Nikola Pašić (, ; 18 December 1845 – 10 December 1926) was a Serbian and Yugoslav politician and diplomat. During his political career, which spanned almost five decades, he served five times as prime minister of Serbia and three times as prime minister of Yugoslavia, leading 22 governments in total. He played an instrumental role in the founding of Yugoslavia and is considered one of the most influential figures in Serbian twentieth-century history. With 12 years in office, Pašić was the longest-serving prime minister of Serbia.
Born in Zaječar, in eastern Serbia, Pašić studied engineering in Switzerland and embraced radical politics as a student at the Polytechnical School in Zürich. On his return to Serbia, he was elected to the National Assembly in 1878 as a member of the People's Radical Party, which was formally organised three years later. After the failed Timok Rebellion against the government of King Milan I, he was sentenced to death but narrowly avoided capture and execution. He spent the next six years exiled in Bulgaria. Following Milan's abdication in 1889, Pašić returned to Serbia and was elected president of the National Assembly. A year later he also became mayor of Belgrade. In 1891, Pašić became prime minister for the first time, but was forced to resign the following year.
Following the May Coup and the murder of King Alexander I, Pašić emerged as a leading figure in Serbian politics while the Radical Party established its dominance. He served as prime minister from 1904 to 1905, 1906 to 1908, 1909 to 1911 and finally from 1912 to 1918, as Serbia entered a golden age of economic growth and growing influence on the continental stage. He led Serbia to victory in the Balkan Wars against the Ottomans and Bulgaria, almost doubling the size of Serbian territories. The assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand brought Serbia to war with Austria-Hungary, sparking the First World War in which the country was overrun by the Central Powers. Pašić led the government in exile in the Greek island of Corfu, where the Corfu Declaration was signed and paved the way for a future state of South Slavs.
In 1918, the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes was officially proclaimed, and Pašić was recognised as the de facto prime minister of the new state. Despite his resignation just a month later, he took part in the Paris Peace Conference as the Serbian representative. He served as prime minister on two more occasions, from 1921 to July 1924 and from November 1924 to 1926. During his final tenure, he oversaw the creation of the kingdom's first constitution. He died of a heart attack in late 1926, at age 80. A proponent of populism, nationalism, and political pragmatism, Pašić began his career as a socialist but became a conservative in the 1910s.
Early life Pašić was born in Zaječar, Principality of Serbia. According to Slovenian ethnologist Niko Županič, Pašić's ancestors migrated from the Tetovo region in the 16th century and founded the village of Zvezdan near Zaječar. Pašić himself said that his ancestors settled from the area of the Lešok Monastery in Tetovo. Jovan Dučić concluded that Pašić hailed from Veliki Izvor near Zaječar, and that Pašić's ancestry in Tetovo had been long lost. Bulgarian ethnologist Stilian Chilingirov stated that Pašić's roots were from the village of Veliki Izvor, founded during the 18th century by refugees from the Ottoman Bulgarian village of Golyam Izvor in Teteven area in today's Bulgaria.Чилингиров, Стилиян. Какво е дал българинът на другите народи. 1938, 1939, 1941, 1991, 2006. с. 90-91. Ljubomir Miletić also claimed that Pašić's grandfather settled in Veliki Izvor from Teteven area, which was refuted by Serbian authors, claiming his parents were both born in Zaječar. Carlo Sforza mentioned that Pašić "was lucky in another respect, he belonged to the Shopi community". There also are claims attributing Aromanian descent to Pašić.Radenković, Mile. Цинцари, балкански Хазари. p. 19.
Pašić completed elementary school in Zaječar, and finished his gymnasium work in Negotin and Kragujevac. In the fall of 1865, he enrolled in the Belgrade Higher School and in 1867 received a state scholarship to study railroad engineering at the Polytechnical School in Zürich. Historian Gale Stokes wrote that Pašić was a "serious student" who "went beyond the required subjects of his specialization". According to Stokes, Pašić's early socialist ideals were shaped by German experiences rather than Marxist or Russian populism, as his studies were focused on German history and contemporary events which were taught by Germanophile professors. He graduated as an engineer but, apart from his brief participation in the construction of the Vienna–Budapest railroad, he never worked in this field.
Radical Party Origins While a student in Zürich, Pašić lived near other Serbian students and became politically involved, initially as an organizer. Some of these students would later become the core of the Socialist and Radical movement in Serbia. One of them was Svetozar Marković, who would become a major socialist ideologue in Serbia. Along with Marković, Pera Velimirović, Jovan Žujović, and others, Pašić became an early member of the "Radical Party".
After returning to Serbia, Pašić went to Bosnia to support the anti-Ottoman uprising of Nevesinjska puška. The Socialists started publishing Samouprava which later became the official bulletin of the Radical Party. After Marković's death in 1875, Pašić became the leader of the movement and in 1878 was elected to the National Assembly of Serbia, even before the party was formed. In 1880, he made an unprecedented move in the Serbian political scene by forming an opposition deputies' club in the assembly. Finally, a party program was completed in January 1881 and the Radical Party, the first systematically organized Serbian party, was officially established, with Pašić elected its first president.
Timok Rebellion
The party and Pašić quickly gained popularity; the Radicals received 54 percent of the vote in the September 1883 elections, while the Progressive Party, favored by King Milan Obrenović IV only got 30 percent. Despite the Radicals' clear victory, the pro-Austrian king, who disliked the pro-Russian Pašić and the Radical party, nominated old non-partisan hardliner Nikola Hristić to form a government. The assembly refused to cooperate and the session was suspended.
The atmosphere was made worse when Hristić attempted to take away peasants' guns, in order to establish a regular army. As a result, clashes began in eastern Serbia, in the Timok valley. King Milan blamed the unrest on the Radicals and sent troops to crush the rebellion. Pašić was sentenced to death in absentia and he narrowly avoided arrest by fleeing to Hungary. Twenty-one others were sentenced to death and executed, and 734 more were imprisoned.
Exile in Bulgaria For the next six years, Pašić lived with relatives in Bulgaria, supported by the Bulgarian government. He lived in Sofia, where he worked as a building contractor, and also worked for a short time in the Ministry of Interior. According to Bulgarian sources, he spoke quite fluent Bulgarian, but mixed it with a large number of Serbian words and phrases, and it is claimed that he asked Petko Karavelov's friends who hailed from Stara Planina about the characteristics of that region in Bulgaria, explaining that his ancestors had migrated from there to Serbia some generations before.
Bulgarian testimonies completely differ in one important respect, whether Pašić worked actively in politics during his exile in Sofia. The official Bulgarian support became one of several reasons for Milan's decision to start the Serbo-Bulgarian War in 1885. After suffering a decisive defeat, Milan granted an amnesty for those sentenced for the Timok rebellion, but not for Pašić, who remained in Bulgarian exile. In 1889, Milan abdicated in favor of his 12-year-old son Alexander.Christopher Clark, The Sleepwalkers, p.17 A few days later the newly formed Radical cabinet of Sava Grujić pardoned Pašić.
High politics (1890–1903) President of assembly and mayor On 13 October 1889, Pašić was elected president of the National Assembly, a duty he would perform (de jure though, not de facto) until 9 January 1892. He was also elected mayor of Belgrade from 11 January 1890 to 26 January 1891. His presiding over the assembly saw the largest number of laws being voted in the history of Serbian parliamentarism, while as the mayor of Belgrade he was responsible for cobbling the muddy city streets. He was reelected twice as president of the National Assembly from 13 June 1893 to April 1895 (though from September 1893 only in name; his deputy Dimitrije Katić acted for him) and 12 July 1897 to 29 June 1898 and once more mayor of Belgrade 22 January 1897 to 25 November 1897.Dragnich (1998) pp 36-37.
After wisely not accepting to head the government immediately after his return from exile, Nikola Pašić became prime minister for the first time on 23 February 1891. However, ex-king Milan returned to Serbia in May 1890 and again began campaigning against Pašić and the Radicals. On 16 June 1892, Kosta Protić, one of three regents during the minority of Alexander I, died. Under the constitution, the National Assembly was to elect a new regent, but as the assembly was on several months' vacation, Pašić had to call for an emergency session. Jovan Ristić, the most powerful regent, fearing Pašić might be elected co-regent and thus undermine his position, refused to allow the extra session, and Pašić resigned as prime minister on 22 August 1892. During his tenure, he was also foreign minister from 2 April 1892 and acting finance minister from 3 November 1891.
Alexander's coup d'état In 1893, though still only 16 years old, King Alexander declared himself of age and dismissed the regents who had governed since 1889. He named moderate Radical Lazar Dokić to form a government. Though he received approval from some members of the Radical party to participate in the government, Pašić refused. To exclude him from the political scene in Serbia, Alexander sent Pašić as his extraordinary envoy to Russia in 1893–1894. In 1894, Alexander brought his father back to Serbia. In 1896, the king managed to force Pašić to back off from pushing for constitutional reforms. However, since 1897 both kings, Milan and Alexander, had ruled almost jointly. As both disliked Pašić, in 1898 they had him imprisoned for nine months because Samouprava published a statement about his previous opposition to King Milan. Pašić claimed he was misquoted, with no effect.
Ivandan's assassination attempt Former fireman, Đura Knežević, who was sentenced to death, tried to assassinate ex-king Milan in June 1899 (Serbian: Ивандањски атентат). The same evening, Milan declared that the Radical Party tried to kill him and all heads of the Radical Party were arrested, including Pašić who had just been released from prison from his previous sentence. The accusations that the Radicals or Pašić were linked to the assassination attempt were unfounded. Still, Milan insisted that Nikola Pašić and Kosta Taušanović be sentenced to death. Austria-Hungary feared that the execution of the pro-Russian Pašić would force Russia to intervene, abandoning an 1897 agreement to leave Serbia in status quo. A special envoy was sent from Vienna to Milan to warn him that Austria-Hungary would boycott the Obrenović dynasty if Pašić was executed. Noted Serbian historian Slobodan Jovanović later claimed that the entire assassination was staged so that Milan could get rid of the Radical Party.