Two Houses for Two Parties

Slowly but surely, Slobodan Milosevic made it to the famous Uzicka Street. As announced in the Official Gazette 1, No. 20 of June 8 ("the representative building in Belgrade, Uzicka 16, with accompanying facilities and land is allotted to the President of the Republic" for residence), he is assigned the mansion across the street from Number 15, the mansion where Josip Broz Tito lived and worked for decades. With him, like Tito once upon a time, he takes along his closest associates: by dint of the same decision of the Government of Serbia, Serbia's Prime Minister Mirko Marjanovic will move to Number 40, next door to the spacious property the original owner of which was Nikola Uzunovic, once Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. According to the Official Gazette, "the residences under items 1 and 2 of the decision may be used only for the discharge of the function and dwelling". These mansions, built some time in the 1930s, have had an exciting life.

Even native Belgraders were largely unable to say with certainty who built the former mansion. Some claim it belonged to the Queen of Romania; another possibility is Ignjat Bajloni, National Bank Governor before WW2; others say that it was built later, for Tito's special requirements.

This noble mansion, one of the nicest in Uzicka Street, was built for pre-war merchant Jovan Savic. Mr. Savic had two daughters, and for them he also bought property in the then Rumunska, now Uzicka Street; they owned other real estate as well. After the assassination of King Alexander in 1934, No. 16 was leased and used as the residence by regents Radenko Stankovic and Ivo Perovic. Their erstwhile neighbors remember that they, or at least one of them, subsequently had their own houses built on the same street, and that Prince Regent Paul also lived there. It is recalled that Prince Paul and Princess Olga could often be seen walking without any escort (let alone armored cars). True enough, King Alexander also used to walk around Kalemegdan alone with his queen, without any particular security.

But, to turn back to No.16. The owner, Mr. Savic, lived in his house until 1941 when it was taken over by Germans. The merchant moved a few houses down the street, to his daughter's. In 1944 the Germans were evicted by bombs thrown by the Allies who apparently knew that it was their hide-out, aimed accurately, killed massively, and demolished the house along the way. When, shortly after the liberation Tito moved into Uzicka No. 15, the grounds and the debris of No. 16 were placed "under the control" of the Marshall's Cabinet. Mr. Savic died in 1947 and the inheritance proceedings started right away. The matter was procrastinated until 1955; when the heirs learned about the death duties they would have to pay, they decided to sell it. The negotiations and

talks took place with the Office of the President of the Republic. The contract on the sale of the lot and "building material" was concluded eventually. The signatures of the heirs and the "buyer for FNRY, State Secretary Neda Bozinovic" figure in the document. In other words, it is even theoretically inconceivable that the former owner might knock on the door one day and say to Slobodan Milosevic: "I want what's mine".

Having taken over Uzicka 16, the state rolled up the sleeves. The mansion was reconstructed to look very much like the original building, and there were some parts which the allied bombs had not touched such as the main staircase and the fence, identical with the one around the White Court (some observe that the fence round the cemetery looks the same too). As soon as the masons moved out, the mansion was assigned the purpose it would keep in the decades to come: for Josip Broz Tito's personal guests. The guests spent their time between breakfast and supper, including film shows, across the street in Uzicka 15, and late in the evening crossed the street and went to bed. After Tito's death, the mansion was duly maintained, heated, and was mostly vacant, awaiting the next "Tito's guest" who will, as we have seen, breathe new life in it shortly.

True, it is not known when Milosevic will carry his suitcases from the less elegant mansion in the street below (Tolstojeva 33), and even less so if his wife Mira Markovic, will join him there. To remind, on July 25, 1991 the President of Serbia submitted the request for the purchase for the above mentioned building in Tolstojeva Street to the Belgrade City Hall as the seller. A day later, on July 26, the Belgrade City Hall issued the contract on the purchase of a 326.6 sq.m, family wellinghouse, plus a 16.88 sq.m. garage. The mansion was evaluated at 7,381,502 dinars. The repayment period was 38.5 years, monthly installment 15,977.30 dinars, 22,617.70 dinars/sq.m. without the garage. Nothing was said about the lot. Since in July 1991 DEM 1 was worth about 14 dinars, the price of the mansion at the time of purchase was not negligible. However, there is presumably no need to remind what happened to the dinar afterwards and that, say, towards the end of 1993, 7,381,502 dinars would not buy a newspaper but would a mansion. But the President is not the only one who purchased a house in this way, and we can't hold a grudge against him for, well, sharing the fate of the people.

According to the current regulations, Mr. Milosevic could not buy the mansion in Uzicka 16 because it is a state-owned residence which, by definition, may be used only during the tenure of a particular office. It is, of course, difficult to foresee how long Milosevic will remain the President, neither is it known whether he purchased the "preTolstojeva" flat in Save Kovacevica Street also. In Milosevic's new neighborhood which accepts "the expansion of Milosevic in Dedinje" with a kind of goodhumored resignation, it is remarked that, after all, two political parties cannot be in the same house and that it would be natural if Ms. Mira Milosevic with JUL (Yugoslav United Left) remained "down there" in Tolstojeva, and the President moved with SPS (Socialist Party of Serbia) "up" to Uzicka. Guesses are made if they will be allowed to use the pavement in front of No. 16, since some time ago one could not walk in front of No. 15 and the guards ordered the passersby to cross to the other side. Others place bets as to the mansion where "Milosevic's personal guests" will stay when and if they come. And who will be the first personal guest? Lord Owen?

Joking aside, it is possible already to list a few "residences" used by the President. The former "New Court" which formerly housed the residency of Serbia in Andricev Venac, has become only a building wherein works and wherein on a much filmed settee receives the President (even though unofficial rumors say that he will abandon that building because he is bothered by the hustle and bustle in the center of Belgrade). Important secret and semisecret meetings take place in the former Tito's mansion at Karadjordjevo. Certain things also happen in the mansion in Dobanovci which belongs to the army. Not bad for the shrunken Yugoslavia. Tito, after all, had at his disposal a much larger area.

And whose house is Mirko Marjanovic moving into? Before the Second

World War the house at Uzicka 40, smaller than No. 16, as is in order, but of late redone, painted, polished, belonged to the Czech family Baukal. Mr. Baukal was the manager of the Czech Bank in Belgrade. The Baukals left the house during the war and nothing is known about their offspring. After the liberation the mansion was taken over by the state, and whether it paid something to the Baukals who were foreign citizens is not known either (the Americans who owned it for a while were paid the house at No. 23 subsequently also an official mansion of the Federal Government, where Milan Panic lived). Some Dedinje residents who remained in the area throughout the war and after it, remember that its first postwar inhabitant was the third secretary of the Soviet Embassy. He enjoyed the benefits of Uzicka 40 until 1948, and then for a long time it was inhabited by Pavle Pekic, high official of the federal State Security Service, with his family.

Be that as it may, Uzicka 40 has not been done up from the outside

only but, according to those who had official opportunity to enter, also very lavishly furnished inside. An electronic alarm has been installed, something which can only be described as a small pavilion substituted for the standard sentrybox. The hedge which separated its grounds from the passage between Uzicka and Tolstojeva (a humble passage where, according to elder inhabitants "drug addicts met and assaulted people") has been replaced by a serious wall. All is, therefore, ready for the future distinguished resident.

It is possible that the newcomers to Uzicka will still do something useful for the area. It stands to reason, namely, that they will care about the neighborhood where they presumably intend to stay for a little while and thus at least put a stop to further unlawful building to which has succumbed of late maybe somewhat crude but nevertheless remarkably wealthy and powerful mafia which "seizes lots, heaps up buildings, builds houses of 400 sq.m. and more, with, in addition, two underground floors and with snipers' nests on the roof" as asserted for VREME by Mr. Preza Zdravkovic, president of the Society for the Conservation of the Original Environment of Senjak, Dedinje and Topcidersko brdo, who adds: "Born of a hungry father, stays hungry. Buildings, in Dedinje, even though there are nicer areas in the city, are a status symbol for people who can't live like civilized people even in fifty squares. This is the frame of mind left over from Josip Broz, always a locksmith in his heart, who wanted to move into his master's house. These will also rise and go, leaving the area ravaged." Maybe they will "rise and go", maybe they won't. And if they do go eventually who can foresee who will come in their wake?