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1988.16 The reissuing was accompanied by polemics; some historians even claimed that the
newspaper's financial aid in 1981 had been cancelled because it carried the name
"Yugoslav."17 On the other hand, at least a part of the management of the Yugoslav
Historians' Association constantly criticized the "polycentrism" within the discipline, claiming
it had "lost touch with its centre" (the President of the Association, Miomir Dašić, even
mockingly spoke of "parochial" historiography) and - deriving from such a finding –
endeavored to centralize the discipline or to "synthetize" the national historiographies into a
single "higher" Yugoslav historiography. Particularly in Montenegrin and Serbian
newspapers, articles appeared depicting Yugoslavia as one of the rare, if not the only country
in the world without its common "history." 18
The last published issue of JIČ contained contributions from the last (ninth) congress of
Yugoslav historians. This was nonetheless held in Priština, at a time when the Association had
already begun to disintegrate.19 The next, tenth congress was to be held in Croatia, but it
never took place.
Yugoslav historiography did have a few ambitious common projects, but they were carried
out only partly or they fell through. Among the successful projects, realized by the entire
Yugoslav scientific community with a substantial contribution from historiography, is the first
edition of Enciklopedija Jugoslavije [Encyclopedia of Yugoslavia] in the Serbo-Croatian
language (the last volume was issued in 1971). What greatly contributed to the realization was
the authority of the leader of the project, the Croatian writer Miroslav Krleža. The repeated
and expanded edition in the languages of the nations and nationalities of Yugoslavia, which
began preparation in 1980, succeeded, alongside disagreements regarding the
historiographical topics themselves, to issue six books in the Serbo-Croatian edition, and less
16 JIČ began to be published in 1935; ceased publication with the beginning of the war in 1941, and was
renewed in 1962. In 1981 it once again ceased publication, and was renewed in 1986. In addition, the
Association also issued the newspapers "Nastava istorije" and "Acta historico - oeconomica Jougoslaviae".
Regarding the issuing of JIČ (and also of the publishing activity of the Yugoslav Historians' Association)
constant polemics took place. Thus, for instance, the first post-war director of the newspaper, Branislav ðurñev,
resigned because the Yugoslav bibliography of historiographical works "completely excluded works discussing
the theoretical and methodological issues, that is, works conceived in Marxism." (Branislav ðurñev: Ključni
trenutak naše istotiografije, JIČ year XXII, No. 1-2, Beograd 1987, p. 175).
17 Jugoslovenski istorijski časopis Br. 1 - 4/1986 solemnly presented to the public, JIČ year XXII, No. 1-2 p.
247, Beograd 1987.
18 Zemlja bez "istorije", Nin, 8.2. 1987 pp. 22 - 24.
19 The main topics of the last consultation were: "Processes of Historical Approximation of Yugoslav Nations
and Nationalities" and "Situation of History Lessons in the SFRY School System in Comparison with the
Situation of these Lessons in the School Systems of European Countries and the USA." For the handling of the
issue of history lessons in schools the Yugoslav Historians' Association in 1972 founded Stalna jugoslovanska
komisija za napredek pouka zgodovine [Permanent Yugoslav Commission for the Advancement of History
Lessons]. In the name of the Association, the Commission organized Yugoslav symposiums on history lessons in
schools.
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in the languages of the nations (different by republics). In the last published volume the
Yugoslav historians still managed to write the entry Yugoslavia.
The biggest and most ambitious project of Yugoslav historiography was Zgodovina narodov
Jugoslavije [History of Yugoslav Nations], which had begun preparation in 1949 at the
initiative of Svet za znanost in kulturo FLRJ [Council for Science and Culture of FPRY] with
the original ambition to write a textbook for secondary schools. At a time when Yugoslavia
was still centralized, the project was run by a special government commission; in 1953 the
first book was published, and in 1959 the second. The books covered the time until the end of
the 18th century. The work was then interrupted due to profound disagreements among the
historians working on the third book, particularly due to the disagreements between Croatian
and Serbian historians.20 The cause for the differences mostly lay in the different evaluations
of the national movements in the 19th and 20th centuries, the evaluation of the Yugoslav idea
in individual nations, the origin of the modern Yugoslav nations and the creation of the
Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes. In 1985 the efforts to continue Zgodovina narodov
Jugoslavije (the title now also included "nationalities") were revived and encountered political
support (a decision that the work must be continued was, among other things, accepted at the
13th congress of the ZKJ ["League of Communists of Yugoslavia] in 1986). A self-governing
agreement on the financing of the project was signed. Ambitions were great, even leading to
expectations of the work with the project to "revolutionize the scientific organization and
scientific work."21 However, the project was at a standstill already in the beginning phase,
since in the meantime the differences between the historians deepened still. The previous
controversial topics were joined by new ones; ones that in the beginning of the sixties the
historians had not even the courage to bring up (the question of the civil war, revolution,
international relations in the new Yugoslavia, etc.).22 Certain historians saw the continuation
of the work also as a chance to rank as foremost within historiography – as an "epoch-making
historical act" - the creation of a single Yugoslav state (1918), while the "internal" problems
20 Branisla ðurñev: Na zastarelim stranputicama (first part), JIČ year XXIII, No. 1-2, p. 162 - 164, Beograd
1988 and Informacija o aktuelnim problemima nastave istorije, istorijske nauke i djelovanja Saveza istoričara
Jugoslavije, JIČ year XXII, No. 1-2, Beograd 1987, pp. 238 - 254.
21 Josip Hrvatin, Aktuelni problemi istorijske nauke, Rasprava na predsedništvu Savezne konferencije SSRNJ
(II),, JIČ, XXII, No. 3, Beograd 1987, p. 195
22 The work was envisaged to be issued in six parts with a shorter synthesis (two books) in foreign languages.
Certain renowned historians (e.g. Branislav ðurñev) were against this and strove for a merely two-part history in
the Yugoslav version as well (one part was to cover the period until 1918 and the other part after 1918). This was
substantiated by the fact that before 1918 there actually had not existed a Yugoslav history but merely a
"prehistory" of Yugoslavia, that is, a collection of the histories of individual nations; and later with the argument
that a two-part project can still be controlled, while an extensive six-part project would take a very long time and
that the Yugoslav society in the circumstances of political and international instability needs a synthetic work on
its common history as soon as possible.
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