Podgorica Assembly

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The Podgorica Assembly (Serbian: Подгоричка скупштина / Podgorička skupština), in full name known as the Great National Assembly of the Serb People in Montenegro (Serbian: Велика Народна Скупштина Српског Народа у Црној Гори / Velika Narodna Skupština Srpskog Naroda u Crnoj Gori) or the Serbian Great People's Assembly in Montenegro, was an assembly held in Podgorica that served as the representative body of the Montenegrin people during the Creation of Yugoslavia in late 1918 and early 1919. The president of the assembly was Savo Cerović, and two vice-presidents were Savo Fatić and Lazar Damjanović. It was organized by Andrija Radović, former Prime Minister of the Princedom and later Kingdom of Montenegro and head of the leading People's Party. Its most known for its decision to merge Montenegro with Serbia.

Contents

[edit] Background

[edit] Origins

Montenegro was a part of the Medieval Serbian realm. The crucial moment of separation were the 1455 conquests of the Ottoman Empire. Montenegro was first conquered and then annexed by the Ottomans in 1499. Montenegro gradually fought for restoration of independence over the centuries, and its foreign policy ideological plans formed that of unification and liberation of all Serbs, in which particularly the House of Petrović-Njegoš was active.

In the dawn of the 19th century Serbia was recreated in the First Serbian Uprising and attempts were made to make a connection of Karađorđe Petrović and Petar I Petrović-Njegoš and reunite Montenegro and Serbia across the Raška region of Old Serbia, however the uprising was crushed. Prince-Bishop Petar II Petrović-Njegoš responded to the 1848 proposal of the Government of Serbia for creation of a Yugoslavia that he wants first a secular unification of the Serb people under the crown of Prince Alexander Karađorđević of Serbia and spiritual under the leadership of himself as Patriarch of the renewed Serbian Orthodox Church. Montenegro was transformed into a secular state in 1852 under Prince Danilo Petrovic-Njegos, who was determined that all Serbs should unite under the crown of King Mihailo Obrenovic III of Serbia. Prince Nikola Petrovic agreed in 1866 to abdicate in favor of Prince Michael for his plans of liberation of all enslaved peoples of the Balkans and formation of a Balkan Federation.

However Nicholas had greater and more pretensions for himself, including the Throne of Serbia for himself or his close cousin, which brought the first obstacles in unification of Montenegro and Serbia. He was greatly influenced by the national-romantic age and expressed himself as the future Serb Emperor during the 1876-1878 anti-Ottoman wars that brought large territorial expansions and independences to both Montenegro and Serbia. This was especially expressed after the assassination of Prince Mihailo in 1868 and the May coup d'etat against King Alexander Obrenovic of 1903. 1907 was the start of parliamentarism in Montenegro with the formation of the People's Party which aimed particularly at uniting with Serbia, in which Andrija Radovic was particularly prominent. It continually defeated the pro-Court True People's Party and gained immense popularity amongst the people for its fights for democracy while King Nicholas' popularity continually decreased because of its authoritarianism. However, national unity was achieved and unification with Serbia was redetermined as a national cause with the 1912 and 1913 Balkan wars, after which a common border was finally achieved in Sandzak, which prevented unification in 1878. In 1914 King Nikola initiated talks and preparations for an "Economic, Military and Political Union of Montenegro with Serbia", interrupted by the the Great War.

Kingdom of Montenegro
Kingdom of Montenegro

[edit] The Great War

After siding immediately with Serbia upon Austria-Hungary's declaration of war, the Montenegrin Army was subjected to the Serbian Military HQ. After long and intense fighting Serbia collapsed to the joint armies of Austro-Hungary, Germany and Bulgaria in late 1915 and initiated a planned withdrawal of the country across Montenegro. Montenegro divided its forces with one part invading and seizing northern Albania including Skadar the same year, which was a territory demanded by Montenegro since Albania's independence. The remainder defended the pass into Montenegro against Austro-Hungarian forces at Mojkovac. King Nicholas refused to initiate withdrawal together with the Serbians upon the Government's demands and started to negotiate a separate peace. The Dual Monarchy demanded complete surrender, but Nicholas couldn't comply with the surrender of the Serbians still present on Montenegrin soil. In early 1916 the front collapsed and the Central Powers' forces quickly advanced, while Nicholas and his closest men quickly in panic left the country secretly to allied Italy across the sea. The act ruined greatly Nicholas' prestige and political manuevrebility for the post-war world. The government condemned Nicholas and capitulated to Austria-Hungary.

[edit] Process

Various Montenegrin regimes in exile self-appointed by the King in Neully in the French capital had negotiated with him on the matter of post-war unification of Montenegro and Serbia, but Nicholas only gave approval but refused to sign, continually demanded first the end of the war. Upon that the government resigned and created the "Montenegrin Committee for National Unification" which found protection in the Serbian Royal government of Nikola Pašić. On 17 July 1917 the Yugoslav Committee and the Government of the Kingdom of Serbia signed the Corfu Declaration, which, accepted by the Great Allied Powers and approved by the Montenegrin Committee for Unification, laid the foundations for a South Slavic state that would also include Montenegro. The approval was heavily condemned by King Nicholas, but his new Prime Minister was also for unification. A very large diplomatic war began between the later governments of Evgenije Popović and Anto Gvozdenović and the pro-Serbian Committee. In 1918 the Serbian Royal Army liberated Montenegro from the Central Powers' occupation and and Allied mission of Serbia, Italy, France, the United Kingdom and the United States was assigned to provisionally occupy and establish a domestic and provisional control over Montenegro.

Various tiny assemblies organized similar to the ones in the former Austro-Hungarian former lands, including most clan assemblies of the Montenegrin clans as well as most of the Montenegrin diaspora organizations, particularly those in USA, have convened in support of such an act. In particular Metohija and the Vasojevići already decided to join Serbia. It is thus that on 15 October 1918 the Montenegrin Committee and Government of Serbia formed the "Central Executive Committee for Unification of Serbia and Montenegro" in Berane on 15 October 1918 to make the preparations.

[edit] Electoral Rules

On 25 October 1918 in Berane, the city of one of the Committee's members, it brought the decision to schedule a nation-wide election for 165 MPs a Parliament which would decide about the form and process of unification of Montenegro with Serbia, as well as the rules of its election. The compromise is that it wouldn't be based on neither Montenegrin nor Serbian laws, but completely new and more modern ones. The official name that was adopted was the Great People's Assembly of the Serbian People in Montenegro.

The people will secretly elect electors, who would subsequently nominate the assembly.

The electors were the democratic holders of the national vote from the people, but they were supposed to themselves elect the Members of the Parliament in order to secure the balance and equally represent all levels of the community by profession, religious determination and ethnic affiliation.

Every male Montenegrin aged 25 or more had the right to be elected into the Parliament:

  • Each Captainy must give 2 MPs
  • Every District must give 3 MPs
  • Every Town must give 1 and every City 2 MPs

[edit] Election

Two organized lists were opposed:
1. White List - Gavrilo Dožić
2. Green List - Špiro Tomanović

The Whites were opponents of the reigning King Nikola, presenting him as an enemy to democracy, the people and betrayer of his dynasty's original foundations. They were led the Metropolitan of the Serb Orthodox Church in Montenegro, Gavrilo Dožić, and stood for direct, immediate and unconditional unification with the Kingdom of Serbia. The Greens were pro-dynastic supporters of King Nikola and abbreviated for a conditional and loose unification of Montenegro with Serbia.

After quick but major preparations, the elections were held on 19 November 1918. The Whites won at all locations except at the heart of Cetinje, where the sovereignists received considerable support too.

During the elections the Kingdom of Italy, frustrated by the not fulfilled promises of the 1915 Treaty of London, prepared and an invasion of Montenegro with its forces centered at the Bay of Kotor. The Italian forces were bent on capturing Cetinje and proclaimed a Montenegrin client state, but they were repulsed after the possibility of war with Serbia and the pressure of the other Allied Powers, most notably the US. This and other numerous problems in the chaotic time that stood to the scene after the Central Powers' defeat in formerly occupied territories caused individual irregularities during the election. In Bijelo Polje, Plav and Gusinje instead of elections the electors were appointed by the local community, and due to the subsequent rapidly changing following acts elections were never properly repeated.

The Electors then publicly nominated a Session of the Parliament with 165 MPs. 56 MPs had a PhD, 6 were teachers and priests, 25 were Clan Chieftains, 14 were Agricultural workers and 3 youthe. The several Green electors refused to show up and boycotted the assembly. Italy then opened up in Gaeta at the coast a camp for training Greens in preparations to instigate a rebellion, to prevent again the unification since it was forced to withdraw its forces completely.

[edit] The Parliament

The Great National Assembly was constituated on 24 November 1918 in the most appropriate object in Podgorica, the Tobacco Monopoly. Podgorica was chosen because it was the largest and most populated city in Montenegro. In two following session of 25 November '18 the parliament elected its President, two Vice-Presidents and the Secretary. The day on 26 November 1918 the parliament unanimously adopted a resolution with the following decisions:
1. To depose King Nikola I Petrović-Njegoš and his dynasty from the Montenegrin throne
2. To unite Montenegro with the brotherly Serbia into a single state under the House of Karađorđević, and in such entity to then enter into a common Fatherland with our people under three names Serbs, Croats and Slovenes
3. To establish a National Executive Committee made up of five individuals, that shall handle the administrative affairs, until the unification of Serbia and Montenegro is complete
4. To announce the Assembly's decisions to:

The MPs called upon the long lasting desire to unite the Serb people from Montenegro with the one in Serbia and sent a copy of the Montenegrin Crown to King Petar I Karađorđević with a delegation that went to Belgrade led by Metropolitan Dožić on 17 December 1918.

The Parliament continued its session until 29 November 1918, when the "Central Montenegrin Committee for Unification" was appointed and sworn composed out 5 most experienced individuals in Montenegro.

[edit] Epilogue

Nevertheless, after the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes was proclaimed, the historic entities have remained and Montenegro too, parallel to Serbia. The Great Serb People's Assembly convened for the last time on 27 December 1919 when it elected the Montenegrin share into the Collective National Representing Body of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes that was to draft a Constitution.

When the deposed King and his self-appointed Government of the Kingdom of Montenegro in Exile in Neilly was informed by French intelligence, Nicholas discarded the decisions of the assembly claiming it was illegal, calling upon the Constitution of Montenegro, and called forth the Montenegrins not to accept the annexation. Prime Minister Evgenije Popović wrote to the Great Powers in complaint. Due to lack of support, Nicholas changed his attitude on direct opposition of unification of Serbia and Montenegro to support of unification of Yugoslavia, through which he indirectly criticized Serbia's annexation of Montenegro in precise.

The Greens led in field by Krsto Zrnov Popović and politically by Jovan S. Plamenac, supported and organized by the Italians, changed their desire to include a completely independent Montenegrin state and resorted to violence to fulfill their goals. They raised on Christmas Eve of 7 January 1919 the Christmas Uprising, with an attempt to martially secede Montenegro from the early Yugoslav country. The international community fiercely reacted to the event and the Allied forces quelled the rebellion in blood, raising the sieges of completely cut-off Cetinje and Nikšić. One day afterwards Nicholas sent a proclamation to the Montenegrin People demanding ceasure of violence, later replacing Popovic with Plamenac as PM. The insurgents mostly found amnesty, others went to Italy which further continued to agitate Montenegrin separatism in the view of the Montenegrin Army in Exile until it was realized under fascist Italy in 1941 during the Second World War, but some form of little guerrilla resistance from bands of the Greens continued, despite Nicholas' proclamation, all the way until every last one's surrender in 1926.

After the creation of the League of Nations, the subject of international law emerged on the 1919 Treaty of Versailles where Andrija Radović went, as representer of Montenegro, together with Prime Minister Nikola Pašić, rather than a body appointed by King Nicholas. At the specific case of Montenegro and the question about the assembly that annexed it to Serbia, though the Kingdom of SCS was internationally recognized, the Montenegrin question itself was left to be later resolved, mostly due to Nicholas' complaints and reports of a bloody conflict escalating in Montenegro. Nicholas' 1920 request that the Montenegrin People deserve the right for full self-determination was finally answered by the following elections, agreeing that the legitimacy of the annexation will be judged by the results. King Nicholas sent a plea to the Greens not to resist and asked for peace and stability, however some comites continued to resist until 1926. On 28 November 1920 over 67% of Montenegro's electorate voted and furthermore, the unionist Democratic and Serbian Radical People's Party received most of the cast votes. As a result, the last Great Powers of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and the French Republic broke off relations to Nicholas' court in exile, recognizing the unification.

[edit] Legacy

Montenegro regained its independence in 2006 and the event was interpreted as a break of the assembly, initiate a controversy over its decisions. The minor ruling Socialdemocratic Party of Montenegro wants to formally cancel the decisions of the Podgorica Assembly by the Parliament of Montenegro after adoption of the new Constitution.

[edit] Links