LIFE AND WORK OF SAVKO DUKANAC

Savko Dukanac was born on 29th of September 1887 in the village Vuckovica, district: Dragacevo. According to the tradition family Dukanac comes from Skadar area. They came to Dragacevo district in 1500 and in 1700 name Dukanac appeared for the first time on one grave in that area. According to the tradition first Dukanac's name was Vucko therefore the whole village was named Vuckovica.

Our guest of honour originates from the respectable domestic house of farmer Petronije, so the deep attachment to village remained one of his important features. He was a great benefactor of the church in this village, and he represented the villagers for free until the end of his life.

He completed high school in Belgrade (First High School of Belgrade) in 1897. Having graduated from the Faculty of Law in Belgrade, he went to Austria, Vienna to complete specialization studies, and got married there. By this marriage there were two children: son Ljubomir, born in 1910, Lecturer at the Faculty of Law in Belgrade, who died very soon in 1949, and daughter Olga, Painter, who lived for a long time. The son of deceased Ljubomir, Savko (he was named after his grandfather) was born in 1942, expert in information science, gave the basic data to me, on which I am grateful.

After he returned from the specialization studies and completed training period he passed the Attorney at law's exam and opened an office in Belgrade on 8th of October 1908. He was an Attorney at Law for 45 years. He submitted a request for retirement on 26th August 1953 and he died on 5th September 1953!

He took part in the Balkan wars as well as in the First World War, when he went to Albania with the army, and returned to the liberated country in 1918, as a Reserve Lieutenant Colonel.

From the early days he was actively involved in politics, he was a member of Independent Radical Party, and afterwards he joined Ljuba Davidovic. They founded Democratic Party, of which he was one of the most respected members, and by his political speeches he provoked great respect in the country.

As an Attorney at Law, he was remembered by his numerous defenses of everybody who needed aid, especially those who were trialed by the Country Protection Law. Those were mostly left-wingers or those who openly expressed communist ideas. Not only as a politician but also by his speeches he became one of the most famous Attorneys at Law in the country. He was a remarkable expert in law science, especially criminal law. He was free in his speeches, so he used all his defenses to criticize all the irregularities in society, pointing out that law is above everything and that it has to be respected. Pointing at breaking the law, he wanted to contribute to correction of it, and even more to the need that it was applied. Thus he was in line of his party, which was very influential among the people, pointing out that Court is the most important organ, which by means of its work, and even more by application of law, should provoke respect of the public.

He devoted great attention to the defendant's personality, circumstances and conditions in which he/she lived and worked, i.e. circumstances under which the incriminated act took place. As an extraordinary analyst, he masterly knew how to separate important from unimportant facts, presenting and demanding that the evidence according to which the turn took place were presented, which he knew how to do in an excellent manner, as it is characteristic of great Attorneys. His pleas were a demonstration of the speech skill, which consisted of the beauty of spoken words, and even more of a smart legally put thought, which demanded that everyone gave it a thorough thinking before the decision was made.

He was, and everybody admitted that, a great knower not only of law, but also of philosophy, psychology, literature and especially history. He prepared his defenses thoroughly, thus expressing his persistence, conscientiousness and unyielding personality when it came to interest, especially justifiable interest of his client. Because of that he forced everybody, whether it was an individual or an institution, to hold before making a decision! Due to all these, he was one of the two greatest speakers of ours, before the Second World War, beside Ph D Radoje Vukcevic.

As he had a great working energy - he paid back to his profession by undertaking many duties in the organs of Bar Association.

He was a member of the Board of Bar Association in Belgrade, which objected openly to the Government and signing the Triple Treaty. Besides Savko Dukanac, Ph D Ivan Ribar, Ph D Milenko Stojic, Ph D Janko Olib, Ph D Vidan Blagojevic, Ph D Radoje Vukcevic, Tripo Zubic, Ljubomir Radovanovic, Sima Alkalaj, Bogdan Lekic, Dragomir Ivkovic and Luka Pesic took part in that historical session under leadership of Vladimir Simic, when the Attorneys at Law of Serbia showed their unity.

The following words of Savko Dukanac were recorded in history: "Now when all the minds and all the powers of our most moralistic, smart and honest sons should unite, we, the Government, at least its Serbian part of it have the weakest men who do not represent anybody but themselves. Thus, all that is important to us is in danger. Freedom for which we bled in streams and independence is in danger, because from now on foreigners will lay waste to the country and do what they pleased, and we will be their slaves. I, as a Serb, will not allow that it would be sold to anyone. Therefore I strongly object to joining the Triple Treaty, as done by the Government!"

At those turbulent times that was his attitude, as an Attorney at Law, but after 1945 he admitted that it was more the attitude of the politician because he was one of the most prominent leaders of Democratic Party, which as all the other Serbian political parties severely objected to the Triple Treaty. One part of historians thinks that the tragedy of Yugoslavia and everything that happened, and especially how it ended up, was a consequence of that, premature, unthoughtful and stupid act, which happened due to connections of part of the military leadership with English intelligence service.

In the same way his speeches made on the sessions of Temporary National Assembly (widened ABNOY) in the period from 7th to 24th of August, 1945, at which he took part as a member of parliament from Democratic Party, elected on the latest election of the pre-war Yugoslavia (December 1938), were remembered. The duels between few democratic members of parliament led by Milan Grol, President of the party and Vice President of DF Yugoslavia's Government with the most important leaders of communist power: Kardelj, Djilas, Pijade, not to mention other "hypocrites" gathered around so called National Front, right arms of new founded communist system - were a point of honour to Dukanac, Ph D Joksimovic, Grol and others, because even then they deeply observed all that Serbian nation was to experience under newly imported and under the regulations of Kominterna founded order whose AIM was - destroying the Serbian nation.

It was made impossible for them to work and speak, so they did not take part in the elections, and the later development of Federal People's Republic of Yugoslavia, and later Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, did only confirm the in advance set anti-Yugoslavian, or lets better say anti-Serbian path which was initiated in 1974, and was ended in 1991 by destruction of SFR Yugoslavia!

After the Second World War, according to the new regulations he had to register in the Book of Attorneys at Law if he wanted to continue the work. He did so on 1st of July 1945. From the end of 1945 until his death in 1953 he worked only and exclusively as an Attorney at Law.