ЕРНЕСТ ДЕНИ И СРБИ : О „НАЈВЕЋЕМ ПРИЈАТЕЉУ СЛОВЕНАˮ ПОВОДОМ СТОГОДИШЊИЦЕ СМРТИ ERNEST DENIS AND SERBS: ABOUT “THE GREATEST FRIEND OF THE SLAVSˮ ON THE OCCASION OF THE CENTENARY OF DEATH

Abstract

The work of Ernest Denis (1849–1921), a historian, professor and diplomat, is embedded in the idea of the “eternal friendship” between the French and the Serbs. However, one hundred years after his death, the man, in whose house in the Latin Quarter there is L’Institut d’études slaves within Sorbonne University, is unknown to the broader public. In the interwar period, Denis, who from 1912 was also a member of the Serbian Royal Academy, was respected as the “advocate of the subjugated people” and “the greatest friend of the Slavs”. However, after 1945, his work sank into oblivion, except for historians and history buffs. The aim of this paper is to shed light on the work of this French intellectual, based on archival records (Les Archives nationales de France – Site de Paris), the press, his works and memories of his contemporaries. The revaluation of the personality and work of Ernest Denis on the occasion of centenary of his death, is a chance to piece together the mosaic of remembrance and highlight the activities of the present-day L’Institut d’études slaves at Sorbonne.