« Activities « Research Seminars
Date: 23 January 2026, 3 p.m. – 5 p.m. EET/ Location: NEC
On-site participants: Silvia Marton, Constantin Ardeleanu, Augusta Dimou, Mária Pakucs, Michał Wasiucionek
Online participants: Lucien Frary, Boriana Antonova-Goleva, Andrei Sorescu
Chair of the meeting: Silvia Marton, TransCorr P.I.
This working group within the TransCorr project focuses on the political, economic and social activities of the Serbian prince Miloš Obrenović whose influence in the Balkans region was tremendous at the beginning of the 19th century, bridging Istanbul, Bucharest, Belgrade and Vienna. This topic will be a section in the second TransCorr volume: Old Practices, New Interactions? Favoritism, Interests, Patronage in Central-South-East Europe (1750-1850), Silvia Marton and Constantin Ardeleanu (eds.)
Each team member presented the current stage of their work and proposed future research directions that were discussed together.
Michał Wasiucionek will include a historiographical overview on Obrenović.
Lucien Frary will detail the connections between the Russian and the Serbian states, with a focus on Obrenović’s relationship with Baron Grigorii A. Stroganov, the Russian ambassador to Serbia at that time.
Constantin Ardeleanu, whose chapter is already drafted, analyzed the salt trade and the route of money, during Obrenović’s reign. The prince was a genuine capitalist and entrepreneur, becoming one of the wealthiest persons in the Balkans.
Mária Pakucs will approach the topic from the Hungarian and Habsburg angles, digging into the relation with Széchenyi István and the Sina family network (notably Sina György Simon).
Augusta Dimou will write about Gligorije M. Jeftanović, as a case of entrepreneurship and community building among Serbs in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
The volume will depict how these leaders operated, the motivations behind their actions and in what way they were transnational.
