This collection is located on-site.
This collection has no restrictions.
The bulk of the collection consists of Ivan Subbotić's and Anka Gođevac-Subbotić's personal and professional correspondence (including correspondence with prime ministers, high-ranking politicians, and diplomats), documents, writings, and photographs; as well as Igor Pereplotchikov and Ružica Pereplotchikov's correspondence, documents, and photographs. There are also diaries, notebooks, memoirs, biographical and printed material, and ephemera. Personal records, genealogical materials, and photographs document the history of three prominent Serb families Subbotić, Gođevac, and Bajalovic (Dragoljub Bajalovic was Anka Gođevac-Subbotić's first husband)-- and the Pereplotchikov family, who fled from post-Revolutionary Russia to Yugoslavia.
Some of the significant materials represented in this collection are letters of Winston Churchill; Edward F. Halifax; Anthony Eden; Fiorello La Guardia; Petar II Karađorđević, King of Yugoslavia; Jacobo Stuart Fitz-James y Falcó, duque de Alba; Slobodan Jovanovic; Helen Percy, Duchess of Northumberland; Tomislav Karađorđević; Elizabeth Karađorđević; and ciphered diplomatic telegrams and letters from 1939; guest book with autographs of diplomats and members of European royal families from the period of 1935-1941, and an autograph of Nikita Khruschev on the program "Khrushchev at the Hotel Commodore;" photographs of Fyodor Chaliapin; Louis Félix Marie François Franchet d'Espérey; Slobodan Jovanovic; Jacobo Stuart Fitz-James y Falcó, duque de Alba; Kosta Pavlović; Petar II Karađorđević, King of Yugoslavia; Natalija, Queen, consort of Milan Obrenović, King of Serbia; Božidar Purić; Franklin Delano Roosevelt; Nicolae Titulescu; Aleksandra Kollontai; and the sessions of the Assembly of the League of Nations, 1935-1937.
This collection is arranged in two series.
You will need to make an appointment in advance to use this collection material in the Rare Book and Manuscript Library reading room. You can schedule an appointment once you've submitted your request through your Special Collections Research Account.
This collection is located on-site.
This collection has no restrictions.
Reproductions may be made for research purposes. The RBML maintains ownership of the physical material only. Copyright remains with the creator and his/her heirs. The responsibility to secure copyright permission rests with the patron.
Identification of specific item; Date (if known); Subbotić-Pereplotchikov Family Papers, Box and Folder; Bakhmeteff Archive, Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Columbia University.
Materials may have been added to the collection since this finding aid was prepared. Contact rbml@columbia.edu for more information.
Source of acquisition--Igor Pereplotchikov. Method of acquisition--Gift. Date of acquisition--1999, 2000, 2003.
Columbia University Libraries, Rare Book and Manuscript Library
Papers processed Katia Shraga in 2007.
Finding Aid, written by Katia Shraga in September 2007.
2020-01-02 Removed expired restriction on Folder 11 in Box 9. kws
Dr. Ivan Subbotić was a diplomat, permanent delegate of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia to the League of Nations in Geneva (1935-1939), royal minister extraordinary and plenipotentiary in London (1939-1941), Yugoslavia's representative to the American Red Cross, Doctor of Law, member of the prominent New York law firm of Coudert Brothers, professor of international comparative law at the New York Law School.
Ivan Subbotić was born in Belgrade on November 1, 1893, to a prominent Serbian family. His grandfather, Jovan, was a well-known poet and writer considered one of the most important Serbian authors. His father, Vojislav Subbotić, was a famous Belgrade surgeon and one of the founders of the Faculty of Medicine in Belgrade, where he taught as a professor. Subbotić received his elementary and secondary education in Belgrade, then studied in Vienna and at the University of Lausanne, where he earned a doctorate in law. As a 19-year-old student, he volunteered for the Serbian Army and served in the Balkan wars against Turkey and Bulgaria in 1912-1913 and against Austria-Hungary in World War I. He emerged from these wars with the rank of lieutenant of cavalry and several military decorations for bravery.
Upon graduation, Subbotić chose a diplomatic career and entered the Yugoslav Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He advanced quickly within the ministry and in the early 1930s became a Chief of the Political Department of the Yugoslav Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
After a meeting of the General Assembly of the League of Nations in Geneva in 1934, where Subbotić was one of the Yugoslav delegates, he learned and was the first to report about the preparations for the assassination of King Alexander during his visit to France.
Subbotić took the position of permanent delegate to the League of Nations in Geneva in 1935. In the spring of 1937, he was entrusted with secret negotiations with Italy on improving relations between the two countries. These negotiations resulted in the Italian-Yugoslav Political Agreement of March 25, 1937. In 1938, he was appointed the Royal Yugoslav Ambassador to the Court of St. James.
In 1941, the Yugoslav government in exile sent Subbotić as its delegate to the American Red Cross. After the fall of Yugoslavia, he decided to stay in the United States, but University diplomas earned in Europe were not recognized, so the 53-year-old Subbotić became a full-time student of law at Columbia University. After graduation, he found employment as a member of the prestigious law firm of Coudert Brothers as a specialist in matters of international law.
In 1951, he became a professor of international law at the New York Law School, and he kept this position for twenty years, until his death. Ivan Subbotić served as vice president of the American International Law Association and the Consular Law Association. He was named an honorary lecturer in international public law at the University of Belgrade and held Serbian, Yugoslav, and other decorations.
Ivan Subbotić died on March 23, 1973 in New York City and was buried in Zemun, Yugoslavia in the family crypt.
Dr. Anka Gođevac-Subbotić was a scholar of international law, professor, and well-known author. She was the first Serbian woman upon whom the title of Doctor of Laws was conferred. She was also an active member of Udruzenje srpskih pisadza i umetnika u inostranstvu (Society of Serbian Writers and Artists Abroad) and a winner of the Slobodan Jovanovic award for her book "Sa tri kontinenta."
Anka Gođevac-Subbotić was born in Knjazevec on December 1, 1890, to Dr. Milorad Gođevac and Katarine Adamovic. Gođevac-Subbotić studied law in Belgrade University and graduated in 1927 with honors. In 1932, she earned her doctorate. During her career, she served as Yugoslav delegate to the international conference in the Hague in 1930, a member of the Yugoslav delegation to the Balkan conference in Bucharest in 1932, and a member of the League of Nations' Committee for the Study of the Legal Status of Women in 1938-1939.
Anka Gođevac-Subbotić died June 11, 1983, and was buried in Zemun, Yugoslavia in the family tomb.
Igor Pereplotchikov (1912-2002), an engineer, was a husband of Ružica Bajalovic, the daughter of Anka Gođevac-Subbotić from her first marriage to Dragoljub Bajalovic.
Pereplotchikov was born in Kiev to a wealthy family of Old Believers. His family escaped the Revolution of 1917 and the Civil War ending up in Yugoslavia. During World War II, he was a prisoner of war and lived in Yugoslavia under the German occupation. After World War II, he and his wife managed to escape from Tito's Yugoslavia across the Austrian borders and reached the United States, where they were reunited with Ružica's mother, Anka Gođevac-Subbotić, and her stepfather, Ivan Subbotić. Igor's parents (Aleksandr and Jelena) and his sister (Lidija Shpis-Mirni), as well as Ružica's half sister (Marija Pesic) remained in Yugoslavia.
Igor Pereplotchikov died in 2002 and was buried in Jordanville, upstate New York, in the Russian Orthodox cemetery, alongside his wife Ružica.
The subject headings listed below are found in this collection. Links below allow searches for other collections at Columbia University, through CLIO, the catalog for Columbia University Libraries, and through ArchiveGRID, a catalog that allows users to search the holdings of multiple research libraries and archives.
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