Background
Nikola Pašić was born in Zajecar in eastern Serbia, December 18,1845.
Nikola Pašić was born in Zajecar in eastern Serbia, December 18,1845.
Pašić studied at the Zaječar gymnasium, but as the gymnasium was returned to Negotin (where it was first founded) for political reasons, he studied in Negotin and Kragujevac. In 1866, he enrolled in the Belgrade Higher School, where he excelled in his studies and in 1868 received a state scholarship to study at the Polytechnical School in Zürich, for further specialization. Pašić graduated as an engineer but, apart from his brief participation in the construction of the Vienna-Budapest railroad, he never worked in this field.
The young engineer returned to Serbia and participated in the 1876/1877 conflict with Ottoman Turkey. In 1878 he was elected to the Serbian National Assembly (Skupstina), beginning a remarkable political career that stretched over five decades.
Pasic was a member of the Radical party, which he helped transform from a program of socialism and republicanism to one of nationalism and monarchism. The major domestic issue during his first two decades of public life was the rivalry between the Obrenovic dynasty and the National Assembly for political hegemony. In 1883 the quarrel became particularly stormy. Pasic was forced into exile in Bulgaria, accused of plotting armed rebellion against the crown. He was given amnesty and returned home six years later to serve in a variety of high offices.
In 1891/1892 Pasic served for the first time as prime minister; throughout his career he led twenty-two governments in all. He also held office in the 1890s as mayor of Belgrade and ambassador to Russia. Clashes between the National Assembly's Radicals and the crown continued, fueled in part by the dynasty's Austrophile sentiments and the Radicals' call for a pro-Russian foreign policy. Pasic was imprisoned in 1897 and again in 1899. During his second incarceration, he was pressed, under threat of death, to implicate himself and his party in an assassination plot against the royal family. Already burdened with a reputation as a "trimmer" and political opportunist by younger Radicals, Pasic faced a dim political future.
The military coup of 1903 and the ascent to the throne of Peter Karadjordjevic reversed Pasic's failing fortunes. In 1904 he was chosen prime minister; henceforth, until 1918, he stood as the dominant figure in Serbian politics. Under his direction, Belgrade modernized the nation's military, formed a firm diplomatic partnership with Russia, and in the Balkan Wars of 1912/1913 doubled Serbia's size at the expense of Ottoman Turkey and Bulgaria. But the military conspirators of 1903 proved a thorn in Pasic's side. Their claims to political influence peaked in mid-1914: the issue was whether to establish military or civil authority in recently conquered Macedonia. Peter was forced to step down in favor of his son, Prince Alexander, and Pasic had to call new elections. The Sarajevo assassination took place as the election campaign was beginning.
The tie between Pasic and the Sarajevo assassins has been a source of bitter controversy. Did Pasic and the Serbian government encourage the plot? If not, was Pasic aware that Bosnian exiles and Serbian military circles led by Colonel Dimitrijevic planned a spectacular political murder? Did Pasic act resolutely to prevent the crime? Relevant Serbian archives remain closed, but most historians absolve Pasic of participation in the plot. Indeed, his innate caution and his consciousness of Serbia's need for a military respite after the Balkan Wars make him an unlikely accomplice for the assassins. On the other hand, he probably knew a plot was afoot, and his attempts to prevent the student murderers from crossing from Serbia to Austria-Hungary were ineffective. Belgrade's warnings to Vienna, perhaps too vague and oblique to be taken seriously, did not put Austrian authorities on guard.
On July 25, 1914, Pasic personally delivered Serbia's answer to the Austrian ultimatum. Belgrade's note was highly conciliatory, but it sought to stop short of surrendering the nation's sovereignty to its northern neighbor. Pasic can have had few doubts of the outcome: the Serbian army was already preparing for combat. Judging from reports of Serbia's ambassador in St. Petersburg, Russian support seemed assured.
Pasic was recalled to power only in 1921. He served as prime minister briefly, then returned for a last stint, 1924-1926. Heavy-handed Serbian authorities who dominated the centralized government of the kingdom found other ethnic groups like the Croats responding with bitter enmity. When Pasic died in Belgrade, December 10, 1926, a royal dictatorship under Alexander was only two years away.
Nikola Pašić married Đurđina Duković, daughter of a wealthy Serbian grains trader from Trieste. They were married in the Russian church in Florence to avoid the gathering of the numerous Serbian colony in Trieste and had three children: son Radomir-Rade and daughters Dara and Pava. Radomir-Rade had two sons, Vladislav, an architect (died 1980) and Nikola II (1918–2015), an Oxford University law graduate who resided in Toronto, Canada, where he founded a Serbian National Academy.