НАСТАВЛЕНИЈЕ НАДЗИРАТЕЉУ ЗАТОЧЕНИКА У ГУРГУСОВЦУ
INSTRUCTIONS TO THE WARDEN OF DETAINEES IN THE GURGUSOVAC TOWER

Summary/Abstract: The paper examines a short, but a highly interesting document containing a detailed plan written by Serbian Minister of Internal Affairs Ilija Garašanin in 1844. It is a list of 31 articles delineating the main duties of officer Milovan Spasojević, appointed to the political post of utmost importance for the Serbian regime. He was ordered to supervise a group of dangerous political prisoners, devotees of dethroned Prince Miloš Obrenović. A political clash with numerous allies of the former Obrenović Dynasty compelled Minister Garašanin to create special methods to pacify and punish the imprisoned opponents of the government. The main intention of this instruction was to keep the most prominent opposition leaders in the remote and isolated Gurgusovac tower, in eastern Serbia, under a strict police watch. Deprived of physical contacts with members of their families, friends and companions, they were subjected to a strict prison regime. Stripped of their wealth, favourite food, correspondence and even usual daily routines, such as daily walks, those political prisoners were punished severely. Most of them were imprisoned to life sentences and could not know if they would ever be pardoned. Their time passed at a snail’s pace, in damp, narrow and dark rooms of the Gurgusovac tower. Regulations for the detainees were specially intended to discourage and prevent any similar attempts of political opposition. Regulations were unique, but highly confidential documents, meant to be used only by the appointed commanding officer and members of the police guard in the Gurgusovac tower. The incarceration of political prisoners in Gurgusovac was the key element of the new policy of political oppression, invented by the most important leaders of the new government, mainly Ilija Garašanin, as the new Minister of Internal Affairs.

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