160 years of statistics in Serbia
The beginning of official statistics in Serbia is considered to be April 18, 1862, when Prince Mihailo Obrenović signed an act obliging the Economic Department of the Ministry of Finance to conduct statistical affairs for all branches of state administration. The head of the department was Prof. Vladimir Jakšić, PhD (1824–1899), who in 1850 proposed the establishment of the State Statistical Office.
The most important statistical work of that time was the State Gazette of Serbia. The development of various areas of economic and social statistics and the harmonization of the population census with international recommendations has begun. The first law on statistics was passed in 1881, and as early as 1885, Serbia was among the 23 countries from which members of the International Statistical Institute (founded in the same year) were proposed. After Jakšić retired, Bogoljub Jovanović, PhD (1839–1924) took over the management of statistics in 1888. The period of development of statistics under the leadership of Jakšić and Jovanović is considered the period of its flourishing in Serbia.
Following modern international trends and the development of new technologies, the activities of official statistics, which began 160 years ago, continue and are still developing today. Instead of the State Gazette, the Statistical Yearbook is published, printed books are replaced by electronic publications and databases, while electronic dissemination has taken the leading role in presenting the results of official statistics.
Economic Department, Statistical Department, National Statistical Administration Office, Statistical Office, Bureau of Statistics and Records, and Republic Statistical Office – are all the names of institutions that have kept official Serbian statistics for the past 160 years, produced and published reliable, accurate and comparable results, in accordance with international statistical standards.
150 years of the Serbian Medical Association
The Serbian Medical Association was founded on May 4, 1872 in Belgrade, on the initiative of Dr Vladan Đorđević, the first Serbian educated surgeon. The founders of the Serbian Medical Association were: Aćim Medović, Jovan Mašin, Đorđe Klinkovski, Jovan Valenta, Panagiotis Papakostopoulos, Josif Holec, Bernhard Brill, Sava Petrović, Julius Lenk, Marko Polak, Vladan Đorđević, Petar Ostojić and dentist Ilija Ranimir. The first president was Dr Aćim Medović, and the secretary was Dr Vladan Đorđević.
In 1874, the society started the magazine Serbian Archives of Medicine. During the years of its existence, SMA has initiated a series of measures in the prevention of infectious diseases, and has launched an initiative to establish a Fund to support poverty-stricken doctors, their widows and orphans. The Association played a key role in the formation of the School for Midwives in 1899, and was also greatly credited for the establishment of the Ministry of Health (1918), the Medical Faculty in Belgrade (1919), the Medical Chamber and the School for Nurses (1923). Thanks to patrons and legators, the House of the Serbian Medical Association (1932) was built in 1-3 Kraljice Natalije St.
Today, SMA has over 25,000 members, and its activities are performed through 82 branches and 70 specialist sections, through the Association of Doctors of Vojvodina and the Association of Doctors of Kosovo and Metohija, as well as the Academy of Medical Sciences SMA, founded in 1976. The Association publishes professional journals: Serbian Archives of Medicine and the Dental Gazette of Serbia, and has published hundreds of monographs, collections of papers, handbooks and other publications. For more than 100 years, SMA was the only organization that provided postgraduate education to doctors and dentists, and today it is its main bearer. The Association also has a permanent museum exhibition with a large number of exhibits and a very rich library fund with professional publications
Today, the Serbian Medical Association, one of the oldest national institutions, is a dynamic and vital organization and the largest professional association in Serbia, which functions exclusively thanks to the voluntary activity of its members.
75 Years of the Institute for the Serbian Language of the Serbian Academy of Sciences
The Institute of the Serbian Language of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts is the central scientific institution in Serbia for the systematic, comprehensive study of the Serbian language in terms of synchrony and diachrony and for the production of major lexicographic and linguogeographic works – dictionaries and atlases. It was founded on July 15, 1947 within the Serbian Academy of Sciences (later the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts), on the foundations of the Lexicographic Department, which was formed in 1893 by the Serbian Royal Academy at the initiative of academician Stojan Novaković. The Institute took over from the Academy the work of the Lexicographic Department in the production of a large dictionary of the Serbian language as one of its most important tasks.
The first director of the Institute was Academician Aleksandar Belić, the most prominent Serbian and one of the world’s leading Slavic Studies scholars in the first half of the 20th century. The future academicians Irena Grickat, Milka Ivić, Pavle Ivić and Mitar Pešikan were formed as scholars at the Institute. The mission of the Institute is achieved through six departments: Department for the Linguistic Research of the Modern Serbian Language and the Dictionary of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts, Old Church Slavonic Department, Etymology Department, Dialectology Department, Standard Language Department and the Digitization Department. The Institute is involved in the development of Serbian Language Studies through the publication of linguistic journals – two co-published with the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts: Srpski dijalektološki zbornik, initiated by A. Belić in 1905 (68 volumes), and Južnoslovenski filolog, initiated in 1913 by A. Belić and Ljubomir Stojanović (77 volumes). In 1932, Academician A. Belić launched Naš jezik, a journal dedicated to the study of modern Serbian language and nurturing language culture (52 volumes in the new series). Since 2000, the journal Lingvističke aktuelnosti has been published online. In 1970, the Institute started a new series, Biblioteka Južnoslovenskog filologa (25 volumes). In 2004, the series Monografije was launched, where the research results of the Institute’s associates are published. Along with these publications, the Institute occasionally publishes edited volumes and takes part in co-publishing projects.
75 Years of Institute of International Politics and Economics
The Institute of International Politics and Economics was established on 8 December 1947 by the Decree of the Government of the Federal People’s Republic of Yugoslavia, with the idea of providing expertise in foreign policy decision-making to the Presidency of the Government. It is one of the oldest state research institutes in the Europe exclusively dedicated to the study of international relations. The research at the Institute includes phenomena and processes in the political, security, legal and economic aspects of international relations, especially those determining the position of the Republic of Serbia in world politics and the global economy. The research is primarily aimed at finding sound policy solutions to the immediate and medium-term international challenges the domestic foreign policy-makers are facing. The Institute has been intertwined with the needs of state bodies with competencies in foreign policy and foreign economic relations of former SFR Yugoslavia, the FR Yugoslavia, the State Union of Serbia and Montenegro, and today, the Republic of Serbia. The Library and Information Centre has one of the largest libraries specialised in international relations with more than 150,000 titles, among which more than 500 books from 19th century. The role in public diplomacy has also been part of its activities including regular communication with representatives of foreign diplomatic missions and international organisations, and participation in the work of various intergovernmental fora and bodies. For outstanding achievements and contribution to the study of international relations, as well on the occasion of the 70th anniversary, Institute of International Politics and Economics was awarded the Sretenje Medal by the decree of the President of the Republic of Serbia on 9 February 2017.
