Dragiša Pavlović

Dragiša "Buca" Pavlović ( sr-Cyrl, Драгиша "Буца" Павловић; 5 October 1943 – 9 September 1996) was a Serbian politician and academic. He played the key role in opposition to Slobodan Milošević and his rise to power. Pavlović was the president of the City Committee of the League of Communists of Belgrade from 23 April 1986 until his resignation on 29 September 1987.

Early life and career

Dragiša Pavlović was born on 5 October 1943 in Kragujevac, Nazi-occupied Serbia. His mother was a schoolteacher. During youth, he performed arts and earned the nickname "Buca". He became a member of the League of Communists of Yugoslavia (SKJ) in 1963. He initially studied at the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering of the University of Kragujevac, before moving to the Faculty of Economics where he earned his master's degree in 1979. He received his doctorate in 1982 at the Faculty of Political Sciences of the University of Belgrade.

He started his career at a repair company Kompresor, and then worked in the Institute for Planning Systems. He was briefly the director of the newspaper publishing company Svetlost, having been appointed there in January 1973. Pavlović began his academic career at the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, where he worked as a part-time lecturer on the "Socio-Economic System of SFRY" course. He also worked at the Faculty of Organizational Sciences of the University of Belgrade from 1973 to 1975, and again from 1979 to 1981.

Political career

Political beginnings

After moving from Kragujevac to Belgrade in the early 1980s, Pavlović entered politics and befriended Ivan Stambolić. He was initially a member of the Presidency of the City Committee of the League of Communists of Belgrade, having been elected to the City Committee on 14 April 1982. During his term, he supported the resignation of from the City Committee and was an active member on economic issues. In 1984, he also became the president of the Belgrade Chamber of Commerce; as president, he worked on reforming the institution. He was re-elected to this position in June 1985.

In March 1986, the City Committee nominated Pavlović to the position of president of the City Committee. He was elected president at the session on 23 April 1986, succeeding Slobodan Milošević. His secretary was Borislav Kuzmanović. A month later, on 28 May 1986, Pavlović was elected member of the Presidency of the Central Committee of the League of Communists of Serbia at the 10th Congress. At the same congress, Milošević was elected as president of the League of Communists of Serbia, as Stambolić's successor. In June, Pavlović was also elected member of the Presidency of the City Committee of the Socialist Alliance of Working People of Belgrade.

During 1986, the City Committee under Pavlović worked on forging closer relations between Belgrade and Kosovo. At a session in June, the City Committee discussed cooperation between Serbian and Kosovar institutions; there, Pavlović expressed his opposition to nationalism and to the emigration of Serbs and Montenegrins from Kosovo. In mid-July, he was part of the Belgrade delegation on economic cooperation between Belgrade and Kosovo. Later that month, he met with Boris Yeltsin, the first secretary of the Moscow City Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, with whom he discussed strengthening cooperation between Belgrade and Moscow.

Stambolić also sought to tackle the Kosovo issue in 1985 by urging the government to discuss the issue for the first time since 1981. In response to this, the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts (SANU) selected a committee of academics to draft a document which became known as SANU Memorandum, after it was leaked by the newspaper ''Večernje novosti'' in September 1986. Upon the leak, SKJ, Milošević, and Pavlović, denounced the document for its nationalistic writings. Pavlović considered the policies listed in the document to be in opposition to the policies of SKJ and suggested that they could in return boost the support for non-Serb nationalism and conservatism.

8th session

This was seen as a critique of Milošević and party politics. Milošević denounced Pavlović as being soft on Albanian radicals, contrary to advice from President Ivan Stambolić. On 23–24 September 1987, at the subsequent eighth session of the Central Committee, one that lasted more than 20 hours, and was broadcast live on the state television, Milošević had Pavlović deposed, to the utter embarrassment of Ivan Stambolić; Stambolić was dismissed in December 1987. His dismissal marked the rise of Milošević and his faction inside SKS.

Later life and final years

Pavlović retired from politics after the 8th session and was kicked out of SKJ in 1988. After retiring, he lost his status as a lecturer at the University of Kragujevac and tried to obtain a job in the public sector, but was unsuccessful. He then moved to Slovenia, where he obtained a job, but occasionally came to Serbia to visit his parents and his friend Vidosav Stevanović. He owned a car rental business named Hermes from late 1989.

Pavlović remained a lecturer at the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering until 1990.

Pavlović died on 9 September 1996, aged 52. His funeral was attended by only a few relatives and close friends, among them being Stambolić.

Legacy

Milan Milošević, a ''Vreme'' journalist, wrote that Pavlović was "a victim of an attempt to forcibly change the broken system" (''žrtva pokušaja da se sistem koji se slomio promeni iznutra'') and was one of the first to "warn the danger of the fire that was ignited in those days" (''upozorio na opasnost od požara koji je tih dana raspaljen'') on Kosovo. He also opined that Pavlović was essentially cold-bloodedly purged at the 8th session.

Pavlović was a social democrat, and anti-nationalist.

Pavlović was a co-author and author of four books in total. His last book, ''Lightly Promised Speed'', is about the 8th session.

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Pavlovic, Dragisa
1943 births
1996 deaths
Anti-nationalists
League of Communists of Serbia politicians
Politicians from Kragujevac
Serbian communists
University of Belgrade Faculty of Political Science alumni
University of Kragujevac alumni