Milojko Lešjanin

Milojko Lešjanin (; Lešje, 15 February 1830 – Belgrade, 15 February 1896) was a Serbian military officer and politician. He served as Minister of Army and Chief of the Serbian General Staff for several times in the 1870s and 1880s. As corps and army commander he took part in the wars with Ottoman Turks and Bulgarians in 1876–1885. He led the Serbian troops at the liberation of Niš in 1877 (together with Jovan Belimarković) and at the blockade of Vidin in 1885. He also served as Chief of the Military Academy of Serbia for several times in the 1860s and 1880s.

Biography

Education and teaching career The son of a merchant from Lešje (near Paraćin), Lešjanin joined the Armed forces of the Principality of Serbia in 1849. He graduated from the Artillery School (modern Military Academy) in Belgrade as a lieutenant in engineering, and later completed a three-year course at the Prussian Staff College in Berlin and a one-year internship at the Prussian General Staff.

After his return to his homeland, he was a longtime teacher (between 1859 and 1880, intermittently) at the Artillery School, and served three times (1865–1868, 1874–1875, June–November 1880) as its Chief. In 1870 (now with the rank of major) he was again in the Prussian General Staff, this time as an observer of the fighting in the Franco-Prussian War. He witnessed the sieges of Metz and Strasbourg.

Military career In 1862, during the bombardment of Belgrade by the Ottoman Turks, Lešjanin commanded a section of the defence and was promoted to the rank of captain I class. At the beginning of the First Serbian–Turkish War in the summer of 1876, Lešjanin (who was promoted to the rank of colonel the previous year) commanded the Timok Army, which aimed to invade the northwestern Ottoman Bulgaria and to raise the Bulgarians in revolt. His attempt to accomplish this task was thwarted by the Turks; Lešjanin then ceded command to the Imperial Russian Army general Mikhail Chernyayev. At Veliki Izvor, Lešjanin led the Zaječar detachment on the left flank of the Serbian troops. The battle ended in defeat for the Serbs, who were soon forced to abandon Zaječar to the Turks. In February 1878 he was a special envoy of the Prince Milan Obernović to the Russian headquarters in San Stefano (modern Yeşilköy) for the negotiations that led to the Treaty of San Stefano, unfavorable for Serbia. After the war, Lešjanin took over the leadership of the General Staff for the third time, in 1886–1888; afterwards, he left the Royal Serbian Army and entered politics.

Political career Lešjanin became Minister of Army for the first time in 1873, when he entered the Liberal government headed by Jovan Ristić. From 1880 to 1882 he held the same position in the Progressive government of Milan Piroćanac. After his dismissal, he participated in the drafting of the Constitution of 1888 and in the work of the Parliament (representing the Liberal Party) in the early 1890s.