Jovan Plamenac

Jovan Simonov Plamenac (Serbian Cyrillic: Јован Симонов Пламенац)(b. Boljevići, Ottoman Empire, 1873 - d. occupied Montenegro, Yugoslavia, 1944) was a Montenegrin politician, orchestrator of the Christmas rebellion and the King's Premier in exile, then a centrist politician and finally a Nazi collaborator during WWII.

Early life

Jovan Plamenac was born in 1873 in the village of Boljevići outside the town of Bar while it was still a part of the Ottoman Empire, before the 1878 Congress of Berlin. After finishing home education in the Princedom of Montenegro completing a lower secondary school, he went to the Kingdom of Serbia to receive better further education like many Montenegrins of his age. There, he attended a Teacher-Training school in Aleksinac and graduated in Pakrac, the Kingdom of Croatia-Slavonia, within the Transleithanian part of the Dual Monarchy of Austria-Hungary. He then went to the German Empire and attended a two-year pedagogical course in Jena. After successfully completing it, he finally returned home to Montenegro and became a teacher at the Theological and Teacher-Training School in Cetinje.

Political career in Montenegro

In the government of Lazar Tomanović, he served the post of Minister of Education from 1907 to 1909, when he was for personal desires to handle control over some militaristic affairs allocated the Ministry of Interior until the government's mandate expired in 1910, when the Princedom was transformed into a Kingdom. He was reemployed by Duke Mitar Martinović as Minister of Internal Affairs and Representative of the Minister of Education during the crucial time of the Balkan wars. During them Montenegro took most of its territory from the Ottoman Turks and a common border with Serbia was achieved, presenting the unification of the two realms as his top priority. During the following years of political dominance of the People's Party, he was a Confidant of the Montenegrin Court. After the Kingdom of Montenegro was invaded by the Central Powers during the First World War and King Nicholas I Petrovic secretly fled the country to Italy across the sea, Plamenac attacked him heavily for treason and wrote for the Sarajevo Bosnian Post on 6 April 1916 that it may be considered as if he's no longer existing.

Until the parliament's disbandment, he was the Speaker of the Serbian National Assembly of the Kingdom of Montenegro. Jovan Plamenac remained in the country the entire period of Austro-Hungarian occupation, supporting the struggle against the occupier and liberation in form of a part of Serbia.

Christmas rebellion

By 1918 Montenegrin chetnik units, the Comitas, devastated the occupier greatly and Allies broke into the country by the end of the year. With the resistance declaring a greater unified Serbian state and movements evidently being made towards Serbia's annexation of Montenegro, he became a fierce opponent of any sort of unification. After his political course lost the elections for the Great National Assembly of the Serbian People in Montenegro, which deposed King Nicholas and declared unconditional unification with Serbia, he joined the Greens, refused to recognize Podgorica Assembly's results and resorted to armed matters, that they should take over power in Montenegro by force and expel the Serbians and other Allies. He placed Krsto Zrnov Popović as the commander-in-chief of the Greens' armed forces in battle. Upon hearing that an all-out armed rebellion is preparing, three days before the escalation of conflicts the Entente High Command authorized usage of force to defend the possible hot zones. On 1 January 1919 Plamenac attacked with his partisan unit the coastal town of Virpazar on Lake Scutari, but was repelled by Italian armed forces of Commandant Molinaro from Scutari.

Receiving contact with Italian armed forces at the coastline and securing an amount of basic weaponry, as Italy had influential interests in Montenegro, the real uprising was instigated in Cetinje's surroundings on 7 January 1919. It became known as the Christmas rebellion. The Greens recruited peasants in the surroundings and quickly laid siege to Cetinje. But the Allies offered fierce resistance, in particular the Montenegrin Youth of the pro-Serbian Whites and the French. The one-day battle was lost, between 20 and 30 Green draftees were killed and others were caught by the Allied forces. Other regiments like the one besieging Nikšić were defeated too, the remainder hid into the forests and started guerrilla resistance which continued over the following years, committing surprise attacks on the Whites and their supporters and Plamenac escaped to Albania to evade getting caught.

In exile

HRH Nicholas in exile in the French Neuilly publicly criticized the insurgency and called for all those who cherished his name and remain loyal to him to lay down arms in the name of peace and no war between brothers. Also amazed by his capabilities, Nikola sacked Milo Matanović's eventually pro-Serbian cabinet and nominated Jovan Plamenac as the new Prime Minister of his Government in exile on 17 February 1919, in which he was also the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Representative of the Minister of Internal Affairs.

During this time Plamenac complained greatly to the international community regarding the annexation of Montenegro, on the grounds of the lack of legality for such an act. He also complained about allegations of atrocities and brutal repression conducted by the French and Serbian forces in occupied Montenegro. The International Commission mandated by the Allied Powers and approved by the League of Nations failed to confirm this during its investigation in Montenegro, actually putting the critics on Plamenac and the Italians for escalation of conflicts and raising tensions in Montenegro. He also traveled as Nikola's envoy to London, hoping for some of the pro-Montenegrin sympathies of the United Kingdom's public. He managed to initiate a discussion over the Montenegrin question, raising the matter in the British House of Lords, but found no greater support in it. He also wrote to the President of the United States of America Woodrow Wilson on the terms to restore Montenegrin statehood, at least in the forms of a Confederate Yugoslavia.

By 1920 in Italian Gaeta a one and a half-thousand men strong Army with 62 officers that was formed became financially backed by the Italian government, on the proposal of the Socialists. Plamenac's cabinet recognized the army as the legal Montenegrin Army in Exile. These forces were covertly transferred to the eastern shore of the Adriatic Sea, where they opened incidents in Montenegro and maintained a form of open conflict. The greatest incident that had occurred on 6 August 1919 when members of the Montenegrin Army in Exile attacked the property of Andrija Radović, the orchestrator of unification of Montenegro with Serbia, burned it to the ground and killed his father. Accusations of oppression of the Montenegrins by Belgrade from Plamenac's side

By the end of '20 there were Constitutional Assembly elections in the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, the Allied Powers had previously agreed to consider it a final self-determination event in Montenegro. International watchers from Britain and France concluded that the election was conducted with democratic standards and, in accordance to the fact that the strong majority of Montenegrins turned to vote despite the Greens' call for boycott and to the total victory of unionist forces, the Great powers broke off diplomatic relations to Plamenac's Government in Exile, giving a final blow to his premiership.

On 1 March 1921 Nicholas died of old age. His only son Crown Prince Danilo Aleksandar Petrović-Njegoš similar to numerous other Montenegrin leaders in exile expressed reluctance to accept the throne so he abdicated in favor of his nephew Prince Michael Petrović-Njegoš and remained in anonymity in Rome. Mihailo was a minor, so, in accordance to the Constitution, Jovan Plamenac declared himself co-Regent of the Kingdom together with Queen Milena Vukotić, Nicholas' widow. The institutions were moved to San Remo in Italy, since France broke off relations and Italy, having still had its interests in the Adriatic, decided to financially back them. By June 1921 Plamenac went into a personal conflict with the Italian Foreign Minister Sforza, so he was forced to resign from the seat of PM, leaving it behind on 28 June 1921 to General Milutin Vučinić, but remained the key man behind as a member of the Regency. He surprisingly died soon, so Queen invited to appoint General Anto Gvozdenović as the new PM.

Late ages

The Queen Regent Milena came from a strong pro-Serbian unionist family, so she eventually decided to disband the Montenegrin Government in Exile and abolish resistance to Serbo-Croato-Slovene unity. Fiercely opposing this, Plamenac besieged and assaulted with 20 armed men the Montenegrin Consulate at Riviera, Queen Milena's residing place and stripped the Queen of her regency forcefully took control over the Government in Exile and the Montenegrin Archives, and proclaimed himself supreme Premier. Although Italy considered it an internal problem, it did not want to allow a conflict on its soil, so eventually pro-Milena Milo Vujović managed to secure the structures occupied by Plamenac and temporarily control the government before the formation of Gvozdenovic's cabinet.

Plamenac headed to Rome to found a special council for the restoration of Montenegrin sovereignty, separate from the government. However, as this occurred in 1923, Italy quickly expelled him as after the Treaty of Rapalo it abandoned anti-Yugoslavian policies. Jovan Plamenac wanted to find a refuge in the United States of America, announcing a foundation of an alternate Montenegrin Government in Exile in New York. However, his Montenegrin papers were no longer recognized anywhere in the world, so he was contained to Elsie Island as an illegal immigrant.

In 1925 he gave up in futile and withdraw from the Regency, then taken over by Gvozdenovic. In accordance to the rehabilitation program of King Alexander I Karađorđević, no charges were raised against Plamenac and he freely moved to the Yugoslavian kingdom, to Belgrade. On 31 January 1925 he wrote in repent and swore an oath of loyalty to him.

He immediately enrolled the Yugoslavian political life as a member of the Serbian People's Radical Party of Nikola Pašić. He also became a Minister in the Kingdom's Government, causing an outburst of public controversy regarding his post, nevertheless King Alexander remained strictly on insistence on the matter, as part of his rehabilitation program. After Pasic's death Plamenac quickly advanced in the Radicals' hierarchy and became a vigorous supporter and advocate of its policies of centrism. He became the regime's champion in the political fights against the Peasants of the pro-Green Montenegrin Federalist Party, accusing it for separatism and support of Yugoslavia's destruction.

Years after, in his old age, the Axis forces invaded the Kingdom of Yugoslavia and partitioned it in 1941. Plamenac left Belgrade for the Independent State of Montenegro puppet-state, joining the Black Latins of Sekula Drljević and the collaboration with Fascist Italy administration. In 1943 the Italians were defeated, and in 1944 the Communist Partisans caught Jovan. Jovan Simonov Plamenac was subsequently read a verdict accusing him for collaboration and was subsequently executed by a firing squad.