Metadata: State Council
Collection
- Country:
- Serbia
- Holding institution:
- Archives of Serbia
- Holding institution (official language):
- Државни архив Србије (Državni arhiv Srbije)
- Postal address:
- Karnegijeva 2, 11000 Belgrade
- Phone number:
- (+381) 11 3370-781
- Web address:
- https://arhivsrbije.rs/
- Email:
- office@archives.org.rs
- Reference number:
- AS-DS
- Title:
- State Council
- Title (official language):
- Државни савет
- Creator/accumulator:
- State Council
- Date(s):
- 1835/1918
- Language:
- Serbian
- German
- Extent:
- 61.22 linear metres (326 volumes; 401 box)
- Type of material:
- Textual material
- Physical condition:
- Good
- Scope and content:
-
The records in this fonds were created by the State Council between 1835 and 1915. The include minute books of the meetings of the State Council, office administration registers, name registers, registers of copies of decrees and hatt-i sharifs (documents issued by Ottoman Sultan), the administration registers of the III department of the Council, books of the municipal elections in 1910, State Council treasury books, financial report books of the Ministry of Finance, the register of complaints and requests submitted to the Council. The documents reflect the work and organisation of the central administration, activities of the ministries and army, information on the budget and state officials, on the opening of the mines, factories, spas and public baths, schools and cultural institutions, and construction of roads and bridges.
The collection contains various records relating to the Jewish community in Belgrade and in Serbia in the 19th and 20th century, such as: the command issued on 30 October 1846 prohibiting Jews to live outside Belgrade; documents relating to the process of defining the oath that Jewish and Turkish citizens would take in Courts, file number 496, from 1853; requests of Belgrade Jews demanding to have equal rights as Serbian citizens, with a list of Jewish citizens living in Belgrade, file number 628, from 1856; the Decree that the Jews were allowed to live in the interior of Serbia issued on 30 October 1856; documents on the opening of School for Jewish Girls in Dorćol from 1859; official response to the request made in the National Assembly for suspension of all civil rights of Jewish citizens, 1859; the command issued in early February 1861 ordering 60 Jewish families to be displaced from the interior of the country and sent to Belgrade; the Decree from 1861, interpretations of the decree on Jews from 30 October 1856 and the decree from 25 September 1859; the notification of the Ministry of Finance from 28 February 1859 that Jews could not be owners of an estate in the interior of the country; permission granted to Jews to inhabit in the interior of Serbia, file number 496, from 1861; request of the Jews from Šabac to build a place of worship, a synagogue, file number 542, from 1861; minutes of the meeting of the State Council held on the 5 March 1890 discussing the request of the Ministry of Interior to the Council to investigate whether Austrian citizens Moša Haim Davičo, his wife and child could be granted Serbian citizenship; minutes from the meeting of the State Council held on 8 January 1891 discussing the parcel bought by the Minh brothers for building a factory of woollen products (Fabrika vinenih tkanina braće Minh); minutes of the meeting of the State Council held on 14 June 1893 discussing the request of the brothers Minh not to pay taxes for imported wool for their factory in Paraćin; minutes of the meeting of the State Council held on 9 January 1901 regarding the request of a bookseller from Novi Sad, Geca Kon, who applied for Serbian citizenship and the request was granted; the official notification issued by the Ministry of National Economy on 24 May 1901 regarding the issuing of land deeds to Jews; complaint of the Minh brothers, factory owners from Paraćin, against the Ministry of National Economy for cancelling their financial privileges after the fire in their factory in 1907; the Bill on Privileges granted to the Prague Credit Bank, Ćirković i kompanija from Belgrade and Brothers Minh, industrialists from Paraćin, for exploitation of forests, file number 80, from 1910.
The collection also includes more documents, official notifications, decrees and laws related to the Jews and determining their position in Belgrade and Serbia.
- Archival history:
- The records were handed over by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on 29 November 1901, by the Central State Treasury in 1903 and by the Supreme Court of the Federal People’s Republic of Yugoslavia. The documents created between 1918 and 1944 was transferred to the Archives of Yugoslavia. It was not registered where the documents created between 1870 and 1901 were handed over.
- Administrative/biographical history:
- The State Council, founded in 1835, was stipulated by the Stretenje Constitution as the highest executive power in Serbia next to the Prince. The members of the Council were distinguished elders and they shared the executive power with the Prince. The main tasks of the Council were to organise the government bodies, to propose laws and decrees to the Prince, to give opinions on the Prince’s proposals, to propose appointments of government officials and to punish them in case of malpractice. The ministers were appointed by the Prince. The government organisation from 1839 expanded the authority of the Council, causing the Prince to abdicate. In 1858 the jurisdiction of the State Council was expanded once again and Prince’s executive power limited. In 1861, with the return of the Obrenović dynasty, the power of the Council was limited. The state Council changed its name several times – State Council, Administrative council, the Prince’s Council – and also changed its internal organisation.
- Access points: persons/families:
- Davičo, Moša
- Kon, Geca
- Minh
- System of arrangement:
- The archival material created in 1835 and 1836 was arranged according to the organisational units of the State Council. The archival material created in the period between 1837 and 1915 was arranged according to the office administration registers.
- Finding aids:
- The following finding aids are available: summary inventory; historical note on the fonds; thematic and name register.
- Yerusha Network member:
- Historical Archives of Belgrade
- Author of the description:
- Dragana Mitrašinović; Historical Archives of Belgrade; 2020