The proposal for the Memorial Program, which was to name the street temporarily named Breza 1, in the Kolašin neighborhood of the same name, after the famous Kolašin Brigade, was withdrawn from the agenda of the Kolašin Municipal Assembly (MA), which was held on Tuesday.
As the President of the Municipal Assembly told Vijesti Vasilije Bulatović, the proposal was withdrawn after a petition with 62 signatures from residents of the Breza settlement, who did not agree with it, was submitted a few days before the session. According to the brief introductory text that the signatories submitted with the petition, it is written that they are opposed to changing the name of their settlement.
Changing the name of the Breza settlement has never been officially or nominally proposed, and the program proposal clearly states that it is about the name of a road.
"Based on the submitted petition, we have come to the conclusion that there may have been some misunderstandings, and that additional dialogue with the petition signatories is necessary. Since we did not have time for that, because the petition was submitted only a few days before the session, this proposal has been withdrawn for now. The Kolašin Brigade deserves a street, so if it turns out that the residents of Breza do not want it, we can name another street that. We believed that the street next to the Breza barracks symbolically deserves to bear that name," explains Bulatović.
He reminds that this is not about changing the name of the street, as Breza 1 is only a temporary name.
And from the conversation between Vijesti and several petition signatories, it can be concluded that, by signing, they were convinced that the local government intended to change the name of their settlement. Apparently, that is what those who brought them the “signature papers” explained to them. Breza 1 is currently temporarily called the road next to the Breza barracks, which is about 580 meters long.
The proposal for the Program for Erecting Memorials was supported, following the initiative of the councilor of the Movement Together We Build Kolašin, Matija Bulatović, by the Council for Proposing Names of Settlements, Streets and Squares.
The Kolašin Brigade of the Army of the Kingdom of Montenegro was formed in 1891. It was established as the "successor" of the 1916th Brigade (Moračko-Vasojevićka), and operated until the capitulation of 1907. The Moračko-Vasojevićka Brigade was then divided, so six of its battalions formed the Kolašin Brigade, and five formed the Vasojevićka. In the State Calendar of the Principality of Montenegro from XNUMX, the Kolašin Brigade was listed as the XNUMXth Infantry Brigade. The brigade participated in the First and Second Balkan Wars, as well as in the First World War.
“The peak of the brigade’s combat activities were the operations of the Montenegrin Sandžak Army from 1914 to 1916. In cooperation with other units of the Montenegrin Army, during that period the brigade carried out combat operations in the vicinity of Sarajevo, Glasinci, Višegrad and Ivanjica, on Mount Javor. Its impressive activities culminated during the Battle of Mojkovac, where members of that unit received the heaviest blow from the enemy and bore the brunt of that feat. It is important to point out that the majority of the brigade’s personnel were recruited from Kolašin – farmers, clerks, craftsmen – along with a certain number of educated officers, a large number of whom were also from the Kolašin area,” are some of the historical facts about that brigade.
The brigade consisted of six battalions: Rovački, Donjomorački, Gornjomorački, Kolašinski, Lipovski and Poljski. The commanders were brigadiers: Todor Miljanov Vuković, Miro Pavićev Vlahović, Jovan-Jovo S. Martinović, Dragiša Perkov Medenica and Miloš Dragišin Medenica.
As the program's proponents explained, naming a street after the Kolašin Brigade would also pay tribute to the wives, mothers, and sisters of the so-called "women's chamber." A large number of streets in Kolašin currently only bear numerical designations along with the name of the settlement in which they are located. This practice, as suggested in the Memorial Erection Program, should be changed, "because Kolašin, as a city of history and culture, must raise the cultural awareness of the people who live and visit there."
Bonus video:
