Milan Stojadinović

Milan Stojadinović
16th Prime Minister of Yugoslavia
In office 24 June 1935 – 5 February 1939
Monarch	Prince Paul
Preceded by	Bogoljub Jevtić
Succeeded by	Dragiša Cvetković
Personal details
Born	4 August 1888 Čačak, Kingdom of Serbia
Died	26 October 1961 Buenos Aires, Argentina
Citizenship	Yugoslav
Political party	Serbian Radical Party
Religion	Orthodox

Milan Stojadinović (Милан Стојадиновић) (August 04, 1888 – October 26, 1961) was a Yugoslav political figure and a noted economist.

Stojadinović was born in Čačak in central Serbia, and went to school in Užice and Kragujevac. In 1910 he graduated from the University of Belgrade's Law School, and gained a Ph.D. in economics in 1911. He subsequently spent three years of post-graduate studies in Germany, Britain and France before he returned to Serbia in 1914 to work at the Ministry of Finance.

He would rise to the position of Minister of Finance of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia in 1922–1924, 1924–1926, 1934–1935. As a member of the People's Radical Party, he was also elected to the Parliament in 1923, 1925, 1927.

During the signing of the Golden Book on the Grave of the French Unknown Soldier. Left of Stojadinović is the Yugoslav Ambassador to France Dr B. Purić and to his right is the Military Attaché General George Glisic.

In 1935 he founded a new party, the Serbian Radical Party, which with some other parties formed coalition Jugoslovenska Radikalna Zajednica (Yugoslav Radical Union, JRZ) and won the elections. On June 24, 1935, he was elected Prime minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs. He was the victim of a failed assassination attempt by the Macedonian Damjan Arnautović in 1935.^[1]

Stojadinović recognized the military threats from National Socialist Germany, Fascist Italy and surrounding countries as imminent. He viewed the Kingdom of Yugoslavia's future only as sustainable if a neutral status akin to that of Switzerland could be established. His foreign policies pushed consistently towards this goal. Examples are the non-aggression treaty with Italy and Yugoslavia's extension of its treaty of friendship with France. Also, the attempted Concordat with the Holy See, which however caused severe protests from the Serb Orthodox Church in 1937, and was thus never ratified.

In late 1938 he was re-elected, albeit with a smaller margin than expected, failed in pacifying the Croats, raised a military-like legion of his own followers ('Green Shirts'), and did not formulate any clear political programme, providing the regent Paul with a welcomed pretext upon which to replace Stojadinović on February 5, 1939, with Dragiša Cvetković.

Following his replacement, the Prince Regent went further by detaining Stojadinović without proper cause until he had managed, with the help of his strong personal ties to King George VI of the United Kingdom (who had been the Prince Regent's best man in 1923) to enlist the support of the United Kingdom to have Stojadinović sent into exile to British controlled Mauritius, where he was kept during World War II.

In 1946 Stojadinović went to Rio de Janeiro, and then to Buenos Aires, where he was reunited with his family. Stojadinović spent the rest of his life as presidential advisor on economic and financial affairs to governments in Argentina and founded the financial newspaper El Economista, (not to be associated with the Mexican newspaper of the same name).

In 1963, two years after his death, "El Economista" published a commemorative edition entitled "NI RAT NI PAKT - JUGOSLAVIJA IZMEDJU DVA RATA", Milan Stojandinović's extensive Memoirs written in his native tongue.

References

1. ^ Ćano nudi Skadar

Preceded by Bogoljub Jevtić

Prime Minister of Yugoslavia 1935-1939

Succeeded by Dragiša Cvetković

Persondata
Name	Stojadinovic, Milan
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	1888
Place of birth
Date of death	1961
Place of death	Buenos Aires, Argentina