The Memorandum (1804) by the Karlovci Metropolitan Stevan Stratimirović

Introduction

The goal of this article is to consider and analyze the text of a critical, but heretofore neglected document and historical source on the question of Serbian liberation from Ottoman rule and its national unification. The document was written in 1804 during the first months of the First Serbian Uprising against the Ottoman oppression.¹

The Serbian nation was divided at the dawn of the nineteenth century by the borders of the Ottoman pashaliks and by the state frontiers that separated the lands under Ottoman control from those under the Habsburg Empire. The beginning of the nineteenth century was a turning point in the history of the Serbs. From that time the modern history of the Serbs and Serbia begins. The birth of modern Serbian history begins with the First Serbian Uprising (1804– 13) when, after 350 years of Ottoman rule, the Serbs in central Serbia (i.e., from the area of the Beogradski pašaluk)² rose against the Turks. This uprising was the most important, biggest, and most glorious national revolt in Serbian history. However, this historical event was meaningful not only for the Serbs who lived within the Beogradski pašaluk, but also for the entire Serbian population who lived outside of the pashalik and the Ottoman Empire (i.e., in the Habsburg Monarchy). They had a significant interest in the fate of the insurrection. All Serbs, either from the Ottoman Empire or the Habsburg Monarchy, saw the insurrection as a pivotal event in the process of national liberation and unification within the borders of a single national state.³

Stevan Stratimirović, the Karlovci Metropolitan from 1790 to 1836, and the head of the Serbian Church in the Habsburg Monarchy, was one of those Serbs dreaming about national freedom, independence, and unification. His crucial and most influential political discourse on national emancipation and political consolidation is contained in Memorandum, written in June 1804. However, his central political idea of bringing together all Serbs into a single united national state was never realized.

This article proposes answers to four important questions connected with Sratimirović’s plan to liberate and unite all Serbs:

1. 1. Under which political-diplomatic circumstances of international relations and historical conditions was Memorandum written?

2. 2. Which specific territory had to be included into the borders of an autonomous Serbian state under Ottoman suzerainty and Russian protectorate?

3. 3. Who was to rule over this state?

4. 4. How important was the Memorandum to the further development of Serbian political ideology and thought?

To date, the most distinguished examination of the topic of this article was that of protojerej St. M. Dimitrijević in his 1926 book.⁴ However, except for the fact that the book contains the text of the original Memorandum, its value to the topic and main problems discussed in this article is limited. In other words, Dimitrijević did not attempt to provide answers to any questions responsive to the topic of this article. Moreover, he did not address the importance of the Memorandum to Serbian secular national ideology since Stratimirović’s plan was seen by Dimitrijević only as a contribution to the development of Serbian Church ideology. However, Dimitrijević’s work inspired Serbian historian Đoko M. Slijepčević to write in 1936 the book about Stevan Stratimirović.⁵ Nevertheless, it was primarily Stratimirović’s personality as head of the Serbian national Church in the Habsburg Monarchy that was described in this work. Slijepčević dealt very little with Stratimirović’s political ideas. Shortly thereafter, Slijepčević wrote a reliable biography of Stratimirović but his intention was not to deal with the Metropolitan’s political thought. Finally, another Serbian historian, Dimitrije Ruvarac, wrote his account on Stratimirović’s work. But, unfortunately it was only a report on Stratimirović’s geographic notes à propos Turkey written in 1803 and 1804.⁶

International Politics and Historical Circumstances in Which the Serbs Lived at the Turn of the Nineteenth Century

At the beginning of the nineteenth century, after centuries of Ottoman rule, relations between Turks and Serbs remained unchanged. The population of the Beogradski pašaluk was sharply divided into Muslim...