It was necessary for the Chetnik duke to become the president of Serbia and for the party of yesterday's Seselj radicals to come to power in the Serbian capital, so that the streets of Belgrade once again bear the names of prominent anti-fascists and commanders of the partisan movement.
Since last week, Zagrebačka street in the territory of the Belgrade municipality of Savski venac has been called Koče Popovića Street, and part of Kumodraška Street in Voždovac - Peka Dapčevića Boulevard. "Famous military leaders deserve thanks for the deeds they did to liberate Belgrade seventy years ago, and they should have received the streets even earlier," said on this occasion the president of the Commission for Naming Squares and Streets, Jasmina Mitrović Marić, former president of the "Braća Karić" Foundation and advisor and Chief of Protocol of President Tomislav Nikolić. At the session of the city assembly where this decision was made, the authorities stated that the criteria that led them to name these streets after the names of partisan commanders were the ones that entered Belgrade through Kumodrashka and its surroundings (Bulevar oslobođenja) in October 1944. of the army group of the People's Liberation Army of Yugoslavia, headed by General Peko Dapčević, while Koča Popović was born in Zagrebačka street and spent most of his life there the building belonged to the wealthy merchant family Popović (his father Aca was a mill merchant, as was his uncle Konstantin. At the beginning of the First World War, the latter was accused of amassing wealth by mixing the flour he supplied to the Serbian army with sand, for which he was sentenced to a prison sentence he never served, but earned the nickname "Koča Peskar").
POLICIES: At the session of the City Assembly where the renaming of streets was discussed, the proposal for Peka Dapčević Boulevard was not disputed, but the renaming of Zagrebačka Street was. Members of the Democratic Party believed that the city "will be too offended by Koča Popović if they change the name of Zagrebačka", because he stood for brotherhood and unity, and the head of the DS councilor in the City Assembly, Balša Božović, said that Koča Popović should get some second street in Belgrade, and that he would not like relations between Belgrade and Zagreb to deteriorate now. The President of the Commission, Jasmina Mitrović Marić, told the DS councilors: "Have faith that our neighbors from Zagreb will not respect us for naming that street after the man who was born there" and added that Belgrade's cosmopolitan spirit cannot be challenged. The President of the City Assembly, Nikola Nikodijević from the SPS, said: "The Commission for Monuments and Names of Streets and Squares, which includes councilors from all parties, decided to change the name of Zagrebačka Street because Koča Popović was born and lived there, and that's the only reason. If someone wanted to change the name of Zagrebačka street because it is associated with the capital of Croatia, then they would have changed Dubrovačka, Osječka and others, but that was not the goal." Nebojša Krstić also joined this controversy on Twitter with the words: "I wonder I would not change the name of Zagrebačka Street for 26 reasons, the most important of which is that the Croats changed the name of Beogradska Street."
The decision was criticized by some of the public from the "anti-communist platform". Thus, historian Čedomir Antić stated for "Blic" that this renaming is controversial and political: "Although both are responsible for the victory over fascism and the liberation of the city, I do not agree with the initiative for at least two reasons. First of all, they received numerous honors during their lifetime: Popović, for example, held the position of Minister of Foreign Affairs for the longest time in the history of Serbia. It is even more important that both were prominent members of the communist regime, which, practically, by condemning crimes and rehabilitating their victims, the state also admitted that it had brought a lot of evil to the Serbian people." Ratko Dmitrović, editor-in-chief of "Večernje Novosti", naming streets after He commented to Peko Dapčević and Koča Popović as follows: "Today, in this way, Belgrade celebrates and pays tribute to those who in 1944/45 killed more than 30.000 Serbs in that city, mostly from the so-called middle layer; enacted a law prohibiting the return of several hundred thousand expelled Serbs and Montenegrins to Kosovo; who attached two autonomous provinces to Serbia (Kosovo and Vojvodina), and none to Croatia, for example, although there was historical and every other justification for three (Dalmatia, Istria, Krajina); who in 1974 passed the Constitution tailored for the dissolution of Yugoslavia into six states. Is this being done out of ignorance, or are the conclusions of the Fourth Congress of the CPJ, held in Dresden in 1928, still valid? That's when the plan for the destruction of Yugoslavia was adopted, and everything that happened later, until today, takes place according to that plan."
Be that as it may, the decision was made and it marked a turning point in the street naming policy in Belgrade. In the previous twenty years, while the Serbian Renewal Movement and the Democratic Party were in power in Belgrade, in the "war for the interpretation of history", in several waves and justifying themselves as anti-communism, billboards with the names of anti-fascist fighters were systematically erased from the streets of Belgrade, from Ivo Lola Ribar and Sava Kovačević to Ivan Milutinović and Simo Milošević, but also Soviet generals who participated in the liberation of Belgrade and Serbia from German occupation, from General Ždanov to Marshal Tolbukhina.
GENESIS OF THE CASE: "We Balkans suffer from one disease, from an obsession with change", once said Jovan Ćirilov, playwright and member of the first Commission for changing street names from 1991. the stake with which he will pierce the corpse of Josip Broz Tito, and in 1991, when the Socialist Party held power in Belgrade of Serbia, and the mayors were Milorad Unković, Slobodanka Gruden and Nebojša Čović, 1996 streets were renamed, and 70 streets were given new names. The biggest decision in this period was that Belgrade refused to keep the memory of the former president of the SFRY in the names of its streets and squares. The main street in Belgrade, formerly Marshal Tito Street, was given a new name in 110 - Serbian Rulers Street. (Tito no longer has his own street in the center of Belgrade, but that's why there are still eight streets with his name on the outskirts of the city, in Grocka, Barajevo, Boleč...)
The next Commission for Monuments and Names of Squares and Streets came with the change of government in Belgrade in 1997. After three months of protests, a new city government of the "Together" coalition was constituted, the president of the City Assembly, i.e. Zoran Đinđić became mayor, Milan Božić from SPO became the vice president, and Spasoje Krunić, also from SPO, was elected president of the Executive Board. As one of the first moves of the new government, the pentacle was removed from the building of the City Assembly, after fifty years. "This is the first symbolic act that should show that ideological symbols belong in museums and that Belgrade does not belong to any ideology, but to itself and to the people who live there," Đinđić told "Naša Borba" at the time. At the end of the same year, SPS, SPO and radicals in the city government replace Đinđić, which will be followed by a period known for the undisputed rule of SPO in Belgrade.
In April 1997, the newly elected Commission for Monuments and Names of Squares and Streets, headed by writer Svetlana Velmar Janković, adopted the "Proposal of criteria for determining the names of streets and squares in Belgrade", in the introduction of which they say: "Over street names it is possible to follow many socio-political changes in the life of Belgrade, because the political tendencies and programmatic aspirations of the ruling class are reflected in the names. This is manifested not only in the names after certain personalities, but often also in those given after toponyms". In the adopted Criteria, of which there were 16, the seventh is the one related to toponyms, where it is said: "By preserving these names, the historical heritage of Belgrade from the era when it was the capital of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, FNRJ and SFRY is protected". We remind you that Zagrebačka Street was named after a toponym.
Shortly after the adoption of these criteria, a meeting followed where twelve streets in the central city municipalities were renamed according to one of these criteria, mainly by restoring the old names, deleting those given after World War II. Thus Ivo Lola Ribar, Ivan Milutinović, Marshal Tolbukhin, Sima Milošević, Filip Filipović, the Proletersk Brigade, the Boulevard of the Red Army, General Ždanov, Božidar Adžija, Boris Kidrič, the Boulevard of the Revolucije were lost, and the Street of Serbian Rulers was renamed to Kralja Milana. This session did not pass without heated discussion. For example, opposition councilor Dr. Svetlana Stipčević from DSS warned her colleagues that "it seems inappropriate to name a street after a certain Mackenzie who was just a good merchant, who bought land cheaply in that area to later sell it more expensively." . During the discussion, JUL councilor from Lazarevac, Slobodan Nešković, presented two citizens' initiatives: "One refers to the citizens of New Belgrade who live in Ivan Ribara Street, who want their street to be called Stefana Prvovenčanigo." It was argued with 1100 signatures. And the second is that all streets bearing the name of war criminal Žikica Jovanović Španac should be changed"...
CONTINUATION OF CHANGES: To remind, the Commission for changing the names of streets and squares is a permanent body of the city administration, its mandate is four years. Thus, with each change of government, the members of the commission also change. The commission, which was formed at the beginning of the 2004s, was headed by a professor at FLU, painter and publicist Mileta Prodanović. From 2007 to 29, the City Assembly had its hands full, so it made, according to its own data, "several decisions on returning old names or assigning new names to several hundred more streets." Then the streets were lost to communists and anti-fascists Đura Đaković, Đuro Salaj, Boško Vrebalov, Slobodan Penezić Krcun, almost all who were overtaken in the previous changes. In those years, the Commission dealt with significant dates from the anti-fascist struggle. So they lost the streets on November 27, March XNUMX (it's true, only one half), then AVNOJ, JNA, mira, Partizanski put, Victory Square...
Explaining the adopted list of street renamings, in February 2004, when 49 streets were changed, councilor from DS Milena Milošević said that the basic criterion in the work of this commission is naming streets that do not have names, as well as removing duplicate street names, with priority given streets, which are given back their old, unwarrantedly changed names: "With this renaming, none of the previous names of any streets are abolished, but, in accordance with the era, they are given a new one or returned the old, more adequate name, and the current one is being archived so that it will be given to the street that suits it better. The commission believes that certain eras in which Belgrade was built should bear the names of people or events from that time. All names remain on the list and will be given to the newly formed parts of the city very soon because Belgrade currently has around 400 nameless streets." That this rule was not respected is clear from the renaming of streets in New Belgrade, which was built during the SFRY.
WHERE ARE THE RUSSIANS??: With the anti-fascists and communists, as we mentioned, the names of both Soviet and Russian generals were erased from the Belgrade maps. This question arose after the signing of the gas agreement with Russia in 2009. Namely, on the 65th anniversary of the liberation of Belgrade, in the fall of 2009, from the office of Milan Krkobabić, deputy mayor Dragan Đilas, a denial of the claim published in some media that the ambassador of the Russian Federation in Serbia, Aleksandar Konuzin, demanded from the city authorities that the streets that were once bore the names of Soviet military leaders, participants in the liberation of Belgrade, returned their old names: "I met with Mr. Konuzin several times and he never once asked, and he especially did not demand that the earlier street names be restored, nor did he do anything that would deviate from his role as a diplomat representing his country. All our conversations were in the form of suggestions, thinking and finding the best solutions for establishing good relations between our two countries, so the claims of certain state and party officials that the ambassador 'requested' something are incorrect." Nevertheless, despite Krkobavić's denial, that the matter with the Russian ambassador and street names is serious, confirmed the statement of the mayor Dragan Đilas on October 7, 2009: "Prominent fighters in the fight against fascism who lost their lives liberating this city and Serbia will get its own streets in Belgrade, but this will happen after the implementation of the procedure, with respect to the established deadlines, and will not be related to the announced visit of the President of the Russian Federation, Dmitry Medvedev. The regular procedure takes several months, but I can already say that we will not return the names given to certain streets after the Second World War, because there is no reason for that. Belgrade is constantly expanding, new streets and boulevards are being built, and everyone who deserves it will get their own street." , has no ideological background.
It is now 2014, the progressives form the new city government in Belgrade, and the 70th anniversary of the liberation of Belgrade is approaching. A serious celebration has been announced, and the arrival of the President of the Russian Federation, Vladimir Putin, is possible. This summer, a new commission for naming streets was formed, and Koča Popović and Peko Dapčević have already been given streets. It is uncertain whether there will be time for someone else from anti-fascist history before the celebration, even though Belgrade has several hundred nameless streets.
Koča Popović was born in Belgrade on March 14, 1908 in a wealthy merchant family. It was named after the merchant's uncle, who was given the nickname "Peskar" by the bazaar because, allegedly, during the Balkan wars, he fed the army with flour that, due to the weight, chemical composition and price difference, contained a lot of sand. He was educated, like many children of wealthy Belgraders, in a Dominican boarding school in Lausanne.
In Sarajevo, he graduated from the officers' school of the Army of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, and in 1927 he was promoted to the rank of artillery second lieutenant. He then studied law and graduated in philosophy in Paris (1929–1932). He joined artists from Breton's circle and maintained a connection between the Belgrade and French Surrealist groups. He published a book with Marko Ristic A blueprint for a phenomenology of the irrational (1931).
As a member of the International Brigades, he participated in the Spanish Civil War (1937–1939), during which he attained the rank of artillery captain of the Republican Army. After the collapse of the Spanish Republic (1939), he was interned for some time in camps in France. He became a member of the illegal Communist Party of Yugoslavia in 1933, and that same year he was arrested for illegal and revolutionary ideas and activities and sent to prison in Sremska Mitrovica.
When asked by Aleksandar Nenadović why he became a communist, he answered: "As you know, I was involved in literature and I saw that it is water and onions." I concluded very quickly: the only thing still worth trying is for a man to collide directly with the enemy. Therefore I decide: I will fight, there is no other; I leave everything and go. A bit foolish, I admit, but I'm starting... I must, however, add that I'm making this decision, not forced by anyone, suggested by anyone, in France, somewhat outside the Yugoslav situation. There, in the then dramatic circumstances in France, I became a communist, decided to take action on the eve of the Second World War. There's no point in me writing some semi-intelligible songs, I have to move."
At the very beginning of the Serbian uprising, Koča was the commander of the Kosmaj partisans. With the development of the uprising, he was appointed commander of a group of detachments in Šumadija and western Serbia. At the time of the collapse of the Užice Republic, in November 1941, he was left in command of the protectorate that ensured the withdrawal of the Supreme Headquarters and the main part of the Partisan forces from Užice.
On December 21, 1941, Koča was appointed commander of the First Proletarian Brigade. One of his diary entries from November 14, 1984 reads, "The main thing in my life is: I Spring Brigade." At the end of 1942, he was appointed commander of the division. In June 1943, he saved the People's Liberation Army of Yugoslavia with a self-initiated breakthrough from the encirclement on Sutjeska, which is why he was almost dismissed. In July 1944, he was appointed commander of the Main Staff of Serbia.
After the war, he was a member of the Federal Assembly of Yugoslavia and the National Assembly of Serbia, Chief of the General Staff, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Vice President of the Republic and member of the Presidency of the SFRY.
Speaking about his career, he said: “I felt like I was a bit overrated. Not only at that moment when they decided to entrust me with foreign policy, but in general: the commander of the First Proletarian Army, the Chief of the General Staff, the minister. I asked myself - is it really for me? The double-mindedness, I suppose, arose from knowing one's own nature. I have always approached everything somewhat surrealistically; I knew I would never be able to change myself completely."
When in 1951, during the celebration of the tenth anniversary of the formation of the First Proletarian Brigade, awards were given, Koča Popović was not among the 282 new bearers of the Order of the National Hero. The surviving members of the brigade repeatedly interrupted Tito's speech in front of the Guard House in Topcider with shouts: "I'm going for a hero!" They are hunting for a hero!"
To that chanting, Tito replied: "I take what you are doing as your lack of confidence towards the Politburo, towards me personally!" You know very well that all proposals for people's heroes come to the Politburo and that's where it is decided who will receive that order. The way you are protesting here shows that we did something wrong, that you have no confidence in our work. I don't approve of your actions, but I will work it out with you. If Comrade Koča was not declared a national hero, that does not mean that he will not..."
Two years later, he retires from military service with the rank of lieutenant general. In 1953, he was awarded the Order of National Hero. In the same year, he became the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the SFRY, which he would remain until 1965.
After the dismissal of Aleksandar Ranković at the Brion plenum, Koča was appointed vice president of the Republic in 1966, but seeing that he did not have much influence, he retired the very next year, in 1967. He became a member of the Presidium of the Central Committee of the SKJ in October 1966. He was elected as a member of the Central Committee of the SKJ at the Sixth, Seventh and Eighth Congresses of the SKJ, and at the Tenth Congress he was elected as a member of the permanent part of the SKJ conference. He was a member of the first Central Committee of the Communist Party of Serbia and a member of the Federal Committee of SUBNOR Yugoslavia from 1966 to 1982.
Koča definitely retired from politics in 1972, after the purge of the so-called liberals in Serbia (Marko Nikezić, Latinka Perović, Mirko Tepavac). As a sign of solidarity with the replaced Serbian party leadership, he resigned as a member of the Presidency of the SFRY.
He was awarded numerous high Yugoslav and foreign awards.
When Milošević was at the height of his power, he viewed the rise of Serbian nationalism with disdain. He wrote in his diary: "Bashibozluk, Bagra and Brabonjci rose to restore Dušan's empire." Serbs are only against anyone who wants to make them even a little wiser, and they enthusiastically shout at anyone who makes them even more stupid, backwards and unhappy. They are not in conflict with the world, but with themselves, returning to the shack and sleaze from which they barely emerged. I was and remain a Serb, but I am not sick of slander and Srbenda. Such people betrayed and shamed the Serbian people and made a mockery of its real history."
He died in Belgrade on October 20, 1992, on Liberation Day. Koča's last wish was to be alone on the bier in front of the crematorium, "so that next to his coffin there would be no parade of hypocrites". He was buried without any honors, wreaths or gatherings.
Documentation Center "Vreme"
He was born in Ljubotinje, near Cetinje, in a priest's family. After finishing high school, he enrolled at the Faculty of Law in Belgrade and soon, at the age of twenty, in 1933 became a member of the Communist Party of Yugoslavia. Three years later, he returned to his native region and as a member of the KPJ District Committee for Cetinje worked on the creation and strengthening of party organizations.
In May 1937, he went to Spain to fight against Franco's fascists in the Spanish Civil War. Peco was wounded three times in Spain. He was wounded in the head on the Brunete front near Madrid. After leaving the hospital, he became the political delegate of the platoon, and soon the political commissar of the company. In a short time, he advanced from corporal to lieutenant in the Spanish Republican Army.
After the defeat of the Spanish Republican Army, he was placed in a concentration camp. He remained in the camp until October 1940. Then he escaped from the camp and, on the orders of the Communist Party, organized the escape of other Spanish fighters and the transfer of his comrades to Yugoslavia.
Immediately after his return to Yugoslavia, he was arrested in Sombor and escorted to Montenegro, but he managed to escape from the station in Nikšić. There he connected with the members of the KPJ Local Committee for Nikšić and actively participated in the preparations for the uprising. In the first days of the 13th of July uprising, he was a member of the KPJ District Committee for Cetinje and the commander of the Lovcen partisan detachment.
He was a member, and for some time the deputy commander, of the Main Staff of the NOP detachment for Montenegro, since its formation in August 1941.
During the crisis of the uprising in the area of Kolašin, in the winter and spring of 1942, as the deputy commander of the Main Staff, he unified the command over the partisan strike battalions and detachments in this territory, which fought heavy battles with significantly more numerous Chetniks.
At the beginning of April 1942, he was appointed as the commander of the Main Staff of the NOP detachment for Montenegro and Boka, and in May of the same year he was appointed a member of the Supreme Staff of the NOP and DVJ.
When the Fourth Proletarian Montenegrin Strike Brigade was formed on June 11, 1942, Peko was appointed its commander. With the formation of the first divisions of the NOVJ, on November 1, 1942, Peko Dapčević was appointed commander of the Second Proletarian Division. From November 1942 to February 1943, the division operated on the wider border zone between Bosnia and Dalmatia.
During the battle on the Neretva, the Second Division played a very important role: it was the first to force the Neretva, in March 1943, and dealt a powerful blow to the Chetniks. In October 1943, Peko became the commander of the Second Strike Corps of the NOVJ. Under his command, the Corps became one of the strongest units of the NOVJ. In the fall of 1943, he participated in the liberation of a large part of the territory of Montenegro, Herzegovina and Sandžak.
In July 1944, he was appointed commander of the Operational Group of Divisions, with which he penetrated into Serbia and liberated a considerable territory in the South and West Morava basin. In September 1944, he commanded the First Army Group, which carried out operations for the liberation of western Serbia and Šumadija and the Belgrade operation. Side by side with General Ždanov and the Red Army, he leads the partisan units in the liberation of Belgrade.
On January 1945, 12, Peko Dapčević was appointed commander of the First Army, which fought on the Srem Front and made a breakthrough on April 300.000. In the final operations for the liberation of Yugoslavia, the army liberated a significant part of Slavonia and Croatia, penetrated into Slovenia and, together with the Third Army in the Celje-Maribor sector, defeated and captured the main German and collaborationist forces, under the command of General Aleksandar Lero (about XNUMX strong).
In May 1945, he was appointed commander of the Fourth Army and commander of the Military Administration in Istria. During the war, he was a member of the Anti-Fascist Council of the People's Liberation of Yugoslavia (AVNOJ) and a member of the Presidency of the Montenegrin Anti-Fascist Assembly of People's Liberation.
In 1943 he was promoted to the rank of major general, in 1944 to the rank of lieutenant colonel, and in 1947 to colonel general.
From 1946 to 1948, he graduated from the Higher Military Academy "Voroshilov" in Moscow. After returning from the Soviet Union, until 1953 he was deputy, and from 1953 to 1955, chief of the General Staff of the JNA. After demobilization in 1955, he was a member of the Federal Executive Council, as Secretary for Transport and Communications. Historians estimate that he was actually passive with a sinecure in the Federal Executive Council. Many claim that the actions of his own brother, Vlado Dapčević, an informer and the most famous slave of Gololoto, contributed to such hiding. Namely, after the conflict between the KPJ and the CPSUSR, Pek's brothers Vlado and Milutin declared in favor of the Informburo Resolution, for which they were arrested and sentenced to several years in prison.
He was the vice president of the Federal Assembly.
At the Seventh and Eighth Congresses of the SKJ, he was elected as a member of the Central Committee of the SKJ. He was a member of the Presidency of the SSRN of Yugoslavia, the Main Board of SUBNOR and the Council of the Federation.
He wrote the following books: Korean War, Belgrade, 1951; The importance and power of the maneuver, Belgrade, 1954; How we fought the war, Belgrade, 1956; Tactics of partisan detachments and brigades, Belgrade 1961; Little war stories, Belgrade, 1961; From the Pyrenees to Cetinje, Belgrade, 1981; Stories about the Belgrade operation, For Belgrade1984; Essays on military thought, 1986.
By the irony of our political practice, the first honorary citizen of Belgrade (proclaimed in October 1945 on the anniversary of liberation) only got a street in Belgrade in the 22st century. He is the winner of the AVNOJ Award. He is the holder of several high Yugoslav decorations. He was awarded the Order of National Hero on October 1945, XNUMX.
Pek's wife was the actress Milena Vrsjakov Dapčević, with whom he had two children.
According to insiders' testimony, Peko Dapčević had a hard time surviving the collapse of the SFRY, so during the "anti-bureaucratic revolution" he threw away the first part of his favorite "Politics", and only read sports pages and solved crossword puzzles.
He died on February 10, 1999 in Belgrade. He was buried at Belgrade's New Cemetery. According to his last wish, he was not buried in the Alley of Meritorious Citizens.
Documentation Center "Vreme"
