Lazar Dokić

Lazar Dokić (Serbian Cyrillic: Лазар Докић; 27 September 1845 – 13 December 1893) was a Serbian doctor, professor of anatomy, politician, academic[1] and a tutor to king Alexander Obrenović. He served as Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Serbia as well as Minister of Education and Religious Affairs from 1 April to 4 June 1893 then to 16 June to 5 December 1893.[2]

Doctor Lazar Dokić
48th Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Serbia
In office 1 April 1893 – 5 December 1893
Monarch	Alexander I
Preceded by	Jovan Avakumović
Succeeded by	Sava Grujić
Personal details
Born	27 September 1845 Belgrade, Serbia
Died	13 December 1893 (aged 48) Opatija, Austria-Hungary
Nationality	Serb
Political party	People's Radical Party

Biography

Dokić finished elementary school and gymnasium in Belgrade and studied medicine in Vienna and Prague, back in Serbia he worked as a county doctor in Užice for fifteen years. During the Serbo-Turkish War he was a military doctor in the Šumadija Corps. After the war, he was Professor of Anatomy, Zoology and Physiology at the University of Belgrade. In 1883 he became a personal doctor of the Royal family and tutor of the young heir Crown Prince Alexander Obrenović. Known as a pro-Obrenović Radical, Dokić served as the President of the State Council (1889 onwards).[3]

On 1 April 1893, the sixteen-year-old prince, while dining with members of the Regency, supported by the army and government members, but without the support of the constitution and the law, declared himself an adult and proclaimed himself the new Serbian king.[4] The outcome of the coup d’état was the collapse of the Regency and of the cabinet.[5] The young ruler appointed Lazar Dokić as President.[6]

With the exception of the Ministry of the Military, the Cabinet of Lazar Dokić was purely Radical.[7] Only two months later, Dokić got sick, and the king entered into conflict with the ministers which resulted with the departure of the Minister of the Military, Dragutin Franasović, replaced by Sava Grujić.[8]

Dokić resigned on 5 December 1893. He died in Opatija on 13 December 1893.

He was a member of the Serbian Learned Society, an independent institution dedicated to the development of critical thinking, from 25 January 1870, and an honorary member of the Serbian Royal Academy from 15 November 1892.

See also

• List of Prime Ministers of Serbia
• Sava Petrović
• Vladan Đorđević

References

1. "Dokic Lazar". www.sanu.ac.rs. Retrieved 9 July 2019.
2. Heads of State and Government, John V da Graça, Springer, 2000
3. St. Protić, Milan (2015). Between Democracy and Populism: Political Ideas of the Peopleʹs Radical Party in Serbia:(The Formative Period: 1860ʹs to 1903). Balkanološki institut SANU. p. 148. ISBN 978-8-67179-094-9.
4. Slobodan Jovanović, Vlada Milana Obrenovića, vol. I (Belgrade, 1934)
5. Raša Milošević, Državni udar odozgo i Prvi april 1893; svrgnuće krujeg kraljevskog namesništva (Belgrade, 1936)
6. Živan Živanović, Politička istorija Srbije u drugoj polovini devetnaestog veka. Book. 3, Kraljevsko namesništvo po abdikaciji kralja Milana i prva polovina vladavine kralja Aleksandra I: 1889-1897, Geca Kon, Belgrade, 1924, p. 193.
7. Ustavni razvitak Srbije u XIX veku, ed. Miroslav Djordjević (Leskovac,1970).
8. Suzana Rajić, Aleksandar Obrenović, vladar na prelazu vekova, sukobljeni svetovi, Beograd 2014