42
and its own specific problems). This thesis was strongly opposed by Petranović, which caused
a polemics between the two historians (they already polemicized for the first time two years
before, in 1983, upon the publication of Petranović's book Revolucija i kontrarevolucija u
Jugoslaviji [Revolution and Counterrevolution in Yugoslavia]. A polemics with Petranović
was also started at the end of 1985 by Dušan Biber, Ph.D., first at a round table at the
Belgrade Institute of Contemporary History, and later in newspapers as well. Biber (namely a
harsh critic of the attempts to rehabilitate Chetniks and the idea of the Great Serbia) opposed
Petranović's thesis that the Chetniks had also been Anti-Fascists.45
The "Slovene-Serbian" historiographical dispute was not of key importance; it served more as
a warm-up.46 The Croatian-Serbian dispute was becoming key; it had been smoldering for a
longer time with occasional outbursts in the first half of the eighties, although mostly wrapped
up in ideological conflicts. The Serbian and Montenegrin historians (e.g. Velimir Terzić in his
book Slom kraljevine Jugoslavije [The Collapse of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia] launched a
thesis that the Croatian nation had betrayed Yugoslavia in 1941 (this thesis was publicly
contradicted by the Croatian historian Ljubo Boban, Ph.D.). On the basis of such theses a part
of the historians demanded that historiography explore and prove "the existence of a
continuity between nationalistic and separatist movements and organizations that had strove
to break apart Yugoslavia between the two world wars and today's nationalisms."47
In certain other works (an article by Vasilije Krestić O genezi genocida nad Srbima [On the
Genesis of the Genocide over the Serbs] in Književne novine 15.9. 1986) the thesis was set
that the genocide of the Croatians allegedly originated from the 16th and 17th centuries, and
not "merely" from the time of Pavelić's Independent State of Croatia. This meant an
intensification of the historiographic war between Croatian and Serbian historians (each, of
course, writing in their own magazines and newspapers) until the beginning of an actual war
and even beyond.48
45 Mirko Arsić, Ambicije in interesi, Komunist, Ljubljana 27.12. 1995 and other articles
46 The Slovene-Serbian dispute was not unimportant, especially since in Serbia it was connected with Slovene
support to the Albanians. In Slovenia in the eighties several books had been published on Kosovo and the
Albanians, which proved to be controversial for Serbian historians and even more so for politicians; one of
Kosovar historians (with equally controversial theses for the Serbs) received a doctorate at the Department of
History at the Faculty of Arts in Ljubljana.
47 Agonija učiteljice življenja (a talk with Prof Miomir Dašić, Ph.D., President of the Yugoslav Historians'
Association, published in Duga, reprint Naši razgledi, November 21, 1986, p. 651.
48 The polemics had been triggered by other topics before, e.g. Kljakić's book on the Croatian Communist leader
Andrija Hebrang (Hebrang Dossier), in which the writer tried to implicitly prove the nationalistic and separatist
tendency of the Croatian communists. Already from the end of the sixties onwards the number of Serbs killed in
the Ustaše concentration camp of Jasenovac had been controversial (for trying to prove a number smaller than
the official one, Franjo Tuñman, Ph.D., was attacked at the time, while in the eighties Boban polemicized on the
number of those killed with Rastislav Petrović, Ph.D.).
43
Only rare Serbian historiographers - among them belongs in the first place, without a doubt,
Latnika Perović, Ph.D. – advocated the (con)federalist viewpoint regarding Yugoslavia.
Politics and Historiography
"Releasing the dog from the chain", as the crosswise bombardment with historiographical
topics had been labeled by the Slovene historian Tone Ferenc, Ph.D., was double-edged for
politics. On the one hand it suited it (and was – particularly in interrepublican disputes -
encouraged), and on the other hand it grew over its head, for it ate away at its legitimacy that
had been founded in the revolution. Therefore it tried to somehow make the
historians/communists "chase the dog." Yet since also the Marxist historians were of different
nationalities and despite their membership in the League of Communists of Yugoslavia also
of different political and ideological convictions, and, last but not least, also in conflict with
one another, this was a rather fruitless affair. Among the otherwise rather numerous attempts
to ideologically discipline the historiographic community (and in general all the writing about
the past) on various levels, in the eighties there were three the most far-reaching attempts: the
conference "Posvetovanje historiografija, memoarsko - publicistička i feljtonistička
produkcija u svjetlu aktualnih idejnih kontroverzih", held on October 7-8, 1983 in Zagreb;
Teden marksističnih razprav [Week of Marxist Discussions] from February 4-8, 1983 in the
Bosnian seaside little town of Neum, and the meeting of the Presidency of the Central
Committee of the League of Communists of Yugoslavia on December 17, 1986 in Belgrade,
which was attended by approximately sixty historians from all of Yugoslavia, and was
intended as a preparation for the meeting of the Central Committee of the League of
Communists of Yugoslavia on ideological issues. The first conference was organized by
Centar CK SK Hrvatske za idejno - teorijski rad under the leadership of Stipe Šuvar, Ph.D.
For the conference, Šuvar prepared a so-called "White Book" of controversial works on the
past, in which, though covertly (under a cloak of the defense of the revolution, Tito and the
Yugoslav socialist system), especially works by Serbian writers were criticized (on the whole
as many as 168 writers were mentioned in a negative context). The conference itself (to which
those accused had not been invited) provoked a strong reaction in the public, particularly in
the Serbian one. The publication of the discussions from the conference (Historija i
suvremenost, Zagreb 1984) did nothing to calm down the polemics, but in fact intensified it.
The Week of Marxist Discussions in Neum, alongside the disputes regarding the already
mentioned topics, primarily included disputes between the advocates of a "pure"
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