Мемоар Аврама Петронијевића из 1843. године
Avram Petronijević's Memoirs Dating from 1843

Summary/Abstract: Memoirs of Avram Petronijević, premier and minister of foreign affairs of Serbia, originated during the time of emigration to Vidin in October 1843. The creation of his memoirs was induced by political events in Serbia. This is the only preserved Petronijević's work in which he expressly explains why the constitutional monarchy represents the best form of political structure in human history, and for Serbia as well. Memoirs are, provisionally speaking, composed of two unities. In the first part, Petronijević describes political systems in Antiquity and Modern times, by using his excelling knowledge of history and contemporaneous political events. He accentuated the revolutionary changes that occurred in the first half of the XIXth century France, Spain, Portugal and Germanic countries. The other part of his memoirs is centered upon Serbia, through the emphasis of the opinion that Serbia should be a constitutional monarchy. Nevertheless, Turkey and Russia have established the oligarchic system as well as the Council of 17 members during the creation of the Constitution in 1838. Although he participated in Constitution completion as a leader of the Serbian delegation, we can conclude from his memoirs that the Constitution dating from 1838 was enacted by means of direct agreement between Russia and Turkey. By supporting the establishment of the constitutional monarchy in Serbia, Petronijević mentions the Decree dating from March 1839, that enabled the instauration of the Parliament sessions. The Parliament got excluded from the governmental system. Petronijević suggested the concept of working upon the enactment of the Decree on Parliament of 1839. He also proposed a ninepoint measure aiming at reinforcement of the princely power, in case Prince Aleksandar did not accept the proposition on Parliament. These measures, in general, represented the proposition of criteria for electing state officials.

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