Ilija Garaà ¡anin (; 28 January 1812 – 22 June 1874) was a Serbian statesman who served as the prime minister of Serbia between 1852 and 1853 and again from 1861 to 1867.
Ilija Garaà ¡anin was conservative in internal politics. He believed that bureaucracy was the only way for administration to work. In foreign politics, he was the first pro-Yugoslavia statesman among Serbs. He believed that a great Yugoslav state had to maintain its independence from both Russia and Austria. He was one of the more influential Serbian politicians of the 19th century.
Ilija was born in Garaà ¡i, south of Belgrade, the son of businessman hadà ¾i Milutin Savià(nicknamed "Garaà ¡anin"), a Serbian revolutionary and member of the National Council, his mother was Pauna Loma, the sister of vojvoda Arsenije Loma. Saviàwas born in the village of Garaà ¡i. His father Sava "Savià ¡a" Boà ¡koviàsettled in Garaà ¡i from BjelopavliÃÂi (in Montenegro). His paternal great-grandfather Vukaà ¡in Boà ¡koviàwas a knez of the Boà ¡koviàbrotherhood in BjelopavliÃÂi.
Ilija was homeschooled with private teachers, he went to a Greek school in Zemun, and was for a time in Orahovica where he learnt German. He helped his father in business. Prince Miloà ¡ Obrenoviàput him in governmental work, appointing him customs officer in Vià ¡njica, on the Danube, and later Belgrade. After serving in the regular army, Knez Miloà ¡ promoted him to colonel in 1837, he commanded the regular army and military police.
His father was part of the Defenders of the Constitution, who managed to overthrow Miloà ¡ Obrenoviàand appointed Aleksandar KaraÃÂorÃÂeviàin his place (Aleksandar was the son of KaraÃÂorÃÂe, who was assassinated by Obrenoviàin 1817). In 1842, his father and brother were killed in revolts against knez Mihailo. Toma VuÃÂiÃÂ-Perià ¡iÃÂ, his father's colleague and Interior Minister, appointed Ilija his assistant, and in 1843, when Toma was exiled by Russia, he became the new Interior Minister.
The primacy Garaà ¡anin gave to inter-state consideration is most clearly elaborated in his 1844 NaÃÂertanije ("The Draft"). The ideas expressed in the draft guided his policies throughout his career, but were never implemented. NaÃÂertanije became a 19th-century statement on the Serbian nation and its vital interests as well as the root of aspirations for a Greater Serbian state. The document was publicly referred to for the first time in an 1888 book by Serbian historian Milan MiliÃÂeviàbut was only known to a few people at the time and remained unpublished until 1906. Because NaÃÂertanije was a secret document until 1906, it could not have affected national consciousness at the popular level, at least not in the 19th century.
Although written by a statesman and politician identifying Serbian needs with those of the new Principality, Garaà ¡anin was strongly influenced by broader views of the Polish émigré Adam Jerzy Czartoryski and his advisers, as well as French and British attitudes toward nationality and statehood. Ideologically, Garaà ¡anin combines in his NaÃÂertanije the German and French models of a nation while politically attempting to balance the interests of the present Serbian state with contemporary demographics (the fact that many Serbs were then still living under the yoke of the Ottoman and Austro-Hungarian empires) and past, medieval possessions in Old Serbia (present-day territory of Kosovo, and North Macedonia).
Insecurity, more so than Yugoslavism or Serbian nationalism, was the prevailing reasoning behind the idea of expanding Serbian borders. NaÃÂertanije was a revised version of a programme entitled "The Plan" proposed to Garaà ¡anin by Czatoryski and his Czech envoy to Belgrade, Frantià ¡ek Zach. Zach presented his plan for regional politics to Garaà ¡anin in December 1843, which called for the unification by Serbia of the South Slav lands (Croatia-Slavonia, Dalmatia, Bulgaria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and the Slovenian lands), thus creating a basis for Serbian resistance to both Russian and Austrian influence. In his revision of Zach's plan, Garaà ¡anin envisioned a reconstruction of the medieval Serbian empire and the unification of 'Serbian lands' (Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, northern Albania, parts of Dalmatia and the Habsburg Military Border) with a plan for unification of the other South Slavs (Croatians and Bulgarians) under a Serbian dynasty.
The basic idea was the liberation and unification of South-Slavic lands with Serbia playing the role of a 'Piedmont' for the South Slavs. Garaà ¡anin however did not put forth the idea of a broader national unification that would have encompassed Serbs in the Ottoman and Habsburg lands. He assessed that because Serbia was small, its future security would be in jeopardy due to the current International system. Strengthening Serbia through enlargement was the primary goal and this could be done through an alliance with her neighbours and incorporating all Serbs into that state. Garaà ¡anin had to consider the imminent collapse of the Ottoman Empire, the geo-strategic interests of European great powers and the identity of the populations surrounding Serbia in order to successfully achieve this goal. He did not have a single strategy for all neighbouring provinces. His strategy seems to have depended on whether he thought a society in question had or did not have a national identity. Hence, the non-national Catholic and Muslim South Slav population were to be assimilated into the Serbian nation where as the nationally conscious Bulgarian population was recognized as a distinct nation.
Of all the Serbian politicians Garaà ¡anin's view had not only the greatest breadth but also the most realism with respect to the national problems of both Serbia and other neighbouring states in 1848. The time of great uprisings against the Turks was on the wane then, and the role of opposition to the Turks was assumed by the recently created Balkan states. Garaà ¡anin perceived that such a role could be assumed by a modern bureaucratic administrationâÂÂmodern for Serbia and for the BalkansâÂÂfor it was harsh, arbitrary, and rapacious. It was a matter of superimposing a European model on the chaotic orient and on but recently liberated and still-self-willed and defiant Balkan people. But the model was a suitable one in that it did unite and ensure some measure of order and stability.
Just prior to the outbreak of the Crimean War, Garaà ¡anin faced another dilemma, equal in gravity with the previous one (the 1848 Revolution that took place in the Habsburg Empire). As minister for foreign affairs in 1853 Garaà ¡anin was decidedly opposed to Serbia joining Russia in war against Ottoman Turkey and the western powers. His anti-Russian views resulted in Prince Menshikov, while on his mission in Constantinople, 1853, peremptorily demanding from the prince Aleksandar KaraÃÂorÃÂeviÃÂ, his dismissal. But although dismissed, his personal influence in the country secured the neutrality of Serbia during the Crimean War. He enjoyed esteem in France, and it was due to him that France proposed to the peace conference of Paris (1856) that the old constitution, granted to Serbia by Turkey as suzerain and Russia as protector in 1839, should be replaced by a more modern and liberal constitution, framed by a European international commission. But the agreement of the powers was not secured.
Garaà ¡anin induced Prince Aleksandar KaraÃÂorÃÂeviàto convoke a national assembly, which had not been called to meet for ten years. The assembly was convoked for St Andrew's Day 1858, but its first act was to dethrone Prince Aleksandar and to recall the Prince Miloà ¡ ObrenoviÃÂ. After the death of his father Miloà ¡ (in 1860) Prince Mihailo Obrenoviàascended the throne, he entrusted the premiership and foreign affairs to Ilija Garaà ¡anin. The result of their policy was that Serbia was given a new constitution, and that he obtained the peaceful withdrawal of all the fortresses garrisoned by Turkish troops on Serbian territory, including the Kalemegdan (1867).
Garaà ¡anin was preparing a general rising of the Balkan nations against the Turkish rule, and had entered into confidential arrangements with the Romanians, Albanians, Bulgarians and Greeks. But the execution of his plans was frustrated as in 1867 Garaà ¡anin was suddenly discharged, probably because he objected to the proposed marriage of Prince Michael and Katarina KonstantinoviÃÂ. His dismissal caused energetic protests of Russia, and more especially by the assassination of Prince Michael a few months later (10 June 1868). When the assassination took place, he was in TopÃÂider and immediately went to Belgrade to inform the ministers about the assassination and measures were taken to preserve order. The last years of his life were spent away from politics, on his estate in Grocka.
The effective scope of Garaà ¡anin's activities extended beyond the Serbian border and opened a way to the modernization of the country. One felt in Garaà ¡anin the irrepressible pulsation of the recently pacified uprisings, but also a sober program for an effective administration and free trade. His strength was all the more apparent in the light of Prince Alexander's impotence for the Prince merely reflected the glory of his great father KaraÃÂorÃÂe. "You best see the state of affairs, you are the greatest friend of the Serbian people, and everything else is but trifling and trivial", Petar II PetroviàNjegoà ¡ wrote to Garaà ¡anin toward the close of 1850. Njegoà ¡ also had a personal, intimate feeling for Garaà ¡anin, engendered by the force of spontaneous attraction great men have for one another. Though they never met, and the only real contact they had centered around the year 1848, Njegoà ¡ felt close enough to Garaà ¡anin to confide to him his personal troubles, which the latter would understand were also the obstacles to their common aims. Njegoà ¡'s letter, dated 5 July 1850, reads as follows:
He was awarded the Order of Prince Danilo I.
He is included in The 100 most prominent Serbs.
Garaà ¡anin left behind a vast (still not published) political correspondence.