Petar Živković

Petar Živković (Serbian Cyrillic: Петар Живковић; 1 January 1879 – 3 February 1947) was a Serbian soldier and political figure in Yugoslavia. He was Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia from 7 January 1929 until 4 April 1932.

Petar Živković was born in Negotin, Principality of Serbia (present-day Bor District, Serbia) in 1879. A soldier at the Serbian court, he helped overthrow the Obrenović dynasty with the assassination of King Aleksandar Obrenović (11 June), which was orchestrated by Colonel Dragutin Dimitrijević, the founder and leading member of the secret nationalist organization Black Hand. Živković later founded the secret organization White Hand in 1912, which served to counter the power of the Black Hand.

In 1921, Alexander I of Yugoslavia appointed Živković commander of the Palace Guards, but he was briefly demoted due to accusations by a young guardsman that he tried to seduce the youth. In 1929 he was instead appointed Prime Minister as part of the 6 January Dictatorship. General Živković, who was set up as strong man by royal decree, was Bogoljub Jevtić's brother-in-law, the closest adviser to the head of State.

Živković held the office as a member of the Yugoslav Radical Peasants' Democracy (JRSD), which was soon the only legal party in Yugoslavia, due to his electoral reforms. He resigned as prime minister in 1932, and shortly thereafter founded the Yugoslav National Party, becoming its president in 1936.

Meanwhile, in 1934, Alexander I had been assassinated. His cousin Pavle Karađorđević took office as regent for the 11-year-old Petar II. Upon Pavle's 1941 signing of the Tripartite Pact, Živković left Yugoslavia ahead of the Nazi invasion (see Balkans Campaign). He became part of the Yugoslav government in exile.

In 1946 he was tried in absentia in Federal People's Republic of Yugoslavia and sentenced to death by the communist authorities. He remained in exile in France, dying in Paris in 1947, aged 68.