Konstantin Fotich

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Konstantin Fotich
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Born4 February 1891
Šabac, Kingdom of Serbia
Died14 February 1959
Washington, D.C., United States
NationalitySerbian
CitizenshipSerbia
Occupation
  • Lawyer
  • Diplomat

Konstantin A. Fotić (Serbian Cyrillic: Константин Фотић Šabac, Kingdom of Serbia, 4 February 1891 - Washington, D.C., United States of America, 14 February 1959) was a Serbian lawyer and diplomat who became an émigré after his government was usurped by the Yugoslav communists.

Biography

He came from the Radosavljević family of Šabac, which later changed its surname to Fotić, as Fotić's apprentice inherited Milan Radosavljević's trade shop by marrying his widow and adopting his son. [1] His father Aleksa was a lawyer and Member of Parliament. [2] Konstantin Fotic started schooling in his hometown, and continued in Belgrade where he graduated in Gymnasium (school) in 1909. He completed his law studies in Bordeaux in 1912 and his doctorate in Paris in 1914. He served his military service in the student cavalry squadron in Šabac from 1 August 1912 to 1 September 1913. He participated in First Balkan War as a student cavalry squadron, and in Second Balkan War he was a sergeant-sergeant in the II Cavalry Regiment "Tsar Stefan Dušan". During Great War|World War I he was a lieutenant and lieutenant in the II Cavalry Regiment "Tsar Stefan Dušan" (until February 15, 1915), a cavalry lieutenant in the service of the Military Railway Inspection (from 15 February to 15 October 1915). ), liaison officer with French troops in the headquarters of the 122nd Infantry Division on the Macedonian Front (from 15 October 1916 to 16 December 1916). During his military service, he was awarded the Silver Medal for Courage (1913), the Gold Medal for Courage (1914), and the French Recipients of the Croix de Guerre (1916). He left the wars with the rank of captain. [3][4]

Diplomatic career

By a decree of 1 September 1916, Fotić was appointed clerk of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Kingdom of Serbia, for which reason he was relieved of further military duties on 16 December of the same year. [5] During the war he served in Corfu, Bern and Paris.

At the Peace Conference in Paris, he was the secretary of the Delegation Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, [6] [7] and then worked in the office of Minister of Foreign Affairs [Ante Trubić] at the end of July 1920. [8]

During 1920 and 1921, Fotić was secretary of embassies in Vienna and London. The Minister of Foreign Affairs Nikola Pašić intended to appoint him as the first diplomatic official in Geneva in order to maintain constant contact with the General Secretariat League of Nations, but he soon resigned. intentions, [9] [10] and remained Secretary of the Embassy in London for the next three years until September 1924. The Minister of Foreign Affairs Momčilo Ninčić elected him the Secretary-General of the delegation of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes at the V session of the Assembly of the League of Nations in 1924. He was then transferred to work in the Second Political Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which was in charge of all affairs within the competence of the League of Nations. Fotić also drafted the "Blue Book on St. Naum", which was a collection of official documents on Yugoslav positions regarding the demarcation with Albania. The following year, he was appointed head of the II Department of the General Political Directorate of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, [11] after the internal reorganization of affairs, which was in charge of the affairs of the League of Nations. [12] At the same time, he worked on issues of the position of Yugoslav minorities abroad and signing Concordat. [13]

The new Minister of Foreign Affairs Ninko Perić decided, in February 1927, to appoint him as a permanent delegate of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes to the League of Nations in Geneva. Fotić remained in this position until 14 February 1929, when his personal friend and Minister of Foreign Affairs Vojislav Marinković decided to appoint him General Director of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He performed his new function from April 1929 to October 1930 as First (Political) Assistant Minister of Foreign Affairs, which ended the conflict between Vojislav Marinković and Bogoljub Jevtić, that lasted more than a year and a half. He remained in this position until January 1932, when he was appointed permanent delegate to the League of Nations in Geneva for the second time.

During his work in Geneva, 1932-1935, Konstantin Fotić distinguished himself among world diplomats with his performances. He spoke on important issues, presenting briefly, clearly, and concisely the views of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia or Little Entente. As a close associate of Vojislav Marinković, until the middle of 1932, he was his important advisor for various international issues that were current in that period. One of the most difficult tasks he worked on was the Yugoslav lawsuit before the Council of the League of Nations against Hungary for its involvement in the assassination of the king Alexander I of Yugoslavia Karadjordjević at Marseille in 1934.[14] [15] Upon the arrival of Milan Stojadinović at the head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Serbia), in June 1935, the transfer of Konstantin Fotić as a deputy in Warsaw was planned. He vehemently opposed this proposal, believing that he had thus been set back in the office and publicly humiliated, demanding that he be transferred to London, Paris, or Washington. He argued that he resented Polish diplomats for their behavior after the Marseilles assassination and as an open opponent of the policy of Polish-German rapprochement. In consultations with the prince Pavle Karađorđević, Stojadinović decided to transfer him to the United States of America, since he spoke English and was familiar with the West.[16][17] Konstantin Fotić was appointed head of the diplomatic mission in one of the European countries. However, his open anti-Nazi stance was not appropriate for the new foreign policy pursued by the Kingdom of Yugoslavia in the latter part of the 1930s. Later, in his memoirs, he presented the whole case in its true light.[18] [19]

Envoy and Ambassador to Washington

Konstantin Fotić accepted his new duty in Washington on 25 October 1935. He remained in the United States until the end of his official career, first as an MP, and from September 1942, after raising the rank of diplomatic mission, as the first ambassador of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia to the United States. During the period 1935-1939, he devoted himself to work on specific Yugoslav-American issues, his attitude towards the Yugoslav diaspora, but he did not miss the opportunity to indirectly criticize the new course of Yugoslav foreign policy when it appeased the Axis Powers. His activities gained more weight in 1939, when the United States was much more interested in the development of the military situation in Europe, especially after their entry into World War II. Among the more important issues, until April 1941, were talks on American material aid to the Yugoslav army and the transfer of Yugoslav gold reserves from London to New York.[20] [21] [22] The first Ivan Šubašić's government retired Fotić in the summer of 1944 for supporting General Dragoljub Mihailovich|Draža Mihailović's Ravna Gora (highland)|Ravna Gora Movement. After the war, he was close to Serbian emigrant circles. He wrote memoirs on the Second World War entitled "The War We Lost: The Tragedy of Yugoslavia and the Mistake of the West". [23]

References

  1. ↑ cite book | last1 = Popovic | first1 = Dusan J. | title = About Cincars: contributions to the question of the origin of our civil society | date = 1937 | publisher = Štamparija Drag. Gregorića | location = Beograd | page = 399 | edition = 2.
  2. ↑ cite journal | last1 = Milićević | first1 = Nataša | title = "Konstantin Fotic - career diplomat "| journal = History of the 20th century | date = 1998 | volume = 1 | page = 145 | url = https: //istorija20veka.rs/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/Istorija-20. -veka-1998_1.pdf
  3. ↑ Archives of Yugoslavia, Fund of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia (334), box 199, description unit 522 personal file of Konstantin Fotić
  4. ↑ cite journal | last1 = Milićević | first1 = N. | title = "Konstantin Fotic - career diplomat" | page = 145
  5. ↑ AJ, f. 334, k. 199, j. about. 522
  6. ↑ cite journal | last1 = Milićević | first1 = N. | title = "Konstantin Fotic - career diplomat" | pages = 145, 146}}
  7. ↑ Dragos Petrovic, Predrag Krejic, /home/glavna_navigacija/izdanja/casopis_arhiv_v01/dosadasnji_brojevi/casopis_arhiv_godina_8_broj_1_i_2.html Serbian and Yugoslav diplomatic representatives in the United States 1917–1945
  8. ↑ AJ, f. 334, k. 199, j. about. 522
  9. ↑ cite journal | last1 = Milićević | first1 = N. | title = "Konstantin Fotic - career diplomat" | page = 145}}
  10. ↑ {{cite book | last1 = Micic | first1 = Srdjan | title = From bureaucracy to diplomacy. History of the Yugoslav diplomatic service 1918-1939. | date = 2018 | publisher = Institut za noviju istoriju Srbije | location = Beograd | isbn = 978-86-7005-149-2 | page = 235 | url = https: //www.academia.edu/37629458/Od_birokratije_do_diplomatije._Istorija_jugoslovenske_diplomatske % C5% BEbe_1918-1939_From_the_bureaucracy_to_the_diplomacy._History_of_the_Yugoslav_Diplomatic_Service_1918-1939
  11. ↑ AJ, f. 334, k. 199, j. about. 522
  12. ↑ Mićić, S. From Bureaucracy to Diplomacy. pp. 97, 98.
  13. ↑ AJ, f. 334, k. 199, j. about. 522
  14. ↑ cite journal |last1=Milićević |first1=N. |title="Konstantin Fotić - diplomata od karijere" |pages=148-150
  15. ↑ cite book |last1=Ristić |first1=Gordana G. |title=Spoljna politika Kraljevine Jugoslavije u periodu od 1934. do 1939. godine |location=Beograd |publisher=Zavod za udžbenike |year=2015 |isbn=978-86-17-19169-4 |pages=87
  16. ↑ cite journal | last1 = Mićić | first1 = Srđan | title = "Poland in Yugoslav foreign policy during the 1930s" | journal = Yugoslav-Polish relations in the 20th century, collection of papers | year = 2015 | issue = Institute for Contemporary istoriju | pages = 81-82 | url = https: //www.academia.edu/15815270/Poljska_u_jugoslovenskoj_spoljnoj_politici_tokom_30-ih_godina_XX_veka
  17. ↑ cite journal | last1 = Mićić | first1 = Srđan Yugoslav Embassy in Warsaw between the two world wars "| journal = Yugoslavia and Poland: relations in the XX century, proceedings | date = 2019 | issue = Institute of Contemporary History | pages = 107-108 | doi = 10.29362 / 2350.mic.97 -112
  18. ↑ cite book | last1 = Fotic | first1 = Konstantin | title = The war we lost: the tragedy of Yugoslavia and the mistake of the West | date = 1995 | location = Belgrade | isbn = 86-7039-054-X | page = 15
  19. ↑ cite journal | last1 = Milićević | first1 = N. | title = "Konstantin Fotic - career diplomat" | pages = 150-151
  20. ↑ cite journal |last1=Milićević |first1=N. |title="Konstantin Fotić - diplomata od karijere" |pages=151-162
  21. ↑ cite journal |last1=Jareb |first1=Mario |title="Američka diplomacija i Kraljevina Jugoslavija uoči i nakoon Travanjskog rata" |journal=Срби и рат у Југославији 1941. године, зборник радова (прир. Драган Алексић) |date=2014 |volume=Београд |issue=Институт за новију историју Србије, Музеј жртава геноцида, Институт за славистику Руске академије наука |pages=202, 216
  22. ↑ cite book |last1=Ристић |first1=Г. Г. |title=Спољна политика Краљевине Југославије у периоду од 1934. до 1939. године |pages=157-158, 215
  23. ↑ Драгош Петровић, Предраг Крејић, Српски и југословенски дипломатски представници у Сједињеним Америчким Државама 1917–1945

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