Golub Janić

Golub S. Janić (Mavrovo 1853 – Belgrade 1918) was a Serbian millionaire, MP, benefactor, and the most influential personality among the Serbs from Macedonia living in Serbia at the beginning of the 20th century.

Golub Janić and wife Bosiljka.

Life

Janić was born in Mavrovo to father Samuilo and mother Sofija (née Pejić). His family came from Lazaropole.

It was already his grandfather, Jane, who came to Belgrade and started trading. His father Samuilo (1830–1889) was also a tradesman in the Serbian capital. The Janićs were traditionally deeply connected with their home and their children, who would be born and in Mavrovo, where they would stay until it was time to go to school.

Golub Janić finished primary school and high school in Belgrade. He volunteered and took part in Serbo–Turkish War of 1876–78. After finishing his schooling, he was gradually introduced to his fathers business. Samuilo Janić was a respected merchant and a rentier who owned many houses and parcels in Belgrade, most important of which was (the old) Hotel Balkan in Terazije.

Janić married Bosiljka (née Cincar-Janković) from notable Belgrade family, descended from vojvode hospodar Janko Popović, called Cincar Janko.

National work

After his father's death in 1889, Golub Janić becomes dedicated to politics, above all on financing and coordinating the work for the liberation of Macedonia. He was a founder of a member of all the societies that organized guerrilla Chetnik actions as well as educational and benefactory work in Kosovo and Macedonia.

Janić was connected with top state officials. Later he was close to Nikola Pašić, who consulted him on all matters concerning Macedonia. Also, all of the buildings and estates that the Serbian government purchased in Kosovo and Macedonia for new schools were registered on Janić's name.

Janić was one of the founders of the Serbian Committee which from September 1903 coordinated the transfer of Chetnik units across the border into the Ottoman Empire; that is – to Macedonia. In 1905 he founded the society called Srpska braća ("Serbian Brothers") who took over the work of the Committee. The seat of the society was in Janić's house in Terazije; in one of the rooms there was a club for students from the "unliberated lands". The same society also took part in humanitarian actions, such as gathering help from Serbs in USA to the flood-stricken areas of Serbia in 1910. Srpska braća seized to operate after World War One.

In 1915 he retreated with the Serbian army to Novi Pazar but then returned to Belgrade where he spent the entire Austro-Hungarian occupation. He died in 1918 as the Serbian army was entering the city.

Endowment funds

Bosiljka Janić decided to found three endowment funds. The first one was in money given to the newly established Faculty of Philosophy and to Teachers' School in Skopje to reward the best essays on history and ethnography of Macedonia once per year. The second fund was in money and buildings with the purpose of building each year a new school in Macedonia, starting from Janić native area, hotel Balkan on Belgrades Terazije. The third fund was dedicated to helping poor primary-school children from Macedonia.

References

Sources

• Stevan Simić, Srpska revolucionarna organizacija; Komitsko četovanje u Staroj Srbiji i Makedoniji 1903-1912, Belgrade 1998
• Zadužbine i fondovi, Belgrade 1937
• Ljiljana Aleksić-Pejković, Dokumenti o spoljnoj politici Kraljevine Srbije 1903-14, vol. 2, Belgrade 2008
• Miodrag D. Pešić, Stari četnici, Kragujevac 2000