Today we share with you the stories and lives of two personalities who have set foot on the land of Monténégro or are simply from this territory. Once again, it was my friend Milan who introduced me to these historical characters.
Culture is enjoyed without moderation in Montenegro and you can enjoy it whenever possible.
Here,Sava Lukic Vladislavic and Vasa Carapic are in the spotlight.
Vasilije Vasa Čarapić
He was a famous Serbian military leader, born in 1770 in Beli Potok below Avala and died on November 29, 1806 in the struggle for the liberation of Belgrade. His family came from the Kuči tribe in Montenegro.
She got her surname anecdotally: when one of her ancestors accidentally killed a Turk’s dog, the latter then asked for 500 groš (currency) in compensation. Vasa’s ancestor sent him not in a bag, but in socks (in Serbian sock is “čarapa”). They then became the “Čarapić”.
Sava Lukić Vladislavić Raguzinski
Count Sava Lukić Vladislavić Raguzinski, born in 1669 in Herceg Novi, died on June 17, 1738 in Saint Petersburg (Russia) was a Serbian merchant and adventurer in the service of Peter the Great, who led important diplomatic negotiations in Constantinople, Rome and Beijing. Commissioned by the Tsar, one of his greatest achievements was that he reached an agreement in China defining the border between Russia and China, which has not changed until today (Treaty of Kiakhta).
His father, Luka Vladislavić, was a Serbian landowner, whom the Turks took out of Herzegovina. Installed with his family in Ragusa (Dubrovnik), he took the name “Raguzinski”, in order to distinguish himself from those of the relatives who remained in the land of his ancestors. The prosperity of the people of Ragusa depended on maritime trade and Sava Vladislavić was no exception.
A commercial venture took the young merchant to Constantinople, where, in the absence of a permanent Russian mission, he was entrusted with various missions by Russian Foreign Ministers Vasily Golitsyn and Yemelyan Ukraintsev. His personal business interests always went hand in hand with those of the Russian government.
In 1702 he met Peter the Great in Azov.
With his sights set on profits from the fur trade with Russia, Vladislavić traveled to Moscow during the following year. After obtaining important privileges from the Tsar, he returned to Constantinople, where he represented the interests of Russia, jointly with Pyotr Andreyevich Tolstoy, until the Battle of Poltava. It was he who bought for the tsar a black page, Abraham Hanibal, the ancestor of the great Pushkin.
In 1708 he moved to Moscow and soon received land in Russia from the Tsar, where Nejine was the center of his business operations.
The “Illyrian Count” — as Vladislavić liked to call himself — maintained commercial contacts with other Serbs and was convinced that they would revolt against the Sultan as soon as the Tsar invaded the Danubian principalities.
Having launched the invasion in 1711, Tsar Peter sent him on a mission to Moldavia and Montenegro, where Vladislavić was expected to incite the populations to revolt. But little came of these plans, despite the assistance of a pro-Russian colonel, Mihail Miloradović, the ancestor of Count Miloradović.
From 1716 to 1722, Vladislavić resided in Italy, dividing his time between his own private interests and those of the Tsar. Among other commissions, he oversaw the education of Russian nobles (such as the painter Ivan Nikitich Nikitin), and prepared a concordat with Pope Clement XI. In Venice, he acquired an assortment of marble statues, which still adorn the Summer Garden in Saint Petersburg.
At the head of an important Russian mission, Vladislavić repeated in 1725 the journeys that Nikolai Spathari had made in the previous century, in order to negotiate a new treaty with the Qing empire. Tense negotiations with the Qing emperor and his officials resulted in the Treaty of Buria, which adopted the doctrine of uti possidetis juris for the demarcation of the Russian-Chinese border. In 1728, these provisions were formalized in the Treaty of Kiakhta, which also incorporated Vladislavich’s proposal to build an Orthodox chapel in Beijing.
Considering the mutually agreed border as an “eternal dividing line between the two empires”, Vladislavić spared no effort to develop trade and commerce on the border. He personally chose the location of the Russian trading post of Kiakhta — the Troitskosavsk district recalls his name.
To reward his role in concluding a beneficial treaty with China and creating the tea route between the two countries, Vladislavić was awarded the Order of Saint Alexander Nevsky. He also wrote a comprehensive plan for financial reform and left a detailed description of the Qing Empire.
In a secret memorandum (1731), Vladislavić warned the Russian government against any war with China.
He was also one of the founders of the intelligence service of Tsarist Russia. He favored relations with Serbia, helped the insurgents. He died in 1738 in St. Petersburg, buried in the royal tomb, the crypt of the Church of the Annunciation.
The magnificent old town of Herceg Novi
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Pozdrav / Salute
