Čučuk Stana ( sr-cyr, Чучук Стана, "Little Stana") was a Serbian female

hajduk A hajduk ( hu, hajdúk, plural of ) is a type of irregular infantry found in Central and parts of Southeast Europe from the late 16th to mid 19th centuries. They have reputations ranging from bandits to freedom fighters depending on time, p ...

, the second wife of

Hajduk Veljko Veljko Petrović ( sr-cyr, Вељко Петровић, ; c. 1780 – 1813), known simply as Hajduk Veljko (Хајдук Вељко, ǎjduːk v̞ɛ̌ːʎkɔ, was one of the '' vojvodas'' (military commanders) of the Serbian Revolutionary force ...

and later married the Greek fighter

Giorgakis Olympios Giorgakis Olympios ( el, Γιωργάκης Ολύμπιος; ro, Iordache Olimpiotul; sr, Капетан Јоргаћ; 1772–1821) was a Greek ''armatolos'' and military commander during the Greek War of Independence against the Ottoman Empir ...

. She is also a character in

Serb epic poetry Serbian epic poetry ( sr, Српске епске народне песме, Srpske epske narodne pesme) is a form of epic poetry created by Serbs originating in today's Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Montenegro and North Macedonia. The ...

Biography

She was born in 1795, in the village Sikole near

Negotin Negotin ( sr-cyrl, Неготин, ; ro, Negotin) is a town and municipality located in the Bor District of the eastern Serbia. It is situated near the borders between Serbia, Romania and Bulgaria. It is the judicial center of the Bor District. ...

Serbia Serbia (, ; Serbian language, Serbian: , , ), officially the Republic of Serbia (Serbian language, Serbian: , , ), is a landlocked country in Southeast Europe, Southeastern and Central Europe, situated at the crossroads of the Pannonian Bas ...

to a family of Herzegovinian migrants. She had two sisters, Stojna and Stamena and later, a much younger brother Mihailo. Before the brother grew up, being three sisters, they all wore men's clothes out of the house, because they had no adult brother to protect them. She got her nickname "Čučuk" (from

Turkish Turkish may refer to: *a Turkic language spoken by the Turks * of or about Turkey ** Turkish language *** Turkish alphabet ** Turkish people, a Turkic ethnic group and nation *** Turkish citizen, a citizen of Turkey *** Turkish communities and mi ...

''küçük'' = ''small'') due to her short stature. She finished school in

Bela Crkva Bela Crkva ( sr-cyrl, Бела Црква, ; german: Weißkirchen; hu, Fehértemplom; ro, Biserica Albă) is a town and municipality located in the South Banat District of the autonomous province of Vojvodina, Serbia. The town has a populatio ...

. She met

in 1812. The two of them lived together even though he still had another, married wife, as divorce was virtually impossible to obtain at the time in an Orthodox country in serious upheaval, that Serbia was during the

Serbian Revolution The Serbian Revolution ( sr, Српска револуција / ''Srpska revolucija'') was a national uprising and constitutional change in Serbia that took place between 1804 and 1835, during which this territory evolved from an Ottoman prov ...

. Veljko was killed in 1813 and she went to live in

Pančevo Pančevo (Serbian Cyrillic: Панчево, ; german: Pantschowa; hu, Pancsova; ro, Panciova; sk, Pánčevo) is a city and the administrative center of the South Banat District in the autonomous province of Vojvodina, Serbia. It is located on ...

. She later married captain and hero of Greek War of Independence

, with whom she moved to

Wallachia Wallachia or Walachia (; ro, Țara Românească, lit=The Romanian Land' or 'The Romanian Country, ; archaic: ', Romanian Cyrillic alphabet: ) is a historical and geographical region of Romania. It is situated north of the Lower Danube and so ...

and later

Bucharest Bucharest ( , ; ro, București ) is the capital and largest city of Romania, as well as its cultural, industrial, and financial centre. It is located in the southeast of the country, on the banks of the Dâmbovița River, less than north of ...

. They had three children: Milan, Aleksandar, and Jevrosima. When Giorgakis was also killed during the ''Battle of Secu monastery'' in

Moldavia Moldavia ( ro, Moldova, or , literally "The Country of Moldavia"; in Romanian Cyrillic: or ; chu, Землѧ Молдавскаѧ; el, Ἡγεμονία τῆς Μολδαβίας) is a historical region and former principality in Centr ...

on 23 September 1821 at the beginning of

Greek Revolution The Greek War of Independence, also known as the Greek Revolution or the Greek Revolution of 1821, was a successful war of independence by Greek revolutionaries against the Ottoman Empire between 1821 and 1829. The Greeks were later assisted by ...

and for the sake of their children's security, she moved with them to

Khotyn Khotyn ( uk, Хотин, ; ro, Hotin, ; see other names) is a city in Dnistrovskyi Raion, Chernivtsi Oblast of western Ukraine and is located south-west of Kamianets-Podilskyi. It hosts the administration of Khotyn urban hromada, one of the h ...

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...

, where other people of the

took refuge. After the liberation of

Greece Greece,, or , romanized: ', officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the southern tip of the Balkans, and is located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Greece shares land borders with ...

Stana with children moved to

Athens Athens ( ; el, Αθήνα, Athína ; grc, Ἀθῆναι, Athênai (pl.) ) is both the capital and largest city of Greece. With a population close to four million, it is also the seventh largest city in the European Union. Athens dominates ...

, where she got a small state pension as the widow of the hero Olympios. She died in 1849 or 1850. In 1907 a play was written about her life, and music was composed by

Stevan Hristić Stevan Hristić ( sr-cyr, Стеван Христић; 19 June 1885 – 21 August 1958) was Serbian composer, conductor, pedagogue, and music writer. A prominent representative of the late romanticist style in Serbian music of the first half o ...

. A 1972 Yugoslav TV film "Čučuk Stana" was made based on the play, and she was played by

Svetlana Bojković Svetlana "Ceca" Bojković ( sr-cyr, Светлана "Цеца" Бојковић; born 14 December 1947) is a Serbian actress. She began her career in 1967 in the film '' Jednog dana moj Jamele'', but her greatest movie success came ten years la ...

. A book about her life, ''Čučuk Stana, 1795-1849 - žena Hajduk Veljka i grčkog narodnog heroja Georgakisa Olimpiosa'', by Dušica Popović Stojković was published in 1981.https://openlibrary.org/b/OL3197838M/Čučuk_Stana_1795-1849

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cucuk Stana 1795 births 19th-century deaths 19th-century Serbian nobility Serbian revolutionaries Serbian expatriates in Romania Serbian expatriates in Greece Characters in Serbian epic poetry Year of death uncertain People from Negotin 19th-century Serbian women Women in European warfare Women in 19th-century warfare