1.
Battle of Neretva (film)
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Battle of Neretva is a 1969 Yugoslavian partisan film. The film was written by Stevan Bulajić and Veljko Bulajić, and it is based on the true events of World War II. The Battle of the Neretva was due to a plan for a combined Axis powers attack in 1943 against the Yugoslav Partisans. The plan was known as the Fourth Enemy Offensive and occurred in the area of the Neretva river in Bosnia. Battle of Neretva is the most expensive motion picture made in the SFR Yugoslavia and it was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, the year after Sergei Bondarchuk won the honour for War and Peace. The score for the English-speaking versions was composed by Bernard Herrmann and its soundtrack was released by Entracte Recording Society in 1974. It was re-released on Southern Cross Records on CD, mario Oleg Vidov as Nikola Kole Angelovski as Žika Stole Aranđelović as Šumadinac Demeter Bitenc as Capt. Schröder Ralph Persson as Lt. It had a staggering budget approved personally by Yugoslav president Josip Broz Tito, different sources put it anywhere between $4.5 million and $12 million. Global stars such as Sergei Bondarchuk, Yul Brynner, Franco Nero, Orson Welles, shot over 16 months with funds put up in largest part by over 58 self-managed companies in Yugoslavia, the movie featured a combined battalion of 10,000 actual Yugoslav Peoples Army soldiers. Four villages and a fortress were constructed for the film, several army-inventory Soviet T-34 tanks, touched up to look like German panzers, met the same fate. Additionally, a railway bridge over Neretva River in Jablanica was destroyed. Director Bulajićs justification for taking down a bridge rather than getting the shots in studio was that a destroyed bridge would later become a tourist attraction. However, the problem with the excessive smoke occurred even when the bridge was blown up for the second time. Finally, the scenes of the bridge being blown up that eventually ended up in the film were shot using a small scale table-size replica at a stage in Prague. Throughout the movies production, the Yugoslav public was updated on the progress via pieces in the countrys print media. In 1999, a poll of Croatian film fans found it to be one of the best Yugoslavian films ever made, people still enjoy it and it is praised for being historically correct and entertaining at the same time. It still has fans all over the former SFRY
2.
Sarajevo
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Sarajevo is the capital and largest city of Bosnia and Herzegovina, with a population of 275,524 in its current administrative limits. The Sarajevo metropolitan area, including Sarajevo Canton and East Sarajevo is home to 688,384 inhabitants, nestled within the greater Sarajevo valley of Bosnia, it is surrounded by the Dinaric Alps and situated along the Miljacka River in the heart of Southeastern Europe and the Balkans. Due to its long and rich history of religious and cultural variety and it is the only major European city to have a mosque, Catholic church, Orthodox church and synagogue within the same neighbourhood. Although settlement in the area back to prehistoric times, the modern city arose as an Ottoman stronghold in the 15th century. Sarajevo has attracted international attention several times throughout its history, in 1885, Sarajevo was the first city in Europe and the second city in the world to have a full-time electric tram network running through the city, following San Francisco. For nearly four years, from 1992 to 1996, the city suffered the longest siege of a city in the history of warfare during the Bosnian War. Sarajevo has been undergoing reconstruction, and is the fastest growing city in Bosnia. The travel guide series, Lonely Planet, has named Sarajevo as the 43rd best city in the world, in 2011, Sarajevo was nominated to be the European Capital of Culture in 2014 and will be hosting the European Youth Olympic Festival in 2019. The earliest known name for the large central Bosnian region of todays Sarajevo is Vrhbosna, Sarajevo is a slavicized word based on saray, the Turkish word for palace. The evo portion may come from the term saray ovası first recorded in 1455, the first mention of name Sarajevo was in 1507 letter written by Feriz Beg. The earliest is Šeher, which is the term Isa-Beg Ishaković used to describe the town he was going to build and it is a Turkish word meaning an advanced city of key importance which in turn comes from Persian, شهر shahr. As Sarajevo developed, numerous nicknames came from comparisons to other cities in the Islamic world, the most popular of these was European Jerusalem. Some argue that a correct translation of saray is government office or house. Saray is a word in Turkish for a palace or mansion. Sarajevo is located near the center of the triangular-shaped Bosnia-Herzegovina. It is situated 518 meters above sea level and lies in the Sarajevo valley, the valley itself once formed a vast expanse of greenery, but gave way to urban expansion and development in the post-World War II era. The city is surrounded by forested hills and five major mountains. The last four are known as the Olympic Mountains of Sarajevo
3.
Skopje
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Skopje is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Macedonia. It is the political, cultural, economic, and academic center. It was known in the Roman period under the name Scupi, the territory of Skopje has been inhabited since at least 4000 BC, remains of Neolithic settlements have been found within the old Kale Fortress that overlooks the modern city centre. On the eve of the 1st century AD, the settlement was seized by the Romans, when the Roman Empire was divided into eastern and western halves in 395 AD, Scupi came under Byzantine rule from Constantinople. During much of the medieval period, the town was contested between the Byzantines and the Bulgarian Empire, whose capital it was between 972 and 992. From 1282, the town was part of the Serbian Empire, in 1392, the city was conquered by the Ottoman Turks who called the town Üsküp. The town stayed under Turkish control for over 500 years, serving as the capital of pashasanjak of Üsküb, at that time the city was famous for its oriental architecture. In 1912, it was annexed by the Kingdom of Serbia during the Balkan Wars and after the First World War the city part of the newly formed Kingdom of Serbs, Croats. In the Second World War the city was conquered by the Bulgarian Army, in 1944, it became the capital city of Democratic Macedonia, which was a federal state, part of Democratic Federal Yugoslavia. The city developed rapidly after World War II, but this trend was interrupted in 1963 when it was hit by a disastrous earthquake, in 1991, it became the capital city of an independent Macedonia. Skopje is located on the course of the Vardar River. It is a center for metal-processing, chemical, timber, textile, leather, industrial development of the city has been accompanied by development of the trade, logistics, and banking sectors, as well as an emphasis on the fields of transportation, culture and sport. Skopje is located in the north of the Republic of Macedonia, in the center of the Balkan peninsula, the city is built in the Skopje valley, oriented on a west-east axis, along the course of the Vardar river, which flows into the Aegean Sea in Greece. The valley is approximately 20 kilometres wide and it is limited by several mountain ranges to the North and South and these ranges limit the urban expansion of Skopje, which spreads along the Vardar and the Serava, a small river which comes from the North. In its administrative boundaries, the City of Skopje stretches for more than 33 kilometres, Skopje is approximately 245m above sea level and covers 571.46 km2. The urbanised area only covers 337 km2, with a density of 65 inhabitants per hectare, Skopje, in its administrative limits, encompasses many villages and other settlements, including Dračevo, Gorno Nerezi and Bardovci. According to the 2002 census, the City of Skopje comprised 506,926 inhabitants, the City of Skopje reaches the Kosovo border to the North-East. Clockwise, it is bordered by the Macedonian municipalities of Čučer-Sandevo, Lipkovo, Aračinovo, Ilinden, Studeničani, Sopište, Želino
4.
Kingdom of Yugoslavia
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The Kingdom of Yugoslavia was a state in Southeast Europe and Central Europe, that existed during the interwar period and first half of World War II. It was formed in 1918 by the merger of the provisional State of Slovenes, Croats, the Kingdom of Montenegro had united with Serbia five days previously, while the regions of Kosovo, Vojvodina and Vardar Macedonia were parts of Serbia prior to the unification. For its first eleven years of existence, the Kingdom was officially called the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, the official name of the state was changed to Kingdom of Yugoslavia by King Alexander I on 3 October 1929. The state was ruled by the Serbian dynasty of Karađorđević, which ruled the Kingdom of Serbia under Peter I from 1903 onwards. Peter I became the first king of Yugoslavia until his death in 1921 and he was succeeded by his son Alexander I, who had been regent for his father. He was known as Alexander the Unifier and he renamed the kingdom Yugoslavia in 1929 and he was assassinated in Marseille by Vlado Chernozemski, a member of the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization, during his visit to France in 1934. The crown passed to his then-still under-aged son Peter and his cousin Paul ruled as Prince regent until 1941, when Peter II would come of age. The royal family flew to London the same year, prior to the country being invaded by the Axis powers, in April 1941, the country was occupied and partitioned by the Axis powers. A royal government-in-exile, recognized by the United Kingdom and, later, in 1944, after pressure from the British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, the King recognized the government of Democratic Federal Yugoslavia as the legitimate government. This was established on 2 November following the signing of the Treaty of Vis by Ivan Šubašić, Trumbić faced initial hostility from Serbian Prime Minister Nikola Pašić, who preferred an enlarged Serbia over a unified Yugoslav state. In 1916, the Serbian Parliament in exile decided on the creation of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia at a meeting inside the Municipal Theatre of Corfu. The Kingdom was formed on 1 December 1918 under the name Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, on 1 December 1918, the new kingdom was proclaimed by Alexander Karađorđević, Prince-Regent for his father, Peter I of Serbia. The creation of the state was supported by pan-Slavists and Serbian nationalists, for the pan-Slavic movement, all of the South Slav people had united into a single state. For Serbian nationalists, the goal of uniting the majority of the Serb population across south-eastern Europe into one state was also achieved. Furthermore, as Serbia already had a government, military, and police force, the newly established Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes participated in the Paris Peace Conference with Trumbić as the countrys representative. Almost immediately, it ran into disputes with most of its neighbours, Slovenia was difficult to determine, since it had been an integral part of Austria for 400 years. The Vojvodina region was disputed with Hungary, Macedonia with Bulgaria, a plebiscite was also held in the Province of Carinthia, which opted to remain in Austria. Austrians had formed a majority in this region although numbers reflected that some Slovenes did vote for Carinthia to become part of Austria, the Dalmatian port city of Zadar and a few of the Dalmatian islands were given to Italy
5.
Belgrade
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Belgrade is the capital and largest city of Serbia. It is located at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers and its name translates to White city. The urban area of the City of Belgrade has a population of 1.34 million, one of the most important prehistoric cultures of Europe, the Vinča culture, evolved within the Belgrade area in the 6th millennium BC. In antiquity, Thraco-Dacians inhabited the region, and after 279 BC Celts conquered the city and it was conquered by the Romans during the reign of Augustus, and awarded city rights in the mid-2nd century. In 1521, Belgrade was conquered by the Ottoman Empire and became the seat of the Sanjak of Smederevo and it frequently passed from Ottoman to Habsburg rule, which saw the destruction of most of the city during the Austro-Ottoman wars. Belgrade was again named the capital of Serbia in 1841, northern Belgrade remained the southernmost Habsburg post until 1918, when the city was reunited. As a strategic location, the city was battled over in 115 wars, Belgrade was the capital of Yugoslavia from its creation in 1918, to its final dissolution in 2006. Belgrade has an administrative status within Serbia and it is one of five statistical regions of Serbia. Its metropolitan territory is divided into 17 municipalities, each with its own local council, City of Belgrade covers 3. 6% of Serbias territory, and 22. 5% of the countrys population lives within its administrative limits. It is classified as a Beta- global city, chipped stone tools found at Zemun show that the area around Belgrade was inhabited by nomadic foragers in the Palaeolithic and Mesolithic eras. Some of these belong to the Mousterian industry, which are associated with Neanderthals rather than modern humans. Aurignacian and Gravettian tools have also discovered there, indicating occupation between 50,000 and 20,000 years ago. The first farming people to settle in the region are associated with the Neolithic Starčevo culture, there are several Starčevo sites in and around Belgrade, including the eponymous site of Starčevo. The Starčevo culture was succeeded by the Vinča culture, a more sophisticated farming culture that grew out of the earlier Starčevo settlements which is named for a site in the Belgrade region. Evidence of early knowledge about Belgrades geographical location comes from ancient myths, the rock overlooking the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers has been identified as one of the place in the story of Jason and the Argonauts. The Paleo-Balkan tribes of Thracians and Dacians ruled this area prior to the Roman conquest, Belgrade was inhabited by a Thraco-Dacian tribe Singi, after the Celtic invasion in 279 BC, the Scordisci took the city, naming it Singidūn. In 34–33 BC the Roman army led by Silanus reached Belgrade, jovian reestablished Christianity as the official religion of the Roman Empire, ending the brief revival of traditional Roman religions under his predecessor Julian the Apostate. In 395 AD, the passed to the Eastern Roman or Byzantine Empire
6.
Serbia
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Serbia, officially the Republic of Serbia, is a sovereign state situated at the crossroads of Central and Southeast Europe, covering the southern part of the Pannonian Plain and the central Balkans. Relative to its territory, it is a diverse country distinguished by a transitional character, situated along cultural, geographic, climatic. Serbia numbers around 7 million residents, and its capital, Belgrade, following the Slavic migrations to the Balkans from the 6th century onwards, Serbs established several states in the early Middle Ages. The Serbian Kingdom obtained recognition by Rome and the Byzantine Empire in 1217, in the early 19th century, the Serbian Revolution established the nation-state as the regions first constitutional monarchy, which subsequently expanded its territory. During the breakup of Yugoslavia, Serbia formed a union with Montenegro which dissolved peacefully in 2006, in 2008 the parliament of the province of Kosovo unilaterally declared independence, with mixed responses from the international community. Serbia is a member of organizations such as the UN, CoE, OSCE, PfP, BSEC. An EU membership candidate since 2012, Serbia has been negotiating its EU accession since January 2014, the country is acceding to the WTO and is a militarily neutral state. Serbia is an income economy with dominant service sector, followed by the industrial sector. The country ranks high on the Social Progress Index as well as the Global Peace Index, relatively high on the Human Development Index, located at the crossroads between Central and Southern Europe, Serbia is found in the Balkan peninsula and the Pannonian Plain. Serbia lies between latitudes 41° and 47° N, and longitudes 18° and 23° E. The country covers a total of 88,361 km2, which places it at 113th place in the world, with Kosovo excluded, the area is 77,474 km2. Its total border length amounts to 2,027 km, all of Kosovos border with Albania, Macedonia and Montenegro are under control of the Kosovo border police. The Pannonian Plain covers the third of the country while the easternmost tip of Serbia extends into the Wallachian Plain. The terrain of the part of the country, with the region of Šumadija at its heart. Mountains dominate the third of Serbia. Dinaric Alps stretch in the west and the southwest, following the flow of the rivers Drina, the Carpathian Mountains and Balkan Mountains stretch in a north–south direction in eastern Serbia. Ancient mountains in the southeast corner of the country belong to the Rilo-Rhodope Mountain system, elevation ranges from the Midžor peak of the Balkan Mountains at 2,169 metres to the lowest point of just 17 metres near the Danube river at Prahovo. The largest lake is Đerdap Lake and the longest river passing through Serbia is the Danube, the climate of Serbia is under the influences of the landmass of Eurasia and the Atlantic Ocean and Mediterranean Sea
7.
Serbian Cyrillic alphabet
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The Serbian Cyrillic alphabet is an adaptation of the Cyrillic script for the Serbian language, developed in 1818 by Serbian linguist Vuk Karadžić. It is one of the two used to write standard modern Serbian, Bosnian and Montenegrin, the other being Latin. During the same period, Croatian linguists led by Ljudevit Gaj adapted the Latin alphabet, in use in western South Slavic areas, using the same principles. As a result of this joint effort, Cyrillic and Latin alphabets for Serbo-Croatian have a complete one-to-one congruence, with the Latin digraphs Lj, Nj, and Dž counting as single letters. Vuks Cyrillic alphabet was adopted in Serbia in 1868, and was in exclusive use in the country up to the inter-war period. Both alphabets were co-official in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia and later in the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, in Serbia, Cyrillic is seen as being more traditional, and has the official status. It is also a script in Bosnia-Herzegovina and Montenegro, along with Latin. The Serbian Cyrillic alphabet was used as a basis for the Macedonian alphabet with the work of Krste Misirkov, Cyrillic is in official use in Serbia, Montenegro and Bosnia and Herzegovina. The Serbian language in Croatia is officially recognized as a minority language, however, Cyrillic is an important symbol of Serbian identity. In Serbia, official documents are printed in Cyrillic only even though, according to a 2014 survey, Glagolitic appears to be older, predating the introduction of Christianity, only formalized by Cyril and expanded to cover non-Greek sounds. Cyrillic was created by the orders of Boris I of Bulgaria by Cyrils disciples, the earliest form of Cyrillic was the ustav, based on Greek uncial script, augmented by ligatures and letters from the Glagolitic alphabet for consonants not found in Greek. There was no distinction between capital and lowercase letters, the literary Slavic language was based on the Bulgarian dialect of Thessaloniki. Part of the Serbian literary heritage of the Middle Ages are works such as Vukan Gospels, St. Savas Nomocanon, Dušans Code, Munich Serbian Psalter, the first printed book in Serbian was the Cetinje Octoechos. Vuk Stefanović Karadžić fled Serbia during the Serbian Revolution in 1813, there he met Jernej Kopitar, a linguist with interest in slavistics. Kopitar and Sava Mrkalj helped Vuk to reform the Serbian language and he finalized the alphabet in 1818 with the Serbian Dictionary. Karadžić also translated the New Testament into Serbian, which was published in 1868 and he wrote several books, Mala prostonarodna slaveno-serbska pesnarica and Pismenica serbskoga jezika in 1814, and two more in 1815 and 1818, all with the alphabet still in progress. In his letters from 1815-1818 he used, Ю, я, Ы and Ѳ, in his 1815 song book he dropped the Ѣ. The alphabet was adopted in 1868, four years after his death
8.
Coal mining
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Coal mining is the process of extracting coal from the ground. Coal is valued for its content, and, since the 1880s, has been widely used to generate electricity. Steel and cement industries use coal as a fuel for extraction of iron from iron ore, in the United Kingdom and South Africa a coal mine and its structures are a colliery, a coal mine a pit, the above-ground structures the pit head. In Australia, colliery generally refers to a coal mine. In the United States colliery has been used to describe a coal mine operation, Coal mining has had many developments over the recent years, from the early days of men tunnelling, digging and manually extracting the coal on carts, to large open cut and long wall mines. Mining at this scale requires the use of draglines, trucks, conveyors, hydraulic jacks, small-scale mining of surface deposits dates back thousands of years. For example, in Roman Britain, the Romans were exploiting most of the major coalfields by the late 2nd century AD. The Industrial Revolution, which began in Britain in the 18th century and later spread to continental Europe, international trade expanded rapidly when coal-fed steam engines were built for the railways and steamships. Until the late nineteenth century coal was mined using a pick and shovel. Coal-cutting machines were introduced in the 1880s, by 1912, surface mining was conducted with steam shovels designed for coal mining. The most economical method of extraction from coal seams depends on the depth and quality of the seams. Coal mining processes are differentiated by whether they operate on the surface or underground, many coals extracted from both surface and underground mines require washing in a coal preparation plant. Surface mining and deep underground mining are the two methods of mining. Coal that occurs at depths of 180 to 300 ft are usually deep mined, for example, some western U. S. coal that occur at depths in excess of 200 ft are mined by the open pit methods, due to thickness of the seam 60–90 feet. Coals occurring below 300 ft are usually deep mined, However, there are open pit mining operations working on coal seams up to 1000–1500 feet below ground level, for instance Tagebau Hambach in Germany. When coal seams are near the surface, it may be economical to extract the coal using open cut mining methods, open cast coal mining recovers a greater proportion of the coal deposit than underground methods, as more of the coal seams in the strata may be exploited. In this mining method, explosives are first used in order to break through the surface or overburden, the overburden is then removed by draglines or by shovel and truck. Once the coal seam is exposed, it is drilled, fractured, the coal is then loaded onto large trucks or conveyors for transport to either the coal preparation plant or directly to where it will be used
9.
Montenegro
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Montenegro is a sovereign state in Southeastern Europe. Its capital and largest city is Podgorica, while Cetinje is designated as the Old Royal Capital. In the 9th century, three Slavic principalities were in the territory of Montenegro, Duklja, roughly corresponding to the half, Travunia, the west, and Rascia. In 1042, archon Stefan Vojislav led a revolt that resulted in the independence of Duklja, Duklja reached its zenith under Vojislavs son, Mihailo, and his grandson Bodin. By the 13th century, Zeta had replaced Duklja when referring to the realm. In the late 14th century, southern Montenegro came under the rule of the Balšić noble family, then the Crnojević noble family, large portions fell under the control of the Ottoman Empire from 1496 to 1878. Parts were controlled by Venice and the First French Empire and Austria-Hungary, from 1515 until 1851, the prince-bishops of Cetinje were the rulers. The House of Petrović-Njegoš ruled the country from 1697 to 1918, from 1918, it was a part of Kingdom of Yugoslavia, which was succeeded by SFR Yugoslavia in 1945, FR Yugoslavia in 1992, and subsequently by the state union of Serbia and Montenegro in 2003. On the basis of a referendum held on 21 May 2006. Montenegro is also a candidate negotiating to join the European Union, on 2 December 2015, Montenegro received an official invitation to join NATO, whereby it would be the 29th member country. This invitation was meant to start accession talks. The countrys name in most Western European languages reflects an adaptation of the Venetian Montenegro, many other languages, particularly nearby ones, use their own direct translation of the term black mountain. Examples are the Albanian name for the country, Mali i Zi, the Greek name Μαυροβούνιο, the Chinese name 黑山, all Slavic languages use slight variations on the Montenegrin name Crna Gora, examples include the Czech Černá Hora and the Polish Czarnogóra. Chechen and Ingush people call the country Ӏаьржаламанчоь, the name Crna Gora came to denote the majority of contemporary Montenegro only in the 15th century. The aforementioned region became known as Old Montenegro by the 19th century to distinguish it from the acquired territory of Brda. Its borders have changed little since then, losing Metohija and gaining the Bay of Kotor, the ISO Alpha-2 code for Montenegro is ME and the Alpha-3 Code is MNE. By 1000 BC, a common Illyrian language and culture had spread across much of the Balkans, interaction amongst groups was not always friendly – hill forts were the most common form of settlement – but distinctive Illyrian art forms such as amber and bronze jewellery evolved. In time, the Illyrians established a federation of tribes centred in what is now Macedonia
10.
Kosovo Serbs
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Kosovo Serbs are the largest ethnic minority group in Kosovo, numbering around 150,000 people. By the end of 19th century they were the majority population, Kosovo was the cultural, diplomatic and religious core of the medieval Serbian state. Because of Serbian medieval history and monuments, Kosovo has long called the Serbian Jerusalem. The Medieval Monuments in Kosovo, founded by the Nemanjić dynasty, is a combined World Heritage Site consisting of four Serbian Orthodox Christian churches and monasteries, after centuries of Ottoman rule, Kosovo was annexed by the Kingdom of Serbia in 1912, following the First Balkan War. The formal names for the Serb community in Kosovo is Serbs in Kosovo and Metohija or Serbs of Kosmet, in use by the community itself and they are also referred to as Serbs of Kosovo or Serbs in Kosovo. The term Kosovo Serbs is predominantly used in English and they are known by the demonym Kosovci, though this is properly used for inhabitants of the region of Kosovo, along with Metohijci. Sclaveni raided and settled the western Balkans in the 6th and 7th century, through linguistical studies, it is concluded that the Early South Slavs were made up of a western and eastern branch, of parallel streams, roughly divided in the Timok–Osogovo–Šar line. Parts of northwestern Kosovo were part of the Serbian Principality, in the late 9th century the region was seized by the Bulgar Khanate, while the region switched hands between the Byzantines and Bulgars until the Byzantine restoration of 1018–19. In 1040–41 a massive Slavic rebellion broke out, which included Kosovo, vukan, the new independent Serbian Grand Prince, began raiding Byzantine territories, first in Kosovo, advancing into Macedonia. He broke several peace treaties concluded personally with the Byzantine Emperor at Zvečan and Lipljan, in 1166, a Serbian prince, Stefan Nemanja, the founder of the Nemanjić dynasty, asserted independence after an uprising against the Byzantine Emperor Manuel I Comnenus. Nemanja defeated his brother, Tihomir, at Pantino near Pauni, Nemanja was eventually defeated and had to return some of his conquests, and vouched to the Emperor that he would not raise his hand against him. Nemanjas son, Stefan, ruled a realm reaching the river of Lab in the south, Stefan conquered all of Kosovo by 1208, by which time he had conquered Prizren and Lipljan, and moved the border of his realm to the Šar mountain. In 1217, Stefan was crowned King of Serbs, due to which he is known in historiography as Stefan the First-Crowned, in 1219, the Serbian Church was given autocephaly, with Hvosno, Prizren and Lipljan being the Orthodox Christian eparchies with territory in modern-day Kosovo. By the end of the 13th century, the centre of the Serbian Church was moved to Peć from Žiča. King Stefan Dušan founded the great Monastery of the Holy Archangel near Prizren in 1342–52, the Serbian Kingdom was elevated into an Empire in 1345–46. Stefan Dušan received John VI Kantakuzenos in 1342 at Pauni to discuss an alliance against the Byzantine Emperor, in 1346, the Serbian Archbishopric at Peć was upgraded into a Patriarchate, but it was not recognized before 1375. After the death of Dušan in 1355, the fall of the Serbian Empire began, with feudal disintegration during the reign of his successor, parts of Kosovo became domain of Vukašin Mrnjavčević, but Vojislav Vojinović expanded his demesne further onto Kosovo. The armies of Vukašin from Pristina and his allies defeated Vojislavs forces in 1369, after the Battle of Maritsa on 26 September 1371 in which the Mrnjavčević brothers lost their lives, Đurađ I Balšić of Zeta took Prizren and Peć in 1372. A part of Kosovo became the demesne of the Lazar of Serbia, the Ottoman Empire invaded the realm of Prince Lazar on 28 June 1389, at the Battle of Kosovo near Pristina, at Gazimestan
11.
Pristina
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Prishtina or Priština, is the capital and largest city of Kosovo. It is the center of the homonymous municipality and district. Geographically, it is located in the part of Kosovo close to the Goljak mountains. The city is situated some 250 kilometres north-east of Tirana,90 kilometres north of Skopje,520 kilometres south of Belgrade and 300 kilometres east of Podgorica, being Kosovos largest city, Pristina is a hometown of many of the major local universities, cultural institutions and commercial companies. One of the most important prehistoric cultures of Europe, the Vinča culture, in ancient times, Illyrians and Romans inhabited the region. In the 4th century BC, the king of Dardanians, Bardyllis brought various tribes together in the area of Pristina, the ancient city of Ulpiana, near Pristina, was considered one of the most important Roman cities in the Balkans. In the Middle Ages, Pristina was an important town in Medieval Serbia and it was a royal estate of Stefan Milutin, Stefan Uroš III, Stefan Dušan, Stefan Uroš V and Vuk Branković. During the Ottoman period, Pristina was classified as an important mining and trading center on the Balkan market due to its position near the mining town of Novo Brdo. The city was known for its fairs and items, such as goatskin and goat hair. The first mosque in Pristina was built in the late 14th century, Pristina has always been considered as a city where tolerance and coexistence in terms of religion and culture has been part of the society in the last centuries. The city has a majority Albanian population, alongside other smaller communities, with a population of about 500.000, Pristina is the second-largest Albanian-speaking city in the world. The name of the city is derived from a Slavic form *Prišьčь, an adjective from the personal name *Prišьkъ. The name is most likely a patronymic of the personal name *Prišь, preserved as a surname in Sorbian Priš, and Polish Przybysz, a false etymology connects the name Priština with the Serbian word prišt, meaning ulcer or tumour, referring to its boiling. The inhabitants of this city call themselves Prishtinali in local Gheg Albanian or Prištevci in the local Serbian dialect, in prehistory, the succeeding Starčevo culture, Vinča culture, Bubanj-Hum culture, Baden culture were active in the region. The area in and around Kosovo has been inhabited for nearly 10,000 years, during the Neolithic age, Kosovo lay within the areal of the Vinča-Turdaş culture which is characterised by West Balkan black and grey pottery. Bronze and Iron Age tombs have found in Rrafshi i Dukagjinit. The area in and around Pristina has been inhabited for nearly 10,000 years, early Neolithic findings were discovered dating as far back as the 8th century BC, in the areas surrounding Pristina, i. e. Matiçan, Gračanica and Ulpiana. In the 4th century BC, Bardyllis brought various tribes together in the region, after the Roman conquest of Illyria in 168 BC, Romans colonized and founded several cities in the region, which they named Dardania
12.
Mira Stupica
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Miroslava Mira Stupica was a Serbian actress best known for her work in the theater, but also had extensive career on television and in films. Enjoying the enduring popularity for over 60 years and celebrated as the ‘actress of the century’ by her peers, after Miroslava, the couple had three more children, three sons, Predrag, Zoran, and Borivoje who later went on to became a famous and accomplished actor himself. In 1941 she moved to Belgrades National Theatre and her early career, just like her personal life at the time, centered around then popular and established actor Milivoj Mavid Popović who became her husband in 1943. The couple had a daughter Mina before their marriage ended. During and after World War II, she acted in theatres in Šabac and Niš and she also acted as a guest in Atelje 212, Belgrade Drama Theatre, Zvezdara Theatre, and Titograds National Theatre. Her work at JDP with Bojan Stupica and their subsequent marriage had a influence on Mira’s maturity as an actress. Many of her performances are considered to be anthology roles in Serbian theatre, even though predominantly a theatrical actress, she landed several prominent film roles, especially in the 1950s and 1960s. Aired from 1968 to 1969, it brought Stupica an exceptional broad popularity, many people believed that she is a real person, so much that she had a whole page in daily Politika on Saturday to answer to the letters sent to Kika. Her other noteworthy TV roles include those in mini-series Sedam sekretara SKOJ-a, Španac and especially Priče iz fabrike, in 1943, at the age of 19, she married popular Serbian actor and famous playboy Milivoj Mavid Popović, who was 14 years her senior. Their wedding was a media event in German-occupied Serbia. They had a daughter Jasmina-Mina, but soon divorced, in 1948 she married Bojan Stupica, Slovene theatrical director, who was a major force in Serbian theatre until his death on 22 May 1970. Widowed, in 1973 she married communist politician Cvijetin Mijatović, remaining with him until his death on 15 November 1993, from 15 May 1980 to 15 May 1981, Mijatović presided over the Yugoslav Presidency, the countrys collective presidency, making Stupica Yugoslavias first lady in that period. In 2015, she settled at a retirement home in Belgrade’s borough of Zemun, on 10 March 2016 Stupica suffered a stroke, and after months without leaving the hospital, died on 19 August 2016. Stupica was awarded the Award of the Federal Government of FNRJ in 1949, at Pula Film Festival, top film festival in former Yugoslavia, she won two best actress awards, in 1954 and Golden Arena in 1966. At the Filmski susreti, actor’s festival in Niš, she was awarded at the festival in 1966 as the best actres. In 1969 she and Miodrag Petrović Čkalja won an award as the best acting couple of the year. In 2006 she won an award for the best supporting role in Seven and a half and in 2007 Pavle Vuisić award. In 2001, on the celebration of her 60-years of acting, in 2002 it was announced that new award will be established next year, under the name of Žanka Stokić award
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University of Arts in Belgrade
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The University of Arts in Belgrade is a public university in Belgrade, founded in 1957 as the Academy of Arts to unite four academies. It became a university and acquired its current name in 1973, the University of Arts was established on June 10,1957, as the Academy of Arts, a union of the existing higher art schools. Being their association, the then Academy of Arts became the University of Arts in Belgrade, interdisciplinary studies were created out of the need of studying contemporary artistic or theoretical fields which are not covered by usual artistic and scientific disciplines. These studies research new artistic and theoretical practices, which are linked to studies on particular faculties and it was established in 1937 as the Academy of Music, and became a faculty and acquired its current name in 1973. The faculty has three departments - sculpture, painting and graphic - and has approximately 2500 students and a staff of 550. The Faculty of Applied Arts was established in 1948 as the Academy of Applied Arts, the Faculty of Dramatic Arts was established in 1948 as the Academy of Theatre Arts. In 1950, the High Education School for Film Acting and Directing was merged into it, in 1973, it became a faculty and acquired its current name. It is the one located in Novi Beograd
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League of Communists of Yugoslavia
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The League of Communists of Yugoslavia, before 1952 the Communist Party of Yugoslavia, was the countrys largest communist party, and the ruling party of SFR Yugoslavia. It was founded as a party in the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats. After initial successes in the elections, it was proscribed by the government and remained an illegal underground group until World War II, at times. After internal purges of members, the party renamed itself the League of Communists and adopted the politics of workers self-management and independent communism. The ministerial branch of the Social democrat party of Slovenia was minorized in April 1920, Slovenes joined officially at the Second Congress, held in Vukovar in late April 1920. The congress was marked by opposing positions towards the concepts of the revolutionary, bolshevik influence was introduced by soldiers who during the war had been captured by Russian forces and had experienced the October Revolution. The Congress decided to form a political party named Socialist Labor Party of Yugoslavia which would be a member of Comintern. These early successes convinced other groups, including Social Democrats in Slovenia, success continued in local elections in Serbia in the summer of 1920, in which the Communists won majorities in many districts. Again, Communist administrations were suspended by the government, finally, in elections to the Constitutional Assembly, held on November 28,1920, the Communist Party received 198,736 votes and 58 of 419 seats in the assembly. The 2nd party congress, held in June 1920 in Vukovar, the party changed its name to Communist Party of Yugoslavia and elected Filipović and Sima Marković as political secretaries. The Congress also supported to the idea of a Balkan Communist Federation, the centrists for a time formed they own party before they united with Social Democrats in the Socialist Party of Yugoslavia. The partys property was seized and several leaders arrested, the Assembly approved of the Constitution on 28 June 1921, against the votes of the Communist deputies. The Communist Party reacted to the Obznana preparing a transition to illegal operation, in June 1921, it formed an Alternative Central Party Leadership, which would assume control of the Party if the Party leadership was arrested. This act was condemned and resulted in a lasting drop of the partys popularity. The Assembly passed the Law of protection of security and state order. The ban was not lifted until the demise of the Kingdom in 1941, as the party continued underground and abroad, the Alternative Central Party Leadership was headed by Kosta Novaković, Triša Kaclerović and Moša Pijade. However, soon conflict flared up on the whether the party should attempt to reconstruct legal forms of its work or devote itself entirely to illegal activity. A group of party leaders, led by party secretary Sima Marković, formed the Executive Committee of the Communist Party in Emigration in September 1921
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Pula Film Festival
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The Pula Film Festival is the oldest Croatian film festival which is held annually in a Roman amphitheater known as the Pula arena since 1954. The festival is held in the summer, in July or August. Apart from film screenings open to the public, the annual Croatian film industry awards are traditionally presented at the festival. The festival was started in 1954 and within a few years it became the centrepiece event of the Yugoslav film industry. This lasted until 1991, when the festival was cancelled due to the breakup of Yugoslavia and it has been held every year since. When it was established, it was known as the Festival of Yugoslav Film, over the following decades the festival gained considerable recognition internationally, along with the Yugoslav film industry which continued to thrive since the 1960s. Many film production companies were founded across the former Yugoslavia. These films competed for a number of awards at the festival, since the award categories, in 1991 the festival was cancelled because of the outbreak of the war and the related breakup of Yugoslavia. In 1992 the festival was restarted, but it was renamed Filmski festival u Puli, the 1992 edition was also the first one that was dedicated solely to Croatian films, since the unified Yugoslav film industry disappeared along with the former country. In 1995 it was renamed again and called Festival hrvatskog filma to emphasize its now exclusively Croatian character, however, since the Croatian film industry proved to be insufficiently productive, with only a handful of new titles being released each year, the festivals popularity rapidly plummeted. In order to rectify this, the festival opened for films for the first time in its history in 2001. From then on, apart from screenings of Croatian films, the festival also offers an international program, as well as various one-off theme programs. The national film industry awards called Golden Arena are always presented at the festival, therefore there are no Academy Award-style shortlists of nominees announced prior to the actual awarding ceremony. However, some editions in the past also had runner-up awards for some categories. The awards are given by the jury made up of prominent film critics, directors, actors, etc
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Walter Defends Sarajevo
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Walter Defends Sarajevo is a 1972 Yugoslav partisan film, directed by Hajrudin Krvavac and starring Bata Živojinović. In late 1944, as the end of World War II approaches and they plan to supply the tank columns with fuel from a depot in Sarajevo. As no one in the city seems to know even how Walter looks, the partisans are caught in a deadly game of betrayal, fraud and duplicity while trying to frustrate the Germans plans. This was intended to send a message of unity consistent with the politics of the multi-ethnic state of Yugoslavia. Von Dietrich Rolf Römer as Bischoff Fred Delmare as Sgt, Hajrudin Krvavac dedicated the picture to the people of Sarajevo and their heroism during the war. The film marked the beginning of Emir Kusturicas career in cinema, sixteen years of age at the time, it was his first appearance on film in a small role playing a young communist activist. The film premiered in Sarajevo on Wednesday,12 April 1972 in front of 5,000 spectators at the recently built Skenderija Hall, the venue thus hosted another lavish partisan film première, two and a half years after Veljko Bulajićs Battle of Neretva premiered in October 1969. Following the premiere, a lavish dinner was organized at Hotel Evropa. Walter Defends Sarajevo received a response from the Yugoslav audience. The picture was distributed in sixty countries, and achieved its greatest success in the Peoples Republic of China, owing mainly to the Chinese audience, Walter Defends Sarajevo became one of the most-watched war films of all time. In China, children and streets were named after characters from the film, and it still enjoys great popularity in the country. The names of numerous hospitality venues throughout the Balkans have been inspired by the film, valter Brani Sarajevo at the Internet Movie Database
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IMDb
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In 1998 it became a subsidiary of Amazon Inc, who were then able to use it as an advertising resource for selling DVDs and videotapes. As of January 2017, IMDb has approximately 4.1 million titles and 7.7 million personalities in its database, the site enables registered users to submit new material and edits to existing entries. Although all data is checked before going live, the system has open to abuse. The site also featured message boards which stimulate regular debates and dialogue among authenticated users, IMDb shutdown the message boards permanently on February 20,2017. Anyone with a connection can read the movie and talent pages of IMDb. A registration process is however, to contribute info to the site. A registered user chooses a name for themselves, and is given a profile page. These badges range from total contributions made, to independent categories such as photos, trivia, bios, if a registered user or visitor happens to be in the entertainment industry, and has an IMDb page, that user/visitor can add photos to that page by enrolling in IMDbPRO. Actors, crew, and industry executives can post their own resume and this fee enrolls them in a membership called IMDbPro. PRO can be accessed by anyone willing to pay the fee, which is $19.99 USD per month, or if paid annually, $149.99, which comes to approximately $12.50 per month USD. Membership enables a user to access the rank order of each industry personality, as well as agent contact information for any actor, producer, director etc. that has an IMDb page. Enrolling in PRO for industry personnel, enables those members the ability to upload a head shot to open their page, as well as the ability to upload hundreds of photos to accompany their page. Anyone can register as a user, and contribute to the site as well as enjoy its content, however those users enrolled in PRO have greater access and privileges. IMDb originated with a Usenet posting by British film fan and computer programmer Col Needham entitled Those Eyes, others with similar interests soon responded with additions or different lists of their own. Needham subsequently started an Actors List, while Dave Knight began a Directors List, and Andy Krieg took over THE LIST from Hank Driskill, which would later be renamed the Actress List. Both lists had been restricted to people who were alive and working, the goal of the participants now was to make the lists as inclusive as possible. By late 1990, the lists included almost 10,000 movies and television series correlated with actors and actresses appearing therein. On October 17,1990, Needham developed and posted a collection of Unix shell scripts which could be used to search the four lists, at the time, it was known as the rec. arts. movies movie database
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Bert Sotlar
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Bert Sotlar was a Slovenian film actor. He starred in the 1959 German film Dorothea Angermann, three Quarters of a Sun Dorothea Angermann Brandenburg Division Dont Cry, Peter Alpi, Deborah Lazaroff. Bert Sotlar at the Internet Movie Database
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Antun Vrdoljak
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Antun Vrdoljak is a prominent Croatian film actor and director, sports official, and head of Croatian Radiotelevision during the Yugoslav wars. Between the 1960s and early 1990s he was mainly a film artist, in the early 1990s he became involved in politics and became a prominent member of the Croatian Democratic Union, which led to his appointment to a series of offices. He was director general of Croatian Radiotelevision, and the president of the Croatian Olympic Committee, born in Imotski, Vrdoljak studied acting at the Zagreb Academy of Dramatic Art. His acting debut was in a 1957 film It Was Not in Vain by Nikola Tanhofer, in 1958, he appeared in Tanhofers best known film H-8 to much critical acclaim. In the late 1960s, Vrdoljak gradually switched to film directing, following the events of the Croatian Spring, Vrdoljak became associated with Croatian nationalism. Authorities nevertheless allowed him to continue with his career and this included lavish adaptations of Croatian literary classics such as Kiklop and Glembajevi. When first democratic elections were announced in Croatia, Vrdoljak was among 200 top intellectuals publicly endorsing the moderate Coalition of Peoples Accord. By the end of campaign, he switched his support for the more hardline Croatian Democratic Union and Franjo Tuđman, on 30 May 1990 the new democratically elected Croatian Parliament convened and Franjo Tuđman was elected President of Croatia. Vrdoljak became one of countrys six vice-presidents, as such, he was entrusted with the supervision of 1990 European Championships in Athletics in Split. In December 1990, a new Croatian Constitution was adopted, ending the office of vice-president, Vrdoljak garnered a degree of notoriety for saying television must become a cathedral of the Croatian spirit. On 16 September 1991, guards at the entrances of the HRT building told more than 300 employees that their passes were no longer valid, the move was attributed to security reasons. Most of those on the security blacklists were Serbs or married to Serbs, others may have had a relative in the Yugoslav Army or did not publicly support the HDZ. Ivan Parać, Vrdoljaks successor, charged him with corruption, to the opposition, Vrdoljak had been the embodiment of HDZ domination of the media. Although he maintained his seat in Parliament and other positions, he retired from both politics and Tuđmans inner circle. After the HDZ lost power in 2000, Vrdoljak decided to return to film-making and he made news in 2006 due to a quarrel and a physical altercation with fellow filmmaker, Lordan Zafranović. He began his career as an actor and was praised for his role in now classic 1958 film H-8 and he received praise for his two early films as a director and screenwriter, Kad čuješ zvona and U gori raste zelen bor. Both films were based on the diaries of Croatian Partisan leader Ivan Šibl, when You Hear the Bells was entered into the 6th Moscow International Film Festival, where it won a Silver Prize. Vrdoljak worked on television, with his 1972 mini-series Prosjaci i sinovi, based on the script by Ivan Raos, the series was shown only in 1984, due to Raos status as a Croatian nationalist
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Miha Baloh
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Miha Baloh is a Slovene actor. He started participating in theatre productions after the Second World War and eventually enrolled in the AGRFT in Ljubljana. In 1953 he began collaboration with the Permanent Slovene Theatre in Trieste, there he worked with the director Jože Babič who also offered him his first major film role. From 1967 he also worked on international productions on projects such as the Austrian TV comedy series Leni, German films on Winnetou and he continued to work in the theatre throughout his career
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