Latinka Perović

Biography

She was born in Kragujevac, Serbia in 1933. She graduated in history at the University of Belgrade and earned a PhD degree in political science 1975 at the same University.

At the age of 27, she was already president of the Conference for the Women's Social Activity of Yugoslavia (1960-1964). Perović was Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist League of Serbia from 1968 to 1972. She was considered the most influential woman in Serbia at that time and the only one who did not gain her position based on marriage with a more powerful man than herself, but rather through her own intelligence, competence and ambition.

In 1972 Marko Nikezić (the president of the CC of the LCS) and Perović were removed from their positions because Josip Broz Tito considered their views too liberal. After that, she never returned to politics. Perović devoted herself to historical research and became known as one of the most prominent experts on Serbian history from the 19th century onwards.

From 1976 to 1998 Perović worked at the Institute for Recent History of Serbia. In her writings and studies on modern Serbia, she often emphasizes that Serbia needs a politician who would publicly claim responsibility for the destruction wrought in the former Yugoslavia in order to help the reconciliation with the neighboring states and prevent the recurrence of this kind of tragedy. She was opposed to the regime of Slobodan Milošević.

Being the founder of modern liberalism in Serbia, some claim Perović is also political guru to Čedomir Jovanović, president of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) in Serbia.

Since 1993 Perović has been an editor in chief of Currents of History magazine. She rarely appears in public or gives interviews.

Selected works