"If you’re not a liberal when you’re young": to the political biography of Đorđe Stratimirović
Đorđe Stratimirović (1822-1908) is a romantic fgure in the history of the Serbian national movement in the second half of the nineteenth century. A born leader and inspirer, he played an important role in the Revolution of 1848-1849 and remained in the memory of generations as People’s General. However, his further activities were thrown out of the history of political thought of the Serbs of the Austrian monarchy as altering from his earlier views. As a mature man, he - under the infuence of political circumstances - turned from a young active liberal into a leader of the conservative direction. In 1872, he developed a program of the future moderate party, which included cooperation with the government of the Kingdom of Hungary. Given the Serbs were rather rallying around the liberals, uncompromising fghters for national rights, Stratimirović’s choice was a wrong move.