PORTRATIS
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Uros Knezevic
KARAGEORGE, portrait
 

Vsevold Guljevic
KARAGEORGE, portrait

A.A. Osipov
KARAGEORGE. engraving

Gothfried Geissler
KARAGEORGE AND ONE OF THE UPRISING LEADERS

King Peter I's Crown made out of the bronze taken from Karageorge's cannon (1904)

“CZERNY-GEORGES” 

Litterary Gazette, The Times, 6 September 1817 (Page 2, col. e), “Czerny-Georges, Account of His Career In Servia” 

Georges Petrowich, better known by the name of Czerny-Georges, that is to say Black Georges, was born of a noble Servian family, in the neighbourhood of Belgrade. Before he had attained the age of manhood, he was one day met by a Turk, who with an imperious air ordered him to stand out of his way, at the same time declaring that he would blow out his brains. Czerny-Georges, however, prevented him from putting this threat into execution, and by the discharge of a pistol immediately laid him dead on the ground. To avoid the dangerous consequences of this affair, he took refuge in Transylvania, and entered the military service of Austria, in which he quickly obtained the rank of non-commissioned officer. His captain having ordered   him to be punished, Czerny-Georges challenged and killed him. He then returned to Servia, where, at the age of twenty-five, be became the chief of one of those bands of malcontents which infest every part of  the Turkish dominions, who pride themselves upon the title kleptai, or brigand, and whom the non-Mussulman population consider as their avengers and liberators. Czerny-Georges encamped in the thick forests, waged war against the Turks, with unheard of cruelty; he spared neither age nor sex, and extended his ravages throughout the whole province of Servia. The Turks having, by way of retaliation, condemned twenty-six of the principal Servians to death, the father of Czerny-Georges, shocked at so many horrors, determined to abandon the banners of his son whom he had previously joined. The old man even threatened to deliver up the whole troop to the powers of the Turks, unless they immediately consented to relinquish the useless contest. Czerny conjured him to alter his resolution, but the old man persisted and set out for Belgrade. His son followed him. Having arrived at the Servian outposts, he threw himself on his knees and again entreated that his father would not betray his country; but finding him inflexible he draw out a pistol, fired it, and thus became the murderer of his parent.

The Servians still continued to augment the band of Czerny-Georges. Emboldened by the numerous advantages he had obtained, this chief at length sallied from his forests, besieged Belgrade, and on the 1^st of December 1806, forced that important fortress to surrender. Being proclaimed Generalissimo of his nation, he governed it with unlimited power. The principal nobles and ecclesiastics, under the presidency of the archbishop, formed a kind of senate or synod, which assembled at Semandriah, and which claimed the right of exercising the sovereignty. But, Czerny-Georges annulled the acts of the assembly and declared, by a decree, that ‘during his life no one should rise above him; that he was sufficient in himself and stood in no need of advisors’.  In 1807 he ordered one of his brothers to be hanged for some trifling want of respect towards him.

The conquest of Servia was accompanied by the massacre of the Turks; no mercy was shown even to those who voluntarily surrendered themselves. Czerny-Georges being attacked by an army of 50 000 Mussulmans, valiantly defended the banks of the Morave; and had he possessed the means of obtaining foreign officers to discipline the intrepid Servians, he might perhaps have re-established the kingdom of Servia, which under Stephen III resisted the Monguls, and under Stephen Duscian included Bulgaria, Macedonia and Bosnia. In 1387; Servia, though tributary to the Turks, still retained its national Princes, who assumed the title of Despots; in 1463 they were succeeded by a Turkish Pasha. Their house became extinct in 1560. 

Czerny-Georges was tall and well made; but his appearance was altogether savage and displeasing owing at the disproportionate length of his countenance, his small and sunken eyes, bald forehead, and his singular method of wearing his heir gathered together in one enormous tress, which hung down upon his shoulders. His violent spirit was marked by an exterior of coldness and apathy; he sometimes passed whole hours without uttering a single syllable, and he neither knew how to read nor write. He never resorted to the diversion of hunting above once during the year. He was then accompanied by from three to 400 Pandurs, who assisted him in waging a deadly war against the wolves, foxes, deer and wild goats which inhabit the forest of fertile but uncultivated Servia. The entire produce of his hunting was publicly sold for his own profit. He also sought to augment his patrimony by confiscations.

At the treaty of peace in 1812, Russia provided for the interests of Servia. That province was acknowledged to be a vassal and tributary of the Porte. Czerny-Georges retired to Russia; and lived at Kissonoff  in Bessarabia.

His return to Servia in disguise, his discovery and execution have been recently stated.-