From the category archives:

History

Innocence Unprotected

February 12, 2010
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Dusan Makavejev’s documentary Innocence Unprotected (Serbian: Nevinost bez zaštite) is a movie inside a movie – an interview made in 1968 with actors from the 1942 movie Innocence Unprotected, intertwined with footage from the actual movie and some news footage from that time. What is interesting about the original movie is the year and the [...]

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Honorary citizens of Belgrade through history

December 15, 2009
Thumbnail image for Honorary citizens of Belgrade through history

Following the proclamation of this year’s honorary citizen of Belgrade, “24 hours” brings an interesting list of all the previous winners of this prestigious award. So let’s see who do we have here:
1947. Josip Broz Tito, president of Yugoslavia
1947. Peko Dapčević, commander of the 1st Partisan army
1954. Haile Selassie, Emperor of Ethiopia
1955. [...]

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Serbia and the Non-Aligned Movement: What’s the point?

August 2, 2009

In short, Non Aligned movement was founded in 1952 by Tito of Yugoslavia, Naser of Egypt and Nehru of India because they weren’t too sure which superpower was going to win the cold war so they couldn’t join either one of them.

Tito, Naser and Nehru, picture found on Titoville.com
Today, the role of the Non-Aligned [...]

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March 9th, 1991 – first major protests against Milosevic in Belgrade

March 9, 2009

On this day, eighteen years ago, first huge demonstration against Slobodan Milosevic and his regime were organized in Belgrade. Couple of months ago someone uploaded a video of the protest on Youtube, so you now have the chance to see a glimpse of the riots, filmed from the balcony of the National Theatre on the [...]

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The curious case of Belgrade/Zagreb snake statue

January 8, 2009

The “Struggle” sculpture/fountain in Kalemegdan (“Borba” in Serbian) has an interesting history behind its creation.
Simeon Roksandic, the sculptor, made one statue for the great Balkan exhibition in London, in 1907. During the transport to or from London, Roskandic received the news that the ship who was carrying the sculpture is missing and that his [...]

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Sami the Chimp Story: Running Away From the Belgrade Zoo

November 19, 2008

Visitors to the Belgrade Zoo are sure to find an unusual monument next to the monkey cages. That’s the monument dedicated to Sami, a chimp who managed to escape from the Zoo in the second part of the eighties, not once but twice. After those escapes, he became famous and a Belgrade zoo favorite, making his way into various city urban legends.
Here’s what I managed to find about him and his escapes on the net.

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How Not To Kill Tito: Nikola Kavaja Story

November 12, 2008

His fail-proof plan to eliminate Tito by hijacking a 727 jet in the USA and than subtly crashing it into the communist party headquarters in Belgrade was never implemented because he said he didn’t know where the building was exactly located.

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Rimtutituki Antiwar Action

February 14, 2008

LaLara found this video on youtube recently, and I thought it would be cool to bring the story of Rimtutituki antiwar action that happened in the early nineties in Belgrade to the audience of our blog.

But, first, the (approximate) translation of the song:
“Now Listen Here”
Peace is the most beautifull girl
Not everybody can have
If I can’t [...]

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Belgrade once upon a time…

January 29, 2008

My grandmother, an old Belgrader, always used to tell me what was Belgrade before the Second World War. It was a city that was following the European trends of life-style and architecture, with notable families raising buildings in order to match the beauty of other notable cities such as Budapest and Prague. The capital of [...]

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Firecrackers & Broken Clocks: Delayed Christmas in Serbia

January 7, 2008

So, for those of you from Outer Space, not particularly familiar with our little Serbian Julius Cesarian Orthodox Delay, today, on the 7th of January, is when the vast majority of Serbian citizens celebrate Christmas, that is – all those belonging to the Serbian Ortodox Church, still a bit skeptical about the common, Gregorian calendar.
I [...]

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Serbian girls – hot or not?

September 4, 2007

This subject had to come up sooner or later, you know.
But I was hoping that something else will trigger it other than your usual drooling foreign guys impressions you see on net or hear from various sources: “Dude, they have the most beautiful girls there, I swear!” or “Man, Serbia is heaven on earth as [...]

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King Alexander and Cinematography

July 9, 2007

Well dear friends, we supposed you were slightly paniked when you saw that Belgrade 2.0 was down for a while, since our database had an error. We’re now online, full with ideas and read to kick, so now we continue with an unconventional subject, the murder of king Alexander of Yugoslavia.
From many considered to be [...]

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On this day in history: Yu Rock Mission

June 15, 2007

Yugoslavian version of Band Aid: Ju-Rok Misija, 15th of June, 1985.

There are many Yu rock stars in this video – try and recognize some.

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Another anniversary – “Deveti mart”

March 9, 2007

A woman protester opposing a water cannon, photo by Predrag Mitic

Sixteen years ago, 9th of March 1991 – Deveti mart in Serbian – big protests and demonstrations took place in the streets of Belgrade. This was the first sign that the citizens were not so satisfied with Milosevic’s rule, already after [...]

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Belgrade – A Young Democracy

February 21, 2007

Ten years ago, 21st February 1997. Zoran Djindjic became the first modern, democratic mayor of Belgrade. This event came as one of the results after several months of protests after the Milosevic’s regime tried to cheat on the local parliamentary elections in 1996.
This date may not be so important in world perspective, but observed [...]

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Messages From The Past

February 3, 2007

Long time ago the German philosopher Hegel once said “History repeats itself just like irony and farse”. Many things that happen today, happened before. It is just the ability to recognize them and draw parallels so we could know how to act and reacts. Many believe that the European Union is something unique since it [...]

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The Serbian Identity

December 20, 2006

Couple of events led me to write this blog. One of them and the most influential one is that at the moment I am reading the book from Vladeta Jerotic about the Faith and the Country.
The question I pose to myself is how far should Serbia go in accepting the “new age” or the globalization [...]

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Urban Belgrade myths: Belgrade phantom (Beogradski fantom)

December 3, 2006

Belgrade Phantom (Serbian: Beogradski Fantom) is a nickname of the guy who night after night repeatedly managed to run away in a white Porsche from the cops who were driving their Zastava’s in the late seventies. His real name was Vlada Vasiljevic, a small time crook apparently very good in stealing cars and with particular [...]

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Serbian Constitutional History (Part II) – Yugoslavia

November 14, 2006

After the change of dynasties in Serbia in 1903 (see Part I) and the reenaction of the 1888 Constitution, many historians agree that the period 1903-14 was if not, the only period of the Serbian statehood where true democracy was in power. King Petar I by himself limited the powers of the monarch, alowing the [...]

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Serbian Constitutional History (Part I)

November 3, 2006

Now as everybody’s attention is on the newest Constitution of Serbia, the first of independent Serbia since 1918, it would be nice to take a look on the constitutional history of modern Serbia:
1835 – The Sretenje Constitution: As Serbia’s high autonomy was established already, the assembly gathered in Kragujevac and adopted the “Sretenje” Constitution. It [...]

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