Živojin Misić's generation won the right for us to decide for ourselves

Defence Minister Aleksandar Vulin, opening the "Mišić’s Days" event in Mionica said that the generation of Živojin Mišić won the right for us to decide for ourselves.

- No generation in the Serbian people wanted to give it to anyone, neither will this one. Živojin Mišić and his generation gave us Serbia for which it is worth lasting. We gave our children life, and now we owe them Serbia in which it is worth living, Minister Vulin said. Never in the history of the Serbian people we have given the wrong answer to the question of whether to choose between freedom or anything else. Freedom. And not others will determine our friends for us. We will. And the enemies will determine us by themselves, without our desire and guilt. The wars in which Serbia was bleeding were the wars waged and asked for by the others who were brought here; Serbia won the wars it waged because it had no other choice, not because the Serbian peasant was eager for a knife and blood. The wars that others have determined, Serbia waged because it had to survive. That is why Živojin Mišić is big and that is why every Mišić is big. That is why all those who still persevere with remembering them today are sure that even this generation will not respond wrongly to the question of choosing between freedom or anything else. I am happy to know that another generation is growing that will not let others decide who their friends are and who are the enemies. When I hear these children's voices, I rejoice because I know how long our Serbia live, how much it is ascending, how much it grows, Minister Vulin said.

He said that if you try to deprive a Serbian peasant from his liberty, only then one can see that the shy, diligent man is the greatest fighter whom Europe and Asia have remembered as stubborn and angry, who is not surrendering, who is tough and persistent, and whom you can never overpower.

- Ask from the Serbian peasant whatever you want and you will get more than you asked, just do not ask him for freedom, not to be named his name, to make him write the way he does not want to write, just do not ask him not to be masters on his own land, not to determine who his friends are and who are his enemies, not to give names to his children, his country not to be called Serbia, just do not ask him to let others decide for himself instead of him what to buy and for what to sell. Živojin was great because he never stopped being that little man, he did not cease to be a peasant son. Whenever we forgot where we came from, we were small. When we were proud of our village and peasants, we were great. The Field Marshal was always for the people and coming from the people. It has been 99 years since the Great War and we have not yet forgotten his name and the names of all those who walked in front of him and beside him. If they had not existed, would we exist? If they had not had the courage to preserve their name and their language, their faith, how would you and me speak today, what would we believe and how would we write. If they had not existed, would this proud and free Serbia exist, Minister Vulin said.

At the event by which Mionica celebrates the name of its most famous fellow citizen, Field Marshal Živojin Mišić, officers of the Ministry of Defence and the Serbian Armed Forces, Chief of the Intelligence and Surveillance Department of the Serbian Armed Forces General Staff, Brigadier General Ilija Todorov, and the first ranked officer of the 60th class of General Staff Course, Lieutenant Colonel Staniša Đikić from the Department for Defence Technologies, were presented with "Field Marshal Živojin Mišić" golden plaques. The plaques, which are awarded for the results achieved in the field of military service, science and doctrine, were presented to them by the Mayor of Mionica Boban Janković.

At the yesterday's ceremony, the plaques were also presented to the Minister of Youth and Sports, Vanija Udovičić, Zagorka Stojanović and Radovan Ristović.

The programme of this year's event began by laying wreaths on the monument of Field Marshal Mišić at the square of the same name in the centre of Mionica, after which an exhibition of paintings by Ljuba Popović, from the collection of the Modern Gallery in the Cultural Centre, was opened. At the opening ceremony, after the awarding of the plaques, a fragment from the play "Kolubarska bitka" was performed, and the programme of the first evening was closed with a concert of the dance group "Una Saga Serbica". This year the event will last until 22nd July