40
points of the polemics can be clearly identified.40 The first – the issue of a (socialist) social
regime – was problematized with a critique of the revolution. The second – the issue of
international relations in Yugoslavia – was problematized with a critique of Yugoslav
(con)federalism.
In the beginning phase of the conflicts the "object" of discussion primarily became Josip Broz
- Tito, who, as the leader of the revolution and the main creator of the post-war Yugoslav
regime, was a symbol of both controversial points. The destruction of the myth of Tito was
begun by his official biographer Vladimir Dedijer, who in the third part of "Prispevki za
biografijo Josipa Broza - Tita" [Contributions to the Biography of Josip Broz-Tito] published
a mixture of documents, memories and unverified stories regarding both Tito's personal life
and the question of revolutionary measures and international relations.41 Dedijer (who was
interested more in his own promotion than in any kind of a political concept) had not
consistently broached both controversial issues in this book (he did, however, do so in certain
later ones); he also did not go as far in evaluating Tito as certain other writers had, who
simply declared Tito as an "obedient spy of the Comintern".
The book that actually harmed the ideological structure of authority in Yugoslavia was the
work by two Belgrade sociologists, Vojislav Koštunica and Kosta Čavoški, Stranački
pluralizam ili monizam [Foreign Pluralism or Monism] (1983), in which the authors described
the post-war takeover of authority by the Communist Party, in which they mostly considered
the Serbian view of the problem.42
40 Among the concrete topics that had caused differences were e.g. the existence of individual nations
(Montenegrin, Macedonian and Muslim); the liberating or occupying character of the Balkan wars; the so-called
Bujan Conference at the end of 1943 (at which the Albanian delegates declared for the accession of Kosovo and
Metohija to Albania); the creation of the Kingdom of SCS; the issue of the armed uprising, the civil war, the
foundation of a federal state; from the post-war history, the dispute with the Information Bureau, dealing with
Djilas, the Brioni Plenum of 1966 (dealing with Aleksandar Ranković as the main holder of Yugoslav
centralism), mass national and "liberal" movements of 1971 and many other topics.
41 Critical notes on Tito encouraged the authorities to pass an act for the protection of the name and work of
Josip Broz – Tito; a special committee to deal with this was also founded (it was similar in the case of the
protection of other dead revolutionaries). The Slovene historian Dušan Biber, Ph.D., then ironically proposed
that they set up a committee for the protection of the revolution itself.
42 The "bourgeois" interpretation of relations within the Kingdom of Yugoslavia and the evaluation of the
National Liberation War and revolution had, in fact, already appeared in individual works in the seventies
(before that time it had only been characteristic of the writings of emigrant writers, whose works were brought
illegally into Yugoslavia). The bourgeois writers in their writings negated the "noble" goals of the revolution,
presented the National Liberation War as a civil war, and the activity of the KPJ as blind obedience to the
Comintern and a struggle for power. This struggle was supposedly only won by the KPJ (labeled as a Stalinist
party) due to a set of circumstances and "Machiavellianism", and was, by carrying out a revolution, to return
Yugoslav society to the absolutism of the 18th century (this thesis was developed, for instance, by Ljubomir
Tadić in his book Tradicija i revolucija [Tradition and Revolution], which was published at the beginning of the
seventies). An important element of the writings was also the rehabilitation of the quisling and
41
The second issue, that is, the problem of organizing international relations in Yugoslavia,
opened up upon the publication of a book by Veselin Djuretić, Zavezniki in jugoslovanska
vojna drama [Allies and the Yugoslav War Drama]. The book (which was proclaimed a "first-
class historiographical provocation") otherwise had the intention of rehabilitating the
Chetniks. In it, ðuretić also problematized the issue of the revolution and the civil war. A part
of the book was also intended for proving that the second session of the Anti-Fascist Council
for the National Liberation of Yugoslavia (AVNOJ) on November 29, 1943 in Jajce, at which
the second (federal) Yugoslavia had been formed, had not properly solved the Serbian issue.
The incorrect interpretation of these decisions is, in the writer's opinion, the reason why the
process of the disintegration of Yugoslavia began later on. It was, of course, no coincidence
that upon the solemn promotion of ðuretić's book at the Serbian Academy of Sciences and
Arts the demand for the so-called third Yugoslavia (a return to the former centralist regime)
was mentioned for the first time.43
While in the criticism (and defense) of the revolution in all the centers there was a certain
unanimity practically until the end of the eighties, in the middle of the eighties the opposing
positions of the national historiographies were already clearly crystallized. In 1985 three
historiographic works were published that drew a lot of attention and were received quite
diversely in different centers, of course, under the motto "whichever statement you give
today, either regarding history, or regarding anything, you know in advance that your
judgment will be greeted in certain centers with applause and in others with a knife."44 The
books in question were by Dušan Bilandžić Istorija SFRJ [History of the SFRY], by Janko
Pleterski Nacije, Jugoslavija, revolucija [Nations, Yugoslavia, Revolution], and by Branko
Petranović and Momčilo Zečević Jugoslavija 1918-1984 [Yugoslavia 1918-1984] (a
collection of documents). Bilandžić was accused of attributing to the Serbs the aspirations for
redefining Yugoslavia, Petranović and Zečević of trying to show the Serbian view of the
creation and development of Yugoslavia by selecting and shortening the documents, while
Pleterski was criticized for his thesis on the "multinational revolution" (during the war, under
the leadership of the working class as the leading political force, each individual nation in
Yugoslavia fought its own fundamental political battle, in its own way, with its own powers
counterrevolutionary forces. This writing had a certain influence also on Marxist historiography, for it – at least
in part – broached several problematic topics (e.g. the killing of quislings after World War II or the so-called
"left movements" (dealing with alleged class opponents) in Montenegro in 1942, and elsewhere.
43 Dr. Zlatko Čepo: Opake besjede gospoda akademika, Danas, 14.10 1986, pp. 25 - 28.
44 Dušan Bilandžić: Predrasude povijesti, Vjesnik 9.11. 1985, p. 6
Dostları ilə paylaş: |