Александар Арнаутовић, Из предгробних мемоара
Aleksandar Arnautović, from Pre-Grave Memoirs

(War/Army/Minister’s Cabinet/Bulgarian war/Albania/Embassy in Paris)

Summary/Abstract: The paper contains an edited and commented text of a memoir character of Aleksandar Arnautović, an eminent Serbian and Yugoslav public and cultural figure, historian of literature, literary and theatre critic and translator. As a volunteer, Arnautović took part in the Balkan Wars and the First World War. He worked in the General Staff Division of the General Military Department of the Ministry of the Military and in the Cabinet of the Minister of the Military. After the Serbian Army was evacuated to Corfu, he served at the Military Censorship of the Ministry of the Military as a reserve infantry sublieutenant, and in the Section for the Captured and Interned. Upon the order of President of the Ministerial Council Nikola Pašić, he moved to Paris, where he served in the Royal-Serbian Embassy from 1917 to 1937, in the position of the head of the Educational Department of the Ministry of Education, educational clerk for school and educational-cultural issues at the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, while from 1918 he was also a member and the first secretary of the Cultural Propaganda Board. Despite its relatively small volume, the memoir contribution “From Pre-Grave Memoirs” is a text of remembrances. With its rich and interesting contents, lively and striking style, it certainly represents a precious source of data, particularly important for military historians, about this both important and sensitive period of the history of the Serbian people. The memoirs begin with 1913 and the Second Balkan War, describing the disap pointment and disorientation of the Serbian intellectual elite that fostered sincere pro-Bul garian and South Slavic feelings. The major part of the text concerns the period of the First World War and the events that the author experienced during the war. There are also lively remembrances and frequent anecdotal reminiscences of some personalities or events of the time. Presented in such way, this segment of Arnautović’s memories is the most precious part of the Memoirs. The final and shortest part contains the description of his stay in san atoriums in France, including an intimation of his later two-decade stay in Paris, where he worked at the Yugoslav Embassy.

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