Pero Bulat

Pero Bulat
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Born	12 September 1899 Banija, Austria-Hungary
Died	19 September 1983 Windsor, Ontario, Canada
Nationality	Serbian
Citizenship	Serbia
Occupation	Businessman Publisher Former national president Honorary president of the Serbian National Shield Society

Pero Bulat or Peter Bulat (Serbian Cyrillic: Перо Булат; Vrgin Most, Banija, Austria-Hungary, 12 September 1899 - Windsor, Ontario, Canada, 19 September 1983) was a Serbian businessman, publisher, and former national president and later honorary president of the Serbian National Defense Council. He is best remembered as the co-founder of the Windsor publishing house Avala, publisher of The Voice of Canadian Serbs, for encouraging South Slavs in the Canadian military , and for his collection gifted to the National Archives of Canada in the Manuscript Division, under the title of "Pero Bulat Collection" MG 30, D 325, finding aid No. 1734During the height of the Cold War years Peter Bulat was the voice of freedom and reason.

Biography

Pero Bulat was born shortly before the turn of the 20th century in a Serbian village of Vrgin Most in Banija, what is now Croatia, then part of Austria-Hungary. He served in the army of the newly-formed pan-Slavic state called the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes from 1918 to 1920. In 1926 he decided to emigrate and arrived in Canada as a farm laborer. He was first sent to Western Canada and then Ontario and it was in Windsor, Ontario|Windsor where he found his niche as an entrepreneur and activist. From the beginning, he was at the forefront of Serbian life in Ontario, and the rest of the country. He was a well-known organizer and president of the Sokols in Windsor; one of the initiators and founding president of the Yugoslav Canadian Association (l939-l942); co-founder, president, and lifetime honorary president of the Serbian National Defense Council (l944-l953, l955-l974). As an astute businessman from the early l930 and on he developed several enterprises. Pero Bulat was the owner of Europe Tavern, Bulat's Market, Bulat's Men's Wear, and Pero's Hotel.. He was also chairman of Avala Printing and Publishing Co. Ltd. (l954-1983).

World War II and after

Windsor had a long-established tradition as a recruiting center for the overseas campaign during the Great War. During World War II, Pero Bulat kept that tradition alive and was most active as the president of the Yugoslav Canadian Association that stood behind Canada's war effort. He also served on the Executive Committee of the Red Cross and was president of an l5,000-member All-Slav Organization. By late 1945 when the Soviet-backed Josip Broz Tito|Tito's partisans usurped the reins of the government of the former Kingdom of Yugoslavia, the Serbian National Shield Society, led by Pero Bulat as its national president, held a convention in Toronto and came to a resolution to support the Kingdom of Yugoslavia|Old Order even though the communists there received UN recognition. The mission of the society throughout the dictatorial Communist rule in the former Yugoslavia was to continue endorsing General Draza Mihailovich's Chetniks|Ravna Gora Movement and the Karađorđević dynasty in the diaspora. In the following decades to come, the Communist regime of Yugoslavia continued with its attacks against the Serbian National Shield Society by trying to equate it to "a terrorist organization" but to no avail

After the war, many prominent individuals arrived in Windsor: Radoje Knežević, Adam Pribićević, Fedor Rajic, and others.

Serbian Orthodox Church

He was also active as a lay member of the Serbian Orthodox Church, served on the Gračanica Church Building Committee, and on the Diocesan Council. In 1946, Pero Bulat announced that the construction of the third Serbian Orthodox Church in the Dominion of Canada will begin the following year. Bulat visited Ottawa with Bishop Dionisije Milivojević on 22 April 1947 to ask Canadian authorities to permit 10,000 out of the 80,000 displaced Serbs in Western Europe to enter CanadaThe following month of the same year, he had Bishop Dionisije apply to the Secretariat in Toronto for registration and charter of the Windsor Church School Congregation. In 1963 he became deeply concerned with the schism that developed in the Church and was instrumental in mitigating the worst that could happen. He remained loyal to the Belgrade Church during the crisis along with many other church theologians and scholars Justin Popović, Dimitrije Najdanović, Miloš Mladenović, Stefan Lastavica who was consecrated bishop, and other prominent intellectuals.

Liberal Party of Canada

He was an active member of the Liberal Party and used his political contacts in Ottawa to promote the cause of Serbs in Canada. As a Liberal-supporter , Pero Bulat fought hard in the 1960s for Liberal candidates Herb Gray and Mark MacGuigan who succeeded Senator Paul Martin in Ottawa. As editor of Voice of Canadian Serbs, a national newspaper, he kept an active correspondence with many prominent émigré writers, political exiles, and religious leaders both inside and outside Yugoslavia. He also acted as host to many of them who passed through Windsor such as Dionisije Milivojević, Ilija Šumenković, Prince Tomislav of Yugoslavia, Michael, Prince of Montenegro|Prince Michael Petrović-Njegoš, King Peter II of Yugoslavia|Peter II, Momčilo Đujić|Momchilo Djujich, Milan Gavrilovich, Stevan K. Pavlowitch, Dobroslav Jevđević, Crown Prince Alexander II of Yugoslavia and others.

He was a member of the Masonic Lodge of Windsor, the Shriners, Mocha Temple of London, Ontario, the Windsor Chamber of Commerce, and other local businessmen's organizations.

In Pero Bulat's last will and testament stated that he be buried in the cemetery of the Saint Sava Serbian Orthodox Monastery and Seminary|Saint Sava Serbian Orthodox Monastery in Libertyville, Illinois.

Awards and Decorations

• Queen Elizabeth II Silver Jubilee Medal|Queen's Silver Jubilee medal (1977)

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