Opening of the exhibition

One century of diplomatic archive was marked with the opening of the exhibition of documents Hundred Years of Diplomatic Archives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Serbia opened in the Archives of Yugoslavia on December 16, 2019.
Dr. Milan Terzić, Director of the Archives of Yugoslavia as a host was the first who addressed the audience saying that the exhibition was prepared in cooperation with the colleagues from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Serbia using documentation having significant value for both Serbia and Yugoslavia. He mentioned that diplomatic documentation shared the destiny of our region and that documentation from the period of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia and the Yugoslav Socialist Republic is a must in understanding history of twentieth century. Documentation created in the work of Foreign Affairs up to 1945, have been already stored in the Archives of Yugoslavia and within that documentation is material about Vojislav Jovanović Marambo who was dedicate to preserving archival material being the first person in charge of the Main Archives, respectively the Archival Department within the Ministry of Foreign Affairs with the names such as Ivo Andrić, Miloš Crnjanski, Koča Popović participating in its work. From their reports on the work of the diplomatic representation offices that are part of documentation, it could be comprehended that the diplomacy is the frame between the real and possible.
In the beginning of his speech, the First Deputy Prime Minister and the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Serbia said that the archives preserve the past and the relation that we have towards the past defines future of our nation to a great extent and that Diplomatic Archives shared the destiny of Serbian people but also Yugoslav State in the twentieth century and that modern Diplomatic Archive is the treasure box of history.
Documentation preserved in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs includes some of diplomatic acts and international treaties firmly incorporated in the foundations of international system of 20th century. He pointed out that the date of foundation of modern Diplomatic Archives is May 5, 1919, when the executive order on organization of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and diplomatic representation offices and consulates of the Kingdom of Serbs Croats And Slovenes was issued, establishing Main Archive with documentation and the library. Being the Chief archivist and later on Head of the Department of History in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Kingdom of SCS, Dr. Vojislav Jovanović Marambo with his staff members worked dedicatedly on arrangement of large archival material. Owing to his hard work and persistence large amount of documentation that was robbed and taken away during the First World War was returned from Vienna by restitution. Very important was his work on preparing the law on archives and rule books on using archival material and on research work in the Department of History. Unfortunately, work of the Department of History was again interrupted for the period of four years during the Second World War. Tragedy that happened to the archival material of the Ministry in the course of the First World War happened again in the period of occupation. Archives of the Serbian and Yugoslav Ministry of Foreign Affairs suffered great damage – significant archivalia were completely destroyed in war ravages, while the other that avoided this destiny were taken away. Therefore one of the priorities after the war was resumption of work of the Diplomatic Archives and collection and restitution of stolen archivalia that is witnessed by exhibited documents.
The exhibition presenting work of the Archives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in the course of time consists of documents dealing with its organization and work in the period before and after 1945 and their arrangement, processing and preservation and storage as well as research of the archival material. Four agreements were presented in the showcases from the collection of the International Agreements including the oldest one among them Agreement between Serbia and Romania from 1868 that have been preserved and digitized owing to the cooperation with the National Library of Serbia.
At the end of his speech mister minister especially thanked the Archives of Yugoslavia that helped organization of this exhibition preserving archival material of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Kingdom of SCS and the Kingdom of Yugoslavia from 1918-1945 and with which Diplomatic Archives has years long cooperation in organization of exhibitions and other events dedicated to establishing bilateral relations with other countries. Finally he officially opened the exhibition.
Dragan Teodosić, Zorica Avramović – Živković, Ranka Radjenović, Jasenka Janković and Ranko Marković prepared the exhibition and the catalogue in both Serbian and English.
The exhibition will be opened for the visitors every working day from 9: 00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. until the end of December.