Petar Novaković Čardaklija

Petar Novaković Čardaklija (d. Belgrade, 1808), diplomat in the First Serbian Uprising.

Early life
Novaković was born somewhere on the present day border of Macedonia and Albania, possibly in the village of Leunovo, close to Gostivar.

His early life is shrouded in mystery. In all probability he ran away from his native village northwards (in present day central Serbia) and started working as an innkeeper in Belgrade.

During the Habsburg-Ottoman war of 1788-91 he joined the volunteer units made out of local Serbs, so called Freikorps (Serb. frajkor) where he rose to the rank of a captain.

After the Austrian retreat he went to Vienna and then to Buda where he managed to establish close connections in aristocratic circles. His wife an acquaintance or serving Grand Duchess Alexandra Pavlovna, sister of the Russian emperor Alexander I; princess Alexandra was married to Archduke Joseph, Hapsburg governor of Hungary, and lived in Buda. It was in this period that Čardaklija got the title of Rittermeister.

In the First Serbian Uprising
Čardaklija was keeping in touch with notable Serbs from Hungary hoping for the overthrow of Ottoman power in Serbia. When he learned about Karadjordje’s uprising he sent his wife off to Kharkov and then, in July 1804, he crossed into Serbia and put himself at the service of Karadjordje.

As the Serbian insurrectionists decided to seek international support for their cause they first turned to Vienna but were refused. Čardaklija advised them to petition the Russian tzar since he would be more inclined on supporting them. Čardaklija persuaded Karadjordje that the best way to do this would be to send a delegation to St Petersburg. Karadjordje agreed and on September 1 a Serbian delegation made out of Mateja Nenadović, Jovan Protić and Čardaklija started its journey.

In St Petersburg they met with Russian foreign minister Prince Czartoryski who listened to them and handed their petition to the Tsar. Prince also advised them to form a Serbian government and promised that Russia will help Serbian cause influencing the Sultan.

The delegation returned to Serbian in mid December 1804. Čardaklija next took part in the national assembly in Pećani. In April 1805 he is again in a diplomatic delegation (together with Aleksa Lazarević, Jovan Protić and Stevan Živković) that was sent to Constantinople. However, once there the deputies were ill treated and had to escape to the Russian consulate and then flee from the city fearing for their lives. Čardaklija and Lazarević embarked on a Russian ship and escaped to Odessa. From their they journeyed to St Peteresburg and then back to Belgrade.

When in 1807 Russia decided to militarily help the Serbs, Čardaklija (together with Avram Lukić and Jeremeija Gagić) was sent to the HQ of the Russian expeditionary force which was stationed in Wallachia. There they asked for a men that would return with them to Belgrade to act as a Russian plenipotentiary in Serbia; their wish was granted.

Čardaklija resided in Belgrade until his death in 1808. He was buried in Belgrade’s Orthodox cathedral church. Speech at his funeral was held by his friend, the famous writer Dositej Obradović, at the time minister of education in Serbia. Obradović also wrote the epitaph on his tombstone in which he glorifies Čardaklija as an "immortal Serb".

Family
Čardaklija had a brother, Jovan, who also crossed to insurrectionist Serbia and worked as a government clerk until the Ottoman return in 1813. Jovan then fled to Russia with other notable Serbs. That is also where he died.