Petar Živković

Petar Živković
Петар Живковић
8th Prime Minister of Yugoslavia
In office 7 January 1929 – 4 April 1932
Monarch	Alexander I
Preceded by	Anton Korošec
Succeeded by	Vojislav Marinković
Minister of the Interior
In office 7 January 1929 – 5 January 1932
Prime Minister	Himself
Preceded by	Anton Korošec
Succeeded by	Milan Srškić
Minister of the Army and Navy of Yugoslavia
In office 22 October 1934 – 7 March 1936
Prime Minister	Nikola Uzunović (1934) Bogoljub Jevtić (1934–35) Milan Stojadinović (1935–36)
Preceded by	Milan Milovanović
Succeeded by	Ljubomir Marić
Minister without Portfolio
In office 1943–1943/45
Monarch	Peter II
Preceded by	None
Succeeded by	None
Personal details
Born	1 January 1879 Negotin, Serbia
Died	3 February 1947(1947-02-03) (aged 68) Paris, France
Nationality	Serbian / Yugoslav
Political party	Yugoslav Radical Peasants' Democracy Yugoslav National Party
Military service
Allegiance	Serbia / Yugoslavia
Branch/service	Royal Serbian Army / Royal Yugoslav Army
Years of service	1903–1943
Rank	General of the Army
Battles/wars	World War I

Petar Živković (Serbian Cyrillic: Петар Живковић; 1 January 1879 – 3 February 1947) was a Serbian military officer and political figure in Yugoslavia. He was Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia from 7 January 1929 until 4 April 1932.

Life

Petar Živković was born in Negotin, Principality of Serbia (present-day Bor District, Serbia) in 1879. He finished secondary school in Zajecar and the Military Academy in Belgrade.[1] A soldier at the Serbian court, he helped overthrow the Obrenović dynasty with the assassination of King Alexander I of Serbia (11 June), which was orchestrated by Colonel Dragutin Dimitrijević, the founder and leading member of the secret nationalist organization Black Hand. Živković later founded the secret organization White Hand in 1912, which served to counter the power of the Black Hand.[2]

In 1921, King Alexander I of Yugoslavia appointed Živković commander of the Royal Guard, but he was briefly demoted due to accusations by a young guardsman that he tried to seduce him.[3] In 1929 he was appointed prime minister as part of the 6 January Dictatorship.[4] General Živković was Bogoljub Jevtić's brother-in-law, the closest adviser to the head of State.

Živković held the office as a member of the Yugoslav Radical Peasants' Democracy (JRSD), which became the only legal party in Yugoslavia, following electoral reforms. As a prime minister he did not enjoy high regard by either the military or among other politicians not only due to his widely rumoured homosexuality.[5] He resigned as prime minister in 1932, and shortly thereafter founded the Yugoslav National Party (JNS), becoming its president in 1936.

Following Alexander I assassination in 1934, His cousin Pavle Karađorđević took office as regent for the 11-year-old Petar II. Upon Pavle's 1941 signing of the Tripartite Pact, Živković left Yugoslavia ahead of the Nazi invasion. He became part of the Yugoslav government in exile.

In 1946 he was tried in absentia in the Federal People's Republic of Yugoslavia at the Trial of Mihailović et al. and sentenced to death by the communist authorities.[6] He was forced into exile, leaving for Italy and eventually settling in France, dying in Paris in February 1947, aged 68.[7]

In popular culture

Živković is portrayed by Nebojša Dugalić in the Serbian television series Balkan Shadows.

References

1. Voje Stojanović-Voke (1941). Biographies of notable people from the territory of Eastern Serbia and Pomoravlje (in Serbian). Štamparija "Minerva".
2. Glenny, Misha (2000). The Balkans, 1804-1999: Nationalism, War and the Great Powers. Granta Books. p. 429. ISBN 978-1-86207-073-8.
3. In this reference in Serbian on Vesti Online
4. Goldstein, Ivo (1999). Croatia: A History. McGill-Queen's Press. p. 121. ISBN 978-0-77352-017-2.
5. Dejan Djokić (2023). A Concise History of Serbia. Cambridge University Press. p. 383. ISBN 978-1-107-02838-8.
6. Pavkovic, Aleksandar; Redan, Peter (2018). The Serbs and their Leaders in the Twentieth Century. Routledge. p. 316. ISBN 978-0-42977-259-7.
7. Adriano, Pino; Cingolani, Giorgio (2018). Nationalism and Terror: Ante Pavelić and Ustasha Terrorism from Fascism to the Cold War. Central European University Press. p. 310. ISBN 978-9-63386-206-3.

External links

• Biography at VOA (in Serbian)

Political offices
Preceded by Anton Korošec	Prime Minister of Yugoslavia 1929–1932	Succeeded by Vojislav Marinković
New office	Minister without Portfolio 1943–1943/45	Abolished
Military offices
Preceded by Dušan Simović	Deputy Commander in Chief of the Yugoslavian Armed Forces 1943	Succeeded by Position abolished