[1] During his service as Minister of War and Chief of the General Staff,[2] and on 27 March 1941,[3] he was replaced and retired after the Yugoslav coup d'état led by his classmate, Army General Dušan Simović, who took over as chief of staff and became prime minister of the country.

He was born on 13 May 1881 in the village of Bujačić near Valjevo, Principality of Serbia, to father Vićentije, a farmer, and mother Milenija.

[4][5] In 1920, he married Olga, the daughter of Professor Stevan Lovčević, the director of the grammar school, the head of the Ministry of Education and the king's teacher.

[4][5] After the end of the First World War, in the period from 26 October 1919 to November 29, 1921, he was a professor of tactics at the Artillery School of the Military Academy in the newly-formed Serbian army.

On 10 November 1925, he was transferred as the acting commander of the Drava Infantry Brigade, and then, on 10 February 1927, he was appointed Chief of the General Staff of the Third Army District.

On his return to Belgrade, he was arrested on 15 February 1949,[7] in a group with Aleksandar Cincar-Marković, Ivo Perović, Milan Antić and others.