Petar Živković

Petar Živković
11th Prime Minister of Yugoslavia
In office 7 January 1929 – 4 April 1932
Monarch	Alexander I
Preceded by	Anton Korošec
Succeeded by	Vojislav Marinković
Minister of the Interior
In office 7 January 1929 – 5 January 1932
Prime Minister	himself
Preceded by	Anton Korošec
Succeeded by	Milan Srškić
Minister of the Army, Navy and Air Force
In office 22 October 1934 – 7 March 1936
Prime Minister	Nikola Uzunović (1934) Bogoljub Jevtić (1934-35) Milan Stojadinović (1935-36)
Preceded by	Milan Milovanović
Succeeded by	Ljubomir Marić
Minister without Portfolio
In office 1943–1943/45
Monarch	Peter II
Preceded by	None
Succeeded by	None
Personal details
Born	1 January 1879 Negotin, Serbia
Died	3 February 1947 (aged 68) Paris, France
Nationality	Yugoslav
Political party	Yugoslav Radical Peasants' Democracy Yugoslav National Party
Religion	Serbian Orthodox
Military service
Allegiance	Yugoslavia
Service/branch	Royal Yugoslav Army
Years of service	1903-1943
Rank	General of the Army
Battles/wars	World War I

Petar Živković (Cyrillic script: Петар Живковић; 1 January 1879 – 3 February 1947) was a Serbian soldier and political figure in Yugoslavia. He was Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia from 7 January 1929 until 4 April 1932.

Life

Petar Živković was born in Negotin, Principality of Serbia (present-day Bor District, Serbia) in 1879. A soldier at the Serbian court, he helped overthrow the Obrenović dynasty with the assassination of King Aleksandar Obrenović (11 June), which was orchestrated by colonel Dragutin Dimitrijević, the founder and leading member of the secret nationalist organization Black Hand. Živković later founded the secret organization White Hand in 1912, which served to counter the power of the Black Hand. In 1921, Alexander I of Yugoslavia appointed Živković commander of the Palace Guards, but he was briefly demoted due to accusations of a young guardsman that he tried to seduce the youth.^[1] So in 1929 he was instead appointed Prime Minister as part of the 6 January Dictatorship. General Živković, who was set up as strong man by royal decree, was Bogoljub Jevtić's brother-in-law, the closest adviser to the head of State.

Živković held the office as a member of the Yugoslav Radical Peasants' Democracy (JRSD), which was soon the only legal party in Yugoslavia, due to his electoral "reforms." He resigned as prime minister in 1932, and shortly thereafter founded the Yugoslav National Party, becoming its president in 1936.

Meanwhile, Alexander I had been assassinated, in 1934; his cousin Pavle Karađorđević took office as regent for the 11-year-old Petar II. Upon Pavle's 1941 signing of the Tripartite Pact, Živković left Yugoslavia, ahead of the Nazi invasion (see Balkans Campaign). He became part of the Yugoslav government in exile.

In 1946 he was tried in absentia in Yugoslavia and sentenced to death. He remained in exile in France, dying in Paris in 1947, aged 68.

References

1. In this reference in Serbian on Vesti Online

External links

• "Zivkovic, Petar." Encyclopædia Britannica Premium Service.