Milan Đ. Milićević | Origin of Street Names

Milan Đakov Milićević (1831 - 1908) was a respected Serbian writer, travel writer, and arguably the greatest chronicler of a turbulent period in modern Serbian history. An eminent educator and cultural worker, he served as a minister in the governments of the Principality and Kingdom of Serbia, and ultimately became the president of the Serbian Royal Academy.

He was born in Ripanj, a village in the Šumadija region near Belgrade, where he learned to read and write with the help of his father, one of the few literate individuals at the time. Following the spirit of the era and a religious-school education, he completed seminary school in Belgrade and then worked as a civil servant for almost five decades, holding various positions.

Thanks to his long and continuous tenure in public service, Milan Đ. Milićević traveled extensively throughout the country, showing a keen interest in ethnography and the life of the Serbian people in different regions, especially those recently liberated from the Ottoman Empire.

He published a synthesis of his observations and knowledge in his seminal works Principality of Serbia (1876) and Kingdom of Serbia (1884). Although more descriptive than scientifically based, these works remain invaluable sources for studying the socio-economic conditions, history, and geography of Serbia, as well as biographies of notable Serbs from a time when such literature was scarce.

Throughout his life, Milan Milićević worked as a scribe, teacher, translator, and later as the head of the Ministry of Education and Internal Affairs, as well as a state counselor during the reign of Prince Mihailo. He published over a hundred works, establishing himself as one of the most important chroniclers and writers of his time. As such, he was one of the founders of the Serbian Literary Cooperative, which remains one of the most significant cultural institutions in the country to this day.

In addition to the aforementioned classics, which are gaining increasing scientific and literary value over time, some of Milićević's most significant works include Memorial of Distinguished Individuals in the Serbian Nation of Recent Times, which contains biographies of 180 prominent figures of his time, as well as Travel Letters, Life of Serbian Peasants, Slava Celebrations among Serbs, Schools in Serbia, School Hygiene, School Discipline, Prince Miloš in Stories, Municipalities in Serbia, and others.

To make the curiosity even greater, Milan Đ. Milićević embarked on a journey from a village teacher to the long-serving president of the Academy of Sciences, earning the status of one of the greatest Serbian intellectuals of the 19th century without any university education, driven by curiosity and self-taught.

He received several prestigious awards from Serbian, Russian, and Montenegrin courts for his literary and ethnographic contributions, and he was also elected as a member of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

Milan Đ. Milićević passed away at the age of 78 in Belgrade. Symbolically, his name is now carried by several streets in cities across Serbia, as well as one of the largest and finest schools in Belgrade.