Horse races were held at Banjica in Belgrade in August 1911 for the arrival of the Russian Grand Duke Ioann Konstantinovich, visiting his bride-to-be Princess Elena of Serbia. The Princess, daughter of King Peter I and Princess Zorka of Montenegro, was a favourite niece of Queen Elena of Italy, who introduced the couple during one of the Princess’s frequent visits. Shortly after their marriage at Peterhof, she studied medicine in St. Petersburg (she gave it up after the birth of her first child) and became active as a nurse during World War I. During the Revolution she and Ioann were forcibly separated; she left her two children with her mother-in-law and launched desperate attempts to save her husband, but in July 1918 he was murdered alongside two brothers and other family members. Elena herself was imprisoned until the Norwegian ambassador was able to get her out of Russia and reunited with her children in Sweden. She died in Nice in 1962.
Such tragedies were inconceivable when Hungarian cameraman Louis de Béery (born Lajos Zoltan Arpad Pitrolf, 1879) filmed the Serbian royal family, their retinue, and excited crowds at the racetrack. (For a discussion of Béery and producer Svetozar Botorić, see Aleksandar Saša Erdeljanović’s notes for the Giornate’s 2006 and 2009 Serbian programmes.) First seen arriving is Crown Prince Aleksandar with his older brother Djordje, an emotionally troubled young man who had been the heir until 1909, when he kicked to death his valet Stevan Kolaković, and the subsequent scandal forced the King to pass the succession to his far more stable second son. Prince Djordje, glimpsed fleetingly, subsequently fought during the Balkan Wars and World War I, but after his brother became king was incarcerated in a psychiatric institution – some said unjustly, though his mental imbalance was attested to by many. The Prince was a serious mathematician and became obsessed with Einstein’s theory of relativity during his time in the asylum; in 1941 the Nazis released him, and he remained in Yugoslavia until his death in 1972. King Peter I is discussed in the note to Svečanosti Prilikom Predaje Starih I Prijema Novih Zastava Na Banjici 26. Juna/9 Jula [Ceremonies at Banjica: The Transfer of Old Flags to New, 26 June-9 July].

Jay Weissberg