Summary/Abstract: Milovan Spasić is known today primarily as the founder of the Serbian Agricultural Society. However, he was also the first citizen of the modern Serbian state who defended a PhD thesis. He devoted his entire life to civil service. He served in the ministries of education and finance, and was for some time a member of the State Council and government representative in the Assembly. As a doctor of philosophy, he was a member of the Society of Serbian Letters from 1844. Dr Milovan Spasić was born in 1818 in the village of Rekovac near Kragujevac. After the Second Serbian Uprising, Milovan’s father became a village knez, who brought to Rekovac the first teacher – Dimitrije Protić from Srem. As in the meantime his father died, Milovan could not continue with his education, but became a trade and tailor apprentice in Kragujevac. Wishing to continue with education, Milovan left Serbia and went to the Gymnasium in Karlovci. Four years later, he received a state scholarship and went to the Gymnasium in Požun. He continued his education at the universities of Halle and Berlin, where he attended lectures in philosophy. He received a doctoral degree in philosophy at the University of Halle on 13 March 1844 by defending the thesis De vectigalibus publici directis et indirectis. Already a month later, he was appointed an extraordinary clerk at the Ministry of Justice and Education of the Principality of Serbia. In 1844, he managed to organise and make an inventory of books belonging to the Ministry. This library fund and inventory are the basis of the National Library’s fund. The same year, Spasić became a member of the Society of Serbian Letters. In May 1845, he was appointed the supervisor of primary schools in western Serbia. He thus visited all schools, existing at the time, in that part of Serbia. The results of these visits were the first printed statistical reports about the educational system in Serbia. Going around Serbian villages, Spasić worked on the opening of new schools and improvement of teachers’ status. In parallel with his service of the main administrator of schools, Spasić was a member of the Educational Board (Odbor Prosveštenija). One of Spasić’s main intentions, while serving in the Ministry of Education, was to improve the material standing of teachers and formalise their education. After the Ministry of Education, Spasić was appointed the first administrator of the Fund Administration, established in 1862. After two years of painstaking work on organising the Fund Administration, in 1864 Spasić became the head of the Economic Department of the Ministry of Finance. He then initiated the establishment of an association dealing with the promotion of agriculture. He achieved this idea in 1868, when the first meeting of founders was held. Already in early 1869, the rules were adopted and the first meeting was held, when dr Milovan Spasić was elected the president of the society. He chaired the society until 1881. During this period, he organised the first agricultural exhibitions in Serbia – in Topčider and Kragujevac. In the course of six years, he edited the society’s gazette “Težak”, where he published a number of articles.
