Ruma (; ) is a town and municipality in the Srem District of the Autonomous Province of Vojvodina, Serbia. As of 2022, the town has a population of 27,747, while the municipality has a population of 48,621.
History Traces of organized human life on the territory of Ruma municipality date back as far as prehistory. The most important archaeological locality in the municipality is Bronze Age Gomolava near Hrtkovci, with two exclusive tombs of Bosut culture dating to the 9th century BC and 3000BC Vučedol culture pottery. The first known inhabitants of this area were various peoples of Illyrian and Celtic origin, such as the Amantini, Breuci, Scordisci, etc. During the Roman rule, local inhabitants lost their ethnic character and adopted Roman culture. There were no larger Roman settlements on the territory of Ruma, but a certain number of agricultural estates known as "villae rusticae" were located there.
Migrations of Huns, Germanic peoples, Avars and Slavs destroyed Roman culture in this area. During the following centuries, the region was ruled by Frankish Empire, Bulgarian Empire, Byzantine Empire and Kingdom of Hungary.
The settlement named Ruma was first mentioned in an Ottoman defter from 1566/7. In that period Ruma was a village inhabited by Serbs, with 49 houses, a church and three priests.
From 1718, Ruma was under administration of the Habsburg monarchy. In 1746, the town of Ruma was founded near the original village of Ruma. The first inhabitants of the town were Serbs, who came from neighboring settlements, as well as Germans, who came from Germany. In the beginning of the 19th century, Croats and Hungarians settled there as well. In 1807, a large rebellion of the Syrmian peasants known as the Tican's Rebellion started on the territory of Ruma, with its center in the village of Voganj. During the 1848–1849 revolution, Ruma was one of the important centers of the Serbian national movement in Syrmia.
In the late 19th and early 20th century, Ruma was a district capital in the Syrmia County of the Kingdom of Slavonia who later was annexed by Kingdom of Croatia-Slavonia region in Austria-Hungary. According to the 1910 census, the population of the Ruma municipality was 49,138 inhabitants, of whom 22,956 spoke Serbian, 15,529 German, 5,746 Hungarian, and 3,730 Croatian.
World War I After the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy, on November 24, 1918, the Assembly of Syrmia in Ruma proclaimed the unification of Syrmia with the Kingdom of Serbia. In 1933, Ruma officially gained the status of a city.
World War II
When World War II began, Ruma was one of the centers of German national minority in Vojvodina. In 1942, during the Axis occupation of Syrmia, a unit of the Third Reich's Wehrmacht, known as the Volunteer Company Ruma ES der DM, was formed from local Volksdeutsche volunteers. A large number of non-German citizens of Ruma participated in the anti-fascist struggle against Axis occupation. In 1944, as a consequence of the war, most members of the German ethnic minority left the town, escaping from Yugoslav partisans and Soviet Red Army. Around 1,000 of them remained when the partisans took the town. Many of them were shot in November 1944, while survivors were taken to the Svilara concentration camp in Sremska Mitrovica.Weißbuch der Deutschen aus Jugoslawien, München 1991, S. 713
In 1949 the Union of Pilots of Yugoslavia (Vazduhoplovni Savez Jugoslavije) opened a pilot school, a school for parachute instructors and a school of aircraft modelling in Ruma, all of which were funded by the Airforces of Yugoslavia. This led to an impressive International air show held in the center of the town in 1950.
1990s During the 1990s, about 10,000 refugees from Croatia, Bosnia and Kosovo settled in Ruma as well. After the war, colonists from various parts of the former Yugoslavia settled this area.
Inhabited places
The Ruma municipality comprises the town of Ruma and the following villages:
Buđanovci Vitojevci Voganj Grabovci Dobrinci Donji Petrovci Žarkovac Klenak Kraljevci Mali Radinci Nikinci Pavlovci Platičevo Putinci Stejanovci Hrtkovci
Demographics
According to the 2011 census results, the municipality of Ruma had 54,339 inhabitants.
Ethnic groups The municipality of Ruma has many ethnic groups, with Serbs constituting a majority in all settlements. The ethnic composition of the municipality of Ruma: Ethnic group Population%Serbs46,89186.29%Croats1,7193.16%Romani1,2972.39%Hungarians1,1712.15%Yugoslavs2670.49%Macedonians1530.28%Albanians570.10%Montenegrins540.10%Slovaks500.09%Germans490.09%Muslims390.07%Others2,5924.77%Total54,339
Economy The following table gives a preview of total number of registered people employed in legal entities per their core activity (as of 2018): Activity TotalAgriculture, forestry and fishing427Mining and quarrying8Manufacturing6,762Electricity, gas, steam and air conditioning supply217Water supply; sewerage, waste management and remediation activities215Construction579Wholesale and retail trade, repair of motor vehicles and motorcycles1,999Transportation and storage809Accommodation and food services338Information and communication111Financial and insurance activities136Real estate activities4Professional, scientific and technical activities333Administrative and support service activities149Public administration and defense; compulsory social security550Education713Human health and social work activities748Arts, entertainment and recreation161Other service activities200Individual agricultural workers635Total15,094
Sports Local football club Sloven has competed in the second tier of Serbian football.
Notable citizens Aleksandar Berček, actor Miloš Bosančić, Serbian footballer Brana Crnčević, writer Stanija Dobrojević, glamour model and TV personality Teodor Filipović (Boža Grujović), first secretary of "Praviteljstvujušči sovjet" in Karađorđe's Serbia Stjepko Gut, jazz musician Paško Rakić, neuroscientist Atanasije Stojković, scientist and writer Dragan Šarac, former Serbian footballer Alois Weiss, executioner Rajka Vali, singer Danilo Pantić, Serbian football player Vjekoslav Servatzy, Croatian Ustaše military officer, war criminal
Sister cities Arzamas, Russia Bersenbrück, Germany
Image gallery
See also List of cities in Serbia List of cities, towns and villages in Vojvodina Syrmia Syrmia District
References
External links
Ruma Official website