When we are young, and the world is ahead of us, we often forget our homeland. In our later years, and mine are now like that, we begin to remember. Everything slowly starts to come back: people, landscapes, events, a life that has passed, and one would like to return...
I have always found chronicles of places interesting. Seemingly not so important, but very important. In addition to the sequence of events in time and space, they profile the spirit of a place. My fondness for chronicles was aroused by Brodel and the French members of the Annales school, Lysian Febru i Mark Block, followers of total history, and in total history there is no unimportant event, time or people. Everything is important for the whole, just as the whole is important for the details. In this sense, I experienced the book “The Splendor of Time and History” (Chronicle of Kings and Royal Ponds), by my countryman Mihailo Mikan Perović, who did a lot for the development and progress of the place, especially with this book, which reached me late. In these first days of September, he sent it to me from Kralje, with some of his other books, also of a chronicle character. The book was printed in 2006 by the Andrijevica publishing house Komovi, with 260 pages, in a circulation of 500 copies, now after two decades it is a real rarity. I was looking forward to a copy of the book. Leafing through it and reading it, I returned to myself, to the homeland... The homeland is the self that lives within us, which cannot be erased. Here, oblivion has proven powerless. While a man lives - the homeland also lives! Its place in man is irreplaceable.
What fascinated me at the beginning was the approach to the set theme, the precision and form with which everything was shaped, and it concerns Kralje and Bara Kraljski, two villages separated by Trešnjevik, a hill about 1500 meters above sea level. However, that hill never managed to separate the two places and the people who lived and still live in them, who are similar and close in everything. People went from one side to the other. Trešnjevik was experienced as a link. A road that connects, not separates.
The book begins with a preface Ratko Deletić, and then the author Perović in a special section with the title Geographical and spatial characteristics of Kralj and Bar Kraljskih, geographically defines the area covered by two villages, road communications that have connected Donje Vasojevići with the interior of Montenegro for centuries. It points to traces of life in these areas: the “Old Cemetery” which is assumed to have existed since ancient times, and the “Maturska kućica”, “Maturski put”, the remains of the ancient people who left their traces in these areas through cemeteries and roads. Perović points to toponyms that have their own uniqueness, and to other characteristic signs, silent witnesses, who have their own voice. Toponyms are always important, legends and history peek through them.
Personalities who marked the time - a special chapter through which the author deals with those who lived in the area of Kralje and Bar Kralje from the 18th to the 20th century, including: harambaši, national leaders, tribal captains, hundreds, pennants, soldiers, commanders of the Royal Battalion, standard bearers during the liberation wars, but also the departure of 300 Vasojevićs for Serbia in 1861, volunteers in the Balkan and World Wars, participants in the breakthrough of the Thessaloniki Front, spiritual figures, and holders of various high military and other decorations. The names of people who were important in their own time, but who had and have significance for our times and the times to come, are written down in order. The purpose of this chronicle is to ensure that not a single name is forgotten, to list merits and examples. Everything important for the history of this region, which is rich in both personalities and events. They are all gathered in this book, in the right place. There is no more reliable guardian than a book.
A special chapter is entitled Scientific creators which lists scientists, academics, literary and artistic creators, people of various profiles and professions, who have contributed to the development of science and art, and are originally from these places. There are the names of three members of SANU: Vukic Micovic, professor at the Faculty of Science and Mathematics in Belgrade, received his doctorate in Nancy, France, Milutin Djurisic, professor at the Faculty of Medicine in Belgrade (he was also a member of CANU), lifelong honorary member of the Pasteur Institute in Paris, and academician Milisav Milo Marijanovic, a professor at the Faculty of Science and Mathematics in Belgrade, whose scientific works and books have been translated into several foreign languages. The Big Three, although he did not have the title of academician, joins Dr. Radoslav Jagoš Vešović (Tolstoy from Bukova Polyana). He received a scholarship from the Sorbonne University and studied in Paris, and in 1932 in Lausanne, Vešović defended his doctoral dissertation entitled "Tolstoy and the Problem of Moral Education".
The Kings and the Royal Ponds were given by three generals - Radomir Vešović, who was also the Minister of Defense in the Government of Montenegro during of King Nikola, and brothers Medicines, Danila i Nicholas. Danilo, a philosopher by training, a participant in the Spanish Civil War, a prominent commander in the partisan struggle, a diplomat in New Yugoslavia. A person for whom Koca Popovic In his book "Notes from War" he wrote: "All the glory for the breakthrough at Sutjeska is attributed to me, and if it weren't for Danilo Lekić's wise advice, who knows how things would have turned out?" Then Tito, after Koča's breakthrough, which he carried out on his own conscience and personal decision, orders that Koča urgently come to the Main Headquarters (his dismissal was expected!), and that Danilo Lekić take over the command of the First Division. The sentence that Koča wrote in his war diary, referring to Danilo, radiates great selflessness. But that's Koča! I never saw Danilo, and I regret it, during his visits to Kralje. But I heard that, when he comes from Belgrade to visit his mother Sweethearts, and he was already a general, a national hero, a man with high war and peacetime titles, he gets ready, has lunch, and then takes a book and a cow by the leash, takes it to pasture. This gave him great respect among his countrymen. However, he did not do it for the sake of respect, but for a simple reason: to replace his mother. There are no small things for big things. And when I came to Herceg Novi, the city where Danilo lived, he had already sold his house and moved to Dubrovnik.
The Kralje also gave four war pilots, high-ranking officers in the JNA, heroes of the blue skies, whose monument is today in Selina, the assembly site of Kralje, on which their names are inscribed. And the monument is atypical, the plane with which General Nikola Lekić broke the sound barrier, on the monument they are next to Lekić, Milan Martinovic, Radomir Djurkovic i Branko GojkovicThere is a monument to the Leader on Selina. Karadjordje, whose ancestors, according to preserved tradition, originate from the area of Kralja.
Numerous writers and painters were born or originated from the area of Kralje and Bar Kraljeski. We should start with Miloš Velimirović, born in Kralji in 1848, author of the novel "Paćenik", which is claimed to be the first novel written in Montenegro. There has been a dispute over whether this was the first novel or "Nevidbog" Rista Ratkovića. I don't know how and whether the dispute was ultimately resolved. I think the solution is simple, the year of publication must be decisive. Ultimately, it doesn't matter which came first. What matters is that they were written.
He holds a special place among writers Bogdan Šekler, whose mother is Cross from Gnjili potok (a hamlet of Kralja), who grew up in that place. He wrote a large number of books. For Bogdan's first book, "The Gentiles", Lalić He once told me: "It is the best book of post-war Montenegrin prose," which I wrote down in the text about Bogdan and his work, published in the book "Written in Time."
Among the many names represented in the book "The Splendor of Time and History", when it comes to writers, I would single out Batric Marijanovic, who published two poetry books during his lifetime: “Bloody Sonnets” and “Silhouettes and Reflections”. In addition to these, he wrote and published the books: “Vasojevićki glavi” (1926), the short stories “Sa dinariskih strana” (1931) and a book of short stories (1934).
Among the writers I would also like to mention my cousin Aleksandar Martinović, a professor, who graduated from the Department of Yugoslav Literature at the University of Belgrade in 1927, and worked as a professor in Sarajevo, Nova Varoš, Užice, Pirot, and Subotica. He published a book of poems “Dreams” (Belgrade, 1932), “Bare Kraljske - historical brochure” (Pirot, 1936), as well as the book “Istina o Bunjevcima i Šokcima” (Subotica 1940). In Sarajevo, he was friends with Tina Ujević. He disappeared in the whirlwind of World War II. I was interested in his fate, so I asked relatives who knew him. According to their story, he was unusual, always reading, took side roads compared to those that others took, had some of his own paths, and one summer in Komovi he read “Flowers of Evil” Charles Baudelaire. That inspired me to write a cycle of poems at one time. Baudelaire at KomoviIn the war, he belonged to the defeated side, and he told his neighbors and relatives: Don't kill each other, all this will pass!... and it did.
Among the painters I would highlight Jovan Zonjić, about whom Lalić told me: “He was treated unfairly. And he was even Lubards i Milunović.” Zonjić stayed in Paris for eight years. He studied art history and archaeology at the Sorbonne, as well as at the Louvre School. Robera Peja. In 1938, the National Museum of Modern Art in Paris purchased Zonjić's painting "Black Woman". It was the only work representing Yugoslav art in this renowned institution. Since 1956, his most famous painting "Still Life in a Black Frame" has been in Paris, replacing the painting "Black Woman", which the Germans took from the museum during World War II.
And when it comes to journalists, I would point out Momcilo M. Jojic, a journalist for Politika, a reporter from several European countries, who interviewed on the eve of World War II Roosevelt, who held a briefing with foreign journalists at the White House. At the end, he told Jojić: “You stay, you have a better English accent than me”. He was the only one then to get an interview from Roosevelt, who made him famous. When I bought Collected Works in the Belgrade bookstore Stubovi kulture several years ago Edgar Allan Poe in a book, I see that many of Poe's stories and essays were translated from English by, precisely, Momčilo Jojić. Then I remembered the story about the English accent. When I once Radovan Zogović asked about Momo, and the distance between our houses in the village, and I explained to him, he added: “We sinned against Momo. We unjustly suspected him!” I didn’t ask why. However, I would later find out that the communists suspected him of working for the Americans, that he was interrogated in the OZN, and that he had a hard time taking it all, only to find out that these suspicions had no basis whatsoever. In the post-war years, Momo came to Tokov Laz (my hamlet and the hamlet where his father came from A million, a high-ranking officer in the Yugoslav Royal Army), used to get drunk with my cousin Beloved (Murikom), sometimes saying: "When I die, they don't need to build a monument for me. Let them put a stone boulder in the shape of Komovi on my grave". The remaining words are the ones I am now writing down for the first time, without the monument and the stone boulder. Jojić tragically ended his life in 1968 in Belgrade, where he was buried.
A few more details about Jojić.
After completing his high school diploma in Berane, he, like Lalić, with whom he was in the same class according to some testimonies, enrolled at the Faculty of Law in Belgrade. This was when his contacts with journalism began, he began writing for Politika, which sent him to America as a correspondent in 1939. During his stay in America, he published numerous reports, interviewed the President of the United States of America, Franklin Roosevelt, and reached Walt DisneyAt that time, two of his books of excellent reports about America were also published. Upon his return from America, Jojić married a Bulgarian actress. To Ljiljanom Popivanov, with whom he had two daughters, one of whom is now a famous painter in Bulgaria.
All in all, a complex biography! One worth engaging with.
I thought it was an opportunity to record what Lalić and Zogović told me about my countrymen, and his as well. Trepča is about ten kilometers away from Kralj, while we used to travel along the old road, now the new road makes the distance much shorter.
So, there are quite a few notable ones. I mentioned some, but not all. It would take more space. But there is the book “Shine of Time and History”, everything is written in it, in which everyone is important and famous. There is a special section on sports and athletes, especially the Milan Perović Scouting Detachment, which was declared the best among the detachments in the then Yugoslavia. Mihailo Mikan Perović wrote a special publication about the detachment and its activities, and the detachment bears the name of his father Milan, who died in the National Liberation War. Sports activities were not overlooked either, and at the end, in a special section The word of others, newspaper and other texts about the Kings were published. They close this precious book in the most beautiful way.
The book comes at the right time for me, right at the time when I am writing a book titled "What I Remember", in which I remember many things from my boyhood and youth, the first letters I learned in elementary school in Kralji (and those letters are important!) my teachers Dragice - Mare Lekic and her husband Vukman, a teacher, a hardworking activist and organizer who did a lot for the prosperity of the region. They nurtured generations of students, and I cannot help but remember them on this occasion.
My reminder of the book is also a warm recommendation to fellow countrymen and curious readers, people who came from this area, to read it without fail, with a suggestion that it be republished (it will be needed), and to its author, Mihailo Mikan Perović, we owe gratitude for writing the book and snatching people, times and events from oblivion, along with numerous photographs that make the book richer and more significant. He Milutin Đurković published the book “Painters and Sculptors Originating in Kralje”, and in this way they contributed to the place and to those that the place gave - forty-two authors in the field of fine arts, born in Kralje or originating from Kralje. I am honored to have written the foreword. To anyone who reads this text, it may seem that I am praising my region and the people of that region a lot. Despite the special feelings I have for both the region and the people, the facts are decisive. I followed them.
This was my little praise for a significant book!
(Herceg Novi, September 2026)
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