Venue and date of opening:Archives of Yugoslavia, Belgrade, January 21, 2019
Exhibition opened by: Vladan Vukosavljević, Minister for Culture and Information of the Republic of Serbia
Organisation: Archives of Yugoslavia
Author of the exhibition: Mitar Todorović
Information provided in: catalogue PDF, poster
The 69th Day of the Archives of Yugoslavia was celebrated by the exhibition of documents CROWN PRINCE ALEXANDER KARADjORDjEVIĆ AND CREATION OF THE YUGOSLAV STATE. The Director of the Archives of Yugoslavia Dr. Milan Terzić as a host was the first to address the audience. Speaking about obtained results in the previous year, he mentioned the exhibitions that the Archive prepared, published Review and the Guide to the Fonds of culture and science as well as prepared publications for legal fonds and Ćorović ’s text on relations between Serbia and Austro Hungary in English language that will be published soon as well as collected documents of Živko Avramovski covering the period between-the-wars: "The Germans About the Kingdom of Yugoslavia". He highlighted the importance of the archival fonds of the Archives of Yugoslavia (40 km. long archival material for the period 1918-2006) that 650 researches from the country and abroad have been searched during the year, examining 10.000 archival boxes. He pointed out that without fonds from the Archives of Yugoslavia it is not possible to understand history of the Balkans, Europe as well as the world history of the 20th century.
The exhibition of documents CROWN PRINCE ALEXANDER KARAJĐORĐEVIĆ AND CREATION OF THE YUGOSLAV STATE is dedicated to the Archives of Yugoslavia Day in order to point out at the creation of the Yugoslav State: "Historians are not to judge whether something was to be done or not, but to say how that state was created, what kind of a state was that and to present the period of its duration." It is about the state that it does not exist anymore but that this is a chance to take some positive experience from this mutually travelled road. Terzić highlighted that in two cases (the first Yugoslavia of the King Alexander and the second Yugoslavia of J.B. Tito) the former Yugoslav space was the subject in the international relations.
The Minister of Culture and Information Vladan Vukosavljević at the beginning of his speech said that the name of the exhibition "the Creation of the Yugoslav State" would provide more positive association to Tito’s Yugoslavia than to Yugoslavia of Alexander, realizing historic injustice that was deeply rooted in the collective mind of not small number of citizens living in our country today. Mr. Vukosavljević noticed that the Communist Party even during the duration of the Kingdom provided distorted utterly negative impression of the figure of the King Unifier.
Reminding on tragic period and watershed in creation of Yugoslav State that is 100 years away from us, Minister Vukosavljević said that: "against all ideological delusions and insinuations, historical science fights by documents, facts, criticizing sources. That is the reason that documentation that the Archives of Yugoslavia preserve and make accessible to the researchers is irreplaceable support for making more complete and more fundamental picture about the period that brought us to this state project that cost us a great deal causing high feelings still today." Describing Yugoslav state as time where other nations developed their previous non acquired particularities and Serbian people weakened its century long moral and cultural capital, Mr. Vukosavljević mentioned that four years long period presented by documents at the exhibition "significantly defined the path of our people and our country as well as many future conflicts and tragic outcomes". "Today as well, besides all terrible experiences in the course of the last century, great self-denial remained among the Serbs – and that is phenomena that we really have to think about seriously, " the Minister appealed.
Mentioning that the exhibition consists of photographs, historic maps, telegrams, proclamations and declarations, memorandums, orders and official notes as well as newspaper clippings of that time, he opened the exhibition and invited guests to see it.
The author of the exhibition and the catalogue accompanying the exhibition in Serbian and English is Mitar Todorović.
The exhibition will be opened to the public every working day till March 31, 2019.
VRANJE, 10. јун 2019.
The exhibition CROWN PRINCE ALEXANDER KARAĐORĐEVIC AND THE CREATION OF THE YUGOSLAV STATE, organized by the Archives of Yugoslavia, opened at the Gallery of the National Museum of Vranje on 10 June, marking the International Archives Day on 9 June, as part of the Vranje Cultural Summer event. Director of the Historical Archive "January 31" in Vranje Borivoje Manasijević and then Director of the Archive of Yugoslavia Dr. Milan Terzić first addressed the attendees, emphasizing that after the exhibition was set up in the Archive of Yugoslavia, Vranje is the first city in the interior of Serbia to host this exhibition. The author of the exhibition, Mitar Todorović, archival advisor at the Archives of Yugoslavia, said more about the setting and time in which the Kingdom of Yugoslavia was born. The exhibition was opened by the President of the City of Vranje Assembly, Dr. Dejan Tričković. The exhibition will be open to visitors until June 24, 2019.