Svetlana Velmar-Janković

A vozhd (romanised from Belarusian, Russian and Ukrainian: вождь, also Bulgarian, Macedonian and Serbo-Croatian: вожд, romanized: vožd,^[a] Czech: vůdce, Polish: wódz, Slovak: vodca, or Slovene: vodja), literally meaning "the guidesperson" or "the leader", is a historical title with etymology deriving from the Proto-Slavic *voďь and thus common across Slavic languages. It denoted a chieftain of a tribe.

In Serbia, that title was given to Karađorđe Petrović by all the voivodes who elected him to be their leader at their first Praviteljstvujušći sovjet (Government Council) during the First Serbian uprising in the 19th century. As such Karađorđe was titled Grand Vožd of Serbia.