NIKOLA PAŠIĆ FOUNDATION

Nikola Pašić (born in Zaječar in 1845 and died in Belgrade in 1926) is one of the great European politicians of the twentieth century. His life is connected with the reign of the two Serbian dynasties Obrenović and Karađorđević. His first public appearance in political life was in 1878, when he was elected as a deputy in the National Assembly. He then founded the Radical Party in 1881, leading the Timok revolt against Milan Obrenović in 1883. Sentenced to death, he went into exile in Bulgaria. After the abdication of King Milan, Pašić returned to the country in 1889, won the elections and took power as prime minister in 1891. During his career, he also served as mayor of Belgrade in 1896-1897, as a diplomat and ambassador to St. Petersburg from 1893 to 1894, and as a negotiator at the Paris Peace Conference after World War I. During the Obrenović reign, the Radical Party, with Pašić as its leader, was mostly in opposition and rarely in power, but during the Karađorđević reign, it was in power almost permanently.

In particular, he will have been in power during the entire period before, during and after the First World War. He was a very talented politician who managed to stay in power and keep a democratic system (admittedly imperfect) alive during a very radical and difficult period in Serbian political life. He was respected by the entire international community, and by the time of his death, Pašić was known and respected by the most important European politicians.