Dušan "Đuša" Vulićević (

Azanja Azanja (Serbian Cyrillic: Азања) is a village in Central Serbia, in the municipality of Smederevska Palanka. It lies in the region of Great Morava valley, on rivers of Jezava and Jasenica. Azanja is 160 meters above mean sea level. With 4,01 ...

, 1771 -

Smederevo Smederevo ( sr-Cyrl, Смедерево, ) is a city and the administrative center of the Podunavlje District in eastern Serbia. It is situated on the right bank of the Danube, about downstream of the Serbian capital, Belgrade. According t ...

, 1805) was a

voivode Voivode (, also spelled ''voievod'', ''voevod'', ''voivoda'', ''vojvoda'' or ''wojewoda'') is a title denoting a military leader or warlord in Central, Southeastern and Eastern Europe since the Early Middle Ages. It primarily referred to the ...

(duke) in Smederevo and one of the first Serbian revolutionary organizers of the

First Serbian Uprising The First Serbian Uprising ( sr, Prvi srpski ustanak, italics=yes, sr-Cyrl, Први српски устанак; tr, Birinci Sırp Ayaklanması) was an uprising of Serbs in the Sanjak of Smederevo against the Ottoman Empire from 14 February 1 ...

. He was one of the first victims in the battles for the liberation of Smederevo. As a respectable merchant, Đuša was a legitimately elected leader of the insurgent Serbs from the Smederevo

nahija A nāḥiyah ( ar, , plural ''nawāḥī'' ), also nahiya or nahia, is a regional or local type of administrative division that usually consists of a number of villages or sometimes smaller towns. In Tajikistan, it is a second-level division w ...

and he led his people in the fight against the Turks. Petar Jokić, the commander of

Karađorđe Đorđe Petrović ( sr-Cyrl, Ђорђе Петровић, ), better known by the sobriquet Karađorđe ( sr-Cyrl, Карађорђе, lit=Black George, ; – ), was a Serbian revolutionary who led the struggle for his country's indepen ...

's personal guard, states that there were 200 of them, and with Dr. Miroslav Djordjević the number of insurgents increased to 400, and that, according to an Austrian report, on 25 February, Karađorđe was in

with his main detachment. He was also accompanied by Belgrade Metropolitan Leontije, Pavle (Stojko) Krivokuća of Adžibegovac and other insurgents. The same author says "how Karađorđe was in close contact with Đuša and that he first transmitted Karađorđe's orders to the Pozarevac

through him. According to these instructions, the uprising spread in eastern Serbia as well." After a year and a half of war, the Duke of Smederevo, Đuša Vulićević, died bravely in a battle with the Turks on the bridge (near today's church) in Smederevo. Historian

Milan Milićević Milan Đakov Milićević ( Serbian Cyrillic: Милан Ђаков Милићевић; June 4, 1831 – November 17, 1908) was a Serbian writer, biographer, publicist, ethnologist and one of the founders of the Association of Writers of Serbi ...

writes that he was first buried in the gate near the Old Church in Krnjevo and that the following year the remains were transferred to the Pinosava Church, between Azanja and Kušatko, where they are still located today. The death of Duke Đuša and the conquest of Smederevo was sung in the song "Karađorđe took Smederevo" by

Joksim Nović-Otočanin Joksim Nović-Otočanin (15 March 1807, in Zalužnica – 18 January 1868, in Novi Sad) was a Serbian adventurer, freedom fighter, and romantic writer of verse and prose. Biography Joksim Nović was born in Zalužnica, in Lika, on 15 March 1807. He ...

back in 1864. Ж. Талијан, Мирис тамјана, Нови Сад, 2014, 15 After the death of Duke Đuša, the people of the Smederevo and region chose Vujica Vulićević, Đuša's younger brother, as their leader. Today, Đušina Street in Belgrade carries the name in his honour.

Origin

According to scholar Borivoje Drobnjaković (1890-1961), the Vulićević family hailed from

Kosovo Kosovo ( sq, Kosova or ; sr-Cyrl, Косово ), officially the Republic of Kosovo ( sq, Republika e Kosovës, links=no; sr, Република Косово, Republika Kosovo, links=no), is a partially recognised state in Southeast Eur ...

. The grandfather of Vujica and Đuša had two sons, Vulić and Đorđe, so the Vulićevićs and Đorđevićs were born. Upon arrival, their houses were in the area of today's village center, more precisely in the lower part near the bus station. Like other insurgent leaders, they were engaged in the trade before the uprising, thus gaining capital to fight the Turks. This put them in a position to be one of the organizers of the First Serbian Uprising.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Vulićević, Đuša 1771 births 1805 deaths