Milan Obrenović’s letters to his son King Alexander at the beginning of 1897, who until recently were unknown to both experts and the public, arrived at the Adligat Museum.
According to historians, the letters reveal a different Milan Obrenović, a man with established state ideas and clear political views on the international situation.
From Vienna, Milan writes in French, about an important state issue – the urgent need for weapons in Serbia, but also family relations. He opposes the advice of Queen Natalija, who was in Serbia at the time, to bring Alexander closer to the radicals and find a compromise with them. He warns his son of the dangers of such cooperation and suggests to him how to rearrange the foreign policy of Serbia, reveals Suzana Rajić, a long-term researcher of the Obrenović family.
“These letters will change some of the important attitudes that refer to the very end of the 19th century. Until now, we thought that the meetings of father and son only in the summer of 1897 led to a turnaround on the domestic political scene. The reversal actually took place as early as the beginning of 1897,” says the historian prof. Dr. Suzana Rajic.
Thanks to the writer Miloš Janković, retired RTS journalist Stevanka Češljarova and the deputy director of the University Library “Svetozar Marković” Adam Sofronijević, the letters were returned to Serbia despite the difficulties during the coronavirus pandemic.
“Translation has been agreed with excellent translators Milica Vinaver and Milovan Danojlić. We plan to publish these letters in the form of a monograph and digitize them,” said Viktor Lazić, president of the Adligat Association.
Adam Sofronijević says that he will use this opportunity to procure these letters to make a model of the King of Milan’s manuscript so that in the future all his legacy will be automatically recognized.
source RTS