Ministry of defence Republic of Serbia
 
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23.04.2024.

Opening of Exhibition “Rare and Improvised Weapons from the Collection of the Military Museum” to Mark Serbian Armed Forces Day



Today, on the occasion of marking 23rd April - Serbian Armed Forces Day, an exhibition “Rare and Improvised Weapons from the Collection of the Military Museum” was opened in the Gallery of the Military Museum at Kalemegdan Fortress. The exhibition presents weapons that was not part of organic weapons of our armed forces or widely used.

Acting Assistant Minister for Human Resources Siniša Radović opened the exhibition and reminded that on 23rd April 1815 the Second Serbian Uprising had started, when Prince Miloš Obrenović with his rebels started the new campaign for the liberation of enslaved people and the restoration of Serbian statehood.

- Today, we remember not only the vozhd and prince, our great military leaders from the times of the Uprisings to the First World War, officers and non-commissioned officers, warriors and volunteers from the world wars and the times of the defence of the fatherland against NATO aggression, but all those who knew and were able to use their skills, art and creative vision to repair and improve the existing weapons on the front lines, or, guided by the spirit of improvisation, make weapons almost from thin air that was necessary at the moment when the Rebellion against dahias started or the resistance to occupiers and their associates in Serbian parts of occupied Yugoslavia in 1941 - Assistant Minister Radović stressed pointing out the importance and greatness of the mission of the Military Museum to present the artifacts from its collection to expert, and wider national and world public. 

On behalf of the Military Museum, Lieutenant Colonel Milivoje Milisavljević greeted the guests and underlined that the presented exhibits had been gathered for decades being valuable testimonies to the times in which they were created.

- The rare weapons include the weapons developed for industrial production, but that, in the end, was not introduced as organic weapons in the armed forces of our country. That is an important testimony to duration, vitality and potential of national military industry. In the segment dedicated to improvised weapons, we have exhibited the artefacts that are the proof of resourcefulness, knowledge and creativity of our arm makers, starting from the cherry tree cannon, used by Karađorđe’s rebel forces, the weapons from the First and Second World War, to AD system Strela -2M modified by experts of Belgrade Faculty of Electrical Engineering to better respond to the tasks of defending the country against NATO aggression in 1999 - Lieutenant Colonel Milisavljević stated.

The exhibition “Rare and Improvised Weapons from the Collection of the Military Museum” presents museum artefacts that have not been exhibited often, which cover a wide period of time from XVI to the last decade of XX century, with the focus on the period of world wars and the development of crafting and industrial tradition in the field of the modernisation of close combat weapons and firearms. Unusual and rare designs are exhibited as well together with the object that belonged to important persons of Serbian history.

The opening of the exhibition was attended by the Head of Department for Human Resources Brigadier General Savo Iriškić, Head of Department for Tradition, Standard and Veterans Colonel Đorđe Kalanj PhD, Director of the Military Archives Colonel Patar Ivanović, representatives of institutions of culture of the Ministry of Defence and the City of Belgrade, and numerous guests.  

The exhibition will be open and free for all interested citizens until 23rd June this year.