Phoenix from the ashes

Birziminium, Ribnica, Podgorica, Titograd, Podgorica... Cities are born, grow and die, just like people. But, as Čedo Vuković wrote, there are cities that never die. They find within themselves the strength to survive wars and earthquakes, fires and devastating storms of time, the strength to rebuild... So is this city, on Ribnica and Morača.

And in January, 1944, the seventh-grade student of the Podgorica high school, the brave Anka Knežević, from Starovarošan, wrote the night before the shooting at Čepurci: "Today I am writing you the last letter, because I know that tomorrow at ten o'clock I will die. I don't regret going to a cold grave this young, I don't regret the fact that I leave honorably and honestly and give my life like thousands and thousands of advanced young men and women who gave it for a common cause, for the well-being of all advanced humanity. I am sorry to leave my father old and feeble, and most of all to not be able to see my dear brothers once more. Dear brother, be good and brave, don't feel sorry for me in front of everyone, know who you are receiving condolences from. Your sister is leaving for the sake of all of you who remain. Be good and honest and follow the path of advanced people, even if you lose your head, because it is better to die honestly than to live shamefully. Let the traitors not think that if they kill me and my comrade that they will destroy our movement and uprising, but strengthen even more those who remain and let them know that the day will come when they too will be on the dock, but not like us, but as villains and cannibals. Our death will be their downfall. A newer and happier era will be built on our bones and corpses, in which every person will live under the same conditions and have all the rights to life. I go to death firmly convinced that the victory is ours, and I will be happy in the grave when what I gave my life for will come".

Eleven months later, on December 15, 1944, the Ninth Montenegrin Strike Brigade, hardened in the battles for the liberation of Kolašin, Beran, battles with ballistic missiles and the Germans in the area of ​​Rožaj, was tasked with two battalions to liberate Podgorica. After the frost, driving through the snow, she arrived in Vrmoš via Komovo and on December 19, from Kakaricka Gora and Vrel Ribnički, she attacked enemy positions. The first Bokel brigade, units of the Lovcen and Zeta detachments fought near the Vizier's Bridge and the Gymnasium building where the Germans barricaded themselves. The 19th Montenegrin Army entered Rogame, and parts of the First Bokel Army crossed Morača near Dajbab, occupied Ljubović and penetrated Stara Varoš at dawn. On the evening of December 1941, the partisans liberated the city. The Germans retreated towards Bioč. In the armed battles during the National Liberation War, from 1945 to XNUMX, nearly fifteen hundred fighters from the Podgorica region died, and five hundred members of the National Liberation Movement lost their lives on shooting ranges, in prisons and camps. Podgorica produced forty-seven national heroes.

Tito is coming

"The Montenegrin people did not regret anything when it came to their freedom and their honor. Montenegrins have done great deeds," said Tito, one of the most prominent military leaders in the anti-fascist struggle. Montenegro is the first Yugoslav republic that he officially visited; and came to celebrate the fifth anniversary of the Thirteenth of July Uprising. On July 1946, XNUMX, in Gostun, on the border of Serbia and Montenegro, Tito was welcomed by Blažo Jovanović, President of the People's Government of Montenegro, Miloš Rašović, President of the Assembly of the People's Republic of Montenegro, Dušan Ivović, Secretary of the Assembly, and other Montenegrin political and military leaders. The convoy of cars continued its journey towards Bijelo Polje, Mojkovac, Kolašin, Mateševo, Lijeva Rijeka, Podgorica... Warm welcome everywhere. Tito told Milan Žeželj, the commander of the Guard and his adjutant: "Žeželj, wherever you see people standing by the road, stop, even for a minute, to say goodbye"!

Stara Varoš, with courtyards, Clock tower, wells, docks; decorated. In Kiš Mahala, on the front door, a child's hand wrote: "Long live our beloved comrade Tito". At the entrance to Podgorica, near the former Kučki market, a triumphal arch, decorated with flowers, on which was written: "Welcome to us". Tito and his entourage were greeted there by Krsto Popivoda, President of the Commission for Colonization, Veljko Zeković, Assistant Minister of Trade and Supply of the FNRJ Government, Savo Brković, Minister of Internal Affairs of the NRCG, ​​Puniša Perović, Director of the Military-Political School in Belgrade, then Vlado Božović, President of the National of the committee of the unique trade unions for Montenegro, Dušan Vuković, president of the Regional Committee of the People's Government, Novica Sekulović, president of the Regional Committee of the People's Front, representatives of the National Youth, Trade Unions, the Army and women. Pioneer Ivica Pejanović handed Tito a bouquet of roses. Bombed seventy times, in ruins, with a little more than six thousand inhabitants, Podgorica seemed almost ghostly. And on the square in front of the Radovče hotel, over ten thousand citizens gathered. Tito addressed them from the balcony of "Radovča" and said: "Podgorica has been destroyed. We will all build it! We will all build it together, because it is our duty, because it is required of us by the sacrifices made by Podgorica! We will do it, that's what I promise you on behalf of the Federal Government"…

Take-off time

From the ruins came a song: "Oj, beautiful Podgorica,/ For the freedom of the martyr./ Youth with heart, work/ They will create you Titograd". At the proposal of the City National Assembly, on July 13, 1946, Podgorica changed its name to Titovgrad. The letter "v" was later "dropped out", so it remained: Titograd. Old and young, with their bare hands, toiled to clear away the ruins. The front and youth brigades dug a six-kilometer canal to Mareza for the first water supply. Regions competed. The first residential buildings in Ulica Njegoševa, Vuk Karadžić, Marko Miljanov, Ulica slobode... Already in 1949, Morača was bridged by the Blaž Jovanović Bridge, designed by the famous bridge builder, engineer Branko Žeželj. The brilliant architect Vujadin Popović is a visionary sprawling city; hotel Crna Gora, of European splendor, with a green, red, yellow lounge, studded silk wallpaper and paintings by Lubarda, Milunović, Zonjić, Aralica, Prijić, Vušković... Across the river, like an arrow, the boulevard shot; the palaces are lined up: the Post Office, the Bank, the Parliament, the Government... In the Green Lounge of the iconic hotel, while the Parliament building was being completed, the Parliament was in session. Factories; Construction machinery and equipment industry Radoje Dakić, Titeks, Elastik, Duvanski kombinat, Agrokombinat July 13; Furniture and carpentry factory Marko Radović, where the first workers' council in Montenegro was founded in 1950.

"At that time there were barely a hundred workers at the Marko Radović Factory," the first president of the workers' council, highly qualified worker Milo Raičević, told me. "We processed wood with primitive machines. We worked in difficult conditions. We needed a lot of windows and doors, school desks. We worked day and night. We didn't even have drinking water. We brought it in barrels, on a truck, from Mareza. There was no talk of social eating. Nevertheless, we achieved success"... Construction of the aluminum plant.

Titograd got its first faculty in 1960; fourteen years later and the University. And on May 29, 1976, at 11,15:XNUMX a.m., Tito arrives at the ceremonially decorated Titograd railway station on the "Dream Train", with the entire Yugoslav leadership, where he is greeted by a hundred thousand citizens. The Bar-Belgrade railway is open. In the Green Lounge of Hotel Crna Gora, at the ceremonial lunch, Tito said: "Those criticisms directed at us when we asked for this railway to be built were not justified. The decision to build the railway has been fully realized today. We have now checked that track and I can say that everything went great. This is a great merit of our builders, workers, technicians and engineers who overcame such difficult problems imposed by the construction of such a railway. We really admired that grandiose work"…

The city descends on the rivers

The city began to descend on the rivers. In Morača, the architect Tupa Vukotić is building the famous Labud, the first building of modern Montenegrin architecture. Hundreds of bathers; among them, Blažo Jovanović. Morača was covered by the Podgorica hotel, designed by the great architect Kana Radević, awarded the prestigious Borba Award, the most significant award for architecture in SFRY. Along the banks of the Morača, the Sports and Recreational Center, designed by the designer and architect Miško Dmitrović, is growing through the self-contribution of citizens. According to the project of a great lover of his city, tireless architect Vaj Knežević, who rose to fame on that job, Sastavci, the mouth of Ribnica, is being resurrected. "The entire course of Ribnica through the city should be opened up, touristically and artistically designed to be attractive for citizens and tourists," Slobodan Filipović, one of the constellation of great mayors, told me. "The Ribnica caves can be converted into unique catering and craft shops and bars"... Many people want to come and stay in the town on Ribnica and Morača. Almost a third of Montenegro is in it today. Birziminium, Ribnica, Podgorica, Titograd, Podgorica... Seventy years in freedom. I: reminding of high school student Anka Knežević; Montenegrin young men and women, brave anti-fascists.