Alexander introduced ministerial reforms to supplant the collegial model of Peter the Great, accompanied by an expansion of the educational system, founding of new universities, and introduction of civil service examinations[5] and becoming the first foreign, modern law professor in Russia at the same time.
Trlajić is interesting as a forerunner of Realism and also as an early figure in the migration in reverse which, once Serbian literature had achieved a certain maturity, expatriated many of its most talented intellectuals and scholars over a period of half a century.
He translated the works of Ludwig Heinrich von Nicolai, Christoph Martin Wieland, Mikhail Kheraskov, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Marcus Aurelius, and François Fénelon's The Adventures of Telemachus.
He also taught at University of Kharkiv where several of his Serbian compatriots were on the teaching staff of the same academic institution at about the same time such as Teodor Filipović (also known as Božidar Grujović), Sava Petrović, Đorđe Koritar, and Atanasije Stojković.
Trlajić also wrote a drama entitled Vseljač, ili retki suprug (A Merry Man, or A Unique Spouse); and the beginnings of a modern, reformed Serbian grammar propagated by Vuk Karadžić.