Drugi srpski ustanak, slika Paje Jovanovića The second Serbian Uprising, a painting by Paja Jovanović
P raznici su za državu kao rođendani i godišnjice za porodicu. To su dani kada se neka zajednica podseća velikih i važnih događaja u svojoj istoriji. U slučaju države, njen dan ukazuje na to kojim se događajima i vrednostima daje prvenstvo. U slu- čaju Srbije i Sretenja (15. f ebruar), u pitanju je dan koji otelotvoruje dvo- struku poruku. Zapravo, Prvi srpski ustanak 1804. godine i demokratski ustav iz 1835. godine dva su vida borbe za slo- bodu. Prvi je oružana borba protiv ogromne sile turske carevine, a dru- gi je politička borba ustavnim sred- stvima. Najveći svetski istoričar tog vremena Leopold fon Ranke shvatio je veličinu srpskog ustanka i napisao je o njemu knjigu Srpska revoluci- ja . Taj ustanak je bio malo istorijsko čudo. Srpska revolucija bila je i pr- vi uspešni samostalni ustanak jed- nog malog naroda protiv jedne velike carevine. Grci su svoj rat za nezavi- snost počeli 1821. godine. Nigde drugde se dva takva doga- đaja nisu tako vremenski preklopila. Osim toga, nijedan drugi datum ne- ma takav objedinjujući karakter. On spaja u sebi borbenu, herojsku tra- diciju sa tradicijom primene najvi- ših civilizacijskih vrednosti kakve su demokratija, ljudska prava i slobode. Za Sretenje su vezane neke od najlepših priča srpske prošlosti. To je, pre svega, priča o narodu koji se za života jedne generacije uzdigao iz statusa poniženih i diskriminisa- nih podanika stranog despotskog režima u stanje jednog naroda ko- ji uvodi najnaprednije zakonske te- kovine svog vremena. To je priča o narodu koji se iz pepela propasti Prvog srpskog ustanka 1813. uzdiže već 1815. godine, kada je izbio Dru- gi srpski ustanak, koji je kombina- cijom vojnih pobeda i velike diplo- matske veštine kneza Miloša doneo autonomiju mladoj srpskoj državi, koja je faktički značila državnost. Knjaz Miloš, vođa Drugog srpskog ustanka, bio je ćudljivi i vlastoljubi- vi vladar, ali je imao svest kada tre-
A holiday for a country is like a birthday and an anniversary for the family. These are the days when a community recalls the big and important events in its history. In the case of the state, its special day indi- cates which events and values are given precedence. In the case of Serbia and Sre- tenje (Candlemas), this is a day (15th Feb- ruary) that embodies a two-part message. It actually commemorates the First Serbi- an Uprising of 1804 and the Democratic Constitution of 1835, two aspects of the nation’s struggle for freedom. The first was an armed struggle against the enormous power of the Ottoman Empire, while the second was a political struggle with con- stitutional resources. The greatest world historian of that time, Leopold von Ranke, understood the scope of the Serbian up- rising and wrote about it in the book “Ser- bian Revolution”. That uprising was a minor miracle of history. The Serbian Revolution was also the first successful independent uprising of a small nation against a major empire. The Greeks launched their war of independence in 1821. Nowhere else have two such events overlapped in time in such a way. Apart from that, no other date has such a unify- ing character. It combines within it a bat- tling, heroic tradition and the tradition of applying the highest values of civilisation, such as democracy, human rights and per- sonal freedoms. Some of the most beautiful stories from Serbia’s past are connected to Sre- tenje. These include, first and foremost, the story of a nation that rose in a single generation from the status of a humiliat- ed and discriminated subject of a foreign despotic regime to a nation that intro- duced the most advanced legal flows of its time. This is the story of a nation that rose up from the ashes of the collapse of the First Serbian Uprising in 1813 just two years later, in 1815, when the Second Ser- bian Uprising broke out and – with the combination of military victories and the great diplomatic skills of Prince Miloš – led to autonomy being granted to the young Serbian state, which practically equated to it gaining statehood. Prince Miloš, leader of the Second Ser- bian Uprising, was a peculiar and pow-
Za Sretenje su vezane neke od najlepših priča srpske prošlosti. To je, pre svega, priča o narodu koji se za života jedne generacije uzdigao iz statusa poniženih do naroda koji uvodi najnaprednije zakonske tekovine svog vremena Some of the most beautiful stories from Serbia’s past are connected to Sretenje. These include, first and foremost, the story of a nation that rose in a single generation from the status of a humiliated subject to a nation that introduced the most advanced legal flows of its time
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