Modra
Modra
Modra is a city and municipality in the Bratislava Region in Slovakia. It has a population of 8,704 as of 2005. It nestles in the foothills of the Malé Karpaty and is an excellent centre of hiking.Modra is famous for its pottery industry...
, and Požun (Bratislava
Bratislava
Bratislava is the capital of Slovakia and, with a population of about 431,000, also the country's largest city. Bratislava is in southwestern Slovakia on both banks of the Danube River. Bordering Austria and Hungary, it is the only national capital that borders two independent countries.Bratislava...
), and defended a juristical doctorate in Vienna
Vienna
Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...
in 1854, but found his real vocation
Vocation
A vocation , is a term for an occupation to which a person is specially drawn or for which they are suited, trained or qualified. Though now often used in non-religious contexts, the meanings of the term originated in Christianity.-Senses:...
in politics, and at once constituted himself champion of the most advanced opinions. He wrote a song Već se srbska zastava vije svuda javno (The Serb flag is unfurled everywhere in public), which was sung as the anthem of Vojvodina
Vojvodina
Vojvodina, officially called Autonomous Province of Vojvodina is an autonomous province of Serbia. Its capital and largest city is Novi Sad...
.
He was a political fighter for the freedom and rights of Serbs and other peoples in Austria-Hungary
Austria-Hungary
Austria-Hungary , more formally known as the Kingdoms and Lands Represented in the Imperial Council and the Lands of the Holy Hungarian Crown of Saint Stephen, was a constitutional monarchic union between the crowns of the Austrian Empire and the Kingdom of Hungary in...
. Miletić was a founder of Ujedinjena omladina srpska (United Serb Youth), and founder and leader of the Srpska narodna slobodoumna stranka (Serb National Freethinkers Party). Also, he was founder and editor of the magazine Zastava (Flag; started in 1866). He took upon himself the heavy task of reconciling the traditional hostility between Serb and Magyar
Magyar
Magyar may refer to:* A nation and an ethnic group native to and primarily associated with Hungarian people* The Hungarian language,...
. Miletić had come to the conclusion that the Serbian movement in the Vojvodina could be brought into line with the general Serbian aims of liberty and unity, and also with the wider European movement associated with such names as Niccolo Tommaseo
Niccolò Tommaseo
Niccolò Tommaseo was an Italian Dalmatian linguist, journalist and essayist, the editor of a Dizionario della Lingua Italiana in eight volumes , of a dictionary of synonyms and other works...
, Daniele Manin
Daniele Manin
Daniele Manin was an Italian patriot and statesman from Venice. He is a hero of Italian unification .-Early life:...
, Mazzini, Garibaldi, Gambetta
Gambetta
Gambetta may refer to:People*Léon Gambetta , French statesman.*Schubert Gambetta , Uruguayan footballer*Diego Gambetta, Italian sociologistOther uses*Gambetta...
and Castelar
Castelar
Castelar is a city in Morón Partido , Buenos Aires Province, Argentina. It forms part of the Greater Buenos Aires urban conurbation.Castelar is the westernmost city of the Morón Partido, neighbouring Ituzaingo Partido.-External links:...
. To this idea he devoted all his intellectual gifts and highly combative energies. Other Serbs also became politically engaged, sympathizing with the ideas of the United Serb Youth, a movement which attracted a number of influential figures in Serbian public life in the period of 1860s and 1870s. (These include Svetozar Marković
Svetozar Markovic
Svetozar Marković was an influential Serbian political activist and literary critic. He developed an activistic anthropological philosophy with a definite program of social change.-Early life:...
, Milovan Janković, Jevrem Grujić, Jovan Ilić, Čedomilj Mijatović
Cedomilj Mijatovic
Čedomilj Mijatović was a Serbian statesman, economist, historian, writer, politician, diplomat and one of the...
, Jovan Đorđević, Stojan Novaković
Stojan Novakovic
Stojan Novaković , was a Serbian literary critic, scholar, politician and diplomat, and the foremost Serbian historian of nineteenth century, holding the post of Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Serbia on two occasions.He was born in the western Serbian city of Šabac and died in the southern city of...
, Vaso Pelagić, Jovan Grčić Milenko, Jaša Tomić
Jaša Tomic
Jaša Tomić was a Serbian politician, publicist, journalist and man of letters from Vojvodina, Serbia.-Biography:...
Jakov Ignjatović
Jakov Ignjatovic
Jakov Ignjatović was a famous Serbian 19th century novelist and prose writer from Hungary. He also wrote in Hungarian.-Biography:...
, Vladimir Jovanović
Vladimir Jovanovic
Vladimir Jovanović was a Serbian politician, political theorist, economist and journalist.Jovanović was educated at the Universities of Vienna and Berlin in agricultural and economic sciences...
, Milorad Popović Sapčanin, Draga Dejanović and others). Also, as a member of the Srpska Čitaonica (the Serbian Reading Room), Miletić along with a group of close associates (Jovan Đorđević, Jovan Jovanović Zmaj, Stevan Branovački and nine actors) founded the Serbian National Theatre
Serbian National Theatre
The Serbian National Theatre , located in Novi Sad, is one of the major theatres of Serbia...
in Novi Sad in 1861.
In the year 1844, while at the Evangelical Lycee in Pozun (Bratislava), he made the acquaintance of the Slovak leader, Ľudovít Štúr
Ludovít Štúr
Ľudovít Štúr , known in his era as Ludevít Velislav Štúr, was the leader of the Slovak national revival in the 19th century, the author of the Slovak language standard eventually leading to the contemporary Slovak literary language...
, and fell under his influence. Miletić begins to regard the Serbian people as a nation and refused Jan Kollar
Ján Kollár
Ján Kollár was a Slovak writer , archaeologist, scientist, politician, and main ideologist of Pan-Slavism.- Life :...
's concept, of only four Slavic tribes—Russian, Polish, Czech and Southern Slav—and cited Vuk Stefanović Karadžić
Vuk Stefanovic Karadžic
Vuk Stefanović Karadžić was a Serbian philolog and linguist, the major reformer of the Serbian language, and deserves, perhaps, for his collections of songs, fairy tales, and riddles to be called the father of the study of Serbian folklore. He was the author of the first Serbian dictionary...
's latest reforms based on the dialect from Eastern Herzegovina
Herzegovina
Herzegovina is the southern region of Bosnia and Herzegovina. While there is no official border distinguishing it from the Bosnian region, it is generally accepted that the borders of the region are Croatia to the west, Montenegro to the south, the canton boundaries of the Herzegovina-Neretva...
and phonetic spelling as well as Serb sovreignty before and after the Turkish invasions. On the occasion of the first great conflict in Europe Miletić saw that his people must liberate themselves from foreign yoke, if they are to survive as a nation.
Revolutions of 1848Revolutions of 1848The European Revolutions of 1848, known in some countries as the Spring of Nations, Springtime of the Peoples or the Year of Revolution, were a series of political upheavals throughout Europe in 1848. It was the first Europe-wide collapse of traditional authority, but within a year reactionary...
In 1848–1849, when revolutions and rebellions were in the air, the Hungarians began their war against Austria, the Serbs in turn rose against the Hungarians for their national and civil liberties, but on the conclusion of peace they were incorporated as part of the Habsburg without any of their rights recognized, just like the rest of the nationalities.Pre-eminent among the Serbs at the time was Svetozar Miletić, who during his student days in Pozun (Pressburg/Bratislava
Bratislava
Bratislava is the capital of Slovakia and, with a population of about 431,000, also the country's largest city. Bratislava is in southwestern Slovakia on both banks of the Danube River. Bordering Austria and Hungary, it is the only national capital that borders two independent countries.Bratislava...
) edited a small newspaper entitled Serbski Soko, and then at Pest, in 1847, an almanach called Slavjanka, containing a collection of verses by upcoming Serbian poets. In 1848 Miletić was preparing a prose edition of Slavjanka, which was to include essays on the French revolution
French Revolution
The French Revolution , sometimes distinguished as the 'Great French Revolution' , was a period of radical social and political upheaval in France and Europe. The absolute monarchy that had ruled France for centuries collapsed in three years...
and on Kościuszko. He visited Belgrade and made friends with the foremost Liberals of Serbia. On this occasion he prepared a mission statement for a newly-created student movement called simply United Youth (Ujedinjena Omladina), which was to have branches at Belgrade, Pest, Bratislava and Temesvár.
May AssemblyMay AssemblyMay Assembly was the national assembly of the Serbs in Austrian Empire, held in 1 and 3 May 1848 in Sremski Karlovci, during which the Serbs proclaimed autonomous Serbian Vojvodina. This action was later recognized by the supreme Austrian authority in Vienna...
The proclamation in which Miletić invited all students to prepare the nation for its liberation, fell into the hands of Metternich's police, and from 1847 Miletić was under their constant observation. In April, 1848, the HofkriegsratHofkriegsrat
The Hofkriegsrat was the Court Council of War of the Habsburg Monarchy. Founded in 1556 in the reign of Emperor Ferdinand I, it was a council of men with military experience who could take charge of the army and its needs, in both war and peacetime...
in Vienna decided that this youth of twenty must be rendered innocuous. For Miletić, when he saw the servility of the Serb delegation to the Diet at Bratislava, urged the younger generation to go among the people and rouse it to a struggle for national guarantees. He left Bratislava, went to Novi Sad, and then to the Military Frontiers, where he incited the Šajkaši
Šajkaši
Šajkaši were the river troops guarding the Danube and Sava, and especially, the Port of Belgrade, against the Ottoman Empire from the 16th to the 19th century. At the time, the rivers were borders of the Kingdom of Hungary and Habsburg Empire with the Ottoman Empire. They had special military...
not to go to Italy and fight against Young Italy, and not go aboard ships which were to carry them as cattle to the slaughter-house, but he pleaded with them to await the National Assembly which was to convene on the 1st to the 3rd of May 1848 (better known as the May Assembly
May Assembly
May Assembly was the national assembly of the Serbs in Austrian Empire, held in 1 and 3 May 1848 in Sremski Karlovci, during which the Serbs proclaimed autonomous Serbian Vojvodina. This action was later recognized by the supreme Austrian authority in Vienna...
). This assembly was formed by the young men round Miletić, but its directive was controlled by stronger forces than they—Patriarch Josif Rajačić
Josif Rajacic
Josif Rajačić was a metropolitan of Sremski Karlovci, Serbian patriarch, administrator of Serbian Vojvodina and baron.-Life:...
, Vojvoda Stevan Šupljikac
Stevan Šupljikac
Stevan Šupljikac, known simply as Vojvoda Šupljikac was a voivode and the first Duke of the Serbian Vojvodina, in 1848.-Life:...
, the Austrophil Serbian Government in Belgrade, and Austrian General Ban Josip Jelačić
Josip Jelacic
Count Josip Jelačić of Bužim was the Ban of Croatia between 23 March 1848 and 19 May 1859...
. This, and the chauvinism of the Magyars, gave to the Serbian movement in 1848, and still more in 1849, a tendency which Miletić could not agree with. He would always take time to point out that Serbs and the Slavs would not shake off their yoke through these struggles. His private inclination was to take advantage of all the disorder in Europe and go our own way—to complete national liberation. Miletić would have much preferred to find a modus vivendi
Modus vivendi
Modus vivendi is a Latin phrase signifying an agreement between those whose opinions differ, such that they agree to disagree.Modus means mode, way. Vivendi means of living. Together, way of living, implies an accommodation between disputing parties to allow life to go on. It usually describes...
with the Magyars, and that the Frontiersmen (Grenzer) should have been sent, in conjunction with Alexander Karađorđević, Prince of Serbia and Petar II Petrović Njegoš of Montenegro, to liberate Bosnia, Herzegovina and Old Serbia instead. But he was alone in these aspirations (except for Petar II Petrović-Njegoš who espoused the same ideas as Miletić), unfortunately isolated and powerless, and torn between the desire to help the Serbian cause such as it was and the awareness that it was not what it ought to be. When this proved impossible, Miletić took an increasingly lukeworm attitude in the movement from then on, and in April, 1849, when the breath of reaction could already be felt, he withdrew himself altogether. Disgusted at the turn of events and the direction the national life was taking, Miletić dropped politics altogether and began to think about his interrupted schooling. He studied law in Vienna, and was granted one of the bursaries founded by Prince Mihailo (Obrenović); but he reserved to himself full liberty of political opinions and action, and for the Prince's foundation he rendered thanks to the nation!
A long period was to elapse before he could repay by his national work the debt which he owed to Rajačić (who sponsored him) and Prince Mihailo, for the reactionary Bach rėgime (named after Baron Alexander von Bach
Baron Alexander von Bach
Baron Alexander von Bach was an Austrian politician...
) made all public life impossible. Miletić speedily and successfully completed his bar examination, and set up practice at Novi Sad, and about that time married. Miletić soon became famous and acquired an independent material position. It was as though he delighted in the sense of his growing powers, and yet declined to undertake any public work, so long as such conditions prevailed as permitted him from putting forth his full effort.
Political Career
These conditions changed after the Austrian defeats at SolferinoSolferino
Solferino is a small town and comune in the province of Mantua, Lombardy, northern Italy, approximately 10 kilometres south of Lake Garda....
and Magenta
Magenta
Magenta is a color evoked by light stronger in blue and red wavelengths than in yellowish-green wavelengths . In light experiments, magenta can be produced by removing the lime-green wavelengths from white light...
, when Franz Joseph, by the October Diploma
October Diploma
The October Diploma was a constitution adopted by Habsburg Emperor Franz Joseph on October 20, 1860. The Diploma attempted to increase the power of the conservative nobles by giving them more power over their own lands through a program of aristocratic federalism...
of 1860, found it necessary to promise the introduction of constitutional government. As one means of appeasing the Magyars, Franz Joseph ordered the speedy reincorporation of the Serbian Vojvodina
Serbian Vojvodina
The Serbian Vojvodina was a Serbian autonomous region within the Austrian Empire...
in the Kingdom of Hungary. But they were not satisfied with this concession, and insisted upon the constitution of 1848, which was only granted after Austria's fresh defeat at Königgrätz in 1866. In the six years during which this trial of strength between Austria and Hungary lasted the attitude of the Serbs and Croats, Romanians and Slovaks, assumed very considerable importance. Indeed if the nationalities had sided with Austria during this period, as they had done in 1848, Hungary would hardly have attained that complete independence from the Austrian monarchy which was embodied in the Compromise, or Ausgleich
Ausgleich
The Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867 established the dual monarchy of Austria-Hungary. The Compromise re-established the sovereignty of the Kingdom of Hungary, separate from and no longer subject to the Austrian Empire...
of 1867. But the absolutist régime of Alexander von Bach had alienated the nationalities, and they flung themselves into the arms of Magyar Liberalism. The Magyars for their part at this time laid greater strees on the Liberal than upon the Magyar side of things.
And no one did more for this new policy than Svetozar Miletić, as representative of the Hungarian Serbs. He took the role of mediator graciously and the burden of reconciling the traditional animosities between two stubborn nationalities, and dissipating the doubts and suspicions which ten years of reaction had kindled. Miletić had reached the conviction that the Serbian movement in the Vojvodina could be brought into line with the general Serbian aims of liberty and unity, and also with the wider European movement. To this idea he devoted all his intellectual gifts and highly combative temperament.
For a certain time circumstances favoured him. Mihailo Obrenović III, Prince of Serbia
Mihailo Obrenovic III, Prince of Serbia
Mihailo Obrenović was Prince of Serbia from 1839–1842 and again from 1860–1868. His first reign ended when he was deposed in 1842 and his second when he was assassinated in 1868.-Early life and first reign:...
was in touch with Andrassy
Andrássy
Andrássy is the name of an aristocratic family of very ancient lineage prominent in Hungarian history.The full family name is "Andrássy de Csíkszentkirály et Krasznahorka"; "Csíkszentkirály" is a town in modern-day Romania now called Sâncrăieni, while Krásna Hôrka is a castle in Slovakia.The...
and Ferenc Deak
Ferenc Deák
Ferenc Deák de Kehida , , was a Hungarian statesman and Minister of Justice. He was known as "The Wise Man of the Nation".-Early life and law career:...
, who were at the time willing to help Serbia acquire Bosnia and Herzegovina and liberate her kinsmen under the Turkish yoke; and for this Miletić was ready and eager to render them any possible service in return. The Vojvodina was reincorporated towards the end of 1860, and on January 4, 1861, Miletić published an article which was long to serve as his party's policy, and in which, while not taking exception to Hungary's acceptance of the Vojvodina at the hands of Austria, he announced to the latter that she need no longer reckon upon the Serbs in her quarrels with other nations. In the same year, at a political meeting of Hungarian Serbs, held at Sremski Karlovci
Sremski Karlovci
Sremski Karlovci is a town and municipality in Serbia, in the autonomous province of Vojvodina, situated on the bank of the river Danube, 8 km from Novi Sad...
in Syrmia
Syrmia
Syrmia is a fertile region of the Pannonian Plain in Europe, between the Danube and Sava rivers. It is divided between Serbia in the east and Croatia in the west....
, he put forward the idea of seeking guarantees for their nationality, by friendly agreement with the Magyars. In the year 1865 he was elected to the Croatian Sabor and supported a peculiar kind of Dualism under which both Austria and Hungary would be reorganized on a federal basis: he therefore joined the party club which passed as Magyarophil.
Among the older Serbian intellectuals this policy awakened but little response. But for the very reason the younger generation—intelligentsia, merchants, and artisans alike—gathered all the more eagerly around "the eagle of Novi Sad," where in 1866 they organized the "United Youth" (Ujedinjena Omladina) as the symbol of political unity. The foremost Serbian poets and writers of that time gave their support to the Omladina movement, which found alike its Achilles
Achilles
In Greek mythology, Achilles was a Greek hero of the Trojan War, the central character and the greatest warrior of Homer's Iliad.Plato named Achilles the handsomest of the heroes assembled against Troy....
Miletić and its Ajax
Ajax (mythology)
Ajax or Aias was a mythological Greek hero, the son of Telamon and Periboea and king of Salamis. He plays an important role in Homer's Iliad and in the Epic Cycle, a series of epic poems about the Trojan War. To distinguish him from Ajax, son of Oileus , he is called "Telamonian Ajax," "Greater...
in Laza Kostić
Laza Kostic
Laza Kostić was a Serbian poet, prose writer, lawyer, philosopher, polyglot, publicist, and politician, considered to be one of the greatest minds of Serbian literature.-Biography:...
, Odysseus
Odysseus
Odysseus or Ulysses was a legendary Greek king of Ithaca and the hero of Homer's epic poem the Odyssey. Odysseus also plays a key role in Homer's Iliad and other works in the Epic Cycle....
in Đura Jakšić, and Homer
Homer
In the Western classical tradition Homer , is the author of the Iliad and the Odyssey, and is revered as the greatest ancient Greek epic poet. These epics lie at the beginning of the Western canon of literature, and have had an enormous influence on the history of literature.When he lived is...
in Jovan Jovanović Zmaj
Jovan Jovanovic Zmaj
Jovan Jovanović Zmaj was one of the best-known Serbian poets. He was a physician by profession, like his literary predecessor writer Jovan Stejić ....
. This new bourgeoisie was in close contact with the peasantry, and little by little, between 1861 and 1871, the whole Serbian nation in the Vojvodina gave its adherence to the national party of Miletić. When in 1872 elections were held for the autonomous Church Assembly, this party obtained 72 out of a total of 75 seats. Throughout this period all the honours which it was in the power of the Serbs to confer were lavished upon Svetozar Miletić as their recognized leader. From 1865 to 1884 he represented them in the Parliament at Budapest; in 1861 and 1867 he was Mayor of Novi Sad; in 1871 he became President of the Matica Srpska
Matica srpska
The Matica srpska is the oldest cultural-scientific institution of Serbia. Matica srpska was founded in 1826 in Budapest and moved to Novi Sad in 1864....
, the oldest Serbian cultural institution. And the Omladina in its dreams accorded him the honour of Voivode in the Banat
Banat
The Banat is a geographical and historical region in Central Europe currently divided between three countries: the eastern part lies in western Romania , the western part in northeastern Serbia , and a small...
and Bačka
Backa
Bačka is a geographical area within the Pannonian plain bordered by the river Danube to the west and south, and by the river Tisza to the east of which confluence is located near Titel...
and Supreme Zupan in the three counties which Deak, in 1862, had promised to delimit on a national basis.
The Compromise
Naturally when the Magyars concluded their 1867 Compromise with Austria and the foreign policy of the new Dual Monarchy fell into the hands of Count Andrassy, whom Austria had hanged in effigy in 1849; when Prince Mihailo of Serbia was assassinated in 1868 and Andrassy adopted as part of his programme the occupation of Bosnia and Herzegovina; and when the New Hungary began to falsify their former Liberal principles in the interest of wholesale Magyarisation, then no one reacted more strongly to the changed situation than he who had up till this time been the firmest believer in Magyar liberalism. Politically, the principle underlying the agreement was that the empire should be divided into two portions, in one of these the Magyars were to rule, in the other the Germans; in either section the Slav races (the Serbs and Croatians, the Czechs, Slovaks, Poles, Ruthenians, and Slovenes) and the Romanians and Italians were to be placed in a position of political inferiority, according to Henry de Worms's The Austro-Hungarian Empire (London, 1876). Thus Miletić became the champion against whose breast were pointed all the lances of authority in Hungary and in Austria. With their policy of "whip and hay," of repression and secret funds, Andrassy, Lonyay and Kalman TiszaKálmán Tisza
Kálmán Tisza de Borosjenő was the Hungarian prime minister between 1875 and 1890. He is credited for the formation of a consolidated Magyar government, the foundation of the new Liberal Party and major economic reforms that would both save and eventually lead to a government with popular...
tried to split up the party of Miletić after Prince Mihailo's murder. Andrassy even accused Miletić of complicity in the crime and suspended him from his post as Mayor of Novi Sad. This manoeuvre failed, and the ranks of the National Party closed firmly than ever around their leader. In the same way in 1870 Andrassy secured Miletić's sentence of a year's imprisonment owing to his attacks upon the corrupt anti-national regime of Baron Levin Rauch in Croatia. Both on entering and leaving prison Miletic had a triumphal reception from his compatriots in the Voyvodina, and henceforth he was uncontested master of their souls. But even in this situation he was at all times ready to come to terms with the Magyars. His conditions of peace were summed up in a single phrase: "The Balkans for the Balkan people." Roman Catholic Austria, he argued, could not satisfy her own Catholic Slavs—the Czechs, Slovaks, Slovenes and Croats—let alone hope to fulfill a mission in the Balkans.
Serbian-American inventor Michael Pupin in his highly-acclaimed, Pulitzer
Pulitzer
Pulitzer may refer to:* Pulitzer Prize, an annual U.S. journalism, literary, and music award* Pulitzer, Inc., a U.S. newspaper chain* Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting, a non-profit organization for journalists- People :...
prize-winning autobiography From Immigrant to Inventor, wrote on page 21:
Svetozar Miletich, the great nationalistic leader of the Serbs in Austria-Hungary, visited Panchevo
Panchevo
Panchevo can refer to:* Pančevo, a city and municipality in Serbia* Panchevo, Burgas Province, a village in Burgas Province, Bulgaria...
, and the people prepared a torchlight procession for him. This procession was to be a protest of Panchevo and the whole of Banat against the emperor's treachery of 1869. My father had protested long before by excluding the emperor's picture from our house. That visit of Miletich marks the beginning of a new political era in Banat, the era of nationalism. The schoolboys of Panchevo turned out in great numbers, and I was one of them, proud to become one of the torch-bearers.
Incarceration
Consequently Miletić fostered such opposition to Austria's progress in the Balkans, that the occupation of Bosnia logically involved the political extinction of Miletić. In accordance with the wishes of Franz Joseph I of AustriaFranz Joseph I of Austria
Franz Joseph I or Francis Joseph I was Emperor of Austria, King of Bohemia, King of Croatia, Apostolic King of Hungary, King of Galicia and Lodomeria and Grand Duke of Cracow from 1848 until his death in 1916.In the December of 1848, Emperor Ferdinand I of Austria abdicated the throne as part of...
and Count Andrassy, Kalman Tisza, with his accustomed brutality, and in entire disregard of parliamentary immunity, ordered the arrest of Miletić on July 5, 1876, and then began his search for incriminating evidence. In the prisons of Voyvodina he found a single witness, a decayed individual whose word no court free from political influence would have dreamt of accepting. Not knowing how long the Eastern Crisis ushered in by Serbo-Turkish War would last, Tisza postponed the trial for eighteen months. Setting his hopes on European opinion, Mihailo Polit-Desančić, Miletić's comrade-in-arms, did all he could to hasten an investigation (which would ultimately prove Miletić's innocence) by brilliantly defending him in court in Budapest, but to no avail. At the beginning of 1878 Miletić was condemned for high treason and sentenced to five years' ordinary imprisonment and a heavy fine. On November 27, 1879, when the occupation of Bosnia was already an accomplished fact, Franz Joseph pardoned the victim of his policy of Balkan expansion. Though Miletić's health was broken by his three and a half years of confinement, he still found the strength to lead his compatriots in the Voyvodina for another two years. In 1881, in face of acute pressure on the part of the administrative authorities, he secured his election to the Parliament of Budapest, and in a speech of the following year summoned the Monarchy to evacuate Bosnia and Herzegovina.
The words of Hamlet, which perhaps were more often on his lips than those of any character in literature, became an obsession with him. Hic et ubique—at every turn, on floor and roof!—he saw Kalman Tisza lurking about, pulling down the wall of his room upon him or laying weights upon his head and making it impossible for him to sleep. From 1884 to 1889, his illness was so severe that he had to be removed to an asylum. Then at last his madness left him, but, unhappy, though he lived till the year 1901, his mind never fully recovered sufficiently enough for him to resume his leadership of the Serbs of Voyvodina, now badly disunited and weakened. His disappearance from public life contributed very materially to the long period of depression through which the Serbs went, and which lasted right on till the Balkan Wars of 1912 and 1913. And even today the Serbs of Voyvodina are all too conscious of the vacuum that Miletić left. He possessed to a surprising degree the arts of the orator, combined with a magnificent and striking physical presence which today is embodied in his monument in Novi Sad
Novi Sad
Novi Sad is the capital of the northern Serbian province of Vojvodina, and the administrative centre of the South Bačka District. The city is located in the southern part of Pannonian Plain on the Danube river....
where he was the Lord Mayor.
Miletić died at Vršac
Vršac
Vršac is a town and municipality located in Serbia. In 2002 the town's total population was 36,623, while Vršac municipality had 54,369 inhabitants. Vršac is located in the Banat region, in the Vojvodina province of Serbia. It is part of the South Banat District.-Name:The name Vršac is of Serbian...
on February 4, 1901, and was buried in Novi Sad
Novi Sad
Novi Sad is the capital of the northern Serbian province of Vojvodina, and the administrative centre of the South Bačka District. The city is located in the southern part of Pannonian Plain on the Danube river....
.
Villages in Vojvodina named after Svetozar Miletić
- Svetozar Miletić, a village in the SomborSomborSombor is a city and municipality located in northwest part of Serbian autonomous province of Vojvodina. The city has a total population of 48,749 , while the Sombor municipality has 87,815 inhabitants...
municipality. - MiletićevoMileticevoMiletićevo is a village in Serbia. It is located in the Plandište municipality, in the South Banat District, Vojvodina province. The village has a Serb ethnic majority and its population numbering 622 people .-Name:...
, a village in the PlandištePlandištePlandište is a village and municipality in South Banat District of Vojvodina, Serbia. The village has a population of 4,248, while Plandište municipality has 13,355 inhabitants...
municipality.
Although there is a village called Srpski Miletić
Srpski Miletic
Srpski Miletić is a village in Serbia. It is situated in the Odžaci municipality, West Bačka District, Vojvodina province. The village has a Serb ethnic majority and its population numbering 3,538 people .-External links:*...
in the Odžaci
Odžaci
Odžaci is a town and municipality in the West Bačka District of Serbia. It is situated in the Autonomous Province of Vojvodina. The town of Odžaci has a population of 9,832 people, while the population of the municipality of Odžaci is 35,474 people .-Name:The name Odžaci means "chimneys" in Serbian...
municipality, it's not related to the Svetozar Miletić, since this village had name "Miletić" before Svetozar Miletić was born. The village was probably named after some other person with surname "Miletić".